# Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing - Updates & Discussions



## bongbang

*Myanmar says at least nine police officers have been killed and four wounded in multiple assaults on border guard posts along the Southeast Asian nation's frontier with Bangladesh.
*
Eight attackers, identified only as "insurgent terrorists," but believed by officials to belong to a Muslim group, were killed and two were captured alive in clashes in the western state of Rakhine since the early hours of Sunday, national police chief Zaw Win told a press conference.



Rakhine is home to about 1.1 million members of the mostly Muslim Rohingya ethnic group, most of whom are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on their movements.

About 125,000 people, most of them Rohingya, have been displaced since 2012 when intercommunal violence left more than 100 people dead in Rakhine.

A state official told Reuters he believed Sunday's assailants belonged to the Muslim group.

The attacks began at 1:30am on Sunday when some 90 assailants stormed a police force office in Kyiganbyin village, Maungdaw Township, Zaw Win told reporters in the capital, Naypyitaw.

The attackers killed six police officers, wounded two others and seized 51 weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in the initial attack, he said.

According to Zaw Win, a simultaneous attack on a border police camp in Kyeedangauk village, Rathidaung Township, also killed one police officer and wounded two others.

A third incident took place in Buthidaung Township at 4:30 a.m., leaving two more police dead and one missing, he said, adding that seven alleged attackers were killed in that clash.

Zaw Win did not speculate on the possible identity of the attackers.

But a senior Rakhine State government official who asked not to be named said he believed they were "Bengali," a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.

The official said he based his judgment on photographs purported to be of the captured attackers -- which Reuters has seen but could not verify -- that appeared to show two men of South Asian descent restrained with belts.

"But we just don’t know for sure yet which organisation they belong to,” the official said.

Authorities on Sunday issued an order that imposes a 7pm to 6am curfew and prohibits gatherings of five or more people in Maungdaw Township.

The attacks represent the most deadly violence in Rakhine State since 2012, but a spate of smaller attacks on border police took place in 2014.

A report by the International Crisis Group said there was no evidence to support the government's claim at the time that a group known as the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) was responsible.

Independent observers have long said the RSO, which was formed in 1982, is practically defunct.

However, the 2014 report said, "there appear to be efforts underway in the wake of the 2012 violence to rehabilitate the group as an armed organisation."

http://bdnews24.com/neighbours/2016...ice-killed-by-insurgents-on-bangladesh-border


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## AUz

Well, Myanmar had it coming....

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## Bilal9

If these Rakhine 'insurgents' are using Bangladesh territory to arm themselves and launch their attacks then - that is against Bangladesh' stated foreign policy and must be investigated and stopped.

We gave the Rakhine refugee asylum but that does not permit them to conduct illegal cross-border raids.

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## kobiraaz

It is between them Myanmar Rohingyas Vs Myanmar Police.

Not our problem.

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## bongbang

kobiraaz said:


> It is between them Myanmar Rohingyas Vs Myanmar Police.
> 
> Not our problem.



It can be a baseless accusation also, to internationally malign them or escalate the situation further and push lakhs of Rohingyas in BD territory again. In worst case scenario Burmese soldiers can land in BD territory, following cross border insurgents. Cant rule out totally, as some days back the terrorists attacked BD Ansar camp also.

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## TopCat

Bilal9 said:


> If these Rakhine 'insurgents' are using Bangladesh territory to arm themselves and launch their attacks then - that is against Bangladesh' stated foreign policy and must be investigated and stopped.
> 
> We gave the Rakhine refugee asylum but that does not permit them to conduct illegal cross-border raids.


They used knives and sling shot to loot 50 fire arms and killed 9,police according to official in nai pai daw. And they are rohingiya.
LOL


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## Gonjo

bongbang said:


> But a senior Rakhine State government official who asked not to be named said he believed they were "Bengali," a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.



Myanmar Officials are not supposed to call Rohingya people as Bengali, as per BD vs Myanmar officials recent understanding. And, also we should also help New Myanmar Govt curbing their terrorist problem. If someone from our side found taken shelter, should be kicked out immediately.

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## Śakra

We should support Myanmar against their terrorist insurgency.

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## alaungphaya

You'd better take control or another Nagamin is coming.


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## bluesky

Rakhine border raids kill nine police officers

*Nine Myanmar police officers were killed in coordinated attacks by insurgents on posts along the border with Bangladesh early yesterday, an official and police said.*

*



Security and government officials hold a press conference in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday. Photo: Pyae Thet Phyo / The Myanmar Times*

No one has claimed responsibility but a senior local Myanmar official pointed the finger at a militant group from the Muslim Rohingya minority that has been dormant for years.

The assaults hit three border posts around 1:30am near Maungdaw township in Rakhine State, simmering with tensions between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas, who are forced to live in dire conditions.

“Altogether nine police were killed, four others were injured and one is still missing,” U Tin Maung Swe, a senior official within Rakhine’s state government, told AFP.

He added that eight insurgents were also killed in the attacks.

Police in the capital Nay Pyi Taw confirmed the attack and said multiple weapons were seized by the assailants.

U Tin Maung Swe said the attackers were “RSO insurgents”, a reference to a group known as the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation.

He did not elaborate on how he knew this.

The RSO was a small Rohingya militant group active in the 1980s and 1990s but is not believed to have been active in more recent years.

A 2014 report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, citing regional security experts’ consensus, described the RSO as largely defunct, but added that “there appear to be efforts under way in the wake of the 2012 violence to rehabilitate the group as an armed organisation”.

While highlighting obstacles to any successful attempt to revive the RSO, the report added a warning.

“Even if the RSO is not a credible military threat, the group’s very existence could be used as an easy justification for increased discrimination against Muslims in Rakhine State,” it said. “This is a real risk given Myanmar’s bitter experience with multiple domestic insurgencies and its abiding sense of insecurity.”

In May attackers stormed a security post at a camp for Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh, just across the border from Maungdaw. A Bangladeshi camp commander was shot dead and the attackers made off with weapons.

Police at the time said the Rohingya themselves could be suspects.

In recent years Bangladeshi police have also alleged that Rohingya refugees are involved in criminal activities including human trafficking.

Any rise in violence in Rakhine will be a major concern for the new civilian-led government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

She has asked former UN chief Kofi Annan to head a commission tasked with trying to heal sectarian divisions in the state. The move was largely welcomed by Rohingya community leaders but angered Buddhist nationalists.

Meanwhile, uneasy residents in Maungdaw township said they fear for their safety in the wake of the shootings.

“We are fearful because we heard several shootings since 1:30am. We also heard that weapons have gone missing so it heightens our anxiety, and now the entire town dares not go outside,” said Daw Thein Than from Maungdaw’s Kan Nyin Tan ward.

Shops in downtown Maungdaw remained shuttered yesterday and security personnel have sealed off all but one entrance into the town.

Rakhine State was wracked in 2012 by violence between Buddhists and Muslims that displaced more than 100,000 people, most of them self-identifying Rohingya.

A curfew in Maungdaw district, which has been imposed from 11pm to 4am since the 2012 violence, has been broadened to the hours of 7pm to 6am. According to U Hla Myint, Maungdaw township administrator, section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been invoked in Maungdaw and neighbouring Buthidaung townships, outlawing public assemblies. U Hla Myint said the two townships have become increasingly militarised.

“Naval forces have closed the waterways. The air force has also arrived by helicopters. The army and police force are working together to clear the area,” said U Hla Myint.

Unlike most of Rakhine State, Maungdaw is a majority-Muslim township. According to an August report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were 1378 IDPs living in nine camps in the township as of July 1. State-wide, the OCHA report put the number living in IDP camps at just under 120,000.

Source: https://defence.pk/threads/rakhine-border-raids-kill-nine-police-officers.454831/#ixzz4MemjD5iK

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## TopCat

alaungphaya said:


> You'd better take control or another Nagamin is coming.



I am sure BGB is involved. You guys should take drastic measure and attack. I want to see the fireworks.

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## alaungphaya

TopCat said:


> I am sure BGB is involved. You guys should take drastic measure and attack. I want to see the fireworks.


Ofcourse you do. You wouldn't be the one who gets shot.


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## Allah Akbar

alaungphaya said:


> You'd better take control or another Nagamin is coming.


And you better shut up. The incident happened in Myanmar territory. The police were burmese and attackers were burmese. Myanmar is full of ethnic insergency. What is bds role here?

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## Saiful Islam

alaungphaya said:


> Ofcourse you do. You wouldn't be the one who gets shot.



Back end must be burning your police got dealt with by a bunch of rag tag terrorists lmao.


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## alaungphaya

Saiful Islam said:


> Back end must be burning your police got dealt with by a bunch of rag tag terrorists lmao.



Don't you understand? You've lost. I don't even know if this is stage managed while Kofi Annan is in town but those militants have signed a death warrant for their people. There is no way we will bow to demands to repatriate even a small minority now, the ones who want to stay will only have white cards and any militants are walking dead. If you have been sheltering their camps or if you were stupid enough to be helping them then the army will be sent in to flush out and destroy any camps in your territory. This is the endgame for your Rohingya Bengalis.


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## kobiraaz

alaungphaya said:


> then the army will be sent in to flush out and destroy any camps in your territory.





Can't even deal with insurgencies in home ground, talking about entering into BA territory

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## Reashot Xigwin

alaungphaya said:


> Don't you understand? You've lost. I don't even know if this is stage managed while Kofi Annan is in town but those militants have signed a death warrant for their people. There is no way we will bow to demands to repatriate even a small minority now, the ones who want to stay will only have white cards and any militants are walking dead. If you have been sheltering their camps or if you were stupid enough to be helping them then the army will be sent in to flush out and destroy any camps in your territory. This is the endgame for your Rohingya Bengalis.



LOL you guys can't even take care of a paramilitary what makes you think that you can invade a country with actual military?

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## TopCat

Reashot Xigwin said:


> LOL you guys can't even take care of a paramilitary what makes you think that you can invade a country with actual military?






alaungphaya said:


> Don't you understand? You've lost. I don't even know if this is stage managed while Kofi Annan is in town but those militants have signed a death warrant for their people. There is no way we will bow to demands to repatriate even a small minority now, the ones who want to stay will only have white cards and any militants are walking dead. If you have been sheltering their camps or if you were stupid enough to be helping them then the army will be sent in to flush out and destroy any camps in your territory. This is the endgame for your Rohingya Bengalis.



9 armed policemen dead 50 firearms looted attacked by knives and sling shot.
I guess those terrorist were hunting monkeys right? That's how we used to hunt in the forest when I used to visit my maternal grandmother's home when I was a child. But those were all for fun. 

Anyways, no pun intended. You guys should get some training from Indians regarding surgical strike inside BD territory to flush out any rogue element. You have an advantage, you dont need helis for that as you can use trees like ninja monkeys.

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## Zabaniyah

Reeks of Arakan Army.

There hadn't been any reports or findings of Rohingya militant camps in the region. And what's more, they don't have that kind of resources. And nobody would be wanting fund and train them either. The current administration is currently clamping down on militant groups. So this story doesn't exactly check out.



alaungphaya said:


> If you have been sheltering their camps or if you were stupid enough to be helping them then the army will be sent in to flush out and destroy any camps in your territory.



Oh. So it is a question of 'if'

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## bd_4_ever

alaungphaya said:


> Don't you understand? if you were stupid enough to be helping them then the army will be sent in to flush out and destroy any camps in your territory.



Mid-office, pre-lunch entertainment.

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## Zabaniyah

bd_4_ever said:


> Mid-office, pre-lunch entertainment.



I'd be so fired if I did that.


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## bd_4_ever

Loki said:


> I'd be so fired if I did that.



I am in Spain for work-travel. The Spaniards are pretty chilled people!


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## Zabaniyah

bd_4_ever said:


> I am in Spain for work-travel. The Spaniards are pretty chilled people!



Work-travel? That's cool. 

Working at a private bank here is pretty intense.

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## bd_4_ever

Loki said:


> Work-travel? That's cool.
> 
> Working at a private bank here is pretty intense.



I can relate. Lots of my friends are in private banks there. Good career, good progress and good money!


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## Arthur

@Doyalbaba @~Phoenix~ @TopCat ছাইড়া দাও মগা মগ পুলাটারে, বারো হাত কাঁকুরের তেরো হাত বিচি বেশি ফাল পাড়লে যা হয়, ও হইসে তাই!

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## Zabaniyah

alaungphaya said:


> No. I'm not here to give the usual banter with you darkies. You and your kind have made a crucial error. You will now see the end game with these so called Rohingya.



I must say that it is regrettable that you come up all these racist rants. And it is regrettable that my countrymen do the same. 

First verify if the report is correct. I'm saying this because so far, I have found that information coming out of your country is never quite clear. They are always dodgy! I have a Muslim friend from Burma with whom I studied at university. He is a Panthay, and he did state that the mosque in his area in Mandalay did come under attack before. I wasn't aware that city had a Rohingya problem. So it is indeed a religious one instead of ethnic. 

I'm sorry, the point being that the information coming out of your country is never quite clear. I implore you! Verify this report. And quit blaming all of your problems with Muslims on us. It is not going to help one bit! 

At least verify the damn thing and then threaten us. Okay?

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## ~Phoenix~

Reashot Xigwin said:


> LOL you guys can't even take care of a paramilitary what makes you think that you can invade a country with actual military?




Still they keep dreaming of standing a chance against us!









That tells us an important lesson - Even monkeys have wet dreams!.



TopCat said:


> 9 armed policemen dead 50 firearms looted attacked by knives and sling shot.
> I guess those terrorist were hunting monkeys right? That's how we used to hunt in the forest when I used to visit my maternal grandmother's home when I was a child. But those were all for fun.
> 
> Anyways, no pun intended. You guys should get some training from Indians regarding surgical strike inside BD territory to flush out any rogue element. You have an advantage, you dont need helis for that as you can use trees like ninja monkeys.




Very well said and true indeed,but....that girl <3



alaungphaya said:


> No. I'm not here to give the usual banter with you darkies. You and your kind have made a crucial error. You will now see the end game with these so called Rohingya.



OH MAI GAWWWWWDDDDDDDDDDDDDD,MYANMAR WILL NUKE THE WHOLE WORLD NOW!







Khan saheb said:


> @Doyalbaba @~Phoenix~ @TopCat ছাইড়া দাও মগা মগ পুলাটারে, বারো হাত কাঁকুরের তেরো হাত বিচি বেশি ফাল পাড়লে যা হয়, ও হইসে তাই!



Ekbar jokhon shuru korsi,tokhon keno thambo,bhaia?


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## bd_4_ever

~Phoenix~ said:


> Ekbar jokhon shuru korsi,tokhon keno thambo,bhaia?



Ban khaba abar. Take it a little easy!


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## ~Phoenix~

bd_4_ever said:


> Ban khaba abar. Take it a little easy!



Na,eikhane ora start korse,but amare ban disilo bcoz ami oder thread e troll korsi without provocation...I'm just taking revenge..in a less insulting way!


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## Hindustani78

Updated: October 12, 2016 10:16 IST
http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...estive-rakhine-state-media/article9210075.ece






AFP
Myanmar border police prepare the flag draped coffins bearing nine bodies of border guards killed in mysterious raids during a funeral ceremony at a cemetery in Maungdaw in Rakhine State on October 11, 2016. 
Twelve people have died in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine state in clashes between armed men and troops, state media reported on Wednesday, in a sharp escalation of violence in the restive region.

Four soldiers and one attacker were killed on Tuesday when hundreds of men wielding pistols and swords assailed troops in Pyaungpit village, in Maungdaw township.

Troops also found seven dead along with rudimentary weapons after fighting broke out in the nearby village of Taung Paing Nyar.

“After the incident, troops found seven dead bodies,” the state-run _Global New Light of Myanmar_ reported.

“Swords and sticks were found with the bodies.”

The military have been scouring the region, not far from the border with Bangladesh, after nine police officers were killed on Sunday in coordinated attacks on three border posts.

Most people in the impoverished area are Muslim Rohingya, a stateless minority Buddhist nationalists vilify as illegal immigrants.

The unrest has raised the spectre of a repeat of 2012 when sectarian violence ripped through Rakhine, killing more than 100 people and driving tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps.

Four men suspected of being involved in Sunday's attacks, two of whom were named as Andra Mular Kein and Mawlawi Fordita Laung by state media, were also captured on Tuesday.

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## Rajput battalion

Rip

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## cerberus

RIP

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## Peaceful Civilian

RIP.....

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## wiseone2

Hindustani78 said:


> Updated: October 12, 2016 10:16 IST
> http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...estive-rakhine-state-media/article9210075.ece
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> AFP
> Myanmar border police prepare the flag draped coffins bearing nine bodies of border guards killed in mysterious raids during a funeral ceremony at a cemetery in Maungdaw in Rakhine State on October 11, 2016.
> Twelve people have died in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine state in clashes between armed men and troops, state media reported on Wednesday, in a sharp escalation of violence in the restive region.
> 
> Four soldiers and one attacker were killed on Tuesday when hundreds of men wielding pistols and swords assailed troops in Pyaungpit village, in Maungdaw township.
> 
> Troops also found seven dead along with rudimentary weapons after fighting broke out in the nearby village of Taung Paing Nyar.
> 
> “After the incident, troops found seven dead bodies,” the state-run _Global New Light of Myanmar_ reported.
> 
> “Swords and sticks were found with the bodies.”
> 
> The military have been scouring the region, not far from the border with Bangladesh, after nine police officers were killed on Sunday in coordinated attacks on three border posts.
> 
> Most people in the impoverished area are Muslim Rohingya, a stateless minority Buddhist nationalists vilify as illegal immigrants.
> 
> The unrest has raised the spectre of a repeat of 2012 when sectarian violence ripped through Rakhine, killing more than 100 people and driving tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps.
> 
> Four men suspected of being involved in Sunday's attacks, two of whom were named as Andra Mular Kein and Mawlawi Fordita Laung by state media, were also captured on Tuesday.


hope it does not lead to more violence


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## Nilgiri

wiseone2 said:


> hope it does not lead to more violence



Whats that supposed to mean?

We should hope Myanmar should just take this on the chin and not target and destroy those responsible?

I hope Myanmar seeks out and finishes off these terrorists, whether it means escalation or not is irrelevant.

@Aung Zaya @alaungphaya

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## wiseone2

Nilgiri said:


> Whats that supposed to mean?
> 
> We should hope Myanmar should just take this on the chin and not target and destroy those responsible?
> 
> I hope Myanmar seeks out and finishes off these terrorists, whether it means escalation or not is irrelevant.
> 
> @Aung Zaya @alaungphaya


Burma behavior is a little extreme on counter insurgency


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## Nilgiri

wiseone2 said:


> Burma behavior is a little extreme on counter insurgency



Thats fine, they have defined their country according to their definition and thus enforced that in round 1.

Now its time for round 2 since some people seem to not have gotten the message.

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## wiseone2

Nilgiri said:


> Thats fine, they have defined their country according to their definition and thus enforced that in round 1.
> 
> Now its time for round 2 since some people seem to not have gotten the message.


They get away with things India would not

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## Aung Zaya

Nilgiri said:


> Whats that supposed to mean?
> 
> We should hope Myanmar should just take this on the chin and not target and destroy those responsible?
> 
> I hope Myanmar seeks out and finishes off these terrorists, whether it means escalation or not is irrelevant.
> 
> @Aung Zaya @alaungphaya


these terrorists wage Jihad against us and Recruiting thousand of people who live in camp... i will upload some evidence 
videos.. now i'm on the way.. stay tuned bro..

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## Aung Zaya

wiseone2 said:


> Burma behavior is a little extreme on counter insurgency


we need to be stable in politic when we grow our economic at this moment.. we need to end as fast as we can..

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## GoodKnight

wiseone2 said:


> They get away with things India would not



That is the difference between having internal unity and lack of internal unity. 

India does not get away with doing the right thing because our greatest enemies are within us, unlike China, Myanmar or Saudi Arabia. 

We are a state divided, only pretending to be united and celebrating our 'diversity'.

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## wiseone2

GoodKnight said:


> That is the difference between having internal unity and lack of internal unity.
> 
> India does not get away with doing the right thing because our greatest enemies are within us, unlike China, Myanmar or Saudi Arabia.
> 
> We are a state divided, only pretending to be united and celebrating our 'diversity'.



that reflects the care for fellow citizens


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## GoodKnight

wiseone2 said:


> that reflects the care for fellow citizens



lol....or the blackmail of fellow citizens.

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## wiseone2

GoodKnight said:


> lol....or the blackmail of fellow citizens.


in some cases
in general disunity stems from neglect


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## GoodKnight

wiseone2 said:


> in some cases
> in general disunity stems from neglect



No general disunity stems from bigotry. ALWAYS. 

The neglect is universal, not specific to anyone.

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## Sam.

GoodKnight said:


> No general disunity stems from bigotry. ALWAYS.
> 
> The neglect is universal, not specific to anyone.


Those words are so poetic and true to the core. Salute to your intellect.

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## TopCat

Maungdaw town exploded again

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## TopCat

@waz brother can you make this thread sticky so that we can keep things in track for our brother in Rohingya land











Things does not look good. This time seems like Rohingyas already took some defensive measures.

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## TopCat



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## asad71

*12 dead in clashes in Myanmar's Rakhine state*

Agence France-Presse | Published: 10:30, Oct 12,2016 | Updated: 14:32, Oct 12,2016

Twelve people have died in Myanmar's Rakhine state in recent clashes between armed men and troops, state media reported Wednesday, in a growing challenge for the country's new democratically elected government.

Four soldiers and one attacker were killed on Tuesday when hundreds of men wielding pistols and swords attacked troops in Pyaungpit, a village near the town of Maungdaw.

Troops also discovered seven dead after fighting in the nearby village of Taung Paing Nyar.

‘After the incident, troops found seven dead bodies,’ the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

‘Swords and sticks were found with the bodies.’

The military has been scouring the region, not far from the border with Bangladesh, after nine police officers were killed on Sunday in coordinated attacks on three border posts.

Most people in the impoverished area are Muslim Rohingya, a stateless minority Buddhist whom nationalists vilify as illegal immigrants even though many trace their lineage in Buddhist-majority Myanmar back generations.

The recent unrest has raised the spectre of a repeat of 2012, when violence in Rakhine left more than 100 people dead and drove tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps.

Hundreds of schools have been closed in Maungdaw and the surrounding area, a curfew is in force and teachers and government workers have been heading south to Rakhine's state capital Sittwe.

Escalating violence in the region poses a major challenge for the country's new democratic leadership.

For years the Rohingya have faced severe restrictions on their movements and access to basic services, with rights groups calling them one of the world's most persecuted peoples.

Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is facing international pressure to reach a solution for the Rohingya, whose plight has tarnished the country's major democratic gains.

She recently appointed a commission, headed by former UN chief Kofi Annan, to find ways to heal wounds in the bitterly divided and poor state.

Four suspects behind Sunday's border attacks -- including two who were captured on Tuesday --are being held by law enforcement, according to state media.

Authorities have released few details about the attackers or their motives, with some blaming the Rohingya and others pointing the finger at Bangladeshi groups.

The region has simmered with tension since the 2012 unrest left the state effectively divided along religious lines.

A total of 29 people have died in the recent clashes, according to state media, police and government sources, including troops, attackers and the border guards killed in Sunday's raids.

Rumours of killings and mass arrests around Maungdaw have spread like wildfire on social media, stoking fear. But details have proved difficult to confirm in the remote and tightly controlled area.

Local residents told AFP they were too scared to leave their houses as troops patrolled the streets.

Activists have said the search for the attackers is being used as a pretext for a crackdown on the Rohingya.

The UN's special advisor on Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, urged troops and residents to exercise restraint at what he termed a ‘delicate juncture’ for the state.

He also called on civilians to ‘not be provoked into any kind of response by targeting other communities or religious groups’.

The European Union also called for an investigation to be carried out ‘in line with the rule of law’.



http://www.newagebd.net/article/683/12-dead-in-clashes-in-myanmars-rakhine-state


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## wiseone2

GoodKnight said:


> No general disunity stems from bigotry. ALWAYS.
> 
> The neglect is universal, not specific to anyone.


it depends upon how people perceive it


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## GoodKnight

wiseone2 said:


> it depends upon how people perceive it



People's action is a direct indication on how they perceive it. Riots are the proof. Voting patters are the proof. Need for Religious leaders to get involved in politics is the proof.


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## Aung Zaya

@waz plz could u close this thread..!!? like this..
https://defence.pk/threads/12-dead-in-clashes-in-myanmars-restive-rakhine-state-media.455310/ bro it headed to religious issue..!!

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## asad71

*Death toll rises in Myanmar’s drive against Rohingyas*

Reuters | Published: 12:21, Oct 13,2016







*Police forces prepare to patrol in Maungdaw township at Rakhine state, northeast Myanmar, October 12, 2016. — Reuters photo*

*Myanmar's security forces have now killed at least 26 people in response to attacks on police that have sparked a dramatic escalation in violence in a Muslim-majority region along its border with Bangladesh, according to reports in state media.*

Armed men believed to be from the long-oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority launched a coordinated assault on three border police posts in the early hours Sunday, killing nine police, injuring five and making off with dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

Military personnel and police reinforcements have poured into the Muslim-majority township of Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State, and have clashed with groups of up to 300 men, armed with pistols, swords and knives, according to official reports.

Human rights groups and advocates for the stateless Rohingya have voiced concern that the civilian population may be caught up in the authorities' violent response.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that her government was ‘exercising the rule of law’ in dealing with the attacks, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Thursday.

Authorities had not yet confirmed who was behind the attacks, Suu Kyi said on Wednesday.

The military's official newspaper, Myawady, said that another 10 alleged attackers were killed, and a rifle was seized, in a clash on Tuesday morning at Kyetyoepyin village, Maungdaw Township.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, the military accused armed attackers of setting fire to 25 houses after an aborted attack on border police quarters in Kyikanpyin village, the site of one of Sunday's attacks.

The killings bring the total death toll in northern Rakhine State since Sunday to 39, including 13 security personnel.

The 26 alleged attackers reported killed include several who a local resident told Reuters were shot while unarmed and fleeing soldiers.

Campaign group Fortify Rights said on Wednesday it had received reports of extrajudicial killings in the area and called on Myanmar's government to ‘protect civilians regardless of religion or ethnicity.’

Authorities have also detained four men, identified as local Muslims, who they allege were involved in the attacks.

The Rohingya bore the brunt of inter-communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012, in which more 100 people were killed. They make up most of the 125,000 people still living in displacement camps in Rakhine State and face severe restrictions on their movements.



http://www.newagebd.net/article/709/death-toll-rises-in-myanmars-drive-against-rohingyas

The Rohingya Muslims as well as Rakhine Buddhists want to expel the Burman invaders from Arakan.


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## Gonjo

alaungphaya said:


> You'd better take control or another Nagamin is coming.



Flushout operation was immediately necessary by the BGB.


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## Gonjo

*http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/10/11/myanmar-mobilises-troops-near-bangladesh-boarder/*

*Myanmar has stepped up security in a Muslim-majority region near its border with Bangladesh, officials said yesterday, as authorities hunt for attackers who killed at least nine police officers*
Officials believe that members of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority launched three separate attacks in the early hours of Sunday, in which dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were seized from border police.

Nine policemen were killed, one was missing and 5 were wounded. Eight attackers were killed and two captured, police said. The Rohingya, who are mostly stateless and are subject to severe restrictions on their movements, make up the majority of the population in the northern part of Rakhine State.

Authorities in the township of Maungdaw on Sunday announced the extension of an existing order banning gatherings of five or more people and imposing a 7pm to 6am curfew.

State media said the military, known as the Tatmadaw had moved troops into the area by helicopter. Photographs on social media showed trucks full of infantry purportedly being deployed in the area. No detailed information has been released about the operation in the area near a border guard office at Kyiganbyin village, where as many as 90 assailants seized weapons and fled into the hills.

“The Tatmadaw, the police force and the Ministry of Border Affairs are working together to ensure security and restore law and order,” said Min Aung, a minister in the Rakhine State government, who declined to disclose the size of the force sent to the area.

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*Bangladeshi members please dont do personal attack on myanmar members here to inflame situation. We know they are such painful neighbor of us.*


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## ~Phoenix~

Gonjo said:


> Bangladeshi members please dont do personal attack on myanmar members here to inflame situation. We know they are such painful neighbor of us.




You just ruined my mood with that...

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## salarsikander

Will India support or say few word for Bangladesh as how Bangladesh govt was saying for India after fake uri attacks

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## Aung Zaya

__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752431650502









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752451650500









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497





@Nilgiri

they call for Jihad against us.. recruiting even children.. can be seen in 2nd video..

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## mb444

salarsikander said:


> Will India support or say few word for Bangladesh as how Bangladesh govt was saying for India after fake uri attacks




Does BD really need Indian support against Burma? 

In any issue with these **** BD will have greater diplomatic support across the globe.
But such things are irrelevant..... BD will stand alone and we are perfectly equipped to deal with anything this ragtag banana nation of fascist can throw at us.

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## Bitter Melon

Aung Zaya said:


> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752431650502
> 
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> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752451650500
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> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497
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> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497
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> @Nilgiri
> 
> they call for Jihad against us.. recruiting even children.. can be seen in 2nd video..



Be merciless against them and their supporters.

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## Nilgiri

Aung Zaya said:


> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752431650502
> 
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> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752451650500
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> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497
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> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497
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> @Nilgiri
> 
> they call for Jihad against us.. recruiting even children.. can be seen in 2nd video..



I can see why you do not consider them Burmese to being with.

Please wipe out these terrorist foreigners thanks....and don't be afraid in pursuing to destroy their sanctuaries outside your borders. India can aid you in this.

@alaungphaya

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## kobiraaz

Nilgiri said:


> I can see why you do not consider them Burmese to being with.
> 
> Please wipe out these terrorist foreigners thanks....and* don't be afraid in pursuing to destroy their sanctuaries outside your borders. India can aid you in this.*



Good luck  Another Surgical Drama then


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## Nilgiri

kobiraaz said:


> Good luck  Another Surgical Drama then



Myanmar cooperated with India many times in allowing us to kill the terrorists hiding on their side in border areas. It is time we returned the favour in helping them wipe out BD terrorists wherever they are located. 

If Burma requests it, we will make a call to SHW and tell her a danda is coming...up to her where she wants to put it ....after all she lets us kill BD criminals on the border daily without a fuss, so we will tell her she needs to allow Myanmar to do the same if she knows whats good for her. Being the maid she is that is completely dependent on us, it doesn't take much to guess what will happen.

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## kobiraaz

Nilgiri said:


> Myanmar cooperated with India many times in allowing us to kill the terrorists hiding on their side in border areas. It is time we returned the favour in helping them wipe out BD terrorists wherever they are located.
> 
> If Burma requests it, we will make a call to SHW and tell her a danda is coming...up to her where she wants to put it ....after all she lets us kill BD criminals on the border daily without a fuss, so we will tell her she needs to allow Myanmar to do the same if she knows whats good for her. Being the maid she is that is completely dependent on us, it doesn't take much to guess what will happen.



Too many tamil movies in a day isn't good for health


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## bongbang

Nilgiri said:


> Please wipe out these terrorist foreigners thanks....and don't be afraid in pursuing to destroy their sanctuaries outside your borders. India can aid you in this.



What can India do? To aid the Burmese attack inside India to annex North East portion? Like a perfect whore, you enjoy getting raped.


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## Michael Corleone

~Phoenix~ said:


> SHUT UP,THEY ARE A SUPERPOWER WHILE RUSSIA AND USA ARE WEAK NATIONS!!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> OMG,MYANMAR ARMY IS GOING TO ATTACK!
> 
> View attachment 343237


Oh cmon now. Monkeys take over San Francisco in that movie xD

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## Nilgiri

bongbang said:


> What can India do? To aid the Burmese attack inside India to annex North East portion? Like a perfect whore, you enjoy getting raped.



We will call SHW and tell her to let Burmese finish cleaning out your sanctuaries in chittagong border area.

If she doesn't comply (though very small chance she wont since she knows she has to save her hide in the long run), get her kicked out/hanged and then do the job that needs to be done inside BD, once and for all.

India and Burma no longer need an infestation of terrorists and leeches in between them.


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## bongbang

Nilgiri said:


> We will call SHW and tell her to let Burmese finish cleaning out your sanctuaries in chittagong border area.
> 
> If she doesn't comply (though very small chance she wont since she knows she has to save her hide in the long run), get her kicked out/hanged and then do the job that needs to be done inside BD, once and for all.
> 
> India and Burma no longer need an infestation of terrorists and leeches in between them.



What you can do better is call for a psychiatrist. He may look for the leeches talking inside your head. Knowing you I can now understand why it was necessary to clean the Tamil infestation from Sri Lanka, good job by the Sinhalese. And later Hindis will do the same job in India as well. Good riddance for world.

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## Nilgiri

bongbang said:


> What you can do better is call for a psychiatrist. He may look for the leeches talking inside your head. Knowing you I can now understand why it was necessary to clean the Tamil infestation from Sri Lanka, good job by the Sinhalese. And later Hindis will do the same job in India as well. Good riddance for world.



Tamils are living fine in SL now. SL got rid of the LTTE, good for them....doesn't mean they are targetting the whole Tamil population in similar way....before, during or after LTTE years.

I love to see your butthurt desperation in trying to pit "Hindis" against Tamils inside India. We let economics dictate the relationship past the existing cultural and society links. Of course a "country" that is a basket case LDC that has betrayed its political existence numerous times (and 2 major times during just the 20th century) and who knows how many more times (it is confused whether it has currently done so for last few years depending on who you ask) will find it hard to understand this.

We Tamils will enjoy producing/consuming 3 - 4 times per person what you sweatshop lot do and making this ratio increase further in future within our great nation of India....while reading the entertainment stemming from water-clogged, gulshan-terror, sweatshop collapsing and machete hacker ridden swamps in some far away underdeveloped place....which time and again reminds everyone of their inferiority complex by braying "3 million dead" or hanging some old senile person in some weird revenge fetish.

We will definitely help the Burmese who are trustworthy and friendly with their shared problems stemming from this underdeveloped, inept armpit of a place....given we currently own the leaders in that place. Might as well make use of that to get things accomplished.

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## Sine Nomine

@Aung Zaya

@Aung Zaya are you guys going to invade BD.

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## TopCat

List of vallages and townships of Myanmar where Rohingyas live.

Very interesting to see that most of the name has the Indic root. How can they be illegal to the places which are named after them. 

*Akyab township[edit]*

Santouli
Zailla fara
Folthon (Plok Taung)
Bodor Muham
Amla fara
Mouloi fara
Hocái fara
Nazir fara
Joltahán fara
Buhá fara
Kongsi(Hoñsi) fara
Ruáinggá(Rohingya) fara
Bagiza fara
soga para
Ázimma fara
Thídh Dúñijja fara
Walíc fara
Dúa Mórong fara
Rwagúng fara
Muic-háillar Dheil
Guaillar Dheil
Hawar Dheil
Kuáñr fara hiΆΆϜὈᾪ
Alisan fara
Fialicóng fara
Sakki fara
Hath-thól boinna fara
Sánnamá fara
Pungná cwéng
Áñdhdhi hóla
Baazir ará
Baás sóra
Cábok fara
Bodur Dheil
Misírid Dheil
Bogar Dheil
Cícar fara
Sángana
Kyúkur fara
Débaing fara
Ambari
Cúndori fara
Teccóil Touli
Tambi fara
Zatéilla gúna
Mosóinna fara
Dottóli fara
Gozzón fara
Deróm fara
Zulla Háli
Náffon fara
Kikú fara
Missírid Dheil
Noya fara
Cica fara
Ruccáfor briza
Uñdhdhi Hóla
Sáa Farang
Keramoitta Fara
Kúsum Fara
Moloi bíça
Moic Háli(2)
Bodur Maar Dheil
Kudusom
Patipara
*Buthidaung township[edit]*


*Taungbazaar Area[edit]*

Dúmmai
Firháli
Emmai fara
Gáñthi fara
Ngaraing Chaung
*Fundu Farang Area[edit]*

*Buthidaung Area[edit]*

7 Quarters (City Area)
*Upper Part (West)[edit]*

Gúfi
Ngaraing Chaung
Kínisi
Dóuin Sarah
*Upper Part (East)[edit]*

Taung Bazaar
Emmai Fara
Dúmmai
Firháli
Mínggisi
Fundu farang
Soóu farang Cáab bazar
Hánsamá
Morong or Sára
(Púkaung Chaung) ***
*Lower Part (West)[edit]*

Taimmóng háli
Láwadong =
Zobbor fara =
Moni bil =
Aliyóng =
Baggúna
Abdu Zolil fara
Azili fara =
Hárang háli
Kyazinga fara(Keijápá Kengbrang) West =
Tong Zóinga fara
Muic háli
Raic cíngga fara =
Síndi farang(Seng Nyingbra) =
Gudam fara =
Hórmurá fara =
Fúhung fara =
Abu Hor fara =
Haindá fara =
Danumiya fara =
Yong Cóng =
Kítar bil =
Záng hamá fara =
Moidong =
Sángganá ---rathidaung area--
*Lower Part (East)[edit]*

Kyazinga fara(Keijápá Kengbrang) East
Sammwá fara
Lúdaing fara
Razar bil
Tétifuk fara
Sindong
Rwáingga dong
Kuaing dong
Úla Pe
Cílgañçá
Zobbor fara
Kyazongya fara (Thabéik Taung)
Razar Bíça
Wacílla Fara
Dúng Sing
Háan dong
Hálsirá
Khayung Parang
Ricík Para
Serók Para
Fári Fukkul
Fuimali fara
Gudar Fara
Dúdang Fara
Titúp Fara
Quin Daung (Rakhine village)
Nurung Daung (Rakhine village)
Wari yóng
Miyundá fara
Síngdaing
Segen Fara
Mottobis fara
Waá Moggyá
Kwáic Cóng
Boli Fara
Zedi Taung
Háing Fara (Rakhine village)
Sainggúdáing
*Sindaung Area[edit]*


 *This section is empty.* You can help by adding to it. _(February 2013)_
*Zaditaung Area[edit]*
*Maungdaw township[edit]*
*TaungBru[edit]*


 *This section is empty.* You can help by adding to it. _(February 2013)_
*Shatkania[edit]*

cunali fara (north track)
noya fara
tingóijja fara
gañthir maalda
sour fara
dumbai fara (nea mrey vill)
bazar fara (middle track)
deil fara
borgua fara
sodori fara (south track)
doin fara
monzokka fara
Islam pur
zaila fara


 *This section is empty.* You can help by adding to it. _(February 2013)_
*Ngapúra[edit]*


 *This section is empty.* You can help by adding to it. _(February 2013)_
*Alletengkyaw[edit]*


 *This section is empty.* You can help by adding to it. _(February 2013)_
*Kíladaung[edit]*


 *This section is empty.* You can help by adding to it. _(February 2013)_
*Maungdaw town CENTER area[edit]*

Ukil fara ( No.1 Quarter)
Zañás Gáñça

Fóyazi fara ( No.2 Quarter)
Haáñrí fara ( No.2 Quarter)
Bumú fara ( No.4 Quarter)
Noya fara ( No.4 Quarter)
Naitor Dheil( No.5 Quarter)
Noya fara
Furan fara

Lamal fara
Tin Mail ( No.6 Quarter)
Sair Mail ( No.6 Quarter)
Doín fara
Utor fara

*Maungdaw town SOUTH area[edit]*

*Cíddarfara* [Myomá Kanyoung Dán](Village track)
Cíddar fara
Maungni fara
soga para
Focír Dhil
Doín fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara

Cithílla fara
Dheil fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Morkos or Gúaing

*Hadirbil* [Nyaung Cháung](Village track)
soga fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara
Plein or math(Leyeng Gwáng)

*Nolboinna* [Pándaw Pyin] (Village track)
Fosín fara
Bor fara
Nuwa fara
Fuk fara
Kuna fara
Doín fara
Utor fara

*Baggúinna* [Baggúná] (Village track)
Fosím fara
Utor fara

Fuk fara
Utor fara

Maádáilla fara
Nurulla fara
Bodhtholi fara
Doín fara
Bor fara

Fóira fara
Doín fara
Mazór fara
Bor fara

*Cáirafara* [Dú Yaungbaung Gyi] (Village track)
Utor fara
Doín fara
Mac fara
Fuk fara
Bor fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara

*Gojjon Dhia* [Padán](Village track)
Kúñor fara
Gojjon Dhia fara
Híndu fara
Doín fara
Bordhil fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Fátonsa fara

*Kíladong* [Dú Chiradán] (Village track)
Fosín fara
Gúm fara
Kuna fara
Mazór fara
Mac fara
Antala
Fuk fara
Doín fara
Fúrisi fara
Morong(Mormor-dhil) fara
Fútinar Dheil

*Godusára* [Godusará](Village)
Godusára
Fosím fara
Fuk fara
Doín fara
Sóoilla far
Nuwa fara
Dhanggá fara
Sair Kumbó fara
Bor fara
Mazór fara

*Dháng Hála* (Pa,yanpingi)(Village track)
fosím fara
Bor fara
Doín fara
Rabaillá fara
Boiddo fara

*Kúinna Fara* (Village track)
Doín fara
Utor fara
Fosím fara
Lamar fara
Fosím fara

*Lamba Gúna* [Zamadáe] (Village track)
Bor fara
Doín fara
Utor fara

*Sainda fara* [Thanda] (Village track)
Sainda fara
Hóñr Sára
Thín Haung Sóra fara
Sainda fara borfara
Doín fara
Fosím fara

*Wárcá* (Village track)
Wárcá fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara

*Sómmoinna* [Cíngháli] (Village track)
Dheil fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

*Gojjon Dhia* [Aletenkyaw Kayang Déng] (Village track)
Bor fara
Sóhoñddá bil fara
Hórboinná fara
Nákkaung Dhia fara

*Háñis Súratá* [Aletenkyaw] (Village track)**
Bor fara
Dheil fara
Lamar fara
Furan fara
Byuhamú fara
Moidan or fara
Hambú fara
Doín fara

*Hoñijja Bil* (Village track)
Zurfúijja fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

*Gudóng* (Village track)
Muúmór Dhil fara
Utor[Zadir] fara
Zumma fara
Fóira[Kergwá] fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Fosím fara
Bazar or fara

*Góra Háli* (Village track)
Báraingar Dheil
Góra Háli
Utor fara
Doín fara

*Merulla* [Myin-lút] (Village track)
Cíddar fara
Zumma fara
Utor fara
Fosín fara
Fuk fara
Doín fara
Mazór fara
Bazaror fara
Móuriyong fara
Nuwa fara fara
Hánnwa Haça fara
Hóro Toilla fara
Merulla fara

*Baás Sára* (Village track)
Zumma fara
Doín fara
Fosín fara
Utor fara

*Cítar Furu* [Cítar Lokkón] (Village track)
Zadir fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Doín fara

*Kullúng* (Village track)
Utor fara
Bor fara
Doín fara

*Ang Dhang* (Village track)
Ang Dhang fara
Utor fara
Fosím fara
Fuk fara
Doín fara

*Kúaiccóng* (Village track)
Kúaiccong fara
Bor fara
Doín fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara

*Borsára* (Village track)
Doín fara
Bor fara
Fosím fara
Fuk fara
Utor fara.

*Maungdaw town NORTH area[edit]*

Haindá fara [Mrúthugyí] (Village track)
Bor fara
Furan fara
Doín fara
soga para
Sámmoinna
Razar bil
Fosím fara

Étailla fara [Italia] (Village track)
Zulá fara
Basua róu fara
Zan Toilla
Hóro Toilla
Éteilla fara
Lamar fara
Híndu fara

Cúzar fara [Shwezá] (Village track)
Gúnar fara
Bor fara
Furang fara
soga para
Doín fara
Utor fara
Fuk fara
Bazar fara
Fosím fara

Háyong Háli [Shwezá Képpá Gáung] (Village track)
Háyong Háli
Taimmóng Háli
Doín fara
Utor fara

Acíkka fara [Páungzá] (Village track)
Acíkka fara
Dolia fara
Utor
Doín

Boccú fara [Lobbozá] (Village track)
Utor fara
Doín fara
Arco fara
Mazór fara
Zammuinna [Zinpinya] (Village track)
Dawravill
Nayafarh
Fasimfarh
Fothkhali
Balhukhali
Haritoli
Saji
Lamar farah

Bákkagúna (Village track)
Hoilla báñ
Doín fara
Utor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Bákka Gúna

Háñir fara [Habi] (Village track)
Doín fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara

Nurung Daung [Nwáyung Taung] (Village track)
Hóñor Dheil
Doín fara
Utor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Quain Cára Bil

Hawar Bil [Gyikeng Pyin] Nasaka Headquarters (Village track)
Utor fara
Doín fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Bor fara
Wáhbek

Monnáma [Maung Nma] (Village track)
Utor fara
Doín fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Bor fara
Amin or fara ** Aminor bazar
Fóoháli (in Monnáma area)

Fóháli [Páwe Cháung] (Village track)
Kunor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Fóoháli

Náing Caung [Ngéng Cóng] (Village track)
Murar fara @ shiddar fara
Soidari fara
Moloi fara
Gonaw Bidra
Zinziri fara

Doín fara
Utor fara
Mazór fara
tingharjya fara
Tailya Gona
Gúna fara

Ferangfru [Manglagyí] (Village track)
Hórbóinná fara
Muncí fara
Abbascya fara
Boccú fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Furan fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Mangála [Mangála] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Úsolá fara **Úsolá bazar

Zammoinna [Zam-panya](Village track)
Balu Háli
Dargwar Dheil
Bor fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Fosím fara
Fuk fara

Borigga Bil [Re-dwúang Séik] (Village track)
Borigga Bil
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Sórhoddá Bil [Hla Pu Daung] (Village track)
Sórhoddá Bil
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Nondá Háli [Thát Kei Pyin] (Village track)
Nondá Háli
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara

Nári Bil [Kyáuk Prang Séip] (Village track)
Nári Bil
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Kúla Bil [Thu Oo Hla] (Village track)
Kúla Bil
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Bor fara

Cóñço Gouzo Bil [Da Gyi Za] (Village track)
Gouzo Bil
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara

Bor Gouzo Bil [Reké Cháung Kwássung] (Village track)
Bor Gouzo Bil
Utor fara
Doín fara
Fosím fara
Tetói Bóinna (Est)
Bor fara

Rabaillá Fara [Kyá Góng Taung] (Village track)
Rabaillá Fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Bor fara

Zammoinna-1 [Wáng Pyu Cháung] (Village track)
Zammoinna fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Bor fara

Sali Farang [Myáw Daung] (Village track)
Sali Farang fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Bor fara

Rwáingga Daung [Rwá-Nyú Taung] (Village track)
Rwáingga Daung fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara

Raimbágúna [Re Dhúng Chwéng] (Village track)
Raimbágúna fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Kyári Farung [Krá Rú Prang] (Village track)
Kyári Farung fara
Bazaor fara
Fuk fara
Bor fara
Luti fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Náisa Fru [Nga Sajjyú] (Village track)
Furan fara
Bor fara
Thídh-Dúijjá fara
Mazór fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Keppru Cóor
Háñt Góijja fara

Hañzir Bil [Sabe Gúng] (Village track)
Hañzir Bil fara
Fuk fara
Mazór fara
Doín fara
Háñt Góijja fara

Lúdaing [Dúdéng] (Village track)
Lúdaing fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Háñti fara [Láung Dung] (Village track)
Háñti fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Gúnar kule murár fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara

Burá Cídda fara [Ú Shíng Chyá] (Village track)
Burá Cídda fara
Bor fara
Murát tóuli fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Remmyá Dáung fara [Remmyá Taung] (Village track)
Remmyá Dáung fara
Zadi fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Haim fara [Látha Rwa] (Village track)
Mag fara
Musúlman fara

Naffúra [Ngakúra] (Village track)
Bor fara
Doín fara
Utor Fara
Fuk fara
Furan fara
Híndu fara
Mag fara
Bazar fara

Bolibazar [Kring Cóng] (Village track)
Bazar or fara
Bor fara
Fosím fara
Furan fara
Doín fara
Mazór fara
Fuk fara
Utor fara

Mórikkáung [Mraw Cháung] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara
Mezam fru

Rayussor (Village track)
Sádullar sor
Balur sor
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara

Zíbong Háli (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara
Bor fara

Hañsar Bil [Attá Furma] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara
Bor fara

Kuwar Bil [Redwáng Prang] (Village track)
Bazar or fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara

Kíyan Bong [Shwéng Páung Sin Oo] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Doín fara
Utor fara
Mazór fara
Búm Boinna

Hañsar or Dhil [Shwéng Práunk Prúzú] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara
Thuúinna fara

Kwangsi Bong [Kwángsí Bong] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Mazór fara
Furan fara

Moloi fara [Molobi Rwa] (Village track)
Ayub sor
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Kuñír Háli [Léikrá ] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Mazór fara
Bor fara
Thuúinná fara

Balu Háli [Thé Cháung] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Mazór fara

Cíl Háli [Kyáunk Cháung] (Village track)
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Mazór fara

Dúmmai [Dúm Py] (Village track)
Furan Fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Gura fara

Médai [Mítáik] (Village track)
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara (Murar Uore]
Utor fara

Raimbá Gúra [Ré Aung Shwéng] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Kuna fara

Tombru Dendhák [Tombru Láya] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Mozór fara
Gura fara

Tombru Bandhák [Tombru Láwe] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Mozór fara
Segén fara

Furma [Áuk Furma] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Mozór fara

Tulatuli [Padagá Dewanali] (Village track)
Tulatuli fara
Fuk-Utor fara
Fosím fara
Doín fara
Utor fara
Noya fara
Gura fara

Hañsar Bil [Padagá Rwa Tháik] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Borói toli
Diyól toli
Nuwa fara
Mazór fara
Gura fara

Hodom Toli (Village track)
Hodom Toli fara
Bor Toli
Segén fara
Borói Toli
Saila Toli
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

Cáabbazar [Tamén Thá] (Village Track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Mazór fara
Mog fara
Cóñço fara

Thíduná Kwáksung (Village Track)
Mazór fara
Bor fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara

Fóira Bazar [Kmáuk Séik] (Village Track)
Fóira fara
Bor fara
Furan fara
Mazór fara
Mog fara
Laingsi fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara

That Oo Chaung (Village Track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Mazór fara
Kuna fara

Renáuk Ngáthá (Village Track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Bor fara
Gura fara
Kuna fara

Unthala [Untula] (Village track)
Unthala fara
Sailla fara
Kurub fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara

Bor Thala [Báuktúla] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Sali fara
Cóñço fara

Hala Défa [Kala Défa] (Village track)
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Salle Taung
Mazór fara
Dáijjá fara

Ráni (Village track)
Ráni fara
Fuk fara
Fosím fara
Utor fara
Doín fara
Gura fara

*Rathidaung township[edit]*

Kudóng.
Ának parang.
soga para
Dúnsé(Kúdeng Kók)
Meyúr thek(Angguma)
Cílhála(Cíngháli)
Dúmmai
Zadi Farang
Zúu Farang
Praing cóng
Cérak prang
Kúdik cóng
Razar bil (uore/nisor)
Kíangdong*
Sámila fara*
Keppru dóng*
*Kyauktaw township[edit]*

Zailla Fara
Afok (Afok or Dhála)
Hóndhol
Fóida fara
Móring Hóng
Hotti fara
Kyaungtaw
Baás sára
Lombóiccó
Ruáiñgga (Rohingya) fara
Zadi Fara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rohingya_villages


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## TopCat

قناص said:


> @Aung Zaya
> 
> @Aung Zaya are you guys going to invade BD.



Interestingly since the army mobilization all burmese posters gone underground in the forum. I have feeling that those are actually paid mole by the burmese army.

@bongbang @bluesky @UKBengali @Species @Gonjo @BDforever @Loki @fallstuff @damiendehorn @mb444 @idune @MBI Munshi

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## bongbang

~Phoenix~ said:


> SHUT UP,THEY ARE A SUPERPOWER WHILE RUSSIA AND USA ARE WEAK NATIONS!!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> OMG,MYANMAR ARMY IS GOING TO ATTACK!
> 
> View attachment 343237



See the comments



Bong said:


> Favourite movies of Burmese people? @alaungphaya





alaungphaya said:


> They were quite popular, actually.





Bong said:


> @iajdani @BDforever @extra terrestrial @asad71 @UKBengali
> 
> 
> 
> See, what this man is saying.





extra terrestrial said:


> Obviously the movie would be popular in Burma, after all it resembled the great infantry of Tatmadaw!





TopCat said:


> Interestingly since the army mobilization all burmese posters gone underground in the forum. I have feeling that those are actually paid mole by the burmese army.
> 
> @bongbang @bluesky @UKBengali @Species @Gonjo @BDforever @Loki @fallstuff @damiendehorn @mb444 @idune @MBI Munshi



Remember other day how alaungphaya was shivering in fear, yea you like to see war because you wont be killed

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## Imran Khan

real game will be if they move airforce also

they have more fighters and specially mig-29s lets see

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## Sine Nomine

TopCat said:


> Interestingly since the army mobilization all burmese posters gone underground in the forum. I have feeling that those are actually paid mole by the burmese army.


well they may be busy.
Avoiding any confrontation with Myanmar is in best interest of Bangladesh because they whatever fellows Bengalis are used to calling them are still more prepared for war then Bangladesh.

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## TopCat

Terrified residents were fleeing northern Myanmar on Friday, thousands leaving on foot and others airlifted out by helicopter, as troops hunted through torched villages for those behind attacks on police that have raised fears Rakhine state could again be torn apart.

Local officials believe hundreds of people from the area, home to many from the persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority, spent months planning attacks on police posts along the Bangladesh border that sparked the crisis this week.

Dozens of people have died in an ensuing military lockdown, sparking fears of a repeat of 2012 when sectarian clashes ripped through Rakhine leaving more than 100 dead and driving tens of thousands into displacement camps.

Troops and police have repelled multiple onslaughts on a security office by 50 "violent attackers" and captured a fifth suspect, state media reported on Friday.

Meanwhile families have streamed down the roads around Maungdaw town on foot, their worldly possessions stuffed into carrier bags and plastic buckets or strapped to the front of bicycle rickshaws.

Around 180 teachers, workers and residents were also airlifted out of the region at the epicentre of the crisis, while hundreds of government staff have poured into the state capital Sittwe.

On the ground in Maungdaw, an AFP journalist reported seeing clouds of smoke billowing from a village Thursday near charred remains of two dozen bamboo houses that the military said "terrorists" had torched the previous day.

Troops have killed 26 people since deadly raids on border posts Sunday, according to state media. Nine police died that night, and four more soldiers have lost their lives in ensuing clashes.

Witnesses say troops used Sunday's attacks as an excuse for a crackdown against them, gunning down unarmed Muslim civilians in the street. The military say they have been defending themselves from armed attackers.

Most residents in northern Rakhine are Rohingya, a stateless minority branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by many from Myanmar's Buddhist majority.

Killings, burnings, arbitrary arrests

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation issued a statement calling for calm, after receiving "disturbing reports of extra-judicial killings of Rohingya Muslims, burning of houses, and arbitrary arrests by security forces".

Rakhine state government spokesman Min Aung said the border post assailants had spent months plotting the raids, which were originally intended to hit as many as seven targets.

"There are about 200 to 300 currently in the group," he told reporters in Sittwe, declining to explain how he knew.

"According to our interrogations of those we have arrested, they initially planned to attack six or seven locations."

Authorities have given scant details of who was behind the assaults, though officials have publicly pointed the finger at Rohingya insurgents and privately blamed Bangladeshi groups across the border.

The military said late Thursday troops had captured a fifth suspect, along with a gun, ammunition and flags featuring the logo of the RSO, a Rohingya militant group founded in the 80s and long considered defunct.

The RSO vigorously denied the accusations in a message to AFP. Attempts to contact the sender went unanswered.

Videos showing armed men speaking the Rohingya language calling for jihad that have been circulating on social media -- which analysts said appeared to be genuine -- have raised concerns a new local militant group may have emerged.

The escalating unrest in Rakhine poses a major challenge for the country's new elected government, led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel laureate has faced international criticism for not doing more to help the Rohingya, and on Wednesday she vowed to follow the rule of law when investigating the border guard attacks.

http://www.thedailystar.net/world/terrified-residents-flee-northern-myanmar-crackdown-widens-1298659

@alaungphaya @Aung Zaya


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## Aung Zaya

Bitter Melon said:


> Be merciless against them and their supporters.


yes..!! operation is already started..!! 



Nilgiri said:


> I can see why you do not consider them Burmese to being with.
> 
> Please wipe out these terrorist foreigners thanks....and don't be afraid in pursuing to destroy their sanctuaries outside your borders. India can aid you in this.
> 
> @alaungphaya


that's.. bro we will kick them into BOB...

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## ~Phoenix~

قناص said:


> well they may be busy.
> Avoiding any confrontation with Myanmar is in best interest of Bangladesh because they whatever fellows Bengalis are used to calling them are still more prepared for war then Bangladesh.




You sure? They don't even have submarines or any SAM system on their so called "Mighty Stealth Frigates" except MANPADS rofl.They have some 3rd hand rusty MiG-29s which USSR gave to Belsarus,but they decided to retire it since its no longer fly worthy,but Myanmar decided to buy obselete 3rd hand aircrafts.Their army still consists of child soldiers and alot of soldiers don't even have boots or equipment.
They are heavily militiarized compared to their economy,and they would not have a strong economy to back them long enough during a possible war...Also they are ravaged by a bloody civil war for decades,and 28 factions are fighting against each other and the Myanmar Army.

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## Michael Corleone

قناص said:


> well they may be busy.
> Avoiding any confrontation with Myanmar is in best interest of Bangladesh because they whatever fellows Bengalis are used to calling them are still more prepared for war then Bangladesh.


In that case it's like saying Myanmar army can take on Pakistan more than Pakistan is capable of. Why? There equipments are out of date, training is short due to lack of resources and the moral of the army is low due to employment of child soldiers, unfit physically etc.

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## Aung Zaya

قناص said:


> @Aung Zaya
> 
> @Aung Zaya are you guys going to invade BD.


nope.. bro we dont interested in BD... 



Mohammed Khaled said:


> There equipments are out of date, training is short due to lack of resources and the moral of the army is low due to employment of child soldiers, unfit physically etc.


at least Myanmar army is not grass cutter army... 



Imran Khan said:


> real game will be if they move airforce also


Actually airforce is already there.. more than 8 of MIG29s in based in Ann..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Township
In any case of war.. we can make fast attack to BD major port ,Chittagaung which is earning around 80% of BD's income.. Chittagaung is vulnerable in any conflict with Myanmar.. it's very close to border and more than half of BD economy.. if we get something like conventional weapons like WS-32/WS-33 which are we can get from China.., we can destroy it even within our side... plus BD havent significant AD system though there is a rumour of procuring LY-80E that is not comfirmed yet..

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## Sine Nomine

~Phoenix~ said:


> You sure? They don't even have submarines or any SAM system on their so called "Mighty Stealth Frigates" except MANPADS rofl.They have some 3rd hand rusty MiG-29s which USSR gave to Belsarus,but they decided to retire it since its no longer fly worthy,but Myanmar decided to buy obselete 3rd hand aircrafts.Their army still consists of child soldiers and alot of soldiers don't even have boots or equipment.
> They are heavily militiarized compared to their economy,and they would not have a strong economy to back them long enough during a possible war...Also they are ravaged by a bloody civil war for decades,and 28 factions are fighting against each other and the Myanmar Army.


They have one of Best AD system in SE Asia,Number of rusty migs is around 30.


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## TopCat

@BDforever @bongbang @bluesky @mb444 @Species @MBI Munshi @idune @fallstuff @damiendehorn @Loki @Skies
@Doyalbaba @Mohammed Khaled @Arefin007 @Al-zakir @Gonjo @alaungphaya @Aung Zaya

Please post Rohingya related news to this South East Asia section thread. This makes more sense than posting in BD section.

This thread is made *sticky. *

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## Species

The situation has massively deteriorated now. Myanmar is set to witness a new wave of communal and ethnic tensions which is not good for its economic growth.


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## TopCat

Species said:


> The situation has massively deteriorated now. Myanmar is set to witness a new wave of communal and ethnic tensions which is not good for its economic growth.



Burmese could had solved the problem easily for their own good. But donkeys never drink clean water, they will mud it first anyways.

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## Species

TopCat said:


> Burmese could had solved the problem easily for their own good. But donkeys never drink clean water, they will mud it first anyways.



Myanmar should realize that all these years they have chosen military measures which haven't been effective. Now they should try to solve the issue peacefully.

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## Michael Corleone

Aung Zaya said:


> nope.. bro we dont interested in BD...
> 
> 
> at least Myanmar army is not grass cutter army...
> 
> 
> Actually airforce is already there.. more than 8 of MIG29s in based in Ann..
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Township
> In any case of war.. we can make fast attack to BD major port ,Chittagaung which is earning around 80% of BD's income.. Chittagaung is vulnerable in any conflict with Myanmar.. it's very close to border and more than half of BD economy.. if we get something like conventional weapons like WS-32/WS-33 which are we can get from China.., we can destroy it even within our side... plus BD havent significant AD system though there is a rumour of procuring LY-80E that is not comfirmed yet..


Cutting grass is a skill that you need in order to do. You guys don't even have that. Lel

No but seriously... the port is the last thing you guys should think of. Bd is not stupid that among all the things it will keep its port unprotected in case of a conflict. Besides last time Myanmar mig 29 got into Bangladesh... our fighters were scrambled in five minutes... we are prepared... just don't want a conflict.



قناص said:


> They have one of Best AD system in SE Asia,Number of rusty migs is around 30.


Less than 16 reported in working condition back in 2012... numbers have gone down since then I bet. They haven't sent any for overhaul yet

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## Michael Corleone

Burmese are going nuts these days.


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## Sine Nomine

Mohammed Khaled said:


> Less than 16 reported in working condition back in 2012... numbers have gone down since then I bet. They haven't sent any for overhaul yet


As of today 31 are in service according to flight global.They will soon start receiving JFT's from china,here is global fire power comparison.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/coun...y1=bangladesh&country2=myanmar&Submit=COMPARE


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## TopCat

قناص said:


> As of today 31 are in service according to flight global.They will soon start receiving JFT's from china,here is global fire power comparison.
> http://www.globalfirepower.com/coun...y1=bangladesh&country2=myanmar&Submit=COMPARE



Well they do have some good fighter but their geography in Arakan will make it very difficult for them to mobilize. They are sandwiched between Arakan mountain in the east and Bay of Bengal in the West. We have the edge in Navy. BD also have plans for big toys in the sky like SU-30s.


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## Sine Nomine

TopCat said:


> Well they do have some good fighter but their geography in Arakan will make it very difficult for them to mobilize.


How much difficult,Naaf River will serve as natural barrier between the two.And if geography will play against them same it will have against you.


TopCat said:


> BD also have plans for big toys in the sky like SU-30s.


i will agree the day,BD even starts upgrading Mig-29's to SMT configuration.


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## TopCat

قناص said:


> How much difficult,Naaf River will serve as natural barrier between the two.And if geography will play against them same it will have against you.
> 
> i will agree the day,BD even starts upgrading Mig-29's to SMT configuration.



It is only 23 km frontline and very difficult to replenish from inner Burma through the mountain. We have no problem in resupply we have no natural barrier.

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## Allah Akbar

قناص said:


> @Aung Zaya
> 
> @Aung Zaya are you guys going to invade BD.


Haha. You made my day. Hahaha


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## Michael Corleone

قناص said:


> As of today 31 are in service according to flight global.They will soon start receiving JFT's from china,here is global fire power comparison.
> http://www.globalfirepower.com/coun...y1=bangladesh&country2=myanmar&Submit=COMPARE


Global firepower has been deemed unreliable... the information hasn't been updated in years...


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## ~Phoenix~

Aung Zaya said:


> nope.. bro we *dont* interested in BD...




Then why are Myanmarnese pages in FB saying that they want Bangladesh,especially the Chittagong region.
Besides,you made a grammartical mistake - It should be "Bro,we *are not* interested in BD"



Aung Zaya said:


> at least Myanmar army is not grass cutter army...




Its not a grass cutter army,its a grass-eater army...




Aung Zaya said:


> Actually airforce is already there.. more than 8 of MIG29s in based in Ann..
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Township
> In any case of war.. we can make fast attack to BD major port ,Chittagaung which is earning around 80% of BD's income.. Chittagaung is vulnerable in any conflict with Myanmar.. it's very close to border and more than half of BD economy.. if we get something like conventional weapons like WS-32/WS-33 which are we can get from China.., we can destroy it even within our side... plus BD havent significant AD system though there is a rumour of procuring LY-80E that is not comfirmed yet..




Well,things are gettting interesting now...
Getting off trolling and now for facts.

Chittagong is a very potential target given that it hosts the bulk of Bangladesh Navy,deadly-for-ground attack Yak-130s,Antonov An-32 bombers and is the source of 80% of our income.



Firstly,we have highly powerful radars with 300+ km range based at Chittagong to detect Myanmarnese aircrafts.

If you don't know it,there is a squadron of F-7BGs based on BAF FOB ( Bangladesh Air Force Forward Operating Base ) which is based for intercepting enemy aircrafts and keeping them engaged untill reinforcements from Dhaka ( F-7 BG1s and MiG-29s ) arrive and also give us more time for a reaction.

Also we have a regiment of FM-90 SHORADS ( 18 launchers ) which can cover the whole city and surrounding areas,and that would be a little challenging situation for Myanmarnese jets as they have to use bombs or rockets for ground attack given that cruise missiles would hardly reach their target due to the fact that the region is very mountaineous.

If Myanmar Air Force decide to attack from sea,then theres BNS BangaBandhu with FM-90 to intercept aircraft and BNS Shadhinata and BNS Prottoy with FL-3000N to intercept cruise missiles and other projectiles,and all 3 are docked at Chittagong port.

Chittagong is a very potential target given that it hosts the bulk of Bangladesh Navy,deadly-for-ground attack Yak-130s,Antonov An-32 bombers and is the source of 80% of our income.

Moving with land forces would be a lil more difficult than you think due to the presence of most of the tank regiments of BA in Chittagong area...Also our WS-22,KLR-122,Type-90B,WS-32/33 MLRS/GMLRS systems and Nora B-52 and PLZ-45 SPHs can easily batter the enemy troops safely behind the mountains.

Using Myanmar Navy to attack Chittagong would be suicide because the bulk of Bangladesh Navy is situated at Chittagong port,lots of Coastal Batteries and upcoming BrahMos/Bal E and Klub M/C-802A and CX-01 coastal missile based shore defence systems.Also not to mention,bombers and ground attack aircrafts from Chittagong base would wreck the ships from above.And don't forget about C-704 cruise missiles from F-7BG1s which would reinforce from Dhaka.




Only way Myanmar can take over the region is to move in using an extremely risky All Out Offence Strategy with all their air strength( MiG-29s,Israeli upgraded F-7s,A-5s,upcoming Yak-130s and JF-17 Thunders as well as CH-3 drones ) very low to stay under the radar ( could be a little...I mean a hell lot dangerous in this mountaineous region and expect a crash or two ) and go through the dangerous route avoiding Cox's Bazar and take out air defence systems very quickly,and wipe out the naval fleet ( would be easy if you remain undetected on your flight to Chittagong ) and Chittagong is lost...
But Myanmarnese would face a hell lot of resistance if it moved in with ground forces,it would have to rely on aerial and later,naval superiority untill they can neutralize ground forces...


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## Sliver

chinese supplying small arms and weapons to both sides? Which side are the Chinese on this one?


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## ~Phoenix~

قناص said:


> As of today 31 are in service according to flight global.They will soon start receiving JFT's from china,here is global fire power comparison.



IHS Jane's 360 said that less than half of them are fly-worthy though...I'm confused.
BAF would buy most probably 10 squadrons of Su-30s and MiG-35s combined by 2030.


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## Saiful Islam

Burmese lmao, does anyone remember the Japanese aggression...


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## ~Phoenix~

Sliver said:


> chinese supplying *small arms* and weapons to both sides? Which side are the Chinese on this one?



Most of Bangladeshi and Myanmarnese naval ships,aircrafts and other heavy weapons are from China.
China supports both Bangladesh and Myanmar...a lil tilted on Bangladeshi side due to competition for economical influence from India,Japan and the West.Chinese honourable President came to Bangladesh today and with dozens of billions of dollars in loans,investments etc and the value could increase to 60 billion $.And also a lot of contracts for massive developement projects are signed on this visit and more are being signed.

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## Nike

@ahojunk @waz

this kind of thread doesnt deserve to be sticky, only BD poster contributed to this thread so far

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## Gonjo

Aung Zaya said:


> nope.. bro we dont interested in BD...



Every answer should not be given militarily, I hope your young democratic govt would understand it. And, for your new democratic govt our BD govt will always lend their hand to flush out problems like terrorism. Bangladesh is a great country for partnering, your govt should better test it.


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## Khan_21

Before joining this forum I didn't knew BD and Myanmar had this little rivalry going  . Is there genuine heat or is it blown out of proportion by members of both countries ?


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## idune

ADB just released loan for building Chittagong-Cox's Bazar and Myanmar rail line.



> The loan proposal was approved at the ADB’s board meeting held on the day. The new railway line will be the part of the Trans-Asia Railway network which will also improve access to Myanmar and beyond, it said in a press release issued on the day.
> The Trans-Asia Railway, an initiative led by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, aims to provide seamless rail links between Asia and Europe to better connect peoples and markets.
> http://newagebd.net/254067/adb-okays-1-5b-loan-railway-linking-coxs-bazar



No sooner loan approved, mishap in Myanmar happen close to same area where rail line will connect with Myanmar. Is this coincidence, absolutely not. Myanmar does not gain anything from this, neither does Bangladesh. In fact Myanmar guards were in contact with Bangladeshi forces at the time of attack. So who is to gain from such mishap when Bangladesh - Myanmar rail line construction about to underway? *it is india which had been obstructing Bangladesh connectivity with Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China. Main reason, once Bangladesh establish connectivity indian $15-20 billion captive market in Bangladesh will largely disappear.*

It is time for Myanmar to investigate indian infiltration within ethnic groups that staring internal crisis and blocking development. *india used same terror scheme in SriLanka (using tamils), in Bangladesh (using chakma tribal terrorist) and in Nepal (using madeshi indians).*


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## Saiful Islam

Khan_21 said:


> Before joining this forum I didn't knew BD and Myanmar had this little rivalry going  . Is there genuine heat or is it blown out of proportion by members of both countries ?



Hostility has increased because of foreign policies and their facist ideology runs from top to bottom. They hate Muslims, they hate Bengalis. Arakan for the most part been land mass for Rohingya, it's been documented by invaders, travellers, etc. Now tell me why a group of Bengali Muslims would want to branch off and move to Burma when they could have a better livelihood in BD?


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## bluesky

Saiful Islam said:


> Burmese lmao, does anyone remember the Japanese aggression...


Please do not compare a cat Burma with a tiger Japan, a Second WWll great power. For example, Japan had 22 units of Aircraft Carrier even in those days 70 years back. In comparison China and India have two units each in 2016.

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## TopCat

idune said:


> No sooner loan approved, mishap in Myanmar happen close to same area where rail line will connect with Myanmar. Is this coincidence, absolutely not. Myanmar does not gain anything from this, neither does Bangladesh. In fact Myanmar guards were in contact with Bangladeshi forces at the time of attack. So who is to gain from such mishap when Bangladesh - Myanmar rail line construction about to underway? *it is india which had been obstructing Bangladesh connectivity with Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China. Main reason, once Bangladesh establish connectivity indian $15-20 billion captive market in Bangladesh will largely disappear.*
> 
> It is time for Myanmar to investigate indian infiltration within ethnic groups that staring internal crisis and blocking development. *india used same terror scheme in SriLanka (using tamils), in Bangladesh (using chakma tribal terrorist) and in Nepal (using madeshi indians).*



Myanmar will not do that. These bunch of people are filled with hatred and inferiority complex and they want to throw the Rohingyas out of their country. They are scared of overrun by muslims. The only solution is to ship those Rohingyas to China or India with your diplomatic niceties. I hope you can help us out in this.
@alaungphaya @Aung Zaya


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## Aung Zaya

Mohammed Khaled said:


> Less than 16 reported in working condition back in 2012... numbers have gone down since then I bet. They haven't sent any for overhaul yet


Lol give me that report..  as far as i know from air force personels , all are in great condition and taking the regular training and exercise... 



TopCat said:


> It is only 23 km frontline and very difficult to replenish from inner Burma through the mountain. We have no problem in resupply we have no natural barrier.


check the map... which one have more hill and mountain in it region... east or west..? We already successfully made the supply chain for our troops in eastern conflict... we dont care..!!



~Phoenix~ said:


> Then why are Myanmarnese pages in FB saying that they want Bangladesh,especially the Chittagong region.


that's fake.. not official LOL.. made by kids for fun... u take it serious...? 



~Phoenix~ said:


> IHS Jane's 360 said that less than half of them are fly-worthy though...I'm confused.
> BAF would buy most probably 10 squadrons of Su-30s and MiG-35s combined by 2030.


then give us that Jane's link..? LOL

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## bluesky

*Myanmar blames Islamist group for attacks in Rohingya Muslim region*
>> Reuters

Published: 2016-10-15 11:32:43.0 BdST Updated: 2016-10-15 11:34:00.0 BdST








Police forces prepare to patrol in Maungdaw township at Rakhine state, northeast Myanmar, Oct 12, 2016. Reuters

*Myanmar's government said on Friday a group inspired by Islamist militants was behind attacks on police border posts in its ethnically riven northwest, as officials said they feared a new insurgency by members of the Rohingya Muslim minority.*

The sudden escalation of violence in Rakhine state poses a serious challenge to the six-month-old government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who was swept to power in an election last year but has faced criticism abroad for failing to tackle rights abuses against the Rohingya and other Muslims.

A statement from the office of Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw blamed the little-known "Aqa Mul Mujahidin" for recent attacks around Maungdaw Township, a mainly Muslim area near the frontier with Bangladesh.

It said interrogations with suspects captured after the attacks had revealed links with militants in Pakistan.

The ringleader was a 45-year-old who has lived in Bangladesh and spent six months training with the Pakistani Taliban, it said.

"They persuade the young people using religious extremism, and they have financial support from outside," said the Burmese language statement.

"They are broadcasting their videos on the Internet like ISIS, Taliban and al Qaeda. They now have 400 insurgents fighting in Maungdaw region."

Several videos showing armed men speaking the language of the mostly stateless Rohingya have circulated online this week. Reuters has not been able to verify the authenticity of the videos, but government officials say they believe they show the perpetrators of the attacks that began on Oct 9.

The 1.1 million Rohingya living in Rakhine state face discrimination, severe restrictions on their movements and access to services, especially since inter-communal violence in 2012 that displaced 125,000 people.

The Rohingya are not among the 135 ethnic groups officially recognised in Myanmar, where many in the Buddhist majority regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi, who is barred from the presidency by the constitution but leads Myanmar's first democratically elected government in decades as "State Counsellor", has appointed former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to head a panel to propose solutions to Rakhine state's problems.

*New kind of conflict*

Information Minister Pe Myint, who visited Maungdaw Township this week, said the dramatic escalation in violence "may affect the work we've been doing for Rakhine State".

"Previously there has been riots and conflict between the communities. Now there is armed conflict," he told reporters in the state capital, Sittwe, on Friday. "The nature of the conflict has changed."

Officials have said hundreds of men - some armed with automatic weapons and others with sticks and swords - launched coordinated assaults against three border posts in the early hours of Oct. 9, killing nine police officers and wounding five.

In response, the military has poured troops into northern Rakhine State to search for attackers, who made off with dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

Suu Kyi has told security forces to use caution and follow the law in their response. Her civilian administration does not have oversight over the powerful military, which has designated the area an "operation zone".

At least 26 people have been killed by security forces in what state media described as skirmishes with armed attackers and in which four soldiers were also killed.

Human rights groups say they have evidence that extrajudicial killings may have taken place.

Researchers and aid workers in Rakhine State have consistently reported that the vast majority of Rohingya have no interest in resorting to violence.

"We don't appreciate terrorism. It's not the solution," said Kyaw Hla Aung, a Rohingya community leader in Sittwe.

*Militant links*

The statement from the Myanmar president's office said interrogations with suspects captured after the attacks had revealed links with militants in Pakistan.

The ringleader was a 45-year-old who has lived in Bangladesh and spent six months training with the Pakistani Taliban, it said.

The statement added that the Aqa Mul Mujahidin - the name of which could not be found in any previous news reports online - was linked to the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), an armed group that has long been assumed defunct.

The military-run newspaper Myawady had earlier said soldiers had recovered "RSO flags and RSO badges" in Maungdaw.

In one of the videos posted online, a man dressed in black calls for "the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine to all come out and join the jihad", according to Reuters' translation.

In a second video, the same man appears to reference the Myanmar military's helicopters, which have been hunting the attackers, as he encourages the armed men surrounding him to welcome martyrdom.

A third video shows a long column of men armed with swords and rifles marching in damp, rugged terrain.

The weapons in the videos match those taken from border police, officials said.

The possible emergence of an insurgency involving Rohingyas has already been seized upon by Buddhist nationalists.

Wirathu, a Buddhist monk known for his anti-Muslim preaching, has posted graphic images of the slain police on Facebook.


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## war&peace

Where does Bangladesh stand on Myanmar's handling of Rohingya people?


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## Amar Bail

war&peace said:


> Where does Bangladesh stand on Myanmar's handling of Rohingya people?


Bangladesh was isolated from rest of the Muslims in the name of race they don't consider anyone else even human other than Bangla especially Bihari and Rohangiya Muslims.

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## war&peace

Amar Bail said:


> Bangladesh was isolated from rest of the Muslims in the name of race they don't consider anyone else even human other than Bangla especially Bihari and Rohangiya Muslims.


I remember how they declined the poor and helpless Rohingya from asylum / refuse...really cheap and stone-hearted SOBs

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## salarsikander

It is easy to target anything on muslims these days

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## Amar Bail

war&peace said:


> I remember how they declined the poor and helpless Rohingya from asylum / refuse...really cheap and stone-hearted SOBs


The most unfortunate people in today's modern world are Rohangiya and Bihari Muslims who were actually Pakistani stranded in Bangladesh even they can't go anywhere since they don't have any identity card or passport. Bangladesh Govt denied them every thing and believe me they are in really bad condition nearly all of them malnutrition dying of hunger and diseases, We should bring them to Pakistan because Bangladesh Govt and people still punishing them for their help and support to Pakistan army.

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## Aung Zaya

__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752431650502









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752451650500









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=320752481650497





they call for Jihad against us.. recruiting even children.. can be seen in 2nd video..
then we will wipe out the whole terrorist group.. this is NOT attacking to Islam or Muslim including so called Rohingya bangali.. We're attacking terrorists who attacked 1st our police station and killed 9 polices..



salarsikander said:


> It is easy to target anything on muslims these days

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## salarsikander

Aung Zaya said:


> We're attacking terrorists who attacked 1st our police station and killed 9 police.


This just didnt happen overnight. How conveniently you have ignore the Rohingya Massacre. YOur Junta mIlitary has wonderful record whoch Ann su ki knows and which is why your country is blacklisted


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## war&peace

Amar Bail said:


> The most unfortunate people in today's modern world are Rohangiya and Bihari Muslims who were actually Pakistani stranded in Bangladesh even they can't go anywhere since they don't have any identity card or passport. Bangladesh Govt denied them every thing and believe me they are in really bad condition nearly all of them malnutrition dying of hunger and diseases, We should bring them to Pakistan because Bangladesh Govt and people still punishing them for their help and support to Pakistan army.


So it is bad on our part too that we left them stranded there.

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## Amar Bail

war&peace said:


> So it is bad on our part too that we left them stranded there.


Yes but our Govt tried their best but provinces like Sindh and Punjab protested against Govt decision arguing it will change economy and demography of the province above all we are hosting huge number of Afghans already so Govt already lacking in resources.


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## bluesky

Aung Zaya said:


> they call for Jihad against us.. recruiting even children.. can be seen in 2nd video..
> then we will wipe out the whole terrorist group.. this is NOT attacking to Islam or Muslim including so called Rohingya bangali.. We're attacking terrorists who attacked 1st our police station and killed 9 polices..



The Rohingyas have every right to save their lives, properties and religion. They have been persecuted by the GoM since 1947 and again from 1971. Arakan has been their adopted country since 1430. Arakan was a part of Presidency of Bengal until 1937, when it was given to Burmese Union for easy administration.

The Arakanese are the natives of Arakan and Burmese are outsiders. But, Burma has been expelling them from their own motherland since after 1947. This is how the issue has finally ripen to a stage that the the Rohingya/Arakanese have been radicalized that will destabilize Myanmar to a state that it will be divided into pieces. All your States are now against the central government of Burmese Union.

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## bd_4_ever

I find it hilarious how certain Pakistanis talk as if they are the ultimate savior of Islam and the best muslims to have walked this earth.

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## Amar Bail

bd_4_ever said:


> I find it hilarious how certain Pakistanis talk as if they are the ultimate savior of Islam and the best muslims to have walked this earth.


May be not but we are least racist in comparison with Bangla babooz.

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## bd_4_ever

Amar Bail said:


> May be not but we are least racist in comparison with Bangla babooz.



I didn't talk about you, did I?! Dont be so defensive Mr. non-racist AKA ideal Muslim.


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## Aung Zaya

salarsikander said:


> This just didnt happen overnight. How conveniently you have ignore the Rohingya Massacre. YOur Junta mIlitary has wonderful record whoch Ann su ki knows and which is why your country is blacklisted


Well... u need to know who is Massacre to whom.. according to report , there are 800,000 bangali in Rakhine at 2008.. Now around 1,500,000 in UNHCR camps.. so tell me Massacre means bangali in Rakhine at 2008..? if they faced Massacre , how come they made this huge population within a few years.. on the other hand , these Bangali bully on our ethnic Rachine people with their huge population and make them flee away.. our Rakhine people in Rakhine state dramatically drop year after year.. now just a few percent of the whole population..


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## Amar Bail

bd_4_ever said:


> I didn't talk about you, did I?! Dont be so defensive Mr. non-racist AKA ideal Muslim.


You open your shit whole for all Pakistanis and I am from Pakistan and it is my moral duty to give you shut up call.


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## salarsikander

Aung Zaya said:


> Well... u need to know who is Massacre to whom.. according to report , there are 800,000 bangali in Rakhine at 2008.. Now around 1,500,000 in UNHCR camps.. so tell me Massacre means bangali in Rakhine at 2008..? if they faced Massacre , how come they made this huge population within a few years.. on the other hand , these Bangali bully on our ethnic Rachine people with their huge population and make them flee away.. our Rakhine people in Rakhine state dramatically drop year after year.. now just a few percent of the whole population..


Bull sit none of the figures are quoted from official sources, so are you denying the international outcry ? are you denying that noe of that ever took place ? Like I said Your junta military has an impressive record of suppressing their own people



bd_4_ever said:


> I find it hilarious how certain Pakistanis talk as if they are the ultimate savior of Islam and the best muslims to have walked this earth.


And I fint absolutely disgusted how most bengalis here are keen on licking Indians feet and would do anything to serve them


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## Aung Zaya

bluesky said:


> The Rohingyas have every right to save their lives


Well.. in this case .., police are killed in their station.. not even one inch from compund of station..if u means killing polices and seize the weapons is defending their rights.., sure..!! u're just terroist supportor..



bluesky said:


> The Arakanese are the natives of Arakan and Burmese are outsiders. But, Burma has been expelling them from their own motherland since after 1947. This is how the issue has finally ripen to a stage that the the Rohingya/Arakanese have been radicalized that will destabilize Myanmar to a state that it will be divided into pieces. All your States are now against the central government of Burmese Union.


yes.. chittagong is also mine in century ago.. give us back.. lol

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## bd_4_ever

Amar Bail said:


> You open your shit whole for all Pakistanis and I am from Pakistan and it is my moral duty to give you shut up call.



1. Learn English. "hole" not "whole".

2. Learn how to read. I wrote "certain Pakistanis", not "all Pakistanis". I have extremely close Pakistani friends whom you would put to shame with that attitude.

3. Advise - You are a new kid here, so I'll let your "moral duty" comment pass by. With this attitude, you wouldn't last long on PDF.

Have a good day.


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## Aung Zaya

propaganda started by terrorist groups.. 

they're shouting Army start firing their house
photoshop





the real one from state media and oringinal photo in camera.. Actually Army is trying to kill the fire what they made..


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## Nabil365

Not first time in Myanmar they have so many rebels fighting against the government.I guess this is just an excuse....


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## Amar Bail

bd_4_ever said:


> 1. Learn English. "hole" not "whole".
> 
> 2. Learn how to read. I wrote "certain Pakistanis", not "all Pakistanis". I have extremely close Pakistani friends whom you would put to shame with that attitude.
> 
> 3. Advise - You are a new kid here, so I'll let your "moral duty" comment pass by. With this attitude, you wouldn't last long on PDF.
> 
> Have a good day.


Beta check my age mentioned on my profile, for kids like you I used to say when you were in liquid form I was in uniform.
I used word whole not hole you silly Bangla baboo.


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## bd_4_ever

Amar Bail said:


> Beta check my age mentioned on my profile, for kids like you I used to say when you were in liquid form I was in uniform.



Right. So a digital poet grandpa with reading and comprehension disability? Welcome to PDF. I wish you a good stay.



> I used word whole not hole you silly Bangla baboo.


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## Major d1

lol. Myanmar just a coward nation those who only w3ant to kill innocent rohiga muslims by the name of terrorist . Then why we shouldn't call mayanmar is a terrorist govt. ?


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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> Well... u need to know who is Massacre to whom.. according to report , there are 800,000 bangali in Rakhine at 2008.. Now around 1,500,000 in UNHCR camps.. so tell me Massacre means bangali in Rakhine at 2008..? if they faced Massacre , how come they made this huge population within a few years.. on the other hand , these Bangali bully on our ethnic Rachine people with their huge population and make them flee away.. our Rakhine people in Rakhine state dramatically drop year after year.. now just a few percent of the whole population..



You had a golden opprtunity that these people wanted to have allegiance to Burmese union but you refused them. Eveything has its own consequences and what the consequences, the time will only say. But whatever it is, not a good one for burma


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## ~Phoenix~

Aung Zaya said:


> that's fake.. not official LOL.. made by kids for fun... u take it serious...?




One of them was acknowledged by Burma Times that it is Myanmarnese official Air Force page...bruh...


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## kobiraaz

war&peace said:


> I remember how they declined the poor and helpless Rohingya from asylum / refuse...really cheap and stone-hearted SOBs



You won't understand the politics. This isn't this simple. Imagine Israel taking Gaza and Muslims of Gaza runs towards egypt. That would be the end of Muslims in Gaza.

Similarly Myanmar wants Bangladesh to take all the Muslims So that they can make a 100% Buddhist Arakan.



Amar Bail said:


> The most unfortunate people in today's modern world are Rohangiya and Bihari Muslims who were actually Pakistani stranded in Bangladesh even they can't go anywhere since they don't have any identity card or passport. Bangladesh Govt denied them every thing and believe me they are in really bad condition nearly all of them malnutrition dying of hunger and diseases, We should bring them to Pakistan because Bangladesh Govt and people still punishing them for their help and support to Pakistan army.



You are ignorant. Biharis who took BD citizenship are well integrated and live like us.

Biharis who rejected Bangladeshi Citizenship for Pakistan live in Geneva Camp in inhumane condition Because they are not our citizens and Their Country Pakistan Rejected them.



Aung Zaya said:


> propaganda started by terrorist groups..
> 
> they're shouting Army start firing their house
> photoshop
> View attachment 343714
> 
> the real one from state media and oringinal photo in camera.. Actually Army is trying to kill the fire what they made..
> View attachment 343715
> 
> View attachment 343716



Allow The foreign Journalists to Move into the troubled area and interview the Rohingyas. Then Talk..

No one in international arena supports your official position about rohingyas.

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## Luffy 500

salarsikander said:


> It is easy to target anything on muslims these days



The catch word is "terrorism" .




bd_4_ever said:


> I find it hilarious how certain Pakistanis talk as if they are the ultimate savior of Islam and the best muslims to have walked this earth.



In this particular thread they are NOT wrong though.


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## Michael Corleone

Aung Zaya said:


> Lol give me that report..  as far as i know from air force personels , all are in great condition and taking the regular training and exercise...
> 
> 
> check the map... which one have more hill and mountain in it region... east or west..? We already successfully made the supply chain for our troops in eastern conflict... we dont care..!!
> 
> 
> that's fake.. not official LOL.. made by kids for fun... u take it serious...?
> 
> 
> then give us that Jane's link..? LOL


all? are you sure? last time we did see a burmese mig-29 crash. and we thought it was bengali because it was blue at first. XD


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## RepublicOk

Better wait for the monsoon to subside if Bangladesh is serious on being an Islamic thekedar and take on Myanmar. 

Floods!!! 

Anyways the Mynmarese troop mobilization have nothing to do with Bangladesh. 
Stop making stuffs up.

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## Saiful Islam

Amar Bail said:


> The most unfortunate people in today's modern world are Rohangiya and Bihari Muslims who were actually Pakistani stranded in Bangladesh even they can't go anywhere since they don't have any identity card or passport. Bangladesh Govt denied them every thing and believe me they are in really bad condition nearly all of them malnutrition dying of hunger and diseases, We should bring them to Pakistan because Bangladesh Govt and people still punishing them for their help and support to Pakistan army.



Biharis aren't subject to persecution or ethnic cleansing. In fact they live good lives in BD.


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## Apprentice

Amar Bail said:


> May be not but we are least racist in comparison with Bangla babooz.



Calling Bengali brothers 'babooz' is itself a racist statement. Please do tauba brother. And also ask the Bengali brothers for forgiveness.


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## Amar Bail

Apprentice said:


> Calling Bengali brothers 'babooz' is itself a racist statement. Please do tauba brother. And also ask the Bengali brothers for forgiveness.



They feel honor by babu or babouzz



Saiful Islam said:


> Biharis aren't subject to persecution or ethnic cleansing. In fact they live good lives in BD.


Good joke


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## Sher-e-India

Amar Bail said:


> The most unfortunate people in today's modern world are Rohangiya and Bihari Muslims who were actually Pakistani stranded in Bangladesh even they can't go anywhere since they don't have any identity card or passport. Bangladesh Govt denied them every thing and believe me they are in really bad condition nearly all of them malnutrition dying of hunger and diseases, We should bring them to Pakistan because Bangladesh Govt and people still punishing them for their help and support to Pakistan army.


Bihari Muslims collaborated with Pakistan Army during Operation Searchlight and the subsequent genocide and rape of Bengali Muslim men and women in '71 civil war. I think that's part of the reason why some Bengali Muslims are so hostile to them even today


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## Apprentice

Amar Bail said:


> They feel honor by babu or babouzz
> 
> 
> Good joke



I thought you said you were not racist

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## Aung Zaya

another propagenda spread by terroist group...
shouting Army killing the people...







this photo is taken from the accident new..







TopCat said:


> You had a golden opprtunity that these people wanted to have allegiance to Burmese union but you refused them. Eveything has its own consequences and what the consequences, the time will only say. But whatever it is, not a good one for burma


ooppss..!! u can still hold this so-called golden gopportunity if u guys want.. We will let u hold.. We will go according to our law.. Nothing more nothing less.. We will given citizenship to every single one who derserve it according to our law.. If not , we will camp them with the help of UNHCR and send them to Third Countries..



kobiraaz said:


> Similarly Myanmar wants Bangladesh to take all the Muslims So that they can make a 100% Buddhist Arakan


We won't give back the one who deserve to become our citizens even if u want.. Especially local Muslims who contribute to our country 's development and spread reputation..we love them.. But not this bangali who spread the lies with fake history.. Only fools can make something like 100% Christian ,100% Muslim in their dream.. Lol

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## Aung Zaya

~Phoenix~ said:


> One of them was acknowledged by Burma Times that it is Myanmarnese official Air Force page...bruh...


Lol Burma time itself not even based in Myanmar.. It's based in Bangladesh.. All of the contributors and authors are fromoutside world of Myanmar.. There is no official FB of our armed forces..Do u know every official account got the blue mark from FB team..!? U should think of the official FB post such a childish move like u..? posting photoshops and talking 'defeat them in single day ' blah blah.. Lol


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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> ooppss..!! u can still hold this so-called golden gopportunity if u guys want.. We will let u hold.. We will go according to our law.. Nothing more nothing less.. We will given citizenship to every single one who derserve it according to our law.. If not , we will camp them with the help of UNHCR and send them to Third Countries..



Lately I was reading few stuffs about Rohingya but what I found is more than intriguing. Rohingyas are already majority in Arakan. That is what made the Burmese fearful as the way they mistreated these bunch of people, these people will never become Burmese. The only way Burma can stick to this area through Rakhaine appeasing policy and instigate them against non existent threat as Rohingya.

Camp my a$$. There are areas where your police cant even go specially in northern Arakan. More camp means you will be under more pressure. One hell of a thing happened. They now have access to good funding as you people chase them out to more prosperous countries from where they can earn more money and spend more for their cause.



Aung Zaya said:


> another propagenda spread by terroist group...
> shouting Army killing the people...
> 
> View attachment 343857
> 
> 
> this photo is taken from the accident new..
> View attachment 343854



War is the art of propaganda. You will be bombarded with more propaganda for sure. Look how they made north korea a joke in the world through propaganda.

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## ~Phoenix~

RepublicOk said:


> Better wait for the monsoon to subside if Bangladesh is serious on being an Islamic thekedar and take on Myanmar.
> 
> Floods!!!
> 
> Anyways the Mynmarese troop mobilization have nothing to do with Bangladesh.
> Stop making stuffs up.



Reported for insulting comments and BTW,Myanmar can't do that,it violates our agreement ( even though they broke it in 2008-9 and also told us to do so )



Aung Zaya said:


> Lol Burma time itself not even based in Myanmar.. It's based in Bangladesh.. All of the contributors and authors are fromoutside world of Myanmar.. There is no official FB of our armed forces..Do u know every official account got the blue mark from FB team..!? U should think of the official FB post such a childish move like u..? posting photoshops and talking 'defeat them in single day ' blah blah.. Lol



Its not photoshop...Myanmar Navy SEALs are real!







Aung Zaya said:


> There is no official FB of our armed forces



Why is that so?


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## bd_4_ever

bd_4_ever said:


> 3. Advise - You are a new kid here, so I'll let your "moral duty" comment pass by. With this attitude, you wouldn't last long on PDF.



Called it. Didnt take 24 hours for that 'morality' moron to get banned. 

Some people are just hilarious.


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## Gonjo

Aung Zaya said:


> Lol give me that report..  as far as i know from air force personels , all are in great condition and taking the regular training and exercise...
> 
> 
> check the map... which one have more hill and mountain in it region... east or west..? We already successfully made the supply chain for our troops in eastern conflict... we dont care..!!
> 
> 
> that's fake.. not official LOL.. made by kids for fun... u take it serious...?
> 
> 
> then give us that Jane's link..? LOL



You dont need to hype up anger by these immature post. I did post to discuss, what we could do to control your situation from our side.

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## Aung Zaya

Mohammed Khaled said:


> all? are you sure? last time we did see a burmese mig-29 crash. and we thought it was bengali because it was blue at first. XD


lol that's trainers version and accident was happened during advanced training for low flight.. dont worry about ours.. just care ur just 6 migs plus 2 trainer version.. we dont have problem coz 31 left to defend our country.. but for BD's Tiny MiG fleet.. it will be a big blow ..


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## TopCat

mike2000 is back said:


> Where are all the ummah countries members on here supporting their Royingha Muslim brothers?lol
> Or they are only good at ranting when it comes to Israel?
> 
> Anyway, GODSPEED to the Burmese government , tackling radical Islamic militants is a good thing for Mankind.



God actually does not speed in Burma. You have to go there in person and speed yourself.


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## ~Phoenix~

Aung Zaya said:


> lol that's trainers version and accident was happened during advanced training for low flight.. dont worry about ours.. just care ur just 6 migs plus 2 trainer version.. we dont have problem coz 31 left to defend our country.. but for BD's Tiny MiG fleet.. it will be a big blow ..




But we do have the money to buy them if they crash...
Remind me how rich is Myanmar? By total GDP and PPP?


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## Aung Zaya

~Phoenix~ said:


> But we do have the money to buy them if they crash...
> Remind me how rich is Myanmar? By total GDP and PPP?


then buy it 1st and talk to me.. GDP per capita is not difference between us..!! Feed ur 160m people 1st before u talk like prince of Saudi..  don't forget BD is still in LDC status like us.. Enjoy..!!
*Bangladesh to remain LDC until 2024: UN review
http://m.bdnews24.com/en/detail/economy/1062348*


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## TopCat

This Rakhine leader speaking Bengali fluently when talking to western journalist in Sittwe. Even his little lackey speaking pure Bengali. He is actually mixing Bengali with his English.

Very interesting. LOL @alaungphaya @Aung Zaya @kobiraaz @bluesky @bongbang @Doyalbaba @Species 
The level of Bengali influence is very severe in Arakan.

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## ~Phoenix~

Aung Zaya said:


> then buy it 1st and talk to me.




No,why go for obselete MiG-29s when you can have 4++ Generation birdies?




Aung Zaya said:


> Feed ur 160m people 1st before u talk like prince of Saudi..




Our 160 million population give us a huge manpower strength and they all live in harmony despite of religious and ethnic variations and also we can feed all population...

Bangladeshi Nominal GDP is *210+ billion USD* and PPP GDP is *580+ billion USD* as of 2015.
Myanmarnese Nominal GDP is *70+ billion USD* and PPP GDP is *310+ billion USD* as of 2015.




Aung Zaya said:


> don't forget BD is still in LDC status like us.. Enjoy..!!



LDC with political stability,no civil war between 29 different ethnics like Myanmar,construction of 2nd tallest building in the world,launching first satellite with 2 more follow up satelites,constructing a pair of nuclear reactors,2 deep sea port projects,constructing a tunnel from Chittagong to China,within the top 25 largest navies and inducting submarines and soo many more....


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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> This Rakhine leader speaking Bengali fluently when talking to western journalist in Sittwe. Even his little lackey speaking pure Bengali. He is actually mixing Bengali with his English.
> 
> Very interesting. LOL @alaungphaya @Aung Zaya @kobiraaz @bluesky @bongbang @Doyalbaba @Species
> The level of Bengali influence is very severe in Arakan.


I don't think that's strange.. U may take pride of this.. But honestly this is very normal case.. I can speak in Chinese and Thai ( not fluently ). Coz we are dealing with Chinese and Thai businessmen daily.. Most people who live in State bordering Thailand and Chinese can speak in Thai and Chinese very fluently.. Even like native..



TopCat said:


> Lately I was reading few stuffs about Rohingya but what I found is more than intriguing. Rohingyas are already majority in Arakan. That is what made the Burmese fearful as the way they mistreated these bunch of people, these people will never become Burmese. The only way Burma can stick to this area through Rakhaine appeasing policy and instigate them against non existent threat as Rohingya.
> 
> Camp my a$$. There are areas where your police cant even go specially in northern Arakan. More camp means you will be under more pressure. One hell of a thing happened. They now have access to good funding as you people chase them out to more prosperous countries from where they can earn more money and spend more for their cause.
> 
> 
> 
> War is the art of propaganda. You will be bombarded with more propaganda for sure. Look how they made north korea a joke in the world through propaganda.


Yes.. Now they are becoming majority in rural area.. We already have well plan for them.. freshly announced Commission will handle this case and will make some investigation.. After that we will sepreated into 2 groups people who deserve for our citizenship and outsiders.. 

Whatever u agree or not.. Outsiders will be kept in camps and feed them with the fund of UNHCR and push to 3rd countries like Malaysia does.. Zambia already announced that they will accept these people in their country.. 

After that , we just need to tighten the security of the camps and make the good infra.. Not to happen something like these attack.. Whatever they got good fund or supported by blah blah.. Yes.. Everyone who made something against the law will be destroyed.. And it's what happening now.. Armed force already lunched operations in Arakan and already got back 42 of seized 52 rifle .. But believed to have many more supplied by outside world.


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## bluesky

Aung Zaya said:


> Well.. in this case .., police are killed in their station.. not even one inch from compund of station..if u means killing polices and seize the weapons is defending their rights.., sure..!! u're just terroist supportor..
> 
> yes.. chittagong is also mine in century ago.. give us back.. lol


No, Chittagong was never a part of Burma and Arakan was independent before the British joined this land with Union of Burma in only in 1826 for ease of administration.

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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> I don't think that's strange.. U may take pride of this.. But honestly this is very normal case.. I can speak in Chinese and Thai ( not fluently ). Coz we are dealing with Chinese and Thai businessmen daily.. Most people who live in State bordering Thailand and Chinese can speak in Thai and Chinese very fluently.. Even like native..


He was not talking to any Bengalis but with westerners. WHY would he use bengali with them? Looks like he is used to using them frequently



> Yes.. Now they are becoming majority in rural area.. We already have well plan for them.. freshly announced Commission will handle this case and will make some investigation.. After that we will sepreated into 2 groups people who deserve for our citizenship and outsiders..
> 
> Whatever u agree or not.. Outsiders will be kept in camps and feed them with the fund of UNHCR and push to 3rd countries like Malaysia does.. Zambia already announced that they will accept these people in their country..
> 
> After that , we just need to tighten the security of the camps and make the good infra.. Not to happen something like these attack.. Whatever they got good fund or supported by blah blah.. Yes.. Everyone who made something against the law will be destroyed.. And it's what happening now.. Armed force already lunched operations in Arakan and already got back 42 of seized 52 rifle .. But believed to have many more supplied by outside world.



Your plan not going to work as you cant separate them because they are all same and are Rohingya. Even if you want to separate they not going to register. Even your census failed due to Bengali/Rohingya naming row. Burmese balls are actually got stuck with these Rohingyas.

Digging deep into the matter, I felt that they are running their own administration and have little to do with Burmese government.


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## Banglar Bir

Rohingiya Muslim refugees in New Delhi have called for an end to Myanmar government’s brutalities





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1272418889466562


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## Banglar Bir

Brothers, get wise and BE mature.

Bangladesh has no problems with Myanmar, except the issue of Rohingya Muslims PROBLEM.
All other issues/ disputes + maritime DEMARCATION , have been resolved peacefully.

Even, if we are someday, 10x times stronger than Myanmar, we should protect them, instead of turning them into our enemies

Think wisely,who ALL ARE to be the beneficiaries TO ENSURE in a weaker Bangladesh+ Myanmar IN THIS REGION?

Myanmar+ the sea is our only lifeline+ supply route, in case of our GIANT western neighbors, ambitious plan of materializing their dreams of AKHAND BHARAT. A simple walkover,if we enter into a armed conflict with Myanmar.

Moreover, the recent visit of the Hon'ble President of CHINA , and his statements, should make it crystal clear, as to what he meant by reviving the old SILK ROUTE. STUDY A LITTLE MORE+ COLLECT RELATED ARTICLES on these subjects from the internet..Patriotism is an excellent virtue embedded in the heart of every muslim. HOWEVER, Almighty, also told us , to think first then put our steps.

Our look EAST POLICY,+ DIRECT LINK TO CHINA is directly, through Myanmar, without them, we would turn into a land locked country. As, a 100% .effective naval blockade is almost certain, and can be ensured by all means, by the sheer size/number of their naval strength. (INDIA)

A SIMILAR INCIDENT TOOK PLACE IN 1991,right after the horrific hurricane that literally washed away, the whole flat land of Chittagong. All parked F-6/7,CHINESE AIRCRAFTS + BRAND NEW RUSSIAN MI 17 helicopters , still in crates, were floating in water. The whole air force in chittagong, virtually ceased to extinction. THE NAVY ALSO LOST COUPLE OF THEIR ATTACK VESSELS.

THE ARTILLERY UNITS, BASED IN HALISAHAR, WAS LEFT WITH NO AMMUNITION, AS THESE WERE ALSO IN SALTY WATERS FOR DAYS.

Meanwhile in the Foreign Ministry, the war mongers, or better known to all as INDIAN ASSETS were BUSY VISITING . U.S.A ,K.S.A, PLUS OTHER FRIENDLY COUNTRIES, TO MUSTER SUPPORT+WEAPONS FOR INVADING MYANMAR AND LIBERATING THE ARAKANESE, ONCE AND FOR ALL,

GUESS WHO HELPED US THEN.
YES .PAKISTAN. MAYBE STILL A STATE SECRET, WELL THEY SEND WITH C-130, FILLED WITH THE ESSENTIAL MISSILES+AMMUNITION THAT WE DESPERATELY NEEDED FOR SELF DEFENCE,THESE SPECIAL FLIGHTS REQUIRED SPECIAL FLIGHT CLEARANCE, BOTH FROM DGFI+MOFA, and over telephone, due to shortage of time.

Now to revert back to the present position, these are always small skirmishes that takes place in any insurgency movements. also guess where the chittagong hill tracts present SHANTI BAHINI OTHER GROUPS BUY THEIR WEAPONS FROM.
REMEMBER,Every action has an, equal and opposite reaction.

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## Bilal9

Sher-e-India said:


> Bihari Muslims collaborated with Pakistan Army during Operation Searchlight and the subsequent genocide and rape of Bengali Muslim men and women in '71 civil war. I think that's part of the reason why some Bengali Muslims are so hostile to them even today



This is not true. Younger Biharis speak fluent local language - and are educated in polished Bengali so you actually cannot tell them apart from locals. Whatever their parents or ancestors did 45 years ago is not held against them.

In 2008 the High Court in Dhaka ruled that 150,000 Biharis, who were minors at the time of the war, could be given citizenship in Bangladesh and voting rights. This is also to be extended to those Bihari born since the war, giving them a path to citizenship rights in Bangladesh at last.

Don't hold us in the same standard as some parts of the rest of the subcontinent, We are a rather tolerant lot....

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## Bilal9

*Bangadesh finds violence in bordering Myanmar Rakhine state 'disturbing', promises help*

Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com

Published: 2016-10-16 19:30:01.0 BdST Updated: 2016-10-16 19:30:01.0 BdST









Police forces prepare to patrol in Maungdaw township at Rakhine state, northeast Myanmar, Oct 12, 2016. Reuters

*Bangladesh has condemned the recent violence in the bordering Rakhine state, describing it as “disturbing” and has promised to assist Myanmar in this “time of need”.*

The foreign ministry on Sunday said it had taken note of the “coordinated attacks” on the Border Guard Police posts in Rakhine state on Oct 10 and the clashes that followed.

“We are concerned at the loss of innocent lives in these clashes. We underscore the need for arresting perpetrators and for due judicial process to bring them to justice,” it said in a statement.

Myanmar officials have said hundreds of men - some armed with automatic weapons and others with sticks and swords - launched coordinated assaults against three border posts in the early hours of Oct 9, killing nine police officers and wounding five.

In response, the military has poured troops into northern Rakhine state to search for attackers, who made off with dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

The state is known as the home of the minority Muslim group Rohingya, who have been denied citizenship by successive governments in Myanmar.

The 1.1 million Rohingya living in Rakhine state have faced discrimination, severe restrictions on their movements and access to services, especially since the inter-communal violence in 2012 that displaced 125,000 people.

The Rohingya are not among the 135 ethnic groups officially recognised in Myanmar, where many in the Buddhist majority regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

This issue is also holding back progress in bilateral relations between the two neighbours, with Myanmar refusing to take back thousands of Rohingya who took shelter in Bangladesh after fleeing sectarian violence in Rakhine state.

With Aung San Suu Kyi’s assumption of power, Bangladesh resorted to public diplomacy to strengthen ties with Myanmar, keeping aside the Rohingya refugee issue.

*“Bangladesh finds the recent attacks and clashes in bordering Rakhine state disturbing and unequivocally condemns the attacks on Myanmar forces,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.*

*“Bangladesh as a responsible neighbour on its own sealed the borders with Myanmar in the early hours of Oct 10 to deny the perpetrators easy escape.

“Bangladesh also apprehended two Muslims of Rakhine state and handed them over to the authorities of Myanmar within a day.

“The Bangladesh authorities are in constant touch with their Myanmar counterparts and providing help as requested,” the foreign ministry said.

“Bangladesh follows a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards violent extremism and terrorism of any form and manifestation.

“Bangladesh conducted a number of operations against Arakan Army and other ethnic armed groups originating from Myanmar in recent times to help Myanmar.

“Bangladesh returned two Tatmadaw members rescued from Arakan army captivity last year,” read the statement. “Bangladesh will continue to assist Myanmar in this time of need.”

The foreign ministry said Bangladesh believed that “cooperation in these areas could be best realized under legal framework which Bangladesh has been stressing over two years.”

“Such institutionalized cooperation is needed to comprehensively address all aspects of insecurity, from drug to human trafficking to gun running to civil commotion and internal disturbances to insurgency.”*


----------



## TopCat

Bilal9 said:


> *Bangadesh finds violence in bordering Myanmar Rakhine state 'disturbing', promises help*
> 
> Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com
> 
> Published: 2016-10-16 19:30:01.0 BdST Updated: 2016-10-16 19:30:01.0 BdST
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Police forces prepare to patrol in Maungdaw township at Rakhine state, northeast Myanmar, Oct 12, 2016. Reuters
> *Bangladesh has condemned the recent violence in the bordering Rakhine state, describing it as “disturbing” and has promised to assist Myanmar in this “time of need”.*
> 
> The foreign ministry on Sunday said it had taken note of the “coordinated attacks” on the Border Guard Police posts in Rakhine state on Oct 10 and the clashes that followed.
> 
> “We are concerned at the loss of innocent lives in these clashes. We underscore the need for arresting perpetrators and for due judicial process to bring them to justice,” it said in a statement.
> 
> Myanmar officials have said hundreds of men - some armed with automatic weapons and others with sticks and swords - launched coordinated assaults against three border posts in the early hours of Oct 9, killing nine police officers and wounding five.
> 
> In response, the military has poured troops into northern Rakhine state to search for attackers, who made off with dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
> 
> The state is known as the home of the minority Muslim group Rohingya, who have been denied citizenship by successive governments in Myanmar.
> 
> The 1.1 million Rohingya living in Rakhine state have faced discrimination, severe restrictions on their movements and access to services, especially since the inter-communal violence in 2012 that displaced 125,000 people.
> 
> The Rohingya are not among the 135 ethnic groups officially recognised in Myanmar, where many in the Buddhist majority regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
> 
> This issue is also holding back progress in bilateral relations between the two neighbours, with Myanmar refusing to take back thousands of Rohingya who took shelter in Bangladesh after fleeing sectarian violence in Rakhine state.
> 
> With Aung San Suu Kyi’s assumption of power, Bangladesh resorted to public diplomacy to strengthen ties with Myanmar, keeping aside the Rohingya refugee issue.
> 
> *“Bangladesh finds the recent attacks and clashes in bordering Rakhine state disturbing and unequivocally condemns the attacks on Myanmar forces,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.*
> 
> *“Bangladesh as a responsible neighbour on its own sealed the borders with Myanmar in the early hours of Oct 10 to deny the perpetrators easy escape.
> 
> “Bangladesh also apprehended two Muslims of Rakhine state and handed them over to the authorities of Myanmar within a day.
> 
> “The Bangladesh authorities are in constant touch with their Myanmar counterparts and providing help as requested,” the foreign ministry said.
> 
> “Bangladesh follows a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards violent extremism and terrorism of any form and manifestation.
> 
> “Bangladesh conducted a number of operations against Arakan Army and other ethnic armed groups originating from Myanmar in recent times to help Myanmar.
> 
> “Bangladesh returned two Tatmadaw members rescued from Arakan army captivity last year,” read the statement. “Bangladesh will continue to assist Myanmar in this time of need.”
> 
> The foreign ministry said Bangladesh believed that “cooperation in these areas could be best realized under legal framework which Bangladesh has been stressing over two years.”
> 
> “Such institutionalized cooperation is needed to comprehensively address all aspects of insecurity, from drug to human trafficking to gun running to civil commotion and internal disturbances to insurgency.”*



Now with this statement along with border fencing mm has no option to internatinalize rohingya anymore.


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## bongbang

Rohingyas are victims. There are external players destabilizing situation. Rohingya terrorists attacked BD Ansar camp after one war criminal was hanged in BD. And they started provocation after BD supported India's position over Pakistan.


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## Aung Zaya

bluesky said:


> No, Chittagong was never a part of Burma and Arakan was independent before the British joined this land with Union of Burma in only in 1826 for ease of administration.








Nope.. Arakan became subordinate to the Pagan monarchy in AD 1102-3....



TopCat said:


> Your plan not going to work as you cant separate them because they are all same and are Rohingya. Even if you want to separate they not going to register. Even your census failed due to Bengali/Rohingya naming row. Burmese balls are actually got stuck with these Rohingyas.


that's u said.. for us.. no Rohingya in Myanmar... Just bangali...  ok.. well if they dont want to register.. that would be easier.. All will kept in Camps.. just push to 3rd country... unlike past time , this commission will be led by Kofi Annan ex-Secretary-General of the United Nations.. they will decide who deserve to become citizen or not...


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## Indo-Pak

I told you earlier Burma will retaliate, they will retaliate hard..


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## TopCat

Indo-Pak said:


> I told you earlier Burma will retaliate,* they will retaliate hard..*







mike2000 is back said:


> I know, they are many so called ummah believers here who only focus on issues that concerns their country's interests(which i think is normal by the way, eventhough there some other wannabe Arab who poke their nose in issues they have no interests or business in), yet the like claiming how they are concerned about Muslim 'oppression' anywhere around the world, meanwhile they just focus on those when it concerns Israel.lol
> I can bet you if this thread/topic had mentioned Israel, you will have seen hundreds of them on here commenting/condemning and ranting against the country and speaking out for their 'oppressed' Muslim brothers. lol, this thread would have been at least 10 page long by now.
> Their hypocrisy is mind boggling. Reason i always laugh at their so called 'concern' ONLY in Palestine. lol



WTF you blabbering about... ? how about your visiting to Burma for speeding things up?



Aung Zaya said:


> What a racist..!!!!
> His duty is just to recommand who should be there or not.. the rest are our job...



Come on dude... we all have ancestry to primates.. it differs in individual level on when ones ancestor branched out to homo sapiens. Its only the time factor and it greatly influence one's behavior (like hatred towards more advanced humans), their habitat and their place of living (e.g. trees) etc.

I bet he will recommend the best for Myanmar future and good for Burmese/Rakhine/Rohingyas. Rohingyas already welcomed him and liked the idea of the name Arakan Muslim. This is very smart and interesting.


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## Gandh brandi

mike2000 is back said:


> I know, they are many so called ummah believers here who only focus on issues that concerns their country's interests(which i think is normal by the way, eventhough there some other wannabe Arab who poke their nose in issues they have no interests or business in), yet the like claiming how they are concerned about Muslim 'oppression' anywhere around the world, meanwhile they just focus on those when it concerns Israel.lol
> I can bet you if this thread/topic had mentioned Israel, you will have seen hundreds of them on here commenting/condemning and ranting against the country and speaking out for their 'oppressed' Muslim brothers. lol, this thread would have been at least 10 page long by now.
> Their hypocrisy is mind boggling. Reason i always laugh at their so called 'concern' ONLY in Palestine. lol


Come on we all are hypocrites when it serves our interests. Anyway in all indication, it looks like arab countries or rather KSA is quite warming up to Israel these days.


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## Michael Corleone

Aung Zaya said:


> LOL.. so tell me what u have in ur Af that we dont have.. why we feel mad..?
> u dont wanna show off.. ? the best joke ever.. u guys already show off even in a single photo of infantry..
> 
> 
> LOL they still alive now..? one may be the best , but not all..
> 
> 
> ok.. it's good if u guys dont forget about ur country status.. just remind ~phoenix~ who is thinking of prince of Saudi himself and asking other about ' how much u rich '..... what a pitty..!!
> 
> 
> that's natural disaster and hard to avoid.. the worst disaster in Myanmar History... Who said Myanmar counting casualites...  Yes.. we care..!! coz that 160m people live in small area , just an equal to our one large state of 14... there are many problems of illegal migrant in both Myanmar and India border... plus u should think of ur own man-made disaster..  Do u remember this...?
> View attachment 344166


What we have in our Air Force that you don't have? Factually it's f-7bgi and yak-130. Our infantry pics are all taken on victory day parade.... it's a pride to show off that because our military tradition is in line with Pakistan and British armies... 

I didn't claim all our pilots are fighter aces... no country have em. But countries that have those aces have the best pilots in the world because their pilots get all first hand experience and knowledge. 

As for the status you're talking about... we don't show off like Myanmar with a dismal economy a military is nothing. We care about development first. A hungry army can only do much so no use of just buying more new toys every year. 


Deal with fairness with rohyingas first before judging for our man made disaster... your man made disaster made international headlines for years... ours maxed out a month.

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## Michael Corleone

Myanmar is the funniest tv show I have ever seen.


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## bluesky

mike2000 is back said:


> Awwww.......who cares?
> Burma should do humanity a favour and *get rid of those Islamic extremists fighters *on its soil . No mercy should be shown to those extremists.
> 
> I'm still waiting for those self imposed ummah members from Iran, Egypt etc to condemn Burmese actions against 'Muslims freedom fighters' in burma just like they always rant and cry about ISRAEL claiming it's because they 'oppress Muslims'. Where are they on here? Hypocrites.


Like the Kashmiris, the Rohingyas are not terrorists. They are freedom fighters who do not want any more to be oppressed by the Barman.


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## Hindustani78

Police forces prepare to patrol in Maungdaw township at Rakhine state, northeast Myanmar, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-border-idUSKBN12H1D2
By Aung Hla Tun | Yangon

*Myanmar has fired the police official charged with guarding its troubled border with Bangladesh, officials said on Monday, after deadly attacks that sparked fighting with insurgents allegedly inspired by Islamist militants.*

Nine police officers were killed when three police posts in northern *Rakhine State were overrun on Oct. 9 by attackers wielding automatic weapons, sticks and knives, and believed to belong to the mostly stateless Rohingya Muslim group. *

"Necessary action will be taken against the responsible police officials for their negligence, which led to the loss of the lives of police personnel and the loss of weapons," said Major General Aung Soe, deputy minister for home affairs.

Aung Soe did not give specifics, but Police Brigadier General Maung Maung Khin, the border chief in Maungdaw township, the site of the attack, has been fired, said an official at police headquarters and an official of the Rakhine State government.

A replacement, Thura San Lwin, has already been named, said the two officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The government has said the assault was orchestrated by the little-known "Aqa Mul Mujahidin", alleged to have links to Islamists in Pakistan and elsewhere, and *also blamed it for later attacks on security forces in the Muslim-majority region.*

Since the attacks, several videos have circulated online, showing armed men declaring jihad in the language of the Rohingya. Reuters has not been able to verify their authenticity, but government officials say *they believe they show members of an insurgent group with about 400 fighters.*

The army has designated the region an "operation zone" and troops have fanned out to *track down attackers who made off with dozens of weapons and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in the Oct. 9 assault.*

In a statement on Monday, *the government said 30 people have been killed and 12 suspects detained in the operation, in which five soldiers were killed.*

In the latest reported killings of alleged attackers, two women and a man were shot dead on Saturday after they ambushed police officers conducting a "clearance operation," the military-run Myawady newspaper said.


International human rights groups and advocates for the Rohingya have raised concerns that extrajudicial killings may be taking place.

About 1.1 million Rohingya live in Rakhine State, where they face restrictions on their movements and access to services. They constitute most of the 125,000 residents of displacement camps since communal clashes with ethnic Buddhists in 2012.

(Writing by Simon Lewis; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)


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## bluesky

Aung Zaya said:


> Nope.. Arakan became subordinate to the Pagan monarchy in AD 1102-3....


Arakanese Muslims settled themselves in an independent Arakan Kingdom. Burma should vacate Arakan and let the Muslims live in their independent country, Mrauk U.

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## TopCat

maroofz2000 said:


> Brothers, get wise and BE mature.
> 
> Bangladesh has no problems with Myanmar, except the issue of Rohingya Muslims PROBLEM.
> All other issues/ disputes + maritime DEMARCATION , have been resolved peacefully.
> 
> Even, if we are someday, 10x times stronger than Myanmar, we should protect them, instead of turning them into our enemies
> 
> Think wisely,who ALL ARE to be the beneficiaries TO ENSURE in a weaker Bangladesh+ Myanmar IN THIS REGION?
> 
> Myanmar+ the sea is our only lifeline+ supply route, in case of our GIANT western neighbors, ambitious plan of materializing their dreams of AKHAND BHARAT. A simple walkover,if we enter into a armed conflict with Myanmar.
> 
> Moreover, the recent visit of the Hon'ble President of CHINA , and his statements, should make it crystal clear, as to what he meant by reviving the old SILK ROUTE. STUDY A LITTLE MORE+ COLLECT RELATED ARTICLES on these subjects from the internet..Patriotism is an excellent virtue embedded in the heart of every muslim. HOWEVER, Almighty, also told us , to think first then put our steps.
> 
> Our look EAST POLICY,+ DIRECT LINK TO CHINA is directly, through Myanmar, without them, we would turn into a land locked country. As, a 100% .effective naval blockade is almost certain, and can be ensured by all means, by the sheer size/number of their naval strength. (INDIA)
> 
> A SIMILAR INCIDENT TOOK PLACE IN 1991,right after the horrific hurricane that literally washed away, the whole flat land of Chittagong. All parked F-6/7,CHINESE AIRCRAFTS + BRAND NEW RUSSIAN MI 17 helicopters , still in crates, were floating in water. The whole air force in chittagong, virtually ceased to extinction. THE NAVY ALSO LOST COUPLE OF THEIR ATTACK VESSELS.
> 
> THE ARTILLERY UNITS, BASED IN HALISAHAR, WAS LEFT WITH NO AMMUNITION, AS THESE WERE ALSO IN SALTY WATERS FOR DAYS.
> 
> Meanwhile in the Foreign Ministry, the war mongers, or better known to all as INDIAN ASSETS were BUSY VISITING . U.S.A ,K.S.A, PLUS OTHER FRIENDLY COUNTRIES, TO MUSTER SUPPORT+WEAPONS FOR INVADING MYANMAR AND LIBERATING THE ARAKANESE, ONCE AND FOR ALL,
> 
> GUESS WHO HELPED US THEN.
> YES .PAKISTAN. MAYBE STILL A STATE SECRET, WELL THEY SEND WITH C-130, FILLED WITH THE ESSENTIAL MISSILES+AMMUNITION THAT WE DESPERATELY NEEDED FOR SELF DEFENCE,THESE SPECIAL FLIGHTS REQUIRED SPECIAL FLIGHT CLEARANCE, BOTH FROM DGFI+MOFA, and over telephone, due to shortage of time.
> 
> Now to revert back to the present position, these are always small skirmishes that takes place in any insurgency movements. also guess where the chittagong hill tracts present SHANTI BAHINI OTHER GROUPS BUY THEIR WEAPONS FROM.
> REMEMBER,Every action has an, equal and opposite reaction.


Be realistc, with Rohingyas in their land you will not get nothing fron burma. Either we have to send you there to kill all the rohinvyas or ask your government to bring them to bd.


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## Aung Zaya

Mohammed Khaled said:


> What we have in our Air Force that you don't have? Factually it's f-7bgi and yak-130.


wait..!! this F7bgi and Yak130 make us feel bad... !!? seriously...?  we already ordered Yak-130 and just waiting the time it arrived.. for F7bgi..? we have several isreali upgreaded F7 in our inventory... 



Mohammed Khaled said:


> As for the status you're talking about... we don't show off like Myanmar with a dismal economy a military is nothing. We care about development first. A hungry army can only do much so no use of just buying more new toys every year.


nah.. what we show off..? nothing..!! all we bought should have for the every single army... we are doing in both military and economy..  Do u know Myanmar is fastest economy in the world for 2016...? 
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/worlds-fastest-growing-economies/


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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> wait..!! this F7bgi and Yak130 make us feel bad... !!? seriously...?  we already ordered Yak-130 and just waiting the time it arrived.. for F7bgi..? we have several isreali upgreaded F7 in our inventory...
> 
> 
> nah.. what we show off..? nothing..!! all we bought should have for the every single army... we are doing in both military and economy..  Do u know Myanmar is fastest economy in the world for 2016...?
> https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/worlds-fastest-growing-economies/


Do you know mm had been growing 9.4% a year since 1994?


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## fallstuff

They are not going to attack to jeopardize Chinese $35 Billion investment in BD. The Chinese will hang the Myanmar Generals by their Ba*ls, or alternatively, chop their cojones off, and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. 

Just kidding 

Relax, the mighty Myanmar army not going to attack, this is just a show of force.

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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> Do you know mm had been growing 9.4% a year since 1994?


Do u know 9.4% of 1994 is a lot different with 8.6% of 2016...?


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## Aung Zaya

bluesky said:


> *Arakanese Muslims *settled themselves in an independent Arakan Kingdom. Burma should vacate Arakan and let the* Muslims live in their independent country, Mrauk U.*


what a funny..!!! see who is invader..? or u want to mean Muslim people building these temples and pagoda throughout of their life time.. even not building the single mosque...!! Do u know * Mrauk U rich in thousand of temples and pagodas which second largest in Myanmar after Bagan... ? All were built by Rakhine buddhist Kings over 800 years ago.. *


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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> what a funny..!!! see who is invader..? or u want to mean Muslim people building these temples and pagoda throughout of their life time.. even not building the single mosque...!! Do u know * Mrauk U rich in thousand of temples and pagodas which second largest in Myanmar after Bagan... ? All were built by Rakhine buddhist Kings over 800 years ago.. *
> View attachment 344412
> 
> 
> View attachment 344413
> 
> 
> 
> lol.. it's run in different titles and different discussion... why so serious...?


You want to see buddhist site built 2500 years ago? How did your king converted to buddha in the first place? I am sure those temples are built by bengalis.


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## Species

Aung Zaya said:


> lol.. it's run in different titles and different discussion... why so serious...?



A single thread would make it easier to navigate and discuss.


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## Species

Aung Zaya said:


> huhhhh..!! merging the different discussions of different topic is to be make it easier to navigate..? how come..?



All these threads are on recent crackdown on Rohingyas by Burmese army.


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## M_Saint

bongbang said:


> Rohingyas are victims. There are external players destabilizing situation. Rohingya terrorists attacked BD Ansar camp after one war criminal was hanged in BD. And they started provocation after BD supported India's position over Pakistan.


What's up with flip-flopping Manobata birodhi to Juddha Oporadhi, Dude? Weren't U guys trying Manobota Birodhis then why pointing on Juddha Oporadhi (War Criminal)? Or warring parties had settled it long ago by tripatriate treaty and you needed to deceive the receiving one to get the ball rolling? So, now Manobota Birodhi or War Criminal didn't mater since the judicial murder was completed? After all, UR goal was to kill some of the finest, non-corrupt, God fearing Muslim leaders and it was a done deal by then.


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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> Do u know 9.4% of 1994 is a lot different with 8.6% of 2016...?


No I dont know, did you guys invent math in 2016?

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## Michael Corleone

Aung Zaya said:


> wait..!! this F7bgi and Yak130 make us feel bad... !!? seriously...?  we already ordered Yak-130 and just waiting the time it arrived.. for F7bgi..? we have several isreali upgreaded F7 in our inventory...
> 
> 
> nah.. what we show off..? nothing..!! all we bought should have for the every single army... we are doing in both military and economy..  Do u know Myanmar is fastest economy in the world for 2016...?
> https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/worlds-fastest-growing-economies/


You had to have the yak 130 because we got it. Lol

Don't link some forum and claim it to be legit and even if it is... then good job and good luck keeping it for the second year. Don't go about killing rohyngas


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## asad71

1.We are a prosperous nation. Burma is immensely rich in resources. These are incentives to promote a proxy war between the two. Exploitation thereafter will profitable for these Satans.

2. However, a war will bring BD to its senses. True friends will emerge and the Katulya character of India will be exposed. We will then seriously consider the Arakan issue. Rohingya Mujahids remain the trump card. Only they can expel the Burmese invaders.

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## The_Sidewinder

In my opinion, a conflict between Myanmar & Bangladesh doesnt serve any purposes. Result will be , economy of both country in tetters. Uncle Sam, Commies etc will be happy selling their arms to both nations. For India, it will mean more illegal immigrants.

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## TopCat

The_Sidewinder said:


> In my opinion, a conflict between Myanmar & Bangladesh doesnt serve any purposes. Result will be , economy of both country in tetters. Uncle Sam, Commies etc will be happy selling their arms to both nations.* For India, it will mean more illegal immigrants.*


Dont flatter yourself...

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## TopCat

A heart breaking video, Turkish prime minister visiting Rohingya.

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## Gyp 111

alaungphaya said:


> You see, this why your country is as populous as Russia or Japan but are as poor as Africans. There are so many stupid people amongst your population. Stupid, little people like this guy. If you can purge yourselves of this problem, maybe better nutrition and thus better brain development, then you guys might be fine.


At first look at yourself. What you are? Moron. Your country filled with morons. Go give nutrition to 1.8 million children living in areas of Kachin and northern Shan states. Then give advice to others.

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## Saiful Islam

alaungphaya said:


> You see, this why your country is as populous as Russia or Japan but are as poor as Africans. There are so many stupid people amongst your population. Stupid, little people like this guy. If you can purge yourselves of this problem, maybe better nutrition and thus better brain development, then you guys might be fine.



When I see a Burmese that atleast has the bone density and size of me, or as tall as me, but no, for now don't talk about nutrition part because we have seen how 'big' your people are.


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## Sliver

I went through the OP twice. it only says Myanmar is trying to clean up the mess in its won land - no mention that these troops will in any form be used against BD itself. In a restive province prone to attacks and bloodshed, doesnt a country have the right to deploy its forces to get it under control (am looking at op Zarb e Arb and all the TTP cleansing that Pak has been doing).

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## Nilgiri

Sliver said:


> I went through the OP twice. it only says Myanmar is trying to clean up the mess in its won land - no mention that these troops will in any form be used against BD itself. In a restive province prone to attacks and bloodshed, doesnt a country have the right to deploy its forces to get it under control (am looking at op Zarb e Arb and all the TTP cleansing that Pak has been doing).



You think this matters to these BD nationalists* on this forum? They constantly talk and dream about their designs on Eastern India....this philosophy extends to Myanmar NW coastal areas too. They see these all as lands that belong to BD. Its all about going on vacation from the reality of their political (largely controlled by India today) and economic (LDC) situation that stays stagnant and repetitive for the most part.

This is essentially what happens when you hem in 170 million peasants into a swamp (they stay peasant minded even in the rare chance they become economically better off), they get fidgety in their heads and desperate about the high density squalor they are forced to see and smell every day in their RMG sweatshops and slum residences. When they leave BD, they still have to grapple with 70% relative poverty rates in whichever western country makes the mistake of accepting them (example UK).

Thats why India and Myanmar have to deal with these vermin sooner rather than later and push the transgressors right back to where they originated. If that means slapping BD itself around a few times, so be it. They are used to getting slapped and pretending it didn't happen to outsiders and then crying about it among themselves. Its no big deal to outsiders (we only care about results, not about what feet, arms and heads BD public lay out for us to trample on) and the behaviour cannot be expected to change....they have been crying constantly since 1971 about something or another in "pay attention to me, feel sorry for us" syndrome....to disguise their acting like disgusting filthy barbarians when largesse from others is given to them.

Best of luck and godspeed to Myanmar in doing what its got to do in Arakan.

@Aung Zaya @alaungphaya

*such people are not representative of BD people in general it must be said.

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## Attila the Hun

TopCat said:


> A heart breaking video, Turkish prime minister visiting Rohingya.


We Turks will always support our Muslim brothers against SEYTANIST scum
Stay strong brothers and sisters!

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## KediKesenFare3

BD is a small country with over 170 m citizens. You guys need urgently more space to live in.

I mean, why don't you use the Rohinga issue as an opportunity to gain more land? You should 'liberate' west Birma and resettle over 50 m Bengals in this region. This would be a perfect solution for your overpopulation. Russia, Turkey, China and even smaller countries like Albania,Israel or Armenia used this strategy.

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## Nilgiri

KediKesenFare said:


> You should 'liberate' west Birma and resettle over 50 m Bengals in this region.



Yes they should and invite their destruction as a nation once and for all. Might as well get it over with now to reduce the effect of it on the region and world long term.

It is a good thing (for them) that they are overall a meek people. Look how accepting they are of an Indian imposed leader (SHW).

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## Sliver

KediKesenFare said:


> BD is a small country with over 170 m citizens. You guys need urgently more space to live in.
> 
> I mean, why don't you use the Rohinga issue as an opportunity to gain more land? You should 'liberate' west Birma and resettle over 50 m Bengals in this region. This would be a perfect solution for your overpopulation. Russia, Turkey, China and even smaller countries like Albania,Israel or Armenia used this strategy.



maybe we can start annexing the moon and mars - hey we need more land for our growing surging population.. instead of feeling a little responsibility and reducing the population numbers and reduce strain on the environment.

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## Aung Zaya

KediKesenFare said:


> BD is a small country with over 170 m citizens. You guys need urgently more space to live in.
> 
> I mean, why don't you use the Rohinga issue as an opportunity to gain more land? You should 'liberate' west Birma and resettle over 50 m Bengals in this region. This would be a perfect solution for your overpopulation. Russia, Turkey, China and even smaller countries like Albania,Israel or Armenia used this strategy.


u turkey have a big country with just 74m people... why dont u invite them to ur country...? the perfect solution is to take that 50m to your country and resettle..  plus they dont have strength to 'liberate' our west...

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## Homo Sapiens

KediKesenFare said:


> BD is a small country with over 170 m citizens. You guys need urgently more space to live in.
> 
> I mean, why don't you use the Rohinga issue as an opportunity to gain more land? You should 'liberate' west Birma and resettle over 50 m Bengals in this region. This would be a perfect solution for your overpopulation. Russia, Turkey, China and even smaller countries like Albania,Israel or Armenia used this strategy.


Bangladesh is not among the most over populated countries in the world.Just looking at total population and land mass of a country is a wrong idea.There are many countries which is big in land mass but very little of it is useful for human habitation.And some with little land and big population.Except for Americas and Australia+new Zealand which was settled relatively recently with colonial settler population,all countries in the world have population density which closely match the productive capacity of the land.Bangladesh is a country with highest percentage of very fertile arable land and suitable climate and topography for dense settlement.Our 1 sq. km of land has more usefulness then say 100 sq. km of desert,mountain jungle or polar region of other countries.Despite small size, Bangladesh is one of the largest agricultural producer in the world.One way to measure real over-population is to categorize countries by real population density based on food growing capacity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...lation_density_based_on_food_growing_capacity
This list have some flow,like they simply divided country' s population by the amount of arable land irrespective of fertility and crop yield differential.Bangladesh's fertility is one of the highest,still this list showing,Bangladesh is actually a medium over-populated countries.Bangladesh is 51th most over populated countries in the world by this list,but if we take into account the productivity factors then our position will be even more favorable.


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## TopCat

@waz why did you unsticky this thread? So many thread being created with this subject. Please make this sticky.



KediKesenFare said:


> BD is a small country with over 170 m citizens. You guys need urgently more space to live in.
> 
> I mean, why don't you use the Rohinga issue as an opportunity to gain more land? You should 'liberate' west Birma and resettle over 50 m Bengals in this region. This would be a perfect solution for your overpopulation. Russia, Turkey, China and even smaller countries like Albania,Israel or Armenia used this strategy.



I think Rohingya number does not have the theshold to dominate the demography yet. It will happen naturally. Rohingyas are not leaving the place and hand it over to Burmese with silver plate.


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## Nike

TopCat said:


> @waz why did you unsticky this thread? So many thread being created with this subject. Please make this sticky.
> 
> 
> 
> I think Rohingya number does not have the theshold to dominate the demography yet. It will happen naturally. Rohingyas are not leaving the place and hand it over to Burmese with silver plate.
> 
> 
> NE india have more bengalis than burma has bamar. If it comes to that we will throw all those tribes back to bamar land where their similarity lies, so that they will get grand treatment like Kachin, Karen, Rakhine and other non Bamar gets.[/QUOT



Rohingya is small times issue, even for ASEAN standards no need to made this troll baiting thread a sticky

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## Aung Zaya

madokafc said:


> Rohingya is small times issue, even for ASEAN standards no need to made this troll baiting thread a sticky


Thz for supporting us... we're ASEAN...  

*Neighbouring Islamic countries support Rakhine response: acting FM*
18 Oct 2016
Tweet
By NYAN HLAING LYNN | FRONTIER

NAY PYI TAW — Ambassadors of majority-Muslim countries in the region have expressed support for the government’s response to recent violence in northern Rakhine State, acting foreigner minister U Kyaw Tint Swe said yesterday.

At least 44 people have died since armed militants launched attacks on police posts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships on October 9.

Kyaw Tint Swe made the comments after a meeting with ambassadors from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

“We have explained to them that we didn’t use excessive or unnecessary force when ensuring the rule of law,” said Kyaw Tint Swe, who is acting foreign minister while Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visits India.

*Indonesia’s ambassador said during the meeting that his country “respects Myanmar’s independence and sovereignty and we don’t want to interfere in its domestic affairs”, *according to Kyaw Tint Swe. The ambassador added that the Myanmar government’s response to date had been “consistent with the law” and took into account human rights standards, the acting foreign minister said.

*The Malaysian and Brunei ambassadors had given similar assurances, Kyaw Tint Swe said.*
Foreign ministry permanent secretary U Kyaw Zeya said Bangladesh had also pledged to full cooperate with Myanmar as the government continues its investigation into the attacks.

Bangladesh has already detained two suspected militants and returned them to Myanmar for interrogation.

“Bangladesh said that they would fully collaborate with us if we demanded facts and information about the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) from them,” Kyaw Zeya said.

The meeting with the ambassadors came as the military and police continued clearance operations to ensure security in Maungdaw Township, which borders Bangladesh and is estimated to be 90 percent Muslim.

Nine police and five members of the Tatmadaw, which was sent in to ensure security in the township, have been killed, along with 29 suspected militants.

The government said in an October 14 statement that the militants were members of a Maungdaw-based organisation, Aqa Mul Mujahidin, that had links to the RSO in Bangladesh and Taliban in Pakistan.

Military officials said the situation was now stable, although there was still sporadic violence.

“Although there are sometimes small engagements, there are no more attacks at the main military camps, towns and villages, so we can say that the situation is under control in relation to ensuring security of our territory,” said Major Gen Aung Soe, the deputy minister for home affairs.

He said that a major focus of the response to the attacks was to ensure there were no outbreaks of racial or religious-based violence.

Twenty-seven suspected militants have been detained and are being investigated “according to the law”, he added. Two are being held in Sittwe, while the rest are in Maungdaw, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Maungdaw District, which includes Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, has a population of about 800,000, of whom barely 100,000 are ethnic Rakhine.

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## TopCat

madokafc said:


> Rohingya is small times issue, even for ASEAN standards no need to made this troll baiting thread a sticky


It could be small time issue for Indoneshia but not for MM, Malaysia, ,BD where close to million became stateless and it becomes a regular issue for around the world. It is more important than MM economy and milatary news and update thread. It even affected the far away country like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India.
YOu think this is a small issue? In which world do you live in?



Aung Zaya said:


> Thz for supporting us... we're ASEAN...
> 
> *Neighbouring Islamic countries support Rakhine response: acting FM*
> 18 Oct 2016
> Tweet
> By NYAN HLAING LYNN | FRONTIER
> 
> NAY PYI TAW — Ambassadors of majority-Muslim countries in the region have expressed support for the government’s response to recent violence in northern Rakhine State, acting foreigner minister U Kyaw Tint Swe said yesterday.
> 
> At least 44 people have died since armed militants launched attacks on police posts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships on October 9.
> 
> Kyaw Tint Swe made the comments after a meeting with ambassadors from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
> 
> “We have explained to them that we didn’t use excessive or unnecessary force when ensuring the rule of law,” said Kyaw Tint Swe, who is acting foreign minister while Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visits India.
> 
> *Indonesia’s ambassador said during the meeting that his country “respects Myanmar’s independence and sovereignty and we don’t want to interfere in its domestic affairs”, *according to Kyaw Tint Swe. The ambassador added that the Myanmar government’s response to date had been “consistent with the law” and took into account human rights standards, the acting foreign minister said.
> 
> *The Malaysian and Brunei ambassadors had given similar assurances, Kyaw Tint Swe said.*
> Foreign ministry permanent secretary U Kyaw Zeya said Bangladesh had also pledged to full cooperate with Myanmar as the government continues its investigation into the attacks.
> 
> Bangladesh has already detained two suspected militants and returned them to Myanmar for interrogation.
> 
> “Bangladesh said that they would fully collaborate with us if we demanded facts and information about the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) from them,” Kyaw Zeya said.
> 
> The meeting with the ambassadors came as the military and police continued clearance operations to ensure security in Maungdaw Township, which borders Bangladesh and is estimated to be 90 percent Muslim.
> 
> Nine police and five members of the Tatmadaw, which was sent in to ensure security in the township, have been killed, along with 29 suspected militants.
> 
> The government said in an October 14 statement that the militants were members of a Maungdaw-based organisation, Aqa Mul Mujahidin, that had links to the RSO in Bangladesh and Taliban in Pakistan.
> 
> Military officials said the situation was now stable, although there was still sporadic violence.
> 
> “Although there are sometimes small engagements, there are no more attacks at the main military camps, towns and villages, so we can say that the situation is under control in relation to ensuring security of our territory,” said Major Gen Aung Soe, the deputy minister for home affairs.
> 
> He said that a major focus of the response to the attacks was to ensure there were no outbreaks of racial or religious-based violence.
> 
> Twenty-seven suspected militants have been detained and are being investigated “according to the law”, he added. Two are being held in Sittwe, while the rest are in Maungdaw, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
> 
> According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Maungdaw District, which includes Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, has a population of about 800,000, of whom barely 100,000 are ethnic Rakhine.



 this is a nice way of asking MM not to target civilians when looking for armed group.

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## Nike

TopCat said:


> It could be small time issue for Indoneshia but not for MM, Malaysia, ,BD where close to million became stateless and it becomes a regular issue for around the world. It is more important than MM economy and milatary news and update thread. It even affected the far away country like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India.
> YOu think this is a small issue? In which world do you live in?



Many ASEAN countries (including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Philippine) currently facing a bigger issues with China in SCS in which can affect our territorial sovereignty and freedom of Navigation in trade and the rights for fishing in one of the most richest area for fishing grounds in which affects our daily life directly. 

Thats why many countries in ASEAN rapidly build up their military capability to give deterrence for the worst scenario ahead...


Meanwhile Rohingya issues is so much small times compared to what i mentioned above, no need for diplomatic complexity, no Major power involved, no much money being staked and no worries about full blown war involving modern armies with sophisticated technology

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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> It could be small time issue for* Indoneshia* but not for MM, Malaysia, ,BD where close to million* became stateless* and it becomes a regular issue for around the world. It is more important than MM economy and milatary news and update thread. It even affected the far away country like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India.
> YOu think this is a small issue? In which world do you live in?


that's not big issue..!! just spreading propaganda by western media.. and put them on the stage.. the land situation is much better then local ethic one... and they wont be stateless anyone... Gambia will accept them... 
*South-east Asia migrant crisis: Gambia offers to resettle all Rohingya refugees *
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...mbia-offers-to-resettle-all-rohingya-refugees
BTW not *Indoneshia*.. just Indonesia...

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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> that's not big issue..!! just spreading propaganda by western media.. and put them on the stage.. the land situation is much better then local ethic one... and they wont be stateless anyone... Gambia will accept them...
> *South-east Asia migrant crisis: Gambia offers to resettle all Rohingya refugees *
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...mbia-offers-to-resettle-all-rohingya-refugees
> BTW not *Indoneshia*.. just Indonesia...



That shows even Jungle Gambia have better humanity than you Burmese .



madokafc said:


> Many ASEAN countries (including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Philippine) currently facing a bigger issues with China in SCS in which can affect our territorial sovereignty and freedom of Navigation in trade and the rights for fishing in one of the most richest area for fishing grounds in which affects our daily life directly.
> 
> Thats why many countries in ASEAN rapidly build up their military capability to give deterrence for the worst scenario ahead...
> 
> 
> Meanwhile Rohingya issues is so much small times compared to what i mentioned above, no need for diplomatic complexity, no Major power involved, no much money being staked and no worries about full blown war involving modern armies with sophisticated technology



Well you have problem does not mean other will ignore their own problem. China affects your livelihood whereas MM affects Rohingyas life.

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## Nike

Aung Zaya said:


> that's not big issue..!! just spreading propaganda by western media.. and put them on the stage.. the land situation is much better then local ethic one... and they wont be stateless anyone... Gambia will accept them...
> *South-east Asia migrant crisis: Gambia offers to resettle all Rohingya refugees *
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...mbia-offers-to-resettle-all-rohingya-refugees
> BTW not *Indoneshia*.. just Indonesia...



Those liberal leftist scums singing the same songs, they criticizing everywhere even their own troops who fighting against Daesh in Iraq as human right abuser

@mike2000 is back



TopCat said:


> That shows even Jungle Gambia have better humanity than you Burmese .
> 
> 
> 
> Well you have problem does not mean other will ignore their own problem. China affects your livelihood whereas MM affects Rohingyas life.



Dont compare us to Rohingyas, we stood on our own feets and handle our problems without resorting to crying river of foul play

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## TopCat

madokafc said:


> Dont compare us to Rohingyas, we stood on our own feets and handle our problems without resorting to crying river of foul play



Leave it man.. I dont want to go back to history as its not going to serve any purpose.

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2


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## Aung Zaya

madokafc said:


> Those liberal leftist scums singing the same songs, they criticizing everywhere even their own troops who fighting against Daesh in Iraq as human right abuser


Yes..!! We're in strategy game between China and US.. China support northern rebels while western put them on stage as innocent stateless people..they want to make ready to enter using UN force and declaring us 'oppressing minorities ' if China do something special in northern.. like happened iraq..


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## TopCat

madokafc said:


> What kind of history ur people had? Even the Burmese had their glorious day



Sure we never unleashed genocide.

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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> Sure we never unleashed genocide.


population of people who got genocide is sharply increase every year...  what a funny..!!!

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1


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## alaungphaya

Heartening to see Ms. @madokafc see past petty religious differences. ASEAN strong!

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1


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## Sasquatch

To many insults,off topic, and flamebait posts in the thread. Will clean up and reopen. Keep the conversation civil otherwise you will be banned.

Reactions: Like Like:
1


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## Zabaniyah

KediKesenFare said:


> BD is a small country with over 170 m citizens. You guys need urgently more space to live in.
> 
> I mean, why don't you use the Rohinga issue as an opportunity to gain more land? You should 'liberate' west Birma and resettle over 50 m Bengals in this region. This would be a perfect solution for your overpopulation. Russia, Turkey, China and even smaller countries like Albania,Israel or Armenia used this strategy.



Thanks, but no thanks 



Hindustani78 said:


> Four men suspected of being involved in Sunday's attacks, two of whom were named as Andra Mular Kein and Mawlawi Fordita Laung by state media, were also captured on Tuesday.


 
Hey, nice Bengali-sounding names...

Not...

Reactions: Like Like:
1


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## Sine Nomine

Aung Zaya said:


> population of people who got genocide is sharply increase every year...  what a funny..!!!


Yup,i always wonder 45000 total regular troops can kill 13000 peoples a day,rape 2000 women a day,can fight 0.3 to 0.5 million muktis and 0.5 million troops simultaneously.


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## Gonjo

Aung Zaya said:


> Yes..!! We're in strategy game between China and US.. China support northern rebels while western put them on stage as innocent stateless people..they want to make ready to enter using UN force and declaring us 'oppressing minorities ' if China do something special in northern.. like happened iraq..



Time tells, you guys should forget the religious hatred and start working with Su Kyi to move forward towards modern world.


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## Banglar Bir

I DID IN THE OLD SITE.







*Tuhin Malik*
8 hrs · 





রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের ওপর গণহত্যার প্রতিবাদে ঢাকাস্থ মিয়ানমারের দূতাবাস ঘেরাও করা দরকার।

রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের গণহত্যার প্রতিবাদে বাংলাদেশসহ সকল মুসলিম দেশ, ওআইসি, আরবলীগের পক্ষ থেকে মিয়ানমারের সাথে সকলপ্রকার কূটনৈতিক ও বাণিজ্যিক সম্পর্কচ্ছেদের হুশিয়ারী দেয়া দরকার।

মুসলমানরা মিয়ানমারের মোট জনসংখ্যার এক ষষ্টমাংশ। মিয়ানমারে মুসলমানরা দ্বিতীয় বৃহত্তম ধর্মীয় জনগোষ্ঠী। মিয়ানমার সরকার আন্তর্জাতিক আইন, জাতিসংঘ সনদ এবং সার্বজনীন মানবাধিকারের ঘোষণাপত্রের চরমতম লংঘন করে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের উপর ব্যাপকভাবে গণহত্যা, গণধর্ষনসহ মসজিদ-মাদরাসা এবং মুসলমানদের সম্পত্তির ব্যাপক ক্ষয়ক্ষতি, অগ্নিসংযোগ ও লুটপাট চালিয়ে যাচ্ছে।

অবিলম্বে মিয়ানমারের রাষ্ট্রদূতকে আমাদের পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রনালয়ে তলব করে তীব্র প্রতিবাদ-নিন্দাজ্ঞাপন এবং রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের ওপর গণহত্যা বন্ধের আহ্বান জানানো উচিত।

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আমিই সেই ছেলে আপনারাই একটা ডাক দিয়ে দেখুন।
আমি নিশ্চিত লক্ষ মানুষ সাড়া দেবে
Like · Reply · 75 · 8 hrs
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Abdul Gafur অবশ্যই স্যার,এ প্রতিবাদ করা সকল মুসলমানের ঈমানী দায়িত্ব।
Like · Reply · 55 · 8 hrs
3 Replies · 3 hrs

Majharul Islam স্যার একটা তারিখ নির্ধারন করুন দূতাবাস ঘেরাও করার।
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Masud Rana মিয়ানমারের বৌদ্ধরা যদি হিন্দু এবং মন্দির পোড়াত, তবে এতক্ষণে দেখতেন হাসিনার মানবতার চেতনা চোখ দিয়ে ঝরে পড়ত। ফলাওভাবে দেশের সমস্ত চ্যানেল এই দৃশ্য প্রচার করত, যাতে ভারতীয় প্রভুরা হাসিনার এই ভণ্ডামি দেখতে পায়।
Like · Reply · 21 · 5 hrs



Source: Agencies

RELATED



Bangladesh's Rohingya refugees uneasy over census



Rohingya children in Malaysia, an undocumented life

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/...mar-crackdown-bangladesh-161117062551006.html

Al Jazeera Exclusive: Myanmar soldiers allegedly killed Rohingya villagers



*Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar crackdown to Bangladesh*
*Surge of violence underscores lack of oversight of the military by the seven-month-old Aung San Suu Kyi administration.*





The UN has labelled the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted peoples [Reuters]
Scores of Rohingya Muslims are fleeing to Bangladesh because of a military crackdown in western Myanmar, according to residents and Bangladeshi army officials.

Some of the Rohingya were shot as they tried to cross the Naaf River that separates Myanmar and Bangladesh, while others arriving by boat were pushed away by Bangladeshi border guards, residents quoted by Reuters news agency said on Wednesday.

A total number of 130 people have been killed in the latest surge of violence in the country, according to the Myanmar army.

Al Jazeera Exclusive: Myanmar soldiers allegedly killed Rohingya villagers


The bloodshed is the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine in 2012.

It has exposed the lack of oversight of the military by the seven-month-old administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers.

They have locked down the district, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya, shutting out aid workers and independent observers.

The army has intensified its operation in the last seven days and has used helicopters to reinforce, with dozens reported killed.

Aid workers, camp residents and authorities in Bangladesh estimated at least 500 Rohingya had fled Myanmar since the October attacks.

*Rohingya pushed back*
Bangladeshi border guards pushed back a large group of Rohingya trying to cross on Tuesday.

"Early Tuesday, 86 Rohingya including 40 women and 25 children were pushed back by the BGB [Border Guard Bangladesh] from the Teknaf border point," said Lieutenant-Colonel Anwarul Azim, commanding officer of the Cox's Bazar sector in eastern Bangladesh.

Reuters sources said the Rohingya group was unlikely to have gone back to the villages in Myanmar and might be stranded at sea.

*READ MORE: Who are Rohingya?*

Rohingya community leaders confirmed to AFP news agency on Tuesday that around 200 Rohingya Muslims were stranded at the Bangladesh border.

The UN has labelled the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted peoples.

They are branded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by Myanmar's majority Buddhist population despite their long roots in the country, where they face apartheid-like restrictions on movement and are denied citizenship.

But the Bangladeshi government also refuses to register the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living on its side of the border.






Source: Agencies


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## Banglar Bir

http://www.thestateless.com/2016/11/17/myanmar-bars-us-photographer-ahead-of-rohingya-show/

Myanmar bars US photographer ahead of Rohingya show
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By AFP

YANGON - Myanmar has blacklisted a prominent US photographer and prevented him from attending his own exhibition about stateless people, which would have featured pictures of the persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority.

...See more



Myanmar bars US photographer ahead of Rohingya show
By AFP YANGON – Myanmar has blacklisted a prominent US photographer and prevented him from attending his own exhibition about stateless people, which…
THESTATELESS.COM




Rohingya advocates say Myanmar deaths exceed 100
By Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Advocates for Myanmar’s Muslim ethnic Rohingya community said Wednesday that more than 100 members of the minority group have been killed in recent governme…
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Save
THESTATELESS.COM · 110 SHARES





Fresh attacks 'kill dozens' in campaign against Rohingya
YANGON - Myanmar's Rakhine state was hit by fresh waves of violence over the weekend with more than 30 "insurgents" killed during two days of fighting, the military said, as proof emerged of atrocities against villagers.
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BANGKOKPOST.COM · 3,155 SHARES





Petition: Suspend the Myanmar Ambassador for Genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
Yale's Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic analysed research conducted by Fortify Rights and Al Jazeera, to see if genocide had been committed as defined by the 1948 U.N. Clear evidence that four acts of the 1948 U.N. convention on genocide had been committed
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PETITION.PARLIAMENT.UK · 3,280 SHARES


----------



## Arthur

Sasquatch said:


> To many insults,off topic, and flamebait posts in the thread. Will clean up and reopen. Keep the conversation civil otherwise you will be banned.


Hello brother, can you merge these threads in this one too? Your action will be very much appreciated. Thank.


1) https://defence.pk/threads/eight-die-as-rakhine-militants-clash-with-myanmar-army.460822/

2) https://defence.pk/threads/myanmar-...-on-soldiers-actions-in-rakhine-state.459863/


3) https://defence.pk/threads/myanmar-army-forces-hundreds-of-rohingya-villagers-from-homes.457892/


4) https://defence.pk/threads/burma’s-rohingya-muslims-bangladesh-should-help-them.461311/


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## Banglar Bir

Rohingya advocates say Myanmar deaths exceed 100 
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Associated Press

http://www.thestateless.com/2016/11/16/rohingya-advocates-say-myanmar-deaths-exceed-100/

BANGKOK (AP) — Advocates for Myanmar's Muslim ethnic Rohingya community said Wednesday that more than 100 members of the minority group have been killed in recent government counterinsurgency sweeps in the western state of Rakhine.

...See more



Rohingya advocates say Myanmar deaths exceed 100
By Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Advocates for Myanmar’s Muslim ethnic Rohingya community said Wednesday that more than 100 members of the minority group have been killed in recent governme…
THESTATELESS.COM





http://www.thestateless.com/2016/11/16/hundreds-of-rohingya-flee-myanmar-army-crackdown/
*The Stateless Rohingya*
53 mins · 


Hundreds of Rohingya flee Myanmar army crackdown 
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Serajul Quadir and Wa Lone, Reuters

DHAKA/SITTWE, Myanmar, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are fleeing a military crackdown in western Myanmar to Bangladesh, trying to escape an upsurge of violence that has brought the total number of dead confirmed by the army to more than 130.

...See more



Hundreds of Rohingya flee Myanmar army crackdown
By Serajul Quadir and Wa Lone, Reuters By Serajul Quadir and Wa Lone DHAKA/SITTWE, Myanmar, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are fleeing a military crackdown in western Myanmar…
THESTATELESS.COM


----------



## Banglar Bir

*London Muslims*
20 hrs · 


At least 60 killed as rockets rain down on Rohingyas, children thrown into fire in front of mothers




At least 60 killed as rockets rain down on Rohingyas, children thrown into fire in front of mothers
About Myanmar, Rakhine State and Rohingya
MYANMAROBSERVER.COM|BY EDITOR
http://www.myanmarobserver.com/inde...ire-in-front-of-mothers#.WCi7oexe8jM.facebook
ROHINGYA NEWS 2 days ago
*At least 60 killed as rockets rain down on Rohingyas, children thrown into fire in front of mothers*

November 13, 2016

At least sixty people, including children and women are feared dead as Tatmadaw fired on entire village tracts with rockets, with the death toll likely to rise.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, Tatmadaw surrounded the village tracts of Sau Raw Gazi Bil and Bor Gazi Bil. At around 6.30am, they started firing from rocket launchers targeting the houses of Rohingya Muslims in the area. When the occupants of the village started fleeing, they continued firing from rockets and heavy machine guns, mowing down civilians indiscriminately.

Multiple members of the same family have been confirmed dead in the ongoing assault.

In some cases, when rockets missed a house, the Tatmadaw followed up with similar shots ensuring anything they targeted was hit. Multiple eyewitness told our correspondent that men, women and children fell as they ran from the hail of rocket fire. Many others had perished inside their houses.

Neighbours of a deceased man told our correspondent that one Shah Alam (s/o Syed Ahmed) was killed inside his house along with his wife and son when it was hit with a rocket. Four members died from the family of Abdu Shukur (s/o Abu Hossain) when they had run out of their houses and tried to escape along with other villagers, say his neighbours.

Many were also killed when military gunboats fired on fleeing civilians as they were trying to escape Sau Raw Gazi Bil.

The situation remains tense as helicopters circling overhead amid a huge Tatmadaw presence with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.

Attacks have also continued in Sa Li Frang where earlier on Saturday, the Tatmadaw admitted to using helicopter gunships. We are unable at this moment to gather details on the situation in Sa Li Frang on Sunday. However, the earlier reported death toll of 12 killed from air strikes has increased. There are also reports that rockets have been fired into the area at around 10 am.

*Fleeing villagers forced to return home before being killed, at least 22 died in overnight attack*

Villagers from Sau Raw Gazi Bil say although they had escaped to the surrounding paddy villages the previous night, they were forced to return after soldiers opened fire on them there, killing at least 22 people. Following the incident, many Rohingyas returned home as the Tatmadaw had warned anyone found outside will be killed.

During the night raid, many Rohingyas tried to escape by jumping into the water but Tatmadaw made sure they were hit with gunfire. The actual death toll might be higher as many of the corpses could not be pulled out of the water.

Video clips from the site showed crying Rohingya mothers standing over the bodies of little children killed by the army.

However, the overnight warning was just a ploy by the Tatmadaw to gather civilians in their village tracts before levelling the area with rockets.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, the Tatmadaw had fired from helicopters forcing villagers to leave their homes.

*Two babies thrown into fire in Ra Bai La*

Tatmadaw soldiers charged into Ra Bai La where they fell upon villagers who did not manage to flee the area. Arifa Begum (d/o Oli Hossain) told our sources her baby was thrown into the fire, as her house was burned. Our correspondent says at least one more infant child was thrown into the fire after being grabbed from the mother.

One source said a third child might also have been thrown into the fire.

Tatmadaw set fire on houses and looted valuables during the raid. The entire village tract is on the run. The southern areas of the village have been entirely destroyed in the fire.

*Zun Bai Na razed to the ground*

A huge part of Zun Bai Na has been destroyed after Tatmadaw hit Rohingya houses with rockets. The village tract has only a few hundred Rohingyas left, but Tatmadaw fired with rockets indiscriminately destroying around 25 houses in the area. Multiple casualties are feared.

*Wabeik hit with rockets*

Multiple casualties are feared in Wabeik after Tatmadaw fired on the restive neighbourhood in Kawa Bil on Sunday morning. Previous raids in the area have killed many civilians with Hlun Htein forcing thousands to evacuate the area.

*Imminent crackdown in Bali Bazar*

Soldiers intensified their presence in Bali Bazar from Sunday afternoon and began firing into the air. At around 2.30 pm, helicopters appeared in the air. Terror has pervaded the area as locals fear the army is preparing to attack the village.

*Women sexually assaulted in Hainda para*

Tatmadaw sexually assaulted Rohingya women after entering the restive village tract on Sunday by touching their private parts and passing lewd comments. The area has remained restive since army killed many people during the first week of the ongoing crackdown.

There are also reports of an army attack in Hayong Hali and Kuwa Bil.





Hits: 6568



Myanmar's Buddhist Appeals to Fellow People: End Genocide of Muslim Rohingyas
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Dr. Maung Zarni

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Government continues with the military's decades' old genocidal policies against the Rohingya. The predominantly Buddhist society need to intervene and end it lest they want to go down in history as a Buddhist Nazi Country.





Former U.N. chief ‘deeply concerned’ as Myanmar violence toll jumps
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Antoni Slodkowski, Reuters

"I wish to express my deep concern over the recent violence in northern Rakhine State, which is plunging the state into renewed instability and creating new displacement," said former UN Secretary General Annan in a statement.

...See more

http://www.thestateless.com/2016/11...ply-concerned-as-myanmar-violence-toll-jumps/



Former U.N. chief ‘deeply concerned’ as Myanmar violence toll jumps
By Antoni Slodkowski, Reuters Up to 69 members of what Myanmar’s government has described as a Rohingya Muslim militant group and 17 members of the…
THESTATELESS.COM

*US urges Myanmar to prevent violence in Rakhine*
*70 Rohingya Muslims killed in past week in worst violence since 2012*
*http://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/us-urges-myanmar-to-prevent-violence-in-rakhine-2565016*
Editör / Internet09:36 Kasım 16, 2016Anadolu Agency

Along with the Rohingya Muslims killed in the northern state during the past week, 10 policemen and seven soldiers were also killed in clashes, according to the army.

The bloodshed is considered the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012.

For years, members of the minority have been using Thailand as a transit point to enter Muslim Malaysia and beyond.

A law passed in Myanmar in 1982 denied Rohingya -- many of whom have lived in Myanmar for generations -- citizenship, making them stateless, removing their freedom of movement, access to education and services, and allowing for arbitrary confiscation of property.





*Myanmar: 'Credible' probe demanded into Rakhine deaths*
Top diplomats and a United Nations official returning from Rakhine State have called for a credible probe into last month's fatal attacks in the area, along with allegations that Myanmar soldiers killed and raped Rohingya.Since armed individuals killed nine police officers Oct. 9, reporting on the deaths and a subsequent hunt for the attackers has been called into question, with accusations levelled that both pro-and anti-Rohingya groups are using the attacks for political gain. On Friday, Renata Lok-Dessallien, the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, told a press briefing in commercial capital Yangon that a probe independent of political pressure was needed.“We are not there to investigate," she said of a UN-led 10-member delegation, which has been visiting Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships -- two areas that have been under military lockdown since the attacks. "The visit is just the first step towards broader access. For a clear picture of the situation in the area, we urge the government to launch credible and independent investigations into the attacks and consequences."Lok-Dessallien added that authorities had assured that aid would resume in townships occupied predominantly by displaced Muslim Rohingya in “one or two days".Since the Oct. 9 attacks -- in which armed individuals also stole weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition from on targeted police station outposts -- a military operation in pursuit of culprits has seen at least 29 suspected attackers (including two women) killed along with five soldiers. On Monday, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee said in a statement that even though a probe has been called for into the violence, the attacks continue.“State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has rightly called for proper investigations to be conducted and for no one to be accused until solid evidence is obtained," Lee said."Instead, we receive repeated allegations of arbitrary arrests as well as extrajudicial killings occurring within the context of the security operations conducted by the authorities in search of the alleged attackers."On Thursday evening -- around an hour after the diplomats (from the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and China) left the area -- a new attack was reported to have taken place on a police station outpost.“The death of 15 government troops is a big problem, and we are concerned about the attack yesterday," the EU ambassador to Myanmar, Roland Kobi, said FridayState-run newspapers reported that attackers on three motorcycles shot the two guards with small weapons fire.“One police officer died of his wounds and the other one was slightly injured," the report said. The UN Special Rapporteur has underlined that a major problem in ascertaining the true picture has been the lack of access for a proper assessment."The blanket security operations have restricted access for humanitarian actors with concerning consequences for communities' ability to secure food and conduct livelihood activities."On Tuesday, the Burma Human Rights Network reported that reports were emerging of soldiers raping Rohingya women."At least ten cases of rape against Rohingya women have been documented by civilians in Maungdaw since the army entered the city," Executive Director Kyaw Win said in a statement."These reports, while difficult to independently verify, contain strong evidence and beg for further investigation."On Thursday, a reporter at Myanmar Times was sacked for an article on the alleged rapes, citing Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project -- an NGO that monitors the plight of the Rohingya. The deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch suggested government involvement, calling the dismissal "a new low" in an email to Anadolu Agency on Friday."What are they trying to hide?" Phil Robertson asked."Rather than trying to shut down reports that it doesn't like, the government should respect press freedom and permit journalists to do their jobs by investigating what is really happening on the ground."


----------



## Banglar Bir

*London Muslims*
20 hrs · 


At least 60 killed as rockets rain down on Rohingyas, children thrown into fire in front of mothers




At least 60 killed as rockets rain down on Rohingyas, children thrown into fire in front of mothers
About Myanmar, Rakhine State and Rohingya
MYANMAROBSERVER.COM|BY EDITOR
http://www.myanmarobserver.com/inde...ire-in-front-of-mothers#.WCi7oexe8jM.facebook
ROHINGYA NEWS 2 days ago
*At least 60 killed as rockets rain down on Rohingyas, children thrown into fire in front of mothers*

November 13, 2016

At least sixty people, including children and women are feared dead as Tatmadaw fired on entire village tracts with rockets, with the death toll likely to rise.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, Tatmadaw surrounded the village tracts of Sau Raw Gazi Bil and Bor Gazi Bil. At around 6.30am, they started firing from rocket launchers targeting the houses of Rohingya Muslims in the area. When the occupants of the village started fleeing, they continued firing from rockets and heavy machine guns, mowing down civilians indiscriminately.

Multiple members of the same family have been confirmed dead in the ongoing assault.

In some cases, when rockets missed a house, the Tatmadaw followed up with similar shots ensuring anything they targeted was hit. Multiple eyewitness told our correspondent that men, women and children fell as they ran from the hail of rocket fire. Many others had perished inside their houses.

Neighbours of a deceased man told our correspondent that one Shah Alam (s/o Syed Ahmed) was killed inside his house along with his wife and son when it was hit with a rocket. Four members died from the family of Abdu Shukur (s/o Abu Hossain) when they had run out of their houses and tried to escape along with other villagers, say his neighbours.

Many were also killed when military gunboats fired on fleeing civilians as they were trying to escape Sau Raw Gazi Bil.

The situation remains tense as helicopters circling overhead amid a huge Tatmadaw presence with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.

Attacks have also continued in Sa Li Frang where earlier on Saturday, the Tatmadaw admitted to using helicopter gunships. We are unable at this moment to gather details on the situation in Sa Li Frang on Sunday. However, the earlier reported death toll of 12 killed from air strikes has increased. There are also reports that rockets have been fired into the area at around 10 am.

*Fleeing villagers forced to return home before being killed, at least 22 died in overnight attack*

Villagers from Sau Raw Gazi Bil say although they had escaped to the surrounding paddy villages the previous night, they were forced to return after soldiers opened fire on them there, killing at least 22 people. Following the incident, many Rohingyas returned home as the Tatmadaw had warned anyone found outside will be killed.

During the night raid, many Rohingyas tried to escape by jumping into the water but Tatmadaw made sure they were hit with gunfire. The actual death toll might be higher as many of the corpses could not be pulled out of the water.

Video clips from the site showed crying Rohingya mothers standing over the bodies of little children killed by the army.

However, the overnight warning was just a ploy by the Tatmadaw to gather civilians in their village tracts before levelling the area with rockets.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, the Tatmadaw had fired from helicopters forcing villagers to leave their homes.

*Two babies thrown into fire in Ra Bai La*

Tatmadaw soldiers charged into Ra Bai La where they fell upon villagers who did not manage to flee the area. Arifa Begum (d/o Oli Hossain) told our sources her baby was thrown into the fire, as her house was burned. Our correspondent says at least one more infant child was thrown into the fire after being grabbed from the mother.

One source said a third child might also have been thrown into the fire.

Tatmadaw set fire on houses and looted valuables during the raid. The entire village tract is on the run. The southern areas of the village have been entirely destroyed in the fire.

*Zun Bai Na razed to the ground*

A huge part of Zun Bai Na has been destroyed after Tatmadaw hit Rohingya houses with rockets. The village tract has only a few hundred Rohingyas left, but Tatmadaw fired with rockets indiscriminately destroying around 25 houses in the area. Multiple casualties are feared.

*Wabeik hit with rockets*

Multiple casualties are feared in Wabeik after Tatmadaw fired on the restive neighbourhood in Kawa Bil on Sunday morning. Previous raids in the area have killed many civilians with Hlun Htein forcing thousands to evacuate the area.

*Imminent crackdown in Bali Bazar*

Soldiers intensified their presence in Bali Bazar from Sunday afternoon and began firing into the air. At around 2.30 pm, helicopters appeared in the air. Terror has pervaded the area as locals fear the army is preparing to attack the village.

*Women sexually assaulted in Hainda para*

Tatmadaw sexually assaulted Rohingya women after entering the restive village tract on Sunday by touching their private parts and passing lewd comments. The area has remained restive since army killed many people during the first week of the ongoing crackdown.

There are also reports of an army attack in Hayong Hali and Kuwa Bil.





Hits: 6568


Myanmar's Buddhist Appeals to Fellow People: End Genocide of Muslim Rohingyas
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By Dr. Maung Zarni

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Government continues with the military's decades' old genocidal policies against the Rohingya. The predominantly Buddhist society need to intervene and end it lest they want to go down in history as a Buddhist Nazi Country.



Former U.N. chief ‘deeply concerned’ as Myanmar violence toll jumps
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By Antoni Slodkowski, Reuters

"I wish to express my deep concern over the recent violence in northern Rakhine State, which is plunging the state into renewed instability and creating new displacement," said former UN Secretary General Annan in a statement.

...See more

http://www.thestateless.com/2016/11...ply-concerned-as-myanmar-violence-toll-jumps/



Former U.N. chief ‘deeply concerned’ as Myanmar violence toll jumps
By Antoni Slodkowski, Reuters Up to 69 members of what Myanmar’s government has described as a Rohingya Muslim militant group and 17 members of the…
THESTATELESS.COM

*US urges Myanmar to prevent violence in Rakhine*
*70 Rohingya Muslims killed in past week in worst violence since 2012*
*http://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/us-urges-myanmar-to-prevent-violence-in-rakhine-2565016*
Editör / Internet09:36 Kasım 16, 2016Anadolu Agency

Along with the Rohingya Muslims killed in the northern state during the past week, 10 policemen and seven soldiers were also killed in clashes, according to the army.

The bloodshed is considered the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012.

For years, members of the minority have been using Thailand as a transit point to enter Muslim Malaysia and beyond.

A law passed in Myanmar in 1982 denied Rohingya -- many of whom have lived in Myanmar for generations -- citizenship, making them stateless, removing their freedom of movement, access to education and services, and allowing for arbitrary confiscation of property.





*Myanmar: 'Credible' probe demanded into Rakhine deaths*
Top diplomats and a United Nations official returning from Rakhine State have called for a credible probe into last month's fatal attacks in the area, along with allegations that Myanmar soldiers killed and raped Rohingya.Since armed individuals killed nine police officers Oct. 9, reporting on the deaths and a subsequent hunt for the attackers has been called into question, with accusations levelled that both pro-and anti-Rohingya groups are using the attacks for political gain. On Friday, Renata Lok-Dessallien, the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, told a press briefing in commercial capital Yangon that a probe independent of political pressure was needed.“We are not there to investigate," she said of a UN-led 10-member delegation, which has been visiting Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships -- two areas that have been under military lockdown since the attacks. "The visit is just the first step towards broader access. For a clear picture of the situation in the area, we urge the government to launch credible and independent investigations into the attacks and consequences."Lok-Dessallien added that authorities had assured that aid would resume in townships occupied predominantly by displaced Muslim Rohingya in “one or two days".Since the Oct. 9 attacks -- in which armed individuals also stole weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition from on targeted police station outposts -- a military operation in pursuit of culprits has seen at least 29 suspected attackers (including two women) killed along with five soldiers. On Monday, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee said in a statement that even though a probe has been called for into the violence, the attacks continue.“State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has rightly called for proper investigations to be conducted and for no one to be accused until solid evidence is obtained," Lee said."Instead, we receive repeated allegations of arbitrary arrests as well as extrajudicial killings occurring within the context of the security operations conducted by the authorities in search of the alleged attackers."On Thursday evening -- around an hour after the diplomats (from the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and China) left the area -- a new attack was reported to have taken place on a police station outpost.“The death of 15 government troops is a big problem, and we are concerned about the attack yesterday," the EU ambassador to Myanmar, Roland Kobi, said FridayState-run newspapers reported that attackers on three motorcycles shot the two guards with small weapons fire.“One police officer died of his wounds and the other one was slightly injured," the report said. The UN Special Rapporteur has underlined that a major problem in ascertaining the true picture has been the lack of access for a proper assessment."The blanket security operations have restricted access for humanitarian actors with concerning consequences for communities' ability to secure food and conduct livelihood activities."On Tuesday, the Burma Human Rights Network reported that reports were emerging of soldiers raping Rohingya women."At least ten cases of rape against Rohingya women have been documented by civilians in Maungdaw since the army entered the city," Executive Director Kyaw Win said in a statement."These reports, while difficult to independently verify, contain strong evidence and beg for further investigation."On Thursday, a reporter at Myanmar Times was sacked for an article on the alleged rapes, citing Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project -- an NGO that monitors the plight of the Rohingya. The deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch suggested government involvement, calling the dismissal "a new low" in an email to Anadolu Agency on Friday."What are they trying to hide?" Phil Robertson asked."Rather than trying to shut down reports that it doesn't like, the government should respect press freedom and permit journalists to do their jobs by investigating what is really happening on the ground."

*Myanmar army kills 30 Rohingyas*
Reuters | Update:
http://en.prothom-alo.com/international/news/129083/Myanmar-army-kills-30-Rohingyas 17:24, Nov 14, 2016






Myanmar’s military has killed about 30 members of what it has described as a Rohingya Muslim militant group, state media said on Monday, marking the largest escalation of the conflict since fighting erupted in the northwest a month ago.
The weekend’s killings in restive Rakhine state have essentially destroyed any hopes for a swift resolution to the fighting and a gradual restoration of communal ties, observers and diplomats say.
Soldiers have poured into the Maungdaw area along Myanmar’s frontier with Bangladesh in the north of Rakhine, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on 9 October in which nine police officers were killed.
Security forces have locked down the area, where the vast majority are Rohingya Muslims — shutting out aid workers and independent observers — and conducted sweeps of villages.
Skirmishes took place throughout the weekend with state media reporting casualties sustained both on Saturday and Sunday. The total death toll from the weekend was unclear, but included at least 28 alleged attackers and two soldiers.
This has increased the number of casualties since Oct.9 to more than 60 for the suspected Rohingya Muslim attackers and 17 for the security forces, according to a Reuters estimate based on reports by state-owned media.
The violence is the most serious to hit Rakhine since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in 2012.
Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are the majority in northern Rakhine but they are denied citizenship, with many Buddhists regarding them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. They face severe travel restrictions.
Residents and human rights advocates have accused security forces of summary executions, rapes and setting fire to homes in the recent violence.
Satellite images showed a widespread destruction of Rohingya villages, including some 430 homes that have been burnt down, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday, adding the destruction was worse than initially feared.
The government and the army reject the accusations, saying they were conducting ‘clearance operation’ in the villages in accordance with the rule of law. They have blamed the ‘violent attackers’ for setting fires to homes.
On Sunday, the military killed at least 19 people after coming under attack from a group wielding machetes and wooden clubs, the state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar said.
On Saturday, the army killed six people and called in helicopters to reinforce, the paper said.
Three more bodies of suspected attackers were found ‘in the aftermath of the clearance operation’, it said.
Rohingya rights advocates have spread online video clips showing what they claimed were civilian casualties of the attacks, calling on the international community to investigate.
Because access for independent journalists to the area has been cut, Reuters could not independently verify either the government accounts or the video clips.

*Muslim influence in the kingdom of Arakan*
Friday, 13 January 2012 14:36 
http://www.rohingya.org/portal/inde...uslim-influence-in-the-kingdom-of-arakan.html
14 November 2011

Muslim Arakanese or Rohingya are indigenous to Arakan. Having genealogical linkup with the people of Wesali or Vesali kingdom of Arakan, the Rohingya of today are a perfect example of its ancient inhabitants.

The early people in Arakan were descended from Aryans. They were Indians resembling the people of Bengal. "The area now known as North Arakan had been for many years before the 8th century the seat of Hindu dynasties. In 788 A.D. a new dynasty, known as the Chandras, founded the city of Wesali; this city became a noted trade port to which as many as a thousand ships came annually;… their territory extended as far north as Chittagong; …Wesali was an easterly Hindu kingdom of Bengal following the Mahayanist form of Buddhism and that both government and people were Indian..”[1]

The Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century AD.[2] The Rakhines were the last significant group to come to Arakan.[3] They appear to have been an advance guard of Burmans who began to cross the Arakan Yoma in ninth century.[4] And they “could not be genealogically the same as to the people of Dannya Waddy and Wethali dynasties.”[5] In old Burmese the name Rakhine first appeared in slave names in the inscriptions of 12th century. [6] Dr. S.B. Kanango, said the name Rakhine was given by Burman and it was found in 12th to 15th century stone inscriptions of Tuparon, Sagaing. In early days not a single inscription was found in present day speaking Rakhine language. “The scripture of those early days found in Arakan indicate that they were in early Bengali script and thence the culture there also was Bengali.”[7] Hence earlier dynasties are thought to have been Indians, ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal”[8]

But in medieval times there was a reorientation eastward; the area fell under Pagan’s dominance, and Arakanese people began to speak a dialect of Burmese, something that continues to this day. With Burmese influence came ties to Ceylon and the gradual prominence of Theravada Buddhism.[9]

Arabs were the earliest people to travel to the east by sea. They were in contact with Arakan even during the pre-Islamic days. The Arakanese first received the message of Islam from the ship wracked Arabs in 788 A.D. Such ship-wrecks were occurred over and over in the coasts of Arakan and Chittagong.

This Arab presence, with the message of Islam, made up the nucleus of Muslim society in Arakan. Thus in Wesali the Arakanese practised Hinduism, Mahayanist form of Buddhism and Islam. The Burmese military regime affirmed in its official book Sasana Ronwas Htunzepho, published in 1997, “Islam spread and deeply rooted in Arakan since 8th century from where it further spread into interior Burma”. Meanwhile, “the Arab influence increased to such a large extent in Chittagong during mid 10thcentury AD that a small Muslim kingdom was established in this region, and the ruler of the kingdom was called Sultan. Possibly the area from the east bank of the Meghna River to the Naf was under this Sultan.”[10]

Islam developed slowly but surely in natural way. After the advent of Muslim rule in Bengal in 1203, the Muslim population of Arakan increased. Their number grew fast during the Mrauk-U dynasty. There was large scale conversion of Buddhists to Islam during 15th to 18thcenturies. When the Dutch industrialists were ordered by the king to quit Arakan they were afraid of leaving behind their offspring through local wives for fear of their conversion to Islam. “It had been reported at Batavia that these children were being brought up as Muslims, and the pious Dutch Calvinists were extremely horrified”[11]

The relations between Arakan and Chittagong were based on historical, geo-political and ethnological considerations. “The Chittagong region was under the Vesali kingdom of Arakan during the 6th to 8th centuries and under the Mrauk U kingdom of Arakan in the 16th and 17th centuries.”[12] Because of the political, cultural and commercial links between those two territories, Arakan used to be called ‘extended Chittagong’[13].

The 15th century was a great turning point in the history of Arakan; during this time a large contingent of Muslims entered Arakan from Bengal and they went there by invitation of the ruling princes. The cause was political.[14] Here the history of Arakan intersects with the history of India and especially with Bengal. An age old intercourse between Bengal and Arakan has left distinctive marks on various aspects of society, culture and administration of both countries. The Muslims were an integral part in the political entity of Arakan. They were rulers, administrators andkingmakers in Arakan for more than 350 years. 

In 1430, after nearly three decades in exile in the Bengali Royal city of Gaur, king Narameikhla also known as Min Saw Mun (1404-1434) returned to Arakan at the head of a formidable force largely made up of Afghan adventurers, who swiftly overcame local oppositions and drove off the Burmans and Mons. This was the start of a new golden age for this country – a period of power and prosperity – and creation of a remarkably hybrid Buddhist- Islamic court, fusing tradition from Persia and India as well as the Buddhist worlds to the east. …This cosmopolitan court became great patrons of Bengali as well as Arakanese literature. Poet Dulat Qazi, author of the first Bengali romance, and Shah Alaol, who was considered the greatest of seventeenth-century Bengali poets, were among the eminent courtiers of Arakan. Mrauk-U kings adopted Muslim titles, appeared in Persian-inspired dress and the conical hats of Isfahan and Mughal Delhi, minted coins and medallions inscribing kalima (Islamic declaration of faith) in Persian and Arabic scripts, spoke several languages.

It was Bengal King Sultan Jalal Uddin (1415-1433 AD) of Gaur, a Hindu convert Muslim who helped Rakhine King Narameit Hla with a strong Muslim force to restore him to his throne in Arakan. “Why Muslim army? Because there virtually was no Rakhaing of prime age left to be soldiers”.[15] So the Muslims were the backbone of the defence “He (Narameikhla) spoke Persian, Hindi, and Bengali on the top of his mother tongue Rakhaing.” [16]

The Arakanese Kings nurtured sincere admiration towards the Muslim communities. “For this reason they entrusted the chief administrative posts of government department including that of the defence to the Muslims.”[17] Burhanuddin, Ashraf Khan, Sri Bara Thakur were distinguished Lashkar Wazirs (Defence or War Ministers); Magan Thakur, Syyid Musa, NavarajMajlis were efficient Prime Ministers; and Syyid Muhammad Khan , Srimanta Sulaiman were capable ministers in Arakan. There were lots of other Muslim ministers, high civil and military officers. They contributed a great deal to the growth of Islamic culture in Arakan.

From 1430 to 1645, for a period of more than two hundred years, the Arakanese kings took Muslim titles and used Muslim names in their coins. They followed Muslim traditions and culture at home, even when there were no good relations with Muslim Bengal. Arakan was turned into a sultanate. Col. Ba Shin, the then Chairman of the Burma Historical Commission states, “Arakan was virtually ruled by Muslim from 1430 to 1531.” [18] It was depicted as an Islamic State in the map of The Times Complete History of the World, showing cultural division of Southeast Asia (distribution of major religions) in 1500.(Edited by Richard Overy, Eighth edition 2010, page 148.)

In accordance with the Muslim tradition like Gaur and Delhi, the whole kingdom of Arakan was provided with the sets of officials by the imperial order. The head of officials was known as Qazi. Some of them were prominent in the history of Arakan. They are Daulat Qazi, Sala Qazi, Gawa Qazi, Shuza Qazi, Abdul Karim, Muhammad Hussain, Osman, Abdul Jabbar, Abdul Gafur, Mohammed Yousuf, Rawsan Ali and Nur Mohammed etc..[19] Gradually a mixed Muslim society and culture developed and flourished around the capital. [20]

This practice was prevalent among the Arakanese kings till the first half of seventeenth century. This was because they not only wished to be thought of as sultans in their own rights, but also because there were Muslims in ever larger number among their subjects. A.P. Phayre observes that the practice of assuming Muslim name and inscribing Kalima in their coins was probably first introduced in fulfilment of the promise made by Mung-Somwun but was continued in later time as a token of sovereignty over Chittagong.[21] He also mentions that “These they assumed as being successorsof Musalman kings, or as being anxious to imitate the prevailing fashion of India.”[22]

Panditta U Oo Tha Aung (Rakhine), honorary archaeological officer of Mrauk-U Museum writes: “Arakan remained vassalage of Gaur until 1531 A.D. In the time of ninth Mrauk-U king, Zeleta Saw Mun, three missionaries, Kadir, Musa and Hanu Meah from the country of Rum Pasha (Delhi Empire) came to Arakan to propagate their religion, Islam. They built mosques all over the country and preached their religion among the people daily. Some people believed in their faith and it spread all over the country. People converted in groups. They gave gifts to the kings and he was very friendly with them. The preachers brought later other ministers from Delhi and Kadir built a mosque at Baung Due, Mrauk-U and other preachers, too, built such mosques through out the country. Their religion flourished much.[23]

By 17th century, the Muslims entered Arakan in a big way on four different occasions; the Arabs in course of their trading activities including the ship wracked ones; the Muslim army, actually two big contingents, in course of restoring the King Saw Mun to Arakanese throne; the captive Muslims carried by pirates in the 16th-17th centuries, and the family retinue of Shah Shuja in 1660 A.D. Of them the army contingents who entered into Arakan with the restored King Min Saw Mun were numerically very great; they also influenced the Arakanese society and culture in a great manner. In the 17th century Muslims thronged the capital Mrohaung and they were present in the miniature courts of ministers and other great Muslim officers of the kingdom.”[24]

According to court poet Shah Aloal, “The Muslim population of Arakan consisted roughly of four categories, namely, the Bengalee, other Indian, Afro-Asian and native. Among these four categories of the Muslims the Bengalee Muslims formed the largest part of the total Muslim population of Arakan. The inflow of the captive Muslims from Lower Bengal contributed much to the ever-increasing Bengalee Muslims in the Arakanese kingdom.”[25]

Thus the Rohingya with bona fide historical roots in the region have evolved with distinct ethnic characteristics in Arakan from peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the past several centuries. Genealogically Rohingya are Indo-Aryan descendants. Genetically they are an ethnic mix of Bengalis, Indians, Moghuls, Pathans, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Moors and central Asians, and have developed a separate culture and a mixed language, which is absolutely unique to the region. “Dr. Swapna Bhattacharya called this mixed language “Rohingya Bengala”[26]

The picture of the Muslim influence on the King’s Court of Arakan portrayed in the Bengali literature has been presented below:[27]

[“The Arakanese kings could not be free from the influence of the Muslim civilization, politics and culture, which is superior to theirs…They entrusted the chief administrative posts of the government departments including that of the defence to the Muslims. “Lashkar Uzir” or “War Secretary” Asharaf khan was King’s trusted favourite person. The King felt relieved by entrusting all statecraft to him. The Queen also considered him to be more “worth and profoundly learned” than her own son…In fact he ran the country and was the supreme authority. ..Chief poets of the Roshang (Arakan) [when vacant] were not filled without the Muslims. The Muslims were without doubt skilled statesmanship. War Minister of Narapadigyi was Alaol’s first protector and Muslim, Magan Thakur’s father, “Sri Bara Takur”. During Sri Bara Takur’s lifetime, his son “Magan” was holding the post of a minister. King Narapadigyi trusted and loved Magan Takur so much that, at the hour of his death he left his only daughter under Magan’s custody. When this prince became the principal queen of Tado Mintar, she entrusted the Roshang King’s Chief Minister to Magan Thakur realizing the guardianship she enjoyed in childhood.”

“After the death of Thado Mintar, when his son Sandha-thu-dhamma (1652-1684) ascended the throne he had not acquired the skill to run the country yet. Therefore the minor King’s mother ruled as Regent by appointing Magan Thakur as the Chief Minister. After Magan Thakur, Solaiman – another Muslim – filled the position, that is, became the “Prime Minister” (chief counsellor/courtier of the highest rank) of Roshang King Sanda-thu-dhamma. The treasury and general administration of the country was entrusted to this Muslim Chief Minister. During Thanda-thu-dhamma’s rule the important posts of Roshang kingdom were given to the Muslims. Syed Muhammad was his “War Minister” (armed forces minister). Another Muslim named Majlis was “Navaraj” [Nawa-raja] was in the King’s Court. It seems that the civil and criminal courts were run by the Muslim Qazis [judges]. It is known that during that period a man by the name of Saud Shah was a Qazi of Roshang.”]

Followings are some of the developments that reflect Muslim’s influence in Arakan particularly during the glorious period of Mrauk-U dynasty (1430-1784).


1.The Mrauk-U dynasty was a new golden age of power and prosperity with hybrid Buddhist-Islamic court, fusing tradition from Persia and India as well as the Buddhist worlds to the east.
2.Muslim etiquettes andmanners, system of administration copying the imperial courts of Delhi and Guar had been practiced. Taslim or Muslim solution was performed in the king’s palace.
3.The Muslim played the phenomenal roleof kingmakers with Muslim Prime Ministers, Lashkar Wizirs (Defence Ministers), and Ministers, Qadis, other administrators and large contingents of Muslim army.
4.The kings had involuntarily as well as voluntarily to adopt Muslim names and titles “Shah” in addition to Buddhists names and titles. Mrauk-U kings appeared in Persian-inspired dress and the conical hats of Isfahan and Mughal Delhi.
5.Some aristocratic Buddhists, including members of the royal families and class of persons enjoying superior intellectual or social or economic status also willingly adopted Muslim names.
6.Muslim Qazi courts had been set up through out the kingdom.
7.Persian and Bengali languages were patronized and used as the official and court languages of Arakan.
8.Coins and medallions had been struck and issued inscribing “Kalema”, the profession of faith in Islam in Arabic.
9.The people followed the Muslim tradition at home. Buddhist women of those days practice “purda”.
10.Muslim missionary works hit the highest point. People converted into Islam in groups.
11.Muslims were in the control of trade and business. They were the main forces of agriculture. Particularly the alluvial rice-growing valleys of Kaladan River were populated by captives Muslims from
12.Minted coins and medallions inscribing kalima (Islamic declaration of faith) in Persian and Arabic scripts.


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## Banglar Bir

*The Stateless Rohingya*
8 hrs
· http://www.thestateless.com/2016/11/15/malaysia-begins-pilot-job-project-for-rohingya-refugees/
Malaysia begins pilot job project for Rohingya refugees 
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By P Prem Kumar, Anadolu Agency

Some 300 Rohingya to be allowed to work in plantation, manufacturing sectors under project whose outcome is to be assessed

...See more



Malaysia begins pilot job project for Rohingya refugees
By P Prem Kumar, Anadolu Agency Some 300 Rohingya to be allowed to work in plantation, manufacturing sectors under project whose outcome is to be assessed KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia’s government will al…
THESTATELESS.COM


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar army kills 25 in Rohingya villages*
14 November 2016




Image co
The Myanmar army launched attacks on Rohingya Muslim villages over the weekend (Photo from October)
The Myanmar army says it shot dead at least 25 people in Rohingya Muslim villages in restive Rakhine state on Sunday.

It said the people killed had been armed with machetes and wooden clubs.

On Saturday, the army launched attacks with helicopter gunships on Rohingya villages in Rakhine. Eight people, including two soldiers, died.

The attacks were "clearance operations" targeting armed militants, the army said.

Images and videos on social media showed women and children were among those killed.

Hundreds of villagers were forced to flee their homes over the weekend.

*Analysis by Jonah Fisher, BBC News, Yangon*



Image copyrightEPA
Image captionThe Rohingya population has been displaced ever since ethnic tension escalated in Myanmar
There's no independent media access to northern Rakhine State, so the official accounts must be read critically.

If you're to believe the army version you have to accept that Rohingya men armed only with "wooden clubs and machetes" would launch attacks on soldiers equipped with guns.

You also have to accept the idea that the Rohingya are setting fire to their own homes, making themselves intentionally homeless.

State media report that the Rohingya torched 130 homes on Sunday in order to "cause misunderstanding and tension" and get international aid.

There's a very different narrative on Rohingya social media. Again it should be viewed critically, in the past the Rohingya have exaggerated alleged atrocities.

The Rohingya images and videos from this last weekend show dead women and children and people fleeing burning homes. Helicopter gunships fly overhead. Some of it is certainly genuine.

The security forces in Rakhine are controlled by the army not the country's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the former Nobel peace prize winner is conspicuously silent. So far she's refused diplomats' demands for a credible independent investigation into events.

Rakhine has been under military lockdown since last month, after nine policemen were killed by insurgents in a series of attacks on border posts.





The state is home to more than a million Rohingya Muslims, who are not recognised as Myanmar citizens.

Tens of thousands are living in temporary camps, after being displaced during fighting with majority Buddhists in 2012 which left scores dead.

The Rohingya are disliked by many in Myanmar, who consider them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite many having lived in the country for generations.

Rights groups say the Rohingya population has been subject to severe restrictions on movement and are denied the most basic of human rights.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37970926

*Rohingyas from Myanmar army helicopter shot at*





14 Nov, 2016

http://www.bdface.net/newsdetail/detail/200/258023

Helicopter gunships from the Rohingya Muslim village opened fire event acknowledged Myanmar's government. According to state media, the armies of the two soldiers and six attackers were killed in an ambush in the helicopter were brought.

Several villages were burning in northern Rakhine state have reported. Human Rights Watch published the picture turns out, some villages were burned to ashes. The agency says at least 430 buildings were damaged. Rohingya activists say the government is trying to drive out the Muslim minority villages.


The BBC's Jonah Fisher says Myanmar, Yangon, is a popular choice among the army attacked the Rohingya. He said the country's Rohingya barmijadera Many people do not like, and see them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The government did not allow journalists to enter the Burmese state of Rakhine. As a result of the collision is not possible to verify independently. According to the official statement, a group of people on Saturday armies firearms, attacked with knives and spears. At one stage, about 500 people took a stand against the armies of the two helicopter gunships and troops to help the refugees from the village were shot.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, says the large-scale destruction of the new film is released; Which is much higher than previous concepts. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's government-led violence in search of the attackers are described as `oeration clearance.

Source: _Jago News_

Report
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*HUMANITARIAN CRISES*
*Exclusive: 'Strong evidence' of genocide in Myanmar*
*Al Jazeera investigation reveals government triggered deadly communal violence for political gain.*

Al Jazeera Investigative Unit | |


*More to this story*

Promoting the “Muslim threat” in Myanmar
Breaking down genocide in Myanmar
Genocide Agenda: Documents presented as evidence
Who are the Rohingya?
Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit has uncovered what amounts to "strong evidence" of a genocide coordinated by the Myanmar government against the Rohingya people, according to an assessment by Yale University Law School.

The Lowenstein Clinic spent eight months assessing evidence from Myanmar, including documents and testimony provided by Al Jazeera and the advocacy group Fortify Rights.

*More exclusive coverage by Al Jazeera investigating "strong evidence" of genocide in Myanmar can be found here: aljazeera.com/genocideagenda *

"Given the scale of the atrocities and the way that politicians talk about the Rohingya, we think it's hard to avoid a conclusion that intent [to commit genocide] is present," concluded the clinic.
Exclusive evidence obtained by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit and Fortify Rights reveals the government has been triggering communal violence for political gain by inciting anti-Muslim riots, using hate speech to stoke fear among the Myanmarese about Muslims, and offering money to hardline Buddhist groups who threw their support behind the leadership.

As the first fully contested general election in 25 years approaches on November 8, eyewitness and confidential documentary evidence obtained by Al Jazeera reveals that the ruling, military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has attempted to marginalise Muslims and target the Rohingya.

Al Jazeera has made several requests for comment to the Myanmar President's office and government spokespeople but has not received any response.

*Genocide Agenda*

The investigation, presented in a new documentary, _Genocide Agenda_, consults legal and diplomatic experts on whether the government's campaign amounts to systematic extermination.

The University of London's Professor Penny Green, director of the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) said: "President Thein Sein [of USDP] is prepared to use hate speech for the government's own ends, and that is to marginalise, segregate, diminish the Muslim population inside Burma.

"It's part of a genocidal process."

An independent report by the ISCI concluded that riots in 2012, which saw conflicts between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims erupt, were preplanned. The violence saw scores killed, and tens of thousands of people displaced after several thousand homes were burned.



"It wasn't communal violence," said Green. "It was planned violence. Express buses were organised" to bring Rakhine Buddhists from outlying areas to take part in the aggression.

"Refreshments, meals were provided," she said. "It had to be paid by somebody. All of this suggests that it was very carefully planned."

What Genocide Agenda reveals
• Evidence that Myanmar government agents have been involved in triggering anti-Muslim riots

• An official military document that uses hate speech and claims the Myanmarese are in danger of being 'devoured' by Muslims

• A confidential document warning of "nationwide communal riots" was deliberately sent to local townships to incite anti-Muslim fears

• A report by Yale Law School that concludes there is "strong evidence" genocide is taking place in Myanmar

• A former United Nations Rapporteur on Myanmar who says President Thein Sein should now be investigated for genocide

• Evidence that monks involved in the 2007 Saffron Revolution in that challenged military rule were offered money to join anti-Muslim, pro-government groups

• A report by the International State Crime Initiative at London University, which confirms that genocide is taking place. The team gathered independent evidence that riots in 2012 that left hundreds of Rohingya dead and over a hundred thousand homeless were preplanned

Former United Nations Rapporteur on Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana, meanwhile, called for President Thein Sein of the USDP and the ministers of home affairs and immigration to be investigated for genocide.

*Stirring hatred*

_Genocide Agenda_ presents evidence that Myanmar government agents were involved in sparking anti-Muslim riots.

An official military document, a copy of which has been obtained by Al Jazeera, shows the use of hate speech, claiming the Myanmarese are in danger of being "devoured" by Muslims.

Al Jazeera is releasing the documents with translations alongside the documentary.

The investigation also reveals how the government uses hired thugs to stir hatred.

A former member of Myanmar's feared Military Intelligence service described how she witnessed agent provocateurs from the army provoke problems with Muslims.

"The army controlled these events from behind the scenes. They were not directly involved," she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "They paid money to people from outside."

Among other findings is a confidential document warning of 'nationwide communal riots' that was deliberately sent to local townships to incite anti-Muslim fears.

Further evidence from and sources within the Sangha, or monkhood, reveals that monks who challenged military rule in the 2007 Saffron Revolution were offered money to join anti-Muslim, pro-government groups.

While there has been evidence that Myanmar's military rulers deliberately provoked communal unrest during the years of dictatorship, until now there has been no evidence that this continued after the transition towards a partial democracy.

Matt Smith, founder of the advocacy group Fortify Rights, said that taken as a whole, the evidence indicates this trend is resurfacing. 

"In the case of the Rohingya, in the case of Rakhine State, that could amount to the crime of genocide," Smith said. "Several of the most powerful people in the country should reasonably be the subject of an international investigation into this situation of Rakhine State."

*Disenfranchised Muslims*

In the November general election, the USDP is running against numerous ethnic and other parties, but primarily against the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

The vote is seen as a crucial next stage in steps towards full democracy.

Reform in Myanmar has been under way since 2010 when military rule was replaced by a military-backed civilian government.

But since the military junta stepped aside in 2011, hardline Buddhist groups have taken advantage of liberalisation to gain influence in the country's politics.

Muslim candidates have been largely excluded from the upcoming election, in what also appears to be an attempt to assuage hardliners.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were disenfranchised earlier this year when the government withdrew the temporary citizenship cards that allowed them to vote.

Source: Al Jazeera

Aung San Suu Kyi‘s government continued act of Terror on unarmed Rohingya civilians 
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Dr. Anita Schug, The Stateless (TSR) Article

Burma, a country of more than 135 ethnicities has been very repressive towards its people. Countless grave human atrocities take place on daily basis especially against it minority groups. Unfortunately, the Rohingya, a different ethno-religious group, being very distinct from rest of Burma, has been hit ...

http://www.thestateless.com/2016/11...-act-of-terror-on-unarmed-rohingya-civilians/


See more



Aung San Suu Kyi‘s government continued act of Terror on unarmed Rohingya civilians
By Dr. Anita Schug, The Stateless (TSR) Article Burma, a country of more than 135 ethnicities has been very repressive towards its people. Countless grave human…
THESTATELESS.COM


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## Banglar Bir

*Satellite images show Myanmar Rohingya villages torched*
*http://www.dhakatribune.com/uncateg...mages-show-myanmar-rohingya-villages-torched/*

Agence France-Presse
Published at 04:36 PM November 13, 2016



High-definition satellite imagery shows widespread fire-related destruction in ethnic Rohingya villages in Burma's Rakhine State. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
*Soldiers have killed several dozen people and arrested scores in their hunt for the attackers, who the government says are radicalised Rohingya militants with links to overseas Islamists*
Hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages in western Myanmar have been torched, according to new satellite images released on Sunday as fresh fighting flared in the strife-torn region.

Northern Rakhine, which is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority and borders Bangladesh, has been under military lockdown ever since surprise raids on border posts left nine police dead last month.

Soldiers have killed several dozen people and arrested scores in their hunt for the attackers, who the government says are radicalised Rohingya militants with links to overseas Islamists.





High-definition satellite imagery shows widespread fire-related destruction in ethnic Rohingya villages in Burma’s Rakhine State. *HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH*



Fresh fighting flared on Saturday with two soldiers and six attackers killed, according to the military who said they brought in helicopter gunships to repel an ambush.

The crisis and reports of grave rights abuses being carried out in tandem with the security crackdown have piled international pressure on Myanmar’s new civilian government and raised questions about its ability to control its military.

#Rohingya villagers are forced to leave homes at gunpoint in #YayKhaeChaungKhwaSone today early morning by #Myanmar Army & BGP. pic.twitter.com/bUYADARzgQ

— Ro Nay San Lwin (@nslwin) November 13, 2016



Authorities have heavily restricted access to the area, making it difficult to independently verify government reports or accusations of army abuse.

New satellite images released by Human Rights Watch show what the group said was evidence of mass arson attacks against Rohingya villages.

Their analysis showed more than 400 buildings torched in three Rohingya villages where the fighting has been taking place.

The group said active fires and burn scars showed that most of the destruction was caused by arson. The latest images were taken on 10 November.

Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director, said the new photos showed “widespread destruction” that was “greater than we first thought”.

#Myanmar: Conflict in Rakhine State putting children in grave danger – 1000s cut off from humanitarian assistance https://t.co/xjgJG4DTzQ

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) November 8, 2016



“Burmese authorities should promptly establish a UN-assisted investigation as a first step toward ensuring justice and security for the victims,” he said in a statement.

The resurgence of violence in western Rakhine has deepened and complicated a crisis that already posed a critical challenge to the new administration led by democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

The state has sizzled with religious tension ever since waves of violence between the majority Buddhist population and the Muslim Rohingya left more than 200 dead in 2012.





High-definition satellite imagery shows widespread fire-related destruction in ethnic Rohingya villages in Burma’s Rakhine State. *HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH*

More than 100,000 people, mostly Rohingya, were pushed into displacement camps by the bloodshed and have languished there ever since.

Rights groups say they face apartheid-like restrictions on movement and have repeatedly called on Suu Kyi to carve out a solution.

But Buddhist nationalists at home viciously oppose any move to grant them citizenship, claiming the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh despite their long roots in the country.

The military and government have rejected allegations that troops have burned Rohingya villages, accusing insurgents of lighting the fires.

#Myanmar army throwing #Rohingya Muslim children into the fire in front of their mothers! 



#Burma #Ummah



Syed Husnain Abbas Shah Why isn't the Muslim
Countries close by doing anything? This is disgusting and us Muslims need to be ashamed. If the military are too cowards to do anything then arm the civilians at least. Muslim armies are
Busy killing Muslims whereas the ones who need help are
Left helpless. Rely on Allah my brother and sisters because the ummah has no backbone left.
Like · Reply · 90 · 15 hrs
8 Replies · 9 hrs

Maherukh Bin Md Hasan Where r d champions of Democracy & Superpowers , who keep invading states for Democracy but silent in Myanmar Massacre issue...?
Where r International Organizations , Amnesty International , Red Cross Society which keeps talking about Human Rights but ...See more
Like · Reply · 29 · 15 hrs
4 Replies

Vikram Singh And the Arabs are building tall buildings. Hypocrites.
Like · Reply · 43 · 15 hrs12 Replies · 4 hrs

Aya Roybal So sickening, frightening and beyond evil! Why are the Muslim countries that are near by doing nothing to help?! This is unacceptable. No one should suffer like this. God help them.
Like · Reply · 10 · 12 hrs · Edited
Sana Tabikh This video is so disappointing to watch, innocent people are being murdered for their religion, that's pathetic and unacceptable in my eyes. I am disgusted and appalled by the Muslim leaders world wide not seeking justice for our Umma and seek to help ...See more
Like · Reply · 50 mins

Naj Khan Absolutely terrible, I can't believe we don't don't have the power to do anything and the ones that do just sit back and watch the horror show.. Such a shame




Like · Reply · 7 · 14 hrs


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## Major d1

Species said:


> @maroofz2000 @Major d1 please update this thread about Rohingyas
> 
> @waz @WAJsal @ahojunk @Shotgunner51 @Sasquatch can we have this thread sticky? Otherwise everyone will keep making numerous threads on this topic. We already have 3-4 such threads currently running in different sections.



I will try .

*



*


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## Banglar Bir

*Qamrul Islam*
3 hrs · Twitter · 





Retweeted Moe (@moethemyth):

Take back Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize! - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/ga7ndpMlii via @UKChange




Take back Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize!
[versi Bahasa Indonesia] “No one told me that I was to be interviewed by a muslim.” This statement was made by Aung San Suu Kyi, after her interview by a BBC Today anchor, Mishal Husain, in 2013. Suu Kyi’s disappointment may be caused…
CHANGE.ORG/P/TAKE-BACK-AU…


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## Riyad

I don't understand how are Rohingyas citizens of Bangladesh. They are living in Myanmar (Burma) for hundred of years. They are indigenous to Burma's Arakan. 

*Hundreds of Rohingya try to escape Myanmar crackdown*

16 November 2016
From the section Asia





Image caption Foreign journalists have not been allowed into the area to verify reports
*Hundreds of people from the Rohingya minority in Myanmar are trying to escape a military crackdown by crossing the border into Bangladesh.*

The people attempting to flee include children.

Witnesses and Bangladeshi officials say that some people trying to flee have been shot and killed.

At least 130 people have died during a military operation in Rakhine state, where many of the minority live, in just over a month.

Activists say hundreds of homes have been burnt to the ground but the government rejects that claim. Foreign reporters have not been allowed into the area.

*Rakhine is home to more than a million Rohingya Muslims, who are not recognised as Myanmar citizens. *

*People in the country tend to consider them illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.*

The state has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim populations following co-ordinated attacks last month that killed nine police officers, which police blamed on the Rohingya.






Since then, soldiers have closed down parts of Rakhine state and stopped aid workers and independent observers from entering.

The government says "violent attackers" and some members of the security forces have been killed.

Around 100,000 Rohingya people still live in camps after violence that flared up in 2012 forcing them to leave their homes.

Last year, images of hundreds of Rohingya people floating in fishing boats shocked the world. They were trying to escape by sea to Malaysia. Asian countries agreed to work together to try to stem the crisis.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38008151

https://www.quora.com/Why-cant-Burm...ims-as-its-citizens-and-stop-persecuting-them




Pyie Sone, A Burmese
Written 14 Jun

*“As a Burmese, I do not accept them as our race nor citizen.”*

Bluntly put,it’s Bangladesh’s problem not ours. Bangladesh is suffering from the tremendous side effects of over-population and climate changes. We can only accept them for temporary simply because Myanmar is a third world country. We are poor.

Some other FACTS for not accepting them as our citizens.

1) How can we accept someone who don’t even speak the national language(let alone the national anthem) as our citizen? They speak Bengalis , not even Arakan(the state where most of them are residing in) and yet they demand citizenship.

2) The word “Rohingya” did not exist in Myanmar’s history until the last four years,where the UN and OIC started to chant along with the Bengalis at the same time. What a coincidence.

3) We are persecuting Muslims? Kamein/Kamans are predominantly Muslims and yet,they are officially one of our ethnic tribes. I wonder how come they are able to live in peace until these so called “Rohingya” came along?

(will continue writing this tonight).


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## Kabira

Why Bangladesh doesn't accept their own kin back?

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## gayMo

I don't think illegal Bangladeshi is a shorthand. it is longer than the word rohingya muslim


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## Riyad

save_ghenda said:


> Why Bangladesh doesn't accept their own kin back?



They are living in Arakan since British colonial era. There was no Bangladesh back then. These people are responsibility of Myanmar, not Bangladesh.


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## TopCat

save_ghenda said:


> Why Bangladesh doesn't accept their own kin back?



Then that is end of Islam in Myanmar.
And who will pay for their property in Myanmar?


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## Species

There you go, another Rohingya thread, that too with a doctored title!

@waz @WAJsal please merge this to the sticky thread: https://defence.pk/threads/rohingya-issue-news-and-update-in-myanmar.455476/page-16


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## TopCat

Thanks for the sticky thread on this vital issue.

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## Arthur

Thanks moderators, for making this thread sticky.

We should follow it up and post here rather opening a new thread everytime. 

@BDforever @bd_4_ever @Bilal9 @Species @Doyalbaba @damiendehorn @TopCat @bluesky @~Phoenix~ @Riyad @Major d1 @Nabil365 @maroofz2000 &others

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## Milica

Riyad said:


>




Please look like normal human beings, not body bags.

Reactions: Negative Rating Negative Rating:
1


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## gayMo

The Muslims should try not to cause any unrest and live in peace. only then they will be a respected minority

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## Homo Sapiens

maroofz2000 said:


> *Qamrul Islam*
> 3 hrs · Twitter ·
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Retweeted Moe (@moethemyth):
> 
> Take back Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize! - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/ga7ndpMlii via @UKChange
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take back Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize!
> [versi Bahasa Indonesia] “No one told me that I was to be interviewed by a muslim.” This statement was made by Aung San Suu Kyi, after her interview by a BBC Today anchor, Mishal Husain, in 2013. Suu Kyi’s disappointment may be caused…
> CHANGE.ORG/P/TAKE-BACK-AU…


Aung san suu kyi is a hypocrite,plain and simple.She could not overcome her ethnic,religious or racial prejudice.Leveling this type of person as a humanitarian is an insult to the real humanitarian of this world.Her noble prize is another wastage like the one given to Barack Obama.

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## TopCat

I dont know man, last time I tried to make this thread sticky but faced stiff resistance form @madokafc and @alaungphaya



Doyalbaba said:


> Aung san suu kyi is a hypocrite,plain and simple.She could not overcome her ethnic,religious or racial prejudice.Leveling this type of person as a humanitarian is an insult to the real humanitarian of this world.Her noble prize is another wastage like the one given to Barack Obama.



I think she is more of a powerless queen bee than hypocrite. Cronies along with military is using her to get out of sanction. She cant even make herself the president, how could she give right to the rohingyas.


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## Homo Sapiens

TopCat said:


> I dont know man, last time I tried to make this thread sticky but faced stiff resistance form @madokafc and @alaungphaya
> 
> 
> 
> I think she is more of a powerless queen bee than hypocrite. Cronies along with military is using her to get out of sanction. She cant even make herself the president, how could she give right to the rohingyas.


I dont think she has any sympathy towards the plight of rohibgya people.She was exposed nakedy by her interview in Al jazira.Her democratic libertian movement was only for bamar people or the tolerated buddhist minority by the dominant bamar.She has no courage even to speak on behalf of rohingya rights.To become a real humanitarian one have to show courage to speak up against prejudist common majority.If she don,t have none of these quality, why should we respect her?

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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar crackdown to Bangladesh*
*Surge of violence underscores lack of oversight of the military by the seven-month-old Aung San Suu Kyi administration.*











The UN has labelled the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted peoples [Reuters]\\

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/...mar-crackdown-bangladesh-161117062551006.html
Scores of Rohingya Muslims are fleeing to Bangladesh because of a military crackdown in western Myanmar, according to residents and Bangladeshi army officials.

Some of the Rohingya were shot as they tried to cross the Naaf River that separates Myanmar and Bangladesh, while others arriving by boat were pushed away by Bangladeshi border guards, residents quoted by Reuters news agency said on Wednesday.

A total of 130 people have been killed in the latest surge of violence in the country, according to the Myanmar army.

Al Jazeera Exclusive: Myanmar soldiers allegedly killed Rohingya villagers


The bloodshed is the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine in 2012.

It has exposed a lack of oversight of the military by the seven-month-old administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers.

They have locked down the district, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya, shutting out aid workers and independent observers.

The army has intensified its operation in the past seven days and has used helicopters, with dozens of people reported killed.

Aid workers, camp residents and authorities in Bangladesh estimated that at least 500 Rohingya had fled Myanmar since the October attacks.

*Rohingya pushed back*
Bangladeshi border guards pushed back a large group of Rohingya trying to cross on Tuesday.

"Early Tuesday, 86 Rohingya including 40 women and 25 children were pushed back by the BGB [Border Guard Bangladesh] from the Teknaf border point," said Lieutenant-Colonel Anwarul Azim, commanding officer of the Cox's Bazar sector in eastern Bangladesh.

Reuters sources said that the Rohingya group was unlikely to have gone back to the villages in Myanmar and might be stranded at sea.

*READ MORE: Who are Rohingya?*


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## TopCat

Doyalbaba said:


> I dont think she has any sympathy towards the plight of rohibgya people.She was exposed nakedy by her interview in Al jazira.Her democratic libertian movement was only for bamar people or the tolerated buddhist minority by the dominant bamar.She has no courage even to speak on behalf of rohingya rights.To become an real humanitarian one have to show courage to speak up against prejudist common majority.If she don,t have none of these quality, why should we respect her?



I am not expecting her to be pro Rohingya, which is a far cry. But to be a true pro bamar she needs to solve the Rakhine problem in a peaceful way for the future of the country. But I dont think she has the power to do that.


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## Banglar Bir

*The long-persecuted ethnicity is on the verge of "mass annihilation," say experts, with new evidence indicating government complicity*
http://time.com/4089276/burma-rohingya-genocide-report-documentary/?xid=fbshare

Despite the U.S.-led rolling back of economic sanctions and internationally backed national elections taking place early next month, more than a million people in Burma are facing state-sponsored genocide, according to a new report.

The Rohingya Muslim community of the military-dominated Southeast Asian nation, which is now officially known as Myanmar, has been systematically persecuted and expunged from the national narrative — often at the behest of powerful extremist groups from the country’s majority Buddhist population and even government authorities — to the point where complete extermination is a possibility, according to a damning new study by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at the Queen Mary University of London.

“The Rohingya face the final stages of genocide,” concludes the report.

ISCI uses noted genocide expert Daniel Feierstein’s framework of the six stages of genocide, outlined in his 2014 book _Genocide as Social Practice_, as a lens through which to view Burma. Through interviews with stakeholders on both sides of what it describes as ethnic cleansing, as well as media reports and leaked government documents, the report enumerates how the Rohingya have undergone the first four stages — stigmatization and dehumanization; harassment, violence and terror; isolation and segregation; systematic weakening — and are on the verge of “mass annihilation.” The sixth stage, which involves the “removal of the victim group from collective history,” is already under way in many respects, the report says.

Stricken from Burma’s 135 officially recognized ethnicities in 1982, the Rohingya have undergone decades of discrimination and disenfranchisement, albeit never to the degree they currently face. The Burmese government’s official position is that the Rohingya are interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh, despite many having lived in the country for generations, and it refuses to even acknowledge their collective name, preferring the loaded term “Bengali.” The report documents a systematic deterioration of the Rohingya’s situation since communal violence broke out in June 2012 in Burma’s Rakhine (formerly Arakan) state.

Although the Burmese government has painted the strife — which saw hundreds of people, mainly Muslims, slaughtered during two main waves of violence that June and October — as a spontaneous outbreak of long-mounting religious tensions following the reported rape of a Buddhist woman, the ISCI report presents compelling evidence that the attacks were premeditated and possibly even organized by local authorities.

Interviews with some of the perpetrators — none of whom have been prosecuted because of a supposed lack of concrete evidence — reveal that they were bused into Rakhine state’s capital city Sittwe from nearby villages, provided two free meals a day and told it was their “duty as Rakhine to participate in an attack on the Muslim population.”

There are also strong indications that the government not only allowed the violence to take place unabated for almost a week, but that police, military and other state security forces participated in the attacks themselves, the report says.

Since then, close to 140,000 Rohingya have been sequestered in squalid camps outside the state’s capital, heavily guarded and prevented from leaving by security forces. The 4,500 that remain in Sittwe reside in a run-down ghetto with similar restrictions on movement. A majority of the Rohingya, numbering about 800,000, are spread out across two townships in northern Rakhine state — another region completely blocked off from the outside world by the military.

A lot of the food rations sent by international aid organizations never make it to the Rohingya camps, and denial of access to adequate health care have turned them into hotbeds for malnutrition and disease. As a result of the apartheid-like conditions, the inhabitants of these camps are also largely prevented from receiving an education and earning any sort of livelihood.

“The abuses that the Rohingya are experiencing are at a level and scale that we have not seen elsewhere in Southeast Asia,” Matthew Smith, the founder and executive director of Bangkok-based nonprofit Fortify Rights, tells TIME. The human-rights organization has been documenting abuses in Burma, and Smith echoes the assertion that there is a strong reason to believe state-enabled ethnic cleansing is taking place in the country.

“The Rohingya don’t have to be annihilated for someone to be held responsible for the crime of genocide,” he says. “They [Burmese authorities] are creating conditions of life for over a million people that are designed to be destructive.”

THE PLIGHT OF THE ROHINGYA BY JAMES NACHTWEY

















James Nachtwey for TIME
Children rest at a refugee camp in Bayeun, outside of Langsa, Indonesia, May 20. They were among the 25,000-plus Rohingya Muslim migrants who have fled reported persecution in Burma and Bangladesh this year by crossing the Indian Ocean in search of refugee status in Indonesia and Malaysia.
general elections, a complete reversal from the last election in 2010 when Rohingya voted in large numbers and some were elected to the legislature, as the military-backed government yoked their animosity to the Rakhine to see of the challenge of ethnic parties aligned with the latter.

No political party has countered the Islamophobic national narrative, with even the liberal National League for Democracy (NLD) of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi going to the polls without a single Muslim candidate, and the Rohingya’s deplorable situation will likely endure no matter the election’s result.

“There will be no change for the Rohingya,” says Shwe Maung, a Rohingya lawmaker from northern Rakhine state who has been barred from re-election. “The government is totally denying our community, totally denying our ethnicity,” he tells TIME. “Whatever is happening is with the ultimate objective of genocide or cleansing, which is to finish these people … and to drive them out.”

In the absence of a light at the end of the tunnel, there is a growing likelihood that Rohingya will take to the seas en masse in order to flee their country — like thousands did earlier this year — in the coming months, falling pray to people-smugglers with often deadly consequences.

“Many Rohingya tell us that their options are to stay in Rakhine state and face death or flee the country,” Smith says. “Many of them know that attempting to flee the country is in itself life-threatening, and they’re willing to take those risks because the situation in Rakhine state is as bad as it is.”

The previous exodus, which reached its height this June, was not only enabled and encouraged but also enforced by government authorities, interviews conducted by al-Jazeera for its new documentary _Genocide Agenda _reveal.

“They said, ‘You are Muslim and you are not allowed to live in Rakhine state. Get on the boat and flee wherever you want,’” an elderly Rohingya man says, recounting the presence of members of Burma’s security forces, army and police who forced them into the vessels. When his elder brother tried to resist, Rakhine Buddhists hacked him to death with a sword on the spot, he tells al-Jazeera before breaking down in tears.

The documentary, released on Monday, is the culmination of a yearlong investigation by al-Jazeera and contains stark evidence of government intent to, at the very least, promote an anti-Muslim sentiment among the Burmese population. Classified government documents obtained by the news channel’s investigative unit warn of “countrywide communal violence between Muslims and Burmans” being planned at a mosque in Burma’s capital, Rangoon, (violence that ultimately did not take place), and a presentation given to new army recruits contains sections on the “Fear of Extinction of Race” detailing how “Bengali Muslims … infiltrate the people to propagate the religion” and aim to increase their population and wipe out the Burmese Buddhists.

The film’s findings, as well as Fortify Rights’ research, were also the subject of an eight-month analysis by the Lowenstein Clinic at Yale Law School. The clinic examined the Rohingya’s circumstances according to the 1948 International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and precedents set by international law, and concluded that “strong evidence” exists to substantiate the claim that genocide is being carried out in Burma with intent to destroy the Rohingya.

The clinic’s report, released on Thursday, calls for a commission of inquiry by the U.N. Human Rights Council to conduct an “urgent, comprehensive and independent investigation” into alleged genocidal acts perpetrated against the Rohingya.

“The international community needs to understand in a deeper way, in a clearer way, that the abuses being perpetrated against the Rohingya are widespread, systematic and a matter of state policy,” Smith tells TIME. “The international community needs to take action. These abuses have been going on for decades.”

Neither TIME nor al-Jazeera was able to obtain a response to the allegations from the Burmese government despite repeated attempts, though Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut told us last year: “We never pay attention to organizations such as Fortify Rights, which are openly lobby groups for the Bengalis.”

Such attitudes do not bode well for the Rohingya, whose plight is grimly summed up by a woman living in one of the camps interviewed by ISCI.

“If the international community can’t help us, please drop a bomb on us and kill all of us,” she says.


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## Arthur

TopCat said:


> I dont know man, last time I tried to make this thread sticky but faced stiff resistance form @madokafc and @alaungphaya


That burmese has been banned by the mod.

Good thing mods taking action swiftly.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar's 'Muslim-free' election*
*Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi "purged" opposition of Muslims ahead of election, senior party member tells Al Jazeera.*

*by*
*Anealla Safdar*
*by*
*Phil Rees*
Phil Rees is investigations manager at al Jazeera's Investigative Unit.

Myanmar's main opposition party, led by the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, deliberately bypassed Muslim candidates ahead of the November election, a senior party member told Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source said Suu Kyi ordered an "Islamic purge" in the National League for Democracy (NLD) to appease growing anti-Muslim sentiment fuelled by hardline Buddhist nationalists.

*More exclusive coverage by Al Jazeera investigating "strong evidence" of genocide in Myanmar can be found here: aljazeera.com/genocideagenda *

Not one of the NLD's 1,151 candidates standing for regional and national elections is Muslim, despite there being around five million Muslims - or between 4 and 10 percent of the population - in the country.

There are also no Muslim candidates in the military-backed, governing Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) running in what has been billed as the country's first free and fair general election in 25 years.

In the run-up to the vote, local election commissions reportedly rejected dozens of Muslim candidates with authorities denying that their parents were citizens, claims which many of the shunned candidates denied.

"I think Suu Kyi is a bit concerned about the Ma Ba Tha, so it became an Islamic purge here," said the source.




The Ma Ba Tha is an increasingly effective, ultranationalist Buddhist movement, also known as 'The Association for the Protection of Race and Religion', whose outspoken members are known for their bitter speeches attacking the ethnic minority Muslim Rohingya.

"Islamic people have been persecuted," said the source. "A party should have all kinds of people and all kinds of religions."

*Disenfranchised*

Suu Kyi, 70, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, for her non-violent struggle for democracy.

Her silence on the marginalisation of the Rohingya and general exclusion of Muslims, however, has drawn criticism.

"The anti-Muslim monks are becoming stronger and stronger," said the source, adding that authorities should crack down on what the source called extremist members of the Ma Ba Tha instead of "sponsoring them".

Win Htein, a senior NLD member who is coordinating its campaign, told Al Jazeera that the party decided that to secure the best chance of winning, Muslims would have to be left out.

"In the present climate, we believe that it is a better strategy to win by leaving out Muslims candidates in coming election," he said, claiming that potential candidates of the Islamic faith had "agreed to that".

Some 15 Rohingya candidates were barred in August from running, again on account of their parents being 'foreign-born'.

*RELATED: Aung San Suu Kyi's inexcusable silence*

Earlier this year, the government effectively disenfranchised about 700,000 people, mostly Rohingya, when it declared holders of "white cards" ineligible to vote. The cards had been issued as temporary identification documents, and white-card holders had been permitted to vote in the 2010 elections.

"Rohingya Muslims have been removed from the elections by the USDP where they used to participate. You could say that where Islam is concerned, everyone - the monks and the government - is united.

"Now the elections are unequivocally Islamic-free."

*'Burma's bin Laden'*

Myanmar has witnessed a surge of nationalism since 2012, when riots erupted in the Rakhine state, a flashpoint for rising aggression towards the Rohingya who make up a third of the state's three million people.

Ashin Wirathu, an extremist Buddhist monk, was jailed in 2003 for inciting hatred and stirring sectarian clashes and released in 2010. Wirathu, dubbed the 'Burmese bin Laden', has warned of an impending Muslim takeover of Myanmar.

If Wirathu wanted Islamic households in Bago to be destroyed, all he would have to do is snap his fingers.

Senior member, National League for Democracy

He said that the violence in 2012, which saw dozens killed and several thousand Rohingya displaced, was justified because the minority group was planning to establish an Islamic state in Rakhine.

"Wirathu has a network for everything that is happening in the country," said the source. "If he wanted Islamic households in Bago to be destroyed, all he would have to do is snap his fingers. The [hardline Buddhist] groups there would destroy them.

"Things would be peaceful if he was dragged [back] into prison, but they [authorities] don't subdue him."

*Dark shadow*

There are more than 90 registered political parties expecting to win votes next month.

In addition to blocking Rohingya from participating, military-aligned units are casting further doubt on the election being free and fair, according to Human Rights Watch researcher David Matheison.

In a report published last month, he wrote: "With a little more than a month to go before Burma's national elections, military aligned militia units are casting a dark shadow over the polls.

"These proxies, known as Pyithu Sit [People's Militias] and Neh San Tat [Border Guard Forces] are intimidating voters in Burma's ethnic-minority borderlands and are stopping candidates from campaigning. This exacerbates the problems in some regions, where ongoing fighting between government forces and ethnic armed groups will prevent voting from taking place."

Myanmar recognises 135 ethnic minorities but denies citizenship to others, including the Rohingya. The country has no reliable opinion polls, but it is expected that parties based along ethnic lines would win most seats.

The Ma Ba Tha's effect on the electorate is also difficult to gauge. Despite the NLD "purging Muslims", the paranoid nationalist group often dubs Suu Kyi's party the "party of Islamists".

Voters, explained the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit source, will likely struggle when deciding where to place their ballot papers.

"Today, people are having problems. They don't know who to vote for. The NLD is in chaos now, and so, they don't like it, but there's no one else to vote for in the USDP…People don't like the USDP at all.

"It's everyone, not just Muslims. Non-Muslims are also displeased at how the NLD selected candidates."


Source: Al Jazeera


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## Arthur

@waz 
@WAJsal


Hello brother, can you merge these threads in this one too? Your action will be very much appreciated. Thanks.


1) https://defence.pk/threads/eight-die-as-rakhine-militants-clash-with-myanmar-army.460822/

2) https://defence.pk/threads/myanmar-...-on-soldiers-actions-in-rakhine-state.459863/


3) https://defence.pk/threads/myanmar-army-forces-hundreds-of-rohingya-villagers-from-homes.457892/


4) https://defence.pk/threads/burma’s-rohingya-muslims-bangladesh-should-help-them.461311/

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## EgyptianAmerican

Milica said:


> Please look like normal human beings, not body bags.



Reported


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## 24 Hours

Bilal9 said:


> East European Immigrants bringing their indigenous racism to UK amd US shores. This idiot is from Greece. If you can't share our values then go back to your roots where you can practice your racism with abandon. Doesn't work here.
> 
> Racism will _NOT_ be the new normal in the US or the UK.



I must admit, I laughed.


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## Bilal9

SHK said:


> I must admit, I laughed.



Well making light of it is one option.

But if you tolerate it and blow it off - then they'll escalate to calling you names next. They will get comfortable.

And they won't be so light-hearted about it next time.

My principle is - no quarter given to racists, even if they're only joking.

Since 'payback in kind' is not an option for decent people, not accepting such behavior is the only option - period.

It is illegal to harass people for their origin or looks or religion - at least where I live.

You will be arrested if someone presses charges. And if you are representing a company or the govt. you will lose your job swiftly, no questions asked.

I am surprised no one investigated this A$$hole and complained to his employer.


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## Major d1

Myanmar army throwing Rohingya Muslim children into the fire in front of their mothers!









Where are all those who cried when Paris and Orlando was attacked ???

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/170740

BRITISH CITIZENS or Those who live in UK Please sign & forward above petition to suspend the Mayanmar Ambassador from U.K. For the genocide of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar Army to your contacts.

Everyone who is eligible to sign, should sign this petition.
May not be much but it is something.

Or- Mayanmar need s some lesson by military attention.

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## Major d1

We know UN is just a puppet org. of US. Let's find out US and Myanmar relationship- In one hand they are talking about peace in an another hand supporting to kill. 

BUREAU OF EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS-
Fact Sheet

The United States supports a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Burma that respects the human rights of all its people. Elections in November 2010 led to a peaceful transition from sixty years of military rule to a quasi-civilian government headed by former President Thein Sein. Under former President Thein Sein, the previous Government of Burma initiated a series of political and economic reforms which resulted in a substantial opening of the long-isolated country. These reforms include the release of many political prisoners and child soldiers, the signing of a cease-fire agreement with eight major non-state ethnic groups, greater enjoyment of freedom of expression, including by the press, and parliamentary by-elections in 2012 in which pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won 43 of the 45 contested seats. In historic elections in November 2015, the NLD won a majority of the total seats in the national parliament and in most state and regional parliaments. Despite some structural problems, including the reservation of 25 percent of parliamentary seats for the military; the disfranchisement of groups of people who voted in previous elections, including the Rohingya; and the disqualification of candidates based on arbitrary application of citizenship and residency requirements, this election represented an incredible step forward in Burma’s democratic transition. The new national parliament sat February 1, 2016, and National League for Democracy member Htin Kyaw was inaugurated as president on March 30, 2016. President Htin Kyaw’s inauguration, and the formation of a democratically elected, civilian-led government were momentous steps for Burma’s democratic transition. In two of its first major initiatives, the new government released two waves of political prisoners, including five well-known journalists and 69 student activists held on politically motivated charges, though others remain in jail. These actions demonstrated the new government’s ability to realize its commitment to human rights issues.

The Obama Administration has employed a calibrated engagement strategy to recognize the positive steps undertaken to date and to incentivize further reform. The guiding principles of this approach have been to support Burma’s political and economic reforms; promote national reconciliation; build government transparency, and accountability and institutions; empower local communities and civil society; promote responsible international engagement; and strengthen respect for and protection of human rights and religious freedom.

As part of our calibrated approach to support further reform, the United States has restored full diplomatic relations, re-established a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in country, supported new grant and lending operations and technical assistance by international financial institutions, and eased economic and investment sanctions against Burma. Senior U.S. government officials, including President Obama, continue to travel to the country to meet with the Government of Burma, political parties, civil society, human rights activists, religious and ethnic leaders, and youth, demonstrating the United States’ continuing support to Burma in its democratic reform efforts.

While the country has made significant progress, major institutional and political challenges remain, including completing the national reconciliation process with various ethnic groups, strengthening respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, releasing remaining political prisoners, and improving the conditions in Rakhine State, particularly those facing members of the Rohingya population. Additionally, more progress needs to be made to reduce the military’s role in politics, move from cease-fires to political dialogue, and to improve rule of law and government accountability. The United States continues to emphasize to the Government of Burma the importance of promoting values of tolerance, diversity, and peaceful co-existence, and for the Burmese military to completely end military ties with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In November 2014, President Obama attended the ASEAN Summit in Naypyitaw, Burma and met with former President Thein Sein, former Parliamentary lower house speaker Shwe Mann, and NLD Chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi. In each of these meetings, the President reiterated the United States’ commitment to stand with the people of Burma during the long road of reform to help the country realize its full potential as a peaceful, just, prosperous and democratic society. President Obama raised concerns about the need to address human rights and humanitarian issues, particularly related to the situation in Rakhine State, which pose serious challenges to Burma’s reform process. Burma’s leadership acknowledged the work that lies ahead and re-affirmed its commitment to work with the United States and international community to continue on the path of democratic reform.

The Administration regularly consults with key stakeholders in Burma, Congress, U.S. allies, and other international actors in appropriate ways to encourage continued reform in the country.

The military government changed the country name to "Myanmar" in 1989..

U.S. Assistance to Burma

The United States has a long-standing commitment to improving the lives of the people of Burma. After the USAID Mission was closed in 1989, the United States continued to deliver emergency humanitarian assistance along the Thailand-Burma border, including through NGO partners for Burmese refugees and asylum seekers in the refugee camps on the border. The United States resumed targeted health programs in 1998. In 2008, U.S. assistance efforts scaled up in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. Burma's ongoing reforms led to the re-establishment of the USAID Mission in 2012.

Carefully integrated with U.S. diplomatic efforts, U.S. development assistance focuses on deepening and sustaining key political and economic reforms, ensuring that the democratic transition benefits everyday people, and mitigating division and conflict. Since 2012, the United States has provided over $500 million to support Burma’s transition, advance the peace process, and improve the lives of millions, including by assisting communities affected by violence and combatting hate speech and communal violence. More than 1.1 million people have improved food security, and over 300,000 impoverished farming families have increased their agricultural productivity with better access to technology, markets and new investments. New entrepreneurs are benefiting from the economic reform process, which has increased access to information and communications technology. Over 20 public-private partnerships with leading U.S. corporations, information and communications technology companies, and foundations work to develop small and medium enterprises, improve healthcare, and bring new technologies to Burma. In preparation for the historic elections in 2015, the United States trained more than 7,300 political party members and partnered with over 300 civil society organizations on voter education and observation, strengthening public participation in Burma’s overall reform process.

In FY 2015, the United States provided more than $50 million to address humanitarian needs in Burma, including among internally displaced persons throughout the country and vulnerable Burmese refugees and asylum seekers in the region. In response to the maritime migrant crisis in May and June 2015, the United States provided more than $6 million towards the emergency appeals from the International Organization for Migration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and helped provide temporary shelter, emergency relief items, and health, nutrition, and psychosocial assistance. During the heavy seasonal rainfall in July and August 2015 and Tropical Cyclone Komen, which caused significant flooding and landslides throughout the country and affected more than 1.6 million people, the United States provided more than $5 million in humanitarian assistance to all affected communities, working with local officials and international relief partners to distribute essential supplies and services to the emergency shelters in the worst-affected areas and assist in early recovery efforts. The United States continues to provide emergency assistance to vulnerable communities along the Thailand-Burma border and in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan States.

In addition to USAID, many other U.S. agencies provide assistance and training in Burma, including the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

Bilateral Economic Relations

In recognition of Burma's political and economic reform progress, the United States has taken concrete steps to accelerate broad-based economic growth and support the political reform process. The United States played an instrumental role in supporting renewed engagement from multilateral development banks, which re-started operations in 2013. Over the past three years, U.S. development partners at the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have committed more than $3.8 billion to critical needs in Burma’s infrastructure and human services. In July 2012, the Administration issued general licenses that, subject to certain limitations, authorize the exportation of U.S. financial services to Burma and authorize new U.S. investment in Burma, thus permitting the first new U.S. investment in Burma in nearly 15 years. In September 2012, the Administration removed President Thein Sein and Speaker Shwe Mann from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. In October 2012, the Administration took action under H.R. 6431 to allow the U.S. Executive Directors at international financial institutions (IFIs) to vote in favor of the provision of assistance for Burma by the IFI, paving the way for new grant and lending operations. In November 2012, the Administration issued a waiver and general license to ease the ban on the importation of products of Burma into the United States, with the exception of jadeite and rubies mined or extracted from Burma and articles of jewelry containing them, for the first time in almost a decade. The July 28, 2013 expiration of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act’s (BFDA) ban on imports from Burma removed the underlying statutory basis for the general import ban. Shortly thereafter, the President issued Executive Order 13651 to remove the general import ban from Executive Order 13310 and to maintain the previously described restrictions associated with jadeite and rubies. In 2013, the Administration issued a general license to authorize U.S. persons to conduct most transactions – including opening and maintaining financial accounts and conducting a range of other financial services – with four of Burma’s major financial institutions: Asia Green Development Bank, Ayeyarwady Bank, Myanmar Economic Bank, and Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank. In December 2015, the Administration issued a six-month general license to authorize most transactions ordinarily incident to the export of goods, technology, and non-financial services to or from Burma provided that the exportation is not to, from, or on behalf of SDNs or otherwise blocked persons.

The U.S. government encourages responsible investment in Burma as part of an overall strategy to encourage economic growth and improve the standard of living for the people of Burma. The United States plays a leading role by enhancing human capacity and promoting global standards throughout Southeast Asia due to the quality of private investment. U.S. companies will continue to play a critical role in supporting broad-based, sustainable development in Burma and are helping the country progress toward a more open, inclusive, and democratic society.

Burma's Membership in International Organizations

Burma became a member of the United Nations in 1948 following independence from the United Kingdom, and a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997. Burma was the chair of ASEAN for 2014, its first chairmanship in 17 years as an ASEAN member state.

Burma and the United States belong to a number of the same international organizations, including the UN, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization.

My opinion- 


There was unanimous support for lifting all the sanctions on Burma except the arms embargo.

The feeling is that - while things may not be perfect - it would send the wrong signal to keep sanctions in place at a time of huge change.

The UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Burma's problems are by no means over but the progress that has been made is substantial enough and serious enough for the sanctions decision to be approved. He said he'd consulted the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and she had agreed.

Sanctions are one of the main tools of EU foreign policy and there is never a perfect time to impose them or to lift them again. Critics argue that the EU is too reliant on sanctions as a means of putting pressure on other countries.

But despite the evidence of continuing violence directed against Burma's Muslim minority, it would have been a big surprise if this decision had gone any other way.

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## Hasan89

The petition is a step, least we can do from living in UK and of cause one can also donate charity.
If we get 100.000 signatures then it will be up for debate in the parliament. United Kingdom is indeed a power influential nation. I think if we can get the 100.000 signatures asap, then UK GOV will take some sort step. We must keep pushing it in UK and keep trying to get the attentions of PM on this serious matter and keep demanding as whole of the Muslims and together with whoever is with justice for the innocents. I'm sure UK won't able to keep being quite on this, like some of the coward harami so called powerful nations out there!


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## litman

because those being killed are muslims. when will we realize that UN is a zionist organization meant for protecting the state of israel.

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## mike2000 is back

litman said:


> because those being killed are muslims. when will we realize that UN is a zionist organization meant for protecting the state of israel.


China is also one of Myanmar's leading ally and it's leading weapons supplier. So I guess China is a Zionist regime for supporting and arming the killing of "innocent muslims" in Myanmar?  Lool. You people are funny.

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## mb444

There is no appetite to do anything. Muslims are fractured and leaderless and have no voice in the world stage.

UN had failed to call bosnia, rwanda a genocide because to do so would have required it to do something to maintain its credibility. History repeats itself.

We should not ask why is not UN doing anything. UN has never in its history have done anything positive and certainly not anything that had benefited the weak. It exists as a talking shop and an ineffective bandaid post catastrophic events to assuage collective guilt of the world community.


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## Major d1

mb444 said:


> There is no appetite to do anything. Muslims are fractured and leaderless and have no voice in the world stage.
> 
> UN had failed to call bosnia, rwanda a genocide because to do so would have required it to do something to maintain its credibility. History repeats itself.
> 
> We should not ask why is not UN doing anything. UN has never in its history have done anything positive and certainly not anything that had benefited the weak. It exists as a talking shop and an ineffective bandaid post catastrophic events to assuage collective guilt of the world community.




Hope u didn't forget that ,UN gave bosniyan muslims to the sarbian army by the name of peace treaty.


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## Hasan89

As of right now, more than 37 thousand and counting signatures in petition UK petition form, so far, in just 11days. And it's going good Alhamdullilah!
Godwilling we willreach 100.000 signatures within a week more. Please spread it on FB, Twitter wherever you have British Citizen family or friends.


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## TopCat

*Myanmar’s War on the Rohingya*
Myanmar has long persecuted the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority, denying it basic rights to citizenship, to marry, to worship and to an education. After violence unleashed in 2012 by Buddhist extremists drove tens of thousands of Rohingya out of their homes, many risked their lives to escape in smugglers’ boats; more than 100,000 others are living in squalid internment camps. Now, a counterinsurgency operation by Myanmar’s military is again forcing thousands of Rohingya to abandon their villages.

Over the weekend and on Monday, according to Reuters, hundreds of Rohingya Muslims crossed from Myanmar into Bangladesh seeking shelter from the escalating violence. An official from the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency, told the news agency that he had seen more than 500 people enter its camps in the hills near the border. Meanwhile, Reuters also reported fighting between security forces and rebels on Myanmar’s border with China.

The military’s counterinsurgency operation began as a response to an attack on Oct. 9 by armed assailants that left nine police officers dead in Rakhine State. It is not clear who the assailants were, and theories range from drug gangs to Islamist terrorists. Since then, more than 100 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by the military. Satellite images published by Human Rights Watch indicate that at least 430 homes were burned in villages in northern Rakhine State between Oct. 22 and Nov. 10.

There are credible allegations of soldiers looting, killing unarmed people and raping women. The government denies this. U Aung Win, the chairman of a Rakhine State investigation into the Oct. 9 attack, said soldiers would not rape Rohingya women because they “are very dirty.”

The Oct. 9 attack may have been set off by an earlier government announcement that it planned to destroy illegal structures in the area, including more than 2,500 homes, 600 shops, a dozen mosques and more than 30 schools. “That was saying we have to reduce the population of Rohingya,” said U Kyaw Min, a Rohingya who is the chairman of the Democracy and Human Rights Party.

One year ago, after a historic election, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the longtime democracy champion and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, became head of a new democratic government, inspiring hope that she would bring an end to the Rohingya’s suffering. In September, the Obama administration eased remaining economic sanctions on Myanmar, citing, among other achievements, the new government’s focus on bringing “respect for human rights to its people.”

That call now appears to have been premature. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyiherself insists on underlining the Rohingya’s foreignness by referring to them as “Bengalis” and argues that the government’s response to the attack is based on “the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, most humanitarian assistance has been cut off to the area. Unicef has warned that thousands of malnourished children are in danger of starving and lack medical care. The government must immediately allow aid to reach those in need. The United Nations and the United States are calling for an impartial investigation into the violence, and Human Rights Watch is urging the government to invite the United Nations to assist. If Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi wants to defend her reputation as a human rights champion, she needs to extend that invitation now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/opinion/myanmars-war-on-the-rohingya.html?_r=0


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## litman

mike2000 is back said:


> China is also one of Myanmar's leading ally and it's leading weapons supplier. So I guess China is a Zionist regime for supporting and arming the killing of "innocent muslims" in Myanmar?  Lool. You people are funny.


china is not in question here. UN is. you are giving pathetic excuses just like our politician. i did corruption because he also did it. funny and pathetic.

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## JOEY TRIBIANI

Hypocrisy indeed.


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## Banglar Bir

*RadioMunna.com added 2 new photos — with Mirza Nahid Hossain.*
4 hrs · 



-




 রোহিঙ্গা ফ্যাক্ট




See translation


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## gslv

Some months ago it was discussed around this forum that Pakistan is going to supply JF17 to Myanmar. So why blame UN or US.

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## Leviza

What is united nations ??? its something in history i remember...

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## Loafer

Rohingyas are illegal Bangladeshis. UN has nothing to do with them.

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## Articulate

They did nothing to stop genocide in East Pakistan either. 

UN does _nothing_.

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## mike2000 is back

litman said:


> china is not in question here. UN is. you are giving pathetic excuses just like our politician. i did corruption because he also did it. funny and pathetic.


Lol did you even read what I wrote properly? You don't seem to understand my point .lol
You were the one criticising the U.N calling it a U.S/WESTERN Zionist organisation conspiring against innocent muslims in Myanmar(same with Russia who also backs the Myanmar regime with arms) Lol. I just corrected you by saying using your delusional logic China too must be a Zionist regime since they have never criticised Myanmar actions against the so called "innocent" Muslim Royingha, if anything they are supplying even more weapons to the Myanmar regime and they remain Myanmar's largest arms supplier by farrrrr. I don't see you people blaming them , don't worry I know why . Since they are your leading ally and benefactor as well. Can't bite the hands that feeds you. LMAO
That's the issue with some of you people. Too much HYPOCRISY. 



Major d1 said:


> Hope u didn't forget that ,UN gave bosniyan muslims to the sarbian army by the name of peace treaty.


Not everything in the world is a conspiracy against muslims dude.

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## extra terrestrial

Well, the situation pretty much indicates the decline of US as the sole superpower and the beginning of a multipolar world. The US is no more there to play the role of 'Global Police' while other powers are just too afraid to lose their influence. OTOH, the UN has been reduced to an impotent organization - a classic Cold War-like situation. I guess the situation will remain the same untill we start to witness another unipolar world...


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## Ryuzaki

mike2000 is back said:


> China is also one of Myanmar's leading ally and it's leading weapons supplier. So I guess China is a Zionist regime for supporting and arming the killing of "innocent muslims" in Myanmar?  Lool. You people are funny.



Pakistan is also selling JF-17 fighter to Myamnar

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## TopCat

litman said:


> because those being killed are muslims. when will we realize that UN is a zionist organization meant for protecting the state of israel.



Did any of the muslim countries including BD ever took the case to Security Council? Nobody wants to make their hand dirty. It is only the christian countries which made all the noises whatever little it is.

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## rashid.sarwar

Sad and pathetic status of all Muslim Nation.....

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## DESERT FIGHTER

Ryuzaki said:


> Pakistan is also selling JF-17 fighter to Myamnar



And india is smelling burmese gas etc?

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## mike2000 is back

Ryuzaki said:


> Pakistan is also selling JF-17 fighter to Myamnar


LMAO. I know right? 
HYPOCRISY at its best . Can't blame them though, who doesn't want to make money. Business is business.

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## Major d1

mike2000 is back said:


> Rohingyas are illegal Bangladeshis. UN has nothing to do with them.



r u out of ur mind? They have their own identity. did u check up ur own identity card ? Read the history of Rohigays. Dnt talk like a media watcher .

[QUOTE="mike2000 is back, post: 8940629, member: 168327"


Not everything in the world is a conspiracy against muslims dude. [/QUOTE] yah just only 99% goes against of them.
That's it . Bcz of many reason, such as assets. Domination , and ideological clash . etce.


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## Attila the Hun

rashid.sarwar said:


> Sad and pathetic status of all Muslim Nation.....


Turkey should do more to help. Why we don't I have no clue. People tell me we have an Islamist Government. then where is Erdogan?? Why Doesn't every Muslims favourite "Muslim Turk" not speaking out the atrocities against MUSLIMS in Burma?

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## Major d1

Ottoman123 said:


> Turkey should do more to help. Why we don't I have no clue. People tell me we have an Islamist Government. then where is Erdogan?? Why Doesn't every Muslims favourite "Muslim Turk" not speaking out the atrocities against MUSLIMS in Burma?



Bcz all muslims countries leaders are puppet of US or West . Following their masters command.


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## Banglar Bir

*‎Nadim Khan‎ to Bangladesh Military Discussion Group*
7 hrs · 

বুধবার (২৩ নভেম্বর) দুপুরে কক্সবাজারে বিজিবি রেস্ট হাউসে উভয় পক্ষের এ বৈঠক অনুষ্ঠিত হয়। 
.
বৈঠকে বাংলাদেশের পক্ষে ১২ সদস্যের প্রতিনিধি দলের নেতৃত্ব দেন বিজিবির অতিরিক্ত মহাপরিচালক ও রিজিয়ন কমান্ডার ব্রিগেডিয়ার জেনারেল খোন্দকার ফরিদ হাসান। অপরদিকে মিয়ানমারের ৩১ সদস্যের প্রতিনিধি দলের নেতৃত্ব দেন বিজিপির রাখাইন রিজিয়নের কমান্ডার ব্রিগেডিয়ার জেনারেল তু সান লিন।
.
বৈঠক শেষে বিজিবির অতিরিক্ত মহাপরিচালক ও রিজিয়ন কমান্ডার ব্রিগেডিয়ার জেনারেল খোন্দকার ফরিদ হাসান জানান, মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন প্রদেশে সহিংস ঘটনা ও সেনাবাহিনীর অভিযানের কারণে সাম্প্রতিক সময়ে বাংলাদেশে রোহিঙ্গা অনুপ্রবেশের ঘটনা বেড়েছে। বৈঠকে এ বিষয়ে মিয়ানমারের প্রতিনিধি দলের দৃষ্টি আকর্ষণ করা হয়।
.
বিজিবির অতিরিক্ত মহাপরিচালক জানান, মিয়ানমারের পক্ষ থেকে সেনা অভিযানের কথা স্বীকার করা হয়েছে। তবে পরিস্থিতির কারণে বাংলাদেশে রোহিঙ্গা অনুপ্রবেশ যাতে না হয় সে ব্যাপারে সর্বাত্মক পদক্ষেপ গ্রহণ ও সহযোগিতার আশ্বাস দিয়েছে বিজিপি।
.
বৈঠকে উভয় পক্ষ সীমান্তে ইয়াবা ও মাদকদ্রব্য চোরাচালান প্রতিরোধে যৌথ টহল, বর্ডার লিয়াজো অফিস স্থাপন, বন্ধুত্বমূলক খেলাধুলার আয়োজনসহ বিভিন্ন বিষয়ে আলোচনা করে। টেকনাফ ও মংডু ট্রানজিট ঘাট দিয়ে উভয় দেশের মধ্যে ১ দিনের পাস নিয়ে যাতায়াত চালু রাখার বিষয়েও আলোচনা হয়েছে বৈঠকে। 
.
বিজিবির অতিরিক্ত মহাপরিচালক বলেন, অত্যন্ত সৌহার্দ্যপূর্ণ পরিবেশে অনুষ্ঠিত এ বৈঠকের পর রাখাইন প্রদেশে শান্তিপূর্ণ অবস্থা ফিরিয়ে আনতে মিয়ানমার কর্তৃপক্ষ আন্তরিকভাবে কাজ করবে বলে আমরা আশাবাদী।
.
বৈঠকে বাংলাদেশ দলে ছিলেন ব্রিগেডিয়ার জেনারেল সেলিম মাহমুদ চৌধুরী, কর্নেল এমএম আনিসুর রহমান পিএসসি, কর্নেল মো. হাবিবুর রহমান পিএসসি, লে. কর্নেল মো. তৌহিদুল ইসলাম পিএসসি, লে. কর্নেল মো. আনোয়ারুল আযীম, লে. কর্নেল গোলাম মনজুর সিদ্দিকী, লে. কর্নেল ইমরান উল্লাহ সরকার, লে. কর্নেল মো. আবুজার আল জাহিদ, লে. কর্নেল এআরএম নাসিরউদ্দীন একরাম, মেজর মো. আবদুস সালাম, মেজর মাহবুব সাবের, মেজর মেহেদী হাসান রবিন প্রমুখ।
.
নভেম্বর ২৩, ২০১৬

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## Banglar Bir

*বার্মিজ সরকার যা বলেছে সবই মিথ্যা’*






24 Nov, 2016

মায়ানমারের রোহিঙ্গা সঙ্কট নিয়ে বার্মিজ সরকার এ পর্যন্ত যা বলছে তা সবই মিথ্যা বলে মন্তব্য করেছেন একজন রোহিঙ্গা নেতা।

ব্রিটেনে বসবাসরত রোহিঙ্গা নেতা নুরুল ইসলাম বলেছেন, ‘বার্মিজ সরকার এ পর্যন্ত যা বলেছে সবই মিথ্যা কথা, বিশ্বাসযোগ্যই না।’

মায়ানমারের রাখাইন প্রদেশে সেনা অভিযানের প্রেক্ষাপটে সৃষ্ট পরিস্থিতির পেছনে আরএসও’র বিদ্রোহী তৎপরতা অনেকাংশে দায়ি বলে মায়ানমারের সরকার দাবি করছে। তবে আরাকান রোহিঙ্গা ন্যাশনাল অর্গনাইজেশনের চেয়ারম্যান নুরুল ইসলাম বলেন, ওই সংগঠন বিলুপ্ত। এর কোনো কার্যক্রমই নেই। বার্মার কর্তৃপক্ষের এ বক্তব্য বিশ্বাসযোগ্য না।

রোহিঙ্গা এই নেতা বলেন, ‘আরাকানে নতুন করে সংকট সৃষ্টির পর কমপক্ষে পাঁচশো মানুষ মারা গেছে। দেড়শোর বেশি নারী ধর্ষণের শিকার হয়েছেন। ধর্ষণকে তারা ব্যবহার করছে অস্ত্র হিসেবে।’

এদিকে বাংলাদেশের সীমান্তরক্ষীদের নজরদারির মাঝেও মায়ানমার থেকে গত কয়েকদিনে বহু রোহিঙ্গা নারী-পুরুষ-শিশু কক্সবাজারের টেকনাফে ঢুকে পড়েছে। হাজার হাজার রোহিঙ্গা ঢোকার জন্য নাফ নদীর ওপারে জড় হচ্ছে বলে জানা গেছে।

বাংলাদেশের কর্তৃপক্ষ এ বিষয়ে গভীর উদ্বেগ জানিয়েছে। তবে নুরুল ইসলাম বলেন, ‘বাংলাদেশের প্রশংসা করতে হবে। সেখানে অনেক রোহিঙ্গা ইতোমধ্যেই আছে। প্রায় ৪/৫ লাখ রোহিঙ্গা আছে সেখানে। সেখানকার লোকজনের প্রতি আমরা কৃতজ্ঞ।’

তিনি বলেন, ২০১২ সালে যখন রোহিঙ্গারা আসতে চেষ্টা করেছিল, বাংলাদেশ সীমান্ত বন্ধ করার চেষ্টা করেছিল। কিন্তু বাংলাদেশ কিন্তু পারেনি। পরে কিছু লোক ঠিকই ঢুকে গেছে এবং মানবপাচারের শিকার হয়ছিল।

রোহিঙ্গাদের সাম্প্রতিক সঙ্কট নিয়ে আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায়ের ভূমিকা নিয়েও কথা বলেন এই রোহিঙ্গা নেতা। ‘বার্মিজ সরকার রোহিঙ্গাদের যেখানে জুলুম নির্যাতন করছে সেখানে তাদের আভ্যন্তরীন কোনো সুরক্ষা নাই। এখন আভ্যন্তরীন নিরাপত্তা নাই, আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায়কে তাদের পূর্ণ নিরাপত্তা দিতে হবে। নিরাপত্তা পরিষদে এটা আলোচনা করে এ বিষয়ে বাধ্য-বাধকতা তৈরি করতে হবে।’

‘বাংলাদেশেও আসতে দিচ্ছেন না, বার্মাতে থাকতে পারছে না। তাহলে যাবে কোথায় তারা?’ প্রশ্ন তুলে রোহিঙ্গা এই নেতা বলেন, মংডু জেলায় তাদের জন্য একটি নিরাপদ জায়গা তৈরি করে দিতে হবে ।

সূত্র: বিবিসি

http://www.facebd.net/newsdetail/detail/34/260734


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## bluesky

*OIC breaks silence over plight of Rohingyas*

Probir Kumar Sarker
Last updated at 11:53 PM November 23, 2016



*In a statement, the OIC secretary general called for an immediate cessation of violence including torture, rape and summary executions in Myanmar*
Expressing deep concerns over reports of serious human rights violations against innocent Rohingya Muslims since early October, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has asked the Myanmar government to ensure that the security services act in full compliance with the rule of law.

In a statement published Tuesday, the OIC secretary general, Dr Yousef A Al-Othaimeen, called for an immediate cessation of violence including torture, rape and summary executions.

Also read- *Massacre in Myanmar *

He also urged the authorities of Myanmar to allow humanitarian aid agencies access to the affected region to provide needed relief to the victims.

“The OIC expresses further its concern that the destruction of homes and mosques has forced tens of thousands to flee their villages and the subsequent blockade in the region has also left many in the area facing acute shortages of food, water and essentials,” the statement reads.

He further called upon the government to abide by its obligations under international law and human rights covenants and take concrete steps to prevent the further deterioration of the crisis in Rakhine state.





A Rohingya Muslim woman and her son cry after being caught by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) while illegally crossing at a border check point in Cox’s Bazar , Bangladesh, November 21, 2016 REUTERS

The Myanmar Army and other security forces have reportedly killed several hundred Rohingyas in Rakhine state since last month after Islamist militants allegedly linked to Aqa Mul Mujahidin group and RSO launched attacks on the border police resulting in the deaths of a dozen law enforcers on October 9.

Also read- *ATTACK ON ROHINGYAS: ‘It is horrifying’ *

Since then, thousands of Rohingyas have fled their homes, some of whom entered Bangladesh through Cox’s Bazar but were pushed back.

The OIC statement comes at a time when the latest operations have drawn severe criticisms in Bangladesh and elsewhere.

The United Nation’s refugee agency UNHCR on November 18 urged the Myanmar authorities to ensure the protection and dignity of all civilians on its territory in accordance with the rule of law and its international obligations.

Also read- *Satellite images show Myanmar Rohingya villages torched *

It asked Bangladesh to keep its border with Myanmar open for the Rohingyas. But the government has tightened its border security by deploying more personnel to prevent a further influx of Rohingyas.

Bangladesh Foreign Ministry Wednesday expressed “tremendous concern” over the ongoing persecution of Rohingya Muslims. However, the Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh, Myo Myint Than, who was summoned by the ministry, claimed that the reports of atrocities against the Rohingyas were fabricated.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Tuesday said that the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the Coast Guard had been alerted to prevent the illegal entry of Rohingyas. “Rohingya migration is an uncomfortable issue for Bangladesh. Hopefully, no more illegal migration will happen now,” Kamal said.

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## Major d1

They are talking about Human traffic. This is Not Human traffic in condition.

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## mdcp

UN
Useless Nations

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## Attila the Hun

Major d1 said:


> Bcz all muslims countries leaders are puppet of US or West . Following their masters command.


Exactly. it is disgusting. 
Everyone should do all they can to help the Rohingyas!!

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## Banglar Bir

*মেজর ডালিম*
36 mins · 




একদিকে মিয়ানমারের সেনা দ্বারা নির্যাতিত অন্যদিকে অনেক কাটখোট্টা পেড়িয়ে জীবন বাঁচাতে বাংলাদেশ সীমান্তে এসে বিজিবি ও স্থানীয় নরপশুদের দ্বারা নির্যাতিত।

এই হল রোহিঙ্গাদের বর্তমান জীবন।

একেকজন নারী কয়েকবার ধর্ষনের স্বীকার। পুরুষের অবস্থান বিজিবি ও স্থানীয়দের বুটের তলায়, শিশু ও কিশোররা রয়েছে বিজিবি ও স্থানীয়দের ব্যাক্তিগত কাজের চাপে।

বাংলাদেশ একসময় তুমিও শরণার্থী ছিলে, ইন শা আল্লাহ খুব শিগ্রয়ই আল্লাহ তোমাকে আবারো শরণার্থী বানাবে। পরিস্থিতি যে তাই বলে। এ জাতির উপর আল্লাহর লানত।

Ahsan Muhammad কোনোভাবে কি সরকারকে বাধ্য করা যায়না যাতে রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীরা এদেশে আশ্রয় পায়??? হরতাল, অসহযোগ আন্দোলন, আলটিমেটাম কিংবা অন্যকিছুর দ্বারা?




:-(



:-(



:-(



:-/

Md Jibon Dawan ঠিক ধন্যবাদ সুন্দর মন্তব্য করার জন্য

তাহছিয়াল তাহিন স্যার সরকার কে বলেও লাভ নাই...আর যাদের বলছেন তারা এসব ভয় পাবে কেন..?? তাদের তে দাদার দেশ আছে, যে কোন সময় তল্পি তোল্পা নিয়ে চলে যেতে পারবে...মরলে তো আমরা মরবো..শরণার্থী হলে আমর হবো, তাতে তাদের কি আসে যায়... ধিক বাঙালী ধিক


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## Major d1

Ottoman123 said:


> Exactly. it is disgusting.
> Everyone should do all they can to help the Rohingyas!!



It is nationalism concept prob too . that u r truk i am bangladeshi , if we thought we are one body then no one will get the chance to touch a single body of a muslim.

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## Abdul Ahad 89

UN is a useless organisation for muslims. We should not treat it seriously. Muslim leader if any need to wake up and do something for our muslim brothers.

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## Major d1

Abdul Ahad 89 said:


> UN is a useless organisation for muslims. We should not treat it seriously. Muslim leader if any need to wake up and do something for our muslim brothers.



This is not


Abdul Ahad 89 said:


> UN is a useless organisation for muslims. We should not treat it seriously. Muslim leader if any need to wake up and do something for our muslim brothers.



This is not happening only fro nationalism concept bro . That u r pakistani , i am bangladeshi , he is bla she is bla. IF we think we are one body, then no western or else country will get chance to touch a single body of a muslim.


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## Gibbs

Loafer said:


> Rohingyas are illegal Bangladeshis. UN has nothing to do with them.



If the UN tries to intervene on behalf of every single illegal squatters in sovereign nations there would be no end to it.. EElamist Tamil terrorists separatists tried invain for decades in Sri Lanka to no avail..

Major powers have their own ulterior motives like in the case of Kosovo but that's because it's in the borders of Europe, Not some South East Asian bog, They wont bother.. Why should they when even their Muslim brothers in Bangladesh reject them

I think since this is seen as a anti Muslim pogrom, Not as the socio/political, Threat to territorial integrity it really is for Myanmar by most Muslims.. The Muslim brotherhood of nations should get to geather and offer sanctuary to these people, Just like how Israel does for Jewish people world wide.. After all those patrons of Islam in the Gulf nations have so much oil money to burn and wage wars against other Muslims

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## Indus Falcon

Reminds one of how fast UN moved in on East Timor.

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## Major d1

Indus Falcon said:


> Reminds one of how fast UN moved in on East Timor.



In 1991 they also moved first to bosnia and gave bosnian muslims to the sarbian military by the name of peace treaty. And sarbiyan military killed thousands of thousands muslims.


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## Gibbs

Indus Falcon said:


> Reminds one of how fast UN moved in on East Timor.



Apples and Oranges.. East Timor was a separate political entity till the Indonesians amalgamated it by military force in the 60's, While the Arakhan state is a undisputed territory of the sovereign nation of Myanmar

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## Attila the Hun

Major d1 said:


> It is nationalism concept prob too . that u r truk i am bangladeshi , if we thought we are one body then no one will get the chance to touch a single body of a muslim.


Very true Sir.
I know I am a Nationalist , I still care for all people, no matter what their race, faith, creed.


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## Banglar Bir

*Tanvir Chowdhury shared AJ+'s video.*
52 mins · 
















__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=842690905872418





AJ+
11 hrs · 


"Military killed my husband, set fire to our house.” Rohingya refugees are fleeing violence in Myanmar.


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## Attila the Hun

Abdul Ahad 89 said:


> UN is a useless organisation for muslims. We should not treat it seriously. Muslim leader if any need to wake up and do something for our muslim brothers.


Muslims have pathetic leaders now, just look at the leaders we had in the past and compare it with todays "leaders" haha

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## A.P. Richelieu

After the first Anglo-Burmese War in 1826, the British annexed Arakan and encouraged migrations from Bengal to work as farm laborers. The became the Rohingyas.

After the *First World War *in 1914-1918, the British controlled Palestine and encouraged migrations by Jews to work as farm laborers. These became the Israelis.

I would not be surprised if many Rohingya supporters view the Jew immigration to Palestine as illegal.

Assuming Palestinians suddenly would rise to power in Israel, would the Jews
be treated better, same or worse by Muslims than how Rohingyas are treated today?

How are Christians treated by Muslims in Syria/Iraq compared to Rohingyas?

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## Attila the Hun

A.P. Richelieu said:


> in 1826, the British annexed Arakan and encouraged migrations from Bengal to work as farm laborers.



So what? That gives the Burmese the right to kick them out after a 100+ years!?

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## Gibbs

A.P. Richelieu said:


> After the first Anglo-Burmese War in 1826, the British annexed Arakan and encouraged migrations from Bengal to work as farm laborers. The became the Rohingyas.
> 
> After the *First World War *in 1914-1918, the British controlled Palestine and encouraged migrations by Jews to work as farm laborers. These became the Israelis.
> 
> I would not be surprised if many Rohingya supporters view the Jew immigration to Palestine as illegal.
> 
> Assuming Palestinians suddenly would rise to power in Israel, would the Jews
> be treated better, same or worse by Muslims than how Rohingyas are treated today?
> 
> How are Christians treated by Muslims in Syria/Iraq compared to Rohingyas?



You can add Tamils bought in by the Dutch and British in the 15th and 20th centuries as indentured labour from South India to the North East and Central highlands of Sri Lanka have now become Eelamist separatists to that list..



Ottoman123 said:


> So what? That gives the Burmese the right to kick them out after a 100+ years!?



No it doesn't but there more than what meets the eye here, These people never assimilated with the rest of Myanmar or the Arakanese, Leading to the current state.. It's the prerogative of the sovereign nation of Myanmar to grant these people citizenship

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## Attila the Hun

Gibbs said:


> You can add Tamils bought in by the Dutch and British in the 15th and 20th centuries as indentured labour from South India to the North East and Central highlands of Sri Lanka have now become Eelamist separatists to that list..
> 
> 
> 
> No it doesn't but there more than what meets the eye here, These people never assimilated with the rest of Myanmar or the Arakanese, Leading to the current state.. It's the prerogative of the sovereign nation of Myanmar to grant these people citizenship


See, the fault is with the Burmese for losing to the British, they need to blame themselves first, the Rohingyas don't cause trouble, do they? 
I still need to do more research on this though.

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## Gibbs

Ottoman123 said:


> See, the fault is with the Burmese for losing to the British, they need to blame themselves first, the Rohingyas don't cause trouble, do they?
> I still need to do more research on this though.



Actually they do.. There are a wealth of info online from veritable sources not just partial ones about this conflict, Remember there is no fire without smoke, There is two sides to this story.. The Rohingya's themselves are not the sole victims

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## Attila the Hun

Gibbs said:


> Actually they do.. There are a wealth of info online from veritable sources not just partial ones about this conflict, Remember there is no fire without smoke, There is two sides to this story.. The Rohingya's themselves are not the sole victims


They do? I just read they're not even allowed kitchen knives !!! 
Will look into it a bit more though.


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## Banglar Bir

*http://janaojanabd.net/archives/18727*

*শক্তিশালী ভূমিকম্পে ধসে পড়েছে মিয়ানমারের একাধিক মন্দির – শেয়ার করে সবাইকে জানিয়ে দিন*
শক্তিশালী ভূমিকম্পে মিয়ানমারে একাধিক মন্দির ধসে পড়েছে। রিখটার স্কেলে ৬ দশমিক ৮ মাত্রার ভূকম্পন অনুভূত হয় দেশটিতে। তবে এখন পর্যন্ত কোনো হতাহতের খবর পাওয়া যায়নি। বুধবার মিয়ানমারের স্থানীয় সময় বিকেল ৫ টার দিকে ওই কম্পন অনুভূত হয়েছে। বাংলাদেশ, ভারত ও মিয়ানমার ছাড়াও চীন, লাওস এবং থাইল্যান্ডেও ভূমিকম্প আঘাত হেনেছে।

মার্কিন ভূতাত্ত্বিক জরিপসংস্থা ইউএসজিএস বলছে, রিখটার স্কেলে ৬ দশমিক ৮ মাত্রার ওই ভূমিকম্প মিয়ানমারের চক শহরের ২৫ কিলোমিটার পশ্চিমে ৮৪ দশমিক ১ কিলোমিটার (৫২ মাইল) গভীরে উৎপত্তি হয়েছে।

চীনের রাষ্ট্রীয় সংবাদমাধ্যম সিসিটিভির এক প্রতিবেদনে বলা হয়েছে, মিয়ানমারের মান্দালয়, নাইপিদো ও ইয়াঙ্গুনে কম্পন অনুভূত হয়েছে। তবে দেশটির বিগান শহরে একাধিক মন্দির ধসে পড়েছে।
ভারতের কলকাতা, আসাম, বিহার ও ঝাড়খণ্ডেও কম্পন অনুভূত হয়েছে। ইউএসজিএস বলছে, দক্ষিণ-পূর্ব এশিয়ার ৪ কোটি ১০ লাখ মানুষ বুধবারের এই কম্পনে আক্রান্ত হয়েছে। তবে এখন পর্যন্ত কোনো হতাহতের খবর পাওয়া যায়নি। এনডিটিভি এক প্রতিবেদনে বলছে, কলকাতায় ১০ সেকেন্ড স্থায়ী কম্পনের সময় অফিস ও স্কুল-কলেজ থেকে কর্মকর্তা ও শিক্ষার্থীরা রাস্তায় নেমে আসেন।


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## TopCat

Gibbs said:


> I*f the UN tries to intervene on behalf of every single illegal squatters in sovereign nations there would be no end to it.. EElamist Tamil terrorists separatists tried invain for decades in Sri Lanka to no avail..*



With this kind of attitude from the majority I dont blame Tamils for raising arms.



A.P. Richelieu said:


> After the first Anglo-Burmese War in 1826, the British annexed Arakan and encouraged migrations from Bengal to work as farm laborers. The became the Rohingyas.


Arakan was an independent kingdom for thousands of year which extended up to current Chittagong division. There were movement of people all throughout history. That is the reason we have sizable burmese and rakhine people living in Bangladesh. Its is not only the Rohingyas who found shelters in Bangladesh but entire race of Chakmas were driven out from Buram who now call Chittagong Hill Tracts as their home. Same happend to Rakhine and they settled as far as Barishal in Bangladesh. This is a contiguous land and the more you go south the less Rohingyas you will find in Arakan. 




> After the *First World War *in 1914-1918, the British controlled Palestine and encouraged migrations by Jews to work as farm laborers. These became the Israelis.


You can write good poetry.



> I would not be surprised if many Rohingya supporters view the Jew immigration to Palestine as illegal.


It was more to do kicking out Palestininas from their own home and take away their belongings and property. Legal? 



> Assuming Palestinians suddenly would rise to power in Israel, would the Jews
> be treated better, same or worse by Muslims than how Rohingyas are treated today?


Jews were treated fairly after the defeat of the crusaders. Why will it be any different now?


> How are Christians treated by Muslims in Syria/Iraq compared to Rohingyas?



In a war ravaged country nobody is treated fairly.


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## Gibbs

TopCat said:


> With this kind of attitude from the majority I dont blame Tamils for raising arms.



I'm a minority myself.. So you're barking up the wrong tree mate

Legitimate grievances are one thing and unfair separatist demands based on flimsy grounds due to colonial misadventures is another, Two seperate things

If sections of the population refuse to assimilate with the wider society of a nation, While keeping thier own identity intact, They dont belong to that nation

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## Major d1

Why we call them minority ? They are peaceful civilian. Democracy made this terms majority and minority. That they can define religious groups in these terms and can make their policy .


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## A.P. Richelieu

Ottoman123 said:


> So what? That gives the Burmese the right to kick them out after a 100+ years!?



Did I say that?
A lot of Muslims say that the Jews entered Palestine illegally.
At the same time, they think the Rohingyan presence in Myanmar is legal.

What is the difference?
Hypocrites don't care.

In reality, the difference is that Rohingyan are Muslims, and must be supported
regardless if the are right or wrong, and Jews are non-Muslims and must
therefore be opposed in any conflicts with Muslims.

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## Attila the Hun

A.P. Richelieu said:


> Did I say that?
> A lot of Muslims say that the Jews entered Palestine illegally.
> At the same time, they think the Rohingyan presence in Myanmar is legal.
> 
> What is the difference?
> Hypocrites don't care.
> 
> In reality, the difference is that Rohingyan are Muslims, and must be supported
> regardless if the are right or wrong, and Jews are non-Muslims and must
> therefore be opposed in any conflicts with Muslims.


Well, the Jews are from Europe, and not from Palestine.
I know, those lands were Ottoman, not many Jews lived there. trust me. lol

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## Major d1

Ottoman123 said:


> Well, the Jews are from Europe, and not from Palestine.
> I know, those lands were Ottoman, not many Jews lived there. trust me. lol



In 16th century Jews came Turkey from Spain.


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## Attila the Hun

Major d1 said:


> In 16th century Jews came Turkey from Spain.


Yes, but not many, and guess what happened to them? They went to Europe.... not long after arriving.


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## TopCat

Gibbs said:


> I'm a minority myself.. So you're barking up the wrong tree mate
> 
> Legitimate grievances are one thing and unfair separatist demands based on flimsy grounds due to colonial misadventures is another, Two seperate things
> 
> If sections of the population refuse to assimilate with the wider society of a nation, While keeping thier own identity intact, They dont belong to that nation



Rohingyas were denied citizenship and the right to their property. Their movement were restricted and cant travel outside of their own townships. You are blaming them from assimilation? Besides its not some Joe who found job in Australia and having difficulties in assimilation but its the duty of the government to protect the culture and heritage of the marginalized population instead of assimilating them (Indigenous Australian, ring the bell?)

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## Major d1

Ottoman123 said:


> Yes, but not many, and guess what happened to them? They went to Europe.... not long after arriving.



They were under caliphate ruling system. after destroy of caliphate in 1924 they spread out In EU. Still now In turkey many more jews are living .



TopCat said:


> Rohingyas were denied citizenship and the right to their property. Their movement were restricted and cant travel outside of their own townships. You are blaming them from assimilation? Besides its not some Joe who found job in Australia and having difficulties in assimilation but its the duty of the government to protect the culture and heritage of the marginalized population instead of assimilating them (Indigenous Australian, ring the bell?)



bro- What Israel is doing to the muslims of Palestine , now Myanmar govt. doing the same thing to the rohiga muslims.


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## TopCat

A.P. Richelieu said:


> Did I say that?
> A lot of Muslims say that the Jews entered Palestine illegally.
> At the same time, they think the Rohingyan presence in Myanmar is legal.
> 
> What is the difference?
> Hypocrites don't care.
> 
> In reality, the difference is that Rohingyan are Muslims, and must be supported
> regardless if the are right or wrong, and Jews are *non-Muslims and must
> therefore be opposed in any conflicts with Muslims*.



Not really not a single muslim country supported Indonesia in E. Timur. Muslims are in the receiving end so it looks like that all muslim countries are ganged together. None of the Muslim country are super power or have enough power to become a policing state like USA or Russia or even China.


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## Major d1

TopCat said:


> Not really not a single muslim country supported Indonesia in E. Timur. Muslims are in the receiving end so it looks like that all muslim countries are ganged together. None of the Muslim country are super power or have enough power to become a policing state like USA or Russia or even China.



The reason is British divided us by the divide and rules policy . They know if Muslims get together again as they were before , Muslims will be superpower. So they injected in our vain , democracy and nationalism concept . Just if one country call for unity who is self-sufficient, that is enough for other countries. All will be together again.


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## TopCat

Major d1 said:


> The reason is British divided us by the divide and rules policy . They know if Muslims get together again as they were before , Muslims will be superpower. So they injected in our vain , democracy and nationalism concept . Just if one country call for unity who is self-sufficient, that is enough for other countries. All will be together again.



I dont think British had that design while leaving sub continent. They were very happy with the Muslim for world war support and that is why they faught against India to curve out some land from India and gave to Muslim. After the ottoman defeat in first world war Muslim were no threat to them.

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## Gibbs

TopCat said:


> Rohingyas were denied citizenship and the right to their property. Their movement were restricted and cant travel outside of their own townships. You are blaming them from assimilation? Besides its not some Joe who found job in Australia and having difficulties in assimilation but its the duty of the government to protect the culture and heritage of the marginalized population instead of assimilating them (Indigenous Australian, ring the bell?)



Lol.. You got your panties in a twist.. My comment about assimilation was to counter point your statement about separatist sections of Lankan Tamils, Not Rohingyas, The question of assimilation does not arise in the case of Rohingya's in Myanmar cos they dont consider them citizens of that country.. That's their prerogative 

There is no such thing as minority in Australia, Everyone here is a migrant one form or another, Except for the Aboriginal people, I'm from a minority community in Sri Lanka not Australia

Can't disagree on the role of the duty of the government to protect all it's citizens rights but as long as they consider them citizens.. It's that simple

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## Major d1

TopCat said:


> I dont think British had that in mind while leaving sub continent. They were very happy with the Muslim for world war support and that is why they faught against India to curve out some land from India and gave to Muslim. After the ottoman defeat in first world war Muslim were no threat to them.



Yes from in 1901 century they was working to divide muslims lands by the name of independence. But till then when ottoman khilafah lost the war , there was capital of khilafah. that is why they attacked istanbul in 1924. kamal psa atturk supported British. I just wanted to say , bcz of nationalism concept under democratic ruling system rohiga, kashmir, Palestine issues are happening. Bcz we are following their footstep. US is broken super power , and our master today . They wont let it happen or will try not to let it happen , that one muslim country will declare khilafah as it happened before. They will try their lvl best to stop it . And without one state formula.no one can solve this problem. muslims must have to think they are one body.


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## A.P. Richelieu

TopCat said:


> With this kind of attitude from the majority I dont blame Tamils for raising arms.
> 
> 
> Arakan was an independent kingdom for thousands of year which extended up to current Chittagong division. There were movement of people all throughout history. That is the reason we have sizable burmese and rakhine people living in Bangladesh. Its is not only the Rohingyas who found shelters in Bangladesh but entire race of Chakmas were driven out from Buram who now call Chittagong Hill Tracts as their home. Same happend to Rakhine and they settled as far as Barishal in Bangladesh. This is a contiguous land and the more you go south the less Rohingyas you will find in Arakan.
> 
> 
> 
> You can write good poetry.
> 
> 
> It was more to do kicking out Palestininas from their own home and take away their belongings and property. Legal?
> Jews were treated fairly after the defeat of the crusaders. Why will it be any different now?
> In a war ravaged country nobody is treated fairly.



Until the creation of Israel, "kicking out" consisted of buying land from rich Arabs, and terminating
leases by Arab farmers. That is legal.
During the War of Independence, 
Arab armies asked Palestinians to evacuate, causing a lot to leave. 
A few incidents from Israeli terror organisations helped them on their way.
Those arabs that remained afterwards have more or less been integrated.
After the occupation of the West Bank, a lot of land has been confiscated
based on the Ottoman laws of "dead land", so the argument for legality goes.
The West Bank is a legal mess, and even if all International Expertise
could come up with something, the end result would hardly be fair.

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## Major d1

A.P. Richelieu said:


> Until the creation of Israel, "kicking out" consisted of buying land from rich Arabs, and terminating
> leases by Arab farmers. That is legal.
> During the War of Independence,
> Arab armies asked Palestinians to evacuate, causing a lot to leave.
> A few incidents from Israeli terror organisations helped them on their way.
> Those arabs that remained afterwards have more or less been integrated.
> After the occupation of the West Bank, a lot of land has been confiscated
> based on the Ottoman laws of "dead land", so the argument for legality goes.
> The West Bank is a legal mess, and even if all International Expertise
> could come up with something, the end result would hardly be fair.



jews are making 500 home for them in east Jerusalem? Who gave them that permission ?


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## Banglar Bir

*রোহিঙ্গারা পিংপং বল নয়*
*http://www.facebd.net/newsdetail/detail/112/260803*







24 Nov, 2016

শাহেদ হোসেন : রাষ্ট্র ও সমাজের অনেক নির্মমতা খুশবন্ত সি কৌতুকের ছলে সুন্দরভাবে তুলে ধরতেন। লেখাটা তার একটি কৌতুক দিয়েই শুরু করি। এক হরিয়ানি কৃষক রেস্টুরেন্টে প্রবেশ করে একটি গ্লাস ও লেবু চাইল। লেবু চিপে সে কতটা রস বের করতে পারে তা দেখানোর জন্য সবাইকে বলল, ‘উপস্থিত কেউ যদি একটি লেবু থেকে আমার চেয়ে বেশি রস বের করতে পারে, আমি তাকে পাঁচ টাকা দেব।’

এক ক্ষীণকায় চশমা পরা কেরানি তার চ্যালেঞ্জ গ্রহণ করল এবং তার দুর্বল হাতে লেবু চিপে সেই কৃষকের চেয়ে বেশি রস বের করতে সক্ষম হলো।

কৃষক বিস্ময় প্রকাশ করে বলল, ‘চমৎকার’। এরপর তাকে পাঁচ টাকার একটি নোট দিয়ে জানতে চাইল ‘আমাকে বলুন কীভাবে এই স্বাস্থ্য নিয়ে আমার চেয়ে বেশি রস বের করলেন?’

লোকটি উত্তর দিল, ‘আমি ইনকাম ট্যাক্সের লোক।’ 

মিয়ানমারের সংখ্যালঘু রোহিঙ্গাদের অবস্থা এখন অনেকটা লেবুর মতো। আর রস বের করার ক্ষেত্রে সাবেক সেনা শাসকদের তুলনায় নিজেকে এগিয়ে রাখার প্রতিযোগিতায় নেমেছে তথাকথিত গণতন্ত্রীপন্থী নেত্রী অং সান সু চি। জীবন বাঁচাতে হাজার হাজার রোহিঙ্গা বাংলাদেশ সীমান্তের দিকে ছুটে আসছে। পুড়িয়ে দেওয়া হচ্ছে রাখাইন রাজ্যের মংডুতে বাস করা রোহিঙ্গাদের ঘরবাড়ি। যারা নদী পার হয়ে বাংলাদেশে আসার চেষ্টা করছে তাদের আবার পেছন থেকে গুলি করছে দেশটির সেনাবাহিনী। নদীতে ভাসছে অনেক রোহিঙ্গার লাশ। উল্টো দাবি করা হচ্ছে আন্তর্জাতিক মনোযোগ আকর্ষণ করতে রোহিঙ্গারা নিজেরাই নিজেদের ঘরবাড়ি পুড়িয়ে দিচ্ছে! রোহিঙ্গাদের আর্তনাদে যখন রাখাইন রাজ্যের আকাশ ভারী হয়ে উঠছে, তখন শান্তিতে নোবেলজয়ী সু চি কানে তুলা দিয়ে আওড়াচ্ছেন ‘বুদ্ধং শরণং গচ্ছামি’। সত্যি সেলুকাস!

রোহিঙ্গাদের নির্যাতনের ইতিহাস নতুন নয়। দেশটির স্বাধীনতার পর প্রায় ছয় দশক ধরে ধারাবাহিকভাবে সরকারের মদদে চলছে রোহিঙ্গা নিধন ও তাদের দেশ থেকে বের করে দেওয়ার অপচেষ্টা। মিয়ানমার সরকারের দাবি, রোহিঙ্গারা নাকি সে দেশের নাগরিক নয়, তারা বাংলাদেশ থেকে আসা। অথচ ঐতিহাসিকভাবে প্রতিষ্ঠিত রোহিঙ্গারা প্রায় ৬০০ বছরেরও বেশি সময় ধরে মিয়ানমারে বাস করছে।

১৪০৬ খ্রিস্টাব্দে বার্মার (বর্তমান মিয়ানমার) রাজা ত্রিশ হাজার সৈন্য নিয়ে আরাকান রাজ্য আক্রমণ করলে সেখানকার রাজা নরমিখলা পালিয়ে তদানিন্তন বাংলার রাজধানী গৌড়ে এসে আশ্রয় নেন। তিনি সুদীর্ঘ চব্বিশ বছরকাল গৌড়ে অবস্থান করেন এবং ইসলামের ইতিহাস, সভ্যতা ও রাজনীতি অধ্যয়ন করেন। ২৪ বছর পর ১৪৩০ খ্রিস্টাব্দে গৌড়ের সুলতান নাসিরউদ্দিন শাহ মতান্তরে জালালুদ্দিন শাহ সেনাপতি ওয়ালী খানের নেতৃত্বে বিশাল সেনাবাহিনী দিয়ে নরমিখলাকে স্বীয় রাজ্য আরাকান উদ্ধারের জন্যে সাহায্য করেন। নরমিখলা ইতিমধ্যে নিজের বৌদ্ধনাম বদলিয়ে মুহম্মদ সোলায়মান শাহ নাম ধারণ করেন। ফলে বার্মার ইতিহাসে তিনি মুহম্মদ সোলায়মান (মংস মোয়ান) হিসেবে পরিচিত লাভ করেন। সোলায়মান শাহ আরাকান অধিকার করে ম্রাউক-উ রাজবংশ প্রতিষ্ঠা করেন। ১৪৩০ খ্রিস্টাব্দ থেকে ১৫৩০ খ্রিস্টাব্দ পর্যন্ত গৌড়ের করদ রাজ্য ছিল আরাকান। গৌড়ের সুলতান যেসব সেনাদের পাঠিয়েছিলেন, সোলায়মান শাহ তাদের আরাকানে রেখে দেন। এরাই রোহিঙ্গাদের আদি প্রজন্ম হিসেবে বিবেচিত হয়।

ম্রাউক-উ সাম্রাজ্য পার্শ্ববর্তী বাংলা ও ভারত অঞ্চল থেকে অনেক আচার-কৃষ্টি গ্রহণ করে। তারা ইসলামী অভিলিখনে মুদ্রাও বাজারে ছাড়ে। তারা বাংলা সাহিত্যের পৃষ্ঠপোষকতাও করে। তারা মুসলিম নামও অধিগ্রহণ করে- যে রীতি ষোড়শ শতাব্দীর প্রায় শেষভাগ পর্যন্ত চলে। ১৭৮৪ সালের বর্মী রাজা বোদোপায়ার অধিগ্রহণের আগ পর্যন্ত প্রায় কয়েক শতাব্দী ধরেই এই বিচিত্র ও অনন্য রাজ্য ছিল সম্পূর্ণ স্বাধীন। বোদোপায়া ছিলেন উগ্রপন্থী বৌদ্ধ, যিনি মুসলিম সম্পর্কিত সবকিছুই ধ্বংস করে ফেলতে চাইতেন। ধর্মীয় সৌহার্দপূর্ণ অঞ্চলে তিনি সংকীর্ণতাবাদী সাম্প্রদায়িকতার প্রচলন করেছিলেন। আরাকানের সৈকতজুড়ে থাকা মসজিদগুলো ধ্বংস করে তিনি সেখনে প্যাগোডা ও বৌদ্ধ আশ্রম গড়ে তোলেন।

রোহিঙ্গাদের পূর্বপুরুষদের বিষয়ে আরেকটি গল্প পাওয়া যায় ইতিহাসে। খ্রিস্টীয় ৮ম বা ৯ম শতাব্দীতে চন্দ্রবংশীয় রাজারা আরাকান শাসন করতো। উজালী ছিলো এ বংশের রাজধানী। বাংলা সাহিত্যে এটি বৈশালী নামে খ্যাত। কথিত আছে, এ বংশের রাজা মহত ইং চন্দ্রের রাজত্বকালে (৭৮৮-৮১০ খ্রিস্টাব্দ) কয়েকটি বাণিজ্য বহর রামব্রী দ্বীপের তীরে এক সংঘর্ষে ভেঙে পড়ে। জাহাজের আরবীয় আরোহীরা তীরে এসে ভিড়লে রাজা তাদের উন্নততর আচরণে সন্তুষ্ট হয়ে আরাকানে বসতি স্থাপনের অনুমতি দেন। আরবীয় মুসলমানগণ স্থানীয় রমণীদের বিয়ে করেন এবং স্থায়ীভাবে বসবাস শুরু করেন। জনশ্রুতি আছে, আরবীয় মুসলমানেরা ভাসতে ভাসতে কূলে ভিড়লে ‘রহম’, ‘রহম’ ধ্বনি দিয়ে স্থানীয় জনগণের সাহায্য কামনা করতে থাকে। আরবী শব্দ রহমের অর্থ দয়া করা। কিন্তু জনগণ মনে করে এরা রহম জাতির লোক। রহম শব্দই বিকৃত হয়ে রোয়াং হয়েছে বলে রোহিঙ্গারা মনে করে।

১৭৮৫ সালে ৩০ হাজার বার্মিজ সেনা আরাকান আক্রমণ করে মসজিদ ও বিভিন্ন স্থাপনা ধ্বংস করে। একইসঙ্গে প্রায় ২ লাখ রোহিঙ্গাকে দাসত্বের শৃঙ্খলে আবদ্ধ করে। তাদের আক্রমণের কারণে ১৮২৫ সালে ব্রিটিশদের স্বাগত জানায় রোহিঙ্গারা। ব্রিটিশ আমলে নিজেদের অবস্থা অনুকূল থাকায় দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধে রোহিঙ্গারা ব্রিটিশদের অনুগত থাকে। আরাকানের পতিত জমি আবাদের জন্য চট্টগ্রাম থেকে অনেক জনবল নিয়ে পুর্নবাসিত করে ব্রিটিশরা। এই লোকগুলো ১৭৮৪ সালে আরাকান থেকে পালিয়ে যাওয়া জনগোষ্ঠীর বংশধর।

ব্রিটিশদের সমর্থন দেওয়ার জন্য পরবর্তীতে রোহিঙ্গাদের চরম মূল্য দিতে হয়। দ্বিতীয় বিশ্বযুদ্ধের সময় জাপান বার্মা দখল করার পর স্থানীয় মগরা জাপানি সৈন্যদের সহায়তায় রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের ওপর ব্যাপক হত্যাযজ্ঞ চালায়। সে বছর প্রায় ৫০ হাজার রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানকে হত্যা করা হয়।

১৯৬২ সালে জেনারেল নে উইন সামরিক অভ্যুত্থান ঘটিয়ে রাষ্ট্রক্ষমতা দখলের পর রোহিঙ্গাদের জীবনে শুরু হয় দুর্ভোগের নতুন অধ্যায়। ১৯৭০ সাল থেকে রোহিঙ্গাদের নাগরিকত্ব সনদ দেওয়া বন্ধ করে দেওয়া হয়। ১৯৭৪ সালে কেড়ে নেওয়া হয় ভোটাধিকার। রোহিঙ্গাদের নির্মূলে ১৯৭৮ সালে শুরু হয় অপারেশন ‘কিং ড্রাগন’। ওই বছর আড়াই লাখ রোহিঙ্গা তাড়া খেয়ে বাংলাদেশে অনুপ্রবেশ করেছিল শরণার্থী হিসেবে। সেই ধারাবাহিকতায় ১৯৮৪, ১৯৮৫, ১৯৯০ ও ২০১২ সালে রোহিঙ্গা উচ্ছেদে একের পর এক অভিযান চালায় সামরিক জান্তা। এসব অভিযানে রোহিঙ্গাদের হত্যা-ধর্ষণ নিয়মিত ব্যাপার ছিল। রোহিঙ্গাদের সম্পত্তি জোর করে কেড়ে নেওয়া হয় এবং তাদের বাধ্যতামূলক শ্রমে নিয়োজিত করা হয়। শিক্ষা-স্বাস্থ্যের সুযোগ থেকে বঞ্চিত করা হয়। ১৯৮২ সালে মিয়ানমার সরকার আনুষ্ঠানিকভাবে রোহিঙ্গাদের নাগরিকত্ব অস্বীকার করে। রোহিঙ্গাদের সংখ্যা যাতে না বাড়ে সেজন্য তাদের বিয়ে পর্যন্ত নিষিদ্ধ করা হয়।

সর্বশেষ গত মাসে রাখাইন রাজ্যের মংডুতে পুলিশের ওপর হামলাকে কেন্দ্র করে রোহিঙ্গাদের দমন অভিযানে নামে সেনাবাহিনী। এ অভিযানে গ্রামের পর গ্রাম পুড়িয়ে দিয়েছে সেনারা। হেলিকপ্টার গানশিপ থেকে গ্রামবাসীর ওপর নির্বিচারে গুলিবর্ষণ করা হয়েছে। হিউম্যান রাইটসের ভাষ্যমতে ১ হাজার ২০০ এর বেশি বাড়ি পুড়িয়ে দেওয়া হয়েছে। হত্যা করা হয়েছে দেড় শতাধিক রোহিঙ্গাকে।

যুগের পুর যুগ একটি জাতির ওপর এমন নির্যাতনের ইতিহাস খুঁজে পাওয়া কঠিন। মিয়ানমারের ইতিহাসে ২৫ বছর পর অনুষ্ঠিত হওয়া নির্বাচনে ‘গণতন্ত্রীপন্থী নেত্রী’ অং সান সু চির বিজয়ের পর ধারণা করা হয়েছিল, তিনি রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে হস্তক্ষেপ করবেন এবং রোহিঙ্গাদের পুনর্বাসনের উদ্যোগ নেবেন। কিন্তু দেখা গেল, সু চিও সংখ্যালঘুদের নিয়ে নির্মম রাজনৈতিক খেলা খেলেছেন। মুখে গণতন্ত্র ও শান্তির কথা বললেও রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে তার কর্মকাণ্ড পুরোই বিপরীত। তিনিও রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে পিংপং খেলছেন।

রোহিঙ্গারা পৃথিবী নামক এই গ্রহের বাইরের কোনো প্রাণী নয়। পরিকল্পিতভাবে একটি জাতিসত্তাকে স্বমূলে বিনাশের চেষ্টা চলবে আর আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায় মুখ ফিরিয়ে থাকবে তা হতে পারে না।

রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে জাতিসংঘকেও সোচ্চার ভূমিকা পালন করতে হবে। পাশাপাশি মিয়নামারের নতুন মিত্র যুক্তরাষ্ট্র ও পুরনো বন্ধু চীনকে এ ব্যাপারে এগিয়ে আসতে হবে। মিয়ানমার যেহেতু আসিয়ানভুক্ত দেশ, সেহেতু জোটের অন্য দেশগুলোকে এ ব্যপারে জোরদার ভূমিকা পালন করতে হবে।

প্রতিবেশী হিসেবে রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে বাংলাদেশও বসে থাকতে পারে না। কয়েক দশক ধরে বাংলাদেশ রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের আশ্রয় দিয়ে আসছে। তবে বছরের পর বছর এভাবে আশ্রয় দেওয়াটা কোনো সমাধান নয়। বাংলাদেশ রোহিঙ্গা নির্যাতনের পরোক্ষ সাক্ষী ও ভুক্তভোগী। তাই সরকারকে অবশ্যই রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুটি সমাধানের জন্য মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে জোর কূটনৈতিক প্রচেষ্টা চালাতে হবে। এরপরও যদি দেশটির সরকার এগিয়ে না আসে, তাহলে প্রয়োজনে তাদের বিরুদ্ধে আন্তর্জাতিক আদালতে মামলা দায়ের করা যেতে পারে।

তথ্যসূত্র:

Bangladesh: The Plight of the Rohingya : Pulitzer Center

রোহিঙ্গা জাতির ইতিহাস : এন.এম. হাবিব উল্লাহ

উৎসঃ _risingbd.com_

*David Bergman shared KJ Vids's video.*
4 hrs · 




"No, they did not force them. Rather they persuaded them that they should go back and they want back."












__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1168060576581562




-1:55

188,113 Views

KJ Vids
23 hrs · 


Watch this shocking interview where the Prime Minister of Bangladesh denies the oppression of the Rohingya Muslims and says unequivocally that she will not help them. "Why shall we allow them in our country?"


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## Major d1

Hasina looks like happy .


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## Gandh brandi

@Major d1, why do you post threads not related to BD in BDF? I mean why?

Anyway people give U.N. too much credit for what it is, a fail-safe switch to prevent direct conflict among the five permanent security council members. Nothing more.


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## TopCat

How strange it is, these Monk kill Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine but find safe heaven in Bangladesh as refugee even today.
@A.P. Richelieu


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## mike2000 is back

Major d1 said:


> r u out of ur mind? They have their own identity. did u check up ur own identity card ? Read the history of Rohigays. Dnt talk like a media watcher .


WTF? I never wrote that. how did you manage to quote me on that? Something is wrong here. 

Whether Royingha are Bengladeshi or myanmar natives or not I dont care and bother much about it. That comment wasn't made by me. Strange. 



Ottoman123 said:


> Exactly. it is disgusting.
> Everyone should do all they can to help the Rohingyas!!


So according to you,Turkey is a western puppet?

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## HeinzG

Ottoman123 said:


> Well, the Jews are from Europe, and not from Palestine.
> I know, those lands were Ottoman, not many Jews lived there. trust me. lol



Well, Jews didn't drive the Muslims away do they? AFAIK Muslims sold land to the Jews and the others settled on the desert. In fact much of the Palestine was demarcated as Jordan as sealed off for the actual Palestinians.

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## mike2000 is back

Major d1 said:


> The reason is British divided us by the divide and rules policy . They know if Muslims get together again as they were before , Muslims will be superpower. So they injected in our vain , democracy and nationalism concept . Just if one country call for unity who is self-sufficient, that is enough for other countries. All will be together again.


Yes blame us for all your ills. Nothing new.


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## HeinzG

Major d1 said:


> The reason is British divided us by the divide and rules policy . They know if Muslims get together again as they were before , Muslims will be superpower. So they injected in our vain , democracy and nationalism concept . Just if one country call for unity who is self-sufficient, that is enough for other countries. All will be together again.



That is BS. Brits were using the same old dividing lines to further divide the people it ruled. They never wanted to create new divisions. If the divisions are artificial then they should have dissolved sometime after British withdrawal.



Major d1 said:


> jews are making 500 home for them in east Jerusalem? Who gave them that permission ?



Arabs who had invaded Israel back in 1948 gave them that permission.

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## Allah Akbar

Loafer said:


> Rohingyas are illegal Bangladeshis. UN has nothing to do with them.


So that means the killing is legimate ? what if we start killing the rakhaine in cox's bazar ?is ok that they are burmese ?

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## A.P. Richelieu

mike2000 is back said:


> WTF? I never wrote that.
> Actually, I was mistaken, I did write that...
> how did you manage to quote me on that? Something is *right* here.



Not that hard to change a quote, when You reply...



Ottoman123 said:


> Well, the Jews are from Europe, and not from Palestine.
> I know, those lands were Ottoman, not many Jews lived there. trust me. lol



And the Rohingyas were also imported, so there is realle little difference.

The immigration of Jews to Palestine started under the Ottoman era,
and Arab complaints were rejected at the Ottoman court as baseless

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## Major d1

Sybaris Caeser said:


> @Major d1, why do you post threads not related to BD in BDF? I mean why?
> 
> Anyway people give U.N. too much credit for what it is, a fail-safe switch to prevent direct conflict among the five permanent security council members. Nothing more.



It is national security concern. So it it is related with BDF .



mike2000 is back said:


> WTF? I never wrote that. how did you manage to quote me on that? Something is wrong here.
> 
> Whether Royingha are Bengladeshi or myanmar natives or not I dont care and bother much about it. That comment wasn't made by me. Strange.
> 
> 
> So according to you,Turkey is a western puppet?



Yah when British colony map in this sub- continent deigned by whom? British or USA? So it credits goes to British conspiracy too. 

Yah i would like to say those who are ruling under capitalistic democratic govt. system they are western puppet.



mike2000 is back said:


> Yes blame us for all your ills. Nothing new.



lol. For an example- You have been destroyed ottoman caliphate and for that you had needed 200 years only.. Search the google and write British Divided the muslim world. This Nationalism concept made by western method , that no country get unity specially for muslim countries. Same as to the secularism concept. 

Who is sick that is well known.



HeinzG said:


> That is BS. Brits were using the same old dividing lines to further divide the people it ruled. They never wanted to create new divisions. If the divisions are artificial then they should have dissolved sometime after British withdrawal.
> 
> The idea that the British Raj pursued a policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ is probably the single most prevalent cliché in the whole canon of Indian historiography. It was an idea whose time came, and never passed. It was a ‘catch-all’ and ‘explain-all’ idea that neatly accounted for the success of British policy in a way that left Indians with some dignity.
> 
> The idea that ‘Divide and Rule’ actively, logically led on to Partition is a contrived and untenable idea. The words themselves are so seductive and easy to manipulate that they can capture receptive minds all too readily. But neat words do not necessarily reflect historical truth. So, although we can turn ‘Divide and Rule’ deftly into ‘Divide and Quit’, or a number of other damning formulations, this does not justify seeing these transformations as having any real correspondence to British policy. This needs some critical attention before we can pass on
> 
> 
> Arabs who had invaded Israel back in 1948 gave them that permission.



Not Arab that was Britain. That is why we say Israel is a bas*** child of UK.


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## Attila the Hun

mike2000 is back said:


> So according to you,Turkey is a western puppet?



Erdogan just might be a puppet. He cares nothing for Muslims, yet people tell me he is a Islamist?



HeinzG said:


> AFAIK Muslims sold land to the Jews and the others settled on the desert.


Who sold Jews land?



A.P. Richelieu said:


> The immigration of Jews to Palestine started under the Ottoman era,


No they didn't. Jews of Ottoman Empire lived mostly in Salonik,which is in present day Greece. and Istanbul...Not some desert of Palestine.

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## A.P. Richelieu

Ottoman123 said:


> Erdogan just might be a puppet. He cares nothing for Muslims, yet people tell me he is a Islamist?
> 
> 
> Who sold Jews land?
> 
> 
> No they didn't. Jews of Ottoman Empire lived mostly in Salonik,which is in present day Greece. and Istanbul...Not some desert of Palestine.



Rich Arab landowners were all to happy to sell their lands to immigrants.
These were typically leased to poor arab farmers,
and selling off freed up a lot of cash for luxuries.
The farmers leases were terminated, and Jews moved in building kibbutzes.
The Arab farmers were not pleased and started to attack the kibbutzim.

You should read up on the first and second Aliyahs, where it is estimated that a total of 75,000 Jews immigrated
to Ottoman Palestine between 1882 and 1914.

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## Attila the Hun

A.P. Richelieu said:


> Rich Arab landowners were all to happy to sell their lands to immigrants.
> These were typically leased to poor arab farmers,
> and selling off freed up a lot of cash for luxuries.
> The farmers leases were terminated, and Jews moved in building kibbutzes.
> The Arab farmers were not pleased and started to attack the kibbutzim.
> 
> You should read up on the first and second Aliyahs, where it is estimated that a total of 75,000 Jews immigrated
> to Ottoman Palestine between 1882 and 1914.


I seriously doubt it. If you have a source/link or whatever i will read it.
Jews lived in big cities. Palestine was not one of them. 
Salonik
Istanbul
Izmir

These cities are nowhere near Palestine.

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## Major d1

Nilgiri said:


> Well done Myanmar, keep it up.
> 
> Push every last one of them out back to where they came from.
> 
> BD tears and weakness exposition is a very welcome sight.
> 
> Good job on giving the finger to any UN "officials" as well....and lean on China to support you where and if needed in the P5, so these BD "Opportunity is often missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" in love with them get a good resounding slap about some realities.



1- How you can support a terrorist state, where they are killing innocent muslims ? If we start killing armless minority hindu people in Bangladesh then it will be terrorist act for india but for maynmar u r giving congratulate to them ?

2- They come from their own homeland. If some say you give kashmir to the kasmiri people , will you accept that ? Or think if we push back minority indians to the India , why india shouldn't accept them?

3- Opportunity is often missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

5- UN is nothing in this case. And why we should learn it from china? What about india- Myanmar relationship ? When They kill our border area people everyday, then did you ask UK to give you a soundless slap with bad realities?


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## Major d1

Another genocide sponsored via UN-

U.S.-sponsored cease-fire agreement was brokered between the Serbs and Croats fighting in Croatia.via UN.


In 1991, Yugoslavia began to break up along ethnic lines. When the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) declared independence in 1992 the region quickly became the central theater of fighting.


The Serbs targeted Bosniak and Croatian civilians in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The war in Bosnia claimed the lives of an estimated 100,000 people and displaced more than two million.

The height of the killing took place in July 1995 when 8,000 Bosniaks were killed in what became known as the Srebrenica genocide, the largest massacre in Europe after the Holocaust.

*Precursors to Genocide-*

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed at the end of World War II, comprised of Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia with numerous ethnic groups making up the population. This included Orthodox Christian Serbs, Muslim Bosniaks, Catholic Croats, and Muslim ethnic Albanians.

Tensions in the Balkans were common, but once President Josip Broz Tito came to power in 1943, he ruled with an iron fist and was typically able to keep them in check through a  dictatorship. Though he was considered to be a “benevolent dictator” and at times quite ruthless, Tito’s efforts ensured that no ethnic group dominated the country, banning political mobilization and seeking to create a unified Yugoslav identity. However, after his death in 1980, the order he imposed began to unravel.

The various ethnic groups and republics inside Yugoslavia sought independence, and as the end of the Cold War neared, the country spiraled out of control. Serb nationalism was fueled as Slobodan Milosevic rose to power in 1987. Milosevic used nationalist feelings to his advantage, making changes to the constitution favoring Serbs, creating a military that was 90 percent Serbian, and extending his power over the country’s financial, media, and security structures. With the help of Serbian separatists in Bosnia and Croatia, he stoked ethnic tensions by convincing Serbian populations that other ethnic groups posed a threat to their rights.


*Ethnic Cleansing Begins*
Yugoslavia began to collapse in June 1991 when the republics of Slovenia and Croatia declared independence. The Yugoslav army, largely composed of Serbs, invaded Croatia under the guise of trying to protect ethnic Serb populations there. They took the city of Vukovar, carrying out mass executions of hundreds of Croat men, burying them in mass graves. This was the beginning of the ethnic cleansings that characterized the atrocities committed during the Yugoslav Wars.





Bosnia came next in April 1992. Following their independence, Serbian forces accompanied by Bosnian Serbs attempted to ethnically cleanse the territory of the Bosniaks. Using former Yugoslavian military equipment, they surrounded Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital city. Snipers hid in the hills and shot at civilians as they tried to get food and water. Mass executions, concentration camps, rape and sexual violence, and forced displacement were all extremely prevalent. The “siege of Sarajevo” is considered to be one of the most dramatic and representative parts Yugoslavia’s breakup, with thousands  killed over the course of nearly four years.

Attempts at mediation by the European Union were unsuccessful and the United Nations (UN) refused to intervene, aside from providing limited troop convoys for humanitarian aid. Later on, the UN tried to establish six “safe areas,” including Srebrenica and Sarajevo, but these were ineffective. Peacekeepers did not have the capabilities to truly protect the people seeking refuge there, and all except Sarajevo eventually fell under Serb control.

*Genocide at Srebrenica*
In July 1995, Serb forces, led by General Ratko Mladic, descended upon the town of Srebrenica and began shelling it. At this point, the enclave was protected by only 450 Dutch peacekeepers armed with light fuel and expired ammunition – their force was so weak that a Dutch commander had reported that the unit was no longer militarily operational a month prior. The peacekeepers requested support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but were denied. Srebrenica fell to the Serbs in one day.

Mladic expelled 25,000 women and children from the town, while his forces tried to hunt down approximately 15,000 Bosniak men who had tried to escape to safety in central Bosnia. Up to 3,000 were killed, either by gunshot or by decapitation, while trying to escape. Many Bosniaks sought refuge at a UN base in nearby Potocari, but were not safe there for long.

Serb forces caught up with them by the afternoon and the next day, buses arrived at Potocari to take them away, again separating the children and women from the men. Serb troops forced the Dutch peacekeepers to hand over their uniforms and helmets so that they could use them to lure civilians out of hiding and trick them into thinking they were headed to safety.

At the end of the four day massacre, up to 8,000 men and teenage boys had been killed, and many women were subject to torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. Thousands were buried in mass graves. In order to conceal their crimes, Serb forces dug up the original graves of many victims and moved them across a large piece of territory.

There were clear indications that an attack at Srebrenica was being planned, yet the international community did not equip the peacekeeping forces there with the support necessary to protect the thousands who either lost their lives or were terrorized. The atrocities committed at Srebrenica are considered to be the worst on European soil after the Holocaust.




*The Response*
While the war was widely covered in the press and individual policymakers at times took strong stands against human rights abuses in Bosnia, in general the UN, the European Union, the United States and Russia minimized the aggressive nature of the conflict and treated the fighting as a conflict between equal warring parties. Seeking to avoid the moral responsibilitiesof responding to a genocide, many of these countries referred to the conflict as “ethnic cleansing” rather than “genocide”.

*The U.S. Response*
Up until 1995, the American government refused to take the lead onBosnia. The U.S. resisted sending in their own troops, and also vetoed Security Council draft resolutions to increase the number of UN peacekeepers. During his campaign, Bill Clinton criticized the Bush administration for their lack of action, but when he was elected in 1992, his Administration followed the same pattern.

In 1995, American foreign policy toward Bosnia changed. Evidence of the atrocities being committed, including those at Srebrenica, was becoming common knowledge and the United States’ lack of action was becoming an embarrassment. President Clinton told his national security advisers that the war was “killing the U.S. position of strength in the war” and he did not want failure in Bosnia to tarnish his chances at re-election. Despite all efforts to keep American troops out of Europe, he eventually realized that there was no effective way to end the war without it.

*The International Response*
The UN was hesitant to directly fight the Bosnian Serbs for fear of threatening their neutrality between nations and groups. The international community finally responded to the war after Serb forces took the town of Zepa, in addition to dropping a bomb in a crowded Sarajevo market. Senior representatives of the United States and its allies agreed to deploy NATO forces to Gorazde and defend the town’s civilian population. This plan was later extended to include the cities of Bihac, Sarajevo and Tuzla.

In August 1995, after the Serbs refused to comply with a UN ultimatum, NATO forces in conjunction with Bosnian and Croatian forces began an aerial bombing campaign. With Serbia’s economy crippled by UN trade sanctions and its military forces under assault in Bosnia after three years of warfare, Milosevic agreed to enter negotiations that led to a ceasefire. By the end of the war, roughly 100,000 people had died.





*Aftermath*
In November 1995, the Dayton Accords were signed in Dayton, Ohio, officially ending the war in Bosnia. This peace agreement established two semi-autonomous entities within Bosnia-Herzegovina: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, inhabited primarily by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, and the Republika Srpska (which includes Srebrenica), dominated by Serbs, both with their own political structures, economies, and educational systems, though connected through a central government.





Refugees were guaranteed the right to return to their pre-war homes, but only a small number of Bosniaks opted to go back to Srebrenica, which had been re-inhabited by Bosnian Serbs who had also been internally displaced by the war. An influx of international assistance came after the fighting, including reconstruction efforts by non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, and foreign governments and militaries and over $14 billion in aid.

*Dayton’s Drawbacks*
The Dayton Accords were successful in stopping the violence and allowing the region to create some form of normality, but it has turned out to be a somewhat of band-aid solution that set the stage for further divisions between Bosnia’s ethnic groups. For instance, Bosnia has a three-member presidency requiring one Croat, one Bosniak, and one Serb to represent their constituencies, but because each member is able to veto legislation that is seen as threatening to his own group’s interests, it has been nearly impossible to come to consensus for most of the important issues at the central-government level. Furthermore, this type of system still excludes other minority groups in the country such as the Roma and Jews.

The fact is that the Dayton Accords were not meant to be a long-term solution to the problems of the country; they were meant to stop the killing and secure peace. Eventually they were supposed to be replaced with a more streamlined government structure. The hope was that in working together and creating a unified Bosnian identity, the mistrust between ethnic groups would fall away – this has not been the case. Though they may live side-by-side, Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs essentially lead segregated lives. People identify themselves through their ethnicity rather than their citizenship.

The legacy of the Dayton Accords is evident within Bosnia-Herzegovina, as its economic development has lagged behind its Balkan counterparts. Unemployment remains a problem for a large portion of the country, and corruption is very prevalent. The country is currently trying to join the European Union, but a failure on the part of Serb, Bosniak, and Croat leaders to agree on details for a reform program have delayed their application for membership.

*Criminal Tribunal*
The UN Security Council passed resolution 827 establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, Netherlands in May 1993, before the war had even ended, after they were briefed on reports of massacres, rape and torture, extreme violence in the cities, and massive suffering of the hundreds of thousands who had been expelled from their homes.

The ICTY was formed to end the impunity of the perpetrators of mass atrocities, and was the first tribunal to prosecute genocide. It also has given survivors of rape, torture, and other heinous crimes the opportunity to tell their stories of what they experienced and what happened to their loved ones and be heard.

The ICTY was slow to start. A chief prosecutor was not named until 1994, and even after, the governments of Serbia and Croatia refused to turn their war crimes suspects or share information with the tribunal until their membership to the EU was jeopardized due to their lack of cooperation.

NATO showed its weakness again when members failed to arrest suspects in Bosnia out of fear of endangering their forces. However, since delivering its first sentence in 1996, the ICTY has convicted more than 60 people involved with crimes against various ethnic groups in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. More than 160 have been charged, including high and mid-level political, military, and police leaders from multiple sides of the conflict.

It was ruled in 2001 that genocide occurred in Srebrenica, and in 2007 the International Court of Justice stated that Serbia violated the Genocide Convention by not doing enough to prevent it.

ormer leader, Slobodan Milosevicreceived 3 indictments from the ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo in 1999, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Croatia between 1991 and 1992, and genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. His trial, delayed multiple times due to his health, began in February 2002 and he pled not guilty to all 66 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. In 2006, he was found dead in his cell in The Hague, months before his trial was expected to end.

After evading arrest for over a decade, Ratko Mladic, the man accused of leading the siege of Sarajevo and orchestrating the genocide at Srebrenica, began his trial in 2012 and it is expected to end in 2015. He faces 11 charges, including 2 counts of genocide and has pled not guilty to all of them. His behavior in the courtroom has apparently ranged from unremorseful to sarcastic to mocking, at times making gestures at the witnesses. The defense portion of the trial began in 2014, arguing that he was simply following orders– a common justification by those who have committed mass atrocities.

*Finding Justice*
Many survivors have had to live their lives not knowing what happened to their family members. Over 20,000 people are still missing. When Serb forces dug up graves with bulldozers and trucks in Srebrenica in an attempt to move them to hide their crimes, many of the bodies were scattered. As such, finding the remaining missing persons has been extremely difficult. Those who are found are almost impossible to identify due to the condition of their remains.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton founded the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) to aid in the search and identification of missing persons found at disaster sites or war zones using forensic methods that matches the DNA of survivors to the unearthed remains. So far, the ICMP has been successful in identifying nearly 7,000 bodies in Srebrenica.


*Recognizing Genocide*
While both the ICTY and ICJ have considered the atrocities committed in the former Yugoslav region to constitute genocide, this has not been a shared sentiment around the world. Notably, both Russia and Serbia have denied that the Srebrenica massacre amounted to genocide.

In July 2015, the UN Security Council held a meeting in preparation for the 20th anniversary of Srebrenica, and reportedly Serbia asked Russia to veto a draft resolution that would formally condemn the massacre as genocide. Russia used its veto to kill the resolution, stating that calling the crimes a genocide would prompt further tensions in the region.

Serbia has acknowledged that the crimes at Srebrenica occurred but has never used the word genocide to describe them. Arrests for Srebrenica-related crimes were not made in Serbia until March of 2015. Denial also runs strong in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, with the Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik called Srebrenica, “the greatest deception of the 20th century.





U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power was a journalist in Sarajevo when the attack on Srebrenica occurred and a first-hand witness to the suffering that the war caused. In response to Russia’s veto, she said, “It mattered hugely to the families of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. Russia’s veto is heartbreaking for those families and it is a further stain on this Council’s record”.

Denialist rhetoric trivializes the experiences of victims and survivors, and minimizes the true weight of what occurred during the 1990s. Reconciliation cannot be possible without recognition of the crimes committed. Nothing can bring back their loved ones or erase their trauma, but by acknowledging these events as what they are, the survivors can begin the healing process and find closure for what they experienced.

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## Mage

Nilgiri said:


> Well done Myanmar, keep it up.
> 
> Push every last one of them out back to where they came from.
> 
> BD tears and weakness exposition is a very welcome sight.
> 
> Good job on giving the finger to any UN "officials" as well....and lean on China to support you where and if needed in the P5, so these BD twerps in love with them get a good resounding slap about some realities.


Welcome back.


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## Banglar Bir

*UN accuses Myanmar of Rohingya cleansing*

*UNHCR Bangladesh chief John McKissick tells BBC Bangla*





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1003181479791691






Accusing Myanmar for ethnic killing, a senior UN official told British Broadcasting media BBC that the government wants to rid the country of its Muslim minority.


Efforts to resolve the issue must focus on "the root cause" inside Myanmar, McKissick, head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Bangladesh told BBC Bangla in Cox's Bazar today.

Armed forces have been killing Rohingya in Rakhine state, forcing many to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, he said.

The government of Myanmar has been conducting counter-insurgency operations since coordinated attacks on border guards in October.

However, Naypyidaw denies reports of atrocities.

He said the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police had "engaged in collective punishment of Rohingya minority" after the murders of nine border guards on October 9 which some politicians blamed on a Rohingya militant group.


Myanmar security forces force Rohingyas to cross the river

Security forces have been "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river" into Bangladesh, McKissick said.

"Now it's very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar," he told BBC.

Earlier today, the foreign ministry summoned Myanmar's ambassador to express "deep concern" over the military operation in northern Rakhine state.

It said "desperate people" were crossing the border seeking safety and shelter and asked Myanmar to "ensure the integrity of its border".

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released satellite images which it said showed that more than 1,200 homes had been razed in Rohingya villages over the past six weeks.


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## mb444

Nilgiri said:


> You are free to declare all BD Hindus as non-citizens of Bangladesh. We will take them in.
> 
> The issue here is that Burma has declared these people as non-citizens and illegal tresspassers....
> 
> Now you are free to do the exact same thing with BD Hindus and formalise what Bangladesh is.
> 
> We will take them in, and then we will have a nice free hand to deal with you.
> 
> But SHW and most BD people know better than to do that.
> 
> So sorry the situation does not apply to BD Hindus at all. I mean look at your lot desperate to claim heritage over Bengali Hindus in India that were born in areas within BD today. You don't get to pick and choose which Bengalis are actually Bangladeshi...claim the famous successful ones in India as yours and counter-claim rohingya have nothing to do with BD.
> 
> Rohingya are clearly a recent bunch of immigrants. @Aung Zaya has clearly delineated and explained that the tribe of Burmese Muslims there originally are different from Rohingya.
> 
> They must return and yes China will veto any anti-Burma legislation resolution in the security council if it even comes to that. Burma and China are strong friends. Burma has good relations with India too.
> 
> Bangladesh will also have good relations with Burma if it accepts the Rohingya are Bangladeshi illegals and takes them back. That is your decision to make. In the mean time Burma has every right to push the illegals out of its country.
> 
> You can protest, but they will continue. You can also run crying to China to pick you over Burma....just prepare to get shut down and ignored fast and hard. India will also definitely not take your side either.
> 
> You made your bed, now go sleep in it.




One assume you have been kicked in the head or something as your posts are even more retarded than normal. Have you had a bit of a hard time your call centre job?

What has the rohingya to do with Bangladeshi Hindus? Why would BD harm any of its citizens as a result of the actions of a foreign fascist state.

Suggest you go cool off. Tomorrow is another day and you never know you may actually get to live your dream and help a little old lady sort out her order for socks.

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## mb444

Nilgiri said:


> Read the post I was replying to idiot.
> 
> Wow you are pretty dumb. Must be the 70% poverty rate among BD scumbags in UK.




Sure Apuu... thank you....come again....

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## halupridol

rohingya??,,,ah,u mean illegal bangladesi immigrants

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## Banglar Bir

AJ+
11 hrs · 


“They raped my daughter and killed her.”

Rohingya Muslim women are accusing Myanmar's army of rape and sexual violence.





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=843700072438168


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## Arthur

Nilgiri said:


> Well done Myanmar, keep it up.
> 
> Push every last one of them out back to where they came from.
> 
> BD tears and weakness exposition is a very welcome sight.
> 
> Good job on giving the finger to any UN "officials" as well....and lean on China to support you where and if needed in the P5, so these BD twerps in love with them get a good resounding slap about some realities.





Nilgiri said:


> Read the post I was replying to idiot.
> 
> Wow you are pretty dumb. Must be the 70% poverty rate among BD scumbags in UK.





Nilgiri said:


> Nah no one comes again to butthole BD:



@waz @WAJsal
Racism is prohibited in this forum isn't it? This guy gets banned for this again & again, yet he repeats the same thing again & again. Can you do something that is little more permanent?

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## Nilgiri

LOL idiot doesn't even know what racism is.

Learn the difference between being anti-BD and racist stupid.

Bangladeshi is not a "race".

The last ban I got had nothing to do with this filthy excuse of a subforum either, read my profile page conversations if you are so obsessed with me dumb twit.

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## Allah Akbar

halupridol said:


> rohingya??,,,ah,u mean illegal bangladesi immigrants


May be they are like the illegal Hindus in bd


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## TopCat

warrantofficer said:


> May be they are like the illegal Hindus in bd


@halupridol
These are Indian north easterner marginalized by main lander. They are constantly under severe discrimination like what Rohingyas face in Burma.


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## Nabil365

Khan saheb said:


> @waz @WAJsal
> Racism is prohibited in this forum isn't it? This guy gets banned for this again & again, yet he repeats the same thing again & again. Can you do something that is little more permanent?





Nilgiri said:


> LOL idiot doesn't even know what racism is.
> 
> Learn the difference between being anti-BD and racist stupid.
> 
> Bangladeshi is not a "race".
> 
> The last ban I got had nothing to do with this filthy excuse of a subforum either, read my profile page conversations if you are so obsessed with me dumb twit.


Anyways Bengali are far superior race compared to tamils like you.


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## Luffy 500

@TopCat @warrantofficer @extra terrestrial @Loki @mb444 @kobiraaz @Major d1 @maroofz2000 @asad71
@Philia

How many of you guys believe in what this chauvanist bigot just said :



Nabil365 said:


> Anyways Bengali are far superior race compared to tamils like you.

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## mb444

Luffy 500 said:


> @TopCat @warrantofficer @extra terrestrial @Loki @mb444 @kobiraaz @Major d1 @maroofz2000 @asad71
> @Philia
> 
> How many of you guys believe in what this chauvanist bigot just said :



The statement above was a tongue and cheek response to the hinduva troll Nilgiri who is enjoying murder of innocent and defenceless people. 

There is nothing for me to comment here with respect to Nabil365.

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## Sher-e-India

Luffy 500 said:


> @TopCat @warrantofficer @extra terrestrial @Loki @mb444 @kobiraaz @Major d1 @maroofz2000 @asad71
> @Philia
> 
> How many of you guys believe in what this chauvanist bigot just said :


Bangladeshis accuse Punjabis of racism, but themselves racist lol

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## Luffy 500

Sher-e-India said:


> Bangladeshis accuse Punjabis of racism, but themselves racist lol



Not all. Like every society it has its fair share of racists and bigots. PAK also has its fair share of bigots and so does India. infact the ruling party in India fall in that category. A result of learning from the west and globalization. It should be common sense that societies are NOT monolithic. Its really amusing that this common sense seem to be lacking on social media.





mb444 said:


> The statement above was a tongue and cheek response to the hinduva troll Nilgiri who is enjoying murder of innocent and defenceless people.
> 
> There is nothing for me to comment here with respect to Nabil365.



I know what you mean bro and i know you don't share nabil's views. I tagged you and other BDs as I believe at least some of you don't believe in what that nabil guy said. But some definitely do share nabil's view.

Btw that nabil guy is not much different than the hindtuva troll he quoted. He is a xenophobic bigot much like hindutvadis and far right. Take a look at some of his posts :

His opinions on Rohingyas and Biharis:





Nabil365 said:


> My request to Bangladesh government,pls close the border or else Myanmar might see this as a opportunity to push their people into our land.





Nabil365 said:


> Burden on our economy and none of our business.






Nabil365 said:


> Why should we?





Nabil365 said:


> Bihari ain't our concern.Bengali and biharis have nothing in common not counting religion.






Nabil365 said:


> Give me the chapter and verse.Just to verify.Too many jamaati propaganda these days.





Nabil365 said:


> Bihari brothers?No one cares about them.We are more close to our west bengali brothers in terms of culture and language.



What's the difference between him and hindutvadi bigots or the far right in the west? All hate muslims and justify morally questionable policies of their government under the guise of cliche western taught rhetoric of "national interest" and "economic burden".

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## Homo Sapiens

*https://www.yahoo.com/news/myanmar-crisis-sparks-muslim-protests-asian-capitals-114833792.html*
*Myanmar crisis sparks Muslim protests in Asian capitals*



Shafiqul Alam
AFPNovember 25, 2016





View photos
Ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugees shout slogans during a protest against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, outside the Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on November 25, 2016 (AFP Photo/Manan Vatsyayana)
Dhaka (AFP) - Angry Muslim protesters took to the streets from Jakarta to Dhaka on Friday to denounce Myanmar over allegations of indiscriminate killing and rape in a military crackdown on the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.

Around 5,000 Bangladeshi Muslims demonstrated in the capital Dhaka after Friday prayers, with hundreds more protesting in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok to accuse Myanmar of ethnic cleansing and genocide in its northern Rakhine state.

Muslim-majority Malaysia's Cabinet also issued a statement condemning the violence, an unusually strong criticism against a fellow member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"Malaysia... calls on the government of Myanmar to take all necessary actions to address the alleged ethnic cleansing," the statement said.

It said the Myanmar ambassador would be summoned over the crisis and that Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman would meet with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other top Myanmar officials "at the earliest possible date."

Up to 30,000 Rohingya have abandoned their homes in Myanmar to escape the unfolding violence, the UN says, after troops poured into the narrow strip where they live earlier this month.

Rohingya are denied citizenship and subject to harsh restrictions in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where many view them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, though many have lived been in Myanmar for generations.

The Dhaka protesters gathered outside the Baitul Mokarram mosque, the country’s largest, to demand an end to the violence, denounce Suu Kyi, and calling for Bangladesh to accept fleeing Rohingya.

Around 500 Malaysians and Rohingya marched through a heavy tropical downpour from a Kuala Lumpur mosque to Myanmar's embassy carrying banners denouncing the Rakhine "genocide."

Abu Tahir, a 60-year-old Rohingya man who demonstrated with a chain coiled around his body, said he had been cut off from his family in Rakhine since he fled two years ago.

"The Rohingya are being treated like dogs, and are being killed," he said, tears rolling down his face.

Amir Hamzah, 60, who heads the Malaysian Muslims Coalition, an NGO, said "the people of Malaysia strongly condemn" Myanmar's actions.

"We want an immediate stop to the violence. This is cruel," he said.

In Jakarta, around 200 demonstrators from Indonesian Islamic organisations protested outside Myanmar's embassy.

Chanting "Allahu Akbar! (God is greater!)", they called for the government of Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim nation -- to break off diplomatic ties with Myanmar and for Suu Kyi's 1991 Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked.

"This genocide is happening to women, children and the elderly," said Maya Hayati, a 34-year-old housewife.

"If they (Myanmar) don't want them, then it's probably better to send them to another country. Don't torture them like that in their own country."

The UN says the stateless Rohingya are among the world's most persecuted minorities.

The UN refugee agency says well over 120,000 have fled Rakhine since a previous bout of bloody unrest in 2012, many braving a perilous sea journey to Malaysia.

Last year, thousands were stranded at sea after a well-worn trafficking route through Thailand collapsed following a police crackdown sparked by the discovery of brutal human-trafficking camps along the Malaysia border.

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## Homo Sapiens

*ttps://www.yahoo.com/news/malaysia-summon-myanmar-envoy-rohingya-crackdown-protests-mount-091737553.html*
*Malaysia to summon Myanmar envoy on Rohingya as protests mount*



By Joseph Sipalan and Ruma Paul
ReutersNovember 25, 2016
By Joseph Sipalan and Ruma Paul

KUALA LUMPUR/DHAKA (Reuters) - Malaysia will summon Myanmar's ambassador over the crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in northwestern Rakhine state, it said on Friday, as protesters across Southeast Asia demonstrated against the rising violence.

The conflict in Rakhine has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh and poses a serious challenge to leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of national reconciliation.

At least 86 people are reported to have been killed in escalating violence that has displaced about 30,000 in the region's most serious bloodshed since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in 2012.

The Malaysian foreign ministry called on all parties involved to refrain from actions that could aggravate the situation.

"Malaysia also calls on the government of Myanmar to take all the necessary actions to address the alleged ethnic cleansing in the northern Rakhine State," the ministry said in a statement.

"The ministry will summon the ambassador of Myanmar to convey the government of Malaysia’s concern over this issue," it added, without giving a timeframe.

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims marched in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, condemning the bloody crackdown on the persecuted minority and criticizing Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi for her inaction on the matter.

Protesters demanded humanitarian aid for Rakhine, and urged that the military seize all attackers.

"The Myanmar government says the claims are all fabricated but they are not fabricated," Rohingya community leader Muhammed Noor told reporters, referring to reports of incidents of killing, rapes of wives and daughters and home burnings.

"This movement has to continue, to pressure the government to stop the killing."

OTHER PROTESTS

This week, Muslim-majority Malaysia said it was considering pulling out from a regional soccer tournament co-hosted by Myanmar in protest against the crackdown. But it later decided to continue. [nL4N1DQ1CI]

*Protests were also held simultaneously in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand, in the capital of Bangladesh and in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.*

*Protesters in Jakarta called for the Nobel panel to cancel its award to Suu Kyi.*
*
Indonesia is "ready and willing" to help Myanmar initiate dialogue, its foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, said this week.*

Many among the Buddhist majority in Myanmar view its 1.1 million Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
*
Several thousand of Bangladeshis took to the streets in the capital on Friday in protest against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.*

Leaders and activists from several Islamic groups chanted slogan “Stop killing Rohingya Muslims” and burned an effigy of Suu Kyi as they marched in Dhaka in front of a national masque after prayers amid tight security.

They also demanded that Bangladesh’s border be opened to Rohingya Muslims fleeing the violence in Myanmar.

Bangladesh’s foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has said the South Asian country is allowing in some of the Rohingya Muslims on humanitarian grounds but it won’t open the border with Myanmar.

Persecution and poverty led thousands of Rohingya to flee Myanmar following the violence between Buddhists and Muslims there four years ago. Many of them were smuggled or trafficked to Thailand, Malaysia and beyond.

(Additional reporting by Johan Purnama in Jakarta and Cod Satrusayang in Bangkok; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Tom Heneghan)


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## Allah Akbar

Luffy 500 said:


> @TopCat @warrantofficer @extra terrestrial @Loki @mb444 @kobiraaz @Major d1 @maroofz2000 @asad71
> @Philia
> 
> How many of you guys believe in what this chauvanist bigot just said :


He is probably inspired by rajnikant . Tamil people live in fantasy . Nobody took him seriously .


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## Homo Sapiens

*http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...gladesh-protest-deaths-Myanmars-Rohingya.html*
*Thousands in Asia protest persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya*
By Associated Press

Published: 13:17 GMT, 25 November 2016 | Updated: 13:18 GMT, 25 November 2016




e-mail
*5* shares
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Thousands of Bangladeshis marched in the capital's streets Friday to protest the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, one of several similar rallies in the region.

Chanting "Stop killing Rohingya Muslims," they marched in Dhaka as violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state escalated, forcing thousands to leave their homes.

The protesters from several Islamic groups burned an effigy of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a flag of Myanmar. They carried banners reading "Open border to save the Rohingya." Bangladesh's southeast borders Myanmar.






+13
Bangladeshi activists of several Islamic groups burn an effigy of Myanmar's Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2016. Chanting "Stop killing Rohingya Muslims," they marched in Dhaka amid tight security Friday as the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state escalated, forcing thousands to leave their homes. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

Organizers said some 10,000 protesters joined the rally in Dhaka. Smaller protests occurred in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Also, rights group Amnesty International asked Bangladesh not to forcibly send fleeing Rohingya back to Myanmar.

*Up to 500,000 undocumented Rohingya have been living in Bangladesh after arriving from Myanmar in waves since the 1970s. Some 33,000 registered Rohingya refugees are lodged in two camps in southern Cox's Bazar district.*

Local media reported that a few thousand Rohingya Muslims have entered Bangladesh this week with the help of smugglers, but authorities didn't confirm that.

Maj. Gen. Abul Hossain, director general of the Bangladesh Border Guard, said on Friday that "only some" arrived by boats.

On Thursday, Bangladeshi border guards did not allow at least a dozen boats carrying Rohingya to enter Bangladesh, said Lt. Col. Abu Jar Al Jahid, a commanding officer of the border agency in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area.

Amnesty International condemned the persecution of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar and Bangladesh's unwillingness to accept them.

"The Rohingya are being squeezed by the callous actions of both the Myanmar and Bangladesh authorities. Fleeing collective punishment in Myanmar, they are being pushed back by the Bangladeshi authorities. Trapped between these cruel fates, their desperate need for food, water and medical care is not being addressed," said Champa Patel, Amnesty International's South Asia director.

Myanmar's security forces are mounting indiscriminate reprisal attacks against Rohingya in response to an Oct. 9 assault on three border posts that killed nine border officers, the rights group said in a statement on Thursday.

The group said it has heard accounts of Myanmar's security forces, led by the military, firing at villagers from helicopter gunships, torching hundreds of homes, carrying out arbitrary arrests and raping women and girls.






+13
Bangladeshi activists of several Islamic groups march in a protest rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2016. Chanting "Stop killing Rohingya Muslims," they marched in Dhaka amid tight security Friday as the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state escalated, forcing thousands to leave their homes. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)






+13
Bangladeshi activists of several Islamic groups march in a protest rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2016. Chanting "Stop killing Rohingya Muslims," they marched in Dhaka amid tight security Friday as the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state escalated, forcing thousands to leave their homes. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)






+13
Bangladeshi activists of several Islamic groups shout slogans during a protest rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2016. Chanting "Stop killing Rohingya Muslims," they marched in Dhaka amid tight security Friday as the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state escalated, forcing thousands to leave their homes. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)






+13
Rohingya protesters hold posters during a demonstration in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Nov. 25, 2016, against the persecution of Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)






+13
A Rohingya protester shows his mobil phone displaying a portrait of Myanmar's Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi with her mouth covered with a sandal during a demonstration in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Nov. 25, 2016 against the persecution of Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)






+13
A Muslim woman wears a mask of Myanmar's Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi during a rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2016. The Myanmar government does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, though they have lived in the country for generations. Persecution of Rohinyga has escalated in the past several years and they face violence instigated by Buddhist hard-liners and institutionalized discrimination. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)






+13
Rohingya protesters demonstrate in front of Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Nov. 25, 2016 against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...t-deaths-Myanmars-Rohingya.html#ixzz4R2G1r9lM
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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## Homo Sapiens

+13
Bangladeshi activists of several Islamic groups attend a protest rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2016. The Myanmar government does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, though they have lived in the country for generations. Persecution of Rohinyga has escalated in the past several years and they face violence instigated by Buddhist hardliners and institutionalized discrimination. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)






+13
Rohingya asylum seekers rest at a temporary shelter in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2016. The Myanmar government does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, though they have lived in the country for generations. Persecution of Rohingya has escalated in the past several years and they face violence instigated by Buddhist hardliners and institutionalized discrimination. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)






+13
Bangladeshi activists of several Islamic groups burn an effigy of Myanmar's Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and a flag of Myanmar during a protest rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2016. Chanting "Stop killing Rohingya Muslims," they marched in Dhaka amid tight security Friday as the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state escalated, forcing thousands to leave their homes. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...t-deaths-Myanmars-Rohingya.html#ixzz4R2GTjrXV 
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


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## Banglar Bir

*'They raped us one by one,' says Rohingya woman who fled Myanmar*
AFP | Updated: Nov 25, 2016, 06.22 PM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...otification=true&TOI_browsernotification=true

*HIGHLIGHTS*

Widespread allegations of rape have raised fears that Myanmar's security forces are systematically using sexual violence against the stateless Rohingya.
The violence has forced thousands to flee, prompting a UN official to accuse Myanmar of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" of the Muslim minority.






Muslim police women stand guard during a Muslim rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, outside the... News App. Click here to download it for your device.

TEKNAF, Bangladesh: The brutal gang rape that Habiba and her sister endured is a story that is becoming depressingly familiar among the thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh to escape the violence of Myanmar's soldiers.

"They tied both of us to the bed and raped us one by one," said 20-year-old Habiba, who has now found shelter with a Rohingya refugee family a few kilometers (miles) from the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

"We're almost starving here. But at least no one is coming here to kill or torture," said Hashim Ullah, Habiba's older brother who escaped with his sisters.

Habiba and her sister Samira, 18, say they were raped in their home in Udang village by troops who then burnt down their house.

"They torched most of the houses, killed numerous people including our father and raped many young girls," said Habiba, who agreed to be identified in this story.

"One of the soldiers told us before leaving that they will kill us if they see us around the next time they come here. Then they torched our house."

Widespread allegations of rape have raised fears that Myanmar's security forces are systematically using sexual violence against the stateless Rohingya.

The violence has forced thousands to flee, prompting a UN official to accuse Myanmar of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" of the Muslim minority.

Ullah and his siblings escaped after taking the family's $400 savings and walking to the Naf River that separates southern Bangladesh from Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The trio spent four days hiding in the hills with hundreds of other Rohingya families, before they found a boat owner willing to take them to Bangladesh.

"He asked for all of our money," Ullah said.

The boat owner left them on a small island near the border.

The siblings walked across the scrub land until they found a Rohingya family who offered them shelter.

Similar stories of violence and dispossession fill the rows of plastic-roofed shacks that have become the only refuge for thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Rakhine state.

The escapees have told of gang rapes, torture and murder being carried out by Myanmar troops in the small strip of land that has been under military control after deadly raids on police border posts last month.

Foreign journalists and independent investigators have been barred from entering the area.

While the military and government have rejected the charges, rights groups have long accused the military of using rape as a weapon of war in several other ethnic conflicts which simmer in the country's borderlands.

Thailand-based NGO the Womens League of Burma has documented 92 cases of sexual violence by fighters between 2010 and 2015, which they say have been used "as a means of shaming and destroying ethnic communities".

Fears of Muslim men violating Buddhist women have also long stirred the hatred of hardline nationalists in Myanmar.

Allegations Muslims raped Buddhists sparked sectarian clashes in 2012 that drove tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps and riots two years later near Mandalay.

But the volume of rape allegation among the Rohingya fleeing Rakhine suggest a pattern of abuse by Myanmar's army beyond anything documented before.

Mujibullah arrived in Bangladesh on Monday with his sister Muhsena.

The pair fled after four soldiers tried to rape her. The soldiers were tying Muhsena, 20, to a pole in their village when Mujibullah intervened, receiving a brutal beating in exchange.

"One soldier tried to hack me with a knife as I threw myself to them, begging them not to destroy her life," Mujibullah said, showing an inch-long wound on his palm.

Muhsena stood close to her brother as he spoke to AFP, but she choked up every time she tried to speak.


Hundreds of thousands of registered Rohingya refugees have been living on the Bangladesh side of the border for decades, having fled violence and poverty across the border.

In Myanmar the Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants and labelled "Bengali", even though many have lived there for generations.

RELATED

Rohingya refugees of Myanmar being radicalised: Cops
Suu Kyi oversees panel on plight of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims
12 dead in clashes in Myanmar's restive Rakhine: State media
Obama to discuss sanctions policy with Myanmar's Suu Kyi


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## mb444

Luffy500,

My comment was solely in respect of the comment you quoted by a bill.

I do not share nabils view in the threads that you have quoted.

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## A.P. Richelieu

Ottoman123 said:


> I seriously doubt it. If you have a source/link or whatever i will read it.
> Jews lived in big cities. Palestine was not one of them.
> Salonik
> Istanbul
> Izmir
> 
> These cities are nowhere near Palestine.



The British did a survey of Palestine, including the history since the beginning of the Mandate.

http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/A-Survey-of-Palestine/Story6479.html

In that, they note that the Arabs complain that Jews are allowed to purchase land from Arabs.

(From page 38)






There are plenty of Israeli sources, but i looked for sources which are pro palestinian.

https://attendingtheworld.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/palestine-and-the-first-zionist-colony-1878/

That claims that 60,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine between 1878 and 1914.


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## padamchen

Why is Bangladesh not taking in her people? They should. No ifs or buts.

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## waz

I feel sorry for these poor folks. It's better to just leave rather face this every day.


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## padamchen

waz said:


> I feel sorry for these poor folks. It's better to just leave rather face this every day.



But leave and go where?


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## waz

padamchen said:


> But leave and go where?



I have no idea, Bangladesh? It is the closest safe country.

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## extra terrestrial

Luffy 500 said:


> @TopCat @warrantofficer @extra terrestrial @Loki @mb444 @kobiraaz @Major d1 @maroofz2000 @asad71
> @Philia
> 
> How many of you guys believe in what this chauvanist bigot just said :



Well, the guy he was replying to has a notorious history in this forum... So couldn't blame him really...



waz said:


> I have no idea, Bangladesh? It is the closest safe country.



Well, not that I'm against the Rohingyas taking refuge in Bangladesh, but I guess there should be more efforts to tackle the root cause than the aftermath...


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## Gandh brandi



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## Nilgiri

Luffy 500 said:


> @TopCat @warrantofficer @extra terrestrial @Loki @mb444 @kobiraaz @Major d1 @maroofz2000 @asad71
> @Philia
> 
> How many of you guys believe in what this chauvanist bigot just said :



Its ok they are just mad I exposed repeatedly that SHW is a dhobi slave of India.

Such comments are more a commentary on themselves than anything else.....BD subforum is a cesspool, always has and always will be. A real pity.



Sybaris Caeser said:


>

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## waz

extra terrestrial said:


> Well, not that I'm against the Rohingyas taking refuge in Bangladesh, but I guess there should be more efforts to tackle the root cause than the aftermath...



Of course my friend, it's just when you see what is going on safety must come first.

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## Nilgiri

waz said:


> Of course my friend, it's just when you see what is going on safety must come first.



Waz bhai, what is your opinion on Pakistan selling JF-17 to Myanmar?

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## waz

Nilgiri said:


> Waz bhai, what is your opinion on Pakistan selling JF-17 to Myanmar?



You know what bhai it's like people said business and other ties have trumped this issue. Pakistan has extensive contacts with the Burmese military, but then again these have been there for decades. I would like Pakistan to talk to Burma about this, or at least guarantee the safety of civilians. But then again who am I to tell Burma about anything, it's their country.

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## kasper95

why ti depend on UN,you guys have OIC,make use of it for something,there are so many muslim countries.why cant they take some.

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## LA se Karachi

Nilgiri said:


> Waz bhai, what is your opinion on Pakistan selling JF-17 to Myanmar?




Are JF-17s specifically being used to kill Rohingyas? Pakistan deciding not to sell JF-17s to Myanmar will not stop the Burmese from killing Rohingyas. Pakistan cannot stop or slow that.

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## UKBengali

LA se Karachi said:


> Are JF-17s specifically being used to kill Rohingyas? Pakistan deciding not to sell JF-17s to Myanmar will not stop the Burmese from killing Rohingyas. Pakistan cannot stop or slow that.



Symbolism more than anything else.

Pakistan can choose not to do business with this nasty regime.


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## Pakistani E

I don't understand why these people are not given refuge by Bangladesh and India en masse? With my limited understanding, weren't these guys originally from the areas that now are part of Bangladesh and India and migrated to Myanmar? 

And I can see that Indains definitely leave no opportunity to drag Pakistan in to this. Well Pakistan has given refuge to quiet a few Rohingyas. To be honest with you, there isn't much more that Pakistan can do except provide refuge. The JF-17s are not being used to bomb these people, Pakistan alone isn't the chawki daar of the Ummah, the other richer and more influential countries could easily bring this up in U.N or provide some sort of relief to these people, but they've done nil themselves. 

Last time I checked there are 200,000 Rohingyas living in Pakistan compared to India or Bangladesh where these people are originally from. Maybe it is these countries that should grow a pair and accept these poor people back?

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## Nilgiri

LA se Karachi said:


> Are JF-17s specifically being used to kill Rohingyas? Pakistan deciding not to sell JF-17s to Myanmar will not stop the Burmese from killing Rohingyas. Pakistan cannot stop or slow that.



Well it makes Pakistan position somewhat lose ethically from the "ummah" perspective. Thats why I asked.

But I actually support Pakistan seeing beyond this and making the pragmatic decision. "Ummah" has done much to cooperate with India after all.....KSA even bestowed their highest honour on Modi.

I mean China is going to keep arming Myanmar, with or without Pakistan cooperation. Same with India, we have good relations with Myanmar military as well....they buy our products too. So I don't mean anything from that standpoint really, just checking if any Pakistanis have any issues with this policy.

Has Pakistan made any official comment on the current rohingya tensions?



Pakistani Exile said:


> I don't understand why these people are not given refuge by Bangladesh and India en masse? With my limited understanding, weren't these guys originally from the areas that now are part of Bangladesh and India and migrated to Myanmar?
> 
> And I can see that Indains definitely leave no opportunity to drag Pakistan in to this. Well Pakistan has given refuge to quiet a few Rohingyas. To be honest with you, there isn't much more that Pakistan can do except provide refuge. The JF-17s are not being used to bomb these people, Pakistan alone isn't the chawki daar of the Ummah, the other richer and more influential countries could easily bring this up in U.N or provide some sort of relief to these people, but they've done nil themselves.
> 
> Last time I checked there are 200,000 Rohingyas living in Pakistan compared to India or Bangladesh where these people are originally from. Maybe it is these countries that should grow a pair and accept these poor people back?



Why should India taken in any? We host enough illegals as it is, that we are seeking to deport back.

These people (Rohingya) are Bangladeshi illegals. Burma has given citizenship to its original Arakan Muslim tribes.

Bangladesh should certainly take in these illegals, and all their illegals that their neighbours are fed up with.


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## Pakistani E

Nilgiri said:


> Why should India taken in any? We host enough illegals as it is, that we are seeking to deport back.
> 
> These people (Rohingya) are Bangladeshi illegals. Burma has given citizenship to its original Arakan Muslim tribes.
> 
> Bangladesh should certainly take in these illegals, and all their illegals that their neighbours are fed up with.



These won't be illegals in India, Indian Bengal and what is now Bangladesh is where these people come from. If India is truly a secular state which does not distinguish between religious groups then it must accept these people back. I mean if there are enough Indians who actively campaign for Roma people because they migrated over a thousand years ago from India to Europe, why can't Indians campaign for these people who left barely 200~ years? And religion shouldn't really be an issue since Romas aren't actually Hindus anymore either but I've met Indians who get very emotional when Romas are persecuted in Europe. I don't see why India doesn't have a moral responsibility to look after these people as well if the same is the case for Romas.

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## LA se Karachi

UKBengali said:


> Symbolism more than anything else.




Right, so it won't actually accomplish anything significant. 



UKBengali said:


> Pakistan can choose not to do business with this nasty regime.




It's not really the "regime". The Burmese people themselves are the biggest issue. Many monks have joined in too and are some of the worst offenders. The regime itself has nothing to gain from these mass killings. It makes them and their country look bad. The Burmese people hate the Rohingyas and support ethnic cleansing, that's the issue. Pakistan refusing to deal with this regime will not change that.


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## Nilgiri

Pakistani Exile said:


> These won't be illegals in India, Indian Bengal and what is now Bangladesh is where these people come from. If India is truly a secular state which does not distinguish between religious groups then it must accept these people back. I mean if there are enough Indians who actively campaign for Roma people because they migrated over a thousand years ago from India to Europe, why can't Indians campaign for these people who left barely 200~ years? And religion shouldn't really be an issue since Romas aren't actually Hindus anymore either but I've met Indians who get very emotional when Romas are persecuted in Europe. I don't see why India doesn't have a moral responsibility to look after these people as well if the same is the case for Romas.



They never came from Indian part of bengal, we reject that. Their language is a chittagongian dialect, Chittagong is part of Bangladesh today. They can all be resettled there.

India has nothing to do with these people at all. The ones that want to come to India can migrate legally on our terms....we will analyse their utility and integration ability on case by case basis.


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## Pakistani E

Nilgiri said:


> They never came from Indian part of bengal, we reject that. Their language is a chittagongian dialect, Chittagong is part of Bangladesh today. They can all be resettled there.
> 
> India has nothing to do with these people at all. The ones that want to come to India can migrate legally on our terms....we will analyse their utility and integration ability on case by case basis.



Dialects don't matter, a Punjabi is a punjabi no matter what dialect he speaks. To be honest, most of them definitely do probably come from what is now Bangladesh, but I am glad you accept that India should at least accept those who are willing to peacefully relocate to India. I hope the Bangladeshis can also accept this, especially the ones who are constantly lecturing Pakistan on humanity etc because of the past.

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## Attila the Hun

A.P. Richelieu said:


> The British did a survey of Palestine, including the history since the beginning of the Mandate.
> 
> http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/A-Survey-of-Palestine/Story6479.html
> 
> In that, they note that the Arabs complain that Jews are allowed to purchase land from Arabs.
> 
> (From page 38)
> 
> View attachment 355603
> 
> 
> There are plenty of Israeli sources, but i looked for sources which are pro palestinian.
> 
> https://attendingtheworld.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/palestine-and-the-first-zionist-colony-1878/
> 
> That claims that 60,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine between 1878 and 1914.


Not having that. 60,000 sounds too much 
There wasn't much Jews in the empire, Ottoman Empire was poor towards the end, Jews moved away.
But you're telling me a lot moved to a desert land in the middle of nowhere? Jews did live there, but very small in numbers.certainly not 60,000


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## Nilgiri

Pakistani Exile said:


> Dialects don't matter, a Punjabi is a punjabi no matter what dialect he speaks. To be honest, most of them definitely do probably come from what is now Bangladesh, but I am glad you accept that India should at least accept those who are willing to peacefully relocate to India. I hope the Bangladeshis can also accept this, especially the ones who are constantly lecturing Pakistan on humanity etc because of the past.



The greater burden lies on Bangladesh to accept they are their people. They are from the chittagong area if you look at the history and their language.

Dialects do matter if they identify a specific region a people originate from.

That is how and why India took back many Tamils from Sri Lanka in 1964....but other Tamils stayed in SL since they clearly had way more established SL roots....manifested in dialect and culture.

Surely Bangladesh can do the same with Burma? Any Rohingya that can trace their family lineage to Indian bengal or are not muslim etc....India definitely will take a strong look at accomodating into India. But I can tell you right now thats a tiny tiny handful, most are Chittagong BD people who spread over there during British Raj and later.

Bangladesh has already saddled us with many of their illegals, we are not taking in anymore.....those that can migrate legally can potentially be accepted, but that will be on our terms and much of that depends on how BD accepts its own illegals back from India....many millions of them. Rohingya do not get any automatic pass into India.....Chittagong is part of Bangladesh......if it elected to join Indian union during partition, then that would be a different story today. But that stays a hypothetical.

But yes you are right about BD lecturing you and others from their self-declared holier than thou position....but this subforum should be an eye-opening experience about what they (BD elite) are really like....it certainly was for me. They are not good at implementing their morality in real life....you can look at their actions against the CHT tribes as well to get an idea of this.

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## Pakistani E

Nilgiri said:


> The greater burden lies on Bangladesh to accept they are their people. They are from the chittagong area if you look at the history and their language.
> 
> Dialects do matter if they identify a specific region a people originate from.
> 
> That is how and why India took back many Tamils from Sri Lanka in 1964....but other Tamils stayed in SL since they clearly had way more established SL roots....manifested in dialect and culture.
> 
> Surely Bangladesh can do the same with Burma? Any Rohingya that can trace their family lineage to Indian bengal or are not muslim etc....India definitely will take a strong look at accomodating into India. But I can tell you right now thats a tiny tiny handful, most are Chittagong BD people who spread over there during British Raj and later.
> 
> Bangladesh has already saddled us with many of their illegals, we are not taking in anymore.....those that can migrate legally can potentially be accepted, but that will be on our terms and much of that depends on how BD accepts its own illegals back from India....many millions of them. Rohingya do not get any automatic pass into India.....Chittagong is part of Bangladesh......if it elected to join Indian union during partition, then that would be a different story today. But that stays a hypothetical.
> 
> But yes you are right about BD lecturing you and others from their self-declared holier than thou position....but this subforum should be an eye-opening experience about what they (BD elite) are really like....it certainly was for me. They are not good at implementing their morality in real life....you can look at their actions against the CHT tribes as well to get an idea of this.



Fair enough..

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## bluesky

Pakistani Exile said:


> why can't Indians campaign for these people who left barely *200~ years*?


Little correction: It was 1430 AD when the Muslim soldiers from Gaur (the old Capital) migrated to Arakan, which was not a part of Burma at that time, at the head of an expedition team to reinstate the legal Buddhist King there. After a successful operation to drive away the King's nephew they brought their families and chose to settle there. Whatever may be the reason, these people call themselves now Rohingya.

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## Nilgiri

bluesky said:


> Little correction: It was 1430 AD when the Muslim soldiers from Gaur (the old Capital) migrated to Arakan, which was not a part of Burma at that time, at the head of an expedition team to reinstate the legal Buddhist King there. After a successful operation to drive away the King's nephew they brought their families and chose to settle there. Whatever may be the reason, these people call themselves now Rohingya.



Wrong. The Burmese have already accepted those muslim tribes from that far ago as citizens of Burma.

@Aung Zaya can tell you what their name is etc....I forgot.

Rohingya specifically are those that are much more recent (British Raj onwards)

It is the choice of each country to delineate what it considers as recent migrants...BD should do the right thing here and take back its people. Chittagong is part of BD, these people are from there.....its really that simple.

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## LA se Karachi

Nilgiri said:


> Well it makes Pakistan position somewhat lose ethically from the "ummah" perspective. Thats why I asked.




I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. The "Ummah" concept is simply that all Muslims are apart of the same religious community. The exact same thing can be said about Christians, Jews, or Hindus.



Nilgiri said:


> But I actually support Pakistan seeing beyond this and making the pragmatic decision. "Ummah" has done much to cooperate with India after all.....KSA even bestowed their highest honour on Modi.




Well, what I don't understand is what, if at all, seems to be in conflict with the "Ummah" concept. You seem to be incorrectly implying that because Pakistan simply sold JF-17s earlier this year to Myanmar's government, that it constitutes some kind implicit shunning of the Rohingya community. That's not true at all. As I stated before, the two things have little to do with each other.

Not selling JF-17s to the government of that country would not have improved the situation of the Rohingyas. They're not being used to kill them. And the Burmese people themselves have been the worst offenders of the ethnic cleansing going on there, not their government. That will not change no matter what Pakistan does, or doesn't do.



Nilgiri said:


> Has Pakistan made any official comment on the current rohingya tensions?




I assume that they have at some point. But more importantly, Karachi alone hosts between 200,000-400,000 Rohingyas. That's more than almost all other countries. How much more can Pakistan do?


_"Today, according to the Arakan Historical Society (AHS), there are some 200,000 more Rohingyas living in Pakistan"

http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs/SRI-rohingya.htm#_ednref4 _(2003)

_"Although there are no official statistics available, interviews with Bengali and Rohingya community leaders and researchers suggest that there are over 1.6 million Bengalis and up to 400,000 Rohingyas living in Karachi."

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/55513-bengali-and-rohingya-leaders-gearing-up-for-lg-polls _(2015)


This is a great article on their community in Karachi from the Huffington Post, if you're interested:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-henry-flood/from-south-to-south-refug_b_100387.html

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## Nilgiri

LA se Karachi said:


> I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. The "Ummah" concept is simply that all Muslims are apart of the same religious community. The exact same thing can be said about Christians, Jews, or Hindus.



Hence the inverted commas I used (there are clear proponents of it on this very forum from the stance I was mentioning). It is a lose concept that all muslims worldwide must band together and act with one global voice and action etc. It has hurt Pakistan more than helped it I feel. 



LA se Karachi said:


> You seem to be incorrectly implying that because Pakistan simply sold JF-17s earlier this year to Myanmar's government, that it constitutes some kind implicit shunning of the Rohingya community. That's not true at all. As I stated before, the two things have little to do with each other.



No I did not make that assertion for my stance. Rather I was mentioning it as an assertion that is out there....one that some Pakistanis have, but especially many BD people have.



LA se Karachi said:


> I assume that they have at some point. But more importantly, Karachi alone hosts between 200,000-400,000 Rohingyas. That's more than almost all other countries. How much more can Pakistan do?



These Rohingya are recent immigrants or from longer back (say before Bangladesh separated from Pakistan)?

Pakistan need not host anymore, thats for sure. The onus is on BD today to take in these refugees that originate from BD (Chittagong) in the first place.

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## Banglar Bir

*Hefazat rally-procession protests at ‘Rohingya genocide’*





Leading Islamist leaders and ulema accused Myanmar of conducting genocide against Rohingya people in its Rakhaine state and urged the government to give the fleeing Muslims shelter.

At a huge rally at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram mosque in Dhaka, the leaders also castigated the United Nations for failing to take effective action to stop the torture.

Hefazat-e-Islam organised the rally after Jumaa prayers followed by a large procession that marched the city streets.

Hefazat Dhaka city unit president Nur Hosaain Qasemi presided over the meeting with Mufti Mohammad Waqqas as the chief guest, said a Hefazat press release.

Abdul Hamid (Peer of Madhupur), Abdul Latif Nezami, Zafrullah Khan, Mufti Faizullah, Ahmed Abdul Quader, Taiyib Hossain, Muhiuddin Ekram, Zubayer Ahmed, Fazlul Karim Qasemi, Zasimuddin, Muzibur Rahman Hamidee, Sheikh Lokman Hossain, Altaf Hossain, Fakhrul Islam, Faisal Ahmed and others spoke on the occasion.

Meanwhile, Islami Andolan Bangladesh announced Myanmar embassy gherao programme for 5 December.

The party leaders urged the peace loving people to make the programme a success, according to a press statement of the party.

*অবশেষে, রোহিঙ্গা নির্যাতনের বিপক্ষে, বাংলাদেশের স্পষ্ট অবস্থান!!(দেখুন ভিডিও) শেয়ার করে সবাইকে জানিয়ে দিন*
*



*
*যুদ্ধ লাগলে কে জিতবে বাংলাদেশ নাকি মায়ানমার ? দেখুন কার শক্তি বেশি ? বিস্তারিত ভিডিওতে*
*



*


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## LA se Karachi

Nilgiri said:


> Hence the inverted commas I used (there are clear proponents of it on this very forum from the stance I was mentioning). It is a lose concept that all muslims worldwide must band together and act with one global voice and action etc. It has hurt Pakistan more than helped it I feel.




Well, I guess that I was just trying to explain the _Ummah_ concept. It only means that all Muslims are a part of one religious community, nothing more.

If some Muslims hold certain political views regarding all of us worldwide, that's fine. But I just wanted to point out that the _Ummah_ concept and what you're discussing are not the same thing.



Nilgiri said:


> No I did not make that assertion for my stance. Rather I was mentioning it as an assertion that is out there....one that some Pakistanis have, but especially many BD people have.




Understood. I did want to address it though, in any case.

And Bangladeshis, more than just about anyone else, should not hold this view given the history behind the creation of their country.



Nilgiri said:


> The onus is on BD today to take in these refugees that originate




Well, I don't necessarily agree.

However, I do feel this way about the immigration of their people to India and Pakistan, given that it happened after the creation of their country.



Nilgiri said:


> These Rohingya are recent immigrants or from longer back (say before Bangladesh separated from Pakistan)?




Most of them arrived after the creation Bangladesh (especially after Myanmar stripped their community of citizenship in the 1980s):


_"The majority of Karachi's Rohingyas, the Nara official said, arrived during the 1990s, both as economic migrants and refugees fleeing the festering violence in their homeland. "They are now the largest illegal alien population in the city after Bengalis and Afghans," he added."_

_"The first wave of Rohingya came to Karachi in 1978 after a major eruption of violence in Burma. Hundreds of thousands fled to Bangladesh. The Economist magazine predicted that Burma would be "flushed clean" of Muslims within six months. Pakistan's Islamist military dictator at the time, Gen Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, offered Rohingya resident permits in Pakistan and thousands landed in Karachi, though they were never granted citizenship.

http://www.thenational.ae/news/worl...-decades-ago-did-not-escape-persecution#page2_

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## kasper95

why cant other muslim countries take these refugess and end their sufferings,instead of protesting and hoping someone will come to help them,there are so many muslim countries,just help them.

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## UKBengali

LA se Karachi said:


> It's not really the "regime". The Burmese people themselves are the biggest issue. Many monks have joined in too and are some of the worst offenders. The regime itself has nothing to gain from these mass killings. It makes them and their country look bad. The Burmese people hate the Rohingyas and support ethnic cleansing, that's the issue. Pakistan refusing to deal with this regime will not change that.




It does not matter whether it achieves anything.

Not dealing with Myanmar(people + regime) will show that Pakistan does not like it's inhuman behaviour. Like I say, either stand for principle or not.



Nilgiri said:


> It is the choice of each country to delineate what it considers as recent migrants...BD should do the right thing here and take back its people. Chittagong is part of BD, these people are from there.....its really that simple.



These people are part of modern Burma when the international boundaries were set after WW2

If Myanmar wants to kick out it's own citizens then it should not cry when countries covert it's massively underpopulated territory.


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## LA se Karachi

UKBengali said:


> It does not matter whether it achieves anything.
> 
> Not dealing with Myanmar(people + regime) will show that Pakistan does not like it's inhuman behaviour. Like I say, either stand for principle or not.




Sorry, but I can't agree with you. Pakistan continues to deal with India, even though it routinely kills Kashmirs and Pakistani civilians along the LOC---six children were killed just recently. India does the same with us. We continue to deal with Afghanistan despite its behavior along our border (including killing our soldiers).

And we continue to deal with Bangladesh, even though their government routinely makes statements against Pakistan, threatens to take positions that would violate our territorial integrity, blames Pakistan for violence in their country, calls Pakistanis mass-murderers and rapists, conducts sham trials in kangaroo courts that have been condemned by the international community and executes people.

We find these things to be inhumane too, but we continue have relations and trade with these countries. Most other countries do the same (including Bangladesh). Your logic is not shared by most countries on earth.


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## UKBengali

LA se Karachi said:


> Sorry, but I can't agree with you. Pakistan continues to deal with India, even though it routinely kills Kashmirs and Pakistani civilians along the LOC---six children were killed just recently. India does the same with us. We continue to deal with Afghanistan despite its behavior along our border (including killing our soldiers). And we continue to deal with Bangladesh, even though their government routinely makes statements against Pakistan, threatens to take potions that would violate our territorial integrity, blames Pakistan for violence in their country, call Pakistanis mass-murderers and rapists, conducts sham trials in kangaroo courts that have been condemned by the international community and executes people.
> 
> We find these things to be inhumane too, but we continue have relations and trade with these countries. Most other countries do the same (including Bangladesh). Your logic is not shared by most countries on earth.




Deal with Myanmar but dont beat around the bush about how only Pakistan is into the Muslim "Ummah" thing.

Your other examples are a bit silly to be honest as none are as genocidal as Myanmar who is trying to wipe out an entire ethnic group from it's territory.


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## padamchen

waz said:


> I have no idea, Bangladesh? It is the closest safe country.



But CNN is showing machine gun wielding Bangladeshi forces turning the river boats back.

Essentially, Bangladesh is washing it's hands off its own people.

So what are their options now?

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## Matirpola

padamchen said:


> But CNN is showing machine gun wielding Bangladeshi forces turning the river boats back.
> 
> Essentially, Bangladesh is washing it's hands off its own people.
> 
> So what are their options now?



Not own people - they are an intermediate race.

And we are too poor to take in every persecuted ethnic group in the neighborhood.


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## padamchen

Matirpola said:


> Not own people - they are an intermediate race.
> 
> And we are too poor to take in every persecuted ethnic group in the neighborhood.



They are Bangladeshi origin. And not generations back either. One cannot speak of poverty when ones own blood is being butchered. I am really surprised. Can you not provide them more than the images we see of their living conditions on TV?

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## LA se Karachi

UKBengali said:


> Deal with Myanmar but dont beat around the bush about how only Pakistan is into the Muslim "Ummah" thing.
> 
> Your other examples are a bit silly to be honest as none are as genocidal as Myanmar who is trying to wipe out an entire ethnic group from it's territory.




We're not into the Ummah thing, at least as you describe it. I discussed this earlier with nilgiri.

On the contrary, they are very relevant examples. Tens of thousands have been killed in Kashmir since 1989, far more than the amount of Rohingyas that have been killed in the same time period. If we continue to have relations with India despite this, why wouldn't we do the same with Myanmar?


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## UKBengali

LA se Karachi said:


> We're not into the Ummah thing, at least as you describe it. I discussed this earlier with nilgiri.
> 
> On the contrary, they are very relevant examples. Tens of thousands have been killed in Kashmir since 1989, far more than the amount of Rohingyas that have been killed in the same time period. If we continue to have relations with India despite this, why wouldn't we do the same with Myanmar?



India is not trying to wipe out the Kashmiri Muslims like Myanmar is trying to do with Rohingya.


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## padamchen

LA se Karachi said:


> We're not into the Ummah thing, at least as you describe it. I discussed this earlier with nilgiri.
> 
> On the contrary, they are very relevant examples. Tens of thousands have been killed in Kashmir since 1989, far more than the amount of Rohingyas that have been killed in the same time period. If we continue to have relations with India despite this, why wouldn't we do the same with Myanmar?



It's obvious bro. Blood is thicker than everything else.

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## Nilgiri

UKBengali said:


> These people are part of modern Burma when the international boundaries were set after WW2
> 
> If Myanmar wants to kick out it's own citizens then it should not cry when countries covert it's massively underpopulated territory.



So? There were so many Tamils in Sri Lanka after the boundaries were "set" post independence....that came from India during British Raj. India agreed to take much of them back in 1964. Sri Lanka did not give them citizenship and there were negotiations and a final agreement was reached.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirima–Shastri_Pact

Similarly, Burma does not recognise Rohingya as its citizens and these people originate from Chittagong...the resolution is quite simple here. What is preventing from Bangladesh negotiating a similar agreement with Myanmar? You want India and/or China to broker one for you? Then say something to them rather than quibbling about it to the UN and other useless organisations.

BTW you are welcome to do "covert" actions against Myanmar....you just wont enjoy the consequences one bit I can tell you that. Myanmar wont cry or whine, they take firm decisive action. I only see BD crying and whining here.

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## UKBengali

Nilgiri said:


> So? There were so many Tamils in Sri Lanka after the boundaries were "set" post independence....that came from India during British Raj. India took them all back in 1964. Sri Lanka did not give them citizenship and there were negotiations and a final agreement was reached.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirima–Shastri_Pact
> 
> Similarly, Burma does not recognise Rohingya as its citizens and these people originate from Chittagong...the resolution is quite simple here. What is preventing from Bangladesh negotiating a similar agreement with Myanmar? You want India and/or China to broker one for you? Then say something to them rather than quibbling about it to the UN and other useless organisations.
> 
> BTW you are welcome to do "covert" actions against Myanmar....you just wont enjoy the consequences one bit I can tell you that. Myanmar wont cry or whine, they take firm decisive action. I only see BD crying and whining here.



LOL - BD is 3 times as rich as Myanmar.

BD will in due course impose it's will on Myanmar which is not even a homogeneous state like BD is.

PS - BD does not give a F*ck about what India has done with Tamils.

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## Matirpola

Nilgiri said:


> So? There were so many Tamils in Sri Lanka after the boundaries were "set" post independence....that came from India during British Raj. India took them all back in 1964. Sri Lanka did not give them citizenship and there were negotiations and a final agreement was reached.



The idea was India woud take a fraction of them and the rest will get SL citizenship.

But it was *never implemented and India later refused to take the number of people they promised*:



wikipedia said:


> India was slow to grant Indian citizenship and implement the repatriation. *In 1982, India declared that no longer considered the pact binding* as its implementation period had expired.




In fact, Bangladesh has more than twice as many Rohingya refugees as the number of Tamils India actually took under this pact (before refusing to take anymore)!!


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## LA se Karachi

UKBengali said:


> India is not trying to wipe out the Kashmiri Muslims like Myanmar is trying to do with Rohingya.




The facts don't support your claims. Far more Kashmiris have died than Rohingyas. The primary issue is over the land anyway, they're not massacring people on the level you seem to suggest. 

In any case, my point was only that Pakistan continues to maintain relations with countries that are marred by violence it condemns, like most others in the world (including Bangladesh). And therefore, it will continue to maintain relations with Myanmar. Whether you like it or not is completely irrelevant.


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## Chinese-Dragon

A nation-state has a duty to its own citizens first.

Developing countries in particular cannot spare much resources to look after foreign nationals.

Only developed countries have enough excess resources per capita to do such a job. But even they aren't interested.

Instead, they want to push the burden of millions of refugees onto developing countries who don't have enough resources per capita to help them.

It's the same with pollution, the rich countries want the poor countries to take the burden for the pollution that was generated to create the goods/products used in the rich world. And they sit back and imagine all the fancy high-end electronics they are using every day just came out of thin air.

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## Nilgiri

Matirpola said:


> The idea was India woud take a fraction of them and the rest will get SL citizenship.
> 
> But it was *never implemented and India later refused to take the number of people they promised*:



So negotiate and implement it better with Myanmar.

But you won't even do 1% of what India did with SL, and Rohingya (your people) get liquidated and destroyed in the meantime. I mean have you even started negotiations with them like India and SL started immediately after independence?

The sham that is Bangladesh identity continues in full flow, ever since that ludicrous claim of 3 million dead in a "genocide".

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## UKBengali

LA se Karachi said:


> The facts don't support your claims. Far more Kashmiris have died than Rohingyas. The primary issue is over the land anyway, they're not massacring people on the level you seem to suggest.
> 
> In any case, my point was only that Pakistan continues to maintain relations with countries that are marred by violence it condemns, like most others in the world (including Bangladesh). And therefore, it will continue to maintain relations with Myanmar. Whether you like it or not is completely irrelevant.




I do not see India trying to empty Kashmiri Muslims from Kashmir as a state policy like Myanmar is doing with Rohingyas.

Give up as you clearly either do not know what you are talking about or are deliberately making things up to support your viewpoint.


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## Nilgiri

UKBengali said:


> India is not trying to wipe out the Kashmiri Muslims like Myanmar is trying to do with Rohingya.



Kashmiri Muslims in India have full citizenship of India....even the separatists (who get Indian passport and such even).

The issue is not equivalent from the get go.

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## padamchen

@UKBengali

The Burmese have always been warriors. 

Bangladeshis .... hmmmmm

Please don't strut your "martial" credentials here. It's a bit amusing, to put it mildly.

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## UKBengali

Nilgiri said:


> Kashmiri Muslims in India have full citizenship of India....even the separatists (who get Indian passport and such even).
> 
> The issue is not equivalent from the get go.



Rohingya inhabited the territory of Myanmar in it's present international boundaries. With the territory came the population that was there at the time.

Either Myanmar accepts them or it's territory is up for grabs/negotiation.


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## Mamluk

UKBengali said:


> I do not see India trying to empty Kashmiri Muslims from Kashmir as a state policy like Myanmar is doing with Rohingyas.
> 
> Give up as you clearly either do not know what you are talking about or are deliberately making things up to support your viewpoint.



They would if they could! They can't because...

...Kashmiris in the valley are far far more numerous than your Rohingas (4 to 1 ratio). So they can't even entertain such thoughts.


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## UKBengali

[USER=25628]@xxx[/USER][{::::::::::::::::::> said:


> They would if they could! They can't because...
> 
> ...Kashmiris in the valley are far far more numerous than your Rohingas (4 to 1 ratio). So they can't even entertain such thoughts.



Nope, India is far more humane than Myanmar is.


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## padamchen

[USER=25628]@xxx[/USER][{::::::::::::::::::> said:


> They would if they could! They can't because...
> 
> ...Kashmiris in the valley are far far more numerous than your Rohingas (4 to 1 ratio). So they can't even entertain such thoughts.



The vale has 9 million. You were saying 1.25 billion will find those odds intimidating?


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## TopCat

padamchen said:


> @UKBengali
> 
> The Burmese have always been warriors.
> 
> Bangladeshis .... hmmmmm
> 
> Please don't strut your "martial" credentials here. It's a bit amusing, to put it mildly.


Burmese are savages not warrior. They would had been Japan if they were warrior.

You probably mistaken west bengali hindus with Bangladeshis. You are true that you wont find too many warrior caste (sen gupta etc) in west bengal because almost all of them converted and left hinduism during pala dynasty who are now part of Bengal Muslim stock

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## Mamluk

padamchen said:


> The vale has 9 million. You were saying 1.25 billion will find those odds intimidating?



Has any nation successfully completely exterminated a full 9 million people in human history?

Doesn't matter how many you are - killing even less than 1% (90,000) of them will lead to full scale war and probably MAD.


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## LA se Karachi

UKBengali said:


> I do not see India trying to empty Kashmiri Muslims from Kashmir as a state policy like Myanmar is doing with Rohingyas.
> 
> Give up as you clearly either do not know what you are talking about or are deliberately making things up to support your viewpoint.




Making things up? Go look up how many Kashmiris have died versus how many Rohingyas have died. The figures are not comparable. 

Clearly you can't counter what I've said, so you've resorted to attacking me personally. Pakistan will continue to maintain relations with Myanmar, just like it does with other countries it has issues with, whether you like it or not.

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## UKBengali

[USER=25628]@xxx[/USER][{::::::::::::::::::> said:


> Has any nation successfully completely exterminated a full 9 million people in human history?
> 
> Doesn't matter how many you are - killing even less than 1% (90,000) of them will lead to full scale war and probably MAD.



India does not need to kill. It just needs to make life so hard that they will leave.

Or India could just flood Kashmir with tens of millions of Hindus and problem solved.



LA se Karachi said:


> Making things up? Go look up how many Kashmiris have died versus how many Rohingyas have died. The figures are not comparable.
> 
> Clearly you can't counter what I've said, so you've resorted to attacking me personally. Pakistan will continue to maintain relations with Myanmar, just like it does with other countries it has issues with, whether you like it or not.



You are clearly not intellectual enough to carry on with a debate at this level. Have a good night dude.


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## Mamluk

UKBengali said:


> India does not need to kill. It just needs to make life so hard that they will leave.
> 
> Or India could just flood Kashmir with tens of millions of Hindus and problems solved.



We're arguing why they won't kill them en masse like they do with Rohingas in Myanmar.

And I've answered why they don't. Nothing to do with being more humane.

Yes they have alternatives modes of oppression, but that's a different topic.

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## padamchen

TopCat said:


> Burmese are savages not warrior. They would had been Japan if they were warrior.
> 
> You probably mistaken west bengali hindus with Bangladeshis. You are true that you wont find too many warrior caste (sen gupta etc) in west bengal because almost all of them converted and left hinduism during pala dynasty who are now part of Bengal Muslim stock



Bro I grew up on the border of West Bengal. We have had enough malis, rickshaw walas, and rezas (industrial labourers) to know first hand how big strong fierce and war like Bangladeshis are. No offense, but the Burmese will hang your intestines around your necks to dry ...

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## TopCat

padamchen said:


> Bro I grew up on the border of West Bengal. We have had enough malis, rickshaw walas, and rezas (industrial labourers) to know first hand how big strong fierce and war like Bangladeshis are. No offense, but the Burmese will hang your intestines around your necks to dry ...


You grew up in west bengal not Bangladesh


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## padamchen

TopCat said:


> You grew up in west bengal not Bangladesh



Sigh ok man. The Burmese saw the fiercest fighting in the Pacific theater during WWII. Both British and Indian (undivided India) officers have lauded their fighting abilities. Seriously, you guys can try your luck taking their territory. By that time the Rohingyas would have been wiped out of course. What will happen to you I already know.

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## LA se Karachi

UKBengali said:


> India does not need to kill. It just needs to make life so hard that they will leave.
> 
> Or India could just flood Kashmir with tens of millions of Hindus and problem solved.
> 
> 
> 
> You are clearly not intellectual enough to carry on with a debate at this level. Have a good night dude.




Clearly, you are unable to continue the discussion because you can't counter what I've said. Not that I expected you to. Pakistan will continue to have relations with Myanmar, just as it does with other countries it has issues with like India.



[USER=25628]@xxx[/USER][{::::::::::::::::::> said:


> We're arguing why they won't kill them en masse like they do with Rohingas in Myanmar.
> 
> And I've answered why they don't. Nothing to do with being more humane.
> 
> Yes they have alternatives modes of oppression, but that's a different topic.




Don't bother. Confronted with facts that counter his assertions, he has little choice but to leave. It's not the first time it's happened. He tried to make Pakistan look bad and failed.

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## Species

padamchen said:


> Bro I grew up on the border of West Bengal. We have had enough malis, rickshaw walas, and rezas (industrial labourers) to know first hand how big strong fierce and war like Bangladeshis are. No offense, but the Burmese will hang your intestines around your necks to dry ...



Come on dude, we all know West Bengalis are considered effeminate with no martial features. This is why Indian Army doesn't have any Bengali regiment.



LA se Karachi said:


> Clearly, you are unable to continue the discussion because you can't counter what I've said. Not that I expected you to. Pakistan will continue to have relations with Myanmar, just as it does with other countries it has issues with like India.



You're right, we actually expected a lot from Pakistan, more than it can afford.

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## padamchen

Species said:


> Come on dude, we all know West Bengalis are considered effeminate with no martial features. This is why Indian Army doesn't have any Bengali regiment.



These are Bangladeshi illegals I am talking about.

Even to an untrained non Bengali eye and ear, the differences are perceptible.

An no, I am neither Bengali nor did I grow up in West Bengal.

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## Matirpola

padamchen said:


> No offense, but the Burmese will hang your intestines around your necks to dry ...



You just confirmed what TopCat said earlier! lol



TopCat said:


> Burmese are *savages not warrior. *


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## LA se Karachi

Species said:


> You're right, we actually expected a lot from Pakistan, more than it can afford.




I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. You'll have to elaborate.


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## Species

padamchen said:


> These are Bangladeshi illegals I am talking about.
> 
> Even to an untrained non Bengali eye and ear, the differences are perceptible.



You can call anybody legal or illegal, as if we care? 

There are numerous illegal Indians working in Bangladesh, but we don't really bother much if they can earn a penny or two.



LA se Karachi said:


> I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. You'll have to elaborate.



Forget it.

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## padamchen

Species said:


> You can call anybody legal or illegal, as if we care?




Most times the common man here does not care either. They are hard working, do jobs the locals do not or not at the pay they do it for. It's no secret. Everyone knows they are Bangladeshi. The politicos and police especially. My point in pointing it out is that they are representative of the common Bangladeshi. Sure they can be trained and fed better to make soldiers out if them. As you have in the Bangladesh army. But a fighter is more than that and sorry, you guys are not fighters. Yes you are brave in a mob. But one on one, you are major fattus. Size notwithstanding. Hope that explains.

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## KediKesenFare3

As much as I love Bangladesh, the incapability of Dhaka to help the Rohingya minority is unbelievable. Even smaller and useless countries like Armenia intervened in neighboring countries to 'save' related minorities. Remember: 160 million Bangladeshi can't handle 50 million Birmanese but 180 million Pakistani are considered as an existential threat by over 1.2 billion Indians.

I love you guys and fully accept your independence but I have to say that East Pakistan would have reacted differently. Bangladesh's current state of affairs is really sad.

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## Species

padamchen said:


> Most times the common man here does not care either. They are hard working, do jobs the locals do not or not at the pay they do it for. It's no secret. Everyone knows they are Bangladeshi. The politicos and police especially. My point in pointing it out is that they are representative of the common Bangladeshi. Sure they can be trained and fed better to make soldiers out if them. As you have in the Bangladesh army. But a fighter is more than that and sorry, you guys are not fighters. Yes you are brave in a mob. But one on one, you are major fattus. Size notwithstanding. Hope that explains.



Umm.. I don't know whether they are Bangladeshis or not because there are enough sources which say Indians often try to label their own citizens as illegals.

The Indians I have seen, don't look like fighters to the minimum sense either. Plus Indian soldiers do have histories of defecting from the battlefield. But I don't think we can generalize from what we see or hear.

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## TopCat

padamchen said:


> Most times the common man here does not care either. They are hard working, do jobs the locals do not or not at the pay they do it for. It's no secret. Everyone knows they are Bangladeshi. The politicos and police especially. My point in pointing it out is that they are representative of the common Bangladeshi. Sure they can be trained and fed better to make soldiers out if them. As you have in the Bangladesh army. But a fighter is more than that and sorry, you guys are not fighters. Yes you are brave in a mob. But one on one, you are major fattus. Size notwithstanding. Hope that explains.



So you think you are fighter... !!! Even my gf will pull your ear and kick your a$$.. GTFO

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## padamchen

TopCat said:


> So you think you are fighter... !!! Even my gf will pull your ear and kick your a$$.. GTFO



If only you knew.

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## Gibbs

waz said:


> I have no idea, Bangladesh? It is the closest safe country.



The Bangladeshi's dont want them, Even though every historical and demographical sources point them out to be relative recent migrants(Mere 100 years or so) from the area now what is called Bangladesh



Nilgiri said:


> Burma has given citizenship to its original Arakan Muslim tribes.



This a lot of these bleeding hearts choose to ignore.. Burma has her own significant Muslim population, Not just in Arakan but also elsewhere facing no persecution

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## Species

Gibbs said:


> This a lot of these bleeding hearts choose to ignore.. Burma has her own significant Muslim population, Not just in Arakan but also elsewhere facing no persecution



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Myanmar_anti-Muslim_riots


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## padamchen

I'm quite concerned about a precedent being set if Bangladesh does indeed open its borders. Where do you then draw a line in the sand and say before this they are ours and after this they are somebody else's and if we don't like them or want them then its ok to start killing them till the country where they are originally from opens their borders and takes them back. Killing is killing, and I do not support it. But my point is, while we quibble on moralities, actual people are dying, and Bangladesh needs to do the right thing here or forever bear the guilt.


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## Banglar Bir

TRULY A LAME DUCK BODY,DOMINATED BY THE GCC, STATES.


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## 24 Hours

Suu Kyi can do little to help the Rohingya. Myanmar's military has a large amount of autonomy and political power. I can't really blame her for doing little. I don't see what can be done other than reinstating sanctions or the less likely method of international intervention.


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## Exiled_Soldier

Gibbs said:


> The Bangladeshi's dont want them, Even though every historical and demographical sources point them out to be relative recent migrants(Mere 100 years or so) from now what is called Bangladesh



So what, Rohingyas were allowed citizenship by Burma after its creation. Only made them illegal during 80s. Its no joke you make your citizens illegal to push into other countries. After creation of BD, its borders were open for long time for people to migrate. As these people were made citizens of other countries, BD has no more responsibility of them after multiplying not equivalent to BD people or raising in different social environment. Many of the indicators say Sinhalese are also migrants from BD area. If they are made illegal to push into BD, BD will do the same with a note fukc off.


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## Gibbs

Species said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Myanmar_anti-Muslim_riots



Clashes happen in any multi cultural multi racial countries from the US to, India, Due to differences from time to time, Even Bangladeshi's attacked and destroyed Buddhist villages not so long ago

But the fact of the matter is Myanmar's Muslims have all the equal rights and privileges that any other citizen of that nation.. The Rohingya's are not considered citizens.. So my point of contention here is people trying to portray religious persecution here, Which is complete hog wash

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## TopCat

Gibbs said:


> The Bangladeshi's dont want them, Even though every historical and demographical sources point them out to be relative recent migrants(Mere 100 years or so) from the area now what is called Bangladesh



The current Bamar (Burmese) population migrated to the Burma only 1200-1500 years ago. They should not be in Burma in the first place.
In Arakan there should not be any Bamar at all. When are they going to take back Bamar from arakan?

100 years ago there were no Bangladesh neither Burma.
5000 years ago current territory was only inhibited by tigers and birds. Should we send all of the human to mother Africa?




> This a lot of these bleeding hearts choose to ignore.. Burma has her own significant Muslim population, Not just in Arakan but also elsewhere facing no persecution



In Maungdaw and Budhidang muslims are majority and a soft target. Besides its not only religion, there is a racial element to it too. Once they purge rohingyas they may turn their gun to other muslim as well. No guarantee.


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## Gibbs

Exiled_Soldier said:


> So what, Rohingyas were allowed citizenship by Burma after its creation. Only made them illegal during 80s. Its no joke you make your citizens illegal to push into other countries. After creation of BD, its borders were open for long time for people to migrate. As these people were made citizens of other countries, BD has no more responsibility of them after multiplying not equivalent to BD people or raising in different social environment. Many of the indicators say Sinhalese are also migrants from BD area. If they are made illegal to push into BD, BD will do the same with a note fukc off.



I did'nt imply Bangladesh has any legal obligation to accommodate these people but they certainly do have a moral one

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## padamchen

This 100 year bit is a big hauwwa frankly. Knowing Bangladeshis and their border jumping propensity, I am pretty certain that a lot of these Rohingya, maybe even a large majority, have jumped across over the past few decades and not this "100 year" red herring the Bangladeshis like to dish out to assuage their guilt.

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## TopCat

Gibbs said:


> Clashes happen in any multi cultural multi racial countries from the US to, India, Due to differences from time to time, Even Bangladeshi's attacked and destroyed Buddhist villages not so long ago
> 
> But the fact of the matter is Myanmar's Muslims have all the equal rights and privileges that any other citizen of that nation.. *The Rohingya's are not considered citizens*.. So my point of contention here is people trying to portray religious persecution here, Which is complete hog wash



They need to be considered citizen if they really want to rule Rohingya territory. You think Rohingya live all across Arakan? No. Rohingya and Rakhine live in their own territory.

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## dray

In an ultimate display of hypocrisy Bangladesh is showing deep concerns about the plight of Rohingyas of Myanmar while brutally persecuting and eliminating the remaining religious and ethnic minorities of Bangladesh in a prolonged and systematic campaign of discrimination, hate and violence against the minorities.

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## padamchen

Rain Man said:


> In an ultimate display of hypocrisy Bangladesh is showing deep concerns about the plight of Rohingyas of Myanmar while brutally persecuting and eliminating the remaining religious and ethnic minorities of Bangladesh in a prolonged and systematic campaign of discrimination, hate and violence.



Very true.

In the next 30 years, there will be no Hindu left in Bangladesh.

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## extra terrestrial

Gibbs said:


> Clashes happen in any multi cultural multi racial countries from the US to, India, Due to differences from time to time, Even Bangladeshi's attacked and destroyed Buddhist villages not so long ago
> 
> But the fact of the matter is Myanmar's Muslims have all the equal rights and privileges that any other citizen of that nation.. The Rohingya's are not considered citizens.. So my point of contention here is people trying to portray religious persecution here, Which is complete hog wash



Well, the people are actually anti-Muslim... resulting from the crazy propaganda movements like 969 by those Monks, sponsored by the Military junta...



Gibbs said:


> I did'nt imply Bangladesh has any legal obligation to accommodate these people but they certainly do have a moral one



Consider this scenario...

Bangladesh opens the border, Myanmar pushes every Rohingya to the border and after international pressure, the Rohingyas eventually manage to acquire Bangladeshi citizenship. (Note an earlier incident when Biharis or Stranded Pakistanis became Bangladeshi citizens). It will just set a vicious precedent for all the genocidal regimes in the world to get rid of unwanted minorities. It's not a political persecution or military conflict going on in Myanmar, it's ethnic cleansing... They want the land but not the people...

And we don't even know if such ethnic cleansing in Myanmar would be limited to the Rohingyas only considering the numerous ethnic conflicts around the country...

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## Banglar Bir

*পালিয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিম মেয়েরা দিল গণধর্ষণের এক ভয়ানক তথ্য !! দেখুন-(ভিডিওস)*

http://truestory24.com/exclusive/11567-2016-11-25-05-53-28?q=12

বিশেষ প্রতিবেদনHits: 5588





​পালিয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিম মেয়েরা দিল গণধর্ষণের এক ভয়ানক তথ্য !! দেখুন-(ভিডিওসহ)প্রতিদিন আমাদের সমাজে কত না নানান ঘটনা ঘটে জায় ঘটে যাওয়া সব গুলোর খবর কি আমরা জানতে পারি ?
ভিডিওটি দেখতে ছবিতে ক্লিক করুন আমরা আপনাদের সামনে অনেক মজার মজার ভিডিও তুলে ধরবো , আশা করি লাইক, কমেন্ট এবং শেয়ার করে আমাদের সাথেই থাকবেন ,আমরা আপনাদের সামনে অনেক মজার মজার ভিডিও তুলে ধরবো ! আশা করি লাইক, কমেন্ট এবং শেয়ার করে আমাদের সাথেই থাকবেন

thebd24.com
​
*Rohingya face Myanmar 'ethnic cleansing': UN official*
*UNHCR chief accuses country's troops of killing men and raping women, forcing stateless minority to flee to Bangladesh.*








Hundreds of thousands live in camps in Bangladesh [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]
Myanmar is carrying out "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims, a United Nations official has said, as stories of gang rape, torture and murder emerge from among the thousands who have fled to Bangladesh.

Up to 30,000 members of the ethnic community have abandoned their homes in Myanmar to escape the unfolding violence, the UN said, after troops poured into the narrow strip where they live earlier this month.

John McKissick, head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox's Bazar, told the BBC that troops were "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river" into Bangladesh.

READ MORE: Who are the Rohingya?

Bangladesh has resisted urgent international appeals to open its border to avert a humanitarian crisis, instead telling Myanmar it must do more to prevent the stateless Rohingya minority from entering.

"It's very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar," McKissick said.

A spokesman for Myanmar President Htin Kyaw criticised the comments.

"I would like to question the professionalism and ethics which should be followed and respected by UN staff. He should speak based on concrete and true facts, he shouldn't make accusations," Zaw Htay told AFP news agency.

*Ethnic cleansing*
It is not the first time ethnic-cleansing claims have been made against Myanmar.

In April 2013 Human Rights Watch said it was conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya - an accusation rejected by Thein Sein, the then president, as a "smear campaign".

The scale of human suffering was becoming clear on Thursday, as desperate people such as Mohammad Ayaz told how troops attacked his village and killed his pregnant wife.

Cradling his two-year-old son, he said troops killed at least 300 men in the village market and gang-raped dozens of women before setting fire to around 300 homes, Muslim-owned shops and the mosque where he served as imam.

INVESTIGATION: Genocide Agenda

"They shot dead my wife, Jannatun Naim. She was 25 and seven months pregnant. I took refuge at a canal with my two-year-old son, who was hit by a rifle butt," Ayaz said.

Ayaz sold his watch and shoes to pay for the journey and has taken shelter at a camp for unregistered Rohingya refugees.

Many of those seeking shelter say they walked for days and used rickety boats to cross into Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of registered Rohingya refugees have been living for decades.

Bangladesh boosts security to keep fleeing Rohingya out


The Rohingya are viewed as illegal immigrants by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar who call them "Bengali", even though many have lived there for generations.

Most live in the impoverished western Rakhine state, but are denied citizenship and smothered by restrictions on movement and work.

Bangladesh said on Wednesday that it had summoned Myanmar's ambassador to express "deep concern".

Since the latest violence flared up, Bangladesh border guards have intensified patrols and the coastguard has deployed extra ships.

Officials say they have stopped around a thousand Rohingya Muslims at the border since Monday.

*Satellite images*
Human Rights Watch said this week it had identified, using satellite images, more than 1,000 homes in Rohingya villages that had been razed in northwestern Myanmar.

Myanmar's military has denied burning villages and even blamed the Rohingya themselves.

Rohingya community leaders said hundreds of families had taken shelter in camps in the border towns of Teknaf and Ukhia, many hiding for fear they would be sent back to Myanmar.

Police on Wednesday detained 70 Rohingya, including women and children, who they say will be sent back across the border.





Pre-destruction imagery of Kyet Yoe Pyin, Maungdaw district, from March 30 [HRW/Reuters]




Post-destruction satellite imagery of Kyet Yoe Pyin from November 10 [HRW/Reuters]
Source: Agencies

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## Exiled_Soldier

__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1271477472924878


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## Aung Zaya

Nilgiri said:


> Wrong. The Burmese have already accepted those muslim tribes from that far ago as citizens of Burma.
> 
> @Aung Zaya can tell you what their name is etc....I forgot.
> 
> Rohingya specifically are those that are much more recent (British Raj onwards)
> 
> It is the choice of each country to delineate what it considers as recent migrants...BD should do the right thing here and take back its people. Chittagong is part of BD, these people are from there.....its really that simple.


Kamain ( Kaman )... bro...



UKBengali said:


> Rohingya inhabited the territory of Myanmar in it's present international boundaries. With the territory came the population that was there at the time.
> 
> Either Myanmar accepts them or it's territory is up for grabs/negotiation.


LOL.. we dont need to choose..  coz these people are originated from CHT ,BD... the only one solution is sending them to 3rd countries if BD wont take back... 



TopCat said:


> They need to be considered citizen if they really want to rule Rohingya territory. You think Rohingya live all across Arakan? No. Rohingya and Rakhine live in their own territory.


since century year ago , our brother Rakhine and Bamar ruled arakan.. there was neither Rohingya nor its terroritory...  
only Rakhine kingdom and Rakhine and its ethnic races in arakan...


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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> Kamain ( Kaman )... bro...
> 
> 
> LOL.. we dont need to choose..  coz these people are originated from CHT ,BD... the only one solution is sending them to 3rd countries if BD wont take back...


As if 3rd country is owned by your daddy.



> since century year ago , our brother Rakhine and Bamar ruled arakan.. there was neither Rohingya nor its terroritory...
> only Rakhine kingdom and Rakhine and its ethnic races in arakan...



Rohingyas were there since 14th century you like or not they will stay there.

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## dray

padamchen said:


> Very true.
> 
> In the next 30 years, there will be no Hindu left in Bangladesh.



They might actually accomplish it in much lesser time, those minority Bangladeshi Hindus, Santhals, Chakmas will be replaced by their wannabe-Pakistani Rohingya brothers.

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## hussain0216

Minorities are being attacked across the world 

its good indonesia and Malaysia are taking note of the problem but if you really want to increase pressure then start to harm the Burmese immigrants 

Bangladesh should start removing its hindus and pushing its small buddist minority out if the Rohinga suffer too much


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## Jugger

The UN are in better position to solve the rohingya crysis than the OIC.
OIC will just give some statements and do nothing

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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> *The current Bamar (Burmese) population migrated to the Burma only 1200-1500 years ago. They should not be in Burma in the first place*.


*this @TopCat* is Shameless bangladeshi and *is famous for re-writing History... 

We burmese lived in central Myanmar since c. 2nd century *BCE... We founded the many City states such as Sri Ksetra, Halin, Beikthano, Maingmaw, Binnaka.... lol learn history first...  
We're one of the earliest race who lived in this region... 




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyu_city-states#Sri_Ksetra
@Gibbs @Nilgiri see..!


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## AKD

hussain0216 said:


> Bangladesh should start removing its hindus and pushing its small buddist minority out if the Rohinga suffer too much


WTF

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## Jugger

hussain0216 said:


> Minorities are being attacked across the world
> 
> its good indonesia and Malaysia are taking note of the problem but if you really want to increase pressure then start to harm the Burmese immigrants
> 
> Bangladesh should start removing its hindus and pushing its small buddist minority out if the Rohinga suffer too much


This is very counter productive statement.
If you dont treat your minorities with respect and dignity then the very basic foundations of such nation will fail. A great and just nation is gauged by how they treat their minoroties.

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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> *this @TopCat* is Shameless bangladeshi and *is famous for re-writing History...
> 
> We burmese lived in central Myanmar since c. 2nd century *BCE... We founded the many City states such as Sri Ksetra, Halin, Beikthano, Maingmaw, Binnaka.... lol learn history first...
> We're one of the earliest race who live in this region...
> 
> View attachment 355779
> 
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyu_city-states#Sri_Ksetra
> @Gibbs @Nilgiri see..!




The Bamar are of East Asian descent and speak a Sino-Tibetan language (related to Tibetan and more distantly to Chinese). They migrated from the north and China-India borderlands into the Irrawaddy River valley in Upper Burma about 1200–1500 years ago.[_citation needed_] Over the last millennium, they have largely replaced/absorbed the Austroasiatic-speaking Mon and the Sino-Tibetan-speaking people of the Pyu city-states, ethnic groups that formerly dominated the region.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamar_people



I dont have to lie. I have no interest whatsover on Burma but as you guys are pushing for it I had dig in.

The whole Burma including Bangladesh were inhibited by austro asiatic race, which we still host a sizable numbers in India/bangladesh, but you bamars the savages completed wiped them out.

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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> As if 3rd country is owned by your daddy.


nope.. Zambia already talked with us.. 



TopCat said:


> The Bamar are of East Asian descent and speak a Sino-Tibetan language (related to Tibetan and more distantly to Chinese). They migrated from the north and China-India borderlands into the Irrawaddy River valley in Upper Burma about 1200–1500 years ago.[_citation needed_]


didnt u see that... [_citation needed_] , do u..?



TopCat said:


> I dont have to lie. I have no interest whatsover on Burma but as you guys are pushing for it I had dig in.
> 
> The whole Burma including Bangladesh were inhibited by austro asiatic race, which we still host a sizable numbers in India/bangladesh, but you bamars the savages completed wiped them out.


then why do u shouting out non-sense..? u should keep quiet in the case u dont know...


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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> nope.. Zambia already talked with us..


Zambia would be a great country for Bamar population.


> didnt u see that... [_citation needed_] , do u..?



Find the citation and come back



Aung Zaya said:


> then why do u shouting out non-sense..? u should keep quiet in the case u dont know...



I dont think people will keep quiet when you start ethnic cleansing. Need some fireworks instead. Just wait and see. Your tea party will be over soon.

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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> nope they only welcomed their ummah brother ' Bangali Rohingya'..



Zambia is infidel country, they will be more than happy to take Kafirs instead. LOL


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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> Zambia would be a great country for Bamar population.


nope they only welcomed their ummah brother ' Bangali Rohingya'..



TopCat said:


> Find the citation and come back


lol u posted this.. why i need to find then..?



TopCat said:


> I dont think people will keep quiet when you start ethnic cleansing. Need some fireworks instead. Just wait and see. Your tea party will be over soon.


Truth will appear in one day..


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## Species

Doyalbaba said:


> *https://www.yahoo.com/news/myanmar-crisis-sparks-muslim-protests-asian-capitals-114833792.html*
> *Myanmar crisis sparks Muslim protests in Asian capitals*
> 
> 
> 
> Shafiqul Alam
> AFPNovember 25, 2016
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View photos
> Ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugees shout slogans during a protest against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, outside the Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on November 25, 2016 (AFP Photo/Manan Vatsyayana)
> Dhaka (AFP) - Angry Muslim protesters took to the streets from Jakarta to Dhaka on Friday to denounce Myanmar over allegations of indiscriminate killing and rape in a military crackdown on the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
> 
> Around 5,000 Bangladeshi Muslims demonstrated in the capital Dhaka after Friday prayers, with hundreds more protesting in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok to accuse Myanmar of ethnic cleansing and genocide in its northern Rakhine state.
> 
> Muslim-majority Malaysia's Cabinet also issued a statement condemning the violence, an unusually strong criticism against a fellow member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
> 
> "Malaysia... calls on the government of Myanmar to take all necessary actions to address the alleged ethnic cleansing," the statement said.
> 
> It said the Myanmar ambassador would be summoned over the crisis and that Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman would meet with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other top Myanmar officials "at the earliest possible date."
> 
> Up to 30,000 Rohingya have abandoned their homes in Myanmar to escape the unfolding violence, the UN says, after troops poured into the narrow strip where they live earlier this month.
> 
> Rohingya are denied citizenship and subject to harsh restrictions in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where many view them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, though many have lived been in Myanmar for generations.
> 
> The Dhaka protesters gathered outside the Baitul Mokarram mosque, the country’s largest, to demand an end to the violence, denounce Suu Kyi, and calling for Bangladesh to accept fleeing Rohingya.
> 
> Around 500 Malaysians and Rohingya marched through a heavy tropical downpour from a Kuala Lumpur mosque to Myanmar's embassy carrying banners denouncing the Rakhine "genocide."
> 
> Abu Tahir, a 60-year-old Rohingya man who demonstrated with a chain coiled around his body, said he had been cut off from his family in Rakhine since he fled two years ago.
> 
> "The Rohingya are being treated like dogs, and are being killed," he said, tears rolling down his face.
> 
> Amir Hamzah, 60, who heads the Malaysian Muslims Coalition, an NGO, said "the people of Malaysia strongly condemn" Myanmar's actions.
> 
> "We want an immediate stop to the violence. This is cruel," he said.
> 
> In Jakarta, around 200 demonstrators from Indonesian Islamic organisations protested outside Myanmar's embassy.
> 
> Chanting "Allahu Akbar! (God is greater!)", they called for the government of Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim nation -- to break off diplomatic ties with Myanmar and for Suu Kyi's 1991 Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked.
> 
> "This genocide is happening to women, children and the elderly," said Maya Hayati, a 34-year-old housewife.
> 
> "If they (Myanmar) don't want them, then it's probably better to send them to another country. Don't torture them like that in their own country."
> 
> The UN says the stateless Rohingya are among the world's most persecuted minorities.
> 
> The UN refugee agency says well over 120,000 have fled Rakhine since a previous bout of bloody unrest in 2012, many braving a perilous sea journey to Malaysia.
> 
> Last year, thousands were stranded at sea after a well-worn trafficking route through Thailand collapsed following a police crackdown sparked by the discovery of brutal human-trafficking camps along the Malaysia border.



So protests have taken place in Dhaka, Kuala Lampur and Jakarta so far. Respect.

Nothing in Ankara, Islamabad, Tehran.

@Ottoman123 @Zarvan

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## TopCat

Aung Zaya said:


> *this @TopCat* is Shameless bangladeshi and *is famous for re-writing History...
> 
> We burmese lived in central Myanmar since c. 2nd century *BCE... We founded the many City states such as Sri Ksetra, Halin, Beikthano, Maingmaw, Binnaka.... lol learn history first...
> We're one of the earliest race who lived in this region...
> 
> View attachment 355779
> 
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyu_city-states#Sri_Ksetra
> @Gibbs @Nilgiri see..!




Here you go... More gem found.
Somebody else's civilization was claimed by Bamar.. no wonder they claim Arakan



> The millennium-old civilisation came crashing down in the 9th century when the city-states were destroyed by repeated invasions from the Kingdom of Nanzhao. The Bamar people, who came from Nanzhao, set up a garrison town at Bagan at the confluence of the Irrawaddy and Chindwin Rivers. Pyu settlements remained in Upper Burma for the next three centuries but the Pyu gradually were absorbed into the expanding Pagan Kingdom. The Pyu language still existed until the late 12th century. By the 13th century, the Pyu had assumed the Burman ethnicity. The histories and legends of the Pyu were also incorporated to those of the Bamar.[3]

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## Flynn Swagmire

Jugger said:


> This is very counter productive statement.
> If you dont treat your minorities with respect and dignity then the very basic foundations of such nation will fail. A great and just nation is gauged by how they treat their minoroties.


What do you think about Mayanmar? BTW, a burmese thanked your post...


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## Species

Please update this thread: @maroofz2000 
Don't open new threads.


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## TopCat

Rain Man said:


> They might actually accomplish it in much lesser time, those minority Bangladeshi Hindus, Santhals, Chakmas will be replaced by their wannabe-Pakistani Rohingya brothers.



You should be worried about your own Hindus in India. The way Abhrahamic religion growing you will soon be minority and one day become extinct in India. West Bengal already under wahabi influence.

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## Jugger

OrdinaryGenius said:


> What do you think about Mayanmar? BTW, a burmese thanked your post...


Myanmar is not a full fledged democracy yet, though it is on the right path. As Myanmar feels that the rohingya people are threat they are using force which is not acceptable. Under the process of democracy all people should be integrated with the system. This is very though at first but gradually different people of different ethnicity learn to live peacefully with each other. this is the only way forward in todays globalised world. People will back the govt of Myanmar if it gives equality to all its people without discrimination.

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## TopCat

Jugger said:


> Myanmar is not a full fledged democracy yet, though it is on the right path. As Myanmar feels that the rohingya people are threat they are using force which is not acceptable. Under the process of democracy all people should be integrated with the system. This is very though at first but gradually different people of different ethnicity learn to live peacefully with each other. this is the only way forward in todays globalised world. People will back the govt of Myanmar if it gives equality to all its people without discrimination.



We already found out that democracy was never an issue in Myanmar. They were fcked up somewhere else.


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## Attila the Hun

Species said:


> So protests have taken place in Dhaka, Kuala Lampur and Jakarta so far. Respect.
> 
> Nothing in Ankara, Islamabad, Tehran.
> 
> @Ottoman123 @Zarvan


I really don't know what's going on in Turkey(with regards of protests), but Turks are all talking about it in social Media and what have you. all over twitter etc .
I know it's not the same, but, don't think we do not care for our brothers in Burma.

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## Attila the Hun

padamchen said:


> I'm quite concerned about a precedent being set if Bangladesh does indeed open its borders. Where do you then draw a line in the sand and say before this they are ours and after this they are somebody else's and if we don't like them or want them then its ok to start killing them till the country where they are originally from opens their borders and takes them back. Killing is killing, and I do not support it. But my point is, while we quibble on moralities, actual people are dying, and Bangladesh needs to do the right thing here or forever bear the guilt.


I don't understand majority of these Bangladeshi when they say "Oh, if we accept them, they will only keep sending more, they won't be going back ever.." - you should always try and protect your own kin, no matter what.


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## Jugger

TopCat said:


> We already found out that democracy was never an issue in Myanmar. They were fcked up somewhere else.


They were not given basic rights not even citizenship, people will be unhappy if their basic rights are not protected.
Muslims are an integral part of Myanmar for hundreds of years, it cannot disown them.
1.3 mil people cannot be termed as stateless.
Myanmars global standing rests on how it treats and reconciles with the rohigya people.
1.3 million people are an asset if nurtured properly and not a liability.



TopCat said:


> You should be worried about your own Hindus in India. The way Abhrahamic religion growing you will soon be minority and one day become extinct in India. West Bengal already under wahabi influence.


Fight should be against wahabism and fundamentalism then and not against muslims. Fundamentalism is the curse of every religion, the illusion of perfection, the illusion that its my way or the highway.
Fundamentalism should be fought everwhere it is found.


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## Flynn Swagmire

Jugger said:


> Myanmar is not a full fledged democracy yet, though it is on the right path. As Myanmar feels that the rohingya people are threat they are using force which is not acceptable. Under the process of democracy all people should be integrated with the system. This is very though at first but gradually different people of different ethnicity learn to live peacefully with each other. this is the only way forward in todays globalised world. People will back the govt of Myanmar if it gives equality to all its people without discrimination.


Bro, what happening there is not discrimination, its genocide. We can feel that because once upon a time we faced it.


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## Species

@waz @WAJsal shouldn't this thread be in the China and Far East section?


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## TopCat

Ottoman123 said:


> I don't understand majority of these Bangladeshi when they say "Oh, if we accept them, they will only keep sending more, they won't be going back ever.." - you should always try and protect your own kin, no matter what.



Its not that we did not. There are 500,000 rohingya refugees. We did not stop them in 1978 nor in 1992. We only found out that it was a ploy from MM side to push them inside BD to ethnically cleanse them. If we tell that our border is open they will make sure everybody leaves.
Even this time people found ways to enter BD and BD silently accepted them on humanitarian ground. But officially we will never open our border.


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## Attila the Hun

TopCat said:


> Its not that we did not. There are 500,000 rohingya refugees. We did not stop them in 1978 nor in 1992. We only found out that it was a ploy from MM side to push them inside BD to ethnically cleanse them. If we tell that our border is open they will make sure everybody leaves.
> Even this time people found ways to enter BD and BD silently accepted them on humanitarian ground. But officially we will never open our border.


How will it look if you do nothing though? The world will curse you.
Not saying you are - but to the people here that are saying, they should not let any in BD, is disgusting.


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## TopCat

Species said:


> @waz @WAJsal shouldn't this thread be in the China and Far East section?



Alreast make a link in China and Far East section

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## padamchen

Ottoman123 said:


> I don't understand majority of these Bangladeshi when they say "Oh, if we accept them, they will only keep sending more, they won't be going back ever.." - you should always try and protect your own kin, no matter what.



My point was about a precedent. And a line in the sand about time. Another member made the same point a few posts after mine.

Basically, the way the history of man has evolved, a lot of us have come from somewhere else but are not natives of some place else. Some of us moved 50 years ago. Some 200 years ago. Some in the past 10 years. Some a thousand years ago. Some came and mixed 5000 years ago.

The modern nation states are a very recent phenomenon. The concept of citizenship and passports. What happens to people who are persecuted by their present country but will not be taken back in by their past country? Where do they go? Do we carve out a nation for those without a nation?? This year's Olympics had such people compete under a refugee flag. Its obviously something we are not remotely close to solving.

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## bluesky

Ottoman123 said:


> I really don't know what's going on in Turkey(with regards of protests), but Turks are all talking about it in social Media and what have you. all over twitter etc .
> I know it's not the same, but, don't think we do not care for our brothers in Burma.



No, Turkey is very positive about the course of action by the Rohingyas and other Muslims. The Turkish President and PM have visited Arakan, as far as I know. OIC also has criticized the Burmese (Barman) policy towards the Rohingyas. Seems the Barmans and Rohigyas have taken the path of armed conflict. 

BD itself is in a precarious position. It cannot interfere in the Burmese internal matters. But, as far as I know both Suu Kii and Hasina have agreed to resolve the issue peacefully when they met in a BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative of Multi-Sectoral and Technical Cooperation) meeting in Goa, India.

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## Attila the Hun

padamchen said:


> Do we carve out a nation for those without a nation??



No, but, we should not bloody rape them .



bluesky said:


> No, Turkey is very positive about the course of action by the Rohingyas and other Muslims. The Turkish President and PM have visited Arakan



Not bloody good enough, but a start i suppose.


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## padamchen

Ottoman123 said:


> No, but, we should not bloody rape them .



I was watching on BBC or maybe CNN or maybe Al Jazeera (though I have a feeling it was one of the first two).

Didn't Turkey carry out one of the worst genocides of modern times on the Armenian people? At least I think it was Armenian. But Turkey I am sure was the offender. More than a million killed?

I''m not trolling you. But as a Turk, I'd like to hear what you have to say.


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## TopCat

padamchen said:


> I was watching on BBC or maybe CNN or maybe Al Jazeera (though I have a feeling it was one of the first two).
> 
> Didn't Turkey carry out one of the worst genocides of modern times on the Armenian people? At least I think it was Armenian. But Turkey I am sure was the offender. More than a million killed?
> 
> I''m not trolling you. But as a Turk, I'd like to hear what you have to say.



In a wartime situation we might do some accesses but we cant do a systematic repression on a group of people for centuries.

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## padamchen

TopCat said:


> In a wartime situation we might do some accesses but we cant do a systematic repression on a group of people for centuries.



Sure. But let the Turk speak please?


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## Attila the Hun

padamchen said:


> I was watching on BBC or maybe CNN or maybe Al Jazeera (though I have a feeling it was one of the first two).
> 
> Didn't Turkey carry out one of the worst genocides of modern times on the Armenian people? At least I think it was Armenian. But Turkey I am sure was the offender. More than a million killed?
> 
> I''m not trolling you. But as a Turk, I'd like to hear what you have to say.


1 million Armenians were not killed, and 1 million Armenians did not exist in Eastern Anatolia.
A lot of Armenians fought for Ottoman Empire. why would they fight for Ottomans if we were killing their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters?
Don't believe everything you read my friend.
We have thousands of Armenians living in Turkey.....

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## padamchen

Ottoman123 said:


> 1 million Armenians were not killed, and 1 million Armenians did not exist in Eastern Anatolia.
> A lot of Armenians fought for Ottoman Empire. why would they fight for Ottomans if we were killing their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters?
> Don't believe everything you read my friend.
> We have thousands of Armenians living in Turkey.....



So what's the truth. I mean, CNN or BBC would not make up stuff right?


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## Attila the Hun

padamchen said:


> So what's the truth. I mean, CNN or BBC would not make up stuff right?


That's what they(BBC especially) do.
There's not a single proof we committed Armenian Genocide.
There're thousands of Armenians living in Turkey.
What happened was, we deported many Armenians from Eastern Anatolia to Syria.


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## bluesky




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## Banglar Bir

Tuhin Malik
5 hrs ·







শেষ পর্যন্ত হিজড়ারা
আমাদের পলিটিশিয়ানদের
হারিয়ে দিলো !
Finally the transsexuals have defeated our politicians.









Tuhin Malik
5 hrs ·





শেষ পর্যন্ত হিজড়ারা
আমাদের পলিটিশিয়ানদের
হারিয়ে দিলো !


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## TopCat

Look what is happening in China border. With Chinese militaries movement, burmese army fled.

*Burmese military has fled 木姐 Muse City































https://defence.pk/threads/ongoing-myanmar-refugees-rush-to-china.462588/#post-8941467

*
@Aung Zaya


----------



## Banglar Bir

L.O.L.

DIRECTLY RELATED TO POST# 478.

Belal Hossain Ctg শক্তি ও সামর্থ থাকা সত্ত্বেও যারা এই রকম অমানবিক কাজের বিরুদ্ধে রুখে দাড়াঁয় না তারাই আসল হিজড়া।
Rasel Ahmed Eifte ওরা শারীরিক জিজড়া অামরা মানুষিক
MD Omor Faruq যারা সাহায্য তো দূরের কথা প্রতিবাদ করে নাই তারা এখন কি হতে চললো(!)

Sobuj Rayhan যাদের ক্ষমতা থাকা সত্তেও, কিছু বলার বা করার সাহস করেনা, তারাই আসল হিজরা। আর এ হিজরা রা মানবিক দিক থেকে আজ পৃথিবীর সভ্যতা মানবতাকে লজ্জায় ডুবিয়ে দিলো। মুসলিমদের দায়িত্ব ছিল মানবজাতিকে শান্তি দেওয়া। ইসলামের প্রকৃত শিক্ষা তাদেরকে শ্রেষ্ঠ জাতিতে পরিণত কর.

Md Habib I would like to humbly request to un, please take a immediate action for killing innocent civilians in Burma. It's the demand of human rights and justice. Please don't ignore it.we would like to see one peaceful world.
Rohul Amin হিজরারা প্রমান করল আমাদের দেশে চতুর্থ লিংগও আছে!!!!

Km Shahidul Islam Shahid স্যার সরকার তার গুন্ডা বাহিনী ও কিন্তু হিজড়া।

Bilquis Islam




Imran Ron Shah Politicians are busy with politics, business as usual
Dewan Mahmuda Akhter Lita Great....

Mainuddin Hasan Shahin স্যালুট আপনাদের

Ali Yousuf Great
Salauddin Rubel hijra ra je amader rajnoitik neta der che valo bujen etai proman.dhonnobad apnader.
Pavel Khan মুসলিমদের দায়িত্ব ছিল মানবজাতিকে শান্তি দেওয়া। ইসলামের প্রকৃত শিক্ষা তাদেরকে শ্রেষ্ঠ জাতিতে পরিণত করেছিল। কিন্তু যে জন্য তাদেরকে শ্রেষ্ঠ উম্মত (সুরা ইমরান ১১০), অর্থাৎ অন্যায় দূর করে ন্যায় প্রতিষ্ঠা, সেই দায়িত্ব ত্যাগ করার পরিণতিতে আল্লাহর প্রতিশ্.

Sayful Islam লজ্জাবুধ বলতে আসলেই নেই হাসিনার,
Md Uzzal Sheikh হিজরাদের কাছে রাজনীতিবিদদের এবং মানবাধিকার কর্মীদের মানবতার শিক্ষা নেওয়া উচিত।
Likhon Shu Shame on BD politician ! U people are nothing but funny dummy doll
Muhammad Shah Alam নির্যািতিত মানুষের জন্য যার হৃদয়ে রক্তক্ষরণ হয় আর প্রতিবাদে উচ্চকন্ঠ হয় সে ই মানুষ নামের উপযুক্ত। হোক সে যে কোন জেন্ডারের।
Khoka Mohammad Chowdhury সব জায়গাতেই নৃপুংসকদের আস্ফালন, সুবিধা নাও নপুংসক হও, কোন রকম কাঁটা ছেড়াই ছাড়াই ডিজিটাল পদ্ধতিতে নৃপুংসক করা ।ছেলেবেলায় দেখেছি, কুকুর ছানাকে পোষ মানানোর
জন্য ইয়ে কেটে ফেলে দেওয়া হতো ।আর এখন তো ডিজিটাল যুগ ।
Mahanur Togor ওহ! ডারলিং তোমরা তো পুরোই ফাটিয়ে দিয়েছো!



:
Mirza Pasha ওদের হাতে চুড়ি পরারা সময় এসে গেলো।
Amin Tangail অসংখ্য ধন্যবাদ তোমাদের,




Khasro Soheab All the best

Abdullah Al Mamun হাজার সালাম

MD Abdul Jabbar-praloy এবার বুঝুন, আমাদের পলিটিশিয়ানরা হিজড়াকেও হার মানিয়েছে ছি,ছি।

Nasir Uddin Milan আবার ও হারল আওয়ামিলীগ।
Like · Reply · 1 · 4 hrs

Hafiz Al-Asad Talha April Hijras should get chance to serve in all government jobs, including law enforcement and military... Pakistan somehow is doing better on Hijra issues than us...

Asif Abedin Akash অসাধারণ



❤

Jamil Osmani Uddin Jasim Knowledge is power but knowledge for kids indian

Salim Uddin Khokun Chy



Md.Nehal Uddin Well done Podma Kuri Hijra Shongho (y) !!

N.h. Rana তাদের চাইতে এরাই ভাল





Sakir Hossain bravo!
Akm Rasel স্বাগতম তোমাদের।

Rohul Amin Thanks

Hasan Basri সালাম তোমাদের

এইচ এম আশরাফুল ইসলাম best of luck

Nur Islam JADER BETORE MANOSSOTTO ASE TARA, ONNER KOSTO DEKE NEROB THAKTE PARENA? ?DONNOBAD TOMADERKE

Muntasir Billah Where and when?
MD Oyis তুমরাই বড়ো তুমাদের তুলোনা নাই
নেছার আল মাহমুদ ও‌দের মু‌ল্যে‌বোধ থাক‌লেও হা‌সিনার নেই
MD Siyam shabash
Shaju Ahmed Sabbas Sir, Hebby Lagche,

Sun Sun এখন সরকা‌রের বোধদয় হই‌লেই হয়।তৃতীয় লি‌ঙ্গের সকল‌কেই সেলুট জানাই।See translation
Like · Reply · 5 hrs
Rahman Shafiq বিএনপি জামাতের চেয়ে এরা অনেক ভাল।
Shelly Islam তোমরাই পারবা ভাইবোনেরা।
Mahadi Hasan Jewel ধন্যবাদ

আমি হাসান ঢাকাইয়া তা হলে সামনে দিন গুলোতে আমরা দেখতে পারবো আমাদের নেতাদের হাতে চুরি কান ফুল ও নাক ফুল পরতে।
Jashim Uddin আওয়ামীলীগ হিজড়া'র ছেয়েও অধম।
Kamal Hossain স্যার তাহলে আমাদের পলিটিশিয়ানরা কি হিজড়ার চেয়ে নিকৃষ্ট হয়ে গেল!!
50 of 87
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## Major d1

Watch it guyz






26 November 2016






We are talking about problems only now it is time to establish the proper solution for permanently.


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## Banglar Bir

*Alliance Against India*
Public group
Joined













*Alamin Khan Tds*
সবাইকে পরার জন্য অনুরোধ জানাচ্ছি,,?

বাংলাদেশের সীমান্তে মুসলমান হত্যা করে কে ? -ভারত
বাংলাদেশে সীমান্তে কাটাতারের বেড়া দিছে কে ? - ভারত
বাংলাদেশের সীমান্তে মানুষ উলংগ করে নির্যাতন করে কে ? -ভারত
সীমান্তে অনুপ্রবেশ করে বাংলাদেশিদের নির্যাতন করে কে ?- ভারত
বাংলাদেশের সীমান্ত দিয়ে মাদক পাচার করে কে ? -ভারত
শুধু বাংলাদেশে মাদক পাচারের জন্য সীমান্তের ৩৫ কিলোমিটার এলাকার মধ্যে ফেন্সিডিল কারখান করেছে কে ?-ভারত 
কে বাংলাদেশে হিরোইন পাচার করে? -ভারত
বাংলাদেশের পন্য সীমান্ত দিয়ে পাচারে সহযোগিতা করে কে ? ভারত
সীমান্ত দিয়ে গরু আমদানী বন্ধ করে বাংলাদেশকে গোশত খাওয়া বন্ধ করার হুমকি দেয় কে ?-ভারত
পার্বত্য চট্রগ্রামে অস্ত্র সরবরাহ করে কে ? -ভারত
পার্বত্য চট্রগ্রামে উপজাতি সন্ত্রাসীদের প্রশিক্ষন দিচ্ছে কে ?-ভারত
পার্বত্য চট্রগ্রামে শান্তি বাহিনির মদদদাতা কে ? - ভারত
নদিতে বাধ দিয়ে বাংলাদেশের ন্যায্য পাওনা পানি দিচ্ছেনা কে ?-ভারত
উত্তরবংগকে মরুভুমি বানানোর ষড়যন্ত্র করছে কে ? -ভারত
সীমান্তবর্তি নদিগুলো দখল করছে কে ?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশের সমুদ্রে প্রবেশ করে মাছ ধরে নিয়ে যায় কে ?-ভারত
সমুদ্রে বাংলাদেশের খনিজ সম্পদ চুরি করছে কে ?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশের গার্মেন্টস শিল্পে অরাজকতা সৃষ্টি করে রেখেছে কে ?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশের পোষাক শিল্পকে পঙ্গু করার ষড়যন্ত্রকারী কে ? -ভারত
বাংলাদেশের পোষাক কারখানায় গন্ডগোল লাগিয়ে কিনে নেয় কে?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশের শেয়ারবাজারের কেলেংকারীর জন্য দায়ী কে?-ভারত
বিভিন্ন বেসরকারী অফিসে অবৈধ চাকরিরত লক্ষ লক্ষ হিন্দুরা কোন দেশের?- ভারত
বাংলাদেশ এর রেমিটেন্স এর উপর নির্ভরশীল কে ?- ভারত
বাংলাদেশের অর্থনীতিকে ধ্বংস করার পায়তারা করছে কে ?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশে বিভিন্ন কাজ পেতে ভিক্ষুকের মত মুখিয়ে থাকে কে ?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশের দেওয়া ভিক্ষা ছাড়া চলতে পারেনা কে? –ভারত 
বাংলাদেশে টিভির মাধ্যমে সামাজিক অবক্ষয় ঘটাচ্ছে কে? –ভারত
বাংলাদেশের নগ্নতার বিস্তারকারী দেশ কে ?- ভারত
বাংলাদেশে মিডিয়া পতিতা রপ্তানী করে কে ? –ভারত
বাংলাদেশের পন্য যাতে ভারতে ঢুকতে না পারে সে জন্য নানাবিধ সমস্যা তৈরিকারী দেশ কে ? ভারত
নেপাল-ভুটানের সাথে বানিজ্য করতে বাধা দিচ্ছে কে ?- ভারত
পিলখানায় হত্যাকান্ডের পিছনে মুল দায়ী কে ?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশের প্রতিরক্ষা বাহিনিকে অথর্ব করার পায়তারা করছে কে?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশে প্রতিরক্ষা অফিসসমুহে র’ এর এজেন্ট বসিয়েছে কে ?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশের ভুখন্ড দাবী করে কে?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশকে আক্রমন করার হুমকি দেয় কে?- ভারত
বাংলাদেশে ভারতীয় নাগরিক পুশ ইন করে কে ?-ভারত
ভারতের নাগরিকদের বাংলাদেশী বানানোর পায়তারা করছে কে ?- ভারত
বাংলাদেশে সরকারী চাকুরিতে গনহারে হিন্দু নিয়োগের পিছনে কে? – ভারত
পাঠ্যপুস্তকে ইসলাম বিরোধী কথা সংযুক্ত করার পিছনে কে?-ভারত
সবদিক থেকে বাংলাদেশকে অক্টোপাশের মত চেপে ধরেছে কে?-ভারত
বাংলাদেশকে সিকিম বানানোর পায়তারা করছে কে ? –ভারত 
বাংলাদেশের প্রকাশ্য শত্রু কে? –ভারত

তাহলে দেখা যাচ্ছে বাংলাদেশের যত ধরনের ক্ষতি করা যায় তার সবই করছে ভারত । মুখে বন্ধ্বুত্বের কথা বললেও অন্তরে পোষন করে তিব্র বিদ্বেষ আর ঘৃনা । 
যা মহান আল্লাহ পাক বলেছেন “হে মুমিনগণ, তোমরা তোমাদের ছাড়া অন্য কাউকে (কাফিরদের) অন্তরঙ্গ বন্ধুরূপে গ্রহণ করো না। তারা তোমাদের সর্বনাশ করতে ত্রুটি করবে না। তারা তোমাদের মারাত্মক ক্ষতি কামনা করে। তাদের মুখ থেকে তো শত্রুতা প্রকাশ পেয়ে গিয়েছে। আর তাদের অন্তরসমূহ যা গোপন করে তা মারাত্মক। অবশ্যই আমি তোমাদের জন্য আয়াতসমূহ স্পষ্ট বর্ণনা করেছি। যদি তোমরা উপলব্ধি করতে। শোন, তোমরাই তো তাদেরকে(কাফিরদের) ভালবাস এবং তারা(কাফিরেরা) তোমাদেরকে ভালবাসে না। অথচ তোমরা সব কিতাবের প্রতি ঈমান রাখ। আর যখন তারা (কাফিরেরা) তোমাদের সাথে সাক্ষাৎ করে, তখন বলে, ‘আমরা ঈমান এনেছি’। আর যখন তারা একান্তে মিলিত হয়, তোমাদের উপর রাগে আঙ্গুল কামড়ায়। বল, ‘তোমরা তোমাদের রাগ নিয়ে মর’! নিশ্চয় আল্লাহ অন্তরের গোপন বিষয় সম্পর্কে পূর্ণ জ্ঞাত। যদি তোমাদেরকে কোন কল্যাণ স্পর্শ করে, তখন তাদের কষ্ট হয়। আর যদি তোমাদেরকে মন্দ স্পর্শ করে, তখন তারা তাতে খুশি হয়। আর যদি তোমরা ধৈর্য ধর এবং তাকওয়া অবলম্বন কর, তাহলে তাদের ষড়যন্ত্র তোমাদের কিছু ক্ষতি করবে না। নিশ্চয় আল্লাহ তারা যা করে, তা পরিবেষ্টনকারী”। [সূরা আলে-ইমরান ১১৮-১২০]

অবাক হই আল্লাহ পাক পবিত্র আয়াত শরীফ উনার মাধ্যমে কাফিরদের স্বরুপ উন্মোচন করে দেওয়ার পরেও কি করে প্রকাশ্য শত্রু, বাংলাদেশের ধ্বংস কামনাকারী ভারতের হাতে বাংলাদেশ এর স্বার্থ ক্ষুন্ন করে ভারতের স্বার্থ রক্ষা করে? 
উভয়েরই ধ্বংস অত্যাসন্ন ।

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## Major d1

কাফির রা কাফির ই থাকে। তাদের জন্য কি বেবস্থা নেয়া উচিৎ তা আমরা মুসলিমরা জানি । মায়ানমার এর জারজ সন্তানরা আজকে আমদের হতা করছে। ভারত চুপ থাকবে তাই সাভবিক। কারন তারাও আমাদের হত্যা করে।

India silently supporting , in the case of killing innocent muslims, where they are killed by Myanmar terrorist army and terrorist Buddhist community 24/7.

Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh in response to coordinated attacks on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers.

Myanmar's military and the government have rejected allegations by residents and rights groups that soldiers have raped Rohingya women, burned houses and killed civilians during the military operation in Rakhine.

The international community has expressed concern. But what they are doing ? Nothing

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## Banglar Bir

*David Bergman*
2 hrs · 





My story for The Scroll: In September, at the United Nations General Assembly, in front of country delegations from around the world, the Bangladesh prime minister in no uncertain terms pledged support for refugees. Read what she said then ... and what her government is doing now, just two months later, in relation to the Rohingya people fleeing army massacres and brutality in Myanmar.
*Sheikh Hasina pledged support to refugees at the UN, but Bangladesh is shutting out Rohingyas*
*Ignoring UN's plea, Dhaka is sending back those fleeing persecution in Myanmar.*




Image credit: Reuters
David Bergman
Two months ago, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stood at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and gave a speech in front of assembled government delegations. After quoting her father, the country’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina said:

“Violent conflicts continue to rage in several places, with heavy toll of human lives. Those fleeing from conflicts are often denied protection across borders. Dire humanitarian needs are at times ignored or access blocked. What crime Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year innocent child of Syria who drowned in the sea, had committed? What was the fault of 5-year-old Omran, who was seriously wounded by airstrike at his own home in Aleppo? It is indeed hard to bear all these cruelties as a mother. Won’t these happenings stir the world conscience?”

Such views would, of course, be expected from the leader of a country whose independence in 1971 followed a war that resulted in many millions of Bengalis obtaining sanctuary in India.

Two months on from her speech to the UN, however, the prime minister seems to have totally forgotten her very own words – and her country’s history.

Rather than giving sanctuary to thousands of Rohingyas fleeing extreme Army violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Hasina’s government is using armed guards to prevent boats carrying hundreds of the refugees, including children, from landing on the coast of southern Bangladesh, and has rejected the United Nations’ plea to open the country’s borders.

Amnesty International has described the Bangladesh government’s decision to push back the fleeing Rohingyas as callous.

*Deaf to UN plea*
On November 18, the United Nations urged the government to give sanctuary to Rohingyas fleeing a Myanmar military operation that is alleged to have razed villages and brutalised residents. The military operation followed attacks on police outposts that killed 10 police officers on october 9, which the Myanmar government claims were committed by a Rohingya group.

“We are appealing to the government of Bangladesh to keep its border with Myanmar open and allow safe passage to any civilians from Myanmar fleeing violence,” Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, stated at a press briefing in Geneva.

A spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told AFP, “Up to 30,000 people are now estimated to be displaced and thousands more affected by the October 9 armed attacks and subsequent security operations across the north of Rakhine state. This includes as many as 15,000 people who, according to unverified information, may have been displaced after clashes between armed actors and the military on November 12-13.”

The news agency AFP reported that on the same day the UN made its appeal, Bangladesh government enforcement authorities patrolling the Naf river, which separates the country’s southeastern border from western Myanmar, pushed back a group of Rohingyas trying to enter the country. “There were 125 Myanmar nationals in seven wooden boats,” Coast Guard official Nafiur Rahman told AFP. “They included 61 women and 36 children. We resisted them from entering our water territory.”

Another Coast Guard officer said he saw two bodies floating in the river while on patrol.

Two days later, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that the Border Guard Bangladesh and the Coast Guard had been alerted to prevent the illegal entry of Rohingyas at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. “Rohingya migration is an uncomfortable issue for Bangladesh,” Kamal was quoted as saying by the _Dhaka Tribune_.“Hopefully, no more illegal migration will happen now.”

_The Daily Star_ reported that at Teknaf, the Border Guard Bangladesh had increased the number of troops at border outposts to prevent infiltration. A colonel with the paramilitary force was quoted as saying that they were holding meetings with residents, including fishermen, to help them stop the Rohingyas from entering the country.

And four days later, AFP continued to report that the government was doing all it could to stop the Rohingyas from landing. It said Border Guard Bangladesh troops had blocked nearly 300 Rohingyas from crossing the border overnight, the highest number since the crisis began last month. “We’re preventing them on the zero line, especially those who were trying to cross the barbed-wire fences erected by Myanmar,” an official was quoted as saying.

Despite these efforts, however, as many as 2,000 Rohingyas are reported to have avoided detection and entered Bangladesh, though the government maintained that it was determined to push back into Myanmar those they can detain.

*Rohingyas in Bangladesh*
There is a sizeable Rohingya population in Bangladesh with hundreds of thousands of them having fled to the country in the last 25 years to escape persecution from the military junta and Buddhist nationalists.

At present, there are two distinct groups of Rohingyas living in Bangladesh. There are 33,000 registered refugees living under UNHCR protection in camps near Cox’s Bazaar, which they can only leave with permission from camp commanders. And then there are another 300,000 or so unregistered Rohingyas living in makeshift settlements surrounding the official camps who have no legal status and no legal rights.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has expressed willingness to help the Bangladesh government cover the costs of registering the unregistered refugees and providing them services, but the government has refused to allow this to happen.

In Bangladesh, Rohingya camps are perceived as a hotbed of criminalityas well as a national security concern. Government officials also argue that the country is small and heavily populated and they do not have the resources to assist the Rohingyas. In addition, Rohingyas are viewed with additional suspicion as they are religiously conservative and seen as natural allies of the Opposition political party Jamaat-e-Islami.

*Sheikh Hasina’s stand*
The Bangladesh prime minister’s current position is more consistent with her past record than her sweet words at the UN General Assembly.

In an interview to Al Jazeera Television in 2012, which was also a time when the government was stopping fleeing Rohingyas from entering Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina was asked, “These are people in a desperate humanitarian situation and surely, there are basic principles, human principles, moral principles that compel you to help them?” She had replied, “Bangladesh is already an overpopulated country. We cannot bear this burden.”

The interviewer then said, “But we have seen pictures ourselves. Bangladeshi guards physically turning people back, returning them to danger.” The prime minister said the guards had behaved in a humanitarian manner, “providing food for them, medicine for them, money for them and just allowed them to return to their own homes”.

She denied the claim made by Al Jazeera that the Rohingyas were “forced to return to their homes”, saying, “No, they did not force them. Rather they pursued them, that they should go back and they went back.”

The interviewer then said the prime minister “must know full well [the Rohingyas] are being persecuted in their own country, they tried to run away and they are refused entry to your own country”. To this, Hasina replied, “Why should we let them enter our country?” She added that she believed Myanmar government officials who had told her that the Rohingyas were living in a “convivial atmosphere” in their country.

*Dhaka embarrassment?*
Sheikh Hasina’s failure to live up to her words and commitments at the United Nations is certainly tragic for the Rohingyas, but it may also prove embarrassing for her government, which is due to host the Global Forum on Migration and Development in two weeks time in Dhaka.

This forum is intended to build on the work undertaken at the UN Summit on Migrants and Refugees, which had taken place just days before Hasina spoke at the General Assembly, and where she had, surprisingly given her previous position, been a leading participant. At the refugee summit, Bangladesh had become a signatory to the New York Declaration that referred to “our profound solidarity with, and support for, the millions of people in different parts of the world who, for reasons beyond their control, are forced to uproot themselves and their families from their homes”.

The declaration added, “Refugees and migrants in large movements often face a desperate ordeal. We are determined to save lives. Our challenge is above all moral and humanitarian.”

The concept paper for the meeting in Dhaka refers to the need to provide “safe and legal pathways for [migrants and refugees] seeking protection”.

This is something the government is steadfastly refusing to do in relation to the Rohingyas seeking sanctuary in Bangladesh.

http://scroll.in/article/822436/she...e-un-but-bangladesh-is-shutting-out-rohingyas

Sheikh Mohi Uddin Ahmed Thank you. David Bergman.
M. Sirajul Islam Hypocrite!

Syed Islam Our leaders often need to make pledges but very often they fail to keep their promise it is sad but a reality. In this particular case she might have pledges in the UN believing the back up support of UN or anticipating the wholehearted support of the UN. Alone she cannot help it to keep up her promise with UN unless UN come forward to help its member's to stand up with its pledges.... As a very poor nation we cannot take such influx of refugee, although I believe that they (rohinga refugee) have all their rights to have a safe shelter possibly in Bangladesh or other neighbouring countries and UN should come forward to help Bangladesh to tackle this huge humanitarian crisis --- not ordering to stand up to keep its pledges but to help out to keep pledges......


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## Major d1

Rohigya muslim s deserve the method of self-Defence. Now it is their basic right.


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## bluesky

*Suu Kyi seeks Hasina’s assistance to solve Rohingya issue*

Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Published at 11:55 PM September 20, 2016
Last updated at 10:13 PM November 15, 2016



*The premier told Suu Kyi that the Rohingya crisis should be solved by the two countries together*
Myanmar has asked for the assistance of Bangladesh government to settle the much-talked Rohingya crisis.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Myanmar State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi discussed the matter during a meeting in New York Monday.

“At the meeting, Suu Kyi sought help of Bangladesh to solve the Rohingya issue. She informed the prime minister about the commission, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, her country has formed to look into the crisis, and said that the matter would be resolved as per recommendation of the commission,” Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque said over the phone from New York.

“The premier told Suu Kyi that the matter should be solved by the two countries together,” the secretary said.

The Rohingya are considered by many in Myanmar to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and most do not have citizenship. They are prevented from moving freely and have their access to basic services restricted.

Suu Kyi, who is constitutionally barred from being president but leads the government as state counsellor and foreign minister, last month announced the nine-member commission, made up of six Myanmar citizens and three foreigners, to advise her government on the Rohingya issue.

The panel is tasked with stopping human rights abuses and bringing peace to the northwestern state of Rakhine where violence between Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims has cast a pall over the country’s democratic transition.

Suu Kyi has been criticised for doing too little to address the plight of the Rohingya minorities.

Myanmar law does not recognise the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups, making them stateless.





Ethnic Rakhine men hold homemade weapons as they walk in front of a house that was burnt during fighting between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities in Sittwe June 10, 2012 *Reuters*

More than 100 people were killed in violence in Rakhine in 2012 and some 125,000 Rohingya Muslims took refuge in squalid “internally displaced persons” (IDP) camps where their movements are severely restricted. Thousands have fled persecution and poverty by boat or entered Bangladesh through the border.

The UNHCR has worked with Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh at the invitation of the government since 1993.

It operates in two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar to provide protection and assistance to some 33,000 refugees and advocates with the government for the protection of some 300,000 to 500,000 unregistered Myanmar nationals who do not enjoy the same benefits as refugees.

Myanmar has been torn by fighting between the military, which seized power in the 1962 coup, and ethnic armed groups almost without a break since the end of the Second World War.

The plight of the Rohingya people has raised questions about Suu Kyi’s commitment to human rights and represents a politically sensitive issue for her National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory last year.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also called on Myanmar to improve the living conditions for its Rohingya Muslim minority. “The government has assured me about its commitment to address the roots of the problem,” Ban told a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw on August 30.

The first meeting of the commission, chaired by Annan, was held on September 5.

“This is an issue that we have failed to meet squarely and fairly, and to which we have not been able to find the right solution,” Suu Kyi said at the meeting in the commercial capital, Yangon, according to Reuters. “We hope that this commission will help us to find solutions to the problem.”

Annan said that the panel would come up proposals to the issue over the coming months.

Even though the international communities have welcomed the commission, the largest political party in Rakhine State, the Arakan National Party (ANP), has criticised it, insisting that foreigners cannot understand the history of the area. Some members of the ANP – formed by hardline Rakhine Buddhists – participated in a protest against the commission’s visit to the region September 6.





Protesters shout slogans during a rally against former UN chief Kofi Annan in Sittwe, Myanmar, September 6, 2016 *Reuters*

Jeers and chants denouncing the panel intensified upon the arrival of Annan’s plane. The crowd soon followed the convoy into town, where Annan delivered a speech and met with members of both the Rohingya and Buddhist Rakhine communities during his two-day visit to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state.

On the other hand, radical Islamists and militant outfits of Bangladesh have joined hands with the Rohingya groups including Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) to demand due rights of the minority group. Militant groups al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Islamic State have also threatened to avenge the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

After the 2012 communal violence in Myanmar, Buddhist monasteries and localities were attacked in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar on September 29 by local Muslims following a rumour that the Qur’an had been defamed by a Buddhist on Facebook. Witnesses say not only the members of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, but also the ruling Awami League men were involved in the attacks stage-managed in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar sadar, Ukhiya and Teknaf areas.


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## Banglar Bir

*Syed Muhammad Ibrahim*
4 hrs · 




নির্যাতিত রোহিংগাদের পক্ষে ; কল্যান পার্টি ।



মানবিক কারণে রোহিঙ্গাদের আশ্রয় দেওয়ার আহ্বান কল্যাণ পার্টির | গুডনিউজবিডি ডট কম
মানবিক কারণে রোহিঙ্গাদের আশ্রয় দেওয়ার আহ্বান কল্যাণ পার্টির ঢাকা ২৫ নভেম্বর ২০১৬ (গুডনিউজবিডি): রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর অমানবিক নির্যাতনের প্রতিবাদে মানব বন্ধন করেছে বাংলাদেশ…
*মানবিক কারণে রোহিঙ্গাদের আশ্রয় দেওয়ার আহ্বান কল্যাণ পার্টির*

ঢাকা ২৫ নভেম্বর ২০১৬ (গুডনিউজবিডি): রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর অমানবিক নির্যাতনের প্রতিবাদে মানব বন্ধন করেছে বাংলাদেশ কল্যাণ পার্টি। জাতীয় প্রেস ক্লাবের সামনে সকাল ১১টায় এই মানব বন্ধনের আয়োজন করা হয়।

মানব বন্ধনে বিএনপির ভাইস-চেয়ারম্যান আব্দুল্লাহ আল নোমান উপস্থিত ছিলেন। জনাব নোমান জাতিসংঘ মহাসচিবের প্রতি দৃষ্টি আকর্ষণ করে বলেন, মহাসচিবের প্রতি আমাদের আবেদন, প্রয়োজনে যেন সেখানে শান্তিরক্ষী বাহিনী পাঠানোর বিষয়টি তিনি গুরুত্ব সহকারে বিবেচনা করেন।
ওআইসির প্রতিও আবেদন জানিয়ে তিনি বলেন, মুসলিম দেশসমূহের সমন্বিত উদ্যোগ প্রয়োজন মিয়ানমার সরকারের উপরে কূটনৈতিক চাপ প্রয়োগের জন্য এবং রোহিঙ্গাদের আশ্রয় দেওয়ার জন্য।
মানব বন্ধনে সভাপতিত্ব করেন, বাংলাদেশ কল্যাণ পার্টির চেয়ারম্যান, অবসরপ্রাপ্ত মেজর জেনারেল সৈয়দ মুহাম্মদ ইবরাহিম বীর প্রতীক।
জেনারেল ইবরাহিম বাংলাদেশ সরকারের দৃষ্টি আকর্ষণ করে বলেন, আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায়ের নিকট সমস্যাটি আরও জোরালোভাবে উপস্থাপন করুন।
বাংলাদেশ সরকারের নিকট তিনি দ্বিতীয় আবেদন করে বলেন, মানবতার স্বার্থে রোহিঙ্গদের গ্রহণ করুন এবং উপযুক্ত সময়ে কূটনৈতিক আলোচনার মাধ্যমে তাদেরকে ফেরত পাঠান।

জনাব আব্দুল্লাহ আল নোমান এবং জেনারেল ইবরাহিম উভয়েই বলেন, ১৯৭১ সালে ভারত আমাদের আশ্রয় দিয়ে সাহায্য করেছিল। আজ যদি আমরা রোহিঙ্গাদের প্রতি সদয় না হয় তাহলে ইতিহাসের প্রতি অকৃতজ্ঞতা জানানো হবে। বিবেকের প্রতি অকৃতজ্ঞতা জানানো হবে।

মানব বন্ধনে উপস্থিত ছিলেন, বিএনপির নির্বাহী কমিটির সদস্য আবু নাসের রহমত উল্লাহ, বাংলাদেশ ন্যাপ এর মহাসচিব গোলাম মোস্তফা ভূইয়া, বাংলাদেশ কল্যাণ পার্টির মহাসচিব এম এম আমিনুর রহমান, স্থায়ী কমিটির সদস্য এডভোকেট আজাদ মাহবুব, অর্থ বিষয়ক সম্পাদক এডভোকেট মনির হোসেন, অন্যতম ভাইস চেয়ারম্যান সাইদুর রহমান তামান্না, যুগ্ম মহাসচিব নূরুল কবির ভূইয়া পিন্টু, ঢাকা মহানগর সভাপতি আলী হোসেন ফরায়েজি।

http://www.goodnewsbd.com/?p=61116

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## Major d1

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi ---------please give it to your lover --Terrorist Myanmar Army-


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## Banglar Bir

bluesky said:


> *Suu Kyi seeks Hasina’s assistance to solve Rohingya issue*
> 
> Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
> Published at 11:55 PM September 20, 2016
> Last updated at 10:13 PM November 15, 2016
> 
> 
> 
> *The premier told Suu Kyi that the Rohingya crisis should be solved by the two countries together*
> QUOTE Myanmar has asked for the assistance of Bangladesh government to settle the much-talked Rohingya crisis.
> 
> Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Myanmar State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi discussed the matter during a meeting in New York Monday. UNQUOTE
> 
> 
> 
> NEWS OF UNGA SIDE LINES BI LATERAL IN SEPTEMBER 2016. NOT A RECENT ONE. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE MEETING, MAY I ASK PLEASE?


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## Major d1



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## Banglar Bir

NEWS OF UNGA SIDE LINES BI LATERAL IN SEPTEMBER 2016. NOT A RECENT ONE. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE MEETING, MAY I ASK PLEASE?


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## Major d1

How many time hasina will sit with Ang sang su ki about the issue? I think 100 times they sited. But solution is ZERO. If they will sit for 1000000 times , condition will be same to same.


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## Banglar Bir

Jashim Uddin





Md Jahangir আপনার উদ্যোগ ভালো। কিন্তু আপনার দলের কোন নেতা আছে আপনি ছাড়া। বাকি সবাই বি, এন পি, নেতা করমি।



Syed Muhammad Ibrahim আমি অত্যন্ত বিনয়ের সাথে কিন্তু দৃঢ় ভাবে আপনার মন্তব্যের প্রতিবাদ জানালাম। আপনি সরে জমিনে এসে যাচাই করলে, আপনি ঐ রূপ মন্তব্য করতেন না। আপনি যেই যেই বিএনপি নেতা কর্মী কে, চিনলেন ছবিতে, তাদের।কে চিন্নিত করুন। প্রধান অতিথি জনাব নোমান, উনাদের নির্বাহী কমিটি সদস্য জনাব রহমত উল্লাহ---- আমন্ত্রিত অতিথি।

Shahidul Islam নেতা হওয়ার এইতো সুযোগ!

Mohammad Akram জনাব জাহাঙ্গীর সাহেব শ্রদ্ধার সাথে বলতে চাই আপনি যে মন্তব্যটি করলেন সেই মন্তব্যটি আপনার মুখে মানায় না।
আপনাদের মত ঘরকুনো সমলোচক ব্যাক্তিদের জন্য আজ দেশের এই অবস্তা।
কেউ ভালো কিছু করল সেটার প্রশংসা করতে না পারেন অনন্ত মুখ বন্ধ রাখেন



Major d1 said:


> How many time hasina will sit with Ang sang su ki about the issue? I think 100 times they sited. But solution is ZERO. If they will sit for 1000000 times , condition will be same to same.



BIRDS OF FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER, AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

*World Military News In Bangla -WMNB*

গত বছর চীনের কাছ থেকে সর্বোচ্চ অস্ত্র কেনাকাটা করা দেশগুলোর মধ্যে বাংলাদেশ ছিল ২য়,মিয়ানমার ৩য় এবং পাকিস্তান ১ম
দুই দেশই চীন থেকে অস্ত্র কেনে
ফলে আমরা আর তারা প্রায় সেইম সরঞ্জাম ব্যাবহার করি
বড় দেশ হিসেবে তাদের কিছু জিনিস বেশি আছে কিছু আবার আমাদের থেকে কম আছে
১৯-২০ যারে বলে
কিন্ত সত্য বলতে কি আমাদের সেনা ও নৌ বাহিনী তাদের সাথে টেক্কা দিতে পারবে কিন্ত বিমানবাহিনী কিছুটা পিছিয়ে আছে!
#বাংলাদেশ_সেনাবাহিনী কে মোট ৯ টি ইনফেন্ট্রারি ডিভিশনে ভাগ করা হইছে,এই ৯ টি ডিভিশন সারা দেশ জুড়ে সুন্দরভাবে প্লেস করা আছে যাতে যেকোন আক্রমন প্রতিহত করতে পারে যেকোন সাইড থেকে!
আগেই বলে রাখি বাংলাদেশ আর মিয়ানমারের জীবনে ফুল স্কেল যুদ্ধ হয়ার সম্ভবনা ১% এর ও কম,এই ১% আল্লাহর ইচ্ছার উপর,কারন বাংলাদেশ-মিয়ানমার যেদেশই আগে আক্রমন করুক না কেন মার খেয়ে ব্যাক যাবে,আর বাংলাদেশ কে বলা হয় "ডিফেন্ডারস প্যারাডাইস"
তাও কিছু মানুষ ভয় পাচ্ছে তাই এই পোস্ট টা লেখা!
মিয়ানমার যদি ঢুকতে চায় বাংলাদেশে তাইলে তাদের অবশ্যই চট্রগ্রাম দিয়ে ঢুকা লাগবে!
কিন্ত চট্রগ্রামে আমাদের রয়েছে ২ টি ইনফেন্ট্রারি ডিভিশন,একটি চট্রগ্রামে আরেকটি কক্সবাজারের রামুতে,এদেরকে এখানে রাখা হয়েছে চট্রগ্রামের সন্ত্রাসী এবং মিয়ানমারের আক্রমন(যদি করে) ঠেকানোর জন্যে
এদের সাপোর্ট দেয়ার জন্যে চট্রগ্রামে বাংলাদেশ এয়ারফোর্সের এট্যাক স্কোয়াড্রন হিসেবে খ্যাত "দি এভেঞ্জারস" বা ক্সোয়াড্রন-২১ কে প্লেস করা আছে,যাতে ঝামেলা বাধলেই এয়ার স্ট্রাইক করা যায়,সাথে আছে ট্রেন্ডসেটারস ক্সোয়াড্রন,এছাড়াও চট্রগ্রামে রয়েছে বিশাল এক নৌঘাঁটি,আর্টিলারি সাপোর্ট দেয়ার জন্যে রয়েছে ১০ম এবং ২৩তম ফিল্ড আর্টিলারি ইউনিট
আমরা ছোট দেশ,সাথে গরীব দেশ,আছে নানা প্রতিকুলতা,কিন্ত এত প্রতিকুলতা সত্তেও প্রত্যেক বছর সরকার সাধ্যমত চেষ্টা চালিয়ে সশস্ত্র বাহিনীর উন্নয়ন করে যাচ্ছে,এছাড়াও আমাদের "ইস্ট বেংগল রেজিমেন্ট" এর গৌরবময় ইতিহাসের কথা সবাই জানে,দুনিয়ার সেরা ইনফেন্ট্রারি রেজিমেন্টের একটি হল বাংলাদেশের ইস্ট বেংগল রেজিমেন্ট
সো ভাই বা বোনেরা ভয় পাইয়েন না তারা আছে এবং থাকবে আমাদের নিরাপত্তা নিশ্চিত করার লক্ষ্যে,৭১ এ যদি লুংগি গামছা পরেই পাকিস্তানি দের তুলোধোনা করতে পারি তো এত উন্নত করা সত্তেও সশস্ত্র বাহিনী কেন পারবে না?
Let them come
Our boys will give them hell


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## Major d1

Indeed.

Let them come
Our boys will give them hell


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## Banglar Bir

*পৃতিবীর ইতিহাস থেকে মায়ানমারের নাম চিরতরে মুছে ফেলা হবে,,বললেন মেজর জেনারেল সালাউদ্দিন,,,দেখুন ভিডিওতে*

http://bangla.moralnews24.com/archives/19164.html

মোড়লনিউজ২৪.কম । 26 November, 2016 6:42

পৃতিবীর ইতিহাস থেকে মায়ানমারের নাম চিরতরে মুছে ফেলা হবে,,বললেন মেজর জেনারেল সালাউদ্দিন,,,দেখুন ভিডিও








[URL='https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1358117450887833&set=p.1358117450887833&type=3']

[/URL]

08:51 PM, November 26, 2016.
*Other countries neighbouring Myanmar should open up more, says Bangladesh envoy to India*






Rohingya refugees approach the Kutupalang Refugee Camp after illegally crossing Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: Reuters

Bangladesh today said other countries neighbouring Myanmar should open up more to Rohingya refugees as it alone cannot cope with the problem.

“Other neighbouring countries—China, India and Malaysia should also allow Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Bangladesh alone cannot cope with the problem,” said Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Muazzem Ali, our New Delhi correspondent reports.

The envoy said this in reply to a question after the screening of a documentary made by leading rights activist Shahriar Kabir in New Delhi today.

He said Bangladesh has not closed its door to Rohingya refugees but put certain restrictions on their coming adding Bangladesh has been facing the Rohingya issue since 1978.

Ali also said that the solution of this problem lies in the hands of Myanmar government which should treat them as their own citizens.

“The problem with the Myanmar government is that it has never treated Rohingyas as its own citizen like 21 other ethnic groups of that country,” he observed.

OUR HIGH COMMISSIONER BASED IN NEW DELHI IS NOT THE AUTHORIZED SPOKESPERSON OF MOFA, TO ISSUE 
SUCH STATEMENTS, DOES NOT FALL WITHIN DIPLOMATIC NORMS AND CUSTOMS AND THE VIENNA CONVENTIONS..


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## AZADPAKISTAN2009

Sad... just sad ...

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## masud

JUST TOO MUCH TALKING., ...STOP TALKING, START DOING.......... 
i really wish, i can provide them weapons......... our government is really a dumb ***.


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## Zabaniyah

waz said:


> I feel sorry for these poor folks. It's better to just leave rather face this every day.



The current government of Bangladesh are not taking them.

After the attacks on authorities by 'insurgents' last month in Rakhine, I got a really bad feeling for some reason. A really nasty echo.



Ottoman123 said:


> How will it look if you do nothing though? The world will curse you.
> Not saying you are - but to the people here that are saying, they should not let any in BD, is disgusting.



Bangladesh already host quite a number of them. The region of Teknaf is filled with mostly Rohingyas.

Bangladesh already struggle with overpopulation, illiteracy and inequality. Why deal with more? That is not my thinking, but that of their leader.

Ask yourself. Would Erdogan take them in? I think not.



AZADPAKISTAN2009 said:


> Sad... just sad ...



LOL...

The one thing those two have in common is that both are sitting ducks. They stand zero chance against the reality that will potentially unfold in the coming times.

@Luffy 500 @mb444 No, I don't subscribe to...whatever his name is....views....

In another news, a similar attack to last month (albeit, on a larger and far more organized and disciplined scale) was carried out not far from the Chinese border. It seems that Burma is still a bitterly and violently divided country. That will hamper the country's long-term economic outlook.

No doubt, the country has a lot of promise and potential. Makes you wonder eh?



masud said:


> JUST TOO MUCH TALKING., ...STOP TALKING, START DOING..........
> i really wish, i can provide them weapons......... our government is really a dumb ***.



Bad idea. Especially given the current times.


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## asad71

Unfortunately BD's own civil society and HR watchdogs are silent. Silent is BD's own Nobel Laurette Dr Mohammad Yunus. Indeed there is a silly feeling among some that speaking in defense of these miserable hordes would brand them Islamist / IS supporter, etc.


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## LA se Karachi

Species said:


> So protests have taken place in Dhaka, Kuala Lampur and Jakarta so far. Respect.
> 
> *Nothing in* Ankara,* Islamabad*, Tehran.




Pakistanis have protested multiple times in public over the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar these past few years. More importantly, Pakistan has taken in hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees over the years. Actions speak louder than words and Pakistan has taken in more Rohingya refugees than any country except Bangladesh, despite the fact that it doesn't share a border with Myanmar and is located thousands of miles away:


_"Today, according to the Arakan Historical Society (AHS), there are some 200,000 more Rohingyas living in Pakistan"

http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs/SRI-rohingya.htm#_ednref4 _(2003)

_"Although there are no official statistics available, interviews with Bengali and Rohingya community leaders and researchers suggest that there are over 1.6 million Bengalis and up to 400,000 Rohingyas living in Karachi."

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/55513-bengali-and-rohingya-leaders-gearing-up-for-lg-polls _(2015)


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## Attila the Hun

Loki said:


> Would Erdogan take them in? I think not.



He bloody would


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## bluesky

Ottoman123 said:


> He bloody would


Taking in Rohingya refugees in Turkey or other country is not the solution at all. They must be allowed to live peacefully in their homeland, Arakan. They must be allowed home rule and not an imposed rule from the outsider Burma controlled by the Barmans.

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## Attila the Hun

bluesky said:


> They must be allowed to live peacefully in their homeland, Arakan.



Of course, but, what if that's not a viable option my friend? What then!


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## bluesky

Loki said:


> The current government of Bangladesh are not taking them.


Do you think, only taking the Rohingyas inside a poor BD is the only solution? I have seen the Rohingya camps somewhere between Cox's Bazaar and Teknaf. The camps are beyond something of a living quarter. I have not seen such a miserable condition of living places. BD is an overcrowded and poor country. It should not indulge in taking on people from other countries.

Moreover, the international communities have to take responsibility so that the Rohingyas can live without being tortured by other ethnicity people like the Barman military. An outright secession from Myanmar may be the only way out of the situation.


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## kobiraaz

Ottoman123 said:


> Of course, but, what if that's not a viable option my friend? What then!



Force Myanmar then. Would you support the evacuation of Jerusalem for the very same reason?

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## Attila the Hun

kobiraaz said:


> Force Myanmar then.



You have my full support. Turkiye being in NATO , we have to just watch from afar , unfortunately. 
All my prayers are with you guys.


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## kobiraaz

Ottoman123 said:


> You have my full support. Turkiye being in NATO , we have to just watch from afar , unfortunately.
> All my prayers are with you guys.



Unfortunately Bangladesh can't go to any war.. We are achieving huge economical growth. Soon we will be able to end poverty. No Government would put it into jeopardy. 

So the solution needs to come from the higher authorities sitting in Power position of the world. From your western friends.


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## Attila the Hun

kobiraaz said:


> Unfortunately Bangladesh can't go to any war



Understandable.



kobiraaz said:


> So the solution needs to come from the higher authorities sitting in Power position of the world. From your western friends.



I wouldn't call them "friends" but, I agree.


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## haidian

How can a Buddhist country commits such a horrific crime, Isn't Buddhism a religion of love? Heart bleeding for those poor souls, Where is UN human rights commission now?


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## grandmaster

haidian said:


> How can a Buddhist country commits such a horrific crime, Isn't Buddhism a religion of love? Heart bleeding for those poor souls, Where is UN human rights commission now?


they are theravada Buddhists. unlike Mahayana which is popular in china, japan. they get extreme easily. they focus less on compassion, for example, Theravada monks eat meat...


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## Banglar Bir

*Six-month-old Rohingya baby dies hunting for home*
AFP . Teknaf (Bangladesh) | Update: 00:35, Nov 27, 2016





Alam’s short life ended on Saturday in a dark, tattered tent in Bangladesh, the Rohingya child’s skeletal body succumbing to illness contracted while fleeing Myanmar where his stateless people are under attack.

He was six-months-old.

Alam died hours after arriving at a makeshift refugee camp close to Teknaf, the gateway to Cox’s Bazar, a poor, densely populated coastal area already home to more than 230,000 Rohingya refugees.

But for the Rohingya, Bangladesh is far from a promised land.

So far little or no aid has been provided for the new arrivals, with Bangladeshi authorities fearing food, medicine and shelter will encourage more to cross the border.

With her child’s emaciated body by her side, 22-year-old Nur Begum describes how a Myanmar army raid that killed her husband and two other children forced her to flee Rakhine State for Bangladesh with the tiny Alam.

After three-week trip with little food, Begum and her increasingly sick child made it to the camp in Leda, across the Bangladeshi border.

But Alam’s journey was at an end.

“I finally had some food in the camp and thought I would be able to feed him,” his distraught mother told AFP. “But he left me before I had the chance.”

Her baby was buried on Saturday, his body washed and then carried to a Rohingya graveyard on a wooded hill near the camp.

Up to 30,000 Rohingya have abandoned their homes in Myanmar since early October, after soldiers poured into the strip of land in western Rakhine state following deadly raids on border posts.

The refugees who have reached Cox’s Bazar so far have brought with them horrifying stories of gang rape and murder.

The Myanmar army flatly denies the allegations.

That Myanmar does not want its more than one million Rohingya population is not in dispute.

It refuses them citizenship while many in the majority Buddhist country call the Muslim minority “Bengalis”—shorthand for illegal immigrants.


*Poorest of the poor -*
Bangladesh provides a mixed reception to the Rohingya.

Although people around Cox’s Bazar have centuries-long historical ties with the Rohingya, locals increasingly perceive the refugees as a crime-prone nuisance.

Only 32,000 Rohingya are formally registered as refugees.

The remaining 200,000 scratch an existence without help from government or charities.

And their numbers swell with every crisis across the border in Myanmar.

To avoid more arrivals Dhaka has blocked refugee boats from landing and called for Myanmar to stop the exodus.

“We have stopped several hundred boats since last week,” Abu Russel Siddique, spokesman for Teknaf Border Guard Bangladesh, told AFP.

Authorities already tightly control aid workers and arrest people who illegally help the minority.

“Bangladesh has said often that it cannot sustain any more refugees, and in fact, has refused to allow humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas because it might be a pull factor,” said Human Rights Watch’s South Asia chief Meenakshi Ganguly.

But she added “people don’t leave their homes, make perilous journeys, simply for free blankets and medicines.”

The country’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Friday told reporters that Rohingya arrivals would be treated humanely, but so far no aid has reached the new entrants.

That has heaped pressure on pre-existing Rohingya refugee encampments.

“Some 15,000 Rohingya have already been living here in inhuman conditions for years,” said Dudu Mia, a head of a Rohingya camp, explaining 1,000 people new arrivals came last week.

“There are days many of us don’t have any food either.”


*‘I don’t want to die’ -*
Conditions are fast-deteriorating, hitting exhausted Rohingya arrivals hard.

For heavily-pregnant Siru Bibu, who fled by boat with four children after her husband and other relatives were killed by an army operation, the situation that has greeted them is dire.

“If it goes another week, my children will starve,” she said.

Rumours abound of under-cover officials keeping strict tabs on who is giving what to the unregistered arrivals at the camps.

On Thursday authorities detained and immediately jailed seven people for to up to two months for assisting the Rohingya.

“Anyone trying to help us is warned or being arrested. As a result, the newly arrived refugees are living in fear,” a camp elder told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Driven from Myanmar and unwanted in Bangladesh, traumatised Rohingya refugees are now laying low.

“Police have arrested some of our neighbours and we heard that they were sent back across the border,” Yasmin Akhter, a 25-year-old mother who was only able to bring two of her six children to Bangladesh.

“I hope they won’t do it to us... I don’t want to die.”

*Mamun Afsar *
2 hrs · 




এটাও দেখার বাকী ছিল ?

এই সন্ত্রাসী গুলো একদিকে নিরীহ রোহিঙ্গাদেরকে হত্যা করছে, অন্যদিকে বাংলাদেশ এম্বাসিকে মায়ানমার থেকে চলে যেতে বলছে !

বাংলাদেশের অর্থনীতি কি মায়ানমারের উপর নির্ভরশীল ? না হলে বাংলাদেশ সরকার কেন কঠিন জবাব দেয়না ?


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## bluesky

Stupid foreign ministry of BD thinks that Burma will not give BD a transport corridor to China. These people are so naive in the affairs of foreign relationship!!


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## Exiled_Soldier

Bangladeshi Buddhists and CHT hill people can play some role in this issue.


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## Banglar Bir

bluesky said:


> Stupid foreign ministry of BD thinks that Burma will not give BD a transport corridor to China. These people are so naive in the affairs of foreign relationship!!



GLADLY ACCEPTED YOUR COMMENTS , NOW WHATS YOUR SUGGESTION ON THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE? 
IF, CONFIDENTIAL, THEM PLEASE SEND ME A INDICATION, I WILL FOLLOW UP THEREAFTER.

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## bluesky

maroofz2000 said:


> GLADLY ACCEPTED YOUR COMMENTS , NOW WHATS YOUR SUGGESTION ON THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE?
> IF, CONFIDENTIAL, THEM PLEASE SEND ME A INDICATION, I WILL FOLLOW UP THEREAFTER.



A weak BD policy is indirectly responsible for the current Rohingya killing. During the time of President Ayub Khan of Pakistan after 1958 Burma used to respect us because the President had a strong foreign policy. Burma did not dare to torture its Rohingya citizens in those days. Only after 1971, Myanmar started to behave irrationally because it no more was respecting a country of cowards in its west.


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## Exiled_Soldier

*



*

*Buddhist leaders condemn atrocities on Rohingyas*

Protesting the atrocities on the Rohingyas in Myanmar, leaders of Bangladesh Buddhist Federation today condemned the ongoing repression.

The Buddhists organisation also demanded the Myanmar government and authorities concerned to resolve the ongoing Rohingya issue immediately.

The minority community’s organisation came up with the call at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital this afternoon.





“We think such kind of repression against Rohingyas is not against religion, rather it is against humanity,” Ashok Barua, general secretary of the Buddhist Federation, told reporters.

“We hate this kind of situation and activities,” he added. “We called upon the countries of the world to stand by the Rohingyas who are being tortured in Myanmar,” Ashok said.

He also expressed doubt of any anarchic situation that might arise in Bangladesh centring the Rohingya issue.

The Rohingya crisis erupted recently with a series of army raids that left many dead and hundreds arrested in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.


Yesterday, different political, religious and ethnic minority organisations in Bangladesh condemned the ongoing repression against the Rohingya Muslims.

Source: TheDailystar

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## Banglar Bir

*Qamrul Islam*
11 hrs · 




“গভীর পরিতাপ ও দুঃখের বিষয় হচ্ছে, কোনও সামরিক জান্তা নয়, শান্তিতে নোবেল বিজয়ী এবং গণতান্ত্রিকভাবে নির্বাচিত অং সান সু চির নেতৃত্বে পরিচালিত মিয়ানমার প্রশাসনই এ অমানবিক সন্ত্রাসী কার্যকলাপের হোতা। যিনি নিজে দীর্ঘকাল নির্যাতিত হয়েছেন তিনি কী করে এমন পৈশাচিকতাকে অনুমোদন করছেন, ভেবে আমরা স্তম্ভিত হচ্ছি। .......প্রতিবেশী দেশ মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর বিরুদ্ধে সে দেশের সরকারী বাহিনী পরিচালিত সুপরিকল্পিত ও বর্বরোচিত জেনোসাইড-এর ঘটনায় আমি গভীরভাবে বেদনাহত ও উৎকণ্ঠিত। অনতিবিলম্বে এই জেনোসাইড বন্ধের জন্য আমি মিয়ানমার সরকারের প্রতি উদাত্ত আহ্বান জানাই, যেন আর একটি মানুষও হত্যাকাণ্ড, উচ্ছেদ ও নির্যাতনের শিকার না হন।” - বেগম খালেদা জিয়া।

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## Banglar Bir

bluesky said:


> I cannot write many things here. But a weak BD policy is indirectly responsible for the current Rohingya killing. During the time of President Ayub Khan of Pakistan after 1958 Burma used to respect us because the President had a strong foreign policy. Burma did not dare to torture its Rohingya citizens in those days. Only after 1971, Myanmar started to behave irrationally because it no more was respecting a country of cowards in its west. Other points I would like to write in confidence, if you really think it is necessary.



THE FOREIGN POLICY OF EACH AND EVERY COUNTRY IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO ITS DEFENCE CAPABILITIES + ECONOMY,AND MANDATE OF THE MAJORITY. ITS A DIRECT REFLECTION OF PEOPLES SENTIMENT AND SUPPORT.

WHATS SO IMPORTANT, AND SECRETIVE, THAT YOU CANNOT SHARE, EVEN IF I AM WILLING TO MEET YOU IN PERSON,AND THE PLACE AND TIME TO BE DETERMINED BY YOU?

THAT IS, IF YOU LIVE IN BANGLADESH, OF COURSE.


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## TopCat

maroofz2000 said:


> THE FOREIGN POLICY OF EACH AND EVERY COUNTRY IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO ITS DEFENCE CAPABILITIES + ECONOMY,
> WHATS SO IMPORTANT, AND SECRETIVE, THAT YOU CANNOT SHARE, EVEN IF I AM WILLING TO MEET YOU IN PERSON,AND THE PLACE AND TIME TO BE DETERMINED BY YOU?
> THAT IS, IF YOU LIVE IN BANGLADESH.



Caps lock makes your phrases unreadable. Please use normal font.

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## Banglar Bir

Musa Ahmed Musa Why was she given in the first place

Dadan Abigail Shes just like hoebama
.





Ralph Dale Nobel Peace Prize is a Zionist Jews order to wage oppression and war. Obama & Myammar President are living proofs!

Riccardo Boiocchi bitch

Nasima Sultana thump the buddhist scum

Mohammed Huzaiifa U too will burn

Al Plumlee Aung Sun Suu Ky is not responsible for these attacks on the Rohingya Muslims. The real power and criminals behind this is the Burma Army that hired a monk, Ashin Wirathu, to spread lies about the Muslims. Do not listen to anyone that keeps encouraging the killing of Muslims.


Pat Cowan nobel (peace) prize is all lies and stupidity,,,ours for believing


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## bluesky

*Ershad to PM: Only you can provide shelter to Rohingyas*

Manik Miazee
Published at 07:29 PM November 28, 2016
Last updated at 07:44 PM November 28, 2016



Dhaka has sought international community's assistance to tackle the crisis.*Reuters*
*Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad has requested Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to shelter Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar.*
“We are yet to hear anything from the prime minister on Rohingya issue or about sheltering them,” Ershad told a programme in Dhaka on Monday.

Thousands of Rohingyas have been trying to cross into Bangladesh since Myanmar began an anti-insurgency operation in October after attacks on border outposts killed several policemen.

An estimated 30,000 Rohingyas have been displaced and over 100 people have been killed since, rights activists say.

The army denies burning villages, torturing, raping and Rohingyas.

The UNHCR has urged Bangladesh to provide safe passage to the Rohingyas. Dhaka has sought international community’s assistance to tackle the crisis.

Ershad said: “You [Sheikh Hasina] are the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and only you can provide shelter to these refugees.”

Naypyidaw does not recognise the Rohingya, numbering about a million, as its citizen and dubs them ‘Bangali’.

There are some 33,000 registerd Rohingyas in two Cox’s Bazar camps but Dhaka says thousands more are scattered across the country.


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## bluesky

maroofz2000 said:


> WHATS SO IMPORTANT, AND SECRETIVE, THAT YOU CANNOT SHARE, EVEN IF I AM WILLING TO MEET YOU IN PERSON,AND THE PLACE AND TIME TO BE DETERMINED BY YOU? THAT IS, IF YOU LIVE IN BANGLADESH, OF COURSE.


It is certainly not necessary to meet you. I have expressed my little thinking in this forum like other members do. I am a non-qualified half-educated person. There is nothing more that I can contribute on the Rohingya matters, except an implication that there are also covert means including the use of a 3rd country border area to support an armed struggle of a common people of ours living in Myanmar. However, I believe that the present administration lives in the past mindset of 1971 who sees every thing in either black or in white, secular or non-secular.


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## ~Phoenix~

maroofz2000 said:


>



Wow,these monkeys forgot their position on Earth...
A $60-70B war-ravaged country vs a $ 230 Billion flourishing economy? Aren't things too unfair for the monkeys?

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## Banglar Bir

05:47 PM, November 28, 2016 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:12 PM, November 28, 2016
*US wants to work to resolve Rohingya crisis: Envoy*






US Ambassador Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat. Star file photo.

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat today said her country wants to work to put an end to the ongoing repression on Rohingya people in Myanmar.

“We are stunned over the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. We want to work with Bangladesh and its like-minded countries to resolve the problem,” Bernicat said while addressing a programme in Dhaka.

Distribution of humanitarian aids has totally stopped due to the recent attacks at Rakhine State in Myanmar, Bernicat said at the programme organised by Diplomatic Association of Bangladesh (DCAB).

“We don’t know what is actually happening there. A complete, transparent and formal investigation into the matter is needed to put an end to the Rohingya crisis,” she said.

*US wants neutral EC*
About formation of the new Election Commission (EC), she said, “We expect that the next EC will be neutral, strong and non-partisan which will be able to hold a free and fair national election."

DCAB President Angur Nahar moderated the programme while General Secretary Pantha Rahman gave welcome speech.

*Writ seeks entry of Rohingyas to Bangladesh*






Fleeing Myanmar citizens waiting to enter the Kutupalang Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2016. Photo: Reuters/File


A Supreme Court lawyer today filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking its directive on the government to allow fleeing Myanmar citizens to enter Bangladesh.

Advocate Abu Yahia Dulal filed the petition praying to open the Bangladesh-Myanmar border temporarily so that “tortured Myanmar citizens can take shelter in Bangladesh”.

He said in the petition that the repressed citizens of Myanmar should be allowed to enter into Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds.

Abu Yahia told the reporters that the High Court may hold hearing on the writ petition tomorrow.

0:17 / 0:49



https://youtu.be/9Hpe5Pbpyq8


Mohammad Saifullah shared a video
1 week ago

*Burmese Army Violence Causes Rohingya Mass Exodus*





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1376907722321701





We heard Rohingya had more than 1000 Welfare organizations and NGOs over social media but now anyone of them can't see alive. Where have they gone?

Thousands are homeless, shelterless and hopeless in Arakan and many more are fleeing for Bangladesh to escape persecution after losing everything. No any Rohingya humanitarian NGO or party is there to help them.

Do we need international NGOs for that too? How shameless to ask help for everything? What do we Rohingya have? Sorry to see this situation today...


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## bluesky

maroofz2000 said:


> *Qamrul Islam*
> 11 hrs ·
> 
> 
> 
> 
> “গভীর পরিতাপ ও দুঃখের বিষয় হচ্ছে, কোনও সামরিক জান্তা নয়, শান্তিতে নোবেল বিজয়ী এবং গণতান্ত্রিকভাবে নির্বাচিত অং সান সু চির নেতৃত্বে পরিচালিত মিয়ানমার প্রশাসনই এ অমানবিক সন্ত্রাসী কার্যকলাপের হোতা। যিনি নিজে দীর্ঘকাল নির্যাতিত হয়েছেন তিনি কী করে এমন পৈশাচিকতাকে অনুমোদন করছেন, ভেবে আমরা স্তম্ভিত হচ্ছি। .......প্রতিবেশী দেশ মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর বিরুদ্ধে সে দেশের সরকারী বাহিনী পরিচালিত সুপরিকল্পিত ও বর্বরোচিত জেনোসাইড-এর ঘটনায় আমি গভীরভাবে বেদনাহত ও উৎকণ্ঠিত। অনতিবিলম্বে এই জেনোসাইড বন্ধের জন্য আমি মিয়ানমার সরকারের প্রতি উদাত্ত আহ্বান জানাই, যেন আর একটি মানুষও হত্যাকাণ্ড, উচ্ছেদ ও নির্যাতনের শিকার না হন।” - বেগম খালেদা জিয়া।



I have full endorsement to the statement of Begum Zia against the tormentors of Rohingyas. But, the govt. of AL is still foot dragging on the issue. Stupid League govt. still thinks it can go through Burma to reach China if BD shows no reaction. Oh!!! I forgot. This Shaikha Hasina wants to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. She probably needs an endorsement from Suu Kii, already a Nobel Prize winner. It is all disgusting.


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## TopCat

bluesky said:


> I have full endorsement to the statement of Begum Zia against the tormentors of Rohingyas. But, the govt. of AL is still foot dragging on the issue. Stupid League govt. still thinks it can go through Burma to reach China if BD shows no reaction. Oh!!! I forgot. This Shaikha Hasina wants to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. She probably needs an endorsement from Suu Kii, already a Nobel Prize winner. It is all disgusting.



Bangladesh really does not need the connectivity as we can use the Chinese existing connectivity through Sittwe. Our coastal vessel can just drop and pick the goods in Chinese port in Sittwe and let chinese take care of the rest. The old haggard in the bureoucracy needs to understand the opportunity and ground reality.

MM already made clear that they are not going to allow BD any transit rather throw all the Rohingyas to coxs bazar and permanently seal the border. India backtracked from Asian highways after secured the transit from Bangladesh. I wonder when BD will understand the world around it.

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## Banglar Bir

*তীব্র প্রতিবাদের মুখে ইন্দোনেশিয়া সফর বাতিল করলেন সু চি*
আন্তজার্তিকHits: 2250






রাখাইন প্রদেশে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের ওপর নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে ইন্দোনেশিয়ায় ব্যাপক প্রতিবাদ শুরু হয়েছে। এর জেরে ইন্দোনেশিয়া সফর বাতিল করেছেন শান্তিতে নোবেলজয়ী ও মিয়ানমারের ক্ষমতাসীন দল ন্যাশনাল লিগ ফর ডেমোক্রেসির (এনএলডি) প্রধান অং সান সু চি।

গত ৯ অক্টোবর মিয়ানমার সীমান্তের একাধিক পুলিশ চেকপোস্টে অজ্ঞাত অস্ত্রধারীরা হামলা চালায়। এতে অন্তত ৯ জনের প্রাণহানি ঘটে। ওই হামলায় রোহিঙ্গারা জড়িত এমন অভিযোগ এনে রাখাইন প্রদেশে রোহিঙ্গাদের বিরুদ্ধে অভিযান শুরু করে দেশটির সেনাবাহিনী। সেনাবাহিনীর অভিযানে এখন পর্যন্ত কয়েক ডজন রোহিঙ্গার প্রাণহানি ঘটেছে। এ ছাড়া ধর্ষণের শিকার হচ্ছেন রোহিঙ্গা নারীরা। পুড়িয়ে দেয়া হচ্ছে রোহিঙ্গাদের বাড়ি-ঘর।

মিয়ানমারের রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর নির্যাতনের ঘটনায় উদ্বেগ প্রকাশ করেছে বিশ্বের বিভিন্ন আন্তর্জাতিক মানবাধিকার সংগঠন। জাতিসংঘের শরণার্থীবিষয়ক সংস্থা ইউএনএইচসিআরের প্রধান বলেছেন, রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের জাতিগত নিধন করছে মিয়ানমার।

রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে বিশ্বের বিভিন্ন দেশে প্রতিবাদ শুরু হয়েছে। এর আগে বাংলাদেশ, মালয়েশিয়া, থাইল্যান্ডেও প্রতিবাদ করেছে হাজার হাজার মানুষ। ইন্দোনেশিয়ায় প্রতিবাদ কর্মসূচির ডাক দিয়েছে দেশটির মুসলিমরা। এদিকে আগামী শুক্রবার ইন্দোনেশিয়া সফরে যাওয়ার কথা থাকলেও রোহিঙ্গাদের নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে তীব্র প্রতিবাদের মুখে সেই সফর বাতিল করতে বাধ্য হয়েছেন সু চি।

মিয়ানমারের পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয়ের মুখপাত্র কিয়াও জায়া যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের প্রভাবশালী সংবাদমাধ্যম ওয়ালস্ট্রিট জার্নালকে বলেছেন, রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে আগামী শুক্রবার জাকার্তায় প্রতিবাদ সমাবেশের ডাক দিয়েছে সে দেশের নাগরিকরা। একইদিন ইন্দোনেশিয়া সফরে যাওয়ার কথা ছিল সু চির। ওই প্রতিবাদ কর্মসূচির কারণে সু চির ইন্দোনেশিয়া সফর বাতিল করা হয়েছে।

এদিকে, সম্প্রতি জাকার্তায় বেশ কিছু গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ভবন ও মিয়ানমার দূতাবাসে বোমা হামলা পরিকল্পনার অভিযোগে জঙ্গিগোষ্ঠী ইসলামিক স্টেটের (আইএস) বেশ কয়েকজন সমর্থককে গ্রেফতার করেছে ইন্দোনেশিয়া পুলিশ। গত অক্টোবর থেকে শুরু হওয়া মিয়ানমার সেনাবাহিনীর ব্যাপক নির্যাতনের মুখে শত শত রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিম ইন্দোনেশিয়ায় পাড়ি জমিয়েছেন।

উৎসঃ jagonews24.comhttp://truestory24.com/international/11885-2016-11-28-10-25-14?q=12

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## asad71

*রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে কর্মসূচি দেবে ২০দলীয় জোট*
বাংলা ট্রিবিউন রিপোর্ট০০:০৮, নভেম্বর ৩০, ২০১৬







রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের ওপর হামলা-নির্যাতনের প্রতিবাদে মানববন্ধন বা মানবপ্রাচীরধর্মী কর্মসূচি দেবে বিএনপি নেতৃত্বাধীন ২০ দলীয় জোট। এই কর্মসূচিতে রোহিঙ্গাদের মানবিক কারণে বাংলাদেশে আশ্রয় দিতে সরকারের কাছে আবেদন করা হবে। মঙ্গলবার রাতে খালেদা জিয়ার সভাপতিত্বে অনুষ্ঠিত জোটের বৈঠকে এ বিষয়ে আলোচনা হয়েছে। বৈঠকে উপস্থিত বিএনপির একজন সিনিয়র নেতা বাংলা ট্রিবিউনকে এ তথ্য জানান। 


সূত্র জানায়, রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে কর্মসূচির বিষয়ে শরিক নেতাদের উদ্দেশে মির্জা ফখরুল বৈঠকে বলেন, ‘রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে মানববন্ধনধর্মী কর্মসূচি নিয়ে আলোচনা হয়েছে। তারিখ ঠিক করার চেষ্টা করা হচ্ছে। আপনাদের জানানো হবে।

মঙ্গলবার রাত সাড়ে আটটায় রাজধানীর গুলশানে খালেদা জিয়ার রাজনৈতিক কার্যালয়ে জোটের বৈঠক অনুষ্ঠিত হয়। বৈঠকে আরও উপস্থিত ছিলেন জামায়াতের নায়েবে আমির অধ্যাপক আতাউর রহমান, সহকারী সেক্রেটারি জেনারেল অধ্যক্ষ মাওলানা মু. আবু তাহের খেলাফত মজলিসে আমির মাওলানা মুহাম্মদ ইসহাক, জামায়াতের কেন্দ্রীয় নির্বাহী পরিষদ সদস্য মাওলানা আবদুল হালিম, জাপার ভারপ্রাপ্ত চেয়ারম্যান এটিএম ফজলে রাব্বী চৌধুরী, কল্যাণ পার্টির চেয়ারম্যান সৈয়দ মুহাম্মদ ইব্রাহিম, ন্যাপ মহাসচিব গোলাম মোস্তফা ভুঁইয়া প্রমুখ। 
/এসটিএস/এমএনএইচ/


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## bluesky

maroofz2000 said:


> রাখাইন প্রদেশে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের ওপর নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে ইন্দোনেশিয়ায় ব্যাপক প্রতিবাদ শুরু হয়েছে। এর জেরে ইন্দোনেশিয়া সফর বাতিল করেছেন শান্তিতে নোবেলজয়ী ও মিয়ানমারের ক্ষমতাসীন দল ন্যাশনাল লিগ ফর ডেমোক্রেসির (এনএলডি) প্রধান অং সান সু চি।


This Su Kii monkey should also take responsibility as she is also a part of tormentors in her government. It is a good decision by Indonesia to cancel her scheduled visit. This monkey should not be allowed to go out and visit any foreign country. I wonder, if the PM of BD will fill in the blanks by cordially invite her to BD. Yes, this will assure SHW to receive a Nobel Peace Award from Sweden. Bloody bitch!!


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## Banglar Bir

*‎Hasan Mahmudul‎ to Muslim's World*
7 hrs ·

Dear Muslim brothers, An Open Facebook group is created for our Muslim brothers of Myanmar.The group name is Human blood sucker

Myanmar.Initially most of the members are Bangladeshi and most of the Bangladeshi Muslims are making post in their own language. I hope that Muslims all over the world will be United in that group and I hope all of you will join there and make post on your own language and add your friends from your friend list.I hope you will be very active on that group so that your friends and country man gets inspiration. As all the post are in Bengali, I see very few people are making post there. So I request you all to join and make post in your language or in English. Help to spread the group world wide.Help your Muslim brothers. If anybody is having problem to join the group from the provided link,then go to my timeline.From there you can directly join the group.Group link is provided below .....
......
https://mobile.facebook.com/groups/381116132228570…

*The Stateless Rohingya*
2 hrs · 


Better to fight for Rohingya than against ‘yellow shirts’, Zahid tells Jamal
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Kamles Kumar, Malay Mail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 ― Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi urged grassroots chief Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos to focus on noble causes like galvanising support for the marginalised Rohingya instead of going head to head with Bersih 2.0.

In his speech opening the party wings’ assemblies here, Zahid who is also deputy prime minister as well as home minister commended the Sungai Besar Umno division leader and rally organiser for his recent support for the minority Myanmar Muslims.

“Thank you to Jamal not for organising a rally against the yellow shirts but for mobilising people for the Rohingya rally last week,” he said, referring to the signature yellow T-shirts worn by supporters of electoral reform group Bersih 2.0.

“Jamal has promised me that he will mobilise 20,000 people for the rally on December 4,” Zahid added.

He also clarified that Jamal was organising the rallies in his capacity as an NGO leader and not as a Umno division chief.

The solidarity rally on Sunday is to be held at Stadium Titiwangsa in the city. Muslim NGOs and political parties like PAS are expected to join in to condemn the alleged persecution of the Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar government.
http://www.thestateless.com/…/better-to-fight-for-rohingya…/




Better to fight for Rohingya than against ‘yellow shirts’, Zahid tells Jamal
By Kamles Kumar, Malay Mail Online KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 ― Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi urged grassroots chief Datuk Seri…
THESTATELESS.COM




>>> READ MORE
http://www.thestateless.com/…/better-to-fight-for-rohingya…/


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## bluesky

TopCat said:


> Bangladesh really does not need the connectivity as we can use the Chinese existing connectivity through Sittwe. Our coastal vessel can just drop and pick the goods in Chinese port in Sittwe and let chinese take care of the rest. The old haggard in the bureoucracy needs to understand the opportunity and ground reality.


Thanks. This is the second time I have read your well thought out statement. It has full merit. I hope the half-learner BD policy makers quickly understand it.


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## Banglar Bir

*Nadim Khan*
28 November at 22:50
মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের হত্যায় তুরস্কের উদ্বেগ ও নিন্দা
.
.
মিয়ানমারের পশ্চিমাঞ্চলীয় রাখাইন রাজ্যে সাম্প্রতিক গণহত্যা ও নির্যাতনের ঘটনায় গভীর উদ্বেগ প্রকাশ করেছে তুরস্ক। তুর্কি পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয় এক বিবৃতিতে মিয়ানমারের চলমান পরিস্থিতি নিয়ে এ উদ্বেগ প্রকাশ করে। গত ৯ অক্টোবর সীমান্ত এলাকায় পুলিশ কর্মকর্তাদের ওপর কথিত হামলার অভিযোগে মিয়ানমার সরকার রোহিঙ্গাদের বিরুদ্ধে অভিযান শুরু করে। ছয় সপ্তাহ ধরে চলা এই অভিযানে কমপক্ষে ৮৬ জন রোহিঙ্গাকে হত্যা এবং কয়েক শতাধিক রোহিঙ্গাকে গ্রেফতার করা হয়েছে। যদিও দেশটির জাতিগত সংখ্যালঘু মুসলমানরা জানিয়েছে, চলমান এ অভিযানে বেসামরিক নাগরিকদের নিহতের সংখ্যা দুই শতাধিক।

পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয়ের গত শুক্রবারের ওই বিবৃতিতে আরো বলা হয়, মিয়ানমারের পশ্চিমাঞ্চলীয় রাখাইন রাজ্যে বিপুলসংখ্যক বেসামরিক নাগরিকের হতাহতের ঘটনায় আমরা গভীরভাবে উদ্বিগ্ন। নির্দোষ মানুষদের লক্ষ্য করে সবধরনের সহিংসতার ঘটনায় তুরস্ক নিন্দা জানায় বলে বিবৃতিতে উল্লেখ করা হয়। বিবৃতিতে বলা হয়, আমরা সকল পক্ষকে সুবিচারের সঙ্গে কাজ করার আহ্বান জানাচ্ছি; যাতে চলমান এই সহিংসতা নতুন করে জাতিগত ও ধর্মীয় সংঘাতের দিকে পরিচালিত না হয়। বিবৃতিতে সর্বোচ্চ সহযোগিতার জন্য সকল আন্তর্জাতিক সংস্থা এবং মিয়ানমার সরকারের প্রতি আহ্বান জানানো হয়।

মিয়ানমার সরকারের পক্ষ থেকে স্বীকার করা হয়েছে যে, গত ৯ অক্টোবর থেকে শুরু হওয়া অভিযানে অন্তত ৮৬ জনকে তারা হত্যা করেছে এবং ওই এলাকায় রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের সম্পত্তি দখল করে তা ধংস করা হয়েছে। প্রসঙ্গত, ১৯৮২ সালে একটি আইন পাসের মাধ্যমে প্রজন্মের পর প্রজন্ম ধরে মিায়ানমারে বসবাসরত রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের নাগরিকত্বকে অস্বীকার করা হয়। এই আইনের মাধ্যমে তাদের রাষ্ট্রহীন করা হয়। এরপর থেকেই রোহিঙ্গা নিপীড়ন চলে আসছে।

অপর এক খবরে বার্তা সংস্থা বিবিসি জানায়, মিয়ানমারের সবচেয়ে বড় শহর ইয়াঙ্গুনে স্থানীয় সরকার কার্যালয় ভবনে বোমা বিস্ফোরণের ঘটনায় তিন জনকে গ্রেফতার করেছে পুলিশ। তারা সবাই মুসলিম। গত শুক্রবার সন্ধ্যায় ইয়াঙ্গুনে স্থানীয় সরকার কার্যালয়ে ঘরে-তৈরি বোমার ওই বিস্ফোরণ ঘটে। এতে কেউ হতাহত হয়নি।

সন্দেহভাজন যে তিন মুসলিমকে গ্রেফতার করা হয়েছে, তাদের সাথে রাখাইন রাজ্যে কর্তৃপক্ষের ভাষায় যে সন্ত্রাসীরা তৎপর রয়েছে তাদের কোনো যোগাযোগ আছে কিনা তা তদন্ত করা হচ্ছে। এর আগে গত বৃহস্পতিবার ইয়াঙ্গুনের অভিবাসন দফতরে একই ধরনের এক বিস্ফোরণ ঘটে। তাছাড়া ১৭ নভেম্বরের একটি সুপার মার্কেটে আরো দুটি বিস্ফোরণ ঘটেছিল। কেউই এসব বিস্ফোরণের দায়িত্ব স্বীকার করেনি এবং পুলিশও কোনো সন্দেহভাজনের নাম বলেনি। রাখাইন রাজ্যে নিরাপত্তা বাহিনীর ওপর এক আক্রমণের পর সেখানে সেনাবাহিনী কয়েক সপ্তাহ ধরে এক ব্যাপক সামরিক অভিযান পরিচালনা করছে। এরপর ওই রাজ্য থেকে প্রায় ৩০ হাজার রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিম পালিয়ে গেছে। প্রত্যক্ষদর্শীরা বলছেন, রাখাইন রাজ্যে শত শত বেসামরিক লোকের মৃত্যু হয়েছে এবং পরিকল্পিতভাবে ধর্ষণ ও নির্যাতন চালানোর খবর পাওয়া গেছে। ওয়ার্ল্ড বুলেটিন, বিবিসি





U.N. warns Myanmar government reputation at stake over Rohingya crisis 
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By Reuters

UNITED NATIONS — The reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi's government in Myanmar is at stake amid international concerns over how it is dealing with violence in the country's divided northwest, a senior United Nations official warned on Tuesday (Nov 29).

The conflict in Myanmar's Rakhine State has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to Bangladesh amid allegations of abuses by security forces. The crisis poses a serious challenge to Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of national reconciliation.

In a statement, the U.N.'s special adviser on the prevention of genocide Adama Dieng, said the allegations "must be verified as a matter of urgency" and urged the government to allow access to the area.

"If they are true, the lives of thousands of people are at risk. The reputation of Myanmar, its new Government and its military forces is also at stake in this matter," he said.

>>> READ MORE
http://www.thestateless.com/…/u-n-warns-myanmar-government…/

Hashtag:
#Rohingya #Genocide #EthnicCleansing #UN #Persecution #Rape#HumanRights #HumanRightsAbuses #Breitbart #AungSanSuuKyi#Military #Tatmadaw #MinAungHlaing #Maungdaw #Rakhine#Myanmar #Burma




U.N. warns Myanmar government reputation at stake over Rohingya crisis
By Reuters UNITED NATIONS — The reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in Myanmar is at stake amid international concerns over how it…
THESTATELESS.COM


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## Banglar Bir

Umno Youth, Puteri on Rohingyas: Review Myanmar’s Asean membership 
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By AKIL YUNUS, RASHVINJEET S. BEDI, and NURBAITI HAMDAN, The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno's Youth and Puteri wings have called for more urgent action on the Rohingya issue in Myanmar, even suggesting that Asean review the country's membership in the regional bloc.

...See more



Umno Youth, Puteri on Rohingyas: Review Myanmar’s Asean membership
By AKIL YUNUS, RASHVINJEET S. BEDI, and NURBAITI HAMDAN, The Star KUALA LUMPUR: Umno’s Youth and Puteri wings have called for more…
THESTATELESS.COM

At least 10,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh: UN
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By AFP

At least 10,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh in recent weeks, fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

...See more



At least 10,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh: UN
By AFP At least 10,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh in recent weeks, fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, the United Nations said on Wednesday. “Based on reports by various humani…
THESTATELESS.COM

*UN: Rohingya may be enduring ‘crimes against humanity’*

Posted on 30/11/2016





By Al Jazeera

*Bangladesh turns away Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar crackdown as the UN decries “pattern of violations”.*
Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims may be victims of crimes against humanity, the United Nation’s rights agency has said, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived to the country for a visit that will include a trip to the conflict-ravaged region of Rakhine.

The army has carried out a bloody crackdown in the western state and thousands of the Muslim minority have flooded over the border into Bangladesh this month, making horrifying claims of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of security forces.

Some 30,000 have fled their homes and analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found that hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed.

Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse, saying the army is hunting “terrorists” behind raids on police posts last month.

The government has lashed out at media reports of rapes and killings, and lodged a protest over a UN official in Bangladesh who said the state was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya.

Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi, reporting from a camp for displaced people in Myanmar’s Sittwe, said human rights investigators and journalists have been blocked from accessing the areas where massacres are alleged to have happened.

“The Myanmar government has denied that these allegations of abuse have happened, but at the same time, they haven’t been giving people access to these areas,” she said.

“Many people we’ve spoken to say they aren’t very hopeful that the [UN] commission will be able to acheive anything.”

On Tuesday, the UN human rights agency said Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya could be tantamount to crimes against humanity, reiterating the findings of a June report.

Eight boats attempting to cross the Naf River separating Rakhine from southern Bangladesh were pushed back on Monday after six were refused entry on Sunday, Colonel Abuzar Al Zahid, the head of the border guards in the Bangladeshi frontier town of Teknaf, told AFP.

Dhaka says thousands more are massed on the border, but has refused urgent international appeals to let them in, instead calling on Myanmar to do more to stop people fleeing.

In the past two weeks, Bangladeshi border guards have prevented more than 1,000 Rohingya, including many women and children, from entering the country by boat, officials told AFP.

More than 120,000 Rohingya have been crammed into displacement camps since sectarian violence kicked off in 2012, where they are denied citizenship, healthcare and education and their movements are heavily curbed.

*‘Pattern of violations’*
“The government has largely failed to act on the recommendations made in a report by the UN Human Rights Office… (that) raised the possibility that the pattern of violations against the Rohingya may amount to crimes against humanity,” the UN human rights agency said in a statement.

Amid the mounting crisis, former UN chief Kofi Annan on Tuesday began a week-long visit to Myanmar that will include a trip to northern Rakhine

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi in August appointed her fellow Nobel laureate to head a special commission to investigate how to mend bitter religious and ethnic divides that split the impoverished state.

Annan has expressed “deep concern” over the violence in Rakhine, which has seen thousands of Muslims take to the streets across Asia in protest.

But Aye Lwin, a Muslim member of the Rakhine commission, defended Suu Kyi’s handling of the crisis.

“What she has inherited is a dump of rubbish, a junk yard,” he told AFP, pointing out the army retains control of security and defence under a constitution written under the former junta.

“Her hands are tied – she can’t do anything. What she is doing is trying to talk and negotiate and build trust” with the army, he added.

Home » Article: International Authors » Rohingya and responsibility
*Rohingya and responsibility*

Posted on 30/11/2016




Participants of a rally held on Nov. 25 to protest the oppression and killing of Rohingya Muslims. ( JP/Bimo Raharjo)
By Shaffira D. Gayatri, The Jakarta Post

A year after the exodus of Rohingya refugees into the Andaman Sea, dubbed the Southeast Asian refugee crisis, the relentless persecution of the ethnic minority living in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, continues unabated.

Various international organizations and news agencies have reported systematic violence, including torture, mass rape, extrajudicial killings and evictions, committed by Myanmar soldiers against the Rohingya. A recent report by Human Rights Watch estimated around 1,250 Rohingya houses had been burned down by the authorities.

The state media has reported more than 100 deaths and 600 people arrested in the course of a crackdown that followed the killing of nine border guards on Oct. 9, which the authorities have blamed on a Rohingya militant group.

According to a United Nations refugee agency, the Myanmar military and border police are “engaging in collective punishment of the Rohingya minority”, yet the Myanmar government denies the allegations. The problem is the state of Rakhine is closed to the international media and aid agencies, preventing the verification of data and reports.

The constant discrimination and current persecution have forced many Rohingya to flee from their homes to camps in Bangladesh. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the situation of mass forced migration of the Rohingya community may resemble the refugee crisis of a year ago.

According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) data, as many as 500,000 Rohingya are already internally displaced and since 2014 an estimated 94,000 asylumseekers have fled to neighboring countries by means of deadly sea journeys. The commonly preferred destination is Malaysia, which hosts approximately 142,000 people. Indonesia currently has approximately 1,000 Rohingya refugees, excluding unregistered asylum seekers, mainly based in Aceh.

This means potential destinations, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand should be prepared to receive more Rohingya refugees and provide protection and necessary humanitarian assistance, especially to vulnerable groups like women and children.

As such, collective initiatives are needed now more than ever. Instead of spreading hoax pictures and inciting hatred against the Buddhist community in Myanmar, which will only make the situation worse and trigger a backlash against the Rohingya, we — the people — should act as conscious, responsible neighbors by supporting the numerous agencies providing humanitarian aid to the Rohingya, such as the Humanitarian Flotilla for Rohingya mission initiated by the Southeast Asia Humanitarian Committee (Seahum) and a network of Indonesian NGOs, including PKPU and ACT, that send humanitarian and medical aid to conflict points and camps in Rakhine.

Yet these short-term emergency responses should be followed by long-term solutions to address the roots of the problem more effectively. Current measures, such as those taken in Indonesia, tend to be sporadic and impromptu.

Last year, the Indonesian government entered an ad hoc agreement to allow a one-year “transit” for Rohingya refugees, who were supported by various NGOs, the local government, and the local community, with the expectation of a speedy resettlement in a “host” country. This was hampered by the lengthy bureaucratic process and low rate of refugee acceptance in destination countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The solution should thus be the implementation of stricter regional measures, including legal frameworks, at the ASEAN and Asia Pacific levels. The Bali Process, an international high-level forum on people smuggling, human trafficking and related transnational crimes cochaired by Indonesia, resulted in the Regional Cooperation Framework (RCF), which aims to push for more practical arrangements between its 45 member states, including the implementation of burden-sharing and collective-responsibility principles.

While the framework serves as a much-welcomed step forwards, it is non-binding and stipulates no consequences for non-adherence, as shown in the case of Bangladesh, which has failed to uphold its commitment made during the 2016 Bali Declaration.

Unlike the European Union that has ratified applicable measures under the Dublin Convention, there is no existing legal framework in ASEAN to deal with refugees and forced migration. In the Southeast Asian region, only the Philippines, Cambodia and Timor Leste are signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention. As the main political and economic regional grouping in Southeast Asia, ASEAN seems to prefer to focus on its economic functions, while turning a blind eye to more pressing political and human rights issue like the Rohingya crisis.

This principle needs re-evaluating now that the Rohingya crisis has directly impacted ASEAN member states. ASEAN has to step up pressure on the Myanmar government to stop the persecution of and discrimination against the Rohingya people through persistent diplomacy. A stronger diplomacy is also needed to allow and ensure the admission of humanitarian aid agencies into the Rohingya area. Furthermore, a legal system to deal with the refugee issue in the region should be put into place. It is no longer sufficient or morally justifiable for ASEAN to cite its non-interference principle as a buffer to shirk its responsibilities.

_The writer is a graduate of the University of Warwick, UK, under the LPDP (Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education) scholarship, and an individual member of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN). The views expressed are her own._


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## Banglar Bir

*Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide on the situation in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar*

*http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar...special-adviser-prevention-genocide-situation*

REPORT
from United Nations
Published on 29 Nov 2016

(New York, 29 November 2016) The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed alarm at reports of the deteriorating security, human rights and humanitarian situation in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. Following attacks by armed assailants against border security posts in October 2016, the response of the military has reportedly been characterized by excessive use of force and other serious human rights violations against civilian population, particularly the Rohingya Muslim population, including allegations of extrajudicial executions, torture, rape and the destruction of religious property. “These allegations must be verified as a matter of urgency”, stated Adama Dieng. “If they are true, the lives of thousands of people are at risk. The reputation of Myanmar, its new Government and its military forces is also at stake in this matter.”

The Special Adviser stressed that “the current restrictions on access to northern Rakhine State, which prevent verification of the allegations, are contributing to suspicion and alarm. Denying the allegations without allowing for their verification is counterproductive.” Mr. Dieng urged the Myanmar Government and the military to heed requests by the United Nations - and many others around the world - to authorise access and an immediate and thorough independent investigation into incidents reported in northern Rakhine state since October 2016. “If the allegations are found to be true, the Government must take immediate steps to stop them, prevent further violations and remedy the situation. Those found responsible for human rights violations must be punished. Failure to do so will only increase the risk of very serious international crimes that Myanmar has an obligation to prevent and punish under international law.”

Adama Dieng reminded the new Government of Myanmar of the trust placed in the Government by the international community as Myanmar transitions to democracy, noting that there have been significant steps forward in that regard. However, the Special Adviser underlined that “Myanmar needs to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and to the human rights of all its populations. It cannot expect that such serious allegations are ignored or go unscrutinised. Wherever and whenever these types of allegations are reported in the world, it is the duty of the international community to remind States of their responsibilities to their populations and their obligations under international law. Myanmar is no exception.”

Adama Dieng also took the opportunity to urge the Government of Bangladesh not to close its borders to refugees fleeing Myanmar. “Closing the border, deporting refugees or failing to provide assistance, exposes these populations to further violence that could, in the worst case, constitute international crimes”, the Special Adviser warned.

Adama Dieng concluded by saying that “the current violence did not come out of thin air. It is taking place against a background of very deeply rooted discrimination against specific sectors of the population and a failure to put in place conditions that would support peaceful coexistence among the different communities in Rakhine State. The Government needs, for once and for all, to find a sustainable solution to the situation of the Rohingya Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, a solution that is in full compliance with the international human rights standards that the Government has pledged to respect”.

*For media queries please contact:*

Claudia Diaz, Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/ Phone: +1 917-367-2061; Email: diazc@un.org





*সুচির রক্তাক্ত হাতে শান্তির পতাকা মানায় না – একমত হলে শেয়ার করুন*
মিয়ানমারের নেত্রী আং সা সুচির নোবেল শান্তি পুরস্কার ফিরিয়ে নেয়ার জন্য অনলাইনে এক আবেদনেস্বাক্ষর করেছেন হাজার হাজার মানুষ।

আমরাও তার সাথে একাত্বতা জানাই। কেননা, সুচির দল বিশেষ করে সুচি নিজে ক্ষমতার কেন্দ্রবিন্দুতে থাকার পরও মিয়ানমারের সংখ্যালঘু রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের বিরুদ্ধে ব্যাপক মানবাধিকার লংঘনের ঘটনার ব্যাপারে তিনি কোন অবস্থান নিতে ব্যর্থ হয়েছেন।

সেকারণেই বলছি, আর যাইহোক নোবেল শান্তি পুরস্কার তার হাতে মানায় না। তাই নোবেল শান্তি পুরস্কারফিরিয়ে নেয়ার আহবান জানানো হয়েছে এক অনলাইন আবেদনে। চেঞ্জ ডট অর্গে এই আবেদনে ইতোমধ্যেসই করেছেন লক্ষাধিক মানুষ।


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## Banglar Bir

*The Stateless Rohingya*
1 hr · 


Rohingya group accuses Myanmar military of entrapment 
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By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun, Anadolu Agency

Claims army manipulated Rohingya into carrying out attacks on border police to legitimize ongoing crackdown

ANKARA: A group representing Rohingya in Europe claims Myanmar's army manipulated members of the Muslim minority into taking part in an act of violence in which nine police officers were killed so the state could legitimize an ongoing clampdown.

The chairman of the European Rohingya Council (ERC) says around 400 Rohingya have been killed since the Oct. 9 attacks, women raped and houses and mosques destroyed -- acts which he says stem from a growing frustration among Rohingya with the poverty and lack of legal recognition they face, and the initial entrapment.

"Obsolete weapons were sold by police to Rohingya youngsters, who attacked the police post because they thought they could get international attention or save their oppressed people," Khairul Amin told Anadolu Agency.

>>> READ MORE
http://www.thestateless.com/…/rohingya-group-accuses-myanm…/

Hashtag:
#Rohingya #Genocide #EthnicCleansing #UN #Persecution #Rape#HumanRights #HumanRightsAbuses #Breitbart #AungSanSuuKyi #Military#Tatmadaw #MinAungHlaing #Maungdaw #Rakhine #Myanmar #Burma




Rohingya group accuses Myanmar military of entrapment
By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun, Anadolu Agency Claims army manipulated Rohingya into carrying out attacks on border police to legitimize ongoing crackdown…
THESTATELESS.COM


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## Banglar Bir

Qamrul Islam
24 mins · 






সেনা ক্যাম্পে চোখ বাঁধা বিবস্ত্র নারীদের দীর্ঘ লাইনে কি সুকিও আছে? নইলে সে নীরব কেনো?


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## Exiled_Soldier

*Malaysia cancels two soccer matches with Myanmar over Rohingya crackdown*

Malaysia's national soccer team has canceled two friendly under-22 matches with Myanmar, in protest against the Southeast Asian nation's bloody crackdown on ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a team spokesman said on Thursday.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has been increasingly critical of Myanmar's handling of violence in northern Rakhine state that has sent hundreds of people fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, amid allegations of abuses by security forces.

The violence is the most serious bloodshed in Rakhine since communal clashes in 2012 that killed hundreds.

Referring to the cancellation of the games set for later this month, the spokesman told Reuters, "It was a political decision because of the Rohingya issue."

He declined to be identified because the topic is a sensitive one.

In a posting on social network Twitter on Wednesday, national football team Harimau Malaysia said, "International matches between under-22 Harimau Malaysia vs Myanmar, which were scheduled to take place on Dec. 9 and 12 in Yangon, have been canceled."

Last month, Malaysia said it was considering pulling out of a regional soccer tournament co-hosted by Myanmar over the Rohingya crackdown, but ministers later decided against this.

Such a withdrawal from the ASEAN Football Federation's Suzuki Cup would have run counter to the 10-nation grouping's long-standing policy of non-interference in other members' affairs.

Myanmar's membership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should be reviewed because of the "cruelty" imposed on its ethnic Muslim community, Malaysia's sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Wednesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-malaysia-idUSKBN13Q3E8


*Review Myanmar's Asean membership, says Malaysia minister
*
KUALA LUMPUR - Myanmar's membership of Asean must be reviewed because of its "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya Muslim minority, a senior Malaysian minister warned Wednesday.

*




Ethnic Rohingya refugees in Kuala Lumpur protest against the persecution of the Muslims minority in Myanmar on Nov 25, 2016.*

Khairy Jamaluddin said the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations' principle of non-interference in member states' domestic affairs was void in the context of such violence.

Myanmar's army has carried out a bloody crackdown in the western state of Rakhine and thousands of Rohingya have flooded over the border into Bangladesh this month, making horrifying claims of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of security forces.

"To Asean, we demand that Myanmar’s membership in Asean be reviewed," Khairy, the youth and sports minister, told the annual gathering of the ruling party United Malays National Organisation.

"The principle of non-interference is void when there is large scale ethnic cleansing in an Asean member state."

A video highlighting the plight of the Rohingya was played during the minister's speech, local media reported.

"Let us raise our hands in prayer to Allah for the deliverance of the Rohingya people from injustice and from ruin," Khairy added.

On Tuesday, the UN's rights agency said the Rohingya may be victims of crimes against humanity, as former UN chief Kofi Annan arrived in the country for a visit that will include a trip to northern Rakhine.

Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse, saying the army is hunting "terrorists" behind raids on police posts last month.

But Muslim-majority Malaysia has recently upped its criticism of Myanmar for its handling of the crisis.

Last Friday, Kuala Lumpur summoned the Myanmar ambassador while around 500 Malaysians and Rohingya marched to the embassy in the Malaysian capital carrying banners denouncing the "genocide".

Malaysia's cabinet also issued a statement last week condemning the violence, an unusually strong criticism against a fellow Asean member, while Prime Minister Najib Razak will participate in a rally on Sunday to protest against the violence in Myanmar.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-malaysia-idUSKBN13Q3E8


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## Zabaniyah

Ottoman123 said:


> He bloody would



We are talking about a group of people who had absolutely no contact with the outside world for half a century with zero resources and zero education. That's generations lost. Now that is a big crime.

One of my friends who works as a bank teller in Cox's Bazar said that one Rohingya refugee couldn't even figure out why and how his account money reduced/increased. Yes, their state is that bad.

So, I ask you again, would he? A big tough guy like Erdogan? Come now. Rule #1, never speak from a position of weakness no matter how pressing it maybe.

Am I saying they are to be abandoned and left to die? No of-course not. A multi-lateral solution is what is needed for this. Though, Bangladesh can help in the matter (given a multi-lateral solution appears) - I do not think the current government would do much of anything significant (it is complicated). Calling for imposing sanctions on Burma was not a very creative approach from them (if not stupid).



bluesky said:


> Do you think, only taking the Rohingyas inside a poor BD is the only solution? I have seen the Rohingya camps somewhere between Cox's Bazaar and Teknaf. The camps are beyond something of a living quarter. I have not seen such a miserable condition of living places. BD is an overcrowded and poor country. It should not indulge in taking on people from other countries.



To take in the fleeing Rohingyas or not to take them? It was a very tough call that SHW had to make. I would give her that.

And yes, I have heard about the misery in those camps. That doesn't improve Bangladesh's tourism potential. So much for having the world's longest beach.



> Moreover, the international communities have to take responsibility so that the Rohingyas can live without being tortured by other ethnicity people like the Barman military. An outright secession from Myanmar may be the only way out of the situation.



It's not only Rohingyas that are the problem for the Burmans. That country is still strife with insurgencies. Who knows what's going on in there? It eerily reminds me of what was once Yugoslavia.


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## Bilal9

I read on a Burmese blog (most of these people are rabid near-crazy anti-Islamic people) that their army is planning a coup to dissolve whatever semblance of a civilian govt. they still have and re-instate martial rule by the Tatmadaw.

Wonder if rabid propaganda on the Internet ever saved an illegal junta govt...

Have a look,

http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2016/11/burmese-army-ready-to-declare-emergency.html

Combine with this is the fact that they will be kicked out of ASEAN if things keep going like this - then you've got the beginnings of a failed state - right near our border no less.

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## TopCat

Bilal9 said:


> I read on a Burmese blog (most of these people are rabid near-crazy anti-Islamic people) that their army is planning a coup to dissolve whatever semblance of a civilian govt. they still have and re-instate martial rule by the Tatmadaw.
> 
> Wonder if rabid propaganda on the Internet ever saved an illegal junta govt...
> 
> Have a look,
> 
> http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2016/11/burmese-army-ready-to-declare-emergency.html
> 
> Combine with this is the fact that they will be kicked out of ASEAN if things keep going like this - then you've got the beginnings of a failed state - right near our border no less.



I whole heartedly want they do. People need to see their real skin otherwise enormous damage will be done on our national security.

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## Banglar Bir

*Re-impose sanctions on Myanmar?*







Illustration: Craig Stephens/ South China Morning Post

C R Abrar

Rakhine is burning. The hapless Rohingyas are being butchered, children are thrown into fire, women are disrobed in public before being gang-raped and houses are looted, torched and razed. In the process Rohingya neighbourhoods are destroyed. 

In the past, extremist members of the majority Buddhist community carried out such dastardly acts while the security forces looked the other way. Denial was the order of the day and little punitive measures were taken against the perpetrators. Over the last several weeks the situation has taken a turn for the worse. The law enforcement agencies, including the armed forces, have actively unleashed violence. The attack on the security forces allegedly by radicalised Rohingyas was a flimsy pretext for a violent crackdown on this marginalised community. There is a strong body of evidence to argue that such an assault on the Rohingyas was part of a well-prepared strategy involving non-state actors and state agencies. In October 2016, mainstream international media began reporting distribution of lethal weapons among a section of the population in the Rakhine state. This was soon followed by gruesome acts of violence against the Rohingya minority that is now being aptly described as 'planned genocide'. 

Instead of instituting a fair and objective investigation to identify the perpetrators of the attack on the state forces, the security forces engaged in wanton violence that did not discriminate between the innocent and the guilty, young or old, or men and women. Thanks to social media the world has come to learn the extent of such barbaric collective punishment. Images of children being hacked to death and charred bodies being placed in mass graves have finally succeeded in convincing the skeptics about the ghastly reality of the Rohingyas in Rakhine. 

Experts and the international media have put various labels on the action of the Burmese government - “ethnic cleansing”, “crime against humanity” and “genocide”. The sheer scale of evidence (documentary and satellite generated images) has debunked the lies and hypocrisy of the government that is being effectively led by the noble laureate Ms. Aug San Suu Kyi. Instead of mitigating the suffering of the Rohingyas the regime exacerbated their woes by denying passage of humanitarian aid to the affected people, engaging in crude censorship if the media, and barring independent observers and human rights monitors from accessing the area. Ms. Suu Kyi is reported to have been “upset” about international community's overt focus on one side of the conflict without “having the real information”. It will be interesting to know what “real information” the once-icon-of-freedom was referring to. 

Anyone with rudimentary knowledge of the Rohingya situation is aware that thousands of people in North Maungdaw are trapped in a 'locked down' area for more than a month and a half without access to urgently needed humanitarian aid and the freedom to move and seek protection from persecution. Harvests have been destroyed creating conditions of starvation for thousands. The Arakan Project and other sources have reported that after the clashes between Rohingya armed groups and Myanmar's military, two helicopter gunships opened fire on fleeing villagers while ground troops attacked civilians, including women, children and the elderly, with bayonets and guns. So far about 70 people have been killed that the government wants the world to believe were “insurgents”. 

Ms. Suu Kyi may well be reminded that after the violence that flared up in 2012 and 2013 the Rohingyas have been forcibly removed from their own homes in various townships and been placed in ghettoes without having access to livelihood opportunities, education and healthcare. The dire conditions are reminiscent of conditions of the members of the indigenous African community under the apartheid regime of South Africa. If apartheid is understood as a political and social system that promotes racial discrimination in favour of a particular community then at the moment no country in the world can compete to fittingly qualify the top spot of an apartheid state other than Myanmar. 

Daw Suu Kyi's attention also needs to be drawn to the recent study conducted by the reputed International State Crime Initiative of the University of London. The study confirmed “systematic, widespread, and ongoing violations, including: institutional discrimination, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, destruction of communities, apartheid structures of segregation, targeted population control, mass killings, land confiscation, forced labour, denial of citizenship and identity, severe restrictions on freedom of movement and access to healthcare, food, education, and livelihood opportunities; and state-sanctioned campaigns of religious hatred”. In no uncertain terms it concluded Myanmar's state's policies of persecution of Rohingyas as “genocidal practice”.


Myanmar's systemic persecution of the Rohingyas, its inability to take appropriate actions against the perpetrators of gross rights abuses, its incapacity to ensure enjoyment of fundamental rights for all its people, and its execution of what appears to be an orderly plan to depopulate the Rakhine region of the Rohingyas make a strong case for the international community to consider re-imposing sanctions against Myanmar. 

The western world, the self-professed champion of democracy and human rights, needs to set its priorities right. Enough concession has so far been made to the 'new government' to prepare a roadmap to put things in order in Rakhine. No excuse is enough for the government's active connivance in genocidal practices. The little hope that was generated after Ms. Suu Kyii formed the Kofi Annan Commission soon petered out when the former Secretary General claimed to have not personally witnessed anything he “would define as oppression” following his September 2016 visit to Sittwe and Aung Mingalar ghettos. His position was in sharp contrast of a few others who compared the sites with those of Nazi Germany's Jewish ghettos. 

The western governments and big corporations remain firmly entrenched to pursue their trade and investment interests and are unlikely to respond favourably to the call for re-imposing sanctions on Myanmar. The starting point could be targeting the ordinary masses of those countries and others who are guided by compassion, humanity, reason and respect for rights and dignity. With the support of this group the state crimes committed by the Myanmar regime against the Rohingyas need to be widely circulated in the social media. Support must be garnered to exert pressure on the companies for boycotting their products that engages with Myanmar and all kinds of produce of the freedom-trampling genocidal apartheid regime of Myanmar. 

The writer is Professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka. He researches and writes on rights and migration issues.


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## Banglar Bir

*Rights group: Act now to avoid Rohingya genocide*
*Fortify Rights says "systematic violations" have been "overlooked" by Western powers.*




A rights group monitoring the welfare of the Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar have called on the international community to take action in order to prevent a "genocide" from taking place in the country.

The Rohingya, which number about one million among Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist 52 million population, have lived in Myanmar for generations.

However, most people view them as foreign intruders from neighbouring Bangladesh which, while hosting many Rohingya refugees, refuses to recognise them as citizens.

Malaysian TV channel aims to raise awareness of Rohingya plight





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154918011553690





Dozens of Rohingya Muslims have been killed since early October, when the army launched a crackdown after an attack killed nine police officers.

According to UN estimates, 30,000 people have fled in the recent violence, and some refugees have accused the Myanmar military of committing rights abuses, including torture, rape and murder.

"I think it is reasonable right now to be talking about genocide prevention in Myanmar," Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

"We do know that widespread and systematic human rights violations have been perpetrated for a very long time, and there's been a very grave uptick of those since October.

"We've seen genocidal rhetoric coming out of state media in recent weeks. It should spur some action."

Smith also criticised the Western government's inaction, saying many are "fairly intoxicated with this narrative of political reform" to the extent that the Rohingya situation is "overlooked".

His comments came after Al Jazeera learned Bangladesh authorities had been turning back Rohingya men at the border, while allowing in women and children based on their need.

More than 10,000 people have already crossed into Bangladesh in the past two months, a UN report had said.







__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154918011553690





Al Jazeera's Maher Sattar, reporting from Cox's Bazar near the Myanmar border on Thursday, said that "due to humanitarian concerns, some people are being allowed" in.

"There is no real criteria, it is more an ad-hoc decision-making process, where border guards see someone, and they feel that this person is really suffering, it's usually women and children, and they let them through," he said citing border guards.

"But most of the men get turned back."

But "on the whole" the Bangladesh government remain "antagonistic" towards Rohingya refugees, pushing them back to Myanmar, he added.

Those who have managed to cross the border into Bangladesh have sought shelter at an unofficial Cox's Bazar refugee camp, where there are 200,000 Rohingya refugees already.

The situation is being described as dire, as the previous batch of refugees are unable to extend help to those who have just arrived to seek shelter.

"There's not much to give. They are refugees themselves," he said.





Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is leading an advisory commission looking into the ethnic conflict in the Rakhine State [EPA]

Across the border, Al Jazeera's Florence Looi, reporting from Sittwe in in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, said some local Rakhine organisations have refused to meet a commission led by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general.

Almost all Rohingya in Myanmar live in Rakhine.

Annan is chairman of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, an initiative launched by Aung San Suu Kyi's government in August 2016 to identify conflict-prevention measures, facilitate long-term communal reconciliation and address development issues.

Inter-communal riots in Rakhine killed 200 people and displaced more than 100,000 in 2012.

Annan's team was due in Sittwe on Friday and local organisations said they are unable to meet the commission because they used the term "Rohingya", which is not an officially recognised minority in the country.

Myanmar under pressure to act on Rohingya plight

On Tuesday, the UN OHCHR said Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya could be tantamount to crimes against humanity, reiterating the findings of a June report.

Habibullah, a Rohingya resident in Sittwe, told Al Jazeera that his family, which was living in another part of Rakhine, were forced to flee after their homes were allegedly burned by soldiers.

He said that he later received reports that his grandfather managed to escape to Bangladesh, while his uncle and cousin are feared to have died.

Authorities have denied the allegations of abuse, but have so far refused access into the area affected by the violence.

Many international aid workers have also had to leave because their travel permits have not been renewed.

Nyi Pu, chief minister of Rakhine, said officials are trying to resolve the situation.

"Our government is handling all of the problems in Rakhine, fiercely and precisely. Precisely means we deal with terrorism, in accordance with the rule of law," he told Al Jazeera.

Source: Al Jazeera News

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/rights-group-act-avoid-rohingya-genocide-161201082950460.html


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## asad71

*bangladeshchronicle.net/2016/12/myanmar-child-rape-cases-surge-40pc/*

*Myanmar child rape cases surge 40pc*
December 1, 2016 | Filed under: South Asia,World | Posted by: bdchronicle
Child rape cases in Myanmar have surged by 40 per cent this year, state media said Wednesday, highlighting a growing problem for the country still grappling with a dark past of rights abuses.
Poverty and weak laws mean Myanmar’s children are highly vulnerable to abuse, with many of them sold into to labour or forcibly recruited to fight in the country’s borderlands.
Behind closed doors rights activists say many more are at risk of exploitation either as domestic helpers for wealthy families or within their own communities.
At the end of October, 380 child molestation cases had been reported across the country – 150 more than the same period in 2015 and accounting for half of all reported rapes nationwide.
But experts fear the numbers could be only the tip of the iceberg as a culture of silence and victim blaming means abuse often goes undocumented.
‘Most most of the time it is carried out by family members, neighbours, relatives or someone close to the victims’ families,’ said police major Khin Maung Thin from Mandalay, where cases have doubled.
‘Brothers abuse sisters and fathers abuse daughters,’ he said.
Physical and emotional abuse is a common problem in many countries in Asia-Pacific.
A UNICEF study released last month found it cost the region some $200 billion, or two per cent of GDP, in healthcare and crimes committed by many victims later in life.
UNICEF’s Myanmar representative Bertrand Bainvel said sexual violence is the second most widespread form of child abuse in the country.
‘Sometimes families are reluctant to report (cases) because of the taboo surrounding the issue,’ he said.
‘They think they are protecting victims by not reporting.’
Strengthening child protection is a key issue for Myanmar’s new democratically elected government as it seeks to reform the country after half a century of brutal military rule.
He said he expects tougher child protection laws including stiffer sentencing to be passed this year.
But for some longer jail terms will not suffice especially for child rapists.
‘The public cannot bear such abuse and they are urging the government to take action against the perpetrators by giving the death sentence,’ said lawmaker Khin Saw Wai.
‘I am a member of parliament, a woman and a mother. I cannot accept such abuse of children.’

Source: New Age

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## Banglar Bir

South East ASIA IS THE FOCAL POINT in child trafficking trade. We could open a new thread, where we all could to discuss this critical issue in depth. to add these is this thread may derail our maim theme,.I HAVE SUFFICIENT MATERIALS IN HAND TO DO SO. 

However I feel ASEAN states to focus more in these matters, in fact I have spent more than a decade in number of these countries
. 
Various NGO+ Dr Abrar, of D.U, along with his learned spouse could contribute a lot regarding these matters


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## Banglar Bir

http://www.facebd.net/newsdetail/detail/34/263188

*সংবাদ >> আন্তর্জাতিক*
*ভিডিও >> রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে প্রশ্নবিদ্ধ যুক্তরাষ্ট্রসহ মিত্রদের ভূমিকা*





03 Dec, 2016






মধ্যপ্রাচ্য থেকে পুরো এশিয়া, আফ্রিকা কিংবা ওশেনিয়া। বিশ্বের যে প্রান্তেই মানবাধিকার লঙ্ঘিত হোক, সব সময় সরব যুক্তরাষ্ট্র ও তার মিত্র ইউরোপের দেশগুলো। প্রয়োজনে চাপ প্রয়োগের ঘটনাও ঘটছে অহরহ। কিন্তু মিয়ানমারের রোহিঙ্গাদের বেলায় যেন মুখে কুলুপ এটে বসে আছে।

আর জাতিসংঘ তো দায়সারা উদ্বেগ জানিয়েই শেষ। সাবেক রাষ্ট্রদূতরা বলছেন, সমস্যার আঁচ গায়ে লাগছে বাংলাদেশের, অন্যদের নয়। তাই মিয়ানমারের ওপর চাপ সৃষ্টি করতে বাংলাদেশেকেই বাড়াতে হবে কূটনৈতিক তৎপরতা।

চোখের সামনেই খুন হয়েছেন আপনজন, হয়েছেন ধর্ষিত, হারিয়েছেন বসতভিটা। গণহত্যার মুখে কোনোমতে প্রাণ নিয়ে পালিয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গাদের জীবনের এমন বর্ণনায় যে কারও ভিজে উঠবে চোখ। অথচ মন গলে না রাষ্ট্রের, তাই তো সীমান্ত খোলা হবে কি, হবে না, তা নিয়ে চলছে বিস্তর বিতর্ক। কিন্তু প্রয়োজন আইন মানে না, প্রবাদটি সত্য করে সীমান্ত দিয়ে প্রতিদিনই ঢুকছে অসহায় রোহিঙ্গারা।

নিজ দেশেই যখন নির্বিচার হত্যাযজ্ঞ চালাচ্ছে, মিয়ানমার সেনাবাহিনী তখন নজিরবিহীন নীরবতা বিশ্বব্যাপী। বাংলাদেশসহ অনেক দেশে পান থেকে চুন খসলেই যখন সোচ্চার হয়ে ওঠে পশ্চিমারা, দেয় নানা নসিহত। ক্ষেত্রে বিশেষে পাঠায় সেনা, এবার তারা কুলুপ এঁটেছে মুখে। তাই সাবেক কূটনীতিকদের পরামর্শ, বিশ্ব দরবারে সমস্যার ভয়াবহতা তুলে ধরতে উদ্যোগ নিতে হবে বাংলাদেশকেই। বাধ্য করাতে হবে মিয়ানমারের ওপর চাপ প্রয়োগে।

যদিও যুক্তরাষ্ট্র ও ভারতের রাষ্ট্রদূতের ঘোষণা, এই সমস্যায় পাশে থাকবে বাংলাদেশের; কিন্তু ওটুকুই। নেই কার্যকর কোনো পদক্ষেপ। তাই যতদিন না প্রাণভয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গাদের দেশে ফেরত যাবার মতো পরিস্থিতি সৃষ্টি হচ্ছে ততদিন জাতিসংঘের তত্ত্বাবধানে তাদের খাওয়া-পরার ব্যবস্থা নিশ্চিত করার তাগিদ সাবেক কূটনীতিক এম এ মোমেন ও আবুল মোমেন চৌধুরীর।

তাঁরা বলেন, সবার সাথে বন্ধুত্বের পররাষ্ট্রনীতি মানে এই নয় যে, অন্যায়ের প্রতিবাদ করা যাবে না। তাই মিয়ানমারের মানবতাবিরোধী অবস্থানের বিরুদ্ধে কূটনীতিক তৎপরতা চালানোর পরামর্শ তাঁদের।

সূত্র: চ্যানেল টোয়েন্টিফোর.

http://www.facebd.net/newsdetail/detail/200/263189

*সংবাদ >> আন্তর্জাতিক*
*সু চি’র দাবি >> মিডিয়া অতিরঞ্জিত করছে আসলে রাখাইনের পরিস্থিতি শান্ত*





03 Dec, 2016

মায়ানমারের রাখাইন রাজ্যে রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর বর্বর সেনা নির্যাতন নিয়ে আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায়ের সমালোচনার মুখে থাকা দেশটির রাষ্ট্রীয় পরাদর্শদাতা অং সান সু চি বলেছেন, তিনি রাখাইন রাজ্যে পরিস্থিতির উন্নত করতে চান।

শুক্রবার সিঙ্গাপুরভিত্তিক সংবাদ মাধ্যম চ্যানেল নিউজ এশিয়াকে দেয়া এক সাক্ষাৎকারে তিনি এ কথা বলেন।

রাখাইনের পরিস্থিতি নিয়ন্ত্রণে আছে কি না এ প্রশ্নের জবাবে শান্তিতে নোবেলজয়ী অং সান সু চি বলেন, ‘সেখানকার অবস্থা নিয়ে মিডিয়া অতিরঞ্জিত করছে; আসলে আমরা পরিস্থিতি নিয়ন্ত্রণে রাখতে পেরেছি এবং শান্ত করেছি।’

রাখাইনে সেনা নির্যাতন বিষয়ে বরাবর নিশ্চুপ থাকা সু চি বৌদ্ধ ও রোহিঙ্গা সম্প্রদায়ের মধ্যে উত্তেজনা সৃষ্টির জন্য আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায়কেই দায়ী করেন।

সু চি বলেন, ‘তবে সবসময় অসন্তোষ প্রকাশ না করে দুই সম্প্রদায়ের মধ্যে সম্পর্ক উন্নয়ন এবং শান্তি ও স্থিতিশীলতা বজায় রাখতে আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায় যদি আমাদের সহায়তা করে, আমি সেটার প্রশংসা করব।’

বর্তমানে রাষ্ট্রীয় সফরে সিঙ্গাপুরে থাকা সু চি বলেন, ‘কেবল মুসলিমরাই আতঙ্কিত ও উদ্বিগ্ন নয়। রাখাইনরাও উদ্বিগ্ন, তারা উদ্বেগে আছে এ কারণে যে, শতকরাভিত্তিতে রাখাইন জনসংখ্যা কমে যাচ্ছে এবং অবশ্যই আমরা অস্বীকার করতে পারি না যে, দুই সম্প্রদায়ের মধ্যে উত্তেজনা বিরাজ করছে এবং আমরা এ সম্পর্ক উন্নত করতে চাই।’

সু চি বলেন, ‘তবে গত ৯ অক্টোবর পুলিশ চৌকিতে হামলার হলেও প্রত্যেকে কেবল পরিস্থিতির নেতিবাচক দিকটা দেখলে তা কোনো সহায়ক হয় না।’

সু চিকে বলা হয় সমস্যার জন্য তো কেবল আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায় দায়ী নয়। এর উত্তরে তিনি বলেন, ‘আমি তা জানি। আমি বলছি না যে কোনো জটিলতা নেই, তবে জটিলতাকে লোকজন যদি স্বীকৃতি দেয় তাহলে সহায়ক হয়। আর এসব জটিলতা অতিরঞ্জিত না করে সেগুলো নিরসনে মনোযোগ দিচ্ছি আমরা।’

গত অক্টোবর মায়ানমারের সেনাচৌকিতে হামলায় নয়জন নিহত হন। এরপর দেশটির সেনাবাহিনী রোহিঙ্গা রাজ্যে অভিযান শুরু করে। অভিযানে শতাধিক রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমকে হত্যা করা হয় বলে জানানো হয়। এরপর থেকে হাজার হাজার রোহিঙ্গা সীমান্ত পাড়ি দিয়ে বাংলাদেশ অনুপ্রবেশ করেছে। জাতিসংঘ জানিয়েছে, এ সংখ্যা ১০ হাজার ছাড়িয়ে যাবে।

এ ছাড়া বেসামরিক নাগরিকদের ওপর নির্যাতন, লুঠ, গণধর্ষণ এবং তাদের ঘরবাড়ি পুড়িয়ে দেওয়ার অভিযোগ উঠে দেশটির সেনাবাহিনীর বিরুদ্ধে।

# চ্যানেল নিউজ এশিয়াকে দেয়া সাক্ষাৎকার #


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya militants could provoke violence: United States*






03 Dec, 2016

Myanmar's military against ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims are widespread torture; Out of the way in which the international world is happening. Army killed, raped the Rohingya. Across the sea to escape persecution in neighboring countries Rohingyas trying to escape. Although life is being destroyed homes belonging to Rohingya fleeing, religious and educational institutions.

Myanmar's transition to a democratic ally of the United States opened the mouth of the Rohingya. It says, Strict security forces has displaced thousands of Rohingya Muslims; Many have been killed. As a result of these oppressed people may be inclined to fundamentalism. In addition, incidents of violence against the Rohingya in Southeast Asia can create religious tensions.

Bangladesh, Myanmar on October 9 at the check post attacked at least 9 people were killed. He called Rohingyas in Rakhine clearance operation launched against the country's military campaign.

Though the country's Buddhist majority of Myanmar's Rohingya have lived for generations as illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators think.Rakhine state security checkpoint attack a small part of a long-term oppression against the Rohingya, many see it as a counter-resistance.

US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russell, East Asia harsh military operation criticized Rakhine, Myanmar could provoke widespread violence by extremist militants. 

Daniel Russell, told The Associated Press news, the situation in Rakhine jihahidera if wrongly managed could be affected by;Bangladesh has already spread to other neighboring countries. 

Earlier, the United Nations has described the plight of the Rohingya, Burma is the world's most bandhubihina Rohingya people. 01 Muslim extremists drew the attention of the country's internal sectarian violence. At that time, hundreds of people killed in clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya and more than one million people became homeless. 

The Ohio University in the United States knife and cars attacked a Somali-American students. US student's social media protested the killing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine post to Facebook. At the end of the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta last week and accused of planning an attack authorities arrested two militants.

Demanded an independent and impartial investigation of the violence in Rakhine United States and more countries. Analysis of satellite images collected by Human Rights Watch, 1250 the Rohingya houses in the village were destroyed. In addition, hundreds of Rohingyas have been killed. The Myanmar government rejected the allegation, saying the attack on the police check post last month after the army operation to arrest terrorists.

Source: AP.


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## Banglar Bir

*Tuhin Malik*
10 hrs · 




মিয়ানমারের নরপিচাশ বৌদ্ধরা রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের হত্যা করে এভাবেই উল্লাস করছে !

See translation


.
https://www.facebook.com/#

Kazi Hossain Whole world hates you ,Myanmar buddist, no one will safe you when disasters will hit you.
Like · Reply · 3 hrs

Runa Ruma Allaho rabbul alamin mone hoi a januarder de jahannam vorbe.jahannam vorar jonno o to jahannami dorkar.amar muslim vaier bon maa baba o sisu ferest ra insallah sohider moron boron kore jannat basi hoise ameenSee translation
Like · Reply · 6 hrs

Azmir Hossain Cht









http://atnbdnews.com/bn/?p=3259


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## Banglar Bir

*Aung San Suu Kyi accuses international community of stoking unrest in Myanmar*

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tional-community-of-stoking-unrest-in-myanmar

Leader says outsiders are ‘concentrating on the negative side’ of what the UN and Malaysia claim is ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority



A Muslim woman wears an Aung San Suu Kyi mask during a rally against the persecution of Rohingya. Photograph: Dita Alangkara/AP
Reuters

Saturday 3 December 2016 06.23 GMT

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi accused the international community on Friday of stoking resentment between Buddhists and Muslims in the country’s northwest, where an army crackdown has killed at least 86 people and sent 10,000 fleeing to Bangladesh.

Aung San Suu Kyi appealed for understanding of her nation’s ethnic complexities, and said the world should not forget the military operation was launched in response to attacks on security forces that the government has blamed on Muslim insurgents.
“I would appreciate it so much if the international community would help us to maintain peace and stability, and to make progress in building better relations between the two communities, instead of always drumming up cause for bigger fires of resentment,” Aung San Suu Kyi told Singapore state-owned broadcaster Channel News Asia during a visit to the city-state.

“It doesn’t help if everybody is just concentrating on the negative side of the situation, in spite of the fact that there were attacks against police outposts.”

The violence in the northwest poses the biggest challenge so far to Aung San Suu Kyi’s eight-month-old government, and has renewed international criticism that the Nobel Peace Prize winner has done too little to help the country’s RohingyaMuslim minority.

Her comments come as Malaysia said Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya amounted to “ethnic cleansing”.

“The fact that only one particular ethnicity is being driven out is by definition ethnic cleansing,” Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“This practice must stop, and must be stopped immediately in order to bring back security and stability to the Southeast Asian region.”

Muslim-majority Malaysia has been increasingly critical of Myanmar’s handling of violence in northern Rakhine state.

Soldiers have poured into the north of Rakhine State, close to the frontier with Bangladesh, after attacks on border posts on 9 October that killed nine police officers. Humanitarian aid has been cut off to the area, which is closed to outside observers.

Myanmar’s military and the government have rejected allegations by residents and human rights groups that soldiers have raped Rohingya women, burned houses and killed civilians during the operation.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s remarks came as a commission led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan arrived in the state, where ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims have lived separately since clashes in 2012 in which more than 100 people were killed.

Despite often having lived in Myanmar for generations, most of the country’s 1.1 million Rohingya are denied citizenship, freedom of movement and access to basic services such as healthcare and education.

The UN’s human rights agency said this week that abuses suffered by the Rohingya may amount to a crimes against humanity, repeating a statement it first made in a June report.

The Rohingya are not among the 135 ethnic groups recognised by law in Myanmar, where many majority Buddhists refer to them as “Bengalis” to indicate they regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

In northern Rakhine, one of the poorest parts of the country, Muslims outnumber the ethnic Rakhine population.

“In the Rakhine, it’s not just the Muslims who are nervous and worried,” said Suu Kyi. “The Rakhine are worried too. They are worried about the fact that they are shrinking as a Rakhine population, percentage-wise.”

UN officials said this week more than 10,000 people have fled the recent fighting to Bangladesh.

There are continuing reports of people fleeing across the river border in flimsy boats, bringing accounts of razed villages, uprooted communities and separated families.

Still, Aung San Suu Kyi said the government has “managed to keep the situation under control and to calm it down”.


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## Banglar Bir

*‎Alm Fazlur Rahman‎ to RAFM*
2 hrs ·


এটা এখন পরিষ্কার:

এক। বিশ্ব রোহিঙ্গাদের সমস্যা সমাধানের জন্য এগিয়ে আসবেনা।

দুই। পশ্চিমা বিশ্ব মিয়ানমারের বিপুল সম্পাদকে তাদের অর্থনৈতিক উন্নতির জন্য ব্যাবহার করতে চায়। অতএব মিয়ানমার তাদের কাছে সোনার ডিম দেওয়া হাঁস।

তিন। রোহিঙ্গারা ধর্ম বিশ্বাসে মুসলমান। পশ্চিমা বিশ্বের কাছে মুসলমান অসহ্য, অগ্রহনযোগ্য এবং ভিতিকর।

চার । মিয়ানমারে মতো পশ্চিমা বিশ্বও ইসলামো ফোবিয়াতে আক্রান্ত।

পাঁচ। সেই নব্বই'র দশক থেকে রোহিঙ্গাদের উপরে মিয়ানমার আর্মি সরকারি সহায়তায় সীমাহীন অত্যাচার চালিয়ে আসছে।

ছয়। এই অত্যাচারের ফলে রোহিঙ্গারা দলে দলে বাংলাদেশে প্রবেশ করে উদ্বাস্তু জীবন যাপন করছে।

সাত। রোহিঙ্গাদের ব্যাপারে বাংলাদেশ এফেক্টেড কান্ট্রি।

আট। বাংলাদেশ ছাড়া রোহিঙ্গাদের যাবার কোনো যায়গা নাই।

নয়। রোহিঙ্গা সমস্যা এখন বাংলাদেশের সমস্যায় পরিনত হয়েছে।

দশ। বাংলাদেশে রোহিঙ্গাদের অনুপ্রবেশ ঠেকানো সম্ভব নয়।

এগার। রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের সমস্যা কে এখন বাংলাদেশেকে একক ভাবে সমাধান করতে হবে।

রোহিঙ্গা সমস্যার সমাধান।

এক। মানবিক হবার একটা সীমা আছে। অতি নিচু গাছের পাতা ছাগলে খায়।

দুই। বাংলাদেশ অনন্তকাল ধরে মানবিক হয়ে মিয়ানমার কে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের পরে অত্যাচার চালাতে দিতে পারেনা।

তিন। রোহিঙ্গারা আমাদের ভাই। ভাইয়ের বিপদে ভাইয়ের পাশে দাঁড়ানো যেমন আমাদের কর্তব্য তেমনি ওয়ান্স ফর অল তাদের সমস্যার সমাধান করে দেওয়াও ভাই হিসাবে বাংলাদেশের দায়ীত্ব ।

চার। বাংলাদেশ অনন্তকাল রোহিঙ্গাদের নিয়ে মিয়ানমারের কাছে জিম্মি হয়ে থাকতে পারে না।

বাংলাদেশের উচিৎ যেসব রোহিঙ্গা নব্বই'র দশক থেকে বাংলাদেশে রিফিউজি হিসাবে অবস্থান করছে এবং বর্তমানে অত্যাচারিত হয়ে বাংলাদেশে অনুপ্রবেশ করছে তাদের জন্য সামরিক প্রশিক্ষণের ব্যাবস্হা করা। একটি শক্তিশালী রোহিঙ্গা বাহিনী তৈরী করে তাদের অস্ত্র সজ্জিত করে আরাকান বিজয়ের জন্য প্রয়োজনীয় সামরিক সহায়তা প্রদান করা। এটা করতে পারলে সারা বিশ্বে বাংলাদেশের ভাবমূর্তি উজ্জ্বল হবে এবং মিডিল কিংডম হিসাবে বাংলাদেশের অবস্থান সুদৃঢ় হবে। বিশ্ব তখন রোহিঙ্গাদের সমস্যা সমাধানের পথ খুঁজতে বাংলাদেশের স্মরণাপন্ন হবে। বিজিত আরাকান তখন বাংলাদেশ এবং মিয়ানমারের মধ্যে বাফার ষ্টেটের কাজ করবে ।

অনেক বিশেষজ্ঞ বলবেন চীনের সাথে কানেকটিভিটর জন্য মিয়ানমারকে বাংলাদেশের প্রয়োজন। আজকাল রোড লিঙ্ক দিয়ে ব্যাবসা বানিজ্য একটি সেকেলে ধারনা। এর কোনো ফিউচার নাই। দরকার হলে আরাকান দিয়ে এই যোগাযোগ চীন সহ মালয়েশিয়া ও ইন্দোনেশিয়ার সাথে করা যেতে পারে।

জেনারেল আ ল ম ফজলুর রহমান।
প্রাক্তন মহাপরিচালক বিডিআর ।

*‎Adeba Potrie‎ to Muslim's World*
3 hrs · 




Their state is state of terror.
Myanmar them by killing those innocent people.
They really not follow the teachings of buddhism



are true.
They actually terrorist!!

May Allah protect all muslims ummah all over the world.


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## Banglar Bir

*Al Jazeera English*

NewsGrid: The plight of Myanmar's Rohingya
Myanmar seeking 'ethnic cleansing' of Rohingya, a UN official has said. AJ NewsGridwill examine the escalating violence in Rakhine state and speak to a Malaysian MP who says Aung San Suu Kyi should lose her Nobel Peace Prize. 





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154899884143690





*Aung San Suu Kyi's inexcusable silence*
*Aung San Suu Kyi was a moral icon, a human rights champion - so why has she been silent about the Rohingya Muslims?*





Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi [EPA]



*by*
*Mehdi Hasan*




@mehdirhasan

Mehdi Hasan is an award-winning journalist, author, political commentator and the presenter of Head to Head and UpFront.

"In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize ... to Aung San Suu Kyi," the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in 1991, it wished "to honour this woman for her unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means".

Suu Kyi, the Committee added, was "an important symbol in the struggle against oppression".

Fast forward 24 years, and the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar might disagree with the dewy-eyed assessment of the five-member Nobel Committee. And with Gordon Brown, too, who called Suu Kyi "the world's most renowned and courageous prisoner of conscience". Not to mention Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has said that the people of Myanmar "desperately need the kind of moral and principled leadership that Aung San Suu Kyi would provide".

In recent years, the Rohingya Muslims - "the world's most persecuted minority", according to the United Nations - have struggled to attract attention to their plight.

Myanmar limits number of babies women can have
Until, that is, a few weeks ago, when thousands of Rohingya refugees began arriving in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, while thousands more are believed to be still stranded on rickety boats off the coasts of these three countries, with dwindling supplies of food and clean water.

*'So hungry, so skinny'*

"Fisherman Muchtar Ali broke down in tears when he set eyes on the overcrowded boat carrying desperate, starving Rohingya off the coast of Indonesia," noted a report by AFP on May 20.

"I was speechless," Ali told AFP. "Looking at these people, me and my friends cried because they looked so hungry, so skinny."

These Rohingya "boat people", however, are a symptom of a much bigger problem. As Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International's Asia Pacific Researcher, has observed: "The thousands of lives at risk should be the immediate priority, but the root causes of this crisis must also be addressed. The fact that thousands of Rohingya prefer a dangerous boat journey they may not survive to staying in Myanmar speaks volumes about the conditions they face there."

Those oppressive conditions range from a denial of citizenship to Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims to severe restrictions on their movement, employment and access to education and healthcare, as well as a discriminatory law imposing a "two child" limit on Rohingya families in their home state of Rakhine.

Her refusal to condemn, or even fully acknowledge, the state-sponsored repression of her fellow countrymen and women, not to mention the violence meted out to them by Buddhist extremists ... makes her part of the problem, not the solution.

Hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes; their towns and villages razed to the ground by rampaging mobs. In 2014, the government even banned the use of the word "Rohingya", insisting the Muslim minority, who have lived in that country for generations, be registered in the census as "Bengali".

*Inexcusable silence*

So, where does Suu Kyi fit into all this? Well, for a start, her silence is inexcusable. Her refusal to condemn, or even fully acknowledge, the state-sponsored repression of her fellow countrymen and women, not to mention the violence meted out to them by Buddhist extremists inspired by the monk Ashin Wirathu (aka "The Burmese Bin Laden"), makes her part of the problem, not the solution.

"In a genocide, silence is complicity, and so it is with Aung San Suu Kyi," observed Penny Green, a law professor at the University of London and director of the State Crime Initiative, in a recent op-ed for The Independent. Imbued with "enormous moral and political capital", Green argued, Myanmar's opposition leader could have challenged "the vile racism and Islamophobia which characterises Burmese political and social discourse". 

She didn't. Instead, she spent the past few years courting the Buddhist majority of Myanmar, whose votes she needs in order to be elected president in 2016 - if, that is, the military will allow her to be elected president, or even permit her to stand - by playing down the violence perpetrated against the Muslim minority, and trying to suggest a false equivalence between persecutors and victims of persecution.

In a BBC interview in 2013, for example, Suu Kyi shamefully blamed the violence on "both sides", telling interviewer Mishal Husain that "Muslims have been targeted but Buddhists have also been subjected to violence".

Yet in Myanmar, it isn't Buddhists who have been confined to fetid camps, where they are "slowly succumbing to starvation, despair and disease". It isn't Buddhists who have been the victims of what Human Rights Watch calls "ethnic cleansing" and what the UN's special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar has said "could amount to crimes against humanity". It isn't Buddhists who are crowding onto boats, to try and flee the country, and being assaulted with hammers and knives as they do so. It isn't Buddhists, to put it bluntly, who are facing genocide.

*Risk of 'genocide'*

Is this mere hyperbole? If only. Listen to the verdict of investigators from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide.

"We left Burma," they wrote in a report published earlier this month, "deeply concerned that so many preconditions for genocide are already in place."

The investigators, who visited Rohingya internment camps and interviewed the survivors of violent attacks, concluded: "Genocide will remain a serious risk for the Rohingya if the government of Burma does not immediately address the laws and policies that oppress the entire community." 

Yet, despite the boats and the bodies, the reports and the revelations, Suu Kyi is still mute. She hasn't raised a finger to help the Rohingya, as they literally run for their lives. Shouldn't we expect more from a Nobel Peace Prize laureate?

Maybe not. The words "Henry" and "Kissinger" come to mind. Plus, the Nobel Prize Committee has a pretty awkward history of prematurely handing out peace prizes. Remember Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat's joint prize in 1994? Ask the children of Gaza how that worked out. Remember Barack Obama's in 2009? Ask the civilian victims of drone strikes in Pakistan how that worked out. 

Rabin, Arafat, Obama … ultimately, of course, they're all politicians. Suu Kyi was supposed to be something else, something more; a moral icon, a human rights champion, a latter-day Gandhi.

*Sad truth*

Why weren't we listening when the opposition leader and former political prisoner told CNN in 2013 that she had "been a politician all along", that her ambition was to become president of her country?

The sad truth is that when it comes to "The Lady", it is well past time to take off the rose-tinted glasses. To see Suu Kyi for what she is: A former prisoner of conscience, yes, but now a cynical politician who is willing to put votes ahead of principles; party political advancement ahead of innocent Rohingya lives.

"Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless," Suu Kyi grandly declaimed in June 2012, as she finally accepted her Nobel Peace Prize, in person, 21 years after she won it while under house arrest, "a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace".

Forget the world. She should try starting at home, with the Rohingya of Rakhine. And if she won't, or can't, then maybe she should consider handing back the prize she waited more than two decades to collect. 

*Mehdi Hasan is a presenter for Al Jazeera English.*

*The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.*

Source: Al Jazeera


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## Gonjo

*Burmese Army Ready To Declare Emergency & A Coup *

_ (Staff article direct from The IRRAWADDY & MAH FACEBOOK on 28 November 2016.)_




NAYPYIDAW — Burma’s military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing discussed the provisions for a state of emergency and a potential military takeover of the country, amid an ongoing military conflict in northern Shan State and threats from Muslim militants in the west Burma.

* It was the second time this month that the army chief mentioned the clause in Burma’s 2008 Constitution—which was also drafted by the military—that allows the military to stage a coup in the event of chaos and instability. The Constitution also reserves 25 percent of the seats in Parliament for military representatives.*

In his speech at the National Defense College (NDC) on Saturday, the military chief justified the army’s continuing role in Burmese politics. The military is a stabilizing force on political and ethnic issues, he said.

The military would not engage in ‘party politics,’ but the 2008 Constitution did enshrine provisions for a state of emergency, said the senior general, according to the military mouthpiece Myawaddy Daily. “[People] need to know the realities and the historical facts about the military and the State,” he said, also emphasizing the need to solve ethnic issues.

* According to a clause in the 2008 Constitution, in case of a state of emergency in the country, the president would announce the order in coordination with National Defense and Security Council (NDSC). He would then transfer the government’s executive, legislative, and judicial powers to the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces.*

Earlier this month, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing spoke to the European Union Military Committee in Brussels, where he said that the Constitution defines “the role of the Myanmar Armed Forces in conformity with the real situation of the nation.”

“If one studies the ‘Provisions on State of Emergency’ in the Chapter XI of the Constitution (2008),” he said, “one will find various step-by-step provisions for the Myanmar Armed Forces in order not to seize the State power easily and in order not to hold the State power for a long time, even if the Myanmar Armed Forces takes the responsibility of the State under the agreement of the President.”

Burma experienced government by a military dictatorship from 1962 until 2011, when the military ceded power to a quasi-civilian government that consisted mostly of retired army generals. Only this year did the Southeast Asian nation see a civilian government, elected by its people, finally assume power.









_Following is the direct excerpt from Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing's face book post of his address to the NDC in Nay Pyi Daw._ 

* According to the historical context, our three main national causes—non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty—are the national duty essential for all citizens.*

* For political stability and national affairs, the Senior General said the Tatmadaw continued to play in a role in national politics. The Tatmadaw are not to be engaged in the party politics. So, “Provisions on State of Emergency” was enshrined in the 2008 Constitution.

http://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2016/11/burmese-army-ready-to-declare-emergency.html

Military Chief Mentions State of Emergency Provisions Amid Ongoing Clashes
Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing addresses senior officer trainees at the National Defence College in Naypyidaw on Saturday. / Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing / Facebook

4.7k
  

  

  
By The Irrawaddy 28 November 2016

NAYPYIDAW — Burma’s military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing discussed the provisions for a state of emergency and a potential military takeover of the country, amid an ongoing military conflict in northern Shan State and threats from Muslim militants in the west Burma.

It was the second time this month that the army chief mentioned the clause in Burma’s 2008 Constitution—which was also drafted by the military—that allows the military to stage a coup in the event of chaos and instability. The Constitution also reserves 25 percent of the seats in Parliament for military representatives.

In his speech at the National Defense College (NDC) on Saturday, the military chief justified the army’s continuing role in Burmese politics. The military is a stabilizing force on political and ethnic issues, he said.

The military would not engage in ‘party politics,’ but the 2008 Constitution did enshrine provisions for a state of emergency, said the senior general, according to the military mouthpiece Myawaddy Daily.

“[People] need to know the realities and the historical facts about the military and the State,” he said, also emphasizing the need to solve ethnic issues.

According to a clause in the 2008 Constitution, in case of a state of emergency in the country, the president would announce the order in coordination with National Defense and Security Council (NDSC). He would then transfer the government’s executive, legislative, and judicial powers to the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces.

Earlier this month, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing spoke to the European Union Military Committee in Brussels, where he said that the Constitution defines “the role of the Myanmar Armed Forces in conformity with the real situation of the nation.”

“If one studies the ‘Provisions on State of Emergency’ in the Chapter XI of the Constitution (2008),” he said, “one will find various step-by-step provisions for the Myanmar Armed Forces in order not to seize the State power easily and in order not to hold the State power for a long time, even if the Myanmar Armed Forces takes the responsibility of the State under the agreement of the President.”

Burma experienced government by a military dictatorship from 1962 until 2011, when the military ceded power to a quasi-civilian government that consisted mostly of retired army generals. Only this year did the Southeast Asian nation see a civilian government, elected by its people, finally assume power.

http://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma...mergency-provisions-amid-ongoing-clashes.html


*

Reactions: Like Like:
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## bluesky

It is the military who is responsible for the murder of Rohingya Muslims in Burma. So, I do not know what benefits these destitute people will receive even a military take over takes place. Military is using the Arakan incidents to stage a coup.


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## Banglar Bir

bluesky said:


> It is the military who is responsible for the murder of Rohingya Muslims in Burma. So, I do not know what benefits these destitute people will receive even a military take over takes place. Military is using the Arakan incidents to stage a coup.



You are absolutely correct. However, these rash and OLIGARCHIC/ TOTALITARIAN regimes genocidal approach may isolate the regime further from the Global community+ASEAN membership.They will fell the real pains once again.ISOLATION..

IF THESE MEASURES DO TAKE EFFECT, WE WILL BE IN A MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE POSITION TO ATTRACT POSITIVE GLOBAL ATTENTION.


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## Banglar Bir

UpFront
3 December at 21:00 · 


Mehdi Hasan on Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi turning a blind eye to violence against Muslim Rohingya.





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1599797070328957


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## Banglar Bir

YA ALLAH(SWT) PLEASE SAVE #ROHINGYAMUSLIM
#AAMEEN






*Tanvir Chowdhury shared Channel 4 News's video.*
19 hrs ·









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154298434931939






Channel 4 News
3 December at 03:00 · 


"Any comment on the Rohingya?"

That was the question put to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who's accused of failing to act in the face of alleged human rights violations against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority.





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154298434931939








আন্তর্জাতিক শিরোনাম: 
*পালিয়ে গিয়েও রক্ষা হলোনা রোহিঙ্গা শিশুটির ! এ যেন নতুন আয়লান কুর্দি ..*
ডিসেম্বর 5, 2016 - 4:05 অপরাহ্ন banglmail 23 Views
আয়লান নয়। নতুন আয়লান। গতকাল রবিবার পরিবারসহ শিশুটি প্রাণ বাচাতে মংডু থেকে নৌকায় কক্সবাজারের দিকে রওনা হযেছিল। শেষে বর্মার সীমান্তরক্ষী পুলিশদের গুলিতে নিহত। বিশ্ববিবেক কি এখনো জাগবেনা?
http://banglamail71.com/others/news=6556

*33 Rohingyas missing as boat capsizes off Myanmar*

Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 02:59 PM December 05, 2016
Last updated at 06:58 PM December 05, 2016



Border Guard Bangladesh members stand guard next to a seized boat on the shores of Naf RiverAFP
*A boat packed with 35 Rohingya refugees capsized on the Myanmar side of the Naf river opposite Teknaf's Jadimura on Monday morning.*
A local fisherman named Suman said he watched the boat sinking and rescued two people who were swimming towards the maritime boundary of Bangladesh.

One of the survivors, Rehana Begum, confirmed the number of people on board and said they had been trying to enter Bangladesh.

They were the latest group of Rohingya muslims who have tried to cross into Bangladesh illegally after Myanmar troops launched a crackdown in Rakhine state in response to a militant attack on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers.

Lieutenant Colonel Abujar Al Jahid told the Dhaka Tribune that they had heard about the latest incident.

BGB officers have been deployed to monitor the situation.

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/12/05/33-rohingyas-missing-boat-capsizes-off-myanmar/






*Rohingya Muslims incl children killed by Burmese Border Police as they try to flee to Bangladesh*



Today Bngla

Published on Dec 5, 2016



*Category*
People & Blogs

*License*
Standard YouTube License


*Tanvir Chowdhury shared নির্যাতিত রোহিঙ্গাদের খবর's photo.*
1 min · 




Royhinga Child on the right (Photo )- near Naf Riverside Myanmar-Bangladesh Border area -while trying to flee Myanmar ( Burma ) atrocities into Bangladesh seeking shelter & protection , where they have been refused shelter even on a Humanitarian ground by the Govt - despite majority public sympathy





নির্যাতিত রোহিঙ্গাদের খবর
3 hrs · 


কুর্দি vs রোহিঙ্গা আয়লান


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## Banglar Bir

*রোহিঙ্গা সংকট সমাধানে বাংলাদেশকে আশ্বস্ত করেছেন সু চি*






05 Dec, 2016

পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী আবুল হাসান মাহমুদ আলী জানিয়েছেন, ‘রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে মিয়ানমারের বিভিন্ন লেভেলে আলোচনা অব্যাহত রয়েছে। এ ব্যাপারে অং সান সু চির সঙ্গেও আমাদের কথা হয়েছে। রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুটি অত্যন্ত সংবেদনশীল পর্যায়ে রয়েছে। ম্যাডাম সু চি রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুটি সুরাহার ব্যাপারে আমাদের আশ্বস্ত করেছেন।’

সোমবার জাতীয় সংসদে প্রশ্নোত্তর পর্বে সংসদ সদস্য আ খ ম জাহাঙ্গীর হোসাইনের এক সম্পূরক প্রশ্নের উত্তরে তিনি এ কথা বলেন।

রোহিঙ্গাদের বাংলাদেশে অনুপ্রবেশ সম্পর্কে তিনি বলেন, ‘কঠোর টহলের পরও যেসব রোহিঙ্গা বাংলাদেশে প্রবেশ করেছে, মানবিক কারণে আমাদের যেটুকু করার তা করছি। খাদ্য ও চিকিৎসা সহায়তা তাদের প্রদান করা হচ্ছে। এ ইস্যুতে পৃথিবীর প্রায় সব দেশ ও আন্তর্জাতিক সংস্থা বাংলাদেশের পাশে রয়েছে বলেও জানিয়েছেন পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী।’

মন্ত্রী বলেন, আন্তর্জাতিক মহল ছাড়াও আসিয়ানভুক্ত কয়েকটি দেশও বিষয়টি সুরাহার জন্য মিয়ানমারের প্রতি আহ্বান জানিয়েছে। অং সান সু চির সঙ্গে আলোচনায় তিনি যেসব কথা বলেছেন তা অত্যন্ত আশাব্যঞ্জক। তিনিও চেষ্টা করছেন, তার নিজেরও সদিচ্ছা রয়েছে। 

সংসদে প্রশ্নের উত্তর দিতে গিয়ে এ এইচ মাহমুদ আলী বলেন, ‘আসিয়ান যে সংস্থা, মিয়ানমার যার অন্যতম সদস্য রাষ্ট্র। সেখানকার কয়েকটি দেশ তারাও এই ব্যাপারটার সুরাহার জন্য মিয়ানমারের প্রতি আহ্বান জানিয়েছেন। এখন আমাদের যে কর্তব্য সেটা বিভিন্ন লেভেলে প্রচেষ্টা অব্যাহত রেখেছি। মানবিক কারণে যেটা করা দরকার সেটা করছি। যারা চলে আসছে তাদের খাদ্য, চিকিৎসা সহায়তা দেয়া হচ্ছে।’

তিনি বলেন, আগামী ১০-১২ ডিসেম্বর ঢাকায় গ্লোবাল ফোরাম অন মাইগ্রেশন অ্যান্ড ডেভেলপমেন্ট সম্মেলন অনুষ্ঠিত হবে। সেখানে রোহিঙ্গা সমস্যা নিয়ে আলোচনা হবে। আশা করা যায়, এই সম্মেলন সমস্যার সমাধানে সাহায্য করবে।

উৎসঃ _jagonews24.com_

http://www.facebd.net/newsdetail/detail/31/263888


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## Banglar Bir

১০ মাসের ছোট্ট রোহিঙা শিশু তোহাইত। মিয়ানমার সীমান্তে নাফ নদীর তীরে মুখ থুবড়ে পড়ে আছে তোহাইতের লাশ। মিয়ানমার সেনাবাহিনীর নৃশংসতা থেকে জীবন বাঁচতে রোহিঙ্গাদের ১৫ জনের একটি দলের সাথে মায়ের কোলে চড়ে তোহাইত বাংলাদেশের দিকে আসার চেষ্টা করছিল। রোববার রাতে মংডুর এই রোহিঙ্গারা একটি নৌকায় চেপে বসে কিছুদূর যেতেই নাফ নদীতে নৌকাটি ডুবে যায়। এ ঘটনায় দুই শিশুসহ এক ডজনেরও বেশি রোহিঙ্গার প্রাণহানি ঘটেছে বলে ধারণা ভূক্তভোগীদের। পরে নাফ নদীর মিয়ানমার অংশের তীরে মুখ থুবড়ে পড়ে থাকতে দেখা যায় হলুদ রঙের একটি শার্ট পরিহিত ওই শিশুকে। এরপর থেকেই ছোট্ট ওই শিশুর ছবি সামাজিক যোগাযোগ মাধ্যমে ভাইরাল হয়। নোবেল শান্তি পদকধারী সুচির মায়ানমারে 'জাতিগত নিধনের' শিকার রোহিঙ্গাদের প্রতীক হয়ে দাড়িয়েছে 'তোহাইত রোহিঙ্গা'- কেউ কেউ বলছেন “মায়ানমারের আয়লান!”

.....কোথায় গেলো নোবেল শান্তি পদক? কোথায় জাতিসংঘ? কোথায় আজ বিশ্ব মানবতা?





*রোহিঙ্গাদের বাঁচাতে প্রয়োজনে মিয়ানমার আক্রমণ*






05 Dec, 2016

http://www.facebd.net/newsdetail/detail/200/263849

মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে প্রতিবাদে বিক্ষোভ করতে মালয়েশিয়ার হাজারো মানুষ রাস্তায় নেমেছে। স্থানীয় সময় গতকাল সকাল থেকেই বিক্ষোভ সমাবেশ এবং র‌্যালি চলছে রাজধানী কুয়ালালামপুরের পথে পথে। জন*গণের সঙ্গে সেই গণর‌্যালিতে অংশ নিয়েছেন দেশটির প্রধানমন্ত্রী নাজিব রাজাকও। তার সঙ্গে হাত মিলিয়ে যোগ দিয়েছেন মালয়েশিয়ার বিরোধী দল পার্টি ইসলাম সে-মালয়েশিয়ার (পিএএস) সভাপতি আবদুল হাদি আওয়াং*।

তাদের দাবি মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গা সংখ্যালঘুর নিরাপত্তা নিশ্চিত করা হোক। মালয়েশিয়ার রাজধানী কুয়ালালামপুরে মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে পূর্ব ঘোষিত প্রতিবাদ বিক্ষোভ মিছিল ও সমাবেশ শেষে নাজিব রাজ্জাক কড়া ভাষায় মিয়ানমারকে হুমকি দেন। যদিও মিয়ানমার সরকারের পক্ষ থেকে ওই বিক্ষোভে অংশগ্রহণ না করতে নাজিব রাজাককে অনুরোধ করা হয়। গতকাল কুয়ালালামপুরে রোহিঙ্গাদের প্রতি সমর্থন জানাতে ডাকা ওই সভায় তিনি আরও বলেন, তিনি মিয়ানমারের নেত্রী অং সান সু চি এবং তার সরকারের প্রতি একটি শক্ত বার্তা পৌঁছে দিতে চান।

পাশাপাশি তিনি অর্গানাইজেশন অব ইসলামিক কো-অপারেশনকে (ওআইসি) যথাযথ ভূমিকা পালনের আহ্বান জানান। ওআইসি ও জাতিসংঘের উদ্দেশে তিনি বলেন, ‘দয়া করে কিছু করুন। জাতিসংঘ কিছু করেনি। বিশ্ব এভাবে গণহত্যার বিষয়টি বসে বসে দেখতে পারে না। তিনি আন্তর্জাতিক সংগঠনগুলোর প্রতি আহ্বান জানান, তারা যেন রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের ওপর পরিকল্পিতভাবে যে হত্যা, ধর্ষণ ও নির্যাতনের খবর আসছে সেই অভিযোগগুলোর তদন্ত করে।

শুধু তাই নয়, রাজাক মিয়ানমারের নেত্রী সু চির নোবেল পাওয়াকে ব্যঙ্গ করে বলেন, তার নোবেলের কাজ কী? আমরা তাকে বলতে চাই, যথেষ্ট হয়েছে... আমরা অবশ্যই মুসলমান ও ইসলামকে রক্ষা করব।’ রাখাইন রাজ্যে সহিংসতা ও রাষ্ট্রীয় মদদে ক্ষমতার অপব্যবহার নিয়ে দেশটি ক্রমেই মিয়ানমারের বিরুদ্ধে সমালোচনামুখর হচ্ছে। বিশ্বের ইতিহাসে ক্ষমতাসীন কোনো প্রধানমন্ত্রীর নিপীড়িত রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের জন্য রাজপথে বিক্ষোভে অংশ নেওয়ার নজির নেই।

রাজনৈতিক বিশ্লেষকদের ধারণা, মালয়েশিয়ার টালমাটাল রাজনীতি নিয়ন্ত্রণ ও সৌদি বাদশাকে খুশি করতে নাজিব মাঠে নেমেছেন। প্রধানমন্ত্রী নাজিব রাজাক* শেষ পর্যন্ত লড়াই করার অঙ্গীকার করে বলেন, ‘*তারা আমাকে সতর্ক করেছিল। কিন্তু আমার কিছু যায় আসে না। কারণ আমি এখানে এসেছি মুসলিম জনগোষ্ঠী এবং মালয়েশিয়ার জনগণের প্রতিনিধি হিসেবে নিজের যোগ্যতা নিয়ে।’

তিনি আরও বলেন, ‘৩ কোটি ১০ লাখ লোকের একটা সরকারের প্রধান হিসেবে আমাকে তারা কী করতে বলে? তারা কি চায় আমি চোখ বুজে থাকি? আমার মুখ বন্ধ করে রাখি? আমি তা করব না। তাদেরকে (রোহিঙ্গা) আমাদের রক্ষা করতেই হবে। তারা আমাদের মুসলমান ভাই, তাদের জীবনের মূল্য আছে।’ র‌্যালির একদিন আগেই নাজিব রাজাক মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গাদের সঙ্গে হওয়া আচরণ নিয়ে কড়া কথা বলেছেন। একে ‘জাতিগত নির্মূলকরণ’ উল্লেখ করে তিনি বলেন, এভাবে নির্বিচারে মানুষকে জীবন্ত পোড়ানো হবে আর নারীদের ধর্ষণ করা হবে, মালয়েশিয়া তা কখনই মেনে নেবে না।




আন্তর্জাতিক শিরোনাম: 
*রোহিঙ্গা হত্যার প্রতিবাদে মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন করবে মালয়েশিয়া !*
ডিসেম্বর 5, 2016 - 4:19 অপরাহ্ন banglmail 2975 Views

মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন রাজ্যে সাম্প্রতিক সময়ে মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গাদের হত্যার ঘটনায় মালয়েশিয়া ক্ষুব্ধ। মুসলিম সংখ্যাগরিষ্ঠ দেশটি বেশ কিছু পদক্ষেপ নিয়েছে যাতে মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে দেশটির কূটনৈতিক সম্পর্কে টানাপড়েন সৃষ্টি হয়েছে। ইতোমধ্যে মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গাদের প্রতি সংহতি ও হত্যার প্রতিবাদে কুয়ালালাম পুরে মিছিলে নেতৃত্ব দিয়েছেন মালয়েশিয়ার প্রধানমন্ত্রী নাজিব রাজাক। মালয়েশিয়া অনুর্ধ্ব-২২ ফুটবল দল মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে দুটি প্রীতি ম্যাচ বাতিল করেছে। কুয়ালালাম পুরে নিযুক্ত মিয়ানমারের রাষ্ট্রদূতকেও তলব করেছে দেশটি। দাবি উঠেছে, মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে কূটনীতিক সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন করার। মিয়ানমারও নিজেদের অবস্থানে অটল এবং মালয়েশিয়ার এসব পদক্ষেপের নিন্দা জানিয়েছে।

মিয়ানমারের সেনাদের বিরুদ্ধে রোহিঙ্গা সম্প্রদায়ের ওপর হত্যা, ধর্ষণ, গণধর্ষণের মতো বর্বরোচিত অপরাধের অভিযোগ উঠেছে। নিউইয়র্কভিত্তিক মানবাধিকার বিষয়ক সংগঠন ‘হিউম্যান রাইটস ওয়াচ’ জানিয়েছে, প্রায় ৩০ হাজার মানুষ বাড়িঘর ছেড়ে পালিয়েছে। পুড়িয়ে দেওয়া হয়েছে রোহিঙ্গাদের বহু গ্রাম। চলমান সহিংসতায় শুধু বাংলাদেশেই আশ্রয় নিয়েছেন কমপক্ষে ১০ হাজার রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থী। এদিকে দেশটিতে অব্যাহত রোহিঙ্গা নির্যাতন ‘মানবতাবিরোধী অপরাধে’র শামিল বলে মন্তব্য করেছেন জাতিসংঘের মানবাধিকার বিষয়ক সংস্থা। মিয়ানমার রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর ‘জাতিগত নিধন’ চালাচ্ছে বলেও জানিয়েছে জাতিসংঘ।

রাখাইন রাজ্যের রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর বিপন্নতায় যে দেশগুলো সবচেয়ে সোচ্চার হয়েছে মালয়েশিয়া তাদের অন্যতম। মিয়ানমারে নির্যাতিত রোহিঙ্গাদের সহায়তার জন্য রোহিঙ্গা সোসাইটি ইন মালয়েশিয়া নামের এক সোসাইটি গঠন করেছে মালয়েশিয়া সরকার। আরাকান প্রদেশে রোহিঙ্গাদের নির্যাতনের ঘটনায় মিয়ানমার সরকারের কাছে মালয়েশিয়া উদ্বেগ জানিয়ে চিঠি পাঠিয়েছে।

রবিবার মিয়ানমারের নিপীড়িত মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর পক্ষে মালয়েশিয়ার রাজধানী কুয়ালালাম পুরে সমাবেশ করেছেন কয়েক হাজর মানুষ। বিপন্ন মানবতার পক্ষে মানুষের এই মিছিলে সামিল হয়েছেন রাজনীতিকরাও। নেতৃত্ব দিয়েছেন দেশটির প্রধানমন্ত্রী নাজিব রাজাক।

সমাবেশে নাজিব রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর সুরক্ষার তাগিদ দেন। তিনি বলেন, ‘আমাদেরকে অবশ্যই তাদের (রোহিঙ্গা) রক্ষা করতে হবে। কেবল এজন্য নয় যে, তারা একই ধর্মে বিশ্বাসী। বরং এজন্য যে, তারা মানুষ। তাদের জীবনেরও মূল্য রয়েছে।’ তবে ধর্মীঁয় প্রশ্নেও রোহিঙ্গাদের প্রতি দায়দায়িত্বের কথা তুলে ধরেন নাজিব। সমাবেশে তিনি বলেন, রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে ইন্দোনেশীয় প্রেসিডেন্ট জোকো উইডোডোকেও সোচার হওয়ার আহ্বান জানাবেন। নাজিব বলেন, ‘রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যু হলো ইসলামের অপমান। আমাদের ধৈর্য্যকে চ্যালেঞ্জ করা হয়েছে।’

নাজিব তার বক্তব্যে শান্তির জন্য নোবেল পুরস্কার পাওয়া মিয়ানমারের নেতা অং সান সু চিকেও প্রশ্নবিদ্ধ করেন।

সমাবেশে মালয়েশিয়ার বিরোধী দল পিএএস নেতা হাদিসহ অনেক নেতা-কর্মীরাও অংশ নিয়ে রোহিঙ্গাদের প্রতি সমর্থন জানিয়েছেন এবং রোহিঙ্গা নিপীড়নের সমালোচনা করেছেন।

মিছিলের আগের দিন শনিবার অভ্যন্তরীণ বিষয়ে হস্তক্ষেপ না করতে মিয়ানমারের হুঁশিয়ারির কড়া জবাব দিয়েছে মালয়েশিয়া। দেশটির পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয় জানিয়েছে, মিয়ানমারের সাম্প্রতিক সহিংসতা ও হত্যার উদ্দেশ্য হচ্ছে সেখানকার মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গা জাতিকে নির্মূলের চেষ্টা। দক্ষিণ-পূর্ব এশীয় অঞ্চলের নিরাপত্তা ও স্থিতিশীলতা রক্ষার জন্য মিয়ানমারের এই কর্মকাণ্ড বন্ধ করা উচিত বলেও জানায় মালয়েশিয়া।

মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গাদের হত্যার বিষয় নিয়ে মিয়ানমারের নেতা সু চির সঙ্গে দেখা করতে চেয়েছিলেন নাজিব রাজাক। কিন্তু নাজিবের আহ্বানে সু চি সাড়া দেননি।

এর আগে রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর নিপীড়নের অভিযোগে মিয়ানমারের আসিয়ান সদস্যপদ বাতিলের দাবি জানিয়েছেন মালয়েশিয়া সরকারের একজন জ্যেষ্ঠ মন্ত্রী। ক্ষমতাসীন দল ইউনাইটেড মালায়াস ন্যাশনাল অর্গানাইজেশনের বার্ষিক সভায় যুব ও ক্রীড়ামন্ত্রী খাইরি জামালউদ্দিন বলেন, দক্ষিণ-পূর্ব এশিয়ার জোট আসিয়ানে মিয়ানমারের সদস্যপদ অবশ্যই পুনর্বিবেচনা করা উচিত। তিনি আরও বলেন, ‘আসিয়ানে মিয়ানমারের সদস্যপদ পুনর্বিবেচনা করার জন্য, এই জোটের কাছে আমরা দাবি জানাচ্ছি।’ জামালউদ্দিন দাবি করেন, ‘আসিয়ানভুক্ত দেশগুলো কারও অভ্যন্তরীণ বিষয়ে হস্তক্ষেপ না করার নীতি অনুসরণ করে। কিন্তু সেই নীতি বাতিল হয়ে যায়, যখন কোনও সদস্যরাষ্ট্র ব্যাপক মাত্রায় জাতিগত নির্মূলীকরণে জড়িত হয়।’

মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন করার দাবি জানিয়েছে মালয়েশিয়ার সরকারি ও বিরোধী দলের যুব সংগঠন। আমানাহ সংগঠনের প্রধান সানি হামজান বলেন, আমরা মালয়েশিয়া সরকারের আবেদন জানাচ্ছি মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে সব ধরনের কূটনীতিক সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন করার জন্য। একই সঙ্গে মিয়ানমারের রাষ্ট্রদূতকে মালয়েশিয়া ত্যাগ করতে বাধ্য করার জন্য।

মিয়ানমার থেকে মালয়েশিয়ার রাষ্ট্রদূতকেও ফিরিয়ে আনার দাবি জানান তিনি। এছাড়া এ বিষয়ে অর্গানাইজেশন অব ইসলামিক কোঅপারেশন, ওআইসির হস্তক্ষেপ ও সংকটপূর্ণ এলাকায় শান্তিরক্ষী পাঠানোর দাবি জানান জানান।

গত বৃহস্পতিবার মালয়েশিয়ার জাতীয় ফুটবল মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে অনূর্ধ্ব-২২ দলের দুটি প্রীতিম্যাচ বাতিল করেছে। ম্যাচ দুটি ডিসেম্বর মাসের দ্বিতীয় সপ্তাহে মিয়ানমারের ইয়াঙ্গুনে অনুষ্ঠিত হওয়ার কথা ছিলো। দেশটির জাতীয় ফুটবল দলের মুখপাত্র জানান, রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুর কারণে এটা একটি রাজনৈতিক সিদ্ধান্ত।

তার আগে মালয়েশিয়ায় নিযুক্ত মিয়ানমারের রাষ্ট্রদূতকে তলব করে দেশটি। এছাড়া গত মাসে মালয়েশিয়া জানিয়েছিল, রোহিঙ্গাদের গণহত্যার পর মিয়ানমারে অনুষ্ঠিতব্য আঞ্চলিক ফুটবল টুর্নামেন্ট বর্জনের কথা ভাবছে দেশটি। পরে মন্ত্রিরা এ সিদ্ধান্তের বিরোধিতা করায় তা বর্জন করা হয়নি। আঞ্চলিক ফুটবল টুর্নামেন্টটির সহ-আয়োজক ছিল মিয়ানমার। রবিবারের বিক্ষোভের আগে গত মাসেও মিয়ানমারের দূতাবাস অভিমূখে বিক্ষোভ করেন মালয়েশীয় ও রোহিঙ্গারা।

রোহিঙ্গাদের হত্যার বিষয়ে মালয়েশিয়ার এসব উদ্যোগে প্রতিবাদ ও নিন্দা জানিয়েছে মিয়ানমার। দেশটির প্রেসিডেন্ট কার্যালয়ের ডেপুটি ডিরেক্টর জেনারেল উ ঝাও বলেন, প্রতিবেশী দেশগুলোর উচিত মিয়ানমারের সার্বভৌমত্বের প্রতি শ্রদ্ধাশীল থাকা। তিনি মালয়েশিয়াকে অন্য রাষ্ট্রের অভ্যন্তরীণ বিষয়ে আসিয়ান চুক্তির নীতি মেনে চলার আহ্বান জানান।

উ ঝাও জানান, মালয়েশিয়ার এসব পদক্ষেপের সঙ্গে রোহিঙ্গাদের কোনও সম্পর্ক নেই। দেশে জনপ্রিয়তা বাড়াতেই এসব উদ্যোগ নিচ্ছেন মালয়েশীয় প্রধানমন্ত্রী। মিয়ানমারে নিযুক্ত মালয়েশীয় রাষ্ট্রদূতকে তলব করা হবে বলেও জানান তিনি।

মালয়েশিয়ার সংহতি মিছিলের প্রতিবাদে মিয়ানমারে বৌদ্ধরা বিক্ষোভ করেছেন। রবিবার ইয়াঙ্গুনে এ বিক্ষোভে কয়েকশ বৌদ্ধ ভিক্ষু অংশগ্রহণ করেন। তারা মালয়েশিয়ার প্রধানমন্ত্রীর প্রতি হুঁশিয়ারি জানিয়ে বলা হয়, ভুয়া জাতিগত বিষয় তুলে দুই দেশের সম্পর্ক নষ্ট না করার জন্য।

মিয়ানমারে সঙ্গে মালয়েশিয়ার কূটনৈতিক টানাপড়েন সৃষ্টি হলেও সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন করা কোনও বুদ্ধিদীপ্ত পদক্ষেপ হবে না বলে মনে করেন ওআইসি নিযুক্ত মিয়ানমারের বিশেষ প্রতিনিধি তান শ্রি সৈয়দ হামিদ সৈয়দ আলবার। তিনি বলেন, ‘মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন করাকে সংকটের সমাধান হিসেবে আমি দেখি না। কূটনীতিক সম্পর্ক বজায় রেখে আলোচনার সুযোগ রাখা উচিত বলেই আমরা মনে করি।’ সংকট সমাধানে ওআইসি ও আসিয়ান-এর হস্তক্ষেপ করা উচিত বলেও জানান তিনি।

সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন না করার ইঙ্গিত দিয়েছেন খোদ মালয়েশিয়ার প্রধানমন্ত্রী নাজিব রাজাক। রবিবারের সমাবেশে তিনি বলেছেন, এটা কোনও রাজনৈতিক হস্তক্ষেপ নয় যে, আমরা মিয়ানমারের সঙ্গে সম্পর্ক ছিন্ন করব।

তবে রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে মিয়ানমারের অনড় অবস্থানের কারণে সংকট আরও গভীর হচ্ছে এবং আন্তর্জাতিক ও আঞ্চলিক চাপ সত্ত্বেও এ অবস্থান থেকে দেশটির সরে আসার কোনও লক্ষ্মণ দেখা যাচ্ছে না। সম্প্রতি একটি সংবাদ সম্মেলনে দেশটির উপ-তথ্যমন্ত্রী ইয়ে হাতুত বলেছেন, তারা মানবাধিকার পরিস্থিতির উন্নতির জন্য কাজ করে যাচ্ছে। তবে রাখাইন রাজ্যে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের নিয়ে যে সংকট তৈরি হয়েছে তা জাতীয় সমস্যা। এটা কোনও আঞ্চলিক সমস্যা নয় যে প্রতিবেশী ও আন্তর্জাতিক বিশ্বকে উদ্বেগ জানাতে হবে।

শুধু মালয়েশিয়া নয়, বাংলাদেশ ও ইন্দোনেশিয়াও রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের হত্যার নিন্দা ও প্রতিবাদ জানিয়েছে। ইন্দোনেশিয়াও আসিয়ানের সদস্য। ফলে মালয়েশিয়া ও ইন্দোনেশিয়ার পক্ষ থেকে দাবি ওঠছে বিষয়টিতে আসিয়ানের হস্তক্ষেপের। তবে মিয়ানমার জানিয়েছে, আসিয়ানের কোনও আলোচনায় রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যু স্থান পাবে না।

তবে আসিয়ানে ইন্টার-পার্লামেন্টারি মিয়ানমার ককাসের প্রেসিডেন্ট ইভা কুসুমা সুন্দরি জানিয়েছেন, রোহিঙ্গা সংকট শুধু মিয়ানমারের নয় আসিয়ান অঞ্চলেরও সমস্যা। তিনি বলেছেন, ‘প্রতিটি মানুষের মানবাধিকার সব রাষ্ট্রেরই বিষয়। রোহিঙ্গা সংকট এ অঞ্চলের অপর দেশগুলোকে প্রভাবিত করছে।’ তিনি মনে করেন, এ সংকট সমাধানে আন্তর্জাতিক চাপ জারি রাখা উচিত। সূত্র: দ্য ব্যাংকক পোস্ট, স্ট্রেইট টাইমস, রয়টার্স, মালয়েশিয়াকিনি, বার্নামা টুডে।

http://banglamail71.com/others/news=6568

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## TopCat

@maroofz2000 Brother, I appreciate your effort but dont make Bengali post which is against forum rules and has no value to the non Bengali readers. If you keep on posting too many bengali articles then other readers will stop visiting the thread all together.

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## Banglar Bir

I totally agree to your comments, however whenever I try auto translate the articles, the quality is so substandard,that will leave the reader confused and make us look a clown. .And if I EVEN TRY TO CORRECT THE NUMEROUS MISTAKES. THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE PUBLISHED will look distorted and will not be authentic, which may lead me to be challenged and face legal charges.

NOW PLEASE ADVICE WHAT SHOULD I DO?

 Earnestly requesting the moderators for their valuable advice, also.


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## Banglar Bir

*Tanvir Chowdhury shared Ro Mong Mog Tin's post.*
1 hr ·




https://www.facebook.com/1389649414383461/videos/pcb.1542796592402075/1542795079068893/?type=3




Ro Mong Mog Tin added 2 photos and 3 videos.
9 hrs · 



I request everyone please please open the video
Please Look what are doing by Myanmar Animal police and Animal military
Don't forget Share.

This is all of Rohingya Muslims Killed by Myanmar, Burma Government's and Buddhis Rakhine two party contact killing our muslims Brother and sister Don't Forget Everyone Muslims. ..





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1542794712402263









__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1542795079068893





https://www.facebook.com/1389649414...796592402075/1542794489068952/?type=3&theater


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## TopCat

maroofz2000 said:


> I totally agree to your comments, however whenever I try auto translate the articles, the quality is so substandard,that will leave the reader confused and make us look a clown. .And if I EVEN TRY TO CORRECT THE NUMEROUS MISTAKES. THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE PUBLISHED will look distorted and will not be authentic, which may lead me to be challenged and face legal charges.
> 
> NOW PLEASE ADVICE WHAT SHOULD I DO?
> 
> Earnestly requesting the moderators for their valuable advice, also.



If the news are authentic then you should be able to find equivalent news in some other english newspaper or english source. If you dont find in recognized english source then the news itself could turn out to be non authentic or people will not buy them in the forum. After all your effort will go in vein.

We usually post important Bengali article along with a English summary whenever necessary or ask other people in the forum to translate or summarize. I repeat, if the article is important and worth in spending time then there will be some people who will be more than happy to translate.

Thanks for understanding.



maroofz2000 said:


> __ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1542795079068893
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1389649414...796592402075/1542794489068952/?type=3&theater



Like I said this is not Burmese military, the 2nd video


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## Banglar Bir

HOW would understand the language? O.K FROM now on wards could I PERSONALLY request you to advice m e accordingly , to delete the un authentic posts?

Another vital point, except DAILY STAR AND NEW AGE, are there any others?Moreover, DAILY STAR has its own hidden political agenda in mind.

INTERNET CAN ONLY BE RELIED HERE IN BANGLADESH FOR THE REAL TRUTH.

02:12 PM, December 06, 2016 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:15 PM, December 06, 2016
*21,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh from Myanmar: IOM*






Myanmar's Rohingya refugees, seen at a camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016. Photo: AFP

AFP, Dhaka

Around 21,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks to escape violence in neighbouring Myanmar, an official of the International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday.

Bangladesh has stepped up patrols on the border trying to stem the tide of refugees who have been fleeing a bloody crackdown by Myanmar's army in the western state of Rakhine since early October.

But Sanjukta Sahany, head of the IOM office in Bangladesh's southeastern district of Cox's Bazar which borders Rakhine, said around 21,000 members of the stateless ethnic minority had crossed over in the past two months.

The vast majority of those who arrived took refuge in makeshift settlements, official refugee camps and villages, said Sahany.

"An estimated 21,000 Rohingya have arrived in Cox's Bazar district between October 9 and December 2," she told AFP by phone.

"It is based on the figures collected by UN agencies and international NGOs" (non-governmental organisations).

Those interviewed by AFP inside Bangladesh had horrifying stories of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of Myanmar's security forces.

Analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed.

Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse but also has banned foreign journalists and independent investigators from accessing the area.

*‎Ning Soe‎ to Muslim's World*
Yesterday at 07:25 · 

This is Muhsina begum, her father and husband have been killed by Myanmar army. She has been gang raped by 7 Buddhist extremists, shortly after that she decided to leave Myanmar and arrived in Bangladesh yesterday . Now she does have a place to call home nor food to eat. This is the fate of most of the Rohingya women in Myanmar. Will Myanmar Government ever face charges in International criminal court for crimes against humanity? Will bloody Suu Kyi break her Silence on Rohingya Genocide?

#UN #HRW #ICC
#PRAYFORMAUNGDAW 
#PRAYFORROHINGYA #SaveRohingya
#PrayForRohingya #RohingyaChildren #EndRohingyaOppression#Malaysia #Rohingya #STOP #Arakan #Burma
#Muslim #Minority
#StopAirStrikeOnRohingya
#myanmarmuslim #Maungdaw #Rohingya #Myanmar #Muslim #Burma #UN #HRW

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## Banglar Bir

*EU for humanitarian access to Rakhine, Bangladesh's supports for Rohingyas*
Staff Correspondent | Update: 13:13, Dec 06, 2016






Welcoming establishment of an inquiry commission into the recent violence in Rakhine, the European Union has called for providing humanitarian and other access to the area that reportedly saw human rights violation.

"Its work must be objective and help prevent similar events in the future, including by ensuring accountability for all perpetrators of violence and hatred," the EU spokesperson said about the functioning of the just-formd commission, following escalation of violence.

Insisting that the Myanmar government should address the causes of Rakhine situation, the EU spokesperson stated: We look forward to the swift improvement in access so that life-saving assistance can quickly and effectively reach all those in need."

In the statement, made available in Dhaka on Tuesday morning, the spokesperson pointed out that fear, the loss of livelihoods and shelter, and reported disproportionate use of force by the armed forces push many, particularly women and children, to seek refuge in Bangladesh.

"While recognising the long-standing solidarity and hospitality of the government and the people of Bangladesh, it is important that those fleeing violence in Myanmar are not deported or turned back," read the statement.

The EU expressed the hope that by providing assistance and protection to the Myanmar nationals until the situation in northern Rakhine State has stabilised and their safe return can be ensured, "the Bangladeshi authorities will continue to contribute to stability in the region".

Describing peace and national reconciliation in Myanmar as a critical issue, the EU mentioned that the escalating fighting in Kachin and northern Shan states over the recent months has resulted in casualties and the internal displacement of several thousand civilians.

"Humanitarian access to the conflict-affected areas has also been restricted, preventing aid from reaching affected communities. Continued fighting undermines trust and confidence in the peace process," the spokesperson said.

The EU termed the limited re-opening of humanitarian access to northern Rakhine State, following reassurances by state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of government, "a step in the right direction".

It, however, cautioned that as long as there is no access to the area, including by independent observers and the media, allegations and suspicions about the perpetration of severe human rights violations will continue.

The spokesperson recalled the meeting between EU special representative for human rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, and the State Counsellor and the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces on 22-23 November 2016, that reiterated the call for the immediate resumption of humanitarian activities and the setting up of an independent and credible investigation into both the attacks and the subsequent actions.

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## Banglar Bir

*Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya?*

5 December 2016

From the sectionAsia
Share



Image copyrightMUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP
Image captionMore than 10,000 Rohingya have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh in recent weeks
They have been described as the world's most persecuted people.

Rejected by the country they call home and unwanted by its neighbours, the Rohingya are impoverished, virtually stateless and have been fleeing Myanmar in droves and for decades.

In recent weeks, more than 10,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh amid a military crackdown on insurgents in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.

They have told horrifying stories of rapes, killings and house burnings, which the government of Myanmar - formerly Burma - has claimed are "false" and "distorted".

Activists have condemned the lack of a firm international response. Some have described the situation as South East Asia's Srebrenica, referring to the July 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were meant to be under UN protection - a dark stain on Europe's human rights record.

*What's happening?*
Tun Khin, from the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, says Rohingyas are suffering "mass atrocities" perpetrated by security forces in the northern part of Rakhine state.

A counter-insurgency campaign was launched after nine border policemen near Maungdaw were killed in a militant attack in early October, but the Rohingya say they are being targeted indiscriminately.


Media caption'They set our houses and mosque on fire'
The BBC cannot visit the locked-down area to verify the claims and the Myanmar government has vociferously denied alleged abuses.

But UN officials have told the BBC that the Rohingya are being collectively punished for militant attacks, with the ultimate goal being ethnic cleansing.

*What led to the current situation?*
The Rohingya are one of Myanmar's many ethnic minorities and say they are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for generations.

But Myanmar's government denies them citizenship and sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - a common attitude among many Burmese.

The predominantly Buddhist country has a long history of communal mistrust, which was allowed to simmer, and was at times exploited, under decades of military rule.




Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionThousands of Rohingya have been forced to live in camps
About one million Muslim Rohingya are estimated to live in western Rakhine state, where they are a sizable minority. An outbreak of communal violence there in 2012 saw more than 100,000 people displaced, and tens of thousands of Rohingya remain in decrepit camps where travel is restricted.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya already live in Bangladesh, having fled there over many decades.


UN: Myanmar wants ethnic cleansing
Learn more about Myanmar
*Where is Aung San Suu Kyi?*
Since a dramatic Rohingya exodus from Myanmar last year, the political party of Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has taken power in a historic election, the first to be openly contested in 25 years.

But little has changed for the Rohingya and Ms Suu Kyi's failure to condemn the current violence is an outrage, say some observers.

"I'm not saying there are no difficulties,'' she told Singapore's Channel NewsAsia on Friday. "But it helps if people recognise the difficulty and are more focused on resolving these difficulties rather than exaggerating them so that everything seems worse than it really is.''

Her failure to defend the Rohingya is extremely disappointing, said Tun Khin, who for years had supported her democracy activism.

The question of whether she has much leverage over the military - which still wields great power and controls the most powerful ministries - is a separate one, he said.

"The point is that Aung San Suu Kyi is covering up this crime perpetrated by the military."




Image copyrightAFP
Image captionAung San Suu Kyi mostly avoided the Rohingya question on a recent official visit to Singapore
But others say international media fail to understand the complex situation in Rakhine state, where Rohingya Muslims live alongside the mostly Buddhist Rakhine people, who are the state's dominant ethnic group.

Khin Mar Mar Kyi, a Myanmar researcher at Oxford University, told the South China Morning Post that the Rakhine are the "most marginalised minority" in Myanmar but are ignored by Western media, which she said display a "one-sided humanitarian passion".

Other researchers like Ronan Lee of Australia's Deakin University disagree with this argument, noting that while the Rakhine also face deprivation, "the solution when faced with massive rights violations is not to announce that someone else is worse off".

In her recent media comments, Ms Suu Kyi said Rakhine Buddhists "are worried about the fact that they are shrinking as a Rakhine population percentage-wise" and said she wanted to improve relations between the two communities.

She has now formed a special committee to investigate the ongoing violence in Rakhine state but correspondents say it will disappoint the many people calling for a credible and independent investigation.

It is made up solely of Myanmar nationals, will be led by former general and the current vice-president Myint Swe, and will include the head of the police force.

"People are dying day by day and time is running out," said Tun Khin.

*Read more - *"The Lady": A profile of Aung San Suu Kyi

*Will Myanmar's neighbours help?*
South East Asian countries generally don't criticise each other about their internal affairs. It's a key principle of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).

But the current situation has seen some strident criticism from Myanmar's Muslim-majority neighbours, along with protests. Indonesian police even say they have foiled an IS-linked bomb plot targeting the Myanmar embassy.

On Sunday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak questioned Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize, given her inaction.

"The world cannot sit by and watch genocide taking place. The world cannot just say 'look, it is not our problem'. It is our problem," he told thousands at a rally in Kuala Lumpur in support of the Rohingya.

He said the Myanmar de facto leader had refused to discuss the issue with Malaysia.

His comments followed a call from Malaysia's youth and sports minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, for Asean to review Myanmar's membership over the "unacceptable" violence.

Some question the timing of the comments, given the unpopular Mr Razak is gearing up for re-election.

In Bangladesh, which borders Rakhine state, Amnesty International says hundreds of fleeing Rohingya have been detained and forcibly returned to an uncertain fate in recent weeks - a practice it says should end.

Bangladesh does not recognise the Rohingya as refugees and hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya are believed to live there.

Read more: Bangladesh presses Myanmar on Rohingya




Image copyrightAFP
Image captionAnger is building in Myanmar's Muslim-majority neighbours
Leading regional newspapers have condemned Asean's inaction, with Thailand's The Nation describing it as an "accessory to murder and mayhem".

An emergency regional meeting calling for action must urgently be held, said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. Myanmar's foreign minister should also be called on to explain to Asean what is happening in northern Rakhine, Mr Robertson said.

"What we want is both talk and action to really help the Rohingya, not just ministers posturing to gain domestic political points," he said.

Indonesia's ambassador to London, Rizal Sukma, told the BBC that a comprehensive approach was needed.

He said an investigation with regional participation should be launched and that his country stands ready to participate.





*What is the UN doing?*
A UN spokeswoman in 2009 described the Rohingya as "probably the most friendless people in the world".

This week, the UN human rights office said for a second time this year that abuses suffered by them could amount to crimes against humanity. It also said that it regretted that the government had failed to act on a number of recommendations it had provided, including lifting restrictions of movement on the Rohingya.

It has called for an investigation into the recent allegations of rights abuses, as well as for humanitarian access to be given.




Image copyrightAFP
Image captionImages of Rohingya migrants stranded at sea last year briefly captured the world's attention
The UN's refugee agency says Myanmar's neighbours should keep their borders open if desperate Rohingya once again take to rickety boats to seek refuge in their countries, as happened early last year.

Spokeswoman Vivian Tan said now would be a good time to set up a regional task force that had been proposed to co-ordinate a response to any such movements.

Separately, former UN-Secretary General Kofi Annan is heading another advisory commission currently looking into the general situation in Rakhine state after being asked in August by Ms Suu Kyi.

But some have questioned how useful this commission will be, given the exhaustive number of reports that already exist. Its report, in any case, will not be released until next year.

_Reporting by Kevin Ponniah._
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38168917

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar Rakhine: Inside the closed Rakhine region
8 hours ago

The BBC has obtained footage from inside Myanmar's Rakhine state, where allegations have emerged of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya community.

The Burmese military denies it but has banned independent journalists from investigating in the area.

Jonah Fisher reports.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38232929

Read more*
*Kofi Annan downplays claims of Myanmar genocide*

6 December 2016

From the sectionAsia




Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionKofi Annan is heading a government-appointed advisory commission on Rakhine state
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says he would not describe the violence being committed against Myanmar's Rohingya minority as "genocide".

"I think there are tensions, there has been fighting, but I wouldn't put it the way some have done," he told the BBC after a trip to Rakhine state.

Humanitarian groups now say that 21,900 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in less than two months.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Sunday said genocide was taking place.

The army launched a crackdown in northern Rakhine in early October after co-ordinated militant attacks left nine border policemen dead.

Rohingya groups have alleged serious rights abuses, including rapes, shootings and house burnings, and say they are being targeted indiscriminately.

The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, strongly denies the allegations.


Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya?
'Hated and hounded from Burmese soil'
Myanmar 'wants ethnic cleansing' - UN official
Mr Annan was asked in August by Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to head a commission looking into tensions in Rakhine state, where the Muslim Rohingya live alongside the mostly Buddhist Rakhine people, who are the state's dominant ethnic group.

"You can feel both communities are afraid. There is fear, there is mistrust. The fear has heightened but we need to find a way of breaking that down and beginning to encourage the communities to connect," he told the BBC.

He said that observers should be "very, very careful" in using the word genocide.

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate who endured years of house arrest under Myanmar's military junta, has faced international criticism for failing to help the Rohingya.

The Rohingya people trace their ancestry in the area back generations, but are not recognised as citizens and tens of thousands live in camps where travel is restricted.

But Mr Annan said Ms Suu Kyi's government, which won a historic election last November, should be given "a bit of time, space and patience".

The Rohingya have been making perilous crossings over the Naf river to seek refuge in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of the group already live.

The new figure of 21,900 people having fled - based on statistics collected by various groups and provided to the BBC by the International Organization for Migration - is more than double that given by the UN refugee agency last week.

Bangladesh has stepped up security on the border in response to the migrant flows, and has been criticised by Amnesty International for pushing hundreds of Rohingya back across the border.

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## Banglar Bir

*‎Elias Kanchan‎ to Muslim's World*
11 hrs · 




মানবতার ব্ল্যাকহোল ম্যায়ানমার

পৃথিবীর ইতিহাসের সমস্ত বর্বরতাকে হার মানিয়ে যেভাবে ম্যায়ানমারে চরম নির্মমভাবে মুসলিম নিধন হচ্ছে তা বিশ্বমানবতাকে ধ্বংস করে দিল।আমি ওই ভিডিও গুলি দেখতে পারি না।সারা পৃথিবীর মানুষও কি ওই ছবিগুলি দেখেনি ? না দেখেও কারো কোনো প্রতিকৃয়া হয় না।শুনেছি এক একটা ব্ল্যাকহোল নাকি এত বিশাল হয় যে শত শত পৃথিবীকে নিমেষে গিলে নেয় বেমালুম।পৃথিবীর সমস্ত মানবতা মনে হয় এরকমই কোনো ব্ল্যাকহোল গিলে নিয়েছে।নাহলে মানুষ এত বর্বর হবে কেন ?

মানবতাবাদী সমস্ত কুমিরগুলি চুপ কেন ? ওয়ার্ল্ড লিডাররা কোথায় গেল ? ওয়ার এগেইন্সট্ টেররিস্ট,ওয়ার এগেইন্সট্ এভিল ফোর্সেস কোথায় গেল? যারা কথায় কথায় বিশ্ব শান্তির দোহাই দিয়ে একটার পর একটা দেশকে ধ্বংস করে। বসতি, স্কুল,হাসপাতাল কিছু বাদ দেয়নি।লক্ষ লক্ষ মানুষকে হত্যা করার পরেও এদের আমরা শত্রু বলে চিনতে পারিনি।

পুরো পৃথিবীটা যেন ধীরে ধীরে দুইভাগে ভাগ হয়ে যাচ্ছে।এখনো মুসলমনরা নিজেদের মধ্যে লড়াই করতে ব্যস্ত। এখনও আমাদের মাথাগুলো ব্যক্তিস্বার্থ গুছাতেই ব্যস্ত।আর মুসলমানরা তাদের চাওয়া পাওয়ায় ব্যস্ত।একজন মুসলমানের যতগুলি বৈশিষ্ঠ থাকা উচিৎ,তার সবগুলোই মনে হয় হারিয়ে গেছে।

তাই হাত তুললেও আর কাজ হয় না।আমাদের সবথেকে বড় শক্তি হল ইমান। সেই ইমান আমরা হারিয়ে বসে আছি।নামাজে শক্তি নেই। দোয়াতে শক্তি নেই।হালাল রিজ্ক্ নেই।মনে ভালবাসা নেই।গোনাহ্ তে আমরা ডুবে আছি।

ইয়া আল্লাহ্ আমাদের মাফ করে দাও।আমরা তোমার গুনহেগার বান্দা, আমাদের ক্ষমা করে দাও।আমরা আর এই অত্যাচার সহ্য করতে পারছি না।রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের উপর যে নির্যাতন হচ্ছে, তা আর চোখে দেখা সম্ভব না।ইয়া আল্লাহ্ তোমার গুনহেগার বান্দার কান্না তুমি শুনে নাও।তুমি কিছু দেখাও।তোমার জন্য অসম্ভব কিছুই নয়।তোমার উপর সম্পূর্ণ ভরসা আছে। তুমি বললেই হবে।যেভাবে তুমি ইশরাইলে হাইফা শহরে কদিন আগে দেখিয়েছ, সেরকমই একটা কিছু করে দাও।আমরা অসহায়, তুমিই একমাত্র ভরসা।

লা ইলাহা ইল্লাল লাহা মুহাম্মাদু রাসুলুল্লাহ্।
আল্লাহ্ হো আকবার।আল্লাহ্ হো আকবার।আল্লাহ্ হো আকবার।

ইমতিয়াজ আহমেদ মোল্লা


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## Banglar Bir

Myanmar
Resources on Genocide
*Genocide is a laughing matter for Aung San Suu Kyi*
December 5, 2016
Maung Zarni and Gregory Stanton







Illustration: Craig Stephens

Aung San Suu Kyi held a large town hall meeting in Singapore December 1. She LAUGHED OUT LOUD at allegations of massacres of Rohingya. She said they are 'external fabrications'.

Amidst protests in Asian capitals over ongoing atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar committed by government troops, Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, issued a sternly worded alarm over the “allegations of extrajudicial executions, torture, rape and the destruction of religious property” in Rohingya villages. He firmly urged the Myanmar government to “demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law and to the human rights of all its populations.”

Human Rights Watch has presented satellite images of over a thousand charred buildings in Rohingya villages where government troops have carried out ‘clearance operations’ since 9 October when Rohingya militants, armed with swords and sticks and a ‘few hand-made’ guns, attacked three Burmese border posts near the country’s border with Bangladesh, killing nine policemen.

For nine weeks, the government has locked down the entire northern Rakhine state, blocking the flow of humanitarian assistance, both food and medicine, to 160,000 Rohingya. Witnesses smuggle out grainy images of burning rice supplies in the areas of the military’s mop-up operations, evidence that the government intends to deprive the entire Rohingya population in the locked-down area of their food supply. The government’s intention can only be understand as induced starvation of the Rohingya population, an act of genocide.

Reminiscent of past genocides, the government troops separate men of all ages from their families for torture and murder, while raping women with blanket impunity. A woman who survived this horrendous sexual violence phoned a relative in Malaysia, and begged, “Just wish us to die fast death. We can’t bear this any more. They (the Burmese troops) are killing our men and boys. They are doing anything they please with us, women. We don’t want to be carrying babies of these monsters. Please, please, send us birth control pills.”

Weeks of wanton slaughter, arson and rape have resulted in the forced displacement of over 30,000 Rohingya from their villages in northern Rakhine. UNHCR has estimated that at least 10,000 Rohingya fleeing death and destruction have gathered along the 170 mile long land and river borders with Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has tried to keep its borders shut, and forces the refugees back to the Burmese side. A small number who have made it across to the nearest refugee camp tell tales of horror in Rakhine, confirming the widely reported allegations of mass atrocities.

These are just the most recent testimonies of a well-documented, systematic program of state-organized persecution of the Rohingya over the last four decades. Ex-General Khan Nyunt, former Head of Military Intelligence with 25 years of intimate involvement in these violent operations against the Rohingya, recorded that in the first large scale campaign against the Rohingya in 1978, nearly 280,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. When General Zia Rahman of Bangladesh threatened to arm the Rohingyas if Burma refused to take them back, the Ne Win government of Burma grudgingly accepted UNHCR’s managed repatriation of the majority of those who fled.

Following this repatriation, Burma’s military rulers enacted a new Citizenship Law in 1982, stripping the Rohingya of all citizenship and legal rights, making Rohingyas instant aliens on their own ancestral land. The law excludes from citizenship any Rohingya who cannot prove their ancestors were already in residence in Burma on the eve of the first Anglo-Burmese War of 1824. Few people have such records. This requirement is enforced only against the Rohingya. The Citizenship Law excluded Rohingya from the list of groups recognized as ethnic minorities in the multi-ethnic Union of Burma.

The parallel to Nazi Germany is exact. The Nuremberg Laws stripped German citizenship from all Jewish people in the Third Reich.

The official estimate of the Rohingya population is 1.33 million. Over 800,000 of them have no legal status in Myanmar. They are effectively stateless. An estimated 60,000 Rohingya children have no birth certificates because the Myanmar government refuses to grant each newborn the right to a nationality, in direct violation of its obligations as a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

State-sponsored violence against the Rohingya, Karen, Kachin, Shan and other minorities in Burma from 1978 to 2012 went largely un-reported in the world’s media because the Burmese military junta closed off Burma from the outside world. Since the commercial opening of Myanmar (as Burma is now called) in 2012, the government of President (ex-General) Thein Sein has framed its persecution as ‘communal or sectarian violence’ between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhine. The world has come to view the violence against the Rohingya as if it were the clash of religious communities. It is actually ethnic persecution.

By releasing Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and permitting her party to win a majority of seats in Parliament, the Thein Sein military junta has lulled the world into the view that Myanmar is “democratizing.” In fact, the junta still holds a quarter of the seats in Parliament as well as the key ministries of Defense, Home Affairs and Border Affairs. Western governments normalized relations and rolled back economic, military and diplomatic sanctions.

In sharp contrast to the official explanation of violence in Rakhine as communal, the present government of Aung San Suu Kyi has sought to tell the world that her government is fighting Rohingya Muslim extremists, who are spreading Islamic terrorism. In fact, there is no evidence of penetration of radical Islamist terrorism amongst the Rohingya.

In disappointment with Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence over the plight of Rohingyas, fellow Nobel Laureates and world leaders have called on her to stop the genocide being perpetrated by the Myanmar Army, whose partnership and cooperation she depends on for her influence.

Not only have these calls fallen on her deaf ears but they have become a laughing matter for Suu Kyi and much of the Burmese population who remain enthralled with the woman whom they call Mother.

Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Yanghee Lee, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, have requested independent UN investigations on the alleged ‘ethnic cleansing’ and other mass atrocities in the Rohingya region of Rakhine state.

Instead, Ms Suu Kyi’s government announced the establishment of a “national inquiry commission” with Vice President and ex-Lt-General Myint Swe, as the chair. Myint Swe is former head of Military Intelligence. He coordinated the Border Affairs Army Division, one of the worst persecutors of the Rohingya.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her government brazenly deny that genocidal massacres are being perpetrated against the Rohingya. When a Nobel Peace Prize winner laughs out loud at allegations of genocide, she should give back her prize. In fact she should be prosecuted for complicity in the crimes.





Dr. Maung Zarni coordinated the consumer boycott of Burma in support of the National League for Democracy from 1995-2004. He now lives in England.

Dr. Gregory Stanton is founding President of Genocide Watch and Research Professor at George Mason University, USA. He drafted the UN Resolutions that created the Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR) as well as the Rules of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (ECCC.)

http://www.genocidewatch.com/single...ide-is-a-laughing-matter-for-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi


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## AZADPAKISTAN2009

People of Bangla need to see what is coming and make a choice , its a difficult choice but it has to be done 
Time for Hassina + India affair has to end


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## Banglar Bir

*RTNews24*
10 mins · 


মিয়ানমারকে মালয়েশিয়ার সশস্ত্র বাহিনী প্রধানের সতর্কতা

http://rtnbd.net/international/15386




মিয়ানমারকে মালয়েশিয়ার সশস্ত্র বাহিনী প্রধানের সতর্কতা
প্রধানমন্ত্রী নাজিব রাজাকের পর এবার মিয়ানমারকে সতর্ক করলেন মালয়েশিয়ার সশস্ত্র বাহিনীর প্রধান (আর্মড ফোর্সেস চিফ) জেনারেল জুলকিফেলি মোহাম্মদ জিন। ওদিকে আরও একধাপ এগিয়ে গেছেন সেনাপ্রধান জেনারেল রাজা মোহাম্মদ আফান্দি রাজা মোহামেদ নূর। তিনি বলেছেন, জাতিসংঘ চাইলে…

RTNBD.NET|BY RTNEWS24


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## mb444

It is probably time to create a same zone for the rohingya inside Burma. 

BD should consult Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi and Turkey and push forward with the plan.


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## Major d1

NOthing happened. - 

*Kofi Annan vows to lead impartial Myanmar mission*
*Annan to meet government officials and Rakhine leaders as part of bid to bring together Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.*

*Kofi Annan, the former UN chief, will meet members of Myanmar's federal government in Yangon to try to mend ties between Buddhists and the minority Rohingya.

Annan has been appointed to lead a commission to investigate a communal conflict pitting the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority.

He has pledged to stay impartial as he leads the advisory commission.

"To build the future, the two major communities have to move beyond decades of mistrust and find ways to embrace shared values of justice, fairness and equity," Annan said as he arrived in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine.

"Ultimately, the people of Rakhine state must chart their own way forward. We are here to help. We are here to provide ideas and advice."

However, local Buddhists gave Annan a hostile welcome in Rakhine.

Hundreds arrived at Sittwe airport as Annan landed to protest against his visit.

Many booed and shouted "No Kofi-led commission" as his convoy left the state capital airport.

Others held signs reading "No to foreigners' biased intervention in our Rakhine State's affairs".

Healing wounds
Annan has been entrusted by Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's new government, with the task of finding ways to heal wounds in the impoverished region.

"It is not a PR stunt taken by Aung San Suu Kyi; there are pros and cons considering the high-profile personality of Kofi Annan," Maung Zarni, a human rights campaigner, told Al Jazeera.

"It is a significant step within the military, the ex-ruling political party within the Buddhist majority, in one sense it is very significant because it represent or indicates that the Rohingya crisis is not longer internal, it has an international aspect."

Annan is meeting Rakhine leaders as well as visiting camps where tens of thousands of Rohingya languish in punishing poverty.






Many booed and shouted "No Kofi-led commission" as his convoy left Sittwe's airport [EPA]
However, the region's largest political group, the Arakan National Party, has already ruled out meeting Annan.

Members of the nearly million-strong Rohingya community are largely denied citizenship and the government does not recognise them as an official ethnic minority.

Their appalling living conditions, including heavy restrictions on movement, have led tens of thousands to flee, many via treacherous sea journey south towards Malaysia.

Last week, Ban Ki-moon, the sitting UN chief, called on Myanmar to grant citizenship to the the group and respect their right to self-identify as Rohingya.

More than 100 people have been killed - the majority Muslims - while tens of thousands of the stateless Rohingya group have spent the past four years trapped in displacement camps with limited access to health care and other basic services.

Source: Al Jazeera News And Agencies
*


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## Banglar Bir

*RTNews24*
15 mins ·
প্রতিরোধ যুদ্ধের ডাকে যোগ দিচ্ছে রোহিঙ্গারা

http://rtnbd.net/international/15569

See translation



প্রতিরোধ যুদ্ধের ডাকে যোগ দিয়েছে রোহিঙ্গারা
মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন রাজ্যে 'আকামুল মুজাহিদিন' (এএমএম) নামে নতুন একটি জঙ্গি সংগঠন শক্তিশালী হয়ে উঠেছে। দেশটিতে মুসলিমদের ওপর বর্বর নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে প্রতিরোধ যুদ্ধের আহ্বানে উদ্বুদ্ধ হয়ে রোহিঙ্গারা দলে দলে সংগঠনটিতে ভিড়ছে। গত এক মাসেই পাঁচ শতাধিক রোহিঙ্গা যোগ দিয়েছে বলে জানা গেছে। সূত্র…

RTNBD.NET|BY RTNEWS24


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## Bilal9

Kofi Annan won't to anything. The Tatmadaw has probably warned the UN of dire consequences if any sort of international embargo is placed on Myanmar. The financial windfall is just too large to ignore for ASEAN countries.

Malaysia leader (Najib) is raising a voice partly to deflect attention from his own corruption scandal. But his actions are commendable nonetheless...


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## Banglar Bir

Abdul Hamid Faruki
6 hrs





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154825125453923





I Am Burma.

#SpokenWord #Burma #Arakan #Rohingya


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## TopCat

Bilal9 said:


> Kofi Annan won't to anything. The Tatmadaw has probably warned the UN of dire consequences if any sort of international embargo is placed on Myanmar. The financial windfall is just too large to ignore for ASEAN countries.
> 
> Malaysia leader (Najib) is raising a voice partly to deflect attention from his own corruption scandal. But his actions are commendable nonetheless...


Tatmadaw is not in a position to warn anybody. They employed Kofi Annan to make a case of Rakhine victimhood. But Kofi Annan is too is an expert and I dont think they can bias him too much. I am looking forward to his recommendation.

Reactions: Like Like:
3


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## UKBengali

mb444 said:


> It is probably time to create a same zone for the rohingya inside Burma.
> 
> BD should consult Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi and Turkey and push forward with the plan.



If the muppets that were in power had built a decent air-force over the last 2 decades, then this would have been the perfect opportunity for BD to invade and eventually annex Rakhine.


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## Banglar Bir

*Tuhin Malik*
4 hrs · 
মিয়ানমারের মুসলিম অধ্যুষিত রাখাইন রাজ্যে পুড়িয়ে দেয়া বসতভিটায় নতুন স্থাপনা তৈরিতে নিষেধাজ্ঞা দিয়েছে মিয়ানমারের সেনারা।

নতুন করে মংডুর রাইম্মাবিল, শিলখালী, কেয়ারীপ্রাং, চালিপ্রাং এলাকায় রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের বসতবাড়িতে ঢুকে লুটপাট চালাচ্ছে সেনারা। আর তাদের সঙ্গে যোগ দিয়েছে রাখাইন ও মুরুং সন্ত্রাসীরা।

নারী ও শিশুদের ওপর চালানো হচ্ছে পাশবিক নির্যাতন। পুরুষদের ধরে নিয়ে যাওয়া হচ্ছে সেনা ক্যাম্পে। রোহিঙ্গা গ্রামগুলোতে সৌরবিদ্যুৎ সংযোগ নষ্ট করে দেয়া শুরু করেছে মিয়ানমার সেনাবাহিনী। যাতে নৃশংসতার খবর নির্যাতিতরা মোবাইল ফোনের মাধ্যমে বিশ্বকে জানাতে না পারে।

রোহিঙ্গাদের স্থানীয় শিলখালী বাজার আগুনে জ্বালিয়ে দেয়া হয়েছে। আরকানের মংডুতে রোহিঙ্গা নারীদের গণধর্ষণ, পুরুষদের গুলি, বসতবাড়িতে আগুন, সহায় সম্পদ লুটপাট ও শিশুদের গলা কেটে হত্যার মহোৎসব চলছে।


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## Homo Sapiens

Myanmar guards abduct two Bangladesh nationals

December 8th, 2016 at 4:57 pm








Dhaka – The border guards of Myanmar have reportedly abducted two Bangladeshi fishermen from Teknaf border areas in south-eastern Cox’s Bazar district, said officials on Thursday.

The fishermen were picked up by the Border Guard Police of Myanmar from the Naf River at Lombabil point of Teknaf sub-district of the district on Wednesday noon, said local Border Guard Bangladesh officer Abu Jar Al Jahid.

The officer identified the fishermen as Nazir Hossain Bhulu, 42, and Abdus Shukkur, 39, of Lombabil village.

“As the families of the missing fishermen complained us about the incident, we are trying to contact with the BGP by phone,” said the officer.

He said the duo went to the river near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border for fishing on Wednesday morning.
https://newsnextbd.com/?p=2670


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## bluesky

*New investigation commission on Rakhine holds initial meeting*
By Nyan Lynn Aung | Friday, 09 December 2016

*An investigation commission established to probe allegations of rights abuses surrounding the ongoing Rakhine State military campaign held its inaugural meeting yesterday.*

Formed last week amid growing international pressure for an independent inquiry, the commission has already drawn backlash for a perceived bias in its pick of members.

U Myint Swe, formerly chief minister of Yangon and chief of military security affairs under the military government, will lead the 13-member commission, whose members include former senior UN officials, members of the Human Rights Commission, MPs, senior police officers and former military officials, but only two female members and no Muslims.

The commission has been tasked with finding the causes of the recent deadly attacks on border guard posts, which were attributed to Muslim insurgents, and determining whether the military sweeps in response have been in line with the rule of law.

According to a statement released following the commission’s meeting yesterday the “members are committed to conducting [their] work in an open and transparent manner and in accordance with national and international norms”.

“The commission looks forward to collaborating with relevant national and local actors and individuals including affected communities to uncover factual information that will contribute to designing measures to avoid incidents and conflict in the future. In this regards, the commission will spare no effort in undertaking its responsibility,” the statement read.

According to a statement by the president, the commission has to establish a list of casualties and property damage and determine the truth or otherwise of allegations concerning the activities of the security forces, and make recommendations on the protection of human rights and the provision of humanitarian aid.

“We have to submit our report to the president within two months,” commission secretary U Zaw Myint Phay told _The Myanmar Times_ on December 5.

He added that due to the “influence of the international community exaggerating the facts” it will be difficult to get the truth from local residents.

U Zaw Htay, spokesperson for the State Counsellor’s Office Information Committee, vouched for the independence of the commission, and said it has full authority to conduct its investigation and to brief the media.

Political analyst U Than Soe Naing told _The Myanmar Times_ that the commission would face great difficulties in establishing the facts on the ground. “Whatever the composition of the commission, it will not get the true information because of the Rakhine historical context and the high levels of mistrust between the two communities” he said.

Journalists have been barred from northern Rakhine State, making rights groups’ allegations of abuses against the Rohingya and the government’s counter-claims impossible to verify. According to Human Rights Watch’s analysis of satellite images, thousands of structures in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships have been burned, while the International Organization for Migration said this week that more than 20,000 mostly stateless Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. Scores have been killed and detained in the crackdown.

The Europe Union issued a statement on December 5 expressing concern about the recent escalation of violence in Myanmar, and welcoming the establishment of the commission.

“Its work must be objective and help prevent similar events in the future, including by ensuring accountability for all perpetrators of violence and hatred,” said the statement.

“As long as there is no access to the area, including by independent observers and the media, allegations and suspicions about the perpetration of severe human rights violations will continue. It remains vital that the government implement its initiatives to address the underlying causes of the situation in Rakhine State,” the statement added.

During a recent interview with Channel NewsAsia, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appeared to suggest that the international community had played a role in aggravating the situation in Rakhine State. She said she “would appreciate it so much if the international community would help us to maintain peace and stability, and to make progress in building better relations between the two communities, instead of always drumming up cause for bigger fires of resentment”.

When asked about the new commission at press conference at the conclusion of his second tour of Myanmar, chair of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission Kofi Annan said it would be “unfair” to jump to any conclusions about the president’s new taskforce.

“I will wait for a report to make any judgement, and it might be helpful if you all did the same,” he said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think, Myanmar troops are unable to face the Rohingya guerrillas. This is why they have spread the act of torturing. But, this has resulted in spreading the resistance activities who would like to get a country of their own. All the states of Burma have seen armed conflicts with the central govt. for the last 65 years.

But, while all other states are populated with similar looking Burmese, only the Rakhine Rohingyas are non-Buddhists and *non-Burmese*. There is a chance that these people will establish their own sovereign country as the Burmese govt has failed to establish a peaceful atmosphere fair to these destitute people who have been suffering ever since Pakistan broke down into two in 1971.

- @bluesky -


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## TopCat

bluesky said:


> *New investigation commission on Rakhine holds initial meeting*
> By Nyan Lynn Aung | Friday, 09 December 2016
> 
> *An investigation commission established to probe allegations of rights abuses surrounding the ongoing Rakhine State military campaign held its inaugural meeting yesterday.*
> 
> Formed last week amid growing international pressure for an independent inquiry, the commission has already drawn backlash for a perceived bias in its pick of members.
> 
> U Myint Swe, formerly chief minister of Yangon and chief of military security affairs under the military government, will lead the 13-member commission, whose members include former senior UN officials, members of the Human Rights Commission, MPs, senior police officers and former military officials, but only two female members and no Muslims.
> 
> The commission has been tasked with finding the causes of the recent deadly attacks on border guard posts, which were attributed to Muslim insurgents, and determining whether the military sweeps in response have been in line with the rule of law.
> 
> According to a statement released following the commission’s meeting yesterday the “members are committed to conducting [their] work in an open and transparent manner and in accordance with national and international norms”.
> 
> “The commission looks forward to collaborating with relevant national and local actors and individuals including affected communities to uncover factual information that will contribute to designing measures to avoid incidents and conflict in the future. In this regards, the commission will spare no effort in undertaking its responsibility,” the statement read.
> 
> According to a statement by the president, the commission has to establish a list of casualties and property damage and determine the truth or otherwise of allegations concerning the activities of the security forces, and make recommendations on the protection of human rights and the provision of humanitarian aid.
> 
> “We have to submit our report to the president within two months,” commission secretary U Zaw Myint Phay told _The Myanmar Times_ on December 5.
> 
> He added that due to the “influence of the international community exaggerating the facts” it will be difficult to get the truth from local residents.
> 
> U Zaw Htay, spokesperson for the State Counsellor’s Office Information Committee, vouched for the independence of the commission, and said it has full authority to conduct its investigation and to brief the media.
> 
> Political analyst U Than Soe Naing told _The Myanmar Times_ that the commission would face great difficulties in establishing the facts on the ground. “Whatever the composition of the commission, it will not get the true information because of the Rakhine historical context and the high levels of mistrust between the two communities” he said.
> 
> Journalists have been barred from northern Rakhine State, making rights groups’ allegations of abuses against the Rohingya and the government’s counter-claims impossible to verify. According to Human Rights Watch’s analysis of satellite images, thousands of structures in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships have been burned, while the International Organization for Migration said this week that more than 20,000 mostly stateless Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. Scores have been killed and detained in the crackdown.
> 
> The Europe Union issued a statement on December 5 expressing concern about the recent escalation of violence in Myanmar, and welcoming the establishment of the commission.
> 
> “Its work must be objective and help prevent similar events in the future, including by ensuring accountability for all perpetrators of violence and hatred,” said the statement.
> 
> “As long as there is no access to the area, including by independent observers and the media, allegations and suspicions about the perpetration of severe human rights violations will continue. It remains vital that the government implement its initiatives to address the underlying causes of the situation in Rakhine State,” the statement added.
> 
> During a recent interview with Channel NewsAsia, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appeared to suggest that the international community had played a role in aggravating the situation in Rakhine State. She said she “would appreciate it so much if the international community would help us to maintain peace and stability, and to make progress in building better relations between the two communities, instead of always drumming up cause for bigger fires of resentment”.
> 
> When asked about the new commission at press conference at the conclusion of his second tour of Myanmar, chair of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission Kofi Annan said it would be “unfair” to jump to any conclusions about the president’s new taskforce.
> 
> “I will wait for a report to make any judgement, and it might be helpful if you all did the same,” he said.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I think, Myanmar troops are unable to face the Rohingya guerrillas. This is why they have spread the act of torturing. But, this has resulted in spreading the resistance activities who would like to get a country of their own. All the states of Burma have seen armed conflicts with the central govt. for the last 65 years.
> 
> But, while all other states are populated with similar looking Burmese, only the Rakhine Rohingyas are non-Buddhists and *non-Burmese*. There is a chance that these people will establish their own sovereign country as the Burmese govt has failed to establish a peaceful atmosphere fair to these destitute people who have been suffering ever since Pakistan broke down into two in 1971.
> 
> - @bluesky -



How stupid is this Burmese people. They suppose to catch those criminals who attacked them in the border outpost, instead they screwed the whole situation so much that they now have to persecute themselves. What an immature country it is.
@Aung Zaya

Reactions: Like Like:
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## Major d1

Why Mayanmar Army is doing with innocent rohinga people. Using arms? If they now revolt with that arms what will happen ? Bangladesh should start provide arms to the oppressed rohingya people.


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## Banglar Bir

*মিয়ানমারে সেনাবাহিনীর সঙ্গে বিদ্রোহীদের সংঘর্ষে ১১ জনের প্রাণ হানি*
প্রকাশঃ ০৯-১২-২০১৬, ২:৪২ অপরাহ্ণ


আন্তর্জাতিক ডেস্ক – মিয়ানমারের উত্তরাঞ্চলে নিরাপত্তা বাহিনীর সঙ্গে বিদ্রোহীদের সংঘর্ষে চলতি মাসে ১১ জন নিহত হয়েছে। নভেম্বর মাসের শেষ দিকে থেকে মিয়ানমারের উত্তরাঞ্চলীয় শান রাজ্যের কয়েক হাজার লোক তাদের বাড়িঘর ছাড়তে বাধ্য হয়েছে।

এদের অনেকে সীমান্ত পাড়ি দিয়ে চীনে পালিয়ে গেছে। এ পরিস্থিতিতে বেইজিং সীমান্ত এলাকায় দেশটির সৈন্যরা সর্বোচ্চ সতর্কাবস্থায় রয়েছে। প্রতিবেশী দেশটির আভ্যন্তরীণ এই সমস্যা ও সহিংসতার ঢেউ আরো একবার চীনের ভূখণ্ডে আছড়ে পড়তে পারে বলে আশঙ্কা করা হচ্ছে।

গতকাল বৃহস্পতিবার রাষ্ট্র পরিচালিত গ্লোবাল নিউ লাইট অব মিয়ানমার জানায়, ২ ডিসেম্বর বিদ্রোহীদের হামলায় নিহত ৯ পুলিশের লাশ উদ্ধার করা হয়েছে। ওই ঘটনায় ২ বেসামরিক লোকও নিহত হয়েছে বলে জানা গেছে। রাষ্ট্রীয় গণমাধ্যমের এক পরিসংখ্যানে বলা হয়েছে, উভয়পক্ষের মধ্যে এই সংঘর্ষ শুরু হওয়ার পর থেকে এ পর্যন্ত সেনা, পুলিশ ও বেসামরিক লোকসহ এ পর্যন্ত মোট ৩০ জন প্রাণ হারিয়েছে।





শানে তিনটি বিদ্রোহী গোষ্ঠী লড়াই চালিয়ে যাচ্ছে। এরা হলো- আরাকান আর্মি, তাং ন্যাশনাল লিবারেশন আর্মি (টিএনএলএ) ও মিয়ানমার ন্যাশনাল ডেমোক্র্যাটিক আর্মি। এদিকে মিয়ানমারের সেনাবাহিনী এখন দেশটির রাখাইন রাজ্যে সংখ্যালঘু মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর ওপর কঠোর দমন পীড়ন চালাচ্ছে। এতে প্রাণভয়ে দেশ ছেড়ে পার্শ্ববর্তী বাংলাদেশে পাড়ি জমিয়েছে ২০ হাজারের বেশি অসহায় রোহিঙ্গা।

*Pakistanis rally to support Rohingya Muslims*
Sat Dec 10, 2016 2:4AM

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http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/12/10/497189/Pakistanis-rally-support-Rohingya-Musliams

_Muhammad Toori_
_Press TV, Karachi_

People in Pakistan have staged a rally in the city of Karachi to voice their support for Rohingya Muslims. They have called on the Pakistani government to cut all ties with Myanmar over what they call appalling crimes committed against the persecuted minority. Muhammad Toori reports from Karachi. 


http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/12/10/497189/Pakistanis-rally-support-Rohingya-Musliams


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## Major d1

You deserve it -

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## Banglar Bir

*Global peace icon warns of extremism if Kashmir, Rohingya issue not resolved*
*http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/...shmir-rohingya-issue-not-resolved/235981.html*

Jose Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Nobel peace prize for his role in resolving the violence in East Timor, has also impressed upon both India and Pakistan to address the “aspirations” of the Kashmiri people.


GK Web Desk 
Srinagar, Publish Date: Dec 12 2016 6:01PM | Updated Date: Dec 12 2016 6:01PM





Representational Image (Aman Farooq/GK)
A global peace icon has called upon India to allow the U.N. Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play a role in de-escalating tension over the Kashmir issue.

Jose Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Nobel peace prize for his role in resolving the violence in East Timor, has also impressed upon both India and Pakistan to address the “aspirations” of the Kashmiri people.


“The conflict over Kashmir is an absurdity or relic of the past. However, we at the high level panel for U.N. peacekeeping studied this and other conflicts in Sinai and Cyprus, and felt impartial military observers probably form the only mechanism that can separate the two forces of India and Pakistan. If there is nothing in between [India and Pakistan], then there can be escalation,” said Mr. Ramos-Horta who is visiting India to participate in the child slavery abolition programme of an NGO, according to Hindu newspaper.

India in 2014 had asked UNMOGIP to wind up its work in Kashmir and earlier this year the MEA spokesperson had reiterated that the UNMOGIP did not have the mandate to monitor situation in Kashmir.

Ramos-Horta said there was no substitute to dialogue to de-escalate tension over Kashmir and urged India and Pakistan to address the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. 

“There is no substitute to direct dialogue between India and Pakistan and both sides should try to de-escalate the situation in Kashmir. And as major regional powers, they should address the aspirations of the people in Kashmir,” he said.

He cautioned about the possibility of terrorism and extremism if old crises like Kashmir and the Rohingya issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh were not resolved. 

Ramos-Horta also said that world peace has not benefited from Nobel peace prize laureates like Bishop Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama and himself as states should do the needful to address the rise of fundamentalism and terrorism all over the world.


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## Nabil365

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1823268811289398&id=1571403276475954
Here are your rohingas and look at what they are doing in Bangladesh.We shoild just sent them back to myanmar.



Nabil365 said:


> https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1823268811289398&id=1571403276475954
> Here are your rohingas and look at what they are doing in Bangladesh.We shoild just sent them back to myanmar.


 #should


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## Banglar Bir

Loading...





*যে কারণে মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গা হত্যাকণ্ডে নিশ্চুপ আরব দেশগুলো*

সৌদি আরব মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিম হত্যাযজ্ঞের বিরুদ্ধে কার্যত কোনো পদক্ষেপ নেয়নি। সৌদি আরবের মত অন্যান্য আরব দেশগুলো এ ব্যাপারে নিশ্চুপ।মক্কা ও মদিনায় পবিত্র দুই মসজিদের খাদেম (কাস্টডিয়ান) হিসেবে পরিচয় দিতে গর্ববোধ করে সৌদি আরব। পবিত্র মসজিদের খতিব মাঝে মধ্যেই বিশ্বের মুসলমানদের উদ্দেশ্যে খুৎবায় বাণী দিয়ে থাকেন।

অর্গানাইজেশন অব ইসলামিক কোঅপারেশন বা ওআইসির নেতৃত্ব দিচ্ছেন সৌদি আরবের একজন স্বনামধন্য নাগরিক। কিন্তু কেন? এর সহজ উত্তর হচ্ছে সৌদি আরব সহ মধ্যপ্রাচ্যের দেশগুলো সিরিয়া, ইরাক, ইয়েমেনে মুসলিম হত্যাযজ্ঞে আইএস জঙ্গিদের পেছনে অস্ত্র ও অর্থ দানে নিজেরাই জড়িয়ে পড়েছে।

আন্তর্জাতিক রাজনীতির মারপ্যাঁচে পড়ে অথবা রাজতন্ত্র বহাল রাখার খায়েশে দোর্দ- প্রতাপ থাকা সত্ত্বেও একদিকে বিলাসবহুল জীবন যাপন ও গণতন্ত্রবিহীন স্বচ্ছতা ও জবাদিহীতার অভাবে যে একনায়কতন্ত্র ও স্বৈরাচারী শাসন ব্যবস্থা জেঁকে বসেছে তার ফলেই রোহিঙ্গা হত্যাযজ্ঞের মত ঘটনায় এসব আরব দেশ কোনো উদ্যোগই নিতে পারছে না।

এমনকি মিয়ানমারের সামরিক শাসক ও তল্পিবাহক সুচি সরকারের মত একই অবস্থা বিরাজ করছে আরব দেশগুলোর মধ্যে। ইসরায়েল, যুক্তরাজ্য, যুক্তরাষ্ট্রসহ পরাশক্তি দেশগুলোর কোনো ইচ্ছার বিরুদ্ধে আরব দেশগুলো বিন্দুমাত্র কোনো উদ্যোগ নেয়ার ক্ষমতা নেই। উপরন্তু বিলিয়ন বিলিয়ন ডলারের অস্ত্র কিনে আরব দেশগুলো বাহরাইন, ইয়েমেনে নিজেদের পছন্দসই সরকার রক্ষার জন্যে জাতিসংঘের অনুমোদন ছাড়াই প্রভাব সৃষ্টি ছাড়াও আগ্রাসন চালিয়ে যাচ্ছে।

এমনি এক সময় মিসরের সামরিক শাসক ও প্রেসিডেন্ট জেনারেল আব্দেল আল সিসি বলেছেন, তার দেশের সঙ্গে সৌদি আরবের মতপার্থক্যই মধ্যপ্রাচ্যের মূল সংকটের কারণ। সে থাক, কিভাবে আইএস জঙ্গিগোষ্ঠী আরব শেখদের অস্ত্র ও অর্থের বিনিময়ে প্রতিদান দিচ্ছে তা জানলে আপনার শরীর ঘৃণায় রি রি করে উঠবে। ইয়াজিদি নারীদের দাস হিসেবে সৌদি আরবে বিক্রির মাধ্যমে উপঢৌকন হিসেবে পাঠিয়ে দিচ্ছে আইএস জঙ্গিরা।
http://janaojanabd.net/archives/21958

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## Banglar Bir

AJ+
16 hrs · 




Gang rape, torture and murder. Rohingya Muslims are being “ethnically cleansed” by Myanmar's army.





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=858497200958455


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## asad71

*‘মানবতার বিরুদ্ধে অপরাধে’ দোষী হতে পারে মিয়ানমার*
অনলাইন ডেস্ক | আপডেট: ১৫:৩৮, ডিসেম্বর ১৩, ২০১৬



রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর ওপর মিয়ানমারের সেনাবাহিনীর নির্যাতনের ঘটনায় দেশটি ‘মানবতার বিরুদ্ধে অপরাধের’ দায়ে দোষী সাব্যস্ত হতে পারে। জাতিসংঘের শীর্ষস্থানীয় মানবাধিকারবিষয়ক তদন্ত কর্মকর্তা এ কথা বলেছেন। সম্প্রতি টাইম সাময়িকীতে প্রকাশিত নিবন্ধে ওই কর্মকর্তার উদ্ধৃতি দিয়ে এ তথ্য জানানো হয়। 

মিয়ানমারে জাতিসংঘের নিয়োগ করা মানবাধিকারবিষয়ক কর্মকর্তা ইয়াংহি লি বলেন, মিয়ানমারের ভেতর ও আশপাশের এলাকা থেকে তিনি যেসব তথ্য পেয়েছেন, এতে দেখা গেছে যে দেশটির সরকার যা বলছে, এর সঙ্গে বাস্তবের মিল নেই। তিনি বলেন, প্রচুরসংখ্যক এমন সব ছবি, ভিডিও আর গ্রাফিকচিত্র পাওয়া গেছে, যার মধ্যে বিশৃঙ্খলার স্পষ্ট আলামত রয়েছে। 
পরিস্থিতি দেখে ইয়াংহি লি মন্তব্য করেছেন, ‘এটা যে মানবতার বিরুদ্ধে অপরাধ, এ ব্যাপারে আমরা একমত হতে পারি।’
ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত এলাকাগুলো অবরুদ্ধ করে রেখেছে মিয়ানমার। অক্টোবরের শুরুতে তিনটি সীমান্ত চৌকিতে হামলায় ৯ জন পুলিশ নিহত হয়। মিয়ানমার কর্তৃপক্ষ সেটাকে ইসলামি জঙ্গি গোষ্ঠীর হামলা উল্লেখ করে এই ‘ক্লিয়ারেন্স অপারেশন’ শুরু করে। 
লাখো রোহিঙ্গা অধ্যুষিত ওই এলাকায় আতঙ্ক ছড়িয়ে পড়ে। ধর্ষণ, বিচারবহির্ভূত হত্যা এবং রোহিঙ্গা গ্রামে মিয়ানমার সেনাদের নির্যাতনের অভিযোগ পাওয়া যাচ্ছে। যদিও মিয়ানমার তা অস্বীকার করেছে। মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গারা প্রান্তিক অবস্থানে গিয়ে ঠেকেছে। নাগরিকত্ব না পেয়ে অবৈধ অভিবাসী হিসেবে আশ্রয় নিচ্ছে প্রতিবেশী দেশ বাংলাদেশে। ২০১২ সালে আরাকান বৌদ্ধ ও রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের মধ্যে সাম্প্রদায়িক সংঘাতের শিকার হয়ে প্রায় ১ লাখ ২৫ হাজার রোহিঙ্গা স্থানচ্যুত হয়েছিল। মানবাধিকার সংগঠনগুলো ওই ঘটনায় দেশটির নিরাপত্তা বাহিনীকে হয় বৌদ্ধদের পক্ষে অবস্থান অথবা সহিংসতায় সক্রিয়ভাবে অংশ নেওয়ার অভিযোগ করেছিল। 
আরাকানে আবার সহিংসতা শুরু হওয়ায় গত কয়েক মাসে প্রায় ২১ হাজার রোহিঙ্গা বাংলাদেশে পালিয়ে গেছে। 
ইয়াংহি লি মানবিক দৃষ্টিকোণ থেকে রাখাইনে যাওয়ার সুযোগ দিতে মিয়ানমার কর্তৃপক্ষের প্রতি আহ্বান জানিয়েছেন। নভেম্বরের শুরুতে সরকারি তত্ত্বাবধানে বিদেশি কূটনীতিক ও জাতিসংঘের কর্মকর্তাদের ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত এলাকা পরিদর্শনের বিষয়েও অসন্তোষ প্রকাশ করেন লি। তিনি বলেন, ওই পরিদর্শনে কেউ সন্তুষ্ট ছিলেন না। ওটা ছিল একটা নিয়ন্ত্রিত পরিদর্শন। নিরাপত্তা বাহিনীর জোর উপস্থিতি থাকার পরও কিছু লোক প্রতিনিধিদলের কাছে আসার চেষ্টা করে এবং কথা বলার চেষ্টা করে। পরে আমরা শুনতে পেয়েছিলাম, এসব লোক প্রতিহিংসার শিকার হয়েছিল। তাদের ওপর নির্যাতন করা হয়
৯ ডিসেম্বর যুক্তরাষ্ট্র, ফ্রান্সসহ ১৪টি বিদেশি কূটনৈতিক মিশন এবং মানবাধিকার সংস্থাগুলোকে আরকানে ‘পুরোপুরি ও অবাধ’ প্রবেশের সুযোগ দেওয়ার দাবি জানিয়েছে মিয়ানমারের প্রতি। এতে উল্লেখ করা হয়, আরাকানে প্রায় দুই মাস ধরে কোনো সহায়তা পৌঁছাচ্ছে না। সেখানে অপুষ্টির শিকার শিশুসহ লাখো মানুষের খাদ্য ও চিকিৎসা সহায়তা প্রয়োজন।

The report quotes Time saying Burmese leaders are likely to be hauled before international criminal court for Human Rights violation.

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## Banglar Bir

*Double Mole Company SBHP shared Hossain Sohel's album.*
5 August · 



We're not against people of India,but we're surely against Indian Government as they're sucking our blood like vampire in almost all sectors, e.g. Garments,Cricket,Transit,Border killings,media etc. & now The Shundarbans.

Indian Government's acts toward Bangladesh doesn't reflect & surely make doubt within Bangladeshis,especially within the generation which born after 1971,that without it's self interest,India would never assist Bangladesh in the time of liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.

Actually what did India do when a Qatar based mining company wanted to make Diamond Mines destroying their forests???????

https://www.facebook.com/anumuhammadbd/posts/10207589841046653?pnref=story

Now we get the specimen of Indian love for Bangladesh below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…/Rampal_Power_Station_(Proposed)

This project violates the environmental impact assessment guidelines for coal-based thermal power plants.

On August 1, 2013, Department of Energy of Bangladesh approved construction, but then changed its stance and set 50 preconditions for the project.But the location of the plant, 14 kilometers from the Sundarbans, violates one of the basic preconditions which says such projects must be outside a 25-kilometer radius from the outer periphery of an ecologically sensitive area.

Moreover......

http://www.taza-khobor.com/…/exc…/69279-2016-07-30-07-46-51…

https://www.facebook.com/Savehumanity.ela/posts/10210047040523372

So world should sign the Petition of UNESCO.

http://act.350.org/…/unesco-stop-coal-plant-save-sundarbans…

We, people need your voice louder,louder than Words.

http://www.thedailystar.net/…/%E2%80%9Cbangladesh-should-no…

https://www.facebook.com/kallol.mustafa/posts/10154615564392668?pnref=story

And what OBAMA is doing regarding Coal jobs?????

http://www.kentucky.com/…/politics-gov…/article44551113.html

http://www.earki.com/…/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D…

https://www.facebook.com/MehediHaqueCartoons/posts/1078512668901819?pnref=story





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202166845448801





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hHfCMh-G-s

I'm a soldier of freedom in the army of man
We are the chosen, we're the partisan alright
The cause it is noble and the cause it is just
We are ready to pay with our lives if we must

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side, yeah yeah yeah

I'm a soldier of fortune, I'm a dog of war
And we don't give a damn who the killing is for
It's the same old story with a different name
Death or glory, it's the killing game

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side

Nothing gonna stop them as the day follows the night
Right becomes wrong, the left becomes the right
And they sing as they march with their flags unfurled
Today in the mountains, tomorrow the world

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side, yeah yeah yeah
Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side, yeah yeah yeah

















+18
Hossain Sohel


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## bluesky

14 Dec 2016, 12:09:54 | Updated : 14 Dec 2016, 12:10:21

*Myanmar troops involved in arson of Rohingya villages, says rights group HRW*

Citing fresh satellite images, the Human Rights Watch says it has found a link between Myanmar army and burning of Rohingya villages.

The New York-based group said in a statement that at least 1,500 buildings have been destroyed, driving thousands of ethnic Rohingya from their homes since Oct 9.

It says analysis of images from the village of Wa Peik in Rakhine state shows that when the village was being burned, there were military tricks active at a nearby army camp.

“It’s difficult to believe that militants burned down over 300 buildings in Wa Peik over a one-month period while Burmese security forces stood there and watched,” said HRW Asia Director Brad Adams.

The statement quoted him saying that government officials have been 'caught out' by the satellite images. "… it's time they recognise their continued denials lack credibility."

The BBC reports that the key Myanmar government spokesperson, Zaw Htay declined to comment on the allegations saying an investigation into it was under way.

The army has declared the Muslim Rohingya-majority northern Rakhine as an "operations zone", where it claims to be battling Islamist insurgents.

Journalists have been blocked from visiting the area.

The military crackdown began after nine border police personnel were killed in attacks by 'insurgents' at three outposts on Oct 9.

Hundreds of Rohingyas are trying to cross the border into Bangladesh amid escalating violence. The Myanmar government, however, denies the flight.

Bangladesh border guards have pushed thousands of them back to their country in recent weeks, but many of them managed to sneak in.

The United Nations say that as many as 27,000 Rohingyas have fled across the border into Bangladesh since early October, according to a news agency.


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## Exiled_Soldier

*Myanmar to 'prove' to Asean Rohingya are not indigenous*

NAY PYI TAW - The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture has announced that it is working on a treatise based on documents and chronologies written by historians throughout the ages to prove that the Rohingya community is not an indigenous group of Burma.

In a Burmese-language statement posted on its Facebook page on Monday, the ministry claimed that there was no mention of the word “Rohingya” in historical documents dating back to the British colonial era or even the pre-colonial period.

It said the term was first used in a report on Nov 20, 1948 by a Bengali MP named Abdul Gafar, writing to the minister of home affairs, in which he apparently fabricated a story about a shipwreck.

The use of the word “Rohingya” remains one of the most volatile issues defining communal tensions in Arakan State, with Myanmar government officials and embassies demanding that the term never be employed in diplomatic or official business dialogue. Even Burma’s democratic leader and former human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi has banned the term in her presence. The Myanmar government and population at large insist that the ethnic community in question are “Bengalis” who migrated from Bangladesh.

The ministry’s statement went on to say that the chairman of the Arakan State Advisory Commission, Kofi Annan, had “clearly stated ‘there was no violence, genocide, and absolutely no Rohingya’,” when speaking to reporters on Dec 6 during his trip to Arakan State.

DVB has no record of the former UN secretary-general making any such comment.

The ministry further claimed that domestic and overseas elements have been pushing their “Rohingya agenda” with the intention of damaging Burma’s image and reputation on the world stage, and creating instability in the country.

Northern Rakhine state, formerly known as Arakan, has been the subject of intense international scrutiny in recent weeks as the Myanmar army continues to round up suspected militants involved in a coordinated attack on border guard police posts on Oct 9. With the government previously referring to the attack as motivated by Islamic extremism, the crackdown has targeted self-identifying Rohingya Muslims.

The ministry said that, when completed, the “thesis” proving that the word “Rohingya” never existed until recent times will be presented to the Office of Myanmar President Htin Kyaw and State Counsellor Suu Kyi, and that -- with their approval -- it will ultimately be published as a book for public consumption.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asean/1159209/myanmar-to-prove-to-asean-rohingya-are-not-indigenous



*Myanmar's Rohingya insurgency has links to Saudi, Pakistan - report*

YANGON: A group of Rohingya Muslims that attacked Myanmar border guards in October is headed by people with links to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Thursday, citing members of the group.

The coordinated attacks on Oct. 9 killed nine policemen, and sparked a crackdown by security forces in Muslim-majority Rakhine State in northwest Myanmar.

At least 86 people have been killed, according to state media, and the United Nations has estimated 27,000 members of the largely stateless Rohingya minority have fled across the border to Bangladesh.

Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar's government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, blamed Rohingyas supported by foreign militants for the Oct. 9 attacks, but has issued scant further information about the assailants it called "terrorists".

A group calling itself Harakah al-Yakin claimed responsibility for the attacks in video statements and the Brussels-based ICG said it had interviewed four members of the group in Rakhine State and two outside Myanmar, as well as individuals in contact with members via messaging apps.

The Harakah al-Yakin, or Faith Movement, was formed after communal violence in 2012 in which more than 100 people were killed and about 140,000 displaced in Rakhine State, most of them Rohingya, the group said.

Rohingya who have fought in other conflicts, as well as Pakistanis or Afghans, gave clandestine training to villagers in northern Rakhine over two years ahead of the attacks, it said.

"It included weapons use, guerrilla tactics and, HaY members and trainees report, a particular focus on explosives and IEDs," the group said, referring to improvised explosive devices.

It identified Harakah al-Yakin's leader, who has appeared prominently in a series of nine videos posted online, as Ata Ullah, born in Karachi, Pakistan, to a Rohingya migrant father before moving as a child to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

"Though not confirmed, there are indications he went to Pakistan and possibly elsewhere, and that he received practical training in modern guerrilla warfare," the group said, noting that Ata Ullah was one of 20 Rohingya from Saudi Arabia leading the group's operations in Rakhine State.

Separately, a committee of 20 senior Rohingya emigres oversees the group, which has its headquarters in Mecca, the ICG said.

Groups like Islamic State and al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent have referred to the plight of the Rohingya in their material, and the battlefield experience of at least some of the Rohingya fighters implied links to international militants, the ICG said.

However, ICG said the group has notably not engaged in attacks on the civilian Buddhist population in Rakhine. And Harakah al-Yakin's statements to date indicate its main goals are to end the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar and secure the minority's citizenship status.

"It is possible, however, that its objectives could evolve, given its appeals to religious legitimacy and links to international jihadist groups, so it is essential that government efforts do not focus only or primarily on military approaches, but also address underlying community grievances and suffering," the ICG said.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...-has-links-to-saudi-pakistan-rep/3368468.html


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## PDF

Can any member inform me about the stance of Pakistan on this issue. It is quite discomforting to see Pakistan selling military equipment to myanmar while a lot of disturbing news is coming about this conflict and the perpetrator?
@WaLeEdK2 @WAJsal @Zarvan @That Guy @Well.wisher


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## That Guy

M.Musa said:


> Can any member inform me about the stance of Pakistan on this issue. It is quite discomforting to see Pakistan selling military equipment to myanmar while a lot of disturbing news is coming about this conflict and the perpetrator?
> @WaLeEdK2 @WAJsal @Zarvan @That Guy @Well.wisher


I can't say for sure, but I know Pakistan has called for the end to the violence against Rohingya, but has also said it is Myanmar's internal matter.

I think Pakistan is officially neutral on the matter.

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## Banglar Bir

http://www.thestateless.com/2016/12/14/decades-of-denial-as-rohingya-genocide-continues/
*The Stateless Rohingya*
10 hrs · 


Decades of denial as Rohingya genocide continues 
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By NANCY HUDSON-RODD, New Mandala

Recent violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has led to an increase in the persecution of the Rohingya people, but the international community continues to turn a blind eye, Nancy Hudson-Rodd writes.

In 1992, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights assigned a Special Rapporteur to monitor the situation of human rights in Myanmar. This intervention by the United Nations (UN) was motivated by the need to respond to grave and systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the country’s military regime against civilians, especially the persecution of the Rohingya. More than a decade later, at the 2005 World UN Summit, all member states endorsed the Responsibility to Protect, a global norm “aimed at preventing and halting Genocide, War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes against Humanity.” Still, genocide of the Rohingya continues.

>>> READ MORE
http://www.thestateless.com/…/decades-of-denial-as-rohingy…/

Hashtag:
#Rohingya #Genocide #AungSanSuuKyi #Persecution #MinAungHlaing#Myanmar




Decades of denial as Rohingya genocide continues
By NANCY HUDSON-RODD, New Mandala Recent violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has led to an increase in the persecution of the Rohingya people, but the international community continues to turn a bl…
THESTATELESS.COM

*Ministry to write Myanmar’s true history without Rohingya*

Agence France-Presse
Published at 08:55 PM December 14, 2016
This handout photograph was released by the Myanmar Armed Forces on November 13, 2016, with information stating that Myanmar soldiers are putting out a fire in Wapeik village located in Maungdaw in Rakhine State near the Bangladesh border on November 13, after attackers allegedly set fire to 80 houses. AFP

*Myanmar's more than one million Rohingya are loathed by many from the Buddhist majority*
Myanmar’s religious affairs ministry plans to write a book to prove the Rohingya are not indigenous to the country, as tensions grow over a brutal military crackdown on the Muslim minority.

Almost 27,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since the beginning of November, the UN said Tuesday, fleeing a bloody military campaign in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.

Their stories of mass rape and murder at the hands of security forces have shocked the international community and cast a pall over the young government of Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...write-myanmars-true-history-without-rohingya/

Myanmar has angrily rejected the criticism and called an emergency Asean meeting next week to discuss the crisis, which has sparked protests in Muslim nations in the region.

Late Monday, the country’s Ministry of Religion and Cultural Affairs announced plans to write a thesis to refute foreigners who “stir things up by insisting the Rohingya exist and (who) aim to tarnish Myanmar’s political image”.

“We hereby announce that we are going to publish a book of true Myanmar history,” the ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook late Monday.

“The real truth is that the word Rohingya was never used or existed as an ethnicity or race in Myanmar’s history.”

Myanmar’s more than one million Rohingya are loathed by many from the Buddhist majority, who say they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and refer to them as “Bengali” even though many have lived in the country for generations.

Even the term Rohingya has become so divisive that Suu Kyi has asked government officials to avoid using it.

According to the ministry, the term was first used in 1948 by a “Bengali” MP.

Rights activists say the Rohingya are among the most persecuted people in the world.

They were removed as one of the country’s recognised ethnicities by the former military government under a 1982 law stipulating minorities must have lived in Myanmar before the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824-26.

But Rohingya and Muslim historians reject the idea that they were slaves brought by the British, arguing their roots in Rakhine can be traced back hundreds of years.

More than 120,000 Rohingya were driven into displacement camps by sectarian clashes in 2012, where they live in conditions that rights groups have compared to apartheid South Africa.


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## bluesky

maroofz2000 said:


> But Rohingya and Muslim historians reject the idea that they were slaves brought by the British, arguing their roots in Rakhine can be traced back hundreds of years.


The main Rohingya groups migrated from Gaur to Arakan in 1430 at the head of an expedition group of Muslim troops from Bengal. Their mission was to reinstate the Buddhist King deposed by his nephew. These troops brought in their families and decided to settle and protect the Kingdom against any recurrence of invasion from Burma. 

To them many more Muslim migrants in different ages were added to fuel their number. Rohingyas are the native of Arakan, but the Burmese are the foreigners and occupier there. They are certainly not any descendants of the people from the then British India.

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## Mage

maroofz2000 said:


> Loading...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *যে কারণে মুসলিম রোহিঙ্গা হত্যাকণ্ডে নিশ্চুপ আরব দেশগুলো*
> 
> সৌদি আরব মিয়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিম হত্যাযজ্ঞের বিরুদ্ধে কার্যত কোনো পদক্ষেপ নেয়নি। সৌদি আরবের মত অন্যান্য আরব দেশগুলো এ ব্যাপারে নিশ্চুপ।মক্কা ও মদিনায় পবিত্র দুই মসজিদের খাদেম (কাস্টডিয়ান) হিসেবে পরিচয় দিতে গর্ববোধ করে সৌদি আরব। পবিত্র মসজিদের খতিব মাঝে মধ্যেই বিশ্বের মুসলমানদের উদ্দেশ্যে খুৎবায় বাণী দিয়ে থাকেন।
> 
> অর্গানাইজেশন অব ইসলামিক কোঅপারেশন বা ওআইসির নেতৃত্ব দিচ্ছেন সৌদি আরবের একজন স্বনামধন্য নাগরিক। কিন্তু কেন? এর সহজ উত্তর হচ্ছে সৌদি আরব সহ মধ্যপ্রাচ্যের দেশগুলো সিরিয়া, ইরাক, ইয়েমেনে মুসলিম হত্যাযজ্ঞে আইএস জঙ্গিদের পেছনে অস্ত্র ও অর্থ দানে নিজেরাই জড়িয়ে পড়েছে।
> 
> আন্তর্জাতিক রাজনীতির মারপ্যাঁচে পড়ে অথবা রাজতন্ত্র বহাল রাখার খায়েশে দোর্দ- প্রতাপ থাকা সত্ত্বেও একদিকে বিলাসবহুল জীবন যাপন ও গণতন্ত্রবিহীন স্বচ্ছতা ও জবাদিহীতার অভাবে যে একনায়কতন্ত্র ও স্বৈরাচারী শাসন ব্যবস্থা জেঁকে বসেছে তার ফলেই রোহিঙ্গা হত্যাযজ্ঞের মত ঘটনায় এসব আরব দেশ কোনো উদ্যোগই নিতে পারছে না।
> 
> এমনকি মিয়ানমারের সামরিক শাসক ও তল্পিবাহক সুচি সরকারের মত একই অবস্থা বিরাজ করছে আরব দেশগুলোর মধ্যে। ইসরায়েল, যুক্তরাজ্য, যুক্তরাষ্ট্রসহ পরাশক্তি দেশগুলোর কোনো ইচ্ছার বিরুদ্ধে আরব দেশগুলো বিন্দুমাত্র কোনো উদ্যোগ নেয়ার ক্ষমতা নেই। উপরন্তু বিলিয়ন বিলিয়ন ডলারের অস্ত্র কিনে আরব দেশগুলো বাহরাইন, ইয়েমেনে নিজেদের পছন্দসই সরকার রক্ষার জন্যে জাতিসংঘের অনুমোদন ছাড়াই প্রভাব সৃষ্টি ছাড়াও আগ্রাসন চালিয়ে যাচ্ছে।
> 
> এমনি এক সময় মিসরের সামরিক শাসক ও প্রেসিডেন্ট জেনারেল আব্দেল আল সিসি বলেছেন, তার দেশের সঙ্গে সৌদি আরবের মতপার্থক্যই মধ্যপ্রাচ্যের মূল সংকটের কারণ। সে থাক, কিভাবে আইএস জঙ্গিগোষ্ঠী আরব শেখদের অস্ত্র ও অর্থের বিনিময়ে প্রতিদান দিচ্ছে তা জানলে আপনার শরীর ঘৃণায় রি রি করে উঠবে। ইয়াজিদি নারীদের দাস হিসেবে সৌদি আরবে বিক্রির মাধ্যমে উপঢৌকন হিসেবে পাঠিয়ে দিচ্ছে আইএস জঙ্গিরা।
> http://janaojanabd.net/archives/21958


This is one article I can agree with. With Saudi brought more problem to Muslim world than USA or Israel. Yet no one in the Muslim world speaks a word against them.

Reactions: Like Like:
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## TopCat

Philia said:


> This is one article I can agree with. With Saudi brought more problem to Muslim world than USA or Israel. Yet no one in the Muslim world speaks a word against them.



Don't blame foreigner for your problem.
Saudis are generous group of people who will donate anybody who approaches them in the name of Allah. They dont have any laid out plan to screw muslim world.


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## Mage

TopCat said:


> Don't blame foreigner for your problem.
> Saudis are generous group of people who will donate anybody who approaches them in the name of Allah. They dont have any laid out plan to screw muslim world.


Oh yeah? Then why they bomb Yemen? Why they always back the sanctions on Iran? Why they think their brand of Islam is the only acceptable form of Islam? 

And I'm not blaming them my problem. I'm just saying that while people put all the blame on USA and Israel for the problems in Muslim world, they seem to be oblivious of Saudi's dealings. I find that hypocritical


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## Banglar Bir

*রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে মিয়ানমারের সুচির সমালোচনায় জাতিসংঘ*

9 ঘণ্টা আগে
শেয়ার করুন



Image copyrightAFP
Image captionরোহিঙ্গা নির্যাতন নিয়ে সমালোচনার মুখে পড়েছেন আং সান সুচি
মিয়ানমারে আং সান সুচির নেতৃত্বাধীন সরকার রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের সঙ্গে যে আচরণ করছে তার তীব্র নিন্দা কেরছে জাতিসংঘ।

জাতিসংঘের মানবাধিকার বিষয়ক দফতর বলছে, তারা মিয়ানমার থেকে প্রায় প্রতিদিনিই হত্যা, নির্যাতন এবং ধর্ষণের মতো ঘটনার খবর পাচ্ছে।

জাতিসংঘের মানবাধিকার বিষয়ক দফতরের প্রধান যাইদ রাদ আল হুসেইন বলেছেন, রাখাইন রাজ্যের সমস্যা মোকাবেলায় মিয়ানমারের সরকার যে নীতি নিয়েছে তাতে বরং উল্টো ফল হচ্ছে।

উল্লেখ্য মিয়ানমারের সরকার জাতিসংঘের পর্যবেক্ষকদেরকেও রাখাইন রাজ্যে ঢুকতে দিচ্ছে না। সেখানকার পরিস্থিতির কোন স্পষ্ট চিত্র জাতিসংঘের কাছে নেই।

এ অবস্থায় রাখাইন রাজ্যের সংখ্যালঘু রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের ব্যাপারে সবচেয়ে খারাপ আশংকাই করছে জাতিসংঘ।

জাতিসংঘের মানবাধিকার প্রধান মিস্টার হুসেইন আরও বলেছেন, যেভাবে মিয়ানমারের সরকার গুরুতর মানবাধিকার লংঘনের অভিযোগকে বানোয়াট বলে উড়িয়ে দিচ্ছে এবং সেখানে স্বাধীন পর্যবেক্ষকদের প্রবেশ করতে দিচ্ছে না, তা ঘটনার শিকার রোহিঙ্গাদের জন্য খুবই অবমাননাকর। তিনি আরও বলেন, আন্তর্জাতিক মানবাধিকার আইন অনুযায়ী মিয়ানমারের সরকারের যে বাধ্যবাধকতা রয়েছে, এর মাধ্যমে সেগুলো তারা এড়িয়ে যাচ্ছে।

"মিয়ানমারের কর্তৃপক্ষের যদি লুকোনোর কিছু না থাকে, তাহলে কেন তারা সেখানে আমাদের ঢুকতে দিচ্ছে না? যেভাবে তারা আমাদের সেখানে ঢুকতে অনুমতি দিতে বার বার ব্যর্থ হচ্ছে, তাতে করে আমরা রোহিঙ্গাদের ব্যাপারে সবচেয়ে খারাপটাই আশংকা করছি।

মিয়ানমারের সরকার অবশ্য রাখাইন রাজ্যে কোন ধরণের গণহত্যা চালানোর কথা অস্বীকার করেছে।

তারা বলছে, রাখাইন রাজ্যে সন্ত্রাসবাদ দমনেই সেনাবাহিনি অভিযান চালাচ্ছে।

এই অভিযানের মুখে ইতোমধ্যে হাজার হাজার রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিম সীমান্ত পেরিয়ে বাংলাদেশে পালিয়ে এসেছে।

মিয়ানমারের রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের বিশ্বের সবচেয়ে বেশি নির্যাতিত এবং অবহেলিত জনগোষ্ঠী বলে বর্ণনা করা হয়।

মিয়ানমার সরকার তাদেরকে সেদেশের নাগরিক বলে স্বীকৃতি দিতে অস্বীকার করছে।

*সম্পর্কিত বিষয়*


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## Banglar Bir

*The Stateless Rohingya*
14 hrs · 


Burmese government is ‘renewing attacks on Rohingya Muslims,’ rights group claims 
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Ben Kentish | @BenKentish | The Independent

The Burmese government denies being responsible for a spate of arson attacks on homes, instead suggesting the Rohingya set the fires themselves

...See more



Burmese government is ‘renewing attacks on Rohingya Muslims,’ rights group claims
By Ben Kentish | @BenKentish | The Independent The Burmese government denies being responsible for a spate of arson attacks on homes, instead…
THESTATELESS.COM

*The Stateless Rohingya*
14 hrs · 


Witnessing the Rohingya’s Invisible Genocide 
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By Lynsey Addario, TIME

Lynsey Addario photographed the plight of Burma's Rohingya

...See more



Witnessing the Rohingya’s Invisible Genocide
By Lynsey Addario, TIME Lynsey Addario photographed the plight of Burma’s Rohingya I witnessed three funerals in four days in a small area of the camps in the Rakhine state for the Rohingya, …
THESTATELESS.COM

*The Stateless Rohingya*
1 hr · 


“Callous” approach to northern Rakhine may have grave repercussions – Zeid 
✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
By OHCHR

GENEVA (16 December 2016) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today warned the Government of Myanmar that its “short-sighted, counterproductive, even callous” approach to handling the crisis in northern Rakhine – including its failure to allow independent monitors access to the worst affected areas – could have grave long-term r...

See more



“Callous” approach to northern Rakhine may have grave repercussions – Zeid
GENEVA (16 December 2016) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today warned the Government of Myanmar that its…
THESTATELESS.COM


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## Banglar Bir

*Send UN forces to Burma to stop the killing and displacement of Muslims.*

*https://www.change.org/p/united-nat...utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=whatsapp*
Alexander Kabore Bradley, OK






The Muslims in Burma are being ethnically cleansed. The Burmese government justifies such actions as normal and happen in every country around the world according to Ms. Suu Kyi, the elected State Counsellor(president). Inocent lives have to be protected and human rights must be adhered to by all of us around the world with no exceptions whatsoever.

This petition will be delivered to:

United Nations
Alexander Kabore started this petition with a single signature, and now has 1,450 supporters. Start a petition today to change something you care about.


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## Well.wisher

M.Musa said:


> Can any member inform me about the stance of Pakistan on this issue. It is quite discomforting to see Pakistan selling military equipment to myanmar while a lot of disturbing news is coming about this conflict and the perpetrator?
> @WaLeEdK2 @WAJsal @Zarvan @That Guy @Well.wisher



The only source I found of this accusation was an indian biased newspaper with no credibility . 
They accused pakistan of terror links with rohingyas this is Shame full . 

Pakistan gave 5 million dollars to our rohingya muslim brothers to help them .


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## Banglar Bir

*The Cutting Edge*
*29 APRIL 2013*
*http://www.nafeezahmed.com/2013/04/big-oil-burma-and-genocide-against.html?spref=fb*

The Guardian to write my own column, Earth Insight, on the newspaper's pioneering environment website. As you can imagine, this is pretty amazing and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to raise awareness of the key issues I write about to a mainstream audience.

_The Guardian_ is the world's third most popular newspaper website, with a daily readership of 4.6 million people worldwide, and a readership base which just keeps getting larger every year (by about 13 per cent). So one could hardly wish for a better mainstream platform.

Via my Earth Insight column, I'll be doing exclusive reporting, muckraking commentary, and detailed transdisciplinary analysis, informed by my systemic and holistic approach to environmental security issues, to track the geopolitics of interconnected environmental, energy, and economic crises and their social consequences.
So bookmark that page and keep coming back!

My first article went up last Friday. I hope you find it useful:

The dirty fossil fuel secret behind Burma's democratic fairytale
South-east Asian country's untapped natural wealth is being opened up, regardless of the environmental and human costs





New evidence has emerged that the systematic violence against ethnic Rohingya in Burma - "described as genocidal by some experts" - is being actively supported by state agencies. But the violence's links to the country's ambitions to rapidly expand fossil fuel production, at massive cost to local populations and to the environment, have been largely overlooked.

Human Rights Watch's (HRW) latest sobering report. The "ethnic cleansing" campaign against Arakan's Muslim minority, although instigated largely by Buddhist monks rallying local mobs, has been the product of "extensive state involvement and planning", according to HRW's UK director David Mepham.

The group found:
"All of the state security forces [in Arakan] are implicated in failing to prevent atrocities or directly participating in them, including local police, Lon Thein riot police, the inter-agency border control force called Nasaka, and the army and navy."
Burma's Rohingya minority has resided in the country for decades, but been formally denied citizenship by the government, subjected instead to forced labour, arbitrary land confiscations, and routine discrimination. Although the latest violence raises urgent questions about the integrity of Burma's ostensible democratic reform process, the west has refused to allow the campaign against the Rohingyas to interfere with efforts to integrate the regime into global markets.
The last two years has seen first the US, then the UK and the EU, lift decades of economic sanctions with a view to "open a new chapter" in relations with Burma.

Nestled strategically between India and China, Burma is rich in fossil fuels and other mineral resources, including oil, gas, gold, timber and jade. In recent months, even as genocidal violence has escalated, the country has been courted by world leaders, such as President Barack Obama, British foreign secretary William Hague, and European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.

As Forbes reports , thanks to Burma's "vast, untapped reserves of oil and natural gas" – estimated at between 11 trillion and 23 trillion cubic feet – "and with sanctions over and a world thirsty for new sources of energy, Western multinationals are eager to sign deals."

But foreign companies must partner with local companies to be able to bid. This condition has spurred Myanmar's crony capitalist elite of fewer than 20 families – many of whom built their business empires on the back of state favours from the former military junta – to rebrand themselves as honest brokers for western investors looking for their next regional venture.

Attempting to consolidate their privileged position in a highly unequal but resource-rich economy, Burma's business families are making renewed efforts to capitalise on the resource rush, highlighting their philanthropic activities, and forging new ties with Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Foreign investment is currently dominated by Chinese, Thai and Indian firms, who operated relatively unfazed by western sanctions, but American, British and French multinationals such as Chevron, BP, Shell, and Total are jockeying to make up for lost time.

Yet the scramble to open up Burma for business has played a direct role in inflaming community tensions. One of the most prominent culprits is the Shwe Gas Project led by South Korean and Indian companies, to export natural gas via pipeline from Arakan state to China's Yunnan province. The 2,800km overland pipeline is slated to become operational this year.

The project plans to produce 500 million cubic feet (mcfd) of gas per day for 30 years, supplying 400 mcfd to China, and the remaining 100 mcfd to factories owned by the Burmese government, military and associated business elites.
The losers from this venture are the Burmese people and environment. An extensive report by the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM), a Burmese community-based human rights network, documented the destruction of local fishing and farming industries, including confiscation of thousands of acres of land to "clear areas for the pipeline and associated infrastructure", from 2010 to 2011. Tens of thousands have been left jobless, with little or no compensation or employment opportunities.

The pipeline also cuts through the Arakan Yoma forest ecosystems of the Western Mountain Range, part of the Eastern Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, contributing to soil erosion and endangering species. One third of coral reefs north of Kyauk Phyu town have already been seriously damaged, undermining fish and marine life, and local fishing. Freshwater rivers and waterways have been dredged for sand and gravel for construction purposes, and are set to become dumping grounds for toxic materials.

In December 2011, the pipeline project sparked widespread angeracross Arakan's cities and rural areas, as local people demanded provision of 24 hour electricity. Ranked the second most impoverished state of Burma by the UN Development Programme, approximately 3 million people living in Arakan have no access to public electricity, with just a few major cities able to access only five to six hours of electricity per day, provided by private companies at extortionate prices of 400-600 Kyat per unit (compared to 25 Kyat per unit in Rangoon). Overall, Burma is by far the poorest country in Southeast Asia, with a third of the population living in poverty.
The eruption of ethnic violence across Arakan against ethnic Rohingyas six months later in 2012 was therefore most likely triggered by the simmering tensions wrought by escalating economic marginalisation. On the one hand, Arakan's deepening economic crisis, fuelled by the state-backed pipeline project, laid the groundwork for an increase in xenophobia and racism toward the Rohingya. On the other, Burmese state agencies appear to have deliberately fostered the ethnic cleansing campaign to divert populist anger away from the devastating impact of the pipeline project, and instead toward the most easy and vulnerable target to hand.

Even as violence against the Rohingya escalates, conflict has also broken out along the pipeline route between Burmese security forces and local armed resistance groups linked to the Kachin state, where people have faced arbitrary arrest, torture, forced labour, rape and sexual violence at the hands of the Burma Army.
The plight of these different groups underscores that the fairytale of Burma's rosy democratic transition is exactly that - a fairytale.

But lured by the promise of windfall profits, it is a fairytale convenient for competing global powers eager to capitalise on the country's untapped natural wealth, regardless of the environmental and human costs.


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## Banglar Bir

*রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে ঢাকায় আসছেন ইন্দোনেশিয়ার পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী*





18 Dec, 2016

ঢাকায় আসছেন ইন্দোনেশিয়ার পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী রেতনো এলপি মারসুদি। সফরকালে মায়ানমারের রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যু নিয়ে আলোচনা করবেন তিনি।

সোমবার মায়ানমারের রাজধানী ইয়াঙ্গুনে অনুষ্ঠেয় দক্ষিণ-পূর্ব এশীয় দেশগুলোর পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রীদের বৈঠক শেষে তার ঢাকায় আসার কথা রয়েছে বলে জানিয়েছে ইন্দোনেশিয়ার পত্রিকা জাকার্তা পোস্ট। 

পরদিন মঙ্গলবার পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী আবুল হাসান মাহমুদ আলীর সঙ্গে বৈঠক করবেন রেতনো এলপি মারসুদি। 

জাকার্তা পোস্ট জানিয়েছে, ইদোনেশিয়ার পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের দুর্দশা সমাধানের বিষয় নিয়ে আলোচনা করবেন। 

এ বিষয়ে পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী রেতনো এলপি গত শুক্রবার জাকার্তায় সাংবাদিকদের বলেন, রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে আলোচনার জন্য মায়ানমারের স্টেট কাউন্সিলর অং সান সু চি আসিয়ান পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রীদের আমন্ত্রণ জানিয়েছেন। আগামী সোমবার (১৯ ডিসেম্বর) বৈঠক করবেন তারা। মায়ানমার সরকার রাখাইন পরিস্থিতি সম্পর্কে বিস্তারিত জানাবে। 

গত ৯ অক্টোবর মায়ানমারের সীমান্ত রক্ষা বাহিনীর তিনটি নিরাপত্তা চৌকিতে বিচ্ছিন্নতাবাদীদের হামলায় বেশ কয়েকজন পুলিশ সদস্য নিহত ও কয়েকজন আহত হন। এর পরপরই ওই অঞ্চলে অভিযান শুরু করে দেশটির সেনাবাহিনী। 

সেনাবাহিনীর বিরুদ্ধে হত্যা, নির্যাতন, ধর্ষণের অভিযোগ এনেছে জাতিসংঘসহ বিভিন্ন আন্তর্জাতিক সংস্থা। প্রাণ বাঁচাতে পালিয়ে বাংলাদেশে অনুপ্রবেশের চেষ্টা চালাচ্ছেন রোহিঙ্গারা। মানবিক কারণে তাদের অনেককেই বাংলাদেশে স্থান দেওয়া হলেও বিদ্যমান প্রায় ৫ লাখের মতো রোহিঙ্গার সঙ্গে নতুন করে আরও চাপ নেওয়ার সামর্থ্য নেই বলে মনে করছে বাংলাদেশ।

উৎসঃ _কালের কন্ঠ_

http://www.bdnatun.net/newsdetail/detail/200/267216

*বিবিসির ক্যামেরায় রাখাইনের পোড়া গ্রাম (দেখুন ভিডিও)*







ফেলে যাওয়া ফসলের ক্ষেত, জন শূন্য আগুনে পোড়া গ্রাম। মায়ানমারের রাখাইন রাজ্যের মধ্য দিয়ে যাওয়ার সময় এ দৃশ্যই এখন চোখে পড়ে।
গত দু’মাস সাংবাদিক অথবা মানবাধিকার কর্মীদের ওই অঞ্চলে যাওয়া নিষিদ্ধ ছিল। তবে বিবিসি একজন বার্মিজ নাগরিককে ক্যামেরা দিয়ে পাঠিয়েছিল এলাকায়। তিনি গোপনে এ ছবিগুলো তুলেছেন। 


কয়েক সাপ্তাহ আগেও এ গ্রামটি ছিল রহিঙ্গা মুসলমানে ভর্তি। এ গ্রামের দখল এখন বার্মিজ সেনাদের হাতে।

সেনাবাহিনী বলছে বিদ্রোহ দমনে তারা অঞ্চল খালি করছে। তবে অনেকের কাছে এটি জাতিগত নিধন, অনেকের কাছে গণহত্যা।

গ্রামগুলোর ভেতর দিয়ে কয়েক ঘণ্টা চলার পর কয়েক জন রোহিঙ্গা নারীর দেখা মিলে। তারা জানায় তাদের ঘর বাড়ি জ্বালিয়ে দেয়া হয়েছে। ত্রিশ হাজারেরও বেশি রোহিঙ্গা বাস্তুচ্যুত হয়েছে। অনেক রোহিঙ্গা তাদের দুর্দশার ভিডিও তুলে বিবিসির কাছে পাঠিয়েছে। নিরাপত্তার জন্য তাদের চেহেরা অস্পস্ট করে দেয়া হলো।

অবশ্য এই নারীরা যা বলছেন নিরপেক্ষভাবে যাচাই করা সম্ভব নয়। তবে এ ফুটেজ এসেছে লংডং নামক এক গ্রাম থেকে এবং ওই গ্রাম থেকে অন্যান্য সূত্র থেকেও হত্যা ও ধর্ষণের অভিযোগ পাওয়া গেছে।

রেঙ্গুনে বিদেশি কূটনৈতিক মনোভাব দ্রুত বদলাচ্ছে। সংঘাত থাকা সত্বেও তারা অং সান সূচির বিরুদ্ধে মুখ খুলেননি। কিন্তু কূটনৈতিকদের বেশির ভাগই এখন বিকশিত হচ্ছেন যে, রাখাইনরা মানবাধিকারের অভিযোগ নিয়ে সেনাবাহিনী এবং মিস সুচি একই সুরে কথা বলছেন। মিস সুচির অফিস থেকে এখন, নিয়মিত ব্যাখ্যা দেয়া হচ্ছে- সেনাবাহিনী আইন মেনেই কাজ করে যাচ্ছে। তারা কোন নির্যাতন করছে না বরং রোহিঙ্গা নিজেরাই তাদের বাড়িতে আগুন দিচ্ছে।

তবে সম্প্রতি তার সিঙ্গাপুর সফরের সময় বুঝা গেছে মিস সুচি চাঁপের মুখে আছেন। সেনাবাহিনীর মানবাধিকার লঙ্ঘনের ঘটনা তদন্তে একাটি কমিটি গঠন করেছন তিনি। তবে তার প্রধান করা হয়েছে সিনিয়ার একজন জেনারেলকে। ফলে ওই তদন্ত যে নিরপেক্ষ হবে তার সম্ভবনা কম। আর সে কারণে রাখাইন রাজ্যে আসলে কি ঘটছে, তার পুরো সত্য জানা হয়তো সম্ভব হবে না। 









*রাখাইনে নরক পরিস্থিতি*
*বন্দুকের নলের সামনে থেকে বেঁচে আসেন বৃদ্ধা রহিমা*
নিউজ১৯৭১ডটকম শনিবার, ডিসেম্বর ১৭, ২০১৬

http://www.news1971.com/?p=28225

*« রাসেল আহমেদ ও ফজলুল করিম, *_টেকনাফ থেকে_* »*

টেকনাফে আসার ঠিক দশ দিন আগের কথা। ৬ কি ৭ ডিসেম্বর। ঠিক ঠাহর করতে পারছেন না রহিমা খাতুন। তার বয়সও কম নয়। চুলে পাক ধরেছে। অনেক কিছুই মনে রাখতে পারেন না। চোখের সামনে দেখেছেন অনেক বীভৎসতা। দেখেছেন নোংরামি। নিজের সামনেই পরিবারের সবাইকে হত্যা আর পুত্রবধূকে নির্যাতনের ঘটনা দেখতে হয়েছে তাকে।

কয়েকবার মিয়ানমারের সেনাদের সামনে পড়েছেন তিনি। বয়স হওয়ায় লাঠিপেটা দিয়েছে তাকে। দু’জায়গায় সেনারা তাকে মেরে ফেলারও সিদ্ধান্ত নেয়। কিন্তু কেন জানি পরে ছেড়ে দেয়। এভাবে মরতে মরতে বেঁচে গেছেন রহিমা খাতুন। মায়ানমারের গৌজিবির এলাকার রহিমা খাতুন বর্তমানে আশ্রয় নিয়েছেন উখিয়া কুতুপালং রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থী ক্যাম্পের নয়নতারা ক্রেশ সেন্টারে।

সরেজমিনে কুতুপালং রোহিঙ্গা ক্যাম্পে গিয়ে দেখা মেলে রহিমা খাতুনের। বয়স ৬৫ ছুঁই-ছুঁই। ছিপছাপ গড়ন। মাথায় পাকা চুল। সাংবাদিক আর ক্যামেরা দেখে দৌঁড়ে আসেন তিনি। বলতে থাকেন ‘আমার খবর নেন, আমার খবর নেন…’। যেনো এক ব্যাকুলতা। নাম জিজ্ঞেস করতেই কাঁদতে শুরু করেন।

ঘটনার বর্ণনা জানতে চাইলে রহিমা বলেন, ১০ দিন আগের কথা। হঠাৎ আর্মি আইসা ঘেরাও করে পরিবারের সকলেরে। এ সময় ঘরে বসা ছিলো স্বামী আব্দুল খালেক, ছেলে আব্দুর রহিম, পুত্রবধূ রেহেনা আক্তার, দুই নাতনী হামিদা ও রাশেদা। এ সময় এক আর্মি পুত্রবধূর গলায় ছুরি ধরে রাখে। আর দু’জন সবার সামনেই তাকে ধর্ষণ করে।

তিনি আরো জানান, পরে সবাইকে ধরে নিয়ে কেটে টুকরো টুকরো করে হত্যা করে সেনা সদস্যরা। ঘরে আগুন ধরিয়ে দেয়। একজন তাকে পালিয়ে যাওয়ার জন্য নির্দেশ দেয়। সবাইকে ওই অবস্থায় রেখে পালাতে মন সায় দেয়নি। কিন্তু যখন দেখলেন সবাই চিরতরে চলে গেছেন, তখন দৌঁড়ে পালিয়ে যান।

তিনি জানান, কিছুদূর গেলে এক আর্মি আটক করে তাকে। আবারও নানা প্রশ্ন করেন। পরে বন্দুকের নল দিয়ে কয়েকবার আঘাত করে। তাতেও রক্ষা নেই। আরেকটু এগোনোর পরে আবারও আর্মির মুখোমুখি। তখন একজন তাকে মেরে ফেলার সিদ্ধান্ত নেয়। হাতজোড় করে অনেক আকুতি-মিনতির পরে বেঁচে আসেন। অন্ধকার রাতে সীমান্ত পাড়ি দিয়ে চলে আসেন বাংলাদেশে।

তিনি বলেন, কয়েকদিন না খাইয়া জঙ্গলে-জঙ্গলে কাটাইছি। জীবন যে কতো কষ্টের বাজান তা বুঝবার পারছি। কার মনে মানবো কন দেহি। এইভাবে চোখের সামনে সবাইরে মাইরা ফালাইছে আবার ছেলের বউরে জুলুম করছে। আল্লাহ তোমার দুনিয়াতে কি বিচার নাই। তুমি কি এই জানোয়ারগো হাত থেইক্যা মুসলমানগো বাঁচাইবানা আল্লাহ। এ সময় তিনি কাপড়ের আঁচল তুলে মোনাজাত করেন।

শুধু রহিমা খাতুন নন, মিয়ানমারের সেনাদের নির্যাতনের শিকার হয়ে প্রতিদিনই রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানরা নিগৃহীত হচ্ছেন। হত্যার শিকার হচ্ছেন অনেকে। জ্বালিয়ে দেওয়া হচ্ছে বাড়িঘর। ধর্ষণের শিকার হচ্ছেন সুন্দরী তরুণী নারীরা। রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের প্রশ্ন-এর শেষ কোথায়?

*Don't Let President Obama's Legacy Be Genocide of the Rohingya*
*President Obama*






https://actionnetwork.org/petitions...t-let-your-legacy-be-genocide-of-the-rohingya

Since the United States dropped its sanctions on Burma (Myanmar), the Burmese army has intensified its offensive against the Rohingya, a long-persecuted Muslim ethnic minority.

Tell President Obama: don't let your legacy in Burma be the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya.

Now up to 160,000 Rohingya are at risk of starvation and disease. Why? Because of the Burmese government and military are blocking humanitarian aid to the Rohingya.

The US government is in an unique position to end the persecution of the Rohingya. In addition to pressing for the lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid, we are urge the US government to press the Burmese government and military to:

1. Take action against those using hate speech and incitement of violence against the Rohingya,

2. Repeal the citizenship law which deprives the Rohingya of their citizenship and rights,

3. Support an independent investigation into human rights violations in Rakhine State.

Please take action today to help protect the Rohingya from repression, ethnic cleansing, and possibly even genocide.

Mariam Mehter, Advocacy Director

_For the International Campaign for the Rohingya: Simon Billenness, Joseph K. Grieboski, Olivia Dulmage, and Mariane Leite_

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## Banglar Bir

Saturday, December 17, 2016 8:55 pm
http://amar-bangladeshonline.com/রাখাইনে-কাঁদছে-মানবতা-থা/

*
রাখাইনে কাঁদছে মানবতা, থামেনি গণহত্যা-গণধর্ষণ*





নাইপেদো: মায়ানমারের রাখাইনে বর্মি সামরিক বাহিনী কর্তৃক রোহিঙ্গা নারীদের ওপর যৌন নিপীড়নের ঘটনা এখনো অব্যাহত রয়েছে। থামেনি গণহত্যাও। আন্তর্জাতিক সংবাদমাধ্যমগুলোতে প্রায় প্রতিদিনই এ সম্পর্কিত রিপোর্ট প্রকাশিত হচ্ছে। গণহত্যা ও নির্যাতন বন্ধে আন্তর্জাতিক চাপকে অগ্রাহ্য করেই এসব দমন-পীড়ন চালাচ্ছে সেনাবাহিনী। গত মঙ্গলবার (১৩ ডিসেম্বর) সকালে উত্তর মংডুর ‘কিয়ানপাক পাইজু’ গ্রামে অভিযান চালায় বার্মিজ সৈন্যরা। এসময় তাদের হাতে দুই কিশোরী বোন গণধর্ষণের শিকার হয়েছেন।




প্রত্যক্ষদর্শীরা জানান, মঙ্গলবার ভোরে অভিযান শুরুর পরপরই সৈন্যরা গ্রামের পুরুষ লোকদের গ্রেপ্তার করার জন্য একটানা ধাওয়া করে এবং তাদের গ্রামটি থেকে পালিয়ে যেতে বাধ্য করা হয়। তারপর সৈন্যরা গ্রামের সব নারীদেরকে একটি স্থানে একত্রিত করে। সেখানে কয়েক ডজন অল্প বয়স্ক নারীকে শারীরিকভাবে লাঞ্চিত করা হয়। নাম গোপন রাখার শর্তে রোহিঙ্গা ভিশনের প্রতিবেদককে গ্রামটির একজন প্রত্যক্ষদর্শী জানান, ‘সৈন্যরা নারীদের শরীর তল্লাশি করে তাদের (নারীদের) অলংকার লুটপাট করে এবং তারপর তাদের কাপড় খুলে নগ্ন করা হয়। পরে তাদের শরীরের বিভিন্ন স্পর্শকাতর অঙ্গে ক্রমাগত হাত দিতে থাকে।’ তিনি বলেন, ‘এটা অপমানজনক এবং অসহনীয়।’




ধর্ষণের শিকার ওই দুই কিশোরী গ্রামের নুরুল ইসলামের (আসল নাম নয়) কন্যা হিসেবে চিহ্নিত করা হয়েছে। তাদের বয়স যথাক্রমে ১৭ ও ১৯ বছর। তাদের একটি ঘরের মধ্যে টেনে-হিঁচড়ে নিয়ে গিয়ে পালাক্রমে টানা কয়েক ঘণ্টাব্যাপী গণধর্ষণ করে সৈন্যরা। ওই দিন সন্ধ্যা ৭টার দিকে অবরোধ অবস্থা থেকে ওই দুই কিশোরীকে গ্রামের পূর্বদিকে অবস্থিত একটি বনের মধ্যে ছেড়ে দেয়া হলে তারা মুক্ত হয়। বর্মি সৈন্যদের ওই একই গ্রুপ সোমবার ( ১২ ডিসেম্বর) ‘জিপিন চাং’ গ্রামের ‘শঙ্খলা’ পল্লীতে অভিযানের সময় তাদের হাতে আট রোহিঙ্গা নারী গণধর্ষণের শিকার হয়। উত্তর মংডু থেকে রোহিঙ্গা ভিশনের সংবাদদাতা জানান, ১২ ডিসেম্বর দুপুরে তদন্ত কমিশন পার্শ্ববর্তী ‘ইয়িখেচাং খোসুন’ গ্রাম ত্যাগ করার পরপরই বর্মি সৈন্যরা তিন নারীকে নিকটবর্তী একটি জঙ্গলে ধরে নিয়ে গিয়ে সন্ধ্যা পর্যন্ত ধর্ষণ করে।




সহিংসতা বন্ধ করার জন্য অব্যাহত আন্তর্জাতিক চাপ অগ্রাহ্য করে বর্মি সামরিক বাহিনী রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর অমনুষ্যোচিত নির্যাতন চালাচ্ছে। রোহিঙ্গা সম্প্রদায়ের মনোবল ভেঙে দিতে এবং যুদ্ধের অস্ত্র হিসেবে ক্রমবর্ধমানভাবে নারীদের ধর্ষণ করে যাচ্ছে। এদিকে, আন্তর্জাতিক চাপ কমাতে বর্মি প্রেসিডেন্ট কর্তৃক তৈরি করা একটি আন্তর্জাতিক তদন্ত দল মংডুতে পাঠানো হয়। উত্তর মংডুতে তদন্ত দলটি তাদের সফর শেষ করেছে এবং বর্মি সামরিক বাহিনীর নৃশংসতাকে আড়াল করতে একটি সাজানো তদন্ত প্রতিবেদন প্রকাশ করা হয়েছে। অন্যদিকে, মায়ানমারে অং সান সু চি’র নেতৃত্বাধীন সরকার রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের সঙ্গে যে আচরণ করছে তার তীব্র নিন্দা জানিয়েছে জাতিসংঘ। জাতিসংঘের মানবাধিকার বিষয়ক দপ্তরের প্রধান যাইদ রাদ আল হুসেইন বলেছেন, তারা মায়ানমার থেকে প্রায় প্রতিদিনই হত্যা, নির্যাতন এবং ধর্ষণের মতো ঘটনার খবর পাচ্ছে।




তিনি আরো বলেন, রাখাইন রাজ্যের সমস্যা মোকাবেলায় মায়ানমার সরকার যে নীতি নিয়েছে তাতে বরং উল্টো ফল হচ্ছে। গত ৯ অক্টোবর থেকে রাখাইন রাজ্যের মংডুতে ‘ক্লিয়ারেন্স অপারেশন’ চালাচ্ছে দেশটির সেনাবাহিনী।




সর্বশেষ সহিংসতায় ৭ শতাধিকেরও বেশি রোহিঙ্গা নাগরিক নিহত হয়েছে। অন্তত ৩,০০০ ঘরবাড়ি ধ্বংস করার মাধ্যমে ৪০ হাজারেরও বেশি মানুষকে বাস্তুচ্যুত করা হয়েছে। তাদের নির্যাতনে ২৭ হাজারেরও বেশি মানুষ বাংলাদেশে প্রবেশ করতে বাধ্য হয়েছে এবং ৫ শতাধিকেরও বেশি রোহিঙ্গা নারী বর্মি সৈন্যদের হাতে ধর্ষিত হয়েছেন। *রোহিঙ্গা ভিশন অবলম্বনে মো. রাহুল আমীন*

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## PDF

Well.wisher said:


> The only source I found of this accusation was an indian biased newspaper with no credibility .
> They accused pakistan of terror links with rohingyas this is Shame full .
> 
> Pakistan gave 5 million dollars to our rohingya muslim brothers to help them .


I am not stating in the light of that news. You must be aware of the military sales from Pakistan to Myanmar.... As much as I appreciate the efforts to help them, the military relationship disappoints me (angers me too). Pakistan needs to clear the situation...

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## Banglar Bir

*রোহিঙ্গাবাহী ৬টি নৌকা ফেরত*





18 Dec, 2016

মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন রাজ্যে সেদেশের সেনাবাহিনীর হাতে নির্যাতিত রোহিঙ্গাদের দেশত্যাগের ধারা অব্যাহত রয়েছে। 

শনিবার রাত থেকে রোববার ভোর পর্যন্ত রাখাইন থেকে পালিয়ে আসা নির্যাতিত এসব রোহিঙ্গাদের ৬টি নৌকা নাফ নদী হয়ে বাংলাদেশ সীমান্তে অনুপ্রবেশের চেষ্টা করে। 

তবে বাংলাদেশ সীমান্তরক্ষী বাহিনী বিজিবির সতর্ক নজরদারির কারণে তাদেরকে মিয়ানমারের দিকে ফেরত যেতে হয়েছে। 
টেকনাফ বিজিবি- ২ ব্যাটালিয়ন উপ-অধিনায়ক মেজর আবু রাসেল সিদ্দিকী জানান, শনিবার রাত থেকে রোববার ভোর পর্যন্ত টেকনাফের দুটি পয়েন্ট দিয়ে ৬টি রোহিঙ্গাবাহী নৌকা নাফ নদী হয়ে বাংলাদেশে অনুপ্রবেশের চেষ্টা চালায়। 

তিনি জানান, বিজিবির টহলরত দল রোহিঙ্গা বোঝাই এসব নৌকা মিয়ানমারের দিকে ফেরত পাঠায়। 

আবু রাসেল সিদ্দিকী বলেন, হ্নীলা ও লেদা পয়েন্ট দিয়ে ওইসব নৌকা বাংলাদেশে ঢুকার চেষ্টা করে। প্রতিটি নৌকায় ১৫/১৬ জন করে রোহিঙ্গা নারী, পরুষ ও শিশু ছিল।

উৎসঃ _যুগান্তর_

http://www.bdnatun.net/newsdetail/detail/31/267311



M.Musa said:


> I am not stating in the light of that news. You must be aware of the military sales from Pakistan to Myanmar.... As much as I appreciate the efforts to help them, the military relationship disappoints me (angers me too). Pakistan needs to clear the situation...



Nothing o be concerned at all, its just a part of fine Diplomacy. I dont want to indulge further, just wait and watch, how the games are played, end result is all that matters.

*The dirty fossil fuel secret behind Burma's democratic fairytale*
South-east Asian country's untapped natural wealth is being opened up, regardless of the environmental and human costs





Burma has waged 'a campaign of ethnic cleansing' against Rohingya Muslims, according to Human Rights Watch. Photograph: HRW/AFP/Getty Images
Nafeez Ahmed
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...fossil-fuel-secret-burma-democratic-fairytale

Friday 26 April 2013 13.18 BST

New evidence has emerged that the systematic violence against ethnic Rohingya in Burma - "described as genocidal by some experts" - is being actively supported by state agencies. But the violence's links to the country's ambitions to rapidly expand fossil fuel production, at massive cost to local populations and to the environment, have been largely overlooked.

Over 125,000 ethnic Rohingya have been forcibly displaced since waves of violence swept across Burma's Arakan state last year, continuing until now, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch's (HRW) latest sobering report. The "ethnic cleansing" campaign against Arakan's Muslim minority, although instigated largely by Buddhist monks rallying local mobs, has been the product of "extensive state involvement and planning", according to HRW's UK director David Mepham.

The group found:

"All of the state security forces [in Arakan] are implicated in failing to prevent atrocities or directly participating in them, including local police, Lon Thein riot police, the inter-agency border control force called Nasaka, and the army and navy."

Burma's Rohingya minority has resided in the country for decades, but been formally denied citizenship by the government, subjected instead to forced labour, arbitrary land confiscations, and routine discrimination. Although the latest violence raises urgent questions about the integrity of Burma's ostensible democratic reform process, the west has refused to allow the campaign against the Rohingyas to interfere with efforts to integrate the regime into global markets.

The last two years has seen first the US, then the UK and the EU, lift decades of economic sanctions with a view to "open a new chapter" in relations with Burma.

Nestled strategically between India and China, Burma is rich in fossil fuels and other mineral resources, including oil, gas, gold, timber and jade. In recent months, even as genocidal violence has escalated, the country has been courtedby world leaders, such as President Barack Obama, British foreign secretary William Hague, and European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.

As Forbes reports , thanks to Burma's "vast, untapped reserves of oil and natural gas" – estimated at between 11 trillion and 23 trillion cubic feet – "and with sanctions over and a world thirsty for new sources of energy, Western multinationals are eager to sign deals."

But foreign companies must partner with local companies to be able to bid. This condition has spurred Myanmar's crony capitalist elite of fewer than 20 families – many of whom built their business empires on the back of state favours from the former military junta – to rebrand themselves as honest brokers for western investors looking for their next regional venture.

Attempting to consolidate their privileged position in a highly unequal but resource-rich economy, Burma's business families are making renewed efforts to capitalise on the resource rush, highlighting their philanthropic activities, and forging new ties with Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Foreign investment is currently dominated by Chinese, Thai and Indian firms, who operated relatively unfazed by western sanctions, but American, British and French multinationals such as Chevron, BP, Shell, and Total are jockeying to make up for lost time.

Yet the scramble to open up Burma for business has played a direct role in inflaming community tensions. One of the most prominent culprits is the Shwe Gas Project led by South Korean and Indian companies, to export natural gas via pipeline from Arakan state to China's Yunnan province. The 2,800km overland pipeline is slated to become operational this year.

The project plans to produce 500 million cubic feet (mcfd) of gas per day for 30 years, supplying 400 mcfd to China, and the remaining 100 mcfd to factories owned by the Burmese government, military and associated business elites.

The losers from this venture are the Burmese people and environment. An extensive report by the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM), a Burmese community-based human rights network, documented the destruction of local fishing and farming industries, including confiscation of thousands of acres of land to "clear areas for the pipeline and associated infrastructure", from 2010 to 2011. Tens of thousands have been left jobless, with little or no compensation or employment opportunities.

The pipeline also cuts through the Arakan Yoma forest ecosystems of the Western Mountain Range, part of the Eastern Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, contributing to soil erosion and endangering species. One third of coral reefs north of Kyauk Phyu town have already been seriously damaged, undermining fish and marine life, and local fishing. Freshwater rivers and waterways have been dredged for sand and gravel for construction purposes, and are set to become dumping grounds for toxic materials.

In December 2011, the pipeline project sparked widespread anger across Arakan's cities and rural areas, as local people demanded provision of 24 hour electricity. Ranked the second most impoverished state of Burma by the UN Development Programme, approximately 3 million people living in Arakan have no access to public electricity, with just a few major cities able to access only five to six hours of electricity per day, provided by private companies at extortionate prices of 400-600 Kyat per unit (compared to 25 Kyat per unit in Rangoon). Overall, Burma is by far the poorest country in Southeast Asia, with a third of the population living in poverty.

The eruption of ethnic violence across Arakan against ethnic Rohingyas six months later in 2012 was therefore most likely triggered by the simmering tensions wrought by escalating economic marginalisation. On the one hand, Arakan's deepening economic crisis, fuelled by the state-backed pipeline project, laid the groundwork for an increase in xenophobia and racism toward the Rohingya. On the other, Burmese state agencies appear to have deliberately fostered the ethnic cleansing campaign to divert populist anger away from the devastating impact of the pipeline project, and instead toward the most easy and vulnerable target to hand.

Even as violence against the Rohingya escalates, conflict has also broken out along the pipeline route between Burmese security forces and local armed resistance groups linked to the Kachin state, where people have faced arbitrary arrest, torture, forced labour, rape and sexual violence at the hands of the Burma Army.

The plight of these different groups underscores that the fairytale of Burma's rosy democratic transition is exactly that - a fairytale.

But lured by the promise of windfall profits, it is a fairytale convenient for competing global powers eager to capitalise on the country's untapped natural wealth, regardless of the environmental and human costs.

• This is Dr. Nafeez Ahmed's first post on his new blog, Earth Insight, hosted by The Guardian. Nafeez is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development, and writer/presenter of the film The Crisis of Civilization, based on his latest book, A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It. You can follow him on Twitter: @nafeezahmed


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## Exiled_Soldier

*Time to get tough on Rohingya issue or stay home
*
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman must raise tough questions on the persecution of the Rohingya at the Asean Foreign Minister’s meeting.


COMMENT

_



_

_By Charles Santiago_

Finally it looks like Myanmar is buckling under mounting international pressure.

The country’s most famous personality, state counsellor and Foreign Minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, has asked for Asean Foreign Ministers to come together for a briefing on the fast-deteriorating Rohingya humanitarian crisis, next week.

Although Suu Kyi has come under heavy criticism for dismissing the allegations of heightened violence against the Rohingya, this is certainly an opportunity for Malaysia to show it is serious about advocating for the minority community whom the United Nations describes as one of the most persecuted people in the world.

The meeting should not be treated as a form of political cover for the Myanmar government.

Asean foreign ministers should use the opportunity to address the crisis head-on. They must impress upon Suu Kyi the importance of protecting civilian life and ensuring that abuses are properly and urgently investigated.

Few weeks ago, Prime Minister Najib Razak broke ranks with Asean’s non-interference policy and observed the killings of the Rohingya in Rakhine state as targeted persecution.

It’s now time for the Malaysian government to make good its concern for the Rohingya, who have been butchered, murdered, burnt and raped since October this year.

Instead of passively listening to a briefing by Myanmar, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman has to ask the tough questions – did the Myanmar military undertake systematic ethnic clensing and commit crimes against humanity against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

This is important given recent revelations by Human Rights Watch satellite imagery, suggesting over 1,500 buildings have been burned down in the Rakhine area in the past two months and revealed patterns suggesting that the Myanmar military is responsible for the arson.

There are easily 150,000 Rohingya in Malaysia. And they are in a legal limbo here.

Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and therefore the government doesn’t recognise the rights of the asylum seekers or refugees.

As such the government must ratify the convention, recognise the rights of the Rohingya, allow the refugees to work and send their children to school before it can indulge itself in sloganeering at a political rally.

The Rohingya have very little access to medicine and are too poor to afford the costs of medical attention for critical cases. This too must change.

Asean is known as a toothless tiger. The long meetings, countless conferences of heads of states and endless meetings between foreign ministers don’t bring about effective change.

These remain a mere back-slapping routine at dinner tables.

This must change and Malaysia can spearhead that shift if it cleans up its own backyard and allows the Rohingya and other refugees the dignity of being treated with respect and the space to ensure their rights are met.

Malaysia, at the briefing session, can pledge to change its policy to recognise the Rohingya and other refugees.

And it can then surely raise tough questions and hard issues about the Rohingya with Myanmar and Suu Kyi.

If the Malaysian government doesn’t want to rock the boat any further and would rather keep nodding his head, it’s best to avoid this meeting, especially since the Rohingya are facing the last stages of genocide now.

_Charles Santiago is the DAP Member of Parliament for Klang._

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/ca...-to-get-tough-on-rohingya-issue-or-stay-home/


*Indonesian foreign minister to visit Bangladesh over Rohingya crisis*

Sun Online Desk 17th December, 2016 03:07:01







Indonesia's foreign minister Retno Marsudi said he plans to visit Bangladesh to discuss Rohingya refugee crisis. He will visit Dhaka following a regional meeting hosted by Myanmar this week to address recent violence in western Rakhine State.



Myanmar has invited foreign ministers from Southeast Asian nations for December 19 talks in an effort to reduce regional concerns over violence in Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh, which claimed hundreds of lives till date.



The UN on Saturday warned that while over at least 27,000 refugees fled the country for Bangladesh, the Burmese government is making the Rohingya situation worse by its ‘short-sighted, counterproductive, even callous’ approach.



A military crackdown in Rakhine that followed Oct. 9 attacks on police stations has raised concerns among ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, especially in predominantly Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia.



On Saturday, Indonesia’s top diplomat was quoted by metrotvnews.com as saying, “I'm going to Bangladesh after Myanmar to meet with Bangladesh’s foreign minister to talk about refugees."



She stressed that Indonesia wants to comprehensively address problems related to Rohingya fleeing along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, adding that all countries attending the meeting in Myanmar’s largest city Yangon should freely express their opinions.



"During the summit, all can freely express their opinion on Rakhine. So this is not a rigid agenda," she said. Marsudi underlined that Indonesia would focus on asking Myanmar to open up Rakhine to humanitarian aid and assistance so the situation does not deteriorate for civilians in the impoverished area.



The Burmese government discourages using the term Rohingya in the diplomatic discussion which recently moved to officially prove the ethnic minority is a migrant from Bangladesh.

http://daily-sun.com/post/192106/In...ster-to-visit-Bangladesh-over-Rohingya-crisis

Reactions: Like Like:
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## bluesky

I have no stake in posting the news below that has been published in a Burmese newspaper. I do not agree with or accept the verdict given by the Burmese Commission. I expect the ASEAN meeting to take a firm stance against the oppressors. Although BD posters here are busy with fanfare about the purchases of military weapons, but, I think BD is essentially an impotent nation without a sense of what is right and what is wrong. No country ever respects another country that is as meek and impotent as BD is. It is time BD stands erect and talk forcefully with the Burmese government. 
- @bluesky - 


*Commission probing Rakhine says ‘rule of law’ being observed*
By Nyan Lynn Aung | Friday, 16 December 2016
4

*Myanmar's military clearance operations in northern Rakhine State are being carried out “lawfully”, the investigation commission led by Vice President Myint Swe concluded after wrapping up a three-day field visit to Maundgaw. The announcement comes as Human Rights Watch released a report accusing the military of complicity in the burning of villages, an accusation the commission denies.




An aerial view of a burned-out village in Maungdaw, northern Rakhine State. Photo: AFP*

Secretary of the investigation commissinon U Zaw Myint Phay told _The Myanmar Times_ it would be necessary to collect more facts before submitting a report and making the findings public.

“We plan to visit the Maungdaw area [another two or three] times,” he said, adding that it wasn’t clear when these trips would take place, and that the 13-member taskforce would need time to analyse the data already collected.

“It is too early to comment further on this investigation,” he said.

The commission has been charged with identifying the root cause of a series of lethal attacks on border guard posts beginning on October 9, as well as probing the veracity of subsequent grave rights abuse allegations. The area has been under a near-total lockdown during the ongoing military “sweeps”, while at least 90 people have been killed and around 27,000 people have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh by the UN’s count.

In a statement released on December 14, the commission said there had been no attacks or burnings since November 22.

According to the commission’s statement, Muslim villagers requested that those arrested for questioning be released to their families if they have not been formally charged. Some 48 have been released so far, with the commission reportedly set to cooperate with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Rakhine State government to establish the guilt or innocence of the hundreds remaining in detention.

Much of the statement revolved around refuting allegations made in a December 10 article published by _The Guardian_, in which a woman who had fled to Bangladesh from Kyet Yoe Pyin village said seven of her eight children had been killed by soldiers, that she and two of her daughters were raped, and that her husband had also been killed.

According to the statement from the commission, villagers from Kyet Yoe Pyin said “no incidents of this kind occurred in their village and said they have never seen or heard of [the woman]”.

The commission’s statement said residents of Ngakura village pointed the finger at outsiders for an arson attack on the local bazaar.

Earlier this week, US-based Human Rights Watch released new satellite images that they say show 1500 buildings razed in the villages of Kyet Yoe Pyin, Dar Gyi Zaw and Yae Khat Chaung Gwa Son.

HRW said that collected testimony, along with image analysis, places responsibility for the burnings “squarely” with security forces, and was “consistent with military forces advancing westward rather than militants or local residents haphazardly setting fires”.

“HRW documented systematic building destruction in villages on three occasions after government forces reportedly came under attack in the area, suggesting a reprisal element to the arson,” the HRW report read.

These villages were not addressed directly in the commission’s statement, but when asked about the report’s findings, U Zaw Myint Phay said he had not seen evidence of fire damage matching the extent to which the international community has been claiming.

“There is an exaggeration which is the result of wrong news sources. It could not be hidden if those amounts of rapes and burned [building] cases had really happened,” he said.

President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay could not be reached for comment about the report.


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## TopCat

bluesky said:


> I have no stake in posting the news below that has been published in a Burmese newspaper. I do not agree with or accept the verdict given by the Burmese Commission. I expect the ASEAN meeting to take a firm stance against the oppressors. Although BD posters here are busy with fanfare about the purchases of military weapons, but, I think BD is essentially an impotent nation without a sense of what is right and what is wrong. No country ever respects another country that is as meek and impotent as BD is. It is time BD stands erect and talk forcefully with the Burmese government.
> - @bluesky -
> .



Some idiots in our bureaucracy dreaming of high speed maglev train to Beijing which MM repeatedly saying not going to happen. Besides if you look at the geography, you will be amazed by seeing that MM itself could not penetrate Arakan mountain let alone BD will be flying over it.

Even Maungdaw and Budhidang the two township is connected via tunnels.


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## Exiled_Soldier

TopCat said:


> Some idiots in our bureaucracy dreaming of high speed maglev train to Beijing which MM repeatedly saying not going to happen. Besides if you look at the geography, you will be amazed by seeing that MM itself could not penetrate Arakan mountain let alone BD will be flying over it.
> 
> Even Maungdaw and Budhidang the two township is connected via tunnels.



That solves the puzzle why all these plannings are through Sylhet.


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## Banglar Bir

*মেজর ডালিম added 2 new photos.*
6 mins ·




আলহামদুলিল্লাহ্‌
" ইসলামি আন্দোলন বাংলাদেশ " এর ডাকে মিয়ানমার অভিমুখে লংমার্চে লক্ষ লক্ষ জনতার ঢল। কিন্তু নাস্তিক ও জালিম সরকারের পুলিশি বাধায় আজকের লংমার্চ।

ওপারে একজন শান্তিতে নোবেল জয়ী, তিনি মারছেন আর কাটছেন। এপারে আরেকজন শান্তিতে নোবেল প্রত্যাশী, তিনি মারা ও কাটার বিরুদ্ধে প্রতিবাদে বাধা দিচ্ছেন।

আল্লাহ তুমি ছাড়া মিয়ানমারের এই নির্যাতিত মুসলমানদের রক্ষা করার আর কেউ নেই। রক্ষা করো এই নির্যাতিত পল্লিটি ও পল্লির মানুষগুলাক

*Pro-Rohingya protest march to Myanmar border stopped*
AFP . Dhaka | Update: 18:59, Dec 18, 2016







Police on Sunday stopped thousands of Islamists from marching to the border with Myanmar to protest at a crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in that country.

The military campaign in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine has sent 27,000 Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh, with survivors recounting horrific stories of mass murder, gang rape and torture at the hands of troops.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long discriminated against the stateless Rohingya and the recent crisis has galvanised protests in Muslim countries around the region.




Thousands of Muslims belonging to the Islami Andolan Bangladesh party gathered in front of Dhaka’s Baitul Mukarram national mosque, chanting slogans and carrying placards denouncing Myanmar’s Nobel laureate and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Local police officer Rafiqul Islam told AFP that at least 6,000 people had arrived for the march towards the southeastern border.

“But it came to a halt as we mutually discussed the march would hamper public life,” he said.




Party officials however accused the police of “forcefully” stopping and arresting them.

“They (police) stopped our activists and randomly arrested many of us. We strongly condemn such actions of the administration,” party spokesman Atiqur Rahman said.




In the past two months Bangladesh has stepped up patrols and border guards have prevented hundreds of boats packed with Rohingya refugees from entering the country.

The Bangladesh government has come under pressure from Muslim groups and the opposition to open its border to the fleeing Rohingya.

More than 230,000 Rohingya are already living in Bangladesh, most of them illegally, although around 32,000 are formally registered as refugees.


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## Banglar Bir

*মিয়ানমারে সেনাবাহিনীর কর্মকাণ্ড মানবতা বিরোধী অপরাধের শামিল হতে পারে: অ্যামনেস্টি*

2 ঘণ্টা আগে
http://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-38362524?ocid=socialflow_facebook
শেয়ার করুন




Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionমংডুতে সশস্ত্র সৈন্যদের টহল। ছবিটি গত অক্টোবর মাসে তোলা
আন্তর্জাতিক মানবাধিকার সংস্থা অ্যামনেস্টি ইন্টারন্যাশনাল এক নতুন প্রতিবেদনে বলছে, মিয়ানমারের নিরাপত্তা বাহিনী দেশটিতে বেআইনি হত্যাকাণ্ড, বহু ধর্ষণ, পুরো গ্রাম জ্বালিয়ে দেবার মত ঘটনা ঘটাচ্ছে।

রোহিঙ্গা বিরোধী এক অভিযানের অংশ হিসেবে তারা একাজ করছে এবং অ্যামনেস্টি মনে করছে এসকল কর্মকাণ্ড মানবতা বিরোধী অপরাধের শামিল হতে পারে।

বাংলাদেশ সীমান্তবর্তী মিয়ানমারের আরাকান প্রদেশে গত দু'মাসের বেশী সময় ধরে চলা সেনা অভিযান এবং এই অভিযান থেকে পালিয়ে বাঁচতে হাজার হাজার রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানের বাংলাদেশে পালিয়ে আসার প্রেক্ষাপটে সোমবার ভোরবেলায় এই প্রতিবেদনটি প্রকাশ করে অ্যামনেস্টি।

এক প্রেস বিজ্ঞপ্তিতে সংস্থাটি জানায়, মিয়ানমার ও বাংলাদেশে রোহিঙ্গা জনগোষ্ঠীর সদস্যদের সঙ্গে সাক্ষাৎকার, স্যাটেলাইট থেকে পাওয়া চিত্র বিশ্লেষণ এবং ভিডিও ও ফটো-র ভিত্তিতে এই প্রতিবেদনটি তৈরি করে অ্যামনেস্টি।

সংস্থাটির দক্ষিণপূর্ব এশিয়া ও প্রশান্ত মহাসাগরীয় এলাকা বিষয়ক পরিচালক রাফেন্দি ডিজামিন বলেন, "মিয়ানমারের সেনাবাহিনী বেসামরিক রোহিঙ্গাদেরকে অনুভূতিহীন ও নিয়মতান্ত্রিক সহিংসতার লক্ষ্যে পরিণত করেছে। একটি সমন্বিত শাস্তির অংশ হিসেবে সেখানে পুরুষ, মহিলা, শিশু, পুরো পরিবার, পুরো গ্রামের উপর হামলা হয়েছে এবং নির্যাতন করা হয়েছে"।

এই ইস্যুতে অং সাং সুচি তার রাজনৈতিক এবং নৈতিক দায়িত্ব পালন করতে ব্যর্থ হয়েছেন বলেও উল্লেখ করেন তিনি।

*আরো পড়ুন:*
রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের 'পুশব্যাক' করা কি বেআইনি?

মিয়ানমার থেকে রোহিঙ্গারা আবার আসছে: বিজিবি




Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionপুরো রাখাইন রাজ্যের আকাশে এরকম হেলিকপ্টার গানশিপের টহল নাফ নদীর এপারে বাংলাদেশ থেকেও দেখা গেছে।
উদাহরণ হিসেবে ১২ই নভেম্বরের একটি ঘটনার বর্ণনা দেয়া হয় অ্যামনেস্টি ইন্টারন্যাশনালের বিজ্ঞপ্তিতে, যেখানে বলা হয়, সেনাবাহিনী রাখাইন প্রদেশের উত্তরাঞ্চলে মোতায়েন করা দুটি হেলিকপ্টার গানশিপ থেকে নির্বিচারে গুলি চালায়, আতঙ্কে গ্রামবাসী পালাতে থাকে, এই হামলায় অজ্ঞাত সংখ্যক মানুষ মারা যায়।

মিয়ানমারের সেনাবাহিনী অবশ্য রাখাইন রাজ্যে তাদের ভাষায় 'বাঙ্গালী' দুষ্কৃতিকারীদের বিরুদ্ধে অভিযান চালাচ্ছে, যারা গত ৯ই অক্টোবর পুলিশের একটি তল্লাশী চৌকিতে হামলা চালিয়েছে বলে অভিযোগ।

এই সেনা অভিযানে আশি জনের মত মানুষ নিহত হয়েছে বলে তারা স্বীকার করেছে।

অ্যামনেস্টি ইন্টারন্যাশনাল যে প্রতিবেদন দিচ্ছে তাতে মনে হচ্ছে নিহতের সংখ্যা অনেক বেশী, যদিও তারা নিহতের বাস্তব কোন সংখ্যা নিরূপণ করতে পারেনি।

সেনাবাহিনী মহিলা ও কিশোরীদের ধর্ষণ ও যৌন নিপীড়ন করেছে বলেও অ্যামনেস্টি তাদের প্রতিবেদনে উল্লেখ করেছে।

সেনা সদস্যদের হাতে ধর্ষণের শিকার হবার অভিযোগ করছেন, এমন কয়েকজন মহিলার সাক্ষাৎকারও নিয়েছে বলে জানাচ্ছে অ্যামনেস্টি।

৩২ বছর বয়স্ক এক মহিলার কথা তারা উল্লেখ করছে, যিনি বলছেন তাকে একটি ধানক্ষেতে টেনে নিয়ে গিয়ে তিন জন সেনাসদস্য তাকে উপর্যুপরি ধর্ষণ করে।





Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionমিয়ানমারের সেনাবাহিনীর ভাষ্য, আটককৃত এই রোহিঙ্গা একজন অভিযুক্ত দুষ্কৃতিকারী।
এছাড়া রয়েছে নির্বিচার গ্রেপ্তারের অভিযোগ।

আটকের পর কারাগারগুলোতে তারা নির্মম নির্যাতনের শিকার হচ্ছেন এমন নজিরও পাওয়া যাচ্ছে।

আটক থাকা অবস্থায় অন্তত ছয় জন বন্দী নিহত হবার খবর মিয়ানমারের রাষ্ট্রীয় গণমাধ্যমই স্বীকার করেছে।

আটক করবার সময়েও রোহিঙ্গাদেরকে নির্দয় ভাবে পেটানো হয় বলে উল্লেখ করছে অ্যামনেস্টি ইন্টারন্যাশনাল।

*সম্পর্কিত বিষয়*

মানবাধিকার


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya abuse may be crimes against humanity: Amnesty*
*Rights group says Myanmar army targets civilians in "systematic campaign of violence" as ASEAN discusses the issue.*




WATCH: Is the world ignoring the plight of the Rohingya?

"But that seems to be changing," Looi said, reporting from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

"Myanmar says the purpose of the meeting is for the member states to air their concerns as well as to get a better understanding of what is happening in Rakhine state. 

"But some critics have pointed out that this could be nothing more than a public relations exercise."

*'Ethnic cleansing'*
Between 76 to 400 Rohingya have been killed in a military crackdown since October 9 attacks on police stations left nine officers dead.

Myanmar says at least 93 people - 17 police officers and soldiers and 76 alleged "attackers" (including six who reportedly died during interrogation) - have been killed and some 575 suspects arrested.

An estimated 27,000 Rohingya have fled to the neighbouring Bangladesh for safety.

Rohingya advocacy groups, however, claim about 400 Rohingya - described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted groups worldwide - have been killed in the military operations, women have been raped and Rohingya villages torched.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman called for the 10-nation bloc to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged atrocities committed against Rohingya people.

Anifah said events in Rakhine state were a matter of regional security and stability, noting that about 56,000 Rohingya now live in Muslim-majority Malaysia having fled previous unrest in Myanmar.

Malaysia has heavily criticised Myanmar’s government and military over the violence, with Prime Minister Najib Razak and his cabinet referring to it as "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing".





Malaysia says the meeting would be used as platform to express ASEAN member countries' firm stance against any form of violence against Rohingya [Reuters]
Rakhine, located in Myanmar's west, has long been home to simmering tensions between the Rohingya and the country's Buddhist majority population. The last major outbreak of violence in 2012 left hundreds dead and drove 140,000 people into internal displacement camps.

"Many analysts are expecting ASEAN leaders to push for some of the things that the international community has been asking for, the most important of which is the full resumption of aid to Rakhine state where an estimated 160,000 people are in need of aid," Al Jazeera's Looi said.

Myanmar has denied the accusations, saying many of the reports are fabricated and it insists the strife in Rakhine state is an internal matter.

In addition to fending off diplomatic pressure over the crisis, the Myanmar government has also invited a handpicked media delegation to visit the affected region this week.

Amnesty cautioned that the scale and extent of the violence is unclear, as the military has closed Rakhine to outside observers, including aid workers. But witness accounts detail specific cases of murder, looting and rape.

READ MORE: 'Strong evidence' of genocide in Myanmar

In one incident on November 12, following an alleged skirmish between the army and villagers armed mostly with swords and other simple weapons, helicopter gunships descended on a village and sprayed bullets indiscriminately, killing civilians fleeing in a panic, Amnesty said.

This was corroborated to an extent by Myanmar army officials, who said helicopters opened fire that day and killed six people, who officials said were "insurgents".

Refugees told Amnesty that the military is torching villages. Satellite images Amnesty obtained show 1,200 burned structures, which they say is in line with images released by Human Rights Watch in November that showed 1,500 burned homes.

On Friday, the UN human rights office said it was getting daily reports of rapes and killings of the Rohingya and independent monitors were being barred from investigating.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said in a statement that the government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, had taken a "short-sighted, counterproductive, even callous" approach to the crisis, risking grave long-term repercussions for the region.


----------



## Banglar Bir

Daily Sabah >
World >
Asia Pacific
http://www.dailysabah.com/asia/2016/12/19/bangladesh-stops-rohingya-protesters-marching-border

*Bangladesh stops Rohingya protesters marching border*
DAILY SABAH WITH WIRES
ISTANBUL
Published December 19, 2016

Police in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka yesterday stopped thousands of Muslims from marching to the border with Myanmar to protest at a crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in that country.

The military campaign in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine has sent 27,000 Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh, with survivors recounting horrific stories of mass murder, gang rape and torture at the hands of troops.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long discriminated against the stateless Rohingya and the recent crisis has galvanized protests in Muslim countries around the region.

Thousands of Muslims belonging to the Islami Andolan Bangladesh party gathered in front of Dhaka's Baitul Mukarram national mosque, chanting slogans and carrying placards denouncing Myanmar's Nobel laureate and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Local police chief Rafiqul Islam told AFP that at least 6,000 people had arrived for the march towards the southeastern border.

"But it came to a halt as we mutually discussed the march would hamper public life," he said. Party officials however accused the police of "forcefully" stopping and arresting them. "They (police) stopped our activists and randomly arrested many of us. We strongly condemn such actions of the administration," party spokesman Atiqur Rahman said.

In the past two months Bangladesh has stepped up patrols and border guards have prevented hundreds of boats packed with Rohingya refugees from entering the country.

The Bangladesh government has come under pressure from Muslim groups and the opposition to open its border to the fleeing Rohingya.

Myanmar nationalists have since taken to referring to the Rohingya - which the United Nations calls one of the most persecuted people in the world - as Bengali, which suggests they are not Myanmar nationals but interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

Rohingyas face fundamental rights abuses. Myanmar's nationality law, approved in 1982, denies Rohingya citizenship. According to the law, foreigners cannot become naturalized citizens of Myanmar unless they can prove a close familial connection to the country.

Rohingyas are not recognized among the 134 official ethnicities in Myanmar because authorities see them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. They are subjected to forced labor, have no land rights and are heavily restricted by the government. They have no permission to leave the camps built for them, have no source of income and have to rely on the World Food Program to survive.

The Rohingyas are a Muslim ethnic group living mainly in Myanmar. Rohingyas are thought to be descended from Muslim traders who settled there more than 1,000 years ago. As of 2016, approximately 1.3 million Rohingyas live in Myanmar, and about 300,000 to 500,000 live in Bangladesh.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Malaysia calls for ASEAN to lead push for end to Rohingya crisis*

Reuters, Yangon

Malaysia today said the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was a regional concern and called for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged atrocities committed against them.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman was speaking at a meeting of the 10-nation bloc in Yangon called by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi after weeks of reports that the army has killed, raped and arbitrarily arrested Rohingya civilians.

Myanmar has denied the accusations, saying many of the reports are fabricated and it insists the strife in Rakhine State, where many Rohingya live, is an internal matter.

In addition to fending off diplomatic pressure over the crisis, the Myanmar government has also invited a handpicked media delegation to visit the affected region this week.

Anifah said events in Rakhine State were a matter of regional security and stability, noting that about 56,000 Rohingya now live in Muslim-majority Malaysia having fled previous unrest in Myanmar.

"We believe that the situation is now of a regional concern and should be resolved together," Anifah told the meeting, according to a transcript of his speech provided by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Progress in improving the human rights of the Rohingya had been "rather slow", he said, noting the stream of reports about abuses being committed in Rakhine State.

"A CAMPAIGN OF VIOLENCE"

Anifah also warned that Islamic State militants "could be taking advantage of this situation".

The government of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar has said that militants with links to Islamists overseas were behind attacks on security posts near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh, in the north of Rakhine State, on Oct. 9.

Myanmar troops have poured into the Muslim-majority area since the attacks that killed nine police officers.

At least 86 people have died and an estimated 27,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Oct. 9.

Refugees, residents and human rights groups say Myanmar soldiers have committed summary executions, raped Rohingya women and burned homes.

The majority of the population in northern Rakhine State are Rohingya Muslims who are denied citizenship in Myanmar, where they are considered illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Independent media and observers have been denied access to northern Rakhine State. Some Rohingya communities have also been off-limits to aid agencies on security grounds for more than two months, raising fears about the welfare of a population that was already experiencing high rates of malnutrition.

A group of journalists chosen by the Ministry of Information to represent domestic and international media was set to visit Maungdaw, the main site of the conflict, on Monday.

Officials did not invite most media organisations that have reported on the alleged abuses, including Reuters.

Efforts to rebut accusations of army abuses were undermined by the release of a lengthy report from Amnesty International on Monday, accusing Myanmar of "a campaign of violence against Rohingya people that may amount to crimes against humanity".

The rights group cited satellite images and testimony from Rohingya in Rakhine State and Bangladesh. Among myriad abuses, it alleged large-scale "enforced disappearances" of village elders and religious leaders in Maungdaw.

"While the military is directly responsible for the violations, Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to live up to both her political and moral responsibility to try to stop and condemn what is unfolding in Rakhine State," Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International's director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement.

12:00 AM, December 20, 2016 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:57 PM, December 19, 2016
*Indonesian minister here to discuss Rohingya issue*

*Seeks lasting solution*






Retno Marsudi

Diplomatic Correspondent

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi arrived in Dhaka last night to discuss with high government officials the current ethnic cleansing and persecution on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine as well as finding a lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis.

During her 24-hour visit, she will be discussing Rohingya issues with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Bangladesh counterpart AH Mahmood Ali, and visit Ukhia to see the conditions of Rohingya refugees, according to diplomatic sources.

Marsudi came to Dhaka after attending a meeting along with the foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon yesterday.

Myanmar leader Suu Kyi met with regional foreign ministers to tackle growing international criticism of her army's forceful treatment of the country's Rohingya minority, which some critics say, constitutes crimes against humanity.

She came to Bangladesh to talk about the Rohingya issues as Indonesia wants to comprehensively address problems related to Rohingyas fleeing along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, said a foreign ministry official, adding all countries that attended the meeting in Yangon freely expressed their opinions in an effort to reduce regional concerns over a situation in northern Rakhine.

Human rights groups have accused the military of perpetrating mass murder, looting and rape against the Rohingya in Rakhine, where the army went on a counterinsurgency offensive after an October attack there on police outposts that killed nine officers.

According to Indonesian embassy officials, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi will hold a bilateral meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali today and then together they fly for Cox's Bazar by helicopter to visit the Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia.

Upon return from Ukhia, she will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Gono Bhaban at 5:00pm and depart for Jakarta tonight.

In Myanmar, Marsudi asked Myanmar to open up Rakhine to humanitarian aid and assistance so the situation does not deteriorate for civilians in the impoverished area.

Myanmar has said that at least 93 people -- 17 police and soldiers and 76 alleged "attackers" (including six who reportedly died during interrogation) -- were killed and some 575 suspects detained in the October 9 attacks and a subsequent military crackdown.

Rohingya advocacy groups, however, claim that around 400 Rohingyas -- described by the United Nations as among the most persecuted groups worldwide -- were killed in the military operations, women were raped, and Rohingya villages torched.

On December 16, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights warned the Myanmar government that its “short-sighted, counterproductive, even callous” approach to handling the crisis could result in “grave long-term repercussions” for the country and the region.

“The repeated dismissal of the claims of serious human rights violations as fabrications, coupled with the failure to allow our independent monitors access to the worst affected areas in northern Rakhine, is highly insulting to the victims and an abdication of the government's obligations under international human rights law,” Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

Expressing “deep” disappointment that the UN Human Rights Office's requests for access had not received approval, he added, “If the authorities have nothing to hide, then why is there such reluctance to grant us access? Given the continued failure to grant us access, we can only fear the worst.”


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## Banglar Bir

*The Stateless Rohingya*
9 hrs · 


Indonesian and Bangladesh FMs visit Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh http://www.thestateless.com/…/indonesian-and-bangladesh-fm…/




Indonesian and Bangladesh FMs visit Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

By The Stateless Rohingya The visit comes a day after meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon and demolitions of new Rohingya refugees’ huts in Cox’s Bazar…
THESTATELESS.COM

*Burmese military accused of raping, killing and burning down entire villages*


Burmese security forces accused of systematic campaign of violence against Rohingya Muslims as UN receives daily reports of rapes and killings


Samuel Osborne 
@SamuelOsborne93 
Monday 19 December 2016

Click to follow
The Independent Online




Boys stand among debris after fire destroyed shelters at a camp for internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State near Sittwe, Myanmar Reuters
Burmese security forces have killed, raped and burned down the houses of entire villages in a systematic campaign of violence against Rohingya Muslims, Amnesty International has said.

In a report based on interviews with Rohingyas in both Burma and Bangladesh, Amnesty says it has documented the military’s “vicious and disproportionate” security campaign in northern Rakhine state over the past two months. 

The report cites multiple eyewitnesses alleging soldiers entered their villages and fired randomly, killing men, women and children. Several Rohingya women also claimed to have been raped by soldiers.

*READ MORE*

UN gets daily reports of rapes and killings against Rohingya in Burma
China urges Burma to 'prevent stray bullets' entering its territory
Rohingya refugees from Burma speak of 'genocidal' terror
Nobel prize winner 'overlooking ethnic cleansing' of Muslims
The rights group accused the country’s leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, of “failing to live up to both her political and moral responsibility”.

Burmese authorities have issued blanket denials that troops have committed any human rights violations, with Burmese government officials claiming the army is hunting “terrorists” behind raids on police on 9 October, in which nine police officers were killed.

“The Burmese military has targeted Rohingya civilians in a callous and systematic campaign of violence,” Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said

“Men, women, children, whole families and entire villages have been attacked and abused, as a form of collective punishment.

He added: “The deplorable actions of the military could be part of a widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population and may amount to crimes against humanity. 

“While the military is directly responsible for the violations, Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to live up to both her political and moral responsibility to try to stop and condemn what is unfolding in Rakhine state.

“The Burmese authorities have been wilfully ignorant over of the violations committed by the military in Rakhine state. These completely indefensible violations must end immediately, and independent investigations must be held to ensure that those responsible are held to account.”

Although they have lived in Burma for generations, Rohingya Muslims are barred from citizenship in the nation of 50 million, and instead live as some of the most oppressed people in the world.

Since communal violence broke out in 2012, more than 120,000 Rohingya have been driven from their homes and crammed into squalid camps guarded by police. There, they are denied healthcare and education, and their movements are heavily restricted.

Some have tried to flee by boat, but many ended up becoming victims of human trafficking or were held for ransom.

The report comes as the United Nations human rights chief said rapes and killings of Rohingya Muslims are reported to the UN human rights office on a daily basis.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the government had taken a “short-sighted, counterproductive, even callous” approach to the crisis.

He said the government's handling of issues in northern Rakhine state, where independent monitors are barred from investigating, risk grave long term repercussions for the region.





READ MORE
*What's behind the persecution of Burma's Rohingya Muslims?*
At least 86 people have been killed, according to state media, and the UN estimates 27,000 members of the largely stateless Rohingya minority have fled across the border from Rakhine into Bangladesh.

“The repeated dismissal of the claims of serious human rights violations as fabrications, coupled with the failure to allow our independent monitors access to the worst affected areas in northern Rakhine, is highly insulting to the victims and an abdication of the government's obligations under international human rights law,” Mr Zeid said.

“If the authorities have nothing to hide, then why is there such reluctance to grant us access? Given the continued failure to grant us access, we can only fear the worst.”

UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the UN human rights office had submitted a formal request for access to the area, which had not yet been granted.

Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said his colleagues in Bangladesh had spoken to more than 1,000 newly-arrived refugees in the past few weeks who gave accounts of houses being burned, targeting of civilians and traumatised women and children who had witnessed the killing of family members.

UNHCR could not verify the accounts first-hand, but it was extremely concerned and it urged the Myanmar authorities to investigate and the government of Bangladesh to give the refugees a safe haven, he added.

Mr Zeid said in June that crimes against humanity may have been committed against the Rohingya.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh, Indonesia foreign ministers visit Rohingya refugee camp*

Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 02:52 PM December 20, 2016
Last updated at 11:48 PM December 20, 2016




Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali visit the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar district along with local Awami League lawmaker Abdur Rahman BodiAbdul Aziz
*The ministers visited several blocks of Kutupalong camp and spoke to some of the Rohingyas who have fled the recent violence in Rakhine state of neighbouring Myanmar.*
Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, toured the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar district on Tuesday morning.

The ministers visited several blocks in the camp and talked to some of the thousands of Rohingyas who have fled the recent violence in Rakhine state of neighbouring Myanmar that has killed at least 86 people and displaced 30,000 others in recent weeks.

*Also Read- Dhaka seeks international support to end Rohingya crisis*

Retno Marsudi has travelled to Bangladesh from a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) held in Yangon on Monday, at which Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi gave a briefing on the situation in the troubled Rakhine state.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has been widely criticised for her silence on the Rohingya issue – the most serious violence in her country since the 2012 communal clashes.

*Also Read- Report: Rohingya-led group rings alarm bell*

For its part, the still powerful Myanmar military has denied allegations by Rohingyas and rights groups that their soldiers have raped women, torched houses and killed civilians in a crackdown which has followed the deadly militant attacks on border guard posts on October 9.

Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingyas as its citizens and dubs them “Bangali.” Rohingyas, who managed to land in Bangladesh, have taken shelter at makeshift refugee camps and other places in Cox’s Bazar.

*Also Read- Police block Islami Andolan’s long march to Myanmar*

The refugee camp visit on Tuesday was also attended by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, Foreign Affairs Secretary Shahidul Haque, Cox’s Bazar 4 constituency MP Abdur Rahman Bodi, Deputy Commissioner Md Ali Hossain, Police Superintendent Shyamol Kanti Nath, and representatives from international organisations.

A meeting is scheduled to be held between the two foreign ministers after the camp visit. The Indonesian foreign minister will meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday evening.

*Also Read- Starving Rohingyas fleeing refuge*
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----------



## Exiled_Soldier

*Over 32,000 given citizenship in Myanmar's Rakhine*

More than 32,000 people in Myanmar's Rakhine state were issued formal national verification identity cards after scrutiny, a news release from the State Counselor Office said on Tuesday.

A total of 32,016 people out of 469,183 in Rakhine, who surrendered their temporary certificates, were issued the formal certification on December 23, the Information Committee of the Counselor Office said.

Those who still hold the already expired temporary certificates issued under 1982 Myanmar Citizen Law, were notified to surrender them.

If they were entitled to become a Myanmar citizen then they would be acknowledged as residents of the country with the new certification.

There are a total of 759,672 temporary certificate holders in Rakhine, the statement added.

Myanmar's immigration authorities started on June 1, 2015 to issue the formal national verification identity cards to replace the temporary certificates.

http://www.myanmarsun.com/index.php/sid/250472711


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## bluesky

*Govt insists Rakhine aid go through diplomatic channels*
By Nyan Lynn Aung | Friday, 06 January 2017

*Aid intended for conflict-ridden northern Rakhine State must now be routed through diplomatic channels and delivered by the government, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The announcement comes shortly after Malaysia irked its ASEAN counterpart by declaring plans last week to send an aid flotilla to Rakhine carrying food and emergency supplies, and as the international community continues to pressure Myanmar into resuming humanitarian access to the crisis-hit region.*

In a statement issued on January 4, the State Counsellor’s Office said humanitarian aid sent to Rakhine, including recent proposals by ASEAN countries, must first be approved through diplomatic channels, with information provided as to the precise type, weight and amount of aid being supplied.

“Everybody who wants to donate aid to Rakhine must follow the government’s stated regulations and ASEAN member countries must follow the guidelines earnestly,” said the statement.

So far, only Indonesia has made a request. Indonesia will send 10 shipments to Maungdaw township, with the first containers expected to arrive at Yangon’s port on January 11, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

U Kyaw Moe Tun, director general of the International Organisation and Economic Department under the foreign affairs ministry, told _The Myanmar Times_ yesterday that aid must be distributed fairly to both Muslim and Buddhist communities in Rakhine State – one of the country’s poorest – and cannot just go to Maungdaw district.

“We will not accept aid that does not go through proper diplomatic channels,” he said.

Since November, as many as 50,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh amid the security clampdown. International humanitarian assistance continues to be largely blocked, with 130,000 people who previously received food rations unable to receive them, including children the UN believes are malnourished.

However, an interim report released this week by the state-appointed commission on Rakhine said there were “no cases of malnutrition … found in the area, due to the area’s favourable fishing and farming conditions.”

Malaysia has said that it will send a flotilla with 1000 tonnes of rice on January 10. President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay told Reuters last week that non-citizens may not enter Myanmar waters without permission. “If they do, we will respond – we will not attack them, but we will not receive them,” he told the wire.


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## bluesky

bluesky said:


> Malaysia has said that it will send a flotilla with 1000 tonnes of rice on January 10. President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay told Reuters last week that non-citizens may not enter Myanmar waters without permission. “If they do, we will respond – we will not attack them, but we will not receive them,” he told the wire.


This sentence explains the respective positions of Malaysia and Burma on the Rohingya issue. Malaysian humanitarian gesture is not being well received by Burma. It is so sad!!!


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## alaungphaya

So what's the final score? 60000 - 2000 win for us? I also took a 2 month sabbatical for saying 'bongoland'. It was worth it, though.

Reactions: Like Like:
1


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## bluesky

*OIC envoy calls for UN intervention to avoid genocide of Rohingya Muslims*
>> Reuters

Published: 2017-01-18 10:49:16.0 BdST Updated: 2017-01-18 10:49:16.0 BdST










*The United Nations should intervene in Myanmar's Rakhine State to stop further escalation of violence against Rohingya Muslims and avoid another genocide like in Cambodia and Rwanda, said the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's special envoy to Myanmar.*

The conflict which has left at least 86 dead and an estimated 66,000 people fleeing into Bangladesh since it started on Oct 9, 2016, is no longer an internal issue but of international concern, said Syed Hamid Albar, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Special Envoy to Myanmar.

Syed Hamid said the OIC should seek UN intervention. His comments come ahead of a special OIC meeting called by Malaysia on Thursdayto discuss measures to deal with the conflict affecting the Rohingya minority, who are predominantly Muslim.

"We don't want to see another genocide like in Cambodia or Rwanda," Syed Hamid told Reuters in an interview ahead of the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

"The international community just observed, and how many people died? We have lessons from the past, for us to learn from and see what we can do," he said.

The OIC represents 57 states and acts as the collective voice of the Muslim world.

Refugees, residents and human rights groups say Myanmar soldiers have committed summary executions, raped Rohingya women and burned homes since military operations started in the north of Rakhine State on Oct 9.

The government of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied the accusations, saying many of the reports are fabricated, and it insists the strife in Rakhine State, where many Rohingya live, is an internal matter.

The military operations were in response to attacks on security posts near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh that killed nine police officers. The Myanmar government has said that militants with overseas Islamist links were responsible.

A Myanmar government spokesman said it will not attend the OIC meet as it is not an Islamic country, but that it had already made its actions clear to ASEAN members at their last meeting in December, and that U.N. intervention would only end up facing "unwanted resistance from local people".

"So that's why the international community should have a positive approach and understand widely our country's conflict situation," said Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the office of Myanmar President Htin Kyaw.

About 56,000 Rohingya now live in Muslim-majority Malaysia having fled previous unrest in Myanmar.

Malaysia, which is Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, broke the tradition of non-intervention by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by speaking out on the conflict, calling on the 10-member bloc to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged atrocities committed against the ethnic group.

Zaw Htay criticized Malaysia for its outspoken position on the conflict, saying the country should manage "its own political crisis" and "avoid encouraging extremism and violence" in Myanmar.

“Our new government is working seriously and carefully on the situation in Rakhine. We are working on a very complicated and tough problem with this internal conflict, so we need time to prevent it happening again," Zaw Htay said.


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## alaungphaya

bluesky said:


> *OIC envoy calls for UN intervention to avoid genocide of Rohingya Muslims*
> >> Reuters
> 
> Published: 2017-01-18 10:49:16.0 BdST Updated: 2017-01-18 10:49:16.0 BdST
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *The United Nations should intervene in Myanmar's Rakhine State to stop further escalation of violence against Rohingya Muslims and avoid another genocide like in Cambodia and Rwanda, said the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's special envoy to Myanmar.*
> 
> The conflict which has left at least 86 dead and an estimated 66,000 people fleeing into Bangladesh since it started on Oct 9, 2016, is no longer an internal issue but of international concern, said Syed Hamid Albar, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Special Envoy to Myanmar.
> 
> Syed Hamid said the OIC should seek UN intervention. His comments come ahead of a special OIC meeting called by Malaysia on Thursdayto discuss measures to deal with the conflict affecting the Rohingya minority, who are predominantly Muslim.
> 
> "We don't want to see another genocide like in Cambodia or Rwanda," Syed Hamid told Reuters in an interview ahead of the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
> 
> "The international community just observed, and how many people died? We have lessons from the past, for us to learn from and see what we can do," he said.
> 
> The OIC represents 57 states and acts as the collective voice of the Muslim world.
> 
> Refugees, residents and human rights groups say Myanmar soldiers have committed summary executions, raped Rohingya women and burned homes since military operations started in the north of Rakhine State on Oct 9.
> 
> The government of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied the accusations, saying many of the reports are fabricated, and it insists the strife in Rakhine State, where many Rohingya live, is an internal matter.
> 
> The military operations were in response to attacks on security posts near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh that killed nine police officers. The Myanmar government has said that militants with overseas Islamist links were responsible.
> 
> A Myanmar government spokesman said it will not attend the OIC meet as it is not an Islamic country, but that it had already made its actions clear to ASEAN members at their last meeting in December, and that U.N. intervention would only end up facing "unwanted resistance from local people".
> 
> "So that's why the international community should have a positive approach and understand widely our country's conflict situation," said Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the office of Myanmar President Htin Kyaw.
> 
> About 56,000 Rohingya now live in Muslim-majority Malaysia having fled previous unrest in Myanmar.
> 
> Malaysia, which is Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, broke the tradition of non-intervention by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by speaking out on the conflict, calling on the 10-member bloc to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged atrocities committed against the ethnic group.
> 
> Zaw Htay criticized Malaysia for its outspoken position on the conflict, saying the country should manage "its own political crisis" and "avoid encouraging extremism and violence" in Myanmar.
> 
> “Our new government is working seriously and carefully on the situation in Rakhine. We are working on a very complicated and tough problem with this internal conflict, so we need time to prevent it happening again," Zaw Htay said.



Silly OIC. Haven't they realised they've lost?

Reactions: Like Like:
2


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## Kandari-Hushiyaar

alaungphaya said:


> Silly OIC. Haven't they realised they've lost?



Good for you, The Muslim states are bogged down in internal conflict. Enjoy your time. At this moment, Myanmar is very insignificant .


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## bluesky

*Myanmar’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State visits Bangladesh*
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com

Published: 2017-01-29 01:55:41.0 BdST Updated: 2017-01-29 01:55:41.0 BdST








U Win Mra.

PreviousNext
*A three-member delegation of Myanmar’s ‘Advisory Commission on Rakhine State’ has arrived in Dhaka to discuss the Rohingya issue and survey the situation on the ground.*

Chair of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission U Win Mra, former Lebanese Minister of Culture and UN Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ghassan Salame, and Core Member and Founder of Religious for Peace in Myanmar U Aye Lwin arrived on Saturday and would go to Cox's Bazar on Sunday.

A senior official at the foreign ministry told bdnews24.com that they were also expected to meet the foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali before leaving Dhaka on Feb 1.

In Cox’s Bazar, they will visit the camps where Bangladesh gave shelter to Myanmar nationals for decades. Myanmar denied their citizenship.

According to the foreign ministry, nearly 400,000 Myanmar nationals including 65,000 recent arrivals, after the Oct 9 violence in Rakhine state, are staying in Bangladesh. The delegation will visit those camps.

The Myanmar government last year established the Commission to what it said finding a lasting solution to the “complex and delicate” issues of the State.

The nine-member Advisory Commission, a national initiative to resolve protracted issues in the region, is chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

It is composed of three international and six national ‘persons of Eminence’ who are “highly experienced, respected and neutral individuals”.

The Commission is mandated to undertake meetings with all relevant stakeholders, international experts and foreign dignitaries to hear their views and analyse the “best possible solutions to prevailing problems”.

The Commission will consider humanitarian and development issues, access to essential services, the assurance of basic rights, and the security of the people of Rakhine.

After consultations, they will submit their findings and recommendations to the Myanmar government through State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, according to her office.


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## bluesky

*Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face relocation to island*

7 hours ago

From the sectionAsia
Share



Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionBangladesh wants to move thousands of Rohingya refugees from their camps in Cox's Bazar
The Bangladesh government is moving to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to a vulnerable island in the Bay of Bengal.

A government directive said they would be transferred to Thengar Char before being repatriated to Myanmar.

Rights groups have raised strong objections to the plan, saying it amounts to a forced relocation.

Thengar Char is engulfed by several feet of water at high tide, and has no roads or flood defences.

It was formed about a decade ago by sediment from the River Meghna, and does not appear on most maps. The low-lying land is around 30km (18 miles) east of Hatiya island, which has a population of 600,000 - and nine hours' journey from the camps where the Rohingya have taken shelter.

An official in the region told the AFP news agency Thengar Char was "only accessible during winter and is a haven for pirates".

The official said trees had been planted in a bid to protect the land from flooding, but these efforts were at least a decade off completion. "It completely inundates during the monsoon," the official told AFP.





Image captionThengar Char is too remote to appear on maps, but is next to Hatiya island
"It's a terrible idea to send someone to live there."

In Myanmar, the Rohingya are denied citizenship and treated as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. But in Bangladesh too they are unwanted - leaving them persecuted, impoverished and effectively stateless.

Officials say an estimated 65,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since October, fleeing violence in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine.




Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionMany of the Rohingya have lived in their current refugee colonies for many years
Some 232,000 - both registered and unregistered - were already living in Bangladesh before that influx, many in refugee camps with poor facilities.

Now the Bangladesh government has set up a committee of state officials to help identify and relocate undocumented Myanmar nationals.

A push to attract tourists is being blamed in part for the proposal, which has the backing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Cox's Bazar, which houses 32,000 Rohingya in a squalid refugee colony, is home to the world's longest unbroken beach and Bangladesh's largest resort. Officials fear the presence of the Rohingya may put off would-be holidaymakers.


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## dray

Bangladeshi members should check this thread:

https://defence.pk/threads/rohingya-insurgency-in-western-myanmar.476308/

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## tarpitz

The Bengali terrorist leader Hafiz Tohar released this video clip threaten to kill all Myanmar and he also declared Jihad on Myanmar.
Behind him you can clearly see the weapons looted from the police stations.

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## ShoutB

tarpitz said:


> The Bengali terrorist leader Hafiz Tohar released this video clip threaten to kill all Myanmar and he also declared Jihad on Myanmar.
> Behind him you can clearly see the weapons looted from the police stations.
> View attachment 374873
> View attachment 374874




You don't know the people in Myanmar. They believe in Vajrapani and Dorji Drolo .. yeh namuna kahan gayab hoga iskko khud nahi pata chalega. They are not pappus like we Indians.. haye secularism haye secularism. They are strict followers of Sakyamuni!! And nothing but just like Mongols.


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## tarpitz

This is how the Benglais used the media with fabricated news.










Even the Al Jazeera warned of fake Rohingya news.


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## ShoutB

tarpitz said:


> This is how the Benglais used the media with fabricated news.
> View attachment 374879
> View attachment 374880
> 
> 
> 
> Even the Al Jazeera warned of fake Rohingya news.
> 
> View attachment 374881




Oh well Muslims want to rule the world then why to cry even if it is not a fake news.

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## TopCat

tarpitz said:


> This is how the Benglais used the media with fabricated news.
> View attachment 374879
> View attachment 374880
> 
> 
> 
> Even the Al Jazeera warned of fake Rohingya news.
> 
> View attachment 374881


The following are not fake news

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## tarpitz

TopCat said:


> The following are not fake news


Yes. It is the results of fake news.
Muslim terrorists circulated the fake news and only the Muslim organizations pretend to believe it.
OHCHR is led by a Muslim elite from Jordan as well. 
He should take care of Muslim women from Muslim countries who don't even have a voting right. 
He should take care of thousands of innocent people killed and executed by Muslim terrorists instead of illegally migrated Bengalis.

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## TopCat

tarpitz said:


> Yes. It is the results of fake news.
> Muslim terrorists circulated the fake news and only the Muslim organizations pretend to believe it.
> OHCHR is led by a Muslim elite from Jordan as well.
> He should take care of Muslim women from Muslim countries who don't even have a voting right.
> He should take care of thousands of innocent people killed and executed by Muslim terrorists instead of illegally migrated Bengalis.


How about she?






Ohh she is the whore

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## Flynn Swagmire

Burmese with their super monkey IQ and Indians with their super vedic IQ will rule the world one day using a joint venture...

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## ShoutB

OrdinaryGenius said:


> Burmese with their super monkey IQ and Indians with their super vedic IQ will rule the world one day using a joint venture...



After the rise of Modi on similar pattern Trump came in power. And Myanmar is already doing what it needs to, to protect it's interest.


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## TopCat

ShoutB said:


> After the rise of Modi on similar pattern *Trump came in power*. And Myanmar is already doing what it needs to, to protect it's interest.


 and indian having wet dream over Trump

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## ShoutB

TopCat said:


> and indian having wet dream over Trump



he has already banned Muslims from 7 muslim countries .. come in reality.


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## TopCat

ShoutB said:


> he has already banned Muslims from 7 muslim countries .. come in reality.


Well that does not matter much for the countries except for some immigrant. But he already placed the bill for H1-B1 visa and wait for that to come to effect.. Indians and BPO business people will be $hitting their pants. And after rate increase, outsourcing income nosed dives, oil price hit the sky.. ohh yeah you Indians will be praying at Trump days and night.
None of this will affect Muslims but ME war will come to drastic end which will benefit the muslim. We will wait till then to have our vacation in beaches of USA.

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## ShoutB

TopCat said:


> Well that does not matter much for the countries except for some immigrant. But he already placed the bill for H1-B1 visa and wait for that to come to effect.. Indians and BPO business people will be $hitting their pants. And after rate increase, outsourcing income nosed dives, oil price hit the sky.. ohh yeah you Indians will be praying at Trump days and night.
> None of this will affect Muslims but ME war will come to drastic end which will benefit the muslim. We will wait till then to have our vacation in beaches of USA.




Ban on immigration from MUSLIM countries gives a message that Muslims are terrorists and and H1B1 is given to those who are genius! It's good at least brain drain in India will stop.


PS: DONT MIX RELIGIOUS CONFLICT WITH ECONOMY!


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## Flynn Swagmire

ShoutB said:


> After the rise of Modi on similar pattern Trump came in power. And Myanmar is already doing what it needs to, to protect it's interest.


Another mass-rape and genocide supporter trying to justify burmese crimes...

Are you an Indian?



ShoutB said:


> he has already banned Muslims from 7 muslim countries .. come in reality.


And court already showed him middle finger...

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## ShoutB

OrdinaryGenius said:


> Another mass-rape and genocide supporter trying to justify burmese crimes...
> 
> Are you an Indian?
> 
> 
> And court already showed him middle finger...



And CIA will show middle finger to the court

mass rape and genocide done in the name of Islam. Justification of spread of Islam through whatever means is justified by you so you should bear when other does the same

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## Flynn Swagmire

ShoutB said:


> And CIA will show middle finger to the court
> 
> mass rape and genocide done in the name of Islam. Justification of spread of Islam through whatever means is justified by you so you should bear when other does the same


CIA will show middle finger to the court??? Kudus for you supaIQ Indian... 

Do you know these days India got a nick name called "rapeistan"?

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## ShoutB

OrdinaryGenius said:


> CIA will show middle finger to the court??? Kudus for you supaIQ Indian...
> 
> Do you know these days India got a nick name called "rapeistan"?



I cannot help if your *** is on fire seeing India develop.

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## Flynn Swagmire

ShoutB said:


> I cannot help if your *** is on fire seeing India develop.


And why would I need your help to see India develop???

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## Bilal9

Guys we do not have _any_ obligation to respond to uneducated Sanghi Indians or Myanmarese false-flaggers, entertaining as it may be.

Absolute waste of time and bandwidth. Use the 'ignore' function. Life is short.

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## Mo12

Bilal9 said:


> Guys we do not have _any_ obligation to respond to Sanghi Bhakt Indians.
> 
> Waste of time and bandwidth. Use the 'ignore' function. Life is short.



Life is short.... but yet I will come to defence.pk and argue about how great Bangladesh is, and how bad India, Pakistan and Burma are

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## Bilal9

Mo12 said:


> Life is short.... but yet I will come to defence.pk and argue about how great Bangladesh is, and how bad India, Pakistan and Burma are



Seeing your fourteen negatives - you are now ignored as well. 

Next!

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## Mo12

Bilal9 said:


> Seeing your fourteen negatives - you are now ignored as well.
> 
> Next!


Life is short, I wont be to sad at this news.

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## aziqbal

*

*

*More than 1,000 Rohingya feared killed in Myanmar crackdown, say UN officials*

More than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims might have been killed in a Myanmar army crackdown, according to two senior United Nations officials dealing with refugees fleeing the violence, suggesting the death toll is far greater than previously reported.

The officials, from two separate UN agencies working in Bangladesh, where nearly 70,000 Rohingya have fled in recent months, said they were concerned the outside world had not fully grasped the severity of the crisis unfolding in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“The talk until now has been of hundreds of deaths. This is probably an underestimation – we could be looking at thousands,” said one of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. Both officials, in separate interviews, cited the weight of testimony gathered by their agencies from refugees over the past four months in concluding the death toll was likely to have exceeded 1,000.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....nmar-crackdown-say-un-officials?client=safari


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## Arthur

WORLD NEWS | Thu Feb 9, 2017 | 8:13am EST
*Aid ship to help Rohingyas arrives in Myanmar, greeted by protest*

People and Buddhist monks protest while Malaysian NGO's aid ship carrying food and emergency supplies for Rohingya Muslims arrives at the port in Yangon, Myanmar February 9, 2017. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun








By Simon Lewis and Aye Win Myint | YANGON
A small group of protesters greeted a ship from Malaysia when it docked in Myanmar on Thursday carrying aid bound for the troubled state of Rakhine, where many members of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority live.

The ship docked on the outskirts of the commercial hub, Yangon, where it was due to unload 500 tonnes of food and emergency supplies, with the rest of its 2,200 ton cargo bound for southeast Bangladesh.

Almost 69,000 Rohingyas have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the past four months from a security force crackdown.

The aid shipment from mostly Muslim Malaysia has stirred opposition in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where many see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Malaysia has been an outspoken critic of Myanmar over the crisis in Rakhine state, which erupted after nine policemen were killed in attacks on border posts on Oct. 9 claimed by Rohingya militants.

U.N. officials working with refugees in Bangladesh have told Reuters the death toll in the Myanmar security sweep could be more than 1,000.

Refugees have given journalists, human rights groups and U.N. investigators detailed accounts of troops firing on civilians, burning villages, beatings, detention and rape.

The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has rejected the reports of abuse, saying many were fabricated. It insists the strife is an internal matter.

Underlining the controversy surrounding the aid for the Rohingya, several dozen Buddhist monks and nationalists demonstrated outside the port terminal on Thursday.

They held signs rejecting the use of the name Rohingya - the name most Muslims in northern Rakhine state use to describe themselves, which Myanmar rejects."We don't mind that they want to support people who are suffering," Buddhist monk U Thuseiktha told Reuters.

"But we don't want political exploitation of this issue by calling them Rohingya. The name Rohingya doesn't exist."



'CONFIDENCE'

Myanmar officials have also accused Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak of tapping into the Rohingya cause "to promote a certain political agenda".

The Muslim groups and aid organizations behind the aid shipment had hoped to deliver the supplies directly to Rohingyas in Rakhine State, but were instead forced to hand the aid over to the Myanmar government in Yangon.

Myanmar has also insisted that it be distributed equally between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine State.

Abd. Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, a lawmaker from Najib's ruling party who attended the docking, said the organizations behind the shipment had been delivering aid to other crises around Asia and the Pacific.

Any suggestion of political expediency was "speculation", he said.

Najib has called Myanmar's military operation "genocide" and saw off the shipment when it left Malaysia last Friday.

Reezal Merican Naina Merican, Malaysia's deputy minister of foreign affairs, who was also at the port, praised Myanmar for agreeing to accept the delivery, saying it built confidence between the international community and Myanmar.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, said Rakhine was "the second-poorest state in Myanmar, is a natural disaster-prone area by geographical location, and it is compounded by communal conflicts unfortunately".Myanmar has been criticized for hampering the work of agencies including the U.N. World Food Program trying to feed people in area where malnutrition rates were high before the conflict .The government had been delivering aid to affected people in northern Rakhine "without discrimination", Win Myat Aye said, adding Myanmar would "arrange the distribution of this aid to the communities in the affected areas at the soonest possible time".



(Editing by Robert Birsel)


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-malaysia-idUSKBN15O1II

-------
And they calls themselves human, "Buddhist" monk. They are far from the teaching of Buddha, who taught love, respect & kindness for humans & every living creature. What a shame.
@Bilal9 bhai, you were correct when you said the mogs has completely forgotten the teaching of The Buddha. What a shame these supids are to the human race.

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## Bilal9

Khan saheb said:


> WORLD NEWS | Thu Feb 9, 2017 | 8:13am EST
> *Aid ship to help Rohingyas arrives in Myanmar, greeted by protest*
> 
> People and Buddhist monks protest while Malaysian NGO's aid ship carrying food and emergency supplies for Rohingya Muslims arrives at the port in Yangon, Myanmar February 9, 2017. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> By Simon Lewis and Aye Win Myint | YANGON
> A small group of protesters greeted a ship from Malaysia when it docked in Myanmar on Thursday carrying aid bound for the troubled state of Rakhine, where many members of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority live.
> 
> The ship docked on the outskirts of the commercial hub, Yangon, where it was due to unload 500 tonnes of food and emergency supplies, with the rest of its 2,200 ton cargo bound for southeast Bangladesh.
> 
> Almost 69,000 Rohingyas have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the past four months from a security force crackdown.
> 
> The aid shipment from mostly Muslim Malaysia has stirred opposition in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where many see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
> 
> Malaysia has been an outspoken critic of Myanmar over the crisis in Rakhine state, which erupted after nine policemen were killed in attacks on border posts on Oct. 9 claimed by Rohingya militants.
> 
> U.N. officials working with refugees in Bangladesh have told Reuters the death toll in the Myanmar security sweep could be more than 1,000.
> 
> Refugees have given journalists, human rights groups and U.N. investigators detailed accounts of troops firing on civilians, burning villages, beatings, detention and rape.
> 
> The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has rejected the reports of abuse, saying many were fabricated. It insists the strife is an internal matter.
> 
> Underlining the controversy surrounding the aid for the Rohingya, several dozen Buddhist monks and nationalists demonstrated outside the port terminal on Thursday.
> 
> They held signs rejecting the use of the name Rohingya - the name most Muslims in northern Rakhine state use to describe themselves, which Myanmar rejects."We don't mind that they want to support people who are suffering," Buddhist monk U Thuseiktha told Reuters.
> 
> "But we don't want political exploitation of this issue by calling them Rohingya. The name Rohingya doesn't exist."
> 
> 
> 
> 'CONFIDENCE'
> 
> Myanmar officials have also accused Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak of tapping into the Rohingya cause "to promote a certain political agenda".
> 
> The Muslim groups and aid organizations behind the aid shipment had hoped to deliver the supplies directly to Rohingyas in Rakhine State, but were instead forced to hand the aid over to the Myanmar government in Yangon.
> 
> Myanmar has also insisted that it be distributed equally between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine State.
> 
> Abd. Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, a lawmaker from Najib's ruling party who attended the docking, said the organizations behind the shipment had been delivering aid to other crises around Asia and the Pacific.
> 
> Any suggestion of political expediency was "speculation", he said.
> 
> Najib has called Myanmar's military operation "genocide" and saw off the shipment when it left Malaysia last Friday.
> 
> Reezal Merican Naina Merican, Malaysia's deputy minister of foreign affairs, who was also at the port, praised Myanmar for agreeing to accept the delivery, saying it built confidence between the international community and Myanmar.
> 
> Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, said Rakhine was "the second-poorest state in Myanmar, is a natural disaster-prone area by geographical location, and it is compounded by communal conflicts unfortunately".Myanmar has been criticized for hampering the work of agencies including the U.N. World Food Program trying to feed people in area where malnutrition rates were high before the conflict .The government had been delivering aid to affected people in northern Rakhine "without discrimination", Win Myat Aye said, adding Myanmar would "arrange the distribution of this aid to the communities in the affected areas at the soonest possible time".
> 
> 
> 
> (Editing by Robert Birsel)
> 
> 
> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-malaysia-idUSKBN15O1II
> 
> -------
> And they calls themselves human, "Buddhist" monk. They are far from the teaching of Buddha, who taught love, respect & kindness for humans & every living creature. What a shame.
> @Bilal9 bhai, you were correct when you siad the mogs has completely forgotten the teaching of The Buddha. What a shame these supids are for the human race.



These people don't even realize that their 'stand' (i.e. communalism and racism) is nothing to be proud about.

Such is backwardness, illiteracy and dumbfounded stupidity. Literacy means more than being able to sign your name and being able to read a newspaper.

May Buddha enlighten these people. In fact I think they've lost the right to call themselves Buddhists.

I wonder what the honorable Dalai Lama would say about these people....

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## asad71

Bilal9 said:


> These people don't even realize that their 'stand' (i.e. communalism and racism) is nothing to be proud about.
> 
> Such is backwardness, illiteracy and dumbfounded stupidity. Literacy means more than being able to sign your name and being able to read a newspaper.
> 
> May Buddha enlighten these people. In fact I think they've lost the right to call themselves Buddhists.
> 
> I wonder what the honorable Dalai Lama would say about these people....



The media in BD is totally controlled. So they have to downplay Rohingya issue and Rampla conspiracy.


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## bdslph

asad71 said:


> The media in BD is totally controlled. So they have to downplay Rohingya issue and Rampla conspiracy.



if you dont then i saw what happen to the media


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## bluesky

02:04 PM, February 15, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:13 PM, February 15, 2017
*PM to raise Rohingya issue during German tour*
*Foreign minister briefs media* 





Rohingya refugee Nur Sahara in the arms of a Rohingya man at Lambabil in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar. They had crossed the border into Bangladesh. Sahara was crying in fear as she had seen a photojournalist wearing boots. She had witnessed men in boots torture people in her village across the border. Star file photo

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh will take up the Rohingya issue with Germany during the prime minister's visit to Munich, aiming to mount pressure on Myanmar to repatriate its nationals from Bangladesh.

"We've already talked to the European Commission on the Rohingya issue. And of course, the issue will be discussed at a meeting with Dr Angela Merkel," Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told a press conference at the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

A Bangladesh delegation, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leaves here on Thursday for Munich, Germany, on a four-day official visit to attend Munich Security Conference (MSC) and the prime minister will hold bilateral talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday next.

Mahmood Ali said the whole world is with Bangladesh over Rohingya issue while the United Nations has already criticised Myanmar in strong words for persecution of Rohingya people.

"We think we're on the right track over Rohingya issue because the world has realised how much sufferings the Rohingya people have been going through," he said.

About relocation of Rohingya people to Thengar Char in Hatiya, the Foreign Minister said Cox's Bazar is the country's main tourism spot and it cannot be allowed to be destroyed. "We have to consider the environment and also the problem of local people."

He said Rohingya people will not be there at Thengar Char forever as they will be repatriated to their homeland.

Mahmood Ali said Rohingya people are not being relocated right now. Infrastructures will be built and livelihood options will be created there before their relocation to Thengar Char, he added.

The government has started the initial process to gradually shift Rogingyas to Thengar Char in Hatiya, Noakhali.


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## Arefin007

I was watching documentary on BBC last night about Rohingya They were suffering out in the sea with limited food ration the children didn't have proper clothes to wear it was horrible to watch many are living in camps along Teknaf they are our own kin we aren't doing enough to help them Everyone make dua for them please for end to the crisis so they can live honourably in own land why isn't burmese government giving them citizenship why are they so cruel and horrible


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## bluesky

*Rohingyas get Malaysian aid*

Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 12:09 PM February 15, 2017
Last updated at 02:37 PM February 15, 2017



The distribution of Malaysian aid for Rohingyas has been started. A Rohingya man is seen carrying the relief goods in Ukhiya Dhaka Tribune
*Cox’s Bazar district administration has started distributing Malaysian relief goods to Rohingya refugees in Ukhiya and Teknaf.*
A total of 150 Rohingya families will get the relief goods on Wednesday.

The 1472 tonnes of relief goods will be distributed among 15,000 Rohingya families, 5,500 in Teknaf and 9,500 in Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar.

Saiful Islam Mojumder, head of relief distribution coordination committee and also additional deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar, told the Dhaka Tribune that the relief goods had been kept at the food storages.

*Also Read- Malaysian flotilla brings aid for 15,000 Rohingya families*

“We will make a list and then distribute the goods among Rohingyas in four spots,” he added.

He said the relief goods include rice, lentils, coffee, sugar, cooking oil, blankets and first aids.

Two coordination committees have been formed to oversee the distribution of relief goods, Saiful said.

Malaysian aid ship Nautical Aliya handed over the relief goods for the Rohingya refugees at a ceremony at Chittagong port on Tuesday.

Nearly 70,000 Rohingyas have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh to escape a crackdown launched after nine policemen were killed in attacks on border posts on October 9 last year that Myanmar blamed on Rohingya militants.


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## PDF

I again ask what is the Pakistan Stance on this Issue and Why Military sales are not stopped?The Defence Ministry And Armed Forces are promoting injustice and must be condemned...

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## asad71

Till there is a strong patriotic leader at Dhaka like Sheikh or Zia, the Burmans will keep massacring the Rohingyas to physically eliminate the race. The Rohingya Mujahids are impatient to launch themselves. But without a logistical corridor in BD territory, it is just impossible.

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## bluesky

12:00 AM, March 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:54 AM, March 01, 2017
*Fresh census of Rohingyas begins*
*Govt to gather info about those who entered Bangladesh recently*
Our Correspondent, Cox's Bazar

The government yesterday started counting the number of Rohingyas who took shelter in Cox's Bazar district on fleeing a four-month army crackdown beginning in October last year in neighbouring Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) deployed 200 trained teams of two, one supervisor and one enumerator, since 8:00am to initially cover Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas before moving on to Cox's Bazar sadar, Ramu and Chakaria.

Expected to complete by March 10, the census is part of a government plan to relocate the refugees to Noakhali's Thengar Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal.

Collection of preliminary data, including identifying places where the Myanmar nationals took refuge, started on February 25.

Praising the initiative, convener of Rohingya Repatriation Action Committee, Principal Hamidul Haque Chowdhury, urged making public another census BBS carried out last year.

The crackdown began after nine Myanmarese policemen were killed in attacks on border posts. Government and international organisations assume around 70,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh.

A United Nations human rights observer who recently visited Bangladesh stated of hearing from the refugees how government forces gang-raped women, slit people's throats and threw children into burning houses.

Over 400,000 Rohingyas have already been living for years in squalid camps and slums in the country's biggest tourist resort district.

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## Nilgiri

Khan saheb said:


> And they calls themselves human, "Buddhist" monk. They are far from the teaching of Buddha, who taught love, respect & kindness for humans & every living creature. What a shame.
> @Bilal9 bhai, you were correct when you said the mogs has completely forgotten the teaching of The Buddha. What a shame these supids are to the human race.



They have to do what they do to teach you lot a lesson. It is the only language you lot are capable of understanding.

Dharmic philosophy only applies to fellow Dharmic thinking people. The rest get eye for an eye, given thats the sum total of their higher level thinking.

Learn to enjoy it (esp in preparation for further upcoming rounds), accept it and negotiate with that in mind, that's the only solution in stopping your incessant victim-complex wailing that no one gives a damn about (be it 1971 or any other looney BAL/BeeDee claim).

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## The Eagle

*Members, personal attacks or insults to any member/nationality will be treated as violation hence, refrain from as such.*

Thanks

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## bluesky

There are reports of trouble near the China border in Mynamar. I am sending only the link, because an elaborate news cannot be sent in a Rohingya thread.

http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/03/07/30-dead-intense-fighting-breaks-myanmar-china-border/



Nilgiri said:


> They have to do what they do to teach you lot a lesson. It is the only language you lot are capable of understanding.
> 
> Dharmic philosophy only applies to fellow Dharmic thinking people. The rest get eye for an eye, given thats the sum total of their higher level thinking.
> 
> Learn to enjoy it (esp in preparation for further upcoming rounds), accept it and negotiate with that in mind, that's the only solution in stopping your incessant victim-complex wailing that no one gives a damn about (be it 1971 or any other looney BAL/BeeDee claim).



You must be naive about things that are happening here and there. It is sad to see you selectively amuse at the sufferings of Muslims anywhere and everywhere in the world. you blame Muslims for every thing bad. But, can you quote one sentence in this forum when any Muslim has celebrated the sufferings of other communities? Be a human first, then become a Hindu or whatever it makes you a more human. Every word you spit is a poison from your heart. I wonder, why?

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## Banglar Bir

SUU KYI SUPPORTS ARMY’S ETHNIC CLEANSING
Rohingya killings expose fraud of Burmese “democracy”
*John Roberts*




THE UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last month adopted a resolution setting up an investigation into serious crimes committed by the Burmese (Myanmar) security forces and nationalist thugs against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh.
UN reports dating back to early February document accounts of mass killings, rapes and the burning of whole villages in military “clearance” operations. These atrocities began last October after attacks on Burmese border posts, allegedly by Rohingya militants, killed nine security force members. Since then over 70,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh taking the total number of refugees there to over 300,000, in addition to 140,000 internally displaced inside Burma.
UN reports indicate the commission of crimes on a mass scale. UN officials have estimated that at least 1,000 people have been killed and unknown numbers, particularly of males aged 17–45, are missing. Over 200 refugees were interviewed in eight separate Bangladesh refugee camps. The destruction of villages has been confirmed by satellite images.
The extent of the operation indicates that a systematic pogrom organised by the military, with the complicity of the government, is underway and ultimately designed to drive all of the one million Rohingya out of Burma.
The resolution was a rotten compromise worked out among the 47 nations on the UNHRC. Calls by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, as well as 13 international human rights groups, for a Commission of Inquiry (COI), the UN’s highest level of investigation, were rejected.
Instead the UNHRC adopted a proposal from European Union diplomats for a fact-finding mission, including forensic and sexual violence experts to “urgently” establish facts “with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.” The resolution is premised on cooperation from the hybrid military-National League for Democracy (NLD) government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the West’s “democratic icon.” The “urgent” investigation will submit an initial report in September and a full report next year.
In her submission of February 24, UN Rapporteur Lee had called for an inquiry to also examine similar military operations in 2012 and 2014, which were largely passed over until the anti-Rohingya drive reached its current intensity.

*EU diplomats cover up Suu Kyi’s role *
The aim of the EU diplomats is to cover up the role of Suu Kyi. Lee told journalists in March 2017 that the EU leaders wanted to give Suu Kyi more time before a full-scale investigation was launched and initially opposed any inquiry that did not fully involve Burma’s own investigators.
The NLD shares power with the military that exercised a brutal dictatorship over the country for half a century. It took over from military’s United Solidarity and Development Party government last April but key security ministries remain in the hands of the generals.
Both the NLD and the armed forces are steeped in the anti-Rohingya chauvinism that permeates the entire Buddhist Burmese political establishment. The Rohingya, most of whom have been in Burma for generations and have been terrorised and denied citizenship, are officially described as “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh.
The response of the Burmese ruling elite to the March 24 UNHRC resolution has been uniform.
Burma’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, U Htin Lynn, a representative of the foreign ministry that is under Suu Kyi’s direct control, denounced the resolution prior to its adoption saying: “We will do what needs to be done.”
The day after the resolution was passed the foreign affairs ministry stated that Burma “dissociated itself from the resolution as a whole” and added “an international fact-finding mission would do more to inflame, rather than resolve the issues at this time.”

*Suu Kyi’s stony silence*
Suu Kyi, who has previously maintained a stony silence on the Rohingya massacres, explicitly backed the actions of the military in comments to the BBC on 6 April 2017. She denied that there was “ethnic cleansing” in Rakhine, and underscored her government’s support for the army’s operations, stating, “They are free to go in and fight. And of course, that is in the constitution ... Military matters are to be left to the army.”
Suu Kyi’s comments were in line with those of senior military figures in the government. Army strongman General Min Aung Hlaing, who directly controls the ministries of home affairs, defence and border security, condemned any UN intervention into Burma, stating that the Rohingya were “Bengalis”, not one of Burma’s nationalities and therefore had no right to remain in Burma.
The arguments at the UNHRC over what type of investigation should take place were not based on any concern for the democratic rights of the Rohingya or any other section of the population. The differences reflected conflicting economic and geo-political interests in Burma.
The installation of the NLD government in April last year was the culmination of a Faustian deal with the generals, sealed in 2011. It was fostered and overseen by Washington under the Obama administration.
The junta needed to get out from under Western sanctions and its economic over-dependence on China. After years of repression, Suu Kyi and the NLD, representing sections of the Burmese elite seeking closer ties and investment from the West, accepted the role of junior partner to the military and provide a “democratic” façade for the hybrid regime.
The arrangement opened up economic opportunities for both sides as Burma was converted into a cheap labour platform and mineral exporter to the West. The Obama administration prised Burma from dependence on Beijing and established ties with the military as part of its strategy of encircling China.
The EU moved quickly to lift economic sanctions after the deal was sealed, forcing a much faster pace of engagement with the NLD regime than many in Washington planned. International finance circles gushed about Burma being a “new frontier” where abundant untapped natural resources and cheap labour offered big profits.
Burma received $US9.4 billion in foreign direct investment in 2015–2016 with EU members Britain, the Netherlands and France high on the list, and the US well back at 35th.
China’s economic preponderance remains. In 2015–16, Singapore was the greatest contributor with $4.3 billion but China was second with $3.3 billion and still Burma’s largest trading partner. Burmese and Chinese officials announced this week that they expect a 771-kilometre oil pipeline from Burma’s Maday Island to southern China to begin operation in May.
The US and its EU allies cynically exploit concerns over “human rights” in Burma and elsewhere to advance their geo-political interests. The inquiry into the military’s atrocities against the Rohingya minority, while limited at present, is a means of exerting pressure on the regime if it fails to toe the line.
—WSWS
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=6&date=0#Tid=13834


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## Banglar Bir

Photo: Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images
*Burmese Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi Has Turned Into an Apologist for Genocide Against Muslims*



Mehdi Hasan
April 13 2017, 6:49 p.m.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI IS ONE of the most celebrated human rights icons of our age: Nobel Peace Laureate, winner of the Sakharov Prize, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Amnesty International-recognized prisoner of conscience for 15 long years.

These days, however, she is also an apologist for genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass rape.

For the past year, Aung San Suu Kyi has been State Counselor, or _de facto_head of government, in Myanmar, where members of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the northern Rakhine state have been shot, stabbed, starved, robbed, raped and driven from their homes in the hundreds of thousands. In December, while the world focused on the fall of Aleppo, more than a dozen Nobel Laureates published an open letter warning of a tragedy in Rakhine “amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

In February, a report by the United Nations documented how the Burmese army’s attacks on the Rohingya were “widespread as well as systematic” thus “indicating the very likely commission of crimes against humanity.” More than half of the 101 Rohingya women interviewed by UN investigators across the border in Bangladesh said they had suffered rape or other forms of sexual violence at the hands of security forces. “They beat and killed my husband with a knife,” one survivor recalled. “Five of them took off my clothes and raped me. My eight-month old son was crying of hunger when they were in my house because he wanted to breastfeed, so to silence him they killed him too with a knife.”

And the response of Aung San Suu Kyi? This once-proud campaigner against wartime rape and human rights abuses by the Burmese military has opted to borrow from the Donald Trump playbook of denial and deflection. Her office accused Rohingya women of fabricating stories of sexual violence and put the words “fake rape” — in the form of a banner headline, no less — on its official website. A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry — also controlled directly by Aung San Suu Kyi — dismissed “made-up stories, blown out of proportion.” In February, the State Counselor herself reportedly told the Archbishop of Yangon, Charles Bo, that the international community is exaggerating the Rohingya issue.

This is Trumpism 101: Deny. Discredit. Smear.





A Rohingya boy from Myanmar is photographed during police identification procedures at a newly set up confinement area in Bayeun, Aceh province on May 21, 2015, after more than 400 Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh were rescued by Indonesian fishermen off the waters of the province.

Photo: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images
It was all supposed to be so different. In November 2015, Myanmar held its first contested national elections after five decades of military rule. An overwhelming victory for Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and former political prisoner, was going to usher in a new era of democracy, human rights and respect for minorities. That, at least, was the hope.

The reality has been very different. Less than a year after taking office, Burmese security forces launched a brutal crackdown on the Rohingya after an attack on a border outpost in Rakhine killed nine police officers in October. The northern portion of the state was sealed off by the military and humanitarian aid was blocked, as was access to foreign journalists and human rights groups. Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are believed to have been slaughtered and tens of thousands driven across the border into Bangladesh.

This is only the latest chapter in the anti-Rohingya saga. The Muslim residents of Rakhine have been subjected to violent attacks by the military since 2012 and were stripped of citizenship, and rendered stateless, as long ago as 1982. The 1-million odd Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions: denied access to employment, education and healthcare, forced to obtain permission to marry and subjected to a discriminatory “two-child” policy. “About 10 percent are held in internment camps,” according to Patrick Winn, Asia correspondent for Public Radio International. “The rest are quarantined in militarized districts and forbidden to travel.”

The standard Western media narrative is to accuse The Lady, as she is known by her admirers, of silence and of a grotesque failure to speak out against these human rights abuses. In an editorial last May, the New York Times denounced Suu Kyi’s “cowardly stance on the Rohingya.”

Yet hers is not merely a crime of omission, a refusal to denounce or condemn. Hers are much worse crimes of _commission_. She took a deliberate decision to try and discredit the Rohingya victims of rape. She went out of her way to accuse human rights groups and foreign journalists of exaggerations and fabrications. She demanded that the U.S. government stop using the name “Rohingya” — thereby perpetuating the pernicious myth that the Muslims of Rakhine are “Bengali” interlopers (rather than a Burmese community with a centuries-long presence inside Myanmar.) She also appointed a former army general to investigate the recent attacks on the Rohingya and he produced a report in January that, not surprisingly, whitewashed the well-documented crimes of his former colleagues in the Burmese military.
Silence, therefore, is the least of her sins. Silence also suggests a studied neutrality. Yet there is nothing neutral about Aung San Suu Kyi’s stance. She has picked her side and it is the side of Buddhist nationalism and crude Islamophobia.
In 2013, after an interview with the BBC’s Mishal Husain, Aung San Suu Kyi complained, “No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim.” In 2015, ahead of historic parliamentary elections, the NLD leader purged her party of all Muslim candidates, resulting in the country’s first legislature without any Muslim representation whatsoever. Like a Burmese Steve Bannon, she paranoiacally speaks of “global Muslim power” being “very great” — only 4 percent of the Burmese population, incidentally, is Muslim — while conspiratorially dismissing reports of Buddhist-orchestrated massacres in Rakhine as “Muslims killing Muslims.”

This is a form of genocide denial, delivered in a soft tone and posh voice by a telegenic Nobel Peace Prize winner. Genocide, though, sounds like an exaggeration, doesn’t it? Pro-Rohingya propaganda, perhaps? Yet independent study after independent study has come to the same stark and depressing conclusion: genocide _is_ being carried out against the Rohingya. For example, an October 2015 legal analysis by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, found “strong evidence… that genocidal acts have been committed against Rohingya” and “that such acts have been committed with the intent to destroy the Rohingya, in whole or in part.”




Rohingya from Myanmar who recently crossed over to Bangladesh huddle in a room at an unregistered refugee camp in Teknaf, near Cox’s Bazar, south of Dhaka, Bangladesh on Dec. 2, 2016
Photo: A.M. Ahad/AP

Another report published in the same month, by the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London, concluded that “the Rohingya face the final stages of genocide” and noted how “state-sponsored stigmatisation, discrimination, violence and segregation … make precarious the very existence of the Rohingya.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, argues Maung Zarni, a Burmese scholar and founder of the Free Burma Coalition, holds “genocidal views towards the Rohingya” because “she denies Rohingya identity and history.” Genocide, he tells me, “begins with an attack on identity and history. The victims never existed and … will never exist.”

The State Counselor, from this perspective, is not simply standing by as genocide occurs; she is legitimizing, encouraging and enabling it. When a legendary champion of human rights is in charge of a government that undertakes military operations against “terrorists,” smearing and discrediting the victims of gang rape and loudly denying the burning down of villages and forced expulsion of families, it makes it much harder for the international community to highlight those crimes, let alone intervene to halt them. In recent years, in fact, Western governments have been rolling back political and economic sanctions on Myanmar, citing the country’s “progress“on democracy and pointing to the election victory of Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD.

Politicians and pundits in the West, observes Zarni, long ago adopted Aung San Suu Kyi as “their liberal darling — petite, attractive, Oxford-educated ‘Oriental’ woman with the most prestigious pedigree, married to a white man, an Oxford don, connected with the British Establishment.” Belatedly, the West’s journalists, diplomats and human rights groups “are waking up to the ugly realities that she is neither principled nor liberal,” he adds.

It may be too little and too late, however. Around 1,000 Rohinga are believed to have been killed since October and more than 70,000 have been forced to flee the country. Yet Aung San Suu Kyi continues to shamelessly tell interviewers, such as the BBC’s Fergal Keane last week, that there is no ethnic cleansing going on and that the Burmese military are “not free to rape, pillage and torture” in Rakhine. Is this the behavior of a Mandela… or a Mugabe?

“Saints should always be judged guilty,” wrote George Orwell, in his famous 1949 essay on Mahatma Gandhi, “until they are proved innocent.” There is no evidence of innocence when it comes to Aung San Suu Kyi and her treatment of the Rohingya — only complicity and collusion in unspeakable crimes. This supposed saint is now an open sinner. The former political prisoner and democracy activist has turned into a genocide-denying, rape-excusing, Muslim-bashing Buddhist nationalist. Forget the house arrest and the Nobel Prize. This is how history will remember The Lady of Myanmar.

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/13...to-an-apologist-for-genocide-against-muslims/


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## asad71

When it comes to "kalla" / Rohingya extermination, the Burmese race acts as one.


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## Arthur

Reuters
News
*China Ready to Mediate Between Burma and Bangladesh over Arakan Refugees*
Rohingya refugee workers carry bags of salt as they work in a processing yard in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. / Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters

2.9k
DHAKA, Bangladesh — China offered on Tuesday to help tackle a diplomatic row between Bangladesh and Burma over the flight of minority Rohingyas, two Bangladesh foreign ministry officials said.

Around 69,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in northern Arakan State since October, straining relations between the two neighbors who each see the stateless Muslim minority as the other nation’s problem.

Chinese special envoy Sun Guoxiang, beginning a four-day trip to Bangladesh, urged Dhaka to resolve the row with Burma bilaterally, but also said Beijing stood ready to help in the matter, a foreign ministry official in Dhaka told Reuters.

Sun made the proposal during a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque, the official said. He declined to be named, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“The envoy told us at the meeting that they were ready to help if necessary,” the official said. Another foreign ministry official confirmed the information but also asked not to be named, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

China has strong ties with both Burma and Bangladesh, helping in infrastructure development in both countries. Relations with the former have warmed further since Burma President U Htin Kyaw struck a deal in China on an oil pipeline between the neighbors after almost a decade of talks.

Beijing has established a strong presence in Bangladesh, building roads and power stations and supplying military hardware.

During the talks on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Haque told Chinese envoy Sun that Bangladesh welcomed Chinese efforts to tackle its problems with Burma stemming from the influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh, the officials said.

Dhaka has proposed that Sun travel to Cox’s Bazar near the border with Burma to see the plight of the tens of thousands of people camped there. China’s ambassador to Bangladesh, Ma Mingqiang, visited a Rohingya camp there in March.

Burma has faced growing international criticism over the latest eruption of violence against the Rohingyas. Burma’s government has conceded some soldiers may have committed crimes but has rejected charges of ethnic cleansing.

*Topics:* Arakan State, Bangladesh, China, Refugees, Rohingya

--------------------------------------

Burma
*Burma Turns Down Chinese Assistance in Addressing Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh*
Rohingya refugees lie on the floor of a mosque at Balukhali Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, April 12, 2017. / Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters

1.8k

NAYPYIDAW – The Burmese government will not accept China’s offer to help mediate affairs in restive Arakan State, but “will collaborate” with Bangladesh, according to the President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay.

According to Bangladeshi foreign ministry officials, China has offered to help tackle a diplomatic row between the two countries over the plight of tens of thousands of Muslim minority Rohingya who fled violence in Arakan State and sought refuge in Bangladesh since late 2016.

U Zaw Htay told reporters during a press conference on the National League for Democracy government’s first-year performance on Friday that the NLD administration “understands China’s concerns.” He noted China’s development project in Kyaukphyu, a special economic zone in Arakan State, but said that the government would opt to take a more standard path in obtaining assistance in dealing with conflict in the region.

Chinese Special Envoy of Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang was quoted as saying during his four-day trip to Bangladesh this week that they “were ready to help if necessary.”

China has also been offering its assistance in conflicts in northeastern Burma, where fighting has been ongoing between government troops and ethnic armed groups.

*Topics:* China, Foreign Relations, Refugees, Rohingya

@Bilal9 @wanglaokan & others

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## asad71

Only solution: give the Rohingyas a logistical corridor. But sadly we lack balls. Moreover, Shantu and SHW have given an undertaking to their master/protector to evict Rohingyas from the Chittagong salient.

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## TopCat

asad71 said:


> Only solution: give the Rohingyas a logistical corridor. But sadly we lack balls. Moreover, Shantu and SHW have given an undertaking to their master/protector to evict Rohingyas from the Chittagong salient.



Rohingyas does not have enough number there. Unrealistic for 1 million people to claim a country.
It had been discussed within our defense apparatus. It was always thought that creating moral pressure would be more productive than throwing those people in front of wolves.


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## asad71

q. Goog


TopCat said:


> Rohingyas does not have enough number there. Unrealistic for 1 million people to claim a country.
> It had been discussed within our defense apparatus. It was always thought that creating moral pressure would be more productive than throwing those people in front of wolves.



1.Google and you will find about eighty nations with less than a mlln population. With internally displaced Rohingyas within Burma, their number would be around 3 mlln - although no census has been done post-British. Rohingya sources claim their diaspora outside Burma is about 2 mlln.
2. It is fine for the military keep abreast and have some personnel learn Burmes language, but the issue needs to be considered at a state policy planning level. That would involve journalists, security experts, professors, as well as serving and retired military and Intel officers. Right now our Forn Office advises the Govt purely judging from possible action/reaction of USA, China or India. Our own interest as a Bengali Muslim nation charging forward is not factored in. We lack - and this may prove to be catastrophic, is an Arakan Bureau.

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## Stag112

Bangladesh is not strong enough. Rohingyas must reach out to pakistan. They now head a 41 nation military alliance much much powerful than burma. They can help. They might even hold back deliveries of JF17 and put additional pressure on them. With pakistan in command, even china wont interfere on behalf of burma. Voila - Arakanistan!!!


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar, EU at odds over Rohingya rights mission*

Reuters
Published at 04:19 PM May 03, 2017



Myanmar's First State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, left, and European Commission foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini address a press conference after a meeting at the European Commission in Brussels on May 2, 2017AFP
*The UN Human Rights Council adopted the resolution, which was brought by the European Union and supported by countries including the United States, without a vote in March*
The European Union took a visible stance against the de facto leader of Myanmar on Tuesday, Aung San Suu Kyi, by publicly supporting an international mission to look into alleged human rights abuses by the country’s security forces against Rohingya.
The EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini, speaking at a news conference with Suu Kyi, said an agreed resolution of the UN Human Rights Council would help clear up uncertainty about allegations of killings, torture and rape against Rohingyas.
On the basis of that resolution, the top United Nations human rights body will send an international fact-finding mission to Myanmar despite Suu Kyi’s reservations.
“The fact-finding mission is focusing on establishing the truth about the past,” Mogherini said, noting a rare area of disagreement between the 28-nation EU and Myanmar. “We believe that this can contribute to establishing the facts.”
The UN Human Rights Council adopted the resolution, which was brought by the European Union and supported by countries including the United States, without a vote in March. China and India distanced themselves from the UN resolution.
Asked about the move, Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, said: “We are disassociating ourselves from the resolution because we don’t think the resolution is in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground.”
Suu Kyi, and also Myanmar’s civilian government’s foreign minister, said she would only accept recommendations from a separate advisory commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan. Any other input would “divide” communities, she added, without giving further details.
The violent persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and their efforts to flee the Southeast Asian country, often falling victim to predatory human-trafficking networks, has become an international concern.
A UN report issued last month, based on interviews with 220 Rohingya among 75,000 who have fled to Bangladesh since October, said that Myanmar’s security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya in a campaign that “very likely” amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
Activists have welcomed what they called a “landmark decision” by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, and have called on the Myanmar government to cooperate.
Suu Kyi assumed power in 2016 following a landslide election win after Myanmar’s former military leaders initiated a political transition. The country had been an international pariah for decades under the military junta.

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## Banglar Bir

*Aung San Suu Kyi rejects UN inquiry into crimes against Rohingya.*
Myanmar leader says resolution for the investigation is ‘not in keeping with what is happening on the ground’



Aung San Suu Kyi and EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini at a press conference in Brussels.
Agence France-Presse
Wednesday 3 May 2017 01.45 BSTLast modified on Wednesday 3 May 2017 07.51 BST

Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected a decision by the UN’s rights council to investigate allegations of crimes by Myanmar’s security forces against minority Rohingya Muslims.

The UN body agreed in March to dispatch a fact-finding mission to the south Asian Asian country over claims of murder, rape and torture in Rakhine state.

“We do not agree with it,” Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, told a press conference on Tuesday with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini during a visit to Brussels, when asked about the probe.
“We have disassociated ourselves from the resolution because we do not think that the resolution is in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground.”

The Nobel laureate said that the country would be “happy to accept” recommendations that were “in keeping with the real needs of the region ... But those recommendations which will divide further the two communities in Rakhine we will not accept, because it will not help to resolve the problems that are arising all the time”.

Aung San Suu Kyi has seen her international star as a rights defender wane over failing to speak out about the treatment of the Rohingya or to condemn the crackdown.

Rights groups say hundreds of the stateless group were killed in a months-long army crackdown following deadly attacks on Myanmar border police posts. Almost 75,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh where they have related grisly accounts of army abuse.

But Aung San Suu Kyi rejected suggestions that she or Myanmar authorities were deliberately overlooking atrocities.

“I am not sure quite what you mean by saying that we have not been concerned at all with regards to the allegations of atrocities that have taken place in the Rakhine,” she said. “We have been investigating them and have been taking action.”

UN investigators say the crackdown likely amounts to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...into-crimes-against-rohingya?CMP=share_btn_fb


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## Banglar Bir

*Aren’t Rohingyas Bengalis, And Arakan Integral To Bangladesh?*
in South Asia — by Taj Hashmi — May 2, 2017





Every society has certain taboos – cultural/religious, social, and political – set apart and designated as restricted or forbidden to associate with, or even to bring in ordinary discussion. The Rohingya issue (for some strange reasons) seems to be such a taboo in Bangladesh. Both people and government here don’t want to go beyond certain limits to have a candid discussion on the crux of the Rohingya issue, which goes beyond the subject of organized persecution and killing of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

Far from being a peripheral issue for Bangladesh – or just a “refugee problem for over-populated Bangladesh” – the Rohingya issue has everything to do with Bangladesh, its identity, integrity, honour, and dignity. Both Rohingyas and Arakan are rather integral to Bangladesh, historically, culturally, and geopolitically. Now it’s time that Bangladesh asserts in unambiguous terms: “Rohingyas aren’t Bangladeshi intruders into Myanmar. They are Bengalis from Arakan, which is their ancestral home for more than a thousand years. Arakan and the Rohingyas are inseparable from Bangladesh and Bengalis; and Bangladesh just can’t be a dumping ground for persecuted and expropriated Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.”

Unfortunately, what we hear from the Government, media, and a tiny minority of Bangladeshi intellectuals is all about asking (rather requesting) Myanmar to take back Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh; and to treat its Rohingya minority humanely. Some Bangladeshi Muslims and Islamic organizations occasionally protest the killing and persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar, seemingly only because the victims are Muslims. The problem is no longer Myanmar’s internal problem, as it was never so in the past 200 years; it has everything to do with Bengalis, and the state of Bangladesh! According to a CNN documentary (Jan 31, 2017) more than 92,000 Rohingyas have entered the country in the last one-year alone.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Government has taken two absurd decisions: firstly, it has virtually refused to grant refugee status to the Rohingyas on the flimsy ground of “over-population”; and secondly, it has proposed to “settle” Rohingya refugees at Thengar Char, a remote, marshy, and uninhabitable island, more than 37 miles from the mainland of Bangladesh, which is often submerged in water. “This is a terrible and crazy idea … it would be like sending thousands of people to exile rather than calling it relocation,” a Bangladeshi government official told CNN recently, and he didn’t want to be named because he feared reprisals.

Although Bangladesh isn’t a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention (for some strange reasons), the country has a moral obligation to accept refugees, as the country was born, as one analyst has put it, “experiencing refugeehood”. During our liberation war, around 10 million people (one out of every seven of that time population) took refuge in neighbouring India. Last but not least, Bangladesh has another obligation to the Rohingya Bengalis from Arakan, which until 1784 was integral to Bengal.

A CNN documentary (Jan 31, 2016) on the plight of the Rohingya Bengalis is heart-rending and revealing. While the Rohingyas, the sons and daughters of the soil of Arakan or the Rakhaine State of Myanmar for more than one thousand years are at the receiving end of murder, rape, torture, and expropriation at the hands of Myanmar authorities and Buddhist majority, the Bangladesh authorities have remained very insensitive to these hapless refugees. They should learn as to how some Western nations, especially Germany, Sweden, and Canada, have welcomed and accommodated Muslim refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the Muslim World.

Bangladesh should take a proactive role in addressing the Rohingya issue. It should pay heed to what the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Ms Alison Blake has recently told the world about the persecution of the Rohingyas in Myanmar in the most unambiguous terms: “Hearing the description of the torture from Rohingyas who fled Rakhine state in Myanmar, it seemed that it is tantamount to genocide.” As reported in the _Time_ magazine (March 14, 2017), Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar believes the Myanmar authorities “may be trying to expel the Rohingya population from the country altogether.”

It’s strange but true, while the situation for the Rohingyas in Myanmar is comparable to the plight of the victims of the Syrian civil war, the people and government in Bangladesh are at most lukewarm about the ongoing genocide of Bengali Rohingyas in Myanmar. They aren’t enthusiastic about extending whole-hearted support to the Rohingya refugees, let alone finding out a permanent solution to their problem. They even avoid raising the question: Aren’t Rohingyas Bengalis, and Arakan integral to Bangladesh? The reasons aren’t far to seek. Firstly, Bangladeshis in general don’t know the actual history of the Rakhaine State of Myanmar, and the Rohingya people, who aren’t descendants of Bangladeshi intruders into Myanmar but are indigenous to the state, also known as Arakan. Bangladeshis don’t know that Arakan is an occupied territory, and the Rohingyas are the only legitimate inhabitants of the territory.

Arakan was a Bengali-speaking Muslim kingdom up to 1784, when Buddhist Barmans annexed the kingdom to what is Myanmar today. The British occupied Myanmar or Burma in 1826 and ruled the country up to 1948. When the British left, Arakan, also called Rakhaine, remained a part of Myanmar. Meanwhile, thanks to Myanmar government policy, Buddhist/Barman people had outnumbered the indigenous Bengali Rohingyas in Arakan. After 1948, Arakanese Muslims (Bengalis who speak Chittagonian dialect) tried to become independent, in vain. The rest is history.

Now, in regards to the Rohingya issue, the options for Bangladesh are very limited. It can, however, now play a different ballgame with Myanmar. As Bangladesh should pressure Myanmar to take back all the Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh in the last few years, it should also involve the UN, international human rights agencies, and China (which has considerable influence with the Myanmar authorities) to make Myanmar respect international law and human rights of people living under its suzerainty.

*To conclude, Bangladesh just can’t afford to be a passive spectator of the ongoing persecution of the Rohingyas who are indigenous to Arakan, once integral to Bangladesh. Now, there are some open-ended, — and possibly embarrassing – questions in this regard. If Bangladesh should assert its claim on Arakan is altogether a different and difficult question! If there is a military solution to the problem, is indeed an embarrassing question for Bangladesh.*

*The writer teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University. He is the author of several books, including his latest, Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan (Sage, 2014). Email: *tajhashmi@gmail.com

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017...s-bengalis-and-arakan-integral-to-bangladesh/


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## sbmc27

He is a known psychopath.
It's come from his very close environment, like childhood memories or family environment , relationship among themselves or personal experiences.


bluesky said:


> There are reports of trouble near the China border in Mynamar. I am sending only the link, because an elaborate news cannot be sent in a Rohingya thread.
> 
> http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/03/07/30-dead-intense-fighting-breaks-myanmar-china-border/
> 
> 
> 
> You must be naive about things that are happening here and there. It is sad to see you selectively amuse at the sufferings of Muslims anywhere and everywhere in the world. you blame Muslims for every thing bad. But, can you quote one sentence in this forum when any Muslim has celebrated the sufferings of other communities? Be a human first, then become a Hindu or whatever it makes you a more human. Every word you spit is a poison from your heart. I wonder, why?

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## Banglar Bir

*Extremist Myanmar monk visits strife-torn Rakhine State*

Agence France-Presse
Published at 04:49 PM May 04, 2017
Last updated at 05:01 PM May 04, 2017



This illustration picture taken on June 24, 2013 in Bangkok shows a man reading a copy of the July 1 issue of Time magazine carrying a picture of controversial Myanmar monk Wirathu on its coverAFP
*Myanmar's more than one million Rohingya, who live mostly in Rakhine, are denied citizenship and loathed by many in the Buddhist-majority country*





This image received June 24, 2013,courtesy of TIME magazine shows the the July 1, 2013 picture of controversial Myanmar monk Wirathu on its international cover *AFP*

Extremist Myanmar monk Wirathu, once dubbed the “face of Buddhist terror” for his anti-Muslim diatribes, toured Rakhine State on Thursday in a provocative visit soon after a bloody army crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

The firebrand monk visited Maungdaw, a town near the epicentre of the violence in the north of the state, according to Phoe Thar, who is travelling in his retinue, told the reporters by phone.

Wirathu’s presence in Rakhine is likely to fuel religious tensions between the Buddhist Rakhine and the maligned Rohingya, as well as with Myanmar’s wider Muslim population.

His trip follows a months-long military crackdown that the UN says claimed hundreds of Rohingya lives and sent more than 70,000 of the Muslim minority fleeing to Bangladesh.

UN investigators say the sweeps to clear out militant cells brought with them a campaign of rape and murder against the Rohingya that may amount to ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar’s government rejects the claims.

Myanmar’s more than one million Rohingya, who live mostly in Rakhine, are denied citizenship and loathed by many in the Buddhist-majority country, who say they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

Since the latest chapter in Rakhine’s conflict-strewn recent history, Buddhist nationalists have shut down several religious events across the country as well as two Yangon schools accused of illegally doubling up as mosques.

Khine Pyi Soe, vice-president of the Arakan (Rakhine) National Party which reviles the Rohingya, welcomed Wirathu’s visit.

“Even though our party does not have much money to donate… we will help if he needs something,” he said.

Nationalist leaders said Wirathu had gone to Maungdaw to donate rice to local ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, several thousand of whom were also displaced by the recent violence.

But in a sign of concern over his rhetoric, Myanmar’s top Buddhist body in March banned Wirathu from preaching, an unprecedented slap down to a man whose hate speech has galvanised religious tensions.

On Thursday the UN’s High Commission for Refugees said almost 170,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar over the past five years to countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia because of violence and desperation.

http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...yanmar-monk-visits-strife-torn-rakhine-state/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/





AJ+
6 April at 21:00 · 
"I think 'ethnic cleansing' is too strong an expression to use."
In a BBC interview, Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi denied the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar.


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## Banglar Bir

*Report: Rohingya-led group rings alarm bell*

Probir Kumar Sarker
Published at 01:00 AM December 15, 2016
Last updated at 10:58 PM December 15, 2016



The screengrab of a YouTube video shows Ata Ullah, the alleged spokesperson of Harakah al-YaqinDhaka Tribune
*Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement, HaY) is led by a committee of Rohingyas living in Saudi Arabia and is commanded on the ground by Rohingyas with international training and experience in modern guerrilla war tactics*
International Crisis Group has revealed that a well-funded armed Islamist group carried out the attacks on Myanmar security forces in October and November that saw crackdown by the military in retaliation.

Formed after the 2012 riot, the insurgent group, which refers to itself as Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement, HaY), is led by a committee of Rohingyas living in Saudi Arabia and is commanded on the ground by Rohingyas with international training and experience in modern guerrilla war tactics, the Brussels-based group said in a report published yesterday.

“It benefits from the legitimacy provided by local and international fatwas [religious judicial opinions] in support of its cause and enjoys considerable sympathy and backing from Muslims in northern Rakhine State, including several hundred locally-trained recruits.”

*Also read- IOM: 21,000 Rohingyas flee to Bangladesh from Myanmar*

Over 20,000 Rohingya Muslims have taken shelter in Bangladesh following the latest attack in Rakhine state since October 9 that killed around 100 people. People who have escaped the attacks are sharing horrific stories of murder and torture.

After the military crackdown began, the Myanmar president’s office issued a statement claiming that some 400 members of Aqa Mul Mujahideen, a little-known Islamist militant group linked to al-Qaeda and RSO, had conducted the pre-planned attack.

According to the ICG report, HaY is represented in northern Rakhine by Ata Ullah, seen in several videos released by the group. He was born in Karachi to a Rohingya father and grew up in Mecca. He is part of a group of 20 Rohingya who have international experience in modern guerrilla warfare and are leading operations on the ground in northern Arakan.

Also with them is a senior Islamic scholar, Ziabur Rahman, a Saudi-educated Rohingya mufti with the authority to issue fatwas.

*Also read- PM: Govt sympathetic to Rohingyas, but hard against culprits*

The Crisis Group interviewed six persons linked to the armed group: four members in northern Maungdaw and two outside Myanmar. Separate discussions with them, as well as others involved in chat groups on secure messaging applications and analysis of videos released by the group have revealed a partial picture of its origins, structure and objectives.

HaY would not have been able to establish itself and make detailed preparations without the buy-in of some local leaders and communities, the report adds. “The fact that more people are now embracing violence reflects deep policy failures over many years rather than any sort of inevitability.”

The current violence is qualitatively different from anything in recent decades, seriously threatens the prospects of stability and development in the state and has serious implications for Myanmar as a whole, the ICG says.

The government should ensure that violence does not escalate and inter-communal tensions are kept under control. It requires also taking due account of the grievances and fears of Rakhine Buddhists, the report says.

*Also read- Exclusive: Rohingya crisis is here to stay*

The ICG has warned that the current use of disproportionate military force in response to the attacks, which fails to adequately distinguish militants from civilians, and denial of humanitarian assistance to Rakhine is unlikely to dislodge the group and risks generating a spiral of violence and potential mass displacement.

The rights group says that the Myanmar government requires recognising first that the Rohingyas have lived in the area for generations and will continue to do so. Ways must be found to give them a place in the nation’s life.

“A heavy-handed security response that fails to respect fundamental principles of proportionality and distinction is not only in violation of international norms; it is also deeply counterproductive.

“It will likely create further despair and animosity, increasing support for HaY and further entrenching violence. International experience strongly suggests that an aggressive military response, particularly if not embedded in a broader policy framework, will be ineffective against the armed group and has the potential to considerably aggravate matters,” the report adds.

*RSO’s false claims*
Prior to the recent attacks, even members and supporters at village level were not aware of the real name and referred to it by this generic phrase (and perhaps also “RSO,” which may be why the government claimed that old group’s involvement).

*Also read- Exclusive: Traffickers thrive on Rohingya crisis*

After the October 9 attacks, Rohingya communities in Saudi Arabia, other Middle Eastern countries and Malaysia began to ask who carried them out.

According to HaY, people associated with the RSO began to falsely claim responsibility and to collect donations on this basis from the Rohingya diaspora and large private donors in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. This, they say, was what prompted the group to reveal its name, show some of its faces on camera and prove that it was on the ground.

The first video, circulated to Rohingya networks on October 11 and leaked on YouTube the next day, has the name Harakah al-Yaqin overlaid in Arabic script. In the second, uploaded to YouTube on 14 October, the group used this name and warned donors not to trust other groups claiming to be behind the attacks, saying that “some people tried to sell our movement and our community,” a reference to the RSO.

*Also read- RSO leader, Saudi national among 4 held*

Further videos were subsequently released, showing their continued actions in north Maungdaw and stating their demands.

*Who they are*
HaY was established and is overseen by a committee of some twenty senior leaders headquartered in Mecca, with at least one member based in Medina. All are Rohingya émigrés or have Rohingya heritage.

They are well-connected in Bangladesh, Pakistan and possibly India. Some or all have visited Bangladesh and northern Rakhine State at different times in the last two years.

The main speaker in the videos is Ata Ullah (alias Ameer Abu Amar, and, within the armed group, Abu Amar Jununi, the name mentioned in a number of the vid-eos); the government identifies him as Hafiz Tohar, presumably another alias. His father, a Muslim from northern Rakhine State, went to Karachi, where Ata Ullah was born. The family then moved to Saudi Arabia, and he grew up in Mecca, receiving a Madrassa education.

*Also read- Ansar man killed in Teknaf refugee camp attack*

This is consistent with the fact that on the videos he shows fluent command of both the Bengali dialect spoken in northern Rakhine State and Peninsular Arabic. He disappeared from Saudi Arabia in 2012 shortly after violence erupted in Rakhine State. Though not confirmed, there are indications he went to Pakistan and possibly elsewhere, and that he received practical training in modern guerrilla warfare.

Some 20 Rohingyas from Saudi Arabia (separate from the leadership committee), including Ata Ullah, are leading operations on the ground. Like him, they are thought to have experience from other conflicts, possibly Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some Rohingyas returned from the camps (official and informal) in Bangladesh before October 9 to join the group.

A registered refugee from Nayapara camp in Bangladesh stood beside Ata Ullah in the first video; he disappeared from the camp the night of a May 13 attack on its guard post in which a commander was killed and eleven weapons stolen.

Since October 9, several hundred young Rohingya men from Bangladesh have joined the fight. However, the main fighting force is made up of Muslim villagers in northern Rakhine State who have been given basic training and organised into village-level cells to limit risks of compromise. These are mostly led by young Islamic clerics (known as “Mullahs” or “Maulvis”) or scholars (“Hafiz”) from those villages.

Though it does not appear to have religious motivations, HaY has sought religious legitimacy for its attacks. At its prompting, senior Rohingya clerics and several foreign clerics have ruled that, given the persecution Muslim communities face in Rakhine State, the campaign against the security forces is legal in Islam, and anyone opposing it is in opposition to Islam.

*Also read- AL units run by RSO-trained Rohingyas*

Fatwas (religious rulings) to this effect were apparently obtained shortly after October 9 in several countries with a significant Rohingya diaspora, including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

These have significantly influenced many Muslim religious leaders in northern Rakhine State to endorse HaY despite earlier feeling violence to be counterproductive. The group also has a senior Islamic scholar with it in Maungdaw, a Rohingya from Saudi Arabia, Mufti Ziabur Rahman, who brings religious legitimacy to operations and has authority to issue fatwas.

Information from members and analysis of its methods indicate that its approach and objective are not transnational jihadist terrorism. It has only attacked security forces (and perceived threats in its own community), not religious targets, Buddhist villagers or civilians and family members at the BGP bases it hit on October 9.

*Also read- Fake Rohingya photos seek communal strife*

It has called for jihad in some videos, but there are no indications this means terrorism. Unlike all previous such insurgent groups (see above) and for unclear reasons, it does not include “Rohingya” in its name.

Its stated aim is not to impose Sharia (Islamic law), but rather to stop persecution of Rohingyas and secure their rights and greater autonomy as Myanmar citizens, notwithstanding that its approach is likely to harden attitudes in the country and seriously set back those goals.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*PM urges Myanmar to resolve Rohingya issue thru’ dialogue*
Published: 13:41, May 09,2017
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said Bangladesh and Myanmar should find out a solution to the long-standing Rohingya problem through dialogue as close neighbours.

Sheikh Hasina said this when outgoing Myanmar’s ambassador in Dhaka Myo Myint Than met her at her office in the morning, and requested him to convey the message to his government.

After the meeting, PM’s press sectary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.

He said Sheikh Hasina told the Myanmar envoy that Bangladesh wants to resolve the problem through dialogue as it gives priority to its neighbours.

The Prime Minister mentioned that many unregistered Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh creating social and environmental problems.

Referring to her government’s zero tolerance policy against terrorism, she said Bangladesh has been firm in recent times in disallowing its territory to be used by armed groups or insurgents of Myanmar.

Hasina also underscored the need for activating joint trade commission and bilateral cargo shipping service between the two countries for boosting their economies.

In response, the Myanmar envoy said his government is serious to resolve the Rohingya issue and will implement recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission as much as possible.

Hasina reiterated her invitation to Myanmar leader Aung San Suukyi to visit Bangladesh.

PMO secretary Suraiya Begum was, among others, present at the meeting.

More about:

- See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/152...ngya-issue-thru-dialogue#sthash.zVuXPjW7.dpuf


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh detains Rohingyas attempting boat trip to Malaysia*

Agence France-Presse
Published at 06:20 PM May 10, 2017



This picture taken on May 14, 2015 shows Rohingya migrants on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman AFP

*Tens of thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshi economic migrants seeking jobs have made the treacherous journey across the Bay of Bengal toward the relatively prosperous nations of Thailand and Malaysia*
Bangladesh has arrested more than a dozen people from Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority and two men accused of trying to smuggle them illegally into Malaysia by boat, police said Wednesday.

The two Bangladeshis were charged with people smuggling offences after arranging the trip to Malaysia, the first time in two years would-be migrants have attempted to journey there by boat, said Teknaf police chief Mainuddin Khan.

“Acting on a tip-off, we arrested 19 Myanmar nationals from a house in Teknaf on Tuesday as they gathered there for a boat trip to Malaysia,” Khan said. “They said they paid Tk10,000 each for the trip.”

Tens of thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshi economic migrants seeking jobs have made the treacherous journey across the Bay of Bengal toward the relatively prosperous nations of Thailand and Malaysia.

But in 2015 thousands of refugees on boats were turned away by Southeast Asian nations, triggering a regional crisis and a crackdown on the people smuggling trade.

This latest attempt to revisit the once-popular route was the first known case since of Rohingya attempting to reach Malaysia, Khan said.

Rohingya leaders based in refugee camps in Bangladesh said that boat trips had ground to halt after the 2015 clampdown, with many refugees now trying new routes to other regions, including the Middle East.

For decades hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar have taken refuge in Bangladesh’s southeastern towns of Cox’s Bazar, Ukhia and Teknaf.

Since October their numbers have swelled as a brutal crackdown by the Myanmarese army in western Rakhine state sent 70,000 fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.

The overcrowded, dirty camps are ripe for human traffickers offering a way out.


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## Banglar Bir

*ROHINGYA CRISIS*
*Myanmar buys time to avert international pressure*
Shahidul Islam Chowdhury | Published: 00:42, May 11,2017 | Updated: 01:40, May 11,2017

Myanmar civil and military establishments are buying time to avert international pressure for creating an environment in Rakhine State for sustainable repatriation of its citizens, ethnic minority Rohingyas forced to leave the country, and reconciliation of internally displaced people. 
Myanmar expressed intent to dispatch a top security adviser to Dhaka later this month apparently to discuss border related issues when the matter of repatriation of Rohingya Muslims to their home in Rakhine State might come up, officials said.

Myanmar authorities gave indications that they would not resolve the crises in Rakhine State that might encourage repatriation of its millions of undocumented nationals staying abroad, including Bangladesh, and relocation of tens of thousands of internally displaced people living in shoddy camps, officials said.
While dealing with repatriation of its undocumented Rohingyas from Bangladesh, Myanmar is trying to establish it as a matter to be resolved bilaterally.

Bangladesh and sections of international community believe that Rohingya crisis is a matter with internal, bilateral and multilateral dimensions and it should be resolved with involvement of international community, diplomats said.
Myanmar’s social welfare and resettlement minister Win Myat Aye reportedly said that it would take about five years for transferring internally displaced people from their camps to their villages for reconciliation, subject to verification of their identity
. 
Tens of thousands of Rohingyas live in internment camps along Myanmar’s west coast. 
‘Why verification of identity would be required for people displaced from one place to another inside Myanmar,’ a Bangladesh official said, ‘it is nothing but a ploy to buy time.’
In Myanmar standard, it is highly unlikely to transfer tens of thousands of people from IDP camps to their home after ‘verification’, said the official. 

When outgoing Myanmar ambassador Myo Myint Than called on prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday, she stressed the need for solution to the issue of repatriation of Rohingyas through dialogue as they were creating social and environmental pressure on Bangladesh. 

Out of 92,000 Rohingyas fled recent indiscriminate killing, rape, arson and violence by Myanmar security forces in Rakhine State, at least 69,000 entered Bangladesh since military crackdown that began October 9, 2016, and living in makeshift shelters in Cox’s Bazar, according to the United Nations.

About 33,000 registered refugees of Myanmar and 3,00,000 undocumented Myanmar nationals have been living shoddy life in camps, including registered camps, in Cox’s Bazar for years. 
Myanmar government did not maintain its commitment to repatriate over 9,000 refugees from Bangladesh in 2014. 
Despite living in Rakhine State for generations, ethnic minority Rohingyas are referred to as ‘Bengalis’ by the military-dominated administration and majority Buddhist community, who regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Describing Rohingya issue as a complex matter, a diplomat said that the matter was protracted problem for decades as successive Myanmar governments had 
been providing lip services instead of taking practical measures to solve the crisis. 
Repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh ‘is, indeed, a bilateral matter’ that could be resolved with repatriation of Myanmar nationals by a cut of date, said the official. 
Creating environment by ensuring their political, economic and social rights for sustainable resettlement in Rakhine State ‘is Myanmar’s internal affair,’ he said. 
Member countries of ASEAN, in which Myanmar is also a member, in a recent meeting adopted a resolution terming Rohingya issue a regional matter, as tens of thousands of Rohingyas took shelter in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. 

Myanmar’s security forces committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October 2016 in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ‘ethnic cleansing’, the UN human rights office said in February 2017.
Kyaw Tin, special envoy of Myanmar de facto leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi, during his recent visit to Dhaka, was noncommittal for permanent solution of the protracted Rohingya crisis, crux of bilateral problems with Bangladesh. 

Myanmar might repatriate, subject to verification of nationality, its citizens who entered Bangladesh after October 9, 2016, while Bangladesh side was asking for total sustainable repatriation, officials said.
International community could not avert its responsibility to ensure establishment of human rights as indiscriminate killing, rape, arson and violence by Myanmar security forces and their cronies and constant threats from religious bigots made Rakhine State unlivable for ethnic minority Rohingyas. 
The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan in February said that the Myanmar government should establish a comprehensive and transparent mechanism for verification process of citizenship, with keeping system to address complaints related to the verification process, for Rakhine and Rohingya communities in the state. 

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation called for sustainable repatriation of undocumented Myanmar nationals from Bangladesh.
European Union and the United States were in touch with Myanmar authorities for resolving the Rohingya crisis, US ambassador Marcia Bernicat and EU ambassador Pierre Mayadon said in Dhaka. 
China and Indonesia were in touch with Bangladesh for resolving Rohingya crisis bilaterally with Myanmar, officials said. 
*China and Russia blocked a proposed UN Security Council statement recently that would have expressed concern over the tense situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, according to Agence France-Press. *

- See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/153...t-international-pressure#sthash.JPDjUv97.dpuf


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar army chief compares Rohingya crackdown to Northern Ireland*

Agence France-Presse
Published at 07:52 PM May 12, 2017



This handout picture taken and released by the Myanmar Armed Forces on March 27, 2017 shows Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander in chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, speaking during a ceremony marking the country's 72nd Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw AFP

*Min Aung Hlaing compared the crackdown to Britain's operations in Northern Ireland in a meeting with Jonathan Powell, a former top British negotiator in the peace process*
Myanmar’s army chief defended his military’s violent crackdown on Rohingya Muslims by comparing it to Britain’s campaign to tackle sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, according to a statement released by his office Friday.

UN investigators believe Myanmar’s security forces may have carried out ethnic cleansing of the persecuted minority during a months-long operation in the north of Rakhine State.

The military campaign has left hundreds of Rohingya dead and forced some 75,000 to flee across the border to Bangladesh, bringing harrowing accounts of rape, torture and mass killings by soldiers.

Myanmar has repeatedly rebuffed the allegations, saying troops were carrying out necessary counter-insurgency operations after Rohingya militants attacked police border posts in October.

On Thursday Myanmar’s army chief Min Aung Hlaing compared the crackdown to Britain’s operations in Northern Ireland in a meeting with Jonathan Powell, a former top British negotiator in the peace process.

Powell, who was chief of staff to former British prime minister Tony Blair, helped broker the Good Friday agreement in 1998 that ended decades of violence between Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant British unionists in Northern Ireland.

After the “terrorist attack… the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) helped the police take security measures,” the army commander said, according to a statement released on Friday.

“Such occurrence was similar to that of Northern Ireland.”

He also used the meeting to denounce any claim to citizenship by the more than one million Rohingya Muslims who live in Rakhine.

Stripped of citizenship by Myanmar’s former military leaders in 1982, the Rohingya, who have lived in Rakhine for generations, are loathed by many in the Buddhist-majority country who claim they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and refer to them as “Bengalis”.

Deadly communal violence in 2012 forced more than 120,000 Rohingya into squalid displacement camps where they live in apartheid-like conditions with little access to food, healthcare or education.

“First, they must accept themselves Bengalis, not Rohingya,” Min Aung Hlaing said.

“Then, those who reside in that region need to accept enumeration, registration, and citizenship scrutiny under the law.”

Powell was Britain’s chief government negotiator on Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2007 and now heads conflict resolution NGO Inter Mediate.


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## Banglar Bir

*World community must step up efforts to solve Rohingya crisis*
Published: 00:05, May 13,2017

THE indication that the Myanmar authorities gave, as part of their sending a top security adviser to Dhaka later in May apparently to discuss border-related issues, that they would not resolve the crisis in Rakhine State as it might encourage the repatriation of millions of Myanmar citizens staying abroad, including Bangladesh, and the relocation of tens of thousands of internally displaced people living in shoddy camps is concerning both for the Bangladesh authorities and the world community. 

About 92,000 Rohingyas fled repression and violence unleashed by Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine State and at least 69,000 of them are reported to have entered Bangladesh since the military crackdown which began in the second week of October, 2016. About 33,000 Rohingyas have also been living registered in two camps set up in Cox’s Bazar in 1992 and about 3,00,000 of them have been living unregistered in two more camps set up in 2007 in the district for years since when Myanmar authorities started stripping the Rohingyas of their citizenship in 1982. The Myanmar government, which in 2014 also did not keep its word about the repatriation of more than 9,000 Rohingyas from Bangladesh, does not appear to have the political will to resolve the issue.

While the Myanmar authorities seek to establish that the issue of the repatriation of unregistered Rohingyas from Bangladesh needs to be resolved bilaterally, Myanmar’s neighbours such as Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia that are affected by the Rohingya exodus and influx and part of the world community believe that Rohingya crisis is a matter of internal, bilateral and multilateral dimension which needs to be resolved on all the fronts and involving the international community.

A Myanmar minister is reported to have said that it would take about five years to transfer internally displaced people from camps — tens of thousands of Rohingyas live in internment camps along Myanmar’s west coast — to their villages for reconciliation subject to verification of their identity. Bangladesh officials tend to believe that it was nothing but a ploy to buy time so that Myanmar could avert international pressure as there is no justification for the verification of the identity of Myanmar people in their relocation from camps to their villages. If the settlement of an internal matter is projected to take such a long time, it is highly unlikely that the Myanmar authorities would ever settle the problem of Rohingya influx — into Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. 

Myanmar has always appeared to be non-committal about the resolution of the Rohingya influx issue that has been protracted for decades because of the unwillingness of successive Myanmar governments, it remains for its affected neighbours now to act and take up the matter strongly with the regional forum ASEAN, of which Myanmar is also a member, the United Nations and the world community so that a practical solution of the Rohingya refugee crisis could be reached. A failure in doing so would be a regional and international failure in affording the Rohingyas, living inside Myanmar or outside, peace and would create trouble for Myanmar’s neighbours having sheltered the Rohingyas.

- See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/154...to-solve-rohingya-crisis#sthash.AlL15mAH.dpuf


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## asad71

BANGLAR BIR said:


> *Myanmar army chief compares Rohingya crackdown to Northern Ireland*
> 
> Agence France-Presse
> Published at 07:52 PM May 12, 2017
> 
> 
> 
> This handout picture taken and released by the Myanmar Armed Forces on March 27, 2017 shows Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander in chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, speaking during a ceremony marking the country's 72nd Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw AFP
> 
> *Min Aung Hlaing compared the crackdown to Britain's operations in Northern Ireland in a meeting with Jonathan Powell, a former top British negotiator in the peace process*
> Myanmar’s army chief defended his military’s violent crackdown on Rohingya Muslims by comparing it to Britain’s campaign to tackle sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, according to a statement released by his office Friday.
> 
> UN investigators believe Myanmar’s security forces may have carried out ethnic cleansing of the persecuted minority during a months-long operation in the north of Rakhine State.
> 
> The military campaign has left hundreds of Rohingya dead and forced some 75,000 to flee across the border to Bangladesh, bringing harrowing accounts of rape, torture and mass killings by soldiers.
> 
> Myanmar has repeatedly rebuffed the allegations, saying troops were carrying out necessary counter-insurgency operations after Rohingya militants attacked police border posts in October.
> 
> On Thursday Myanmar’s army chief Min Aung Hlaing compared the crackdown to Britain’s operations in Northern Ireland in a meeting with Jonathan Powell, a former top British negotiator in the peace process.
> 
> Powell, who was chief of staff to former British prime minister Tony Blair, helped broker the Good Friday agreement in 1998 that ended decades of violence between Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant British unionists in Northern Ireland.
> 
> After the “terrorist attack… the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) helped the police take security measures,” the army commander said, according to a statement released on Friday.
> 
> “Such occurrence was similar to that of Northern Ireland.”
> 
> He also used the meeting to denounce any claim to citizenship by the more than one million Rohingya Muslims who live in Rakhine.
> 
> Stripped of citizenship by Myanmar’s former military leaders in 1982, the Rohingya, who have lived in Rakhine for generations, are loathed by many in the Buddhist-majority country who claim they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and refer to them as “Bengalis”.
> 
> Deadly communal violence in 2012 forced more than 120,000 Rohingya into squalid displacement camps where they live in apartheid-like conditions with little access to food, healthcare or education.
> 
> *“First, they must accept themselves Bengalis, not Rohingya,” Min Aung Hlaing said.*
> 
> “Then, those who reside in that region need to accept enumeration, registration, and citizenship scrutiny under the law.”
> 
> Powell was Britain’s chief government negotiator on Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2007 and now heads conflict resolution NGO Inter Mediate.



Somebody should remind this mass murderer what Bangobondhu had quipped to Gen Ne Win when the latter suggested that he (BB) should advise the Bengalis living in Burma - meaning Arakanese Muslims, should observe Burmese laws and thee would be no problem for them BB had looked directly into Ne Win's eyes and said, "Your Excellency, where there are Bengalis, that is Bangladesh"*.*

Reactions: Like Like:
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## bluesky

*Myanmar arrests Buddhist nationalists accused of stoking tensions with Muslims*
>> Reuters
Published: 2017-05-13 03:08:45.0 BdST Updated: 2017-05-13 03:08:45.0 BdST







Buddhist nationalists talk to media during a press conference about a scuffle with Muslims in Yangon, Myanmar, May 11, 2017. Reuters
*Myanmar police have arrested two radical Buddhist nationalists and are seeking several more after they clashed with Muslims in the country's commercial capital Yangon, underscoring the authorities' growing concern over rising religious tensions.*

The arrests came after nationalists led by the Patriotic Monks Union (PMU) raided flats on Tuesday in a Yangon district with a large Muslim population, igniting scuffles that were only broken up when police fired shots into the air. Two weeks ago, the same people had forced the closure of two Muslim schools.

"We have arrested two people since yesterday evening, and are still looking for the rest of them," said Police Major Khin Maung Oo, in charge the police station in Yangon's Mingalar Taung Nyunt district, where this week's scuffles took place.

Tensions between majority Buddhists and Myanmar's Muslim minority have simmered since scores were killed and tens of thousands displaced in intercommunal clashes accompanying the onset of the country's democratic transition in 2012 and 2013.

Mutual distrust has deepened since October, when attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents in northwestern Rakhine state provoked a massive military counter-offensive, causing around 75,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh.

The 13-month-old administration of Aung San Suu Kyi had made tentative moves against nationalist hardliners, but the arrests mark a significant step-up in the government's efforts, highlighting official concerns over a potential outbreak of violence in the country's main city, which has a substantial Muslim population.

Brigadier General Mya Win, the commander of Yangon's regional police security command, said extra security forces had been deployed and the police were on high alert to prevent communal violence.

"We are patrolling around Muslim areas and have taken security measures around places of worship," he told Reuters.

Leaders of the nationalist PMU said they were acting independently of the Ma Ba Tha, a larger radical Buddhist and anti-Muslim organisation that counts among its leaders the firebrand monk Wirathu, who once called himself "Myanmar's Bin Laden".

Ma Ba Tha holds its nationwide congress in Yangon, a city of more than 5 million that has been a focus of foreign investment since a former military government ceded power in 2012, in two weeks and is expecting about 10,000 monks to attend.

*Targeting Muslims*

In both incidents, PMU monks and lay sympathisers targeted Muslim areas after attending a trial of fellow nationalists facing charges of inciting violence during a protest in front of the United States embassy in Yangon last year.

"We didn't want any confrontation with the nationalists so we allowed them to shut down our schools," said Tin Shwe, the chairman of the Muslim schools, referring to an incident on April 28. Tin Shwe, and a lawmaker from the ruling National League for Democracy, told Reuters the nationalists came to the schools with local administrators and policemen.

On Tuesday the group, again accompanied by local authorities and police, searched a building in a different part of Yangon shortly before midnight, claiming some Rohingya Muslims were staying there illegally.

Local residents confronted the nationalists, gathered in front of the building, prompting police officers to fire warning shots to break up the crowd.

A Yangon court issued the arrest warrant against seven people, including two monks, charging them with inciting communal violence, which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.

At a news conference on Tuesday, organised shortly before the arrest warrants were issued, the nationalists vowed to keep fighting Muslim influence in the country, citing government reluctance to "protect race and religion" in Myanmar.

"We are protecting our people because government authorities are reluctant to do that. Even though many people hate us, we are not creating problems," U Thuseikta, a monk and a senior official of the PMU, told reporters.

Tin Shwe, the Muslim community leader, said: "We want to get equal treatment and be protected by the government - we voted for them with our hands."


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## TopCat

Interesting






@Aung Zaya


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## Banglar Bir

*India turns on Rohingya refugees seeking their deportation as Kashmir boils*

Thomson Reuters Foundation
Published at 07:51 PM May 14, 2017



Children belonging to Rohingya Muslim community read Koran at a madrasa, or a religious school, at a makeshift settlement, on the outskirts of Jammu, May 6, 2017 REUTERS
*For almost a decade, India has been a safe haven for thousands of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar. Around 14,000 Rohingya live here, with half residing in the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)*
It was around 3am when Abdul Kader was awoken by his children’s screams as flames spread through their corrugated iron and wood shack and dense smoke filled the air.

The 37-year-old burkha seller and his family escaped last month’s blaze unhurt, as did the six other Muslim Rohingya refugee families living there, but it has left the community in India’s northern city of Jammu fearful and on edge.

“The police said it was an electrical short circuit, but we think it wasn’t an accident,” said Kader, sitting on the floor of a madrasa in a slum in Jammu’s Narwal area.

“They don’t like us here and want us to leave. We were driven from Burma, then Bangladesh and now they want us to leave India. The situation is bad for us wherever we go.”

For almost a decade, India has been a safe haven for thousands of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar. Around 14,000 Rohingya live here, with half residing in the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

But rising tensions with bordering Pakistan and a spike in separatist violence in neighbouring Kashmir, coupled with nationalist anti-Islamic sentiment globally, are threatening the Rohingya once again as demands grow for their eviction.

Right-wing political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, blame them for crime in Jammu, straining public resources, and claim they pose a threat to security.

As a result, India has started registering and monitoring the Rohingya, a move which activists fear could eventually force them back to Myanmar where they face atrocities, including murder, rape and arson attacks.

“Indian authorities know very well the abuses the Rohingya community have been facing in Myanmar,” said Amnesty International India’s Raghu Menon. “Deporting them and abandoning them to their fates would be unconscionable.”

*Most persecuted community*
Often described as the most persecuted community, the minority Rohingya have for years faced discrimination, repression and violence in northwestern Myanmar.

Denied citizenship by the largely Buddhist government since the 1990s, they face apartheid-like conditions. Hundreds have died in communal violence, and thousands have sought refuge in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.

Around 75,000 people have fled to Bangladesh just since October as the military cracks down on Rohingya insurgents.

Mass killings and gang rapes by the army in recent months have been documented, prompting the UN to claim this could be seen as crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

Some 7,000 Rohingya refugees live in Jammu, mostly residing in urban slums, eking out a meager living selling garbage or doing manual work for Indians, often underpaid and exploited.

“They are extremely poor and settle wherever they find safety,” said Suvendu Rout from ACCESS, a Delhi charity providing Rohingya refugees with literacy and skills training.

“Many are construction workers and are contributing to building India’s infrastructure, while others collect rubbish which helps keep our cities clean.”

*Parasites, criminals, security threat*
But a contrasting narrative is being spun in J&K, a troubled state which is disputed by bordering Pakistan, and where a separatist insurgency has simmered for almost three decades.

Over the last six months, Jammu has witnessed a string of anti-Rohingya public protests by political parties, Hindu groups, student bodies and the business community.

Billboards demanding refugees “Quit Jammu” have been put up, local media have branded them “parasites”, Rohingya effigies torched on the streets, and a petition filed in the High Court seeking their eviction from J&K.

Arun Gupta, spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is also part of J&K’s coalition government, says public hostility towards them is growing.

“Jammu is a small place, and with this kind of influx, it is problematic. They are into a lot of illegal activities and since they are poor and idle, they are easily accessible to anti-national elements seeking to destablise Jammu,” said Gupta.

“Kashmir is already on boil. We do not want this to spread to Jammu. People here have started to realise this and believe these refugees should leave as of yesterday.”

Many advocating for the eviction even suggest rival Pakistan may be behind the Rohingya migration here, with the aim of stoking trouble but evidence to support these claims is scarce.

Police in Jammu, for example, say only 11 cases against Rohingya refugees have been registered in the last six years. These include illegal border crossing, rape and theft.

They also been no cases or evidence to suggest links to separatist militancy in Kashmir, connections with Pakistan, or their involvement in Islamic radicalisation, the police add.

Political analysts say the Rohingya are getting caught up in two different, yet equally nasty undercurrents: a global wave of xenophobic sentiment and the local Indian and Pakistan dispute.

“Pakistan certainly has a history of meddling in Kashmir, and we can’t rule out the possibility that it would want to use the Rohingya to serve its interests in Kashmir,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the South Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre.

“But even if there’s something to these allegations, this doesn’t justify the draconian measures being called for against the entire Rohingya community, most of whom we can safely assume are perfectly law-abiding folks simply trying to make a living.”

*Little protection for refugees*
The home ministry has responded positively to the eviction demands and last month directed all states to register and identify Rohingya refugees as a first step.

A home ministry official said after this identification process they would decide on the next step.

“Can’t really say at this stage if it will be deportation. They are Myanmar nationals who have come to India from Bangladesh. Diplomatic consultations are on with both Myanmar and Bangladesh about this,” the official said.

Those backing the deportation stress India is under no legal obligation to provide the Rohingya refuge.

India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee rights and state responsibilities to protect them. Nor does the country have a domestic law to protect the almost 210,000 refugees it currently hosts.

They also argue Rohingya are technically “illegal”, pointing to Article 370 of the constitution which gives J&K “special status” and prevents outsiders from permanent settlement.

Human rights groups disagree, saying deporting the refugees to Myanmar violates the internationally recognised principle of non-refoulement that forbids forcibly returning people to a country where they are at risk.

In the Rohingya slum in Jammu’s Narwal area, many feel the intensifying anti-Rohingya rhetoric is leading to hate crimes such as assaults or suspicious fires in their settlements.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says while India has not informed them of any change in policy towards the Rohingya, there are signs the space in Jammu is shrinking for them.

“A few Rohingya families have informed UNHCR they had to leave Jammu due to fear,” said the UNCHR in a statement, adding it was helping them resettle in other parts of India.

Madrasa teacher Kafayat Ullah Arkani, 32, say most have no choice but to stay in Jammu for the time being.

“If Rohingya commit crimes, then lock them up. Don’t punish an entire community by sending them to be massacred,” said Arkani. “We want to go home, but we can only go when it’s safe.”

http://www.dhakatribune.com/tribune...a-refugees-seeking-deportation-kashmir-boils/


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## Banglar Bir

*USDP Refuses to Make Recommendations to Arakan State Advisory Commission*
SAM Staff, May 16, 2017




USDP chairman U Than Htay, Arakan State Advisory Committee member Ghassan Salame, and other commission members at a meeting. / U Than Htay / Facebook
Burma’s main opposition and former ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) refused to make recommendations to the Arakan State Advisory Commission in a meeting on Sunday.

Members of the Kofi Annan-led Arakan State Advisory Commission met with USDP chairman U Than Htay and the party’s central executive committee members on Sunday. They previously met with the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s central executive committee members in Rangoon on Friday to discuss their upcoming final report.

“The commission explained what they had done and asked for comments on their interim report [launched in March] and recommendations for their final report,” Dr. Nanda Hla Myint, a USDP spokesperson who was in the meeting, told The Irrawaddy.

The commission will submit a final report to the government in August.

The USDP objected to the formation of the commission, stating that the government was allowing foreign interference in internal affairs.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi founded the commission in August last year as an impartial body to recommend “lasting solutions to complex and delicate issues” in Arakan State. It is composed of six locals and three international experts, and is chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

USDP chairman U Than Htay said the party’s objection to the commission still holds. He also said the citizenship verification process in Arakan State has been delayed as changing race and ethnicity classifications has been prioritized over gaining citizenship – referring to the Rohingya Muslims, who have long been stateless and kept in apartheid-like conditions in Burma, which does not recognize them as citizens but instead as interlopers from Bangladesh.

The members of the commission also met with the Burma Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung on Monday.


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## Banglar Bir

*China offers help for Myanmar peace process*

Reuters*May 16, 2017*
Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they meet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 16, 2017 REUTERS

*Myanmar has been sharply criticised in the West over violence against the Rohingya*
Chinese President Xi Jinping told Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday that China would continue to help the country achieve peace, and called for both sides to maintain stability on their shared border, state media said.

Fighting in March in Myanmar pushed thousands of people into China to seek refuge, prompting Beijing to call for a ceasefire between ethnic militias and the security forces there and carry out military drills along the border.
Xi met Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who serves as Myanmar’s foreign minister while also being de facto head of its civilian government, following China’s Belt and Road Forum on Sunday and Monday.
“China is willing to continue to provide necessary assistance for Myanmar’s internal peace process,” China’s official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying. “The two sides must jointly work to safeguard China-Myanmar border security and stability,” Xi said.
The news agency did not elaborate on what assistance China would provide.

China has repeatedly expressed concern about fighting along the border that has occasionally spilled into its territory, for instance in 2015, when five people died in China.
Xi also said China would work to enhance cooperation with Myanmar on his Belt and Road development plan, which aims to bolster China’s global leadership by expanding infrastructure between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond.

The president promised $124 billion on Sunday to expand the reach of the initiative during the two day summit of world leaders in Beijing.
*Suu Kyi told Xi that Myanmar was grateful for Chinese help and that it would work with China to safeguard stability in the border region, Xinhua said.*

Beijing last month offered to mediate a diplomatic row over the flight of around 69,000 minority Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh to escape violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, according to officials from Bangladesh.
Myanmar has been sharply criticised in the West over violence against the Rohingya.

Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency under Myanmar’s army-drafted constitution, but effectively leads the government through the specially created post of “state counsellor”.


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh turn up the heat on Myanmar over Rohingyas*

Tribune Desk
Published at 01:53 PM May 17, 2017
Last updated at 01:54 PM May 17, 2017
Rohingya refugee Mohammad Ayaz stands with his son Mohammad Osman, the two survivors of his family, at an unregistered refugee camp at Ukhiya in southern Cox's Bazar district on November 24, 2016. Dhaka has called on Myanmar to take "urgent measures" to protect its Rohingya minority after thousands crossed into Bangladesh in just a few days, some saying the military was burning villages and raping young girlsAPF
*About a million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions in squalid camps in northwestern Rakhine state, where they are denied citizenship and basic rights*
Myanmar is under increased global pressure to solve the Rohingya crisis as next-door neighbour Bangladesh has taken a tough stance on the issue highlighting the plight of the persecuted minority community in various global forums.

“Bangladesh has provided data and information to various organisations and countries including the UN, the EU, Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and the US, and encouraged them to talk about it,” a Foreign Ministry official told the Bangla Tribune.

“We also highlighted the issue in various bilateral meetings,” the official said, seeking anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced a volley of questions about the initiatives she has taken to solve the problem during her recent Brussels visit. She also had to give explanations to foreign ministers of the ASEAN countries.

“Bangladesh has been trying to reach a peaceful solution to the problem since the 1980s but Myanmar was never cordial,” the senior Foreign Ministry official said. “This [reluctance] has forced us to take a tough stance. We are trying to highlight Myanmar’s real intentions.”

About a million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions in squalid camps in northwestern Rakhine state, where they are denied citizenship and basic rights. Many in the Buddhist-majority country regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingyas are believed to be living in Bangladesh, outside the two designated refugee camps. As many as 75,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar after its military launched a crackdown in October last year.

Asked if Bangladesh’s current approach would help solve the problem, the Foreign Ministry official said it was not possible to reach a solution overnight.

According to the official, Myanmar’s economy will feel the brunt if the situation persists, as negative discussions on rights conditions would drive away businesses, who expressed interest to invest after sanctions on Myanmar were lifted.

*Where Bangladesh stands*
Myanmar did not respond to Bangladesh’s call for talks over the Rohingya issue after Naypyidaw started the crackdown.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali spoke with foreign diplomats about the issue, and later Dhaka welcomed a UN delegation to visit Cox’s Bazar Rohingya refugee camps.

In December, Bangladesh organised a global meeting on migration and used the platform to discuss the issue with several countries.

After this initiative, Myanmar agreed to sit for talks in January where Bangladesh conveyed a strong message to Naypyidaw’s special envoy to solve the issue, another Foreign Ministry official said.

“Dhaka later discussed the matter in details with Indonesia’s foreign minister, the three members of Kofi Annan-led international commission, the members of Myanmar government’s Rakhine Commission, UN’s special rapporteur Yanghee Lee, Chinese foreign ministry’s special envoy and the ambassadors of various countries to Bangladesh,” the official added.


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## Homo Sapiens

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/05/17/bangladesh-turn-heat-myanmar-rohingyas/
*Bangladesh turn up the heat on Myanmar over Rohingyas*

Tribune Desk
Published at 01:53 PM May 17, 2017
Last updated at 01:54 PM May 17, 2017
Rohingya refugee Mohammad Ayaz stands with his son Mohammad Osman, the two survivors of his family, at an unregistered refugee camp at Ukhiya in southern Cox's Bazar district on November 24, 2016. Dhaka has called on Myanmar to take "urgent measures" to protect its Rohingya minority after thousands crossed into Bangladesh in just a few days, some saying the military was burning villages and raping young girls APF

About a million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions in squalid camps in northwestern Rakhine state, where they are denied citizenship and basic rights

Myanmar is under increased global pressure to solve the Rohingya crisis as next-door neighbour Bangladesh has taken a tough stance on the issue highlighting the plight of the persecuted minority community in various global forums.

“Bangladesh has provided data and information to various organisations and countries including the UN, the EU, Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and the US, and encouraged them to talk about it,” a Foreign Ministry official told the Bangla Tribune.

“We also highlighted the issue in various bilateral meetings,” the official said, seeking anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced a volley of questions about the initiatives she has taken to solve the problem during her recent Brussels visit. She also had to give explanations to foreign ministers of the ASEAN countries.

“Bangladesh has been trying to reach a peaceful solution to the problem since the 1980s but Myanmar was never cordial,” the senior Foreign Ministry official said. “This [reluctance] has forced us to take a tough stance. We are trying to highlight Myanmar’s real intentions.”

About a million Rohingya Muslims live in apartheid-like conditions in squalid camps in northwestern Rakhine state, where they are denied citizenship and basic rights. Many in the Buddhist-majority country regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingyas are believed to be living in Bangladesh, outside the two designated refugee camps. As many as 75,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar after its military launched a crackdown in October last year.

Asked if Bangladesh’s current approach would help solve the problem, the Foreign Ministry official said it was not possible to reach a solution overnight.

According to the official, Myanmar’s economy will feel the brunt if the situation persists, as negative discussions on rights conditions would drive away businesses, who expressed interest to invest after sanctions on Myanmar were lifted.

*Where Bangladesh stands*
Myanmar did not respond to Bangladesh’s call for talks over the Rohingya issue after Naypyidaw started the crackdown.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali spoke with foreign diplomats about the issue, and later Dhaka welcomed a UN delegation to visit Cox’s Bazar Rohingya refugee camps.

In December, Bangladesh organised a global meeting on migration and used the platform to discuss the issue with several countries.

After this initiative, Myanmar agreed to sit for talks in January where Bangladesh conveyed a strong message to Naypyidaw’s special envoy to solve the issue, another Foreign Ministry official said.

“Dhaka later discussed the matter in details with Indonesia’s foreign minister, the three members of Kofi Annan-led international commission, the members of Myanmar government’s Rakhine Commission, UN’s special rapporteur Yanghee Lee, Chinese foreign ministry’s special envoy and the ambassadors of various countries to Bangladesh,” the official added.


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## TopCat

@Aung Zaya

Reactions: Like Like:
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## Homo Sapiens

TopCat said:


> @Aung Zaya


That was a massive drill.More numerous and better equippied than Burmese army. @Aung Zaya what's happening bro?

Reactions: Like Like:
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## TopCat

Doyalbaba said:


> That's was a massive drill.More numerous and better equippied than Burmese army. @Aung Zaya what's happening bro?



Bangladesh should help these guys like what we had been doing till we lost to the british.

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## TopCat

Seems like @alaungphya guy is permanently banned. I liked to troll him once in a while.


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## Aung Zaya

Doyalbaba said:


> That was a massive drill.More numerous and better equippied than Burmese army. @Aung Zaya what's happening bro?


Lol I don't see anything better than Union Army. And Myanmar army is comprised with many ethnic people in which Rakhine people is second largest in number after Burmese.  talking more numerous and better equipped is funny. they have good uniform in show time but in reality they're poorest equipped among rebel groups. 


TopCat said:


> Bangladesh should help these guys like what we had been doing till we lost to the british.


How..? Lol  carrying weapons to the north though Myanmar..? They're based in Kachin State ,northern part of Myanmar. Not in Rakhine..


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## EastBengalPro

*Qatar to help Bangladesh solve Rohingya issue *

Qatar has expressed its interest to help Bangladesh resolve the Rohingya refugee problem with Myanmar.

Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani expressed the interest in a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Qatari Foreign Minister's Special Envoy Dr Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani handed over the letter to Sheikh Hasina at her official Ganabhaban residence on Thursday evening.

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the meeting.

In the letter, he said, the Qatari prime minister invited his Bangladesh counterpart to visit the Gulf state.

Accepting the invitation, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that she would visit Qatar at a mutually convenient time.

During the meeting, the Qatari Foreign Minister's Special Envoy expressed concern over the Rohingya refugee crisis, saying, "We should work for a solution for lasting peace."

In response, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh has very good relations with Myanmar. "We share information and there have been high official-level visits," she said.

The premier apprised the Qatari Foreign Minister's Special Envoy that Bangladesh has already urged Myanmar to take back its nationals.

Referring to the signing of the CHT Peace Treaty during her tenure in 1997, the prime minister said that the insurgents that time surrendered their arms before her without involvement of others.

Sheikh Hasina also extended greetings to Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani.

PM's Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury and PM's Military Secretary Major General Mia Mohammad Zainul Abedin were present.

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/05/19/70888/Qatar-to-help-Bangladesh-solve-Rohingya-issue

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar sees escalation of religious extremism*
SAM Report, May 20, 2017






The spread of extreme Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar escalates by the day. Extreme nationalists are now preparing to protest against the country’s religious minister. Claiming that Myanmar’s government is failing to support Buddhism, they have begun a march to the country’s capital of Naypyidaw on Friday to voice their anger against the minister.

Organizers said about 30,000 people, including monks and nationalists from Mandalay, Rangoon, and Irrawaddy divisions, will join the protest on the Shwe Nantha field in OttaraThiri Township against the Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture, U Aung Ko.

Naypyidaw’s general administration office stated, however, that the organizers had requested a protest of up to 15,000, but the authorities have allowed only 300.

“Buddhism is the major religion of the country and the religious affairs ministry must protect, support and encourage the Sasana [Buddhist mission]. It was clearly stated in the Constitution,” said U EainDaw Bar Tha, one of the leaders of the Nationalist Buddhist Monks Organization in Mandalay.

“However, Thura U Aung Ko fails to do this and repeatedly upsets the Buddhists of the country. That’s why we’re going to express our dislike of the minister,” he added.

The monk cited Aung San Suu Kyi’s speech marking the one-year anniversary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) government in which she said the party would be “ready to step aside” if people are dissatisfied with the leadership.

“We believe the government will keep their promises after seeing our objection to Thura U Aung Ko,” said U EainDaw Bar Tha. “After the protest, we will wait and see the government’s reaction. It is too early to say what we will do next.”

U Aye Thaung, officer of Ottara district told that local authorities would take legal action against the organizers if the protest exceeded more than 300 people. “The local authorities will stop them in accordance with the Peaceful Assembly Act if they do not follow the permitted numbers,” said the officer.

The planned protest follows an arrest warrant for seven nationalists and Buddhist monks last week who were involved in a recent confrontation between Buddhists and Muslims in Rangoon’s MingalarTaungNyunt Township. They have been charged with incitement to commit violence.

Anti-Muslim vigilante groups led by Buddhist nationalists risk stirring communal tensions in Myanmar’s most populated and ethnically diverse city.

In recent months, extremist mobs have descended upon Yangon’s various townships in an attempt to clamp down on followers of Islam, and to hunt-down Rohingya Muslims who are widely considered illegal immigrants in the majority Buddhist nation. Alongside holding protests and stopping religious ceremonies, on April 28 hardline monks and their followers forced the temporary closure of two Muslims schools they believed were also serving as mosques.

On early Wednesday morning, a group reportedly of around 30 Buddhists led a failed search for Rohingya in a Yangon district with a large Muslim population—culminating in a melee between the nationalists, locals and authorities, with police firing shots to disperse the crowd.

In a media conference on Thursday in Yangon, a senior leader of the Patriotic Monks Union (PMU)—the group responsible for both incidents—vowed to “protect race and religion” in Myanmar on behalf of “reluctant” authorities. Reuters later reported that two radicals from the PMU had been arrested, and that police had warrants to make further arrests.

For the densely-populated city of over 5 million people—home to a notable Muslim community—recent events and the free presence of nationalists are a deeply troubling sign in a country plagued by visceral ethno-religious tension.

Decades of state-led nationalism aimed at shielding the predominantly Buddhist Bamar ethnic group—estimated at 68% of the population today—has gained impetus among Myanmar’s monkhood, an institution with gargantuan civilian sway.

Since 2011, organizations like the 969 Movement, championed by Buddhist cleric Ashin Wirathu—who has been dubbed by foreign media as the “Buddhist bin Laden”— have won strong following for their nativist vitriol using online platforms amid censorship-loosening reforms.

The hatred has largely targeted the nation’s roughly 4% Muslim population—particularly Rakhine state’s ethnic Rohingya, who the United Nations consider “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.”

In 2012, deadly communal Muslim-Buddhist violence broke out in the northwestern state, displacing thousands of Rohingya. Compounding decades of repression, in October the military began a violent crackdown on the minority after the murder of border security guards allegedly by Rohingya militants.

The recent incidents in Yangon were linked to court appearances by PMU seniors in the city, who faced incitement charges earlier on each day, according to local magazine Frontier Myanmar—which also noted the role of extremist social media accounts in trying to mobilize and spread rumors to feed Wednesday’s showdown.

Given that spurious claims online helped to fuel previous violent communal episodes, the combination of mistrust, nationalist sentiment and confined urban spaces in Yangon is a powder keg for authorities who face little chance of maintaining the rule of law amid the speed of online organization and messaging.

Though the arrest warrants show some willingness on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government to quell ethnic tensions—something the Nobel laureate has been widely criticized for ignoring—the increasingly explosive environment also exposes the limits of the de facto leader’s reach.

Her National League for Democracy party—which won landslide elections in 2015—may risk sparking a backlash from nationalist sympathizers. “It’s very sensitive when you’re dealing with monks in this very highly Buddhist country,” the former US Ambassador to Myanmar Derek Mitchell told Voice of America’s Burmese Service, following Wednesday’s events.

Given the nationalist threats to enact their own form of urban mob justice, Brigadier General Mya Win, the commander of Yangon’s regional police security command, told Reuters that police were on high alert. “We are patrolling around Muslim areas and have taken security measures around places of worship.”

With about 10,000 monks expected to attend a major extremist group’s nationwide congress in Yangon in a fortnight, many are watching on nervously.

http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...ncreasing-endeavor-leads-religious-extremism/


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## 24 Hours

@Aung Zaya Curious, do you know in comparison to other militant groups in Burma such as the Kachin rebels and Arakan rebels, how do the Rohingya fair?


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## Banglar Bir

Rohingya Solidarity Organisation Top # 13 Facts


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## asad71

Amon


Ashes said:


> @Aung Zaya Curious, do you know in comparison to other militant groups in Burma such as the Kachin rebels and Arakan rebels, how do the Rohingya fair?


1.Of the seven peripheral states, six have been fighting to evict Burman occupation. Historically and ethnically all are free people. The seventh, Mon in the isthmus of Tennesarim, have been flooded with Burman settlers altering demography.
2. The Burmans have always dreaded the Arakan Muslims. When BD provides them a logistical corridor, the Mujahids will be able to evict the invader.

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## Banglar Bir

*Delhi’s help in Rohingya resolution could spell ill for Dhaka*
Published: 00:05, May 25,2017

THE proposition which India’s high commissioner in Dhaka put forth that Delhi would be party to the resolution of the Rohingya crisis in the Rakhine state of Myanmar involving all sides of the matter, as New Age reported on Wednesday, seems to be umbrageous and, therefore, warrants serious thoughts. Dhaka’s agreeing to such a proposition as set out by India could prove to be suicidal for Bangladesh. 

India is always reported, even by the Indian media, to have thought the Rohingya issue to be complex and more of a security threat to itself than a humanitarian crisis and to have cautiously reserved any pronouncement especially since the renewed persecution on and violence against the Rohingyas in the Rakhine state beginning in October 2016. India, which reportedly has about 40,000 Rohingyas living in its several states, has had the taste of the crisis only since 2012; and it came to be criticised and was held to be in contravention of international law, by rights organisations this April because of its reported plans to identify, arrest and deport the Rohingya refugees, which could only mean intensifying their crisis back in Myanmar.

*India has seldom acted in the interest of Bangladesh and issues concerning death by the Indian border forces in frontiers with Bangladesh, Teesta water sharing, tariff and nontariff barriers on Bangladesh’s export to India, international river-linking project or approval of power trade from Nepal through India have remained pending. 

With so many prickly issues not being attended to, India’s offer for help in the Rohingya crisis resolution may in all likelihood go against the interest of Bangladesh.* 

*India is also reported to have helped Myanmar in maritime dispute resolution with Bangladesh before 2009, when the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea settled the issue. India may have done it purposely to its own benefits as it is reported to have thought Myanmar of playing a key role in connecting with southeast Asia and cutting off China from the Bay of Bengal. *

*As India’s rivalry with China grows on many fronts, upsetting the Myanmar regime, experts fear, could be a strategic mistake for India. India also has security interests that depend on the goodwill of the Myanmar regime. In 2015, after an attack by Naga people on a security convoy in Manipur, Indian security forces were reported to carry out a covert raid across the border with a tacit nod from Myanmar. Besides, India is reported in March to be saying to ‘dissociate’ itself from any UN attempts to send an international mission to investigate killing, rape and torture by security forces in the Rakhine state.*

*While in such a situation, any ‘help’ that India could offer might go against the interest of Bangladesh, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which has dense ties with Myanmar, and the United Nations are in a better position to effectively make interventions in Rohingya crisis resolution. Bangladesh, thus, should strive to take other neighbours of Myanmar — Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, the ASEAN members that are more or less affected by the Rohingya crisis — on board and take up the issue at regional and international forums to mount pressure on Myanmar to resolve the crisis.*

- See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/162...ould-spell-ill-for-dhaka#sthash.vWS572h0.dpuf


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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar and China strengthen their alliance*
Larry Jagan, May 30, 2017




Aung San Suu Kyi (on left) with Chinese president Xi Jinping and his wife

*In recent weeks, several signals have emerged that show Myanmar is opting to be part of Beijing’s orbit rather than strengthen relations with the West, particularly Washington. This is in part the result of Beijing’s intense diplomatic charm offensive. But more importantly it reflects Myanmar’s dependence on China to resolve its ethnic instability and violence.*

The landmark visit of China’s warships and joint naval exercises earlier this month symbolizes this increasingly symbiotic relationship. These military maneuvers reflected the growing ‘political trust’ between the countries, according to Chinese diplomats.

This followed several important diplomatic exchanges. The most important, was the meeting between Myanmar’s civilian leader, the State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ summit in mid-May — her second visit there in the past year.

Earlier, Myanmar’s titular president, Htin Kyaw, made a six-day state visit to China to strengthen their ties. This paved the way for an agreement with Beijing to create an economic cooperation zone as part of the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative — which is intended to connect Asian and European markets – at the end of Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit.

But the key to Myanmar’s strategic shift towards Beijing is the peace process. This has been one of the new democratic Myanmar government’s key priorities since it came to power more than a year ago. Originally Aung San Suu Kyi tried to build on the legacy of the previous president, Thein Sein – the national ceasefire agreement (NCA). This took several years of negotiation and eventually only eight groups signed the document, in October 2015.

Since then there has been a plethora of meetings and negotiations – primarily centered on getting the other ethnic rebel groups to sign the NCA and start the promised political dialogue that would lead to the creation of a federal state. This has failed and the peace process has stalled. The latest meeting of the 21st Panglong peace conference, which concluded last week, is a clear testament to that. Key ethnic groups boycotted the meeting, because of the government’s insistence that those groups that did not sign the NCA would not be able to participate fully – they could only attend as observers.

Sources close to the Myanmar leader say she has begun to realize the NCA is not the key to kick starting the peace process, but that a new approach is needed. For this she has turned to Beijing for their support, especially in convincing the Northern Alliance – many of whom are still fighting with the Myanmar army – to join the peace process. At Beijing’s behest they attended the recent Panglong meeting in Naypyidaw.

The State Counselor and the Alliance members have had bilateral talks in the aftermath of the conference. Led by the Wa – a major ethnic group closely allied to China – the northern alliance has proposed an alternative approach to the peace process, which may now be the basis of discussion. Behind the scenes, the Chinese are backing this group and their plan.

For Aung San Suu Kyi now China has become key to solving the peace conundrum. She believes she needs China for the successful conclusion of the peace process according to sources close the Lady – as she is commonly referred to. As a result she feels beholden to Beijing – and that has certainly given them the upper hand in the battle for influence.

From once being the darling of the West, policy makers in the US in particular, fear Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent pivot towards China. But apart from the assistance Myanmar needs to achieve national reconciliation, a close friendship with Beijing offers the State Counselor many other benefits: most importantly with the military.

The Myanmar commander-in-chief has long seen the Wa as crucial to the peace process. While the army has no intentions of engaging them militarily, they do want to contain them. The generals fear the Wa extending their influence along the northern border with China to Thailand. Last year the army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing made a hastily arranged unannounced trip to China in an effort to illicit Beijing’s support to contain the Wa, who at the time seemed to be spreading their tentacles.

So any peace plans, which involve the Wa — with China’s backing — will be fully endorsed by Myanmar’s military leaders. But more importantly Aung San Suu Kyi’s preference for Beijing over Washington would also meet with their strong approval. Although the military want to be accepted by the US – and hanker after better relations, including access to military training and even hardware – they do not entirely trust Washington. Instead they believe Beijing is a more dependable ally.

China has always been prepared to come to Myanmar aid, the former military intelligence officer Colonel Hla Min told me nearly two decades ago, during the time of the former military regime. In 1988, when the US Seventh Fleet sailed into the Andaman Sea – and military leaders feared a US invasion was imminent – thousands of Chinese troops amassed on the northern border ready to cross over and come to Myanmar’s assistance, he explained.

While the military is more open to China, it should not disguise their long held suspicion. “We don’t trust the Chinese but we know we must work with them,” a former senior military officer told me recently.

On the other hand, although the Wa maybe prepared to work with the government now, they also harbor deep reservations about Aung San Suu Kyi – especially about her power. “We can never work with Aung San Suu Kyi if she becomes Myanmar’s leader,” the Wa leader Bao Yuxiang told me in the Wa capital Pangsan, fifteen years ago. The reason: “she doesn’t have an army.”

So for now at least Aung San Suu Kyi feels she has no alternative but to depend on China, and strengthen their bilateral relations, especially for the sake of the peace process. However in the longer term, Myanmar – under Aung San Suu Kyi – is likely pursue a more nuanced foreign policy. But for the moment China is a prime position to exert its influence on the Lady.

http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/05/30/myanmar-china-strengthen-alliance/


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## asad71

For decades Pakistan had ignored this issue and concentrated all attention to Kashmir. But what we have been doing post-72 is sheer criminal negligence. We have denied our future generations a sure potential for peace, prosperity and security. We are paying for this and will pay dearly in the days to come. The indications are clear.


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## Banglar Bir

*UN names fact-finding mission members*
SAM Staff, May 31, 2017





Sri Lankan lawyer and human rights veteran Radhika Coomaraswamy (Right), pictured here in 2009, will join a three-member UN fact-finding mission. / Reuters

The UN named a trio of independent experts on Tuesday to investigate widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture by Burma’s security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State.

*The international fact-finding mission will be chaired by Indira Jaising, an advocate of the Supreme Court of India, the president of the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement.*

The mission will seek access to Burma, where the army last week rejected allegations of abuses during a crackdown last year which forced some 75,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The UN urged the government to “fully cooperate” by making available the findings of its domestic investigations and by “granting full, unrestricted and unmonitored access”.

*The two other members are Radhika Coomaraswamy, a human rights veteran and lawyer from Sri Lanka, and Australian activist Christopher Sidoti, said the U.N. statement, issued after private consultations within the 47-member state forum.*

The Council agreed to set up the fact-finding mission last March in a resolution strongly condemning violations and calling for ensuring “full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.”

A UN report in February said Burma’s security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes in a campaign that “very likely” amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. The report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was based on extensive interviews with Rohingya survivors in Bangladesh.

Both Burma’s de facto leader State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s military commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing have rejected the team of experts.

In her State of the Union address last month Daw Aung Suu Kyi said she did not accept a fact-finding mission into Arakan State. “It does not mean we disrespect the UN,” she added, “it is just that it does not correspond with our country’s [situation].”

On the occasion of the 72nd Anniversary of Armed Forces Day last month, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing reiterated that the Rohingya population did not belong to Burma, but were interlopers from Bangladesh—and that any international political intervention on the pretext of assisting refugees from this community would threaten Burma’s sovereignty.

Last week, more than 50 civil society groups in Burma urged the government to fully cooperate with the fact finding mission, claiming it would “foster a rule-of law culture.” Last month, 23 international organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Fortify Rights, called on overseas governments to engage Burmese authorities in allowing unfettered access to the UN fact-finding mission.

SOURCE REUTERS

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## asad71

BANGLAR BIR said:


> *UN names fact-finding mission members*
> SAM Staff, May 31, 2017
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sri Lankan lawyer and human rights veteran Radhika Coomaraswamy (Right), pictured here in 2009, will join a three-member UN fact-finding mission. / Reuters
> 
> The UN named a trio of independent experts on Tuesday to investigate widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture by Burma’s security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State.
> 
> *The international fact-finding mission will be chaired by Indira Jaising, an advocate of the Supreme Court of India, the president of the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement.*
> 
> The mission will seek access to Burma, where the army last week rejected allegations of abuses during a crackdown last year which forced some 75,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The UN urged the government to “fully cooperate” by making available the findings of its domestic investigations and by “granting full, unrestricted and unmonitored access”.
> 
> *The two other members are Radhika Coomaraswamy, a human rights veteran and lawyer from Sri Lanka, and Australian activist Christopher Sidoti, said the U.N. statement, issued after private consultations within the 47-member state forum.*
> 
> The Council agreed to set up the fact-finding mission last March in a resolution strongly condemning violations and calling for ensuring “full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.”
> 
> A UN report in February said Burma’s security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes in a campaign that “very likely” amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. The report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was based on extensive interviews with Rohingya survivors in Bangladesh.
> 
> Both Burma’s de facto leader State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s military commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing have rejected the team of experts.
> 
> In her State of the Union address last month Daw Aung Suu Kyi said she did not accept a fact-finding mission into Arakan State. “It does not mean we disrespect the UN,” she added, “it is just that it does not correspond with our country’s [situation].”
> 
> On the occasion of the 72nd Anniversary of Armed Forces Day last month, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing reiterated that the Rohingya population did not belong to Burma, but were interlopers from Bangladesh—and that any international political intervention on the pretext of assisting refugees from this community would threaten Burma’s sovereignty.
> 
> Last week, more than 50 civil society groups in Burma urged the government to fully cooperate with the fact finding mission, claiming it would “foster a rule-of law culture.” Last month, 23 international organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Fortify Rights, called on overseas governments to engage Burmese authorities in allowing unfettered access to the UN fact-finding mission.
> 
> SOURCE REUTERS



Another B/S bakwas to procrastinate a fair resolution. Meanwhile more Rohingyas will be slaughtered.

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## Banglar Bir

WATCH: Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh are having a difficult time during the holy month of Ramadan.





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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya camps in Bangladesh destroyed by Cyclone Mora*
*Tropical storm leaves Bangladesh flooded and thousands of Rohingya refugees 'without a roof'.*




At least seven people have died and 50 others injured by Cyclone Mora that has also left thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh waiting for help after a night in the rain.

Bangladesh's border region, home to around 12,000 Rohingya refugees that fled Myanmar, faced the brunt of the storm. It struck the island of Saint Martin and Teknaf in the coastal district of Cox's Bazar, where officials said some 200,000 people were evacuated to shelters.

In Chittagong district, about 150,000 people were evacuated.
Shamsul Alam, a Rohingya community leader, told Reuters news agency the damage in the camps was severe with almost all 10,000 thatched huts in the Balukhali and Kutupalong camps destroyed.

"Most of the temporary houses in the camps have been flattened," Alam said.

The Bangladesh government estimates there are more than 300,000 Rohingya in the country. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority shunned by Myanmar's Buddhist majority.

"We heard that a cyclone was coming. But there's no place we can go," 27-year-old Hamida Begum, who said she fled to Bangladesh three months ago after her husband disappeared, told Reuters on Wednesday.





Rohingya refugees face increased risk of disease due to lack of sanitation facilities [AFP]
"I hate being a Rohingya. We are being tortured in Myanmar. Now in Bangladesh, we have no rights. Nothing. After this cyclone, we don't have a roof. We are living under the sky. We have no future."

Authorities had evacuated more than 400,000 people from the low-lying border districts before the storm. However, most of the Rohingya refugees remained in their makeshift shelters when the storm struck.

"There's no roof. We are just drinking water. The little food we had in our home was all damaged after the cyclone," said Setara Begum, a mother of two, including a five-month old.

"My children are crying for food. I am helpless. I have no money. There's no hope. I don't know how I will raise my children."

Deaths as Cyclone Roanu pounds Bangladesh


Beyond the camps, officials were also assessing the damage elsewhere. The chief administrator said 17,500 houses had been destroyed and 35,000 partially damaged in the district.

"After the storm, there's an acute crisis of food, shelter, health services, water and sanitation facilities in the makeshift settlements," said Sanjukta Sahany, local head of the International Organization for Migration which coordinates relief in some of the camps.

There were also pockets of damage in the broader community, but no reports of casualties, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Omar Farukh, a community leader in Kutupalong camp - one of several camps for Rohingya in Cox's Bazar - described the misery of those left behind.

"We have passed a difficult time. We had no tin or plastic sheets above our heads, and almost all of us passed the night in the rain," Farukh told Reuters by telephone.

"We tried to save our belongings, whatever we have, with pieces of plastic sheet," he said before adding agency officials visited the Kutupalong camp to see what was needed.

Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Kutupalong camp, said authorities and NGOs were not present in the camp and refugees had to repair the damage themselves.

"They are left on their own," he said.





Path of Cyclone Mora through Rohingya refugee camps [AFP]
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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## PDF

asad71 said:


> For decades Pakistan had ignored this issue and concentrated all attention to Kashmir. But what we have been doing post-72 is sheer criminal negligence. We have denied our future generations a sure potential for peace, prosperity and security. We are paying for this and will pay dearly in the days to come. The indications are clear.


Pakistan has given humanitarian help to the Burma refugees. We have also helped the suffering people in Burma financially.
But indeed, we have not done what we should have rather we have intensified our military cooperation by supplying them arms. Pakistan must correct its course and take practical actions against the criminal government and military of Myanmar rather than give out statements and show sympathy.

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar State Counselor meets with senior Chinese military official*
SAM Staff, June 4, 2017




State Counselor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi (R) meets with General Fang Fenghui (L), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department, in Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar, June 1, 2017. (mod.gov.cn/Zhu Min)
Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi met with General Fang Fenghui, member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC on June 1 in Nay Pyi Taw.

Aung San Suu Kyi said that she has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for times and they have reached a number of consensuses on developing bilateral relations.

*Myanmar attaches great importance to and takes active part in the Belt and Road Initiative, many major cooperative projects between t*he two countries have achieved good results for the economic development of Myanmar, she said.

Myanmar is willing to strengthen cooperation in various fields with China, she said.

The state counselor mentioned that China had played a positive role in the success of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference* and Myanmar is willing to work with China to jointly safeguard the peace and stability in their border areas.*

Fang Fenghui said that under the joint promotion of President Xi and Suu Kyi, the political mutual trust between the two countries has been strengthened, economic cooperation enhanced, cultural exchanges deepened and military cooperation expanded.

China and Myanmar have mutual support on a number of major issues, *and the win-win cooperation *between the two sides has proved to be fruitful, Fang added.

The Chinese military is willing to strengthen cooperation with the Myanmar military in areas of high-level exchanges, personnel training, joint drilling, anti-terrorism and equipment technology, so as to play an active role in promoting the all-round development of bilateral relations, Fang said.

First Vice President of Myanmar Myint Swe and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmar Defense Services, held talks respectively with General Fang Fenghui on the same day.

http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...selor-meets-senior-chinese-military-official/

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## 24 Hours

BANGLAR BIR said:


> *Rohingya camps in Bangladesh destroyed by Cyclone Mora*
> *Tropical storm leaves Bangladesh flooded and thousands of Rohingya refugees 'without a roof'.*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> At least seven people have died and 50 others injured by Cyclone Mora that has also left thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh waiting for help after a night in the rain.
> 
> Bangladesh's border region, home to around 12,000 Rohingya refugees that fled Myanmar, faced the brunt of the storm. It struck the island of Saint Martin and Teknaf in the coastal district of Cox's Bazar, where officials said some 200,000 people were evacuated to shelters.
> 
> In Chittagong district, about 150,000 people were evacuated.
> Shamsul Alam, a Rohingya community leader, told Reuters news agency the damage in the camps was severe with almost all 10,000 thatched huts in the Balukhali and Kutupalong camps destroyed.
> 
> "Most of the temporary houses in the camps have been flattened," Alam said.
> 
> The Bangladesh government estimates there are more than 300,000 Rohingya in the country. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority shunned by Myanmar's Buddhist majority.
> 
> "We heard that a cyclone was coming. But there's no place we can go," 27-year-old Hamida Begum, who said she fled to Bangladesh three months ago after her husband disappeared, told Reuters on Wednesday.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rohingya refugees face increased risk of disease due to lack of sanitation facilities [AFP]
> "I hate being a Rohingya. We are being tortured in Myanmar. Now in Bangladesh, we have no rights. Nothing. After this cyclone, we don't have a roof. We are living under the sky. We have no future."
> 
> Authorities had evacuated more than 400,000 people from the low-lying border districts before the storm. However, most of the Rohingya refugees remained in their makeshift shelters when the storm struck.
> 
> "There's no roof. We are just drinking water. The little food we had in our home was all damaged after the cyclone," said Setara Begum, a mother of two, including a five-month old.
> 
> "My children are crying for food. I am helpless. I have no money. There's no hope. I don't know how I will raise my children."
> 
> Deaths as Cyclone Roanu pounds Bangladesh
> 
> 
> Beyond the camps, officials were also assessing the damage elsewhere. The chief administrator said 17,500 houses had been destroyed and 35,000 partially damaged in the district.
> 
> "After the storm, there's an acute crisis of food, shelter, health services, water and sanitation facilities in the makeshift settlements," said Sanjukta Sahany, local head of the International Organization for Migration which coordinates relief in some of the camps.
> 
> There were also pockets of damage in the broader community, but no reports of casualties, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
> 
> Omar Farukh, a community leader in Kutupalong camp - one of several camps for Rohingya in Cox's Bazar - described the misery of those left behind.
> 
> "We have passed a difficult time. We had no tin or plastic sheets above our heads, and almost all of us passed the night in the rain," Farukh told Reuters by telephone.
> 
> "We tried to save our belongings, whatever we have, with pieces of plastic sheet," he said before adding agency officials visited the Kutupalong camp to see what was needed.
> 
> Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Kutupalong camp, said authorities and NGOs were not present in the camp and refugees had to repair the damage themselves.
> 
> "They are left on their own," he said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Path of Cyclone Mora through Rohingya refugee camps [AFP]
> Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies



Some footage of the destruction


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/870300161691361280


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## Banglar Bir

*Human Rights Watch defends Muslims praying in public*
SAM Staff, June 6, 2017




Security forces in front of a madrassa in Thaketa Township after nationalists sealed off the religious school. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy
Human Rights Watch on Monday called for the Myanmar government to overrule local officials in Rangoon who are threatening to charge Muslims for holding Ramadan prayers in a public space.

On May 31, about 50 Muslims worshipped near a shuttered Islamic school in Thaketa Township, one of two madrassas in the area that were shut down by a ultranationalist mob on April 28. It is unclear when they will reopen.

In a statement on June 1, township authorities warned Muslims from the group they would take action under Article 133 of Myanmar ’s Penal Code for praying in public without official permission, as it said the prayers blocked the road and threatened “stability and the rule of law.”

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s Asia Division, said: “ward-level officials’ threats to charge and prosecute Muslims” who took part in the prayer session on May 31 was “further evidence of the Myanmar government’s failure to protect religious freedoms.”

“Since that day, local police and ward officials in Yangon have been consistently harassing and threatening members of the Muslim community with criminal charges and fines because they dared assemble in the street to hold prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan,” he said.

“These actions by local officials are an outrage that should be urgently overruled by senior leaders in the General Administration Department, or failing that, the minister of home affairs. If the ministry refuses to act within days to cease these threats of charges, then as de facto head of government, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should step in to protect freedom of conscience and religion,” he added.

Robertson said mosques and madrassas that have been forcibly shuttered should be “immediately re-opened.”

“Religious believers should not be threatened or criminally charged simply for exercising their fundamental right to observe and practice their religion,” he said.

Local Muslims told The Irrawaddy that they do not have enough places to pray. Township authorities were unavailable for comment on Monday.

http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/06/06/human-rights-watch-defends-muslims-praying-public/

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## Banglar Bir

*Canada must demand human rights for Rohingya in Myanmar*
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was honoured by Canada for her own courage and determination during 15 years of imprisonment under the despotism of Burma’s previous military rulers, has refused to speak up for her country’s Rohingya minority for fear of antagonizing Buddhist nationalists.



Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is seen in Feburary during the Panglong Peace Talk with ethnic representatives to mark 70th anniversary of Myanmar Union Day in Panglong town, Southern Shan State, Myanmar. Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi travels to Canada this week to consult with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on constitutional reforms. (AUNG HTET / AFP/GETTY IMAGES) 
By PETER GOODSPEED
Tues., June 6, 2017

It is time Canada spoke some harsh brutal truths to Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar (also known as Burma) and one of only six honorary Canadian citizens.

The Nobel Peace Laureate, who has long been regarded as the female Asian equivalent of Nelson Mandela, is in Canada this week to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get some tips on federalism and constitutional reform.

But the top agenda item on any and every meeting she has in this country should be her government’s persecution and near genocidal treatment of Burma’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

Since her National League for Democracy won a crushing majority in national elections in Burma in November 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi has done virtually nothing to help the Rohingya people, who, for decades, have been widely described as the “most persecuted people on Earth.”

In fact, since last October, Burma’s NLD-led government has waged a brutal security “clearance operation” in Burma’s Rakhine State that has led to the killing of hundreds of Rohingya people and the forced the displacement of more than 30,000 others. Dozens of Rohingya villages have been burned, women raped, civilians arbitrarily arrested and children killed.

Last December, a dozen other Nobel Peace Laureates signed an open letter to the UN Security Council that warned the crisis in Burma is a tragedy “amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

This March, the UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued an urgent report that said the most recent abuses in Burma may amount to crimes against humanity.

“While discrimination against the Rohingya has been endemic for decades, the recent level of violence is unprecedented,” the report said.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/com...and-human-rights-for-rohingya-in-myanmar.html

*Suu Kyi, Trudeau talk federalism for Myanmar*
SAM Staff, June 9, 2017



Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, Ontario, on June 7, 2017. Photo: Lars Hagberg/AFP

*Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi sat down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wednesday to learn about Canadian federalism, a system of government she believes could bring stability to her nation.*

“I’m happy to be here, particularly to study the federalism of Canada because it is where we’re trying to go. We’re trying to build up a democratic federal union,” the Nobel laureate said.

“We have some ways to go before we become a working democratic federal nation such as yours,” she added, turning to Trudeau in his parliamentary office. “But I’m sure we’ll get there.”

Canada is among several Western nations supporting democratic reforms in Myanmar.

Suu Kyi’s trip to Canada follows a fresh round of peace talks in the capital Naypyidaw aimed at ending a conflict in Myanmar’s troubled frontier regions, where various ethnic groups have been waging war against the state for almost seven decades.

*Summit delegates considered what shape a federal union might take. The idea is still in its infancy.*

Trudeau offered condolences on behalf of Canada for the loss of a Myanmar military aircraft carrying 106 passengers — soldiers and their families — and 14 crew.

*He also said after their talk that he “encouraged Myanmar to accelerate its efforts to uphold human rights, particularly with respect to women, youth, and protecting ethnic and religious minorities, including the Rohingya.”*

Trudeau also announced Can$8.8 million in aid to support the peace process and to provide emergency food assistance, shelter and health care to vulnerable populations.

SOURCE AFP

http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/06/09/suu-kyi-trudeau-talk-federalism-myanmar/

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## Banglar Bir

UpFront
3 hours ago
Aung San Suu Kyi: Turning her back on Rohingya?




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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar's Suu Kyi says UN Rohingya probe would increase tensions*
Editor-June 12, 2017 Reuters Agency

"We did not feel it was in keeping with the needs of the region in which we are trying to establish harmony and understanding, and to remove the fears that have kept the two communities apart for so long."

The 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has said she would only accept recommendations from a separate advisory commission led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan.

"I think we should really give the commission a chance to show whether or not they have done their work properly instead of condemning from the beginning," she said.

A U.N. report in February said Myanmar's security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes in a campaign that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

The report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights was based on extensive interviews with Rohingya survivors in Bangladesh.

About 75,000 Rohingya fled from Myanmar's Rakhine State to Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown last year launched after nine policemen were killed in attacks that Myanmar blamed on Rohingya militants.

More than 200,000 Rohingya had already fled to Bangladesh, many living in official and makeshift camps, straining resources in one of Asia's poorest regions.

*Muslims protest closure of religious schools in Myanmar*
Muslim residents in Myanmar’s largest city Wednesday protested the closure of their two religious schools as they have fewer place for worship in the month of Ramadan -- the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic lunar calendar.Local authorities -- following negotiations with local Muslim leaders -- chained shut two madrasahs in Yangon city on April 28 after a mob led by ultra-nationalist Buddhist monks demanded an immediate closure of religious schools in the area.

On Wednesday evening, some 100 Muslims gathered on the street in front of one of the two madrasahs to pray and protest the closure as the madrasahs stayed closed until now though the authorities said it was just temporary.Tin Shwe, the head of the madrasah, told Anadolu Agency that authorities also barred Muslim residents from worshiping in six other schools in Thakayta Township without giving any proper reasons.“We requested them to let us worship in these schools during Ramadan. 

But it went unanswered,” he said on Wednesday.He added local Muslims were performing prayer at their individual places such as houses and shops since the ban.“This is not the way we should perform prayers, especially in the month of Ramadan,” said Tin Shwe, adding the closest mosque was about a 45-minute walk away.Min Naung, a 32-year-old Muslim resident of Thakayta, who joined the protest, said he has worshiped in the schools since he was a child.

“This is the first time we are not able to gather during the Ramadan month,” he told Anadolu Agency after the street prayer.“The ban makes us shocked,” he said.New York-based Human Rights Watch earlier this month said the closure was "the latest government failure to protect country’s religious minorities".

"The government should immediately reverse these closures, end restrictions on the practice of minority religions, and prosecute Buddhist ultra-nationalists who break the law in the name of religion," said HRW’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson. HRW said Myanmar government has placed opaque and onerous restrictions on the construction or renovation of religious structures, as well as limits on the practice of religion, elements of the systemic discrimination facing Muslims, including the ethnic Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine State.

Anti-Muslim movements have been on the rise in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since an outbreak in communal violence in the western Rakhine state in 2012.

http://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/m...ohingya-probe-would-increase-tensions-2717207


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## Banglar Bir

*Shadowy rebels extend Myanmar’s wars
The little-known Arakan Army, one of the country's newest insurgent outfits, is responsible for rising violence in the country's remote western regions*
By DAVID SCOTT MATHIESON YANGON, JUNE 11, 2017 1:49 PM





Myanmar solders patrol the streets at Thapyuchai village, outside of Thandwe in the Rakhine State. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun




The stirring soundtrack of the video ‘Dream in Our Heart’ is accompanied by statements of defiance by ethnic Rakhine soldiers, male and female, of the Arakan Army (AA) from their mountain redoubt in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State.

Army commander Major General Twan Mrat Naing (aka Tun Myat Naing) speaks to the camera: “Our message to Naypyidaw and Burmese army is we will never ever give up, we will fight until we achieve our objective.”

That objective, articulated in the video widely distributed online, is the total liberation of Myanmar’s Rakhine State from “Burmese fascism” and the Myanmar army which has long occupied Rakhine State and oppressed its people.

The little known Arakan Army is unique in that as one of Myanmar’s smallest ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) still fighting the central government, it operates in four ethnic states at either end of this large country: far from ‘home’ in Kachin and northern Shan States, and in the west in the borderlands of Chin and Rakhine State, where many of the groups fighters hail from.

Formed in April 2009, the AA’s central aims are self-determination for the Arakan people, to safeguard national identity and cultural heritage and promote ‘national’ dignity. Its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA), was formed soon after the militant wing.

The army partly formed as a response to widespread frustration amongst young Rakhine with the largely moribund Arakan Liberation Party/Army (ALP/A) and its political wing based on the Thailand-Myanmar border, which only ever operated alongside the large Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and not for many years in Rakhine State.

The ALP signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in October 2015, and some of its members have voiced support for the AA and condemned allegations of Myanmar army abuses against its supporters.

Most international understanding of ethnic Rakhine grievances stem from the long persecution of Rohingya Muslims and communal violence which rocked the state in 2012. But this obscures long-standing resentment of decades-long of neglect by the Myanmar state which has made Rakhine State one of Myanmar’s least developed and poverty wracked areas.





Migrants collect rainwater at a temporary refugee camp near Kanyin Chaung jetty, in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, June 4, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun
The AA explicitly uses the colonial era Arakan terminology, rejecting ‘Rakhine’ as a Myanmar term that implicitly sees the Rakhine as second class citizens, and that fuels broader Myanmar ridicule of the Rakhine as yokels who speak a tortured dialect of the Burmese language, akin to the dismissal of people from the Deep South in the United States.

The Kingdom of Arakan was sacked by the Myanmar kings in the 15th Century, and evidence of this rich cultural heritage is preserved in the ancient ruins of Mrauk-U.

Drawing on disaffected migrant workers from the Hpakant jade mines, the AA was hosted and trained by the Kachin Independence Army, one of Myanmar’s oldest and most sophisticated insurgent groups. Within two years, the AA was on the frontline alongside its Kachin allies, after the 17-year ceasefire between the Kachin and government collapsed in 2011, leading to heavy fighting which displaced over 100,000 civilians, hundreds of civilian casualties and destroyed villages, and combatant casualties numbering in the several thousand.

The AA operates in Northern Shan State as part of the Northern Alliance, which includes the Kokang-Chinese Myanmar Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta-ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and Brigades 4 and 6 of the Kachin Independence Army. Underscoring the bewildering relationships of the Myanmar civil war, the Arakan Army also operated alongside ethnic-Myanmar soldiers of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) until that group signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in October 2015.

The alliance has markedly stepped up operations against government targets, including the November 20, 2016 attack on the China-Myanmar border trade city of Muse, in which several civilians were killed and injured, bridges blown up, and the subsequent seizing of the border town of Mong Ko, before alliance fighters were driven from the town by the Tatmadaw’s use of heavy artillery and air-strikes.

The Northern Shan State fighting has been largely eclipsed by international attention on the repression of the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, but it seizes domestic attention far more because of its marked intensification in recent years.

The Alliance assault on the former MNDAA stronghold of Laukkai in March, in which AA troops took part, included attacks on the main hotel and casino in which civilians and policemen alike were targeted, and allegedly scores of men and women were abducted as human shields during the insurgents retreat into the hills.




Miners search for jade stones at a mine dump at a Hpakant jade mine in Kachin state, Myanmar November 25, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun

The AA’s participation in these northern operations for the past several years is predicated on the expansion of their trained and battle-tested fighters to open a front in their home state. As early as 2013, Rakhine political leaders were lobbying the previous government of U Thein Sein to open an area for AA fighters to relocate from Kachin State to Rakhine State, although with little support from the government.

In 2015, the AA opened a new area of operations in the borderlands of Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, and Mrauk-U townships of Rakhine State, and Paletwa township of Chin State close to the Bangladesh border. In several bouts of fighting between the AA and the Tatmadaw, the military admitted to losing several troops, including officers to Arakanese sniper fire.

The Tatmadaw reported 15 clashes between December 28, 2015 to January 4, 2016 in which large amounts of weapons and ammunition were captured. Fighting flared again in April and May, and in December 2016 in Paletwa, as Tatmadaw troops continued to sweep the area to interdict AA movements along the borderlands.

According to AA sources, the Tatmadaw have deployed ten battalions from their Western Command and Military Operations Command 15 based in Buthidaung to pacify their movements in three townships (Infantry battalions 374, 375, 376, 539 in Kyauktaw, 377, 378, 540 in Mrauk U, and 379, 380 and 540 in Min Bya).

The current size of the AA is difficult to measure. Some estimates place their total numbers at 1,500, which is fairly standard size for many smaller ethnic insurgent groups, while training in the north continues to attract large numbers of male and female recruits. (The KIA numbers around 7,000, while the United Wa State Army has over 25,000 under arms.)

The fighting has generated a cycle of dynamic civilian displacement necessitating international and national relief operations to supplement large humanitarian operations that exist for civilians displaced by communal violence in 2012 and responses to natural disasters.

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 1,100 IDP’s in eight temporary sites in Kyauktaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung, and worked with Rakhine relief agencies and the state government to assist civilians.




Policemen stand guard as firemen work to extinguish fire during fighting between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities in Sittwe June 10, 2012. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun

Reports of extortion, ill-treatment and forced recruitment by the AA have increased, which are often countered by allegations of Tatmadaw brutality, including in one statement “witnesses and victims described how the armed forces forcedly (sic) displaced entire villages and destroyed, beatings with the barrel of a gun, executions, gun rape, looting and the burning of their homes.”

The fighting has exacerbated tensions between the AA and ethnic Chin civilians in Paletwa, and has sparked public criticism by Chin leaders and reports from the Chin Human Rights Organization that AA soldiers have been abducting Chin civilians, using others as forced labor, and planting landmines around civilian areas.

Chin political parties have condemned both sides of using of landmines without apportioning specific blame for reports of widespread human rights violations. Just days ago, Indian media reported that an estimated 300 Chin civilians, predominantly women and children, had fled Myanmar to seek sanctuary in Mizoram in northeast India, claiming that the AA had detained the men from Ralie village inside Chin State.

The AA dismissed these allegations in a statement posted to Facebook, and alleged that renegade Arakan Liberation Army soldiers were masquerading as AA forces to extort money from civilians and discredit the insurgent outfit. In such isolated settings, verifying various allegations of abuses is almost impossible.

The Myanmar military has responded to the the AA’s increased operations in Rakhine State with a wave of arrests of civilians suspected of providing material support to the insurgents. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, 58 Rakhine civilians have been sentenced under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act, with eight more facing trial while in detention in Sittwe Prison.

Bonds between Rakhine politicians, activists and the AA are tight: Maj-Gen Twan Mrat Naing’s father-in-law is the Rakhine State parliamentary Speaker of the House, U Saw Kyaw Hla.




Tun Myat Naing, aka Twan Mrat Naing, commander-in-chief of the Arakan Army (AA), attends a meeting of ethnic armed group leaders at the United Wa State Army (UWSA) headquarters on May 6, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

In early April, the authorities stopped a fund-raising football match in Mrauk-U, dubbed the ‘Arakan Army Cup’ during the annual Thingyan water festival, and arrested a Buddhist abbot Nanda Thara and a lay supporter Khaing Ni Min charging them under Section 505 of the Penal Code related to causing public alarm or inciting people to violence.

These arrests have evinced widespread protests throughout Rakhine State and contribute to a sense of persistent Burman persecution of the Rakhine, the dismissal of their political aspirations, the continued plunder of their natural resources with only perfunctory development projects from the central state to assuage them.

Further antagonizing Rakhine political leaders, in May 2016 the national parliamentary speaker U Win Myint blocked a proposal by ANP MP Daw Khin Saw Wai for an urgent discussion on aid for civilians displaced by fighting between the AA and Myanmar army, because, the speaker said, the proposal was predicated more on raising the issue to push for inclusion of the AA in the nationwide ceasefire process.

The AA attended the Union Peacemaking Conference in Naypyidaw, having been invited as part of the Northern Alliance, facilitated by the Chinese special envoy to the peace talks. But the AA’s attendance comes after two years of official denunciations of their activities, with statements from both the military and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi being all but identical, demanding the group disarm and then seek peace.




Myanmar’s General Min Aung Hlaing takes part during a parade to mark the 72nd Armed Forces Day in the capital Naypyitaw, Myanmar March 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun
Defense Minister Lieutenant General Sein Win told the national parliament the AA had to cease its activities and sign the controversial nationwide ceasefire agreement. In a statement from Suu Kyi in March, she warned the non-signatories to the ceasefire that the only way to achieve peace was to sign, and to be ‘extremely careful’ in how they respond to that condition.

Exactly how does the AA pay for all this expanding activity? Given their popularity in Rakhine State, tax collection not just amongst supporters in their home state, but the many thousands of migrant workers in peri-urban factories of Yangon and the jade mines of Kachin State and Sagaing Region would be lucrative.

Involvement in the drug trade cannot be ruled out. In one of the most evocative front pages of the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar, in February 2016, the headline boldly proclaimed ‘How to Fund a War’, outlining a series of raids and arrests of AA officers in Yangon in which large numbers of arms and ammunition were seized, and reportedly 330,800 methamphetamine pills, or yaba.

The AA issued a ‘condemnation letter’ on the same day refuting the allegations as “childish and undignified” and blamed the Myanmar military for being the main player in the drug trade. Reporting on the drug trade in Rakhine State is perilous: last March the Sittwe home of the online editor of the Root Investigation Agency, Min Min, was bombed and the journalist forced to flee to Yangon.

International analysts reporting on restive Rakhine State guardedly claim that the AA has rarely publicly articulated anti-Rohingya or anti-Muslim sentiments, even though many AA officers will privately declare that Rohingya are all Bengali illegal immigrants and should leave: a position identical to the Myanmar army and many ultra-nationalist activists in the country.




People and Buddhist monks protest against ethnic Rohingya Muslims many claim are illegal migrants in Yangon, Myanmar February 9, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun
This changed recently, however. Following the coordinated attacks on Myanmar Border Guard Police outposts in Maungtaw by suspected Rohingya militants of the Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement, later renamed as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army), the ULA/AA issued a press release which called the militants “savage Bengali Muslim terrorists” and the violence a “rampage of the Bengali Islamic fundamentalist militants in Northern Arakan.”

The statement furthermore said “(T)he bordered area (sic) of the Northern Arakan and other cities such as Rangoon (Yangon) are now suffering adverse effects as a result of Arakan’s bordering with the population explosion of Bangladesh, the excessive entering of illegal Bengali immigrants into Arakan for decades and the neglect of the successive Burmese regimes to the Bengali’s intrusion and territorial expansion.”

There is little likelihood that the AA’s attendance at the largely symbolic Panglong 21st Century will make any real headway in addressing Rakhine grievances, and the expansion of their armed operations looks set to continue.

The intense nationalist messages expressed by Maj Gen Twan Mrat Naing and the AA troops under his command are widely held in Rakhine State, where resentment against the Myanmar state and military is widespread, and often misunderstood by the outside world which identifies Rakhine political grievances as being primarily driven by anti-Rohingya sentiment.

This lack of understanding of the AA’s armed revolt will only further postpone the resolution of the conflict and prolong the communal divisions that have generated conflict in Rakhine State for years. This is a dimension of the civil war in Myanmar that is only getting worse, not better, and is dangerously misunderstood.

_David Scott Mathieson is a Yangon-based independent analyst_
http://www.atimes.com/article/shadowy-rebels-extend-myanmars-wars/

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## Banglar Bir

*China looms larger than ever in Myanmar*
Larry Jagan, June 20, 2017



Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s top civilian leader – the State Counselor — remains torn between Asia and the West. And a spat with the UN is pushing Myanmar increasingly into China’s arms. In the past month, the Lady – as she is commonly known — has been trying to shore up support in the West, with visits to the United Kingdom, Canada and Sweden.

The hidden agenda was to bolster international support for her government’s position on Arakan. In particular, Myanmar’s shunning of the UN’s efforts to investigate the situation in Rakhine state – where the Muslim community, who call themselves Rohingyas, though the government maintains they are Bengalis, originally from their western neighbor Bangladesh — are severely persecuted.

It is still not clear whether as foreign minister she will attend the UN general assembly in New York later this year. But already she has underlined her determination not to allow a proposed UN human rights fact-finding mission. And she fears that there may be moves at the UN to charge Myanmar with crimes against humanity. *So, she is left with no alternative but to turn to Asean, China and Russia for support. *

While in Stockholm, Aung San Suu Kyi reiterated her objection to the UN human rights fact-finding mission. “It would have created greater hostility between the different communities [in Rakhine],” she told reporters after a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister. “We did not feel it was in keeping with the needs of the region in which we are trying to establish harmony and understanding, and to remove the fears that have kept the two communities apart for so long.”

In March this year, the UN human rights’ Council decided to send an independent international fact-finding mission, which was later appointed by the president of the council, to Myanmar to “establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State”, said the UN statement at the time. This was in response to credible reports that the Myanmar army ruthlessly cracked down on civilians, launched last October after nine policemen were killed in attacks last October that Myanmar blamed on Rohingya militants.

Earlier this year the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Professor Yangkee Lee made this a key focus of her annual report. When addressing the UN Human Rights Council in March, she concluded that Myanmar’s security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes in a campaign that “very likely” amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

Much of the evidence included in the report came from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ findings, which were based on extensive interviews with Rohingya survivors in Bangladesh in February. Some 75,000 Rohingya, according to activists and aid groups, fled from Rakhine State to Bangladesh to escape the military crackdown after October last year.

Last week Professor Yangkee Lee again alluded to the need for an international, independent investigation. She reiterated her belief that the “investigative mechanisms” established by the Government to assess the situation in Rakhine were seriously flawed. “Unfortunately, there have been no changes to address these concerns,” she said in Geneva last week. “In early March, the Maungdaw Investigation Commission conducted a three-day visit to Rakhine State, still without a robust methodology or witness protection policies in place.”

“I remain unconvinced that the military investigation team, which recently announced its findings dismissing practically all allegations against the security forces as wrong or false, is sufficiently independent or impartial,” she continued.

Nevertheless, Aung San Suu Kyi and her government remain steadfastly opposed to the UN fact-finding mission. She insists that only recommendations from a separate advisory commission on Rakhine, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, would be heeded. “I think we should really give the commission a chance to show whether or not they have done their work properly instead of condemning them from the beginning,” she said on Stockholm recently.

The UN human rights council adopted the resolution setting up the fact-finding after the EU proposed it. Myanmar diplomats had campaigned strongly amongst European ambassadors warning them that support such a move might have repercussions for the activities in the country. Although Bangladesh welcomed the proposal, China and Russia distanced themselves from the resolution. What angered Myanmar’s top ministers, including the State Counselor, was the feeling that the EU was playing international politics with Myanmar. According to sources close to the government, they saw this a ploy to try to get the US to sign up to a human rights approach to foreign policy.

Here lies the crux of the problem for *Aung San Suu Kyi. She feels betrayed by the EU and the US – her close friends before – according to government insiders*. *Washington in particular has failed Myanmar. The Lady remains suspicious of President Trump, having preferred to seen Hilary Clinton in the White House.*

Since his victory, his lack of concern for human rights and his isolationist foreign policy are anathema to her. Also, unlike all his predecessors – Clinton, Bush and Obama – he has not reached over to the Myanmar leader. Instead has shunned the country – only preferring to deal with large trading partners in Asia – China and Japan. She is also insulted that the Thai military leader and prime minister Prayut Chan–o-cha has been asked to visit Washington and the White House ahead of her.

Analysts and commentators believe that this is more the result of inertia within the State department, as many of the top US diplomats dealing with Asia have resigned post-Trump and replacements are yet to appointed. In the hiatus, Myanmar – and much of Asia – worry about the vacuum in policy making in Washington in regard to foreign policy. And China has been quick to seize the opportunity this hiatus in White House affords them – and are making the most of the resulting power vacuum in Asia.

While Washington has no clear policy towards Asia, *Beijing – with its ‘one belt, one road initiative’ – has clearly laid out its cards*. A foreign policy that puts Asia at the center of Beijing’s relations, and making relations based on economics – trade, investment and aid – the priority rather than human rights. *This appeals to Aung San Suu Kyi at present. And with Beijing actively supporting the peace process, she is increasingly beholden to he giant northern neighbor – whether enthusiastically or reluctantly.*

This is not easy for her, as her inclination is to look towards the West – especially towards Britain. This was acutely highlighted earlier this year when she had dinner with the UK foreign minister Boris Johnson (also an Oxford graduate) in Myanmar: He quoted the first few lines of Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem, Ulysses; to which she finished the verse. The pleasure she took in her address to the Guild Hall in London – when she was awarded the key to the city in May this year — a fascinating eulogy to Dick Whittington (and his famous cat) – who became Mayor of London in 1397 is also characteristic. These are but two stark examples of her connection to the UK, which underlines her personal commitment.

*But she is also realist and pragmatist who want a non-aligned approach to foreign policy – tilting neither to the West or China. But the reality of the international situation and the priorities of Myanmar’s internal dynamics leave her no choice but to cozy up to China. The spat with the UN human rights council is only the final motivation.*

http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/06/20/china-looms-larger-ever-myanmar/


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## EastBengalPro

*Desperate Rohingya seek new escape routes from Bangladesh*

DHAKA: In squalid camps in Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled violence and persecution in neighbouring Myanmar dream of a better life abroad -- and rely on increasingly high-tech trafficking networks to get them there.

Dhaka denies new arrivals refugee status and, after a major crackdown sealed off the ocean routes traditionally used to traffic migrants to Southeast Asia, many Rohingya are turning to complex smuggling operations to escape Bangladesh.

"People are desperate to leave the camps," said community leader Mohammad Idris.

"Those who have money or gold ornaments are paying smugglers to get them out by air, and those who don't are trying roads."

The Rohingya, who live mainly in Myanmar, are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

Advertisement
Many now live in grinding poverty in Bangladesh's southeast coastal district of Cox's Bazar, packed into camps that were home to more than 300,000 Rohingya even before some 70,000 new arrivals poured across the border after the Myanmar army launched a bloody crackdown last October.

Bangladesh denies them the right to work, and is proposing to rehouse them on a mosquito-infested island that regularly floods at high tide.


*NEW ROUTES*

For years, rickety boats were the main mode of escape for the refugees who would pay hefty amounts to smugglers to get them to Malaysia and Thailand.

Those routes were cut off in 2015 when mass graves of would-be migrants, many of them killed at sea, were discovered in Thailand, triggering a global outcry and a major crackdown on traffickers.

But the smuggling networks swiftly identified new routes out of Bangladesh by air and road, using mobile payments to operate internationally.

Mohammad, an undocumented 20-year-old Rohingya, said he spent 600,000 taka ($7,700) to reach Saudi Arabia, where he now lives.

"I paid a local friend for a Bangladeshi passport and other papers. He also helped me pass through the immigration," Mohammad told AFP using the WhatsApp messaging service. He asked that his family name not be used.

As it becomes more difficult for migrants to leave Bangladesh, many have been forced to head to destinations once considered less appealing.

Those who cannot afford flights are using buses and even travelling on foot to escape Bangladesh, going to India before moving on to Nepal or Pakistan. Some have even settled in the troubled Kashmir region.

There is no reliable data on the value of the trafficking trade, but estimates suggest it is worth millions of dollars in Bangladesh alone.

These networks arrange fake Bangladeshi passports and birth certificates for the Rohingya, a stateless ethnic minority denied citizenship rights in Myanmar even though they have lived in the Buddhist-majority nation for generations.

"It's unbelievable how deep the traffickers' grassroots network is and how smoothly they operate across nations," said Shakirul Islam, head of a migrants' welfare organisation called Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program.

Migration expert Jalaluddin Sikder said a proliferation of mobile phone money transfer services in Bangladesh was making it easier for the traffickers to do business internationally.

"Multinational trafficking rackets are now a phone call away," said Sikder, who works in Dhaka's Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, Bangladesh's main private think tank on cross-border migration.

*PAY YOUR WAY*

Research conducted last year by a local charity uncovered complex underground trafficking networks that span the globe, using sophisticated technology to distribute payments globally without detection.

"They are efficient in distributing the money to all the key players," said Selim Ahmed Parvez, researcher for the Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF).

These, he said, range from "local trafficking agents, to law-enforcing officers, administrative officials, politicians and the kingpins".

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite force fighting militancy and organised crime in Bangladesh, told AFP they were working to stop Rohingya being smuggled out of the country.

"It (trafficking) is happening here and we're trying hard to identify the routes and the channels the smugglers use," said Nurul Amin, RAB commander for Cox's Bazar.

But tracking down the smugglers is only half the battle.

Fears are rising in the camps over a proposal to move the estimated 400,000 Rohingya to a desolate island in the Bay of Bengal -- a fate many say they would do anything to avoid.

"We've successfully tackled the boat migration. And now our focus is on other smuggling routes," said the RAB's Amin.

"But if someone is so desperate to migrate, can you stop him?"


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...eek-new-escape-routes-from-bangladesh-8964144

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## bluesky

*Bangladesh, Myanmar understand ‘importance’ of Rohingya repatriation*
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com

Published: 2017-07-04 01:32:14.0 BdST Updated: 2017-07-04 01:32:14.0 BdST







*Myanmar’s National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun has agreed with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on the “importance” of starting the bilateral discussion on repatriation of Myanmar residents from Bangladesh, the foreign ministry said.*
Tun is currently visiting Dhaka. During a meeting at the foreign ministry on Monday, Ali recalled how the two countries engaged in the past to repatriate Myanmar refugees back to Rakhine.

Rohingya refugee who fled sectarian violence and took shelter in Bangladesh for decades remained a thorny issue in relations between the two countries. Myanmar denied their nationality, and they do not use the word Rohingya that identify the ethnic minority group.

However, they repatriated few hundred in the early 90s when Ali, a former diplomat, was an official at the foreign ministry.

During the meeting, the National Security Adviser expressed desire of the Myanmar government to “further” develop bilateral relations with Bangladesh.

He expressed the interest of Myanmar to address the differences between the two neighbours through discussion.

He put emphasis on the need for enhancing cooperation between the two countries in the security sector and expressed happiness on recently held meetings among defence and border forces, the foreign ministry said.

He said that economic development could help reduce tension among the two communities in Rakhine and contribute to the resolution of the problem.






The Foreign Minister reiterated Bangladesh’s desire for developing a relationship of “trust and mutual benefit” with the neighbour and stressed on the need for engaging “in frank discussion."

He asserted that Bangladesh maintains “zero tolerance to any action targeting the neighbours by non-state actors and never allows her territory to be used for any activity inimical to the interest of Myanmar”.

He also highlighted some aspects of sub-regional cooperation in South Asia and viewed that Bangladesh and Myanmar could derive immense benefit from such cooperation regionally and under BIMSTEC.

He reiterated Bangladesh’s willingness to deepen cooperation in different sectors and expected a positive response from Myanmar to Bangladesh’s proposals on energy and transport connectivity.

Both of them appreciated the provision of humanitarian support like Cyclone shelters and Ambulances that Bangladesh has offered for the people of Rakhine State from out of pledged assistance by the Bangladesh Prime Minister.

They found merit in Solar-Home System for households in remote/off-grid areas. Bangladesh offered to install some SHSs in Rakhine.

The National Security Adviser is scheduled to meet the Minister for Home Affairs Md. Asaduzzaman and pay a courtesy call on the Prime Minister before leaving Dhaka on July 4.

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque and Bangladesh Ambassador to Myanmar Sufiur Rahman were present at the meeting.


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## Banglar Bir

*Burma says it will not let outside world investigate Rohingya 'genocide' claims*
Officials say an ongoing domestic investigation is 'sufficient' to look into the allegations
Chloe Farand 




Burma leader Aung San Suu Kyi previously said accepting the UN resolution would "create greater hostility between the different communities" Getty Images
Burma will refuse entry to members of the UN trying to investigate the alleged killing, violence and abuse against the Rohingya people, an official said. 

The government of Aung San Suu Kyi has already said it would refuse to cooperate with a UN mission following a resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council in March. 

Kyaw Zeya, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: "If they are going to send someone with regards to the fact-finding mission, then there's no reason for us to let them come." 
Aung San Suu Kyi pushes back against criticism of handling of Rohingya abuses
Mr Zeya added that visas to enter Burma would not be issued to any staff working on the mission. 

*READ MORE*

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The Burmese government has repeatedly denied claims that the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group is facing genocide in the country's remote Rakhine State. It previously brushed away evidence of human rights violations as fake news and "propaganda". 

It also deemed "exaggerated" a UN report published in February which found babies and children were reportedly slaughtered with knives amid "area clearance operations". 

The report concluded counter military operations by security forces were subjecting the Rohingya population to brutal beatings, disappearances, mass gang rape and killings. 

Ms Suu Kyi, who came to power last year as apart of a transition from military rule, has been criticised for failing to stand up to the more than one million stateless Rohingya Muslims. 

People in Burma, which is a Buddhist-majority country, have long seen the Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Some 75,000 Rohingyas fled the northwestern state of Rakhine to Bangladesh last year following security operations carried out by the Burmese army. 

In March, the EU called for a mission to look into the allegations of abuse in the north of the country. 

Indira Jaising, an advocate from the Supreme Court of India, was appointed to lead the mission in May.

But Burma insists that a domestic investigation, which is headed by former lieutenant general and Vice President Myint Swe, is sufficient to look into the allegations in Rakhine.

"Why do they try to use unwarranted pressure when the domestic mechanisms have not been exhausted?" said Kyaw Zeya.

"It will not contribute to our efforts to solve the issues in a holistic manner," he said.
Last month, Ms Suu Kyi clashed with the EU over the necessity to carry through the UN resolution and send an international fact-finding mission to Burma. 

Speaking in Brussels, Ms Suu Kyi said distrust between the two communities went as far back as the 18th century and that what the country needed was time. 

"We have not ignored allegations of rape or murder or anything. We have asked that these are placed before a court and trialled," she said. 

She added her government was disassociating itself from the UN resolution "because we don't think the resolution is in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground." 

During a trip to Sweden earlier this month she said the UN resolution "would have created greater hostility between the different communities." 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...investigation-rohingya-genocide-a7816481.html

Kamzar6
Aung San Suu Ky is a huge hypocrite. She needs to return her Nobel peace prize right now, as she has been ignoring the genocide going on under her nose, and now preventing international agencies from investigating the violence and human rights abuses going on in Myanmar, by so called peace loving Buddhists. The Buddhist thug in saffron robes, called Wirathu has unleashed murderous mobs that go around killing, raping, and harming innocent Muslims including little children, and again, the woman who the world supported and defended, during her years of house arrest, has refused to help the minority, who are pleading for their lives. What evil lies within her, that makes her turn away from the massacre going on, and refuse to let those who helped HER, into the country?


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## SarthakGanguly

BANGLAR BIR said:


> *Burma says it will not let outside world investigate Rohingya 'genocide' claims*
> Officials say an ongoing domestic investigation is 'sufficient' to look into the allegations
> Chloe Farand
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Burma leader Aung San Suu Kyi previously said accepting the UN resolution would "create greater hostility between the different communities" Getty Images
> Burma will refuse entry to members of the UN trying to investigate the alleged killing, violence and abuse against the Rohingya people, an official said.
> 
> The government of Aung San Suu Kyi has already said it would refuse to cooperate with a UN mission following a resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council in March.
> 
> Kyaw Zeya, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: "If they are going to send someone with regards to the fact-finding mission, then there's no reason for us to let them come."
> Aung San Suu Kyi pushes back against criticism of handling of Rohingya abuses
> Mr Zeya added that visas to enter Burma would not be issued to any staff working on the mission.
> 
> *READ MORE*
> 
> Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski & Joe Scarborough respond to Trump
> May criticises Tory council which shut down Grenfell fire meeting
> British spies could be forced to disclose secret activities
> Nasa spokesperson forced to deny it has Martian child sex slaves
> The Burmese government has repeatedly denied claims that the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group is facing genocide in the country's remote Rakhine State. It previously brushed away evidence of human rights violations as fake news and "propaganda".
> 
> It also deemed "exaggerated" a UN report published in February which found babies and children were reportedly slaughtered with knives amid "area clearance operations".
> 
> The report concluded counter military operations by security forces were subjecting the Rohingya population to brutal beatings, disappearances, mass gang rape and killings.
> 
> Ms Suu Kyi, who came to power last year as apart of a transition from military rule, has been criticised for failing to stand up to the more than one million stateless Rohingya Muslims.
> 
> People in Burma, which is a Buddhist-majority country, have long seen the Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
> 
> Some 75,000 Rohingyas fled the northwestern state of Rakhine to Bangladesh last year following security operations carried out by the Burmese army.
> 
> In March, the EU called for a mission to look into the allegations of abuse in the north of the country.
> 
> Indira Jaising, an advocate from the Supreme Court of India, was appointed to lead the mission in May.
> 
> But Burma insists that a domestic investigation, which is headed by former lieutenant general and Vice President Myint Swe, is sufficient to look into the allegations in Rakhine.
> 
> "Why do they try to use unwarranted pressure when the domestic mechanisms have not been exhausted?" said Kyaw Zeya.
> 
> "It will not contribute to our efforts to solve the issues in a holistic manner," he said.
> Last month, Ms Suu Kyi clashed with the EU over the necessity to carry through the UN resolution and send an international fact-finding mission to Burma.
> 
> Speaking in Brussels, Ms Suu Kyi said distrust between the two communities went as far back as the 18th century and that what the country needed was time.
> 
> "We have not ignored allegations of rape or murder or anything. We have asked that these are placed before a court and trialled," she said.
> 
> She added her government was disassociating itself from the UN resolution "because we don't think the resolution is in keeping with what is actually happening on the ground."
> 
> During a trip to Sweden earlier this month she said the UN resolution "would have created greater hostility between the different communities."
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...investigation-rohingya-genocide-a7816481.html
> 
> Kamzar6
> Aung San Suu Ky is a huge hypocrite. She needs to return her Nobel peace prize right now, as she has been ignoring the genocide going on under her nose, and now preventing international agencies from investigating the violence and human rights abuses going on in Myanmar, by so called peace loving Buddhists. The Buddhist thug in saffron robes, called Wirathu has unleashed murderous mobs that go around killing, raping, and harming innocent Muslims including little children, and again, the woman who the world supported and defended, during her years of house arrest, has refused to help the minority, who are pleading for their lives. What evil lies within her, that makes her turn away from the massacre going on, and refuse to let those who helped HER, into the country?


I have a lot of respect for Suu Kyi.

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## Flynn Swagmire

SarthakGanguly said:


> I have a lot of respect for Suu Kyi.


Osama Bin Laden too?

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## Banglar Bir

*EU urges Myanmar to protect free speech after arrests of journalists*
SAM Staff, July 4, 2017




The European Union on Monday urged Myanmar to protect journalists from “intimidation, arrest or prosecution” after several cases of reporters running into trouble with the law, including three detained by the army last week.

The three reporters were accused of breaching the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act after covering the burning of drugs by the rebel Ta’ang National Liberation Army to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse.

Journalists and rights groups say that over a year since democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy came to power, the gains made in press freedom since the end of decades of strict military rule risk being reversed.

The European Union said the right to freedom of opinion and expression is a human right guaranteed to all.

“It constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society,” it said in a statement.

“We therefore call on the government of Myanmar to provide the necessary legal protection for journalists to work in a free and enabling environment without fear of intimidation, arrest or prosecution.”

The three reporters arrested last week—Democratic Voice of Burma reporters Aye Nai and Pyae Phone Naing, and Lawi Weng of the Irrawaddy magazine—are in prison in the northeastern town of Hsipaw. The first hearing in their case is on July 11.

Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, has said that everyone “should be treated according to the law.”

Also Read: Ethnic Media Conference demands end to laws that oppress media freedom

Suu Kyi herself has not commented on the three or on other cases of reporters running afoul of the law.

Suu Kyi’s defenders say the Nobel Peace Prize winner—who spent years under house arrest for opposing army rule—is hamstrung by a military-drafted constitution that keeps the generals in politics and free from civilian oversight.

The military said the three reporters had communicated with a group

“currently opposing the country’s rule of law using arms.”

The European Union said that in recent months the arrest and prosecution of journalists had reached “a worrying number.”

Most of the cases against journalists are for suspected violations of a broadly worded telecommunications law decried by human rights monitors as a violation of free speech.

In one such case, Kyaw Min Swe, an editor at the Voice daily, was arrested last month over an article mocking the military. His trial is underway.

Reporters protesting against what they see as the threat to press freedom say that military intelligence agents have taken their pictures, a reminder of the days of harsh military rule when no opposition was tolerated.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/07/04/eu-urges-myanmar-protect-free-speech-arrests-journalists/


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## SarthakGanguly

OrdinaryGenius said:


> Osama Bin Laden too?


Obviously not. 

Different religions, different civilizations, different idols (people we look up to).

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## Banglar Bir

02:19 AM, July 05, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:09 AM, July 05, 2017
*'We'll solve the problem bilaterally'*
*PM on Rohingya issue*





National Security Adviser of Myanmar U Thaung Tun calls on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in the capital yesterday. BSS reports, the PM during the meeting reiterated her call to Myanmar authorities to take back its nationals from Bangladesh and hoped that the two countries would be able resolve the issue through bilateral discussions. Photo: PID

Unb, Dhaka

Renewing her call to Myanmar to take back Rohingyas from Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the problem would be solved through discussions.

“We'll solve the problem bilaterally,” she said when Myanmar's National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun met her at her office.

The PM said Bangladesh had some problems in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) which were resolved through bilateral discussions.

Some 30,000 registered Myanmar Rohingyas are now living in Bangladesh. But the actual number is 400,000 and their woes may worsen during monsoon, Hasina said, adding Bangladesh was ready to extend cooperation.

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the meeting.

He said the premier drew attention of the Myanmar national security adviser to the smuggling of drug, especially yaba tablets, into Bangladesh from Myanmar.

U Thaung Tun assured Hasina of all kinds of cooperation in this regard.

He said his country was focusing to restore internal peace alongside expediting development.

About the Rohingya refugee problem, he said: “We need to address the root cause.”

He told the premier that Myanmar wanted peace and development in both the countries as it was keen to maintain good relations with its neighbours.

About the military-to-military contacts, he said the two neighbours were sharing information on security matters.

Regarding sale of gas from Myanmar to Bangladesh, U Thaung Tun said the matter could be discussed.

PM's Principal Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury and PMO Secretary Suriya Begum were present, among others, at the meeting.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/well-solve-the-problem-bilaterally-1428565


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## Flynn Swagmire

SarthakGanguly said:


> Obviously not.
> 
> Different religions, different civilizations, different idols (people we look up to).


WOW, such deep words...

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## Banglar Bir

*মায়ানমারে রোহিঙ্গাদের মানবেতর জীবনযাপন, ত্রান দিতেও বাধা*


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## Banglar Bir

KJ Vids added a new video: A Short History of Rohingya Muslims.
2 hrs · 


A historical timeline of the persecution of Rohingya Muslims.




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*UNHCR chief urges freedom of movement in Rakhine*
SAM Staff, July 8, 2017




Filippo Grandi
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for freedom of movement and access to services for displaced persons in Rakhine State at the end of his first visit to Myanmar that took place amid an uptick of violence in the region.

“These are complex issues, but they are not intractable,” said Grandi, according to a UN release, adding that efforts to increase citizenship verification and tackle poverty were also part of the solution.

The recommendations of the ex-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission of Rakhine State, which include closing internally displaced people (IDP) camps and the return of refugees from Bangladesh, provide an important roadmap for the way forward, the UN representative said.

During his five-day trip, Grandi traveled to Yangon, Rakhine State’s Sittwe and Maungdaw Township, and capital Naypyitaw where he met State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the social welfare minister, the labor minister, and the border affairs minister, according to the release.

They discussed humanitarian access to camps in Kachin and Rakhine states where some 100,000 and 120,000 remain displaced, respectively.

The high commissioner commended the return of mainly ethnic Karen refugees from Thailand but said that repatriation must be “voluntary and sustainable.”

Earlier this week, Grandi’s delegation met with border police Brig-Gen Thura San Lwin in Maungdaw and visited villages that suffered from arson during Myanmar Army security clearance operations, as well as with residents of the Dapaing IDP camp.

One of the camp’s residents U Saw Lwin told The Irrawaddy on Monday that IDPs discussed with UN officials their lack of freedom of movement, education and healthcare after nearly five years in the camp. He said they still hoped to be compensated for assets destroyed during inter-communal riots in 2012.

On July 1, the State Counselor’s Office Information Committee released a statement from national security adviser U Thaung Tun that highlighted a recent increase in violence in the area, some of which stemmed from incidents between the Myanmar Army and suspected militants.

It stated that from October 2016 to June 2017, 38 civilians were killed in Maungdaw district and 22 villagers were abducted or went missing. Many of the victims were village administrative officials who had collaborated with the government, according to the statement.

Grandi has worked in refugee and political affairs in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. This is his first visit to Myanmar since he was appointed high commissioner in January 2016 and his trip will continue to Thailand and Bangladesh.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/07/08/unhcr-chief-urges-freedom-movement-rakhine/

*Where can the Rohingya go?*
Md Shidur Rahman
Published at 06:46 PM July 04, 2017




An obvious solution to a never-ending problemREUTERS
*Resettlement is the only way to solve the Rohingya crisis*
Bangladesh, being a country of a large population, a higher unemployment rate, small land area, and emerging economy, is struggling to accommodate the continuous Rohingya refugee influx.

The UN estimates that, since October last year, around 74,000 new Rohingya escaped to Bangladesh due to the murder and persecution at Northern Rakhine State in Myanmar. Furthermore, the Bangladesh authorities estimate that around half a million unregistered and 30,000 registered refugees are staying in Bangladesh.

In spite of neither being a party to the 1951 UNHCR Refugee Convention nor to the 1967 protocol, Bangladesh has been hosting this considerable number of Rohingya refugee population since the 1970s. This response from Bangladesh shows generosity towards the vulnerable and oppressed Rohingya; yet the Bangladeshi authorities are often seen to forcefully return the Rohingya.

However, it seems too difficult for Bangladesh to shoulder the responsibility for this extra number of refugees and asylum-seekers. This is an additional pressure on her economy, population and land. Hence, attempting for third-country resettlement could be an effective solution for Bangladesh to overcome the Rohingya crisis.

*It’s been done before*
Resettlement has become a vital tool for international protection and a durable solution for some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

In October 1956, thousands of Hungarian refugees (180,000) fled to its neighbouring country Austria when the uprising in Hungry was suppressed by the Soviet Union.

Another successful refugee resettlement program helped more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees find homes in third countries. In the early 1990s, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk forced hundreds of thousands of Bhutanese (of Nepalese origin) to leave their homeland.

The vast majority moved to eastern Nepal. In spite of not being party to the UN Refugee Convention, Nepal hosted these refugees from Bhutan. In terms of repatriation of these refugees, 15 rounds of bilateral talks had taken place between the governments of Bhutan and Nepal, but no refugees were repatriated.

The Syrian refugee resettlement program is a recent example of a successful third-country refugee resettlement. Since the conflict started in 2011, millions of Syrians have been internally displaced.

The neighbouring countries generously have hosted the Syrian refugees, and many refugee camps are established with the help of UNHCR. However, some of these countries complain purely because of the pressure it puts on them.

As successful third-country resettlements are apparent, the Bangladeshi government needs to urge UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to help in resettling the Rohingya refugees to third countries

In order to relocate the Syrian refugees from these host countries, and Syria itself, the Syria Core Group (SCG) was formed in 2013. The SCG aimed to obtain sustainable multi-year pledges from the resettlement states. Over 224,000 spaces, so far, have been pledged for resettlement and other pathways.

The above three examples of resettlement show that the third-country resettlement refers to the internationalisation of refugee resettlement in which enhanced cooperation and coordination between states and UNHCR are required.

*Bangladesh’s burden*
However, not all countries equally welcome refugees or show a willingness to embrace them.

In Europe, Germany has received the most asylum applications so far — more than 315,000 by the end of October 2015. In contrast, the UK, by 2020, has pledged to take in 20,000 refugees who are currently living in camps in Syria, Turkey, and Jordan. 

As successful third-country resettlements are apparent, the Bangladeshi government needs to urge UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to help in resettling the Rohingya refugees to third countries.

The UNHCR plays a catalytic role in bringing resettlement states together. The government also needs to involve the IOM, civil society groups, NGOs, and private sponsors of resettlement countries so that the resettlement is seen in the limelight.

The government’s third-country resettlement initiative will lessen the hardship of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and Bangladesh itself also will get a relief from the extra burden to some extent.

_Md Shidur Rahman is a doctorate researcher at School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast, UK._
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/07/04/can-rohingya-go/


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## asad71

All have had no effect on the murderous Burmese. The Rohingyas must fight. And BD must provide them a safe corridor for that. GOB must be pressurized by the people to act humane; or get a regime change.


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## wiseone2

asad71 said:


> All have had no effect on the murderous Burmese. The Rohingyas must fight. And BD must provide them a safe corridor for that. GOB must be pressurized by the people to act humane; or get a regime change.



As long as China backs Myanmar junta nothing will change


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## asad71

wiseone2 said:


> As long as China backs Myanmar junta nothing will change


1.Nope, that's not correct. PRC is no more too much enamored of the Burmese, a historically treacherous people who have now fallen into the lap of America. Meanwhile, SHW has been chastised. She has realized at last that Hindu India can never be well wishers of Muslims.
2. Yes, a war is brewing.


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## wiseone2

asad71 said:


> 1.Nope, that's not correct. PRC is no more too much enamored of the Burmese, a historically treacherous people who have now fallen into the lap of America. Meanwhile, SHW has been chastised. She has realized at last that Hindu India can never be well wishers of Muslims.
> 2. Yes, a war is brewing.



I smell a false flagger

Introduce un security council resolution against Myanmar and see who vetoes it

India is not selling combat aircraft to Myanmar

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## asad71

wiseone2 said:


> I smell a false flagger
> 
> Introduce un security council resolution against Myanmar and see who vetoes it
> 
> India is not selling combat aircraft to Myanmar



You got an Intl tie up exposed since the infamous Op Leech under Col Garewal. You sold choppers anti sub eqpt, anti-aircraft eqpt, etc. We know something the Burmese junta does not. Your eqpt are rotten and will always malfunction. So these don't worry us or the Rohingya Mujahids.


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## wiseone2

asad71 said:


> You got an Intl tie up exposed since the infamous Op Leech under Col Garewal. You sold choppers anti sub eqpt, anti-aircraft eqpt, etc. We know something the Burmese junta does not. Your eqpt are rotten and will always malfunction. So these don't worry us or the Rohingya Mujahids.



You can see who is protecting Myanmar in the UN
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-un-idUSKBN16O2J6

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## asad71

wiseone2 said:


> You can see who is protecting Myanmar in the UN
> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-un-idUSKBN16O2J6



International diplomacy cannot be understood so easily. It's a complex game. There is horse trading, balancing act and opposing for the sake of opposing someone you don't like. Wait till the Mujahids are loosened by BD. PRC will then come openly for us standing against USA and her little puppy called India.

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## wiseone2

asad71 said:


> International diplomacy cannot be understood so easily. It's a complex game. There is horse trading, balancing act and opposing for the sake of opposing someone you don't like. Wait till the Mujahids are loosened by BD. PRC will then come openly for us standing against USA and her little puppy called India.



please. save your BS for someone else

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## bluesky

asad71 said:


> Wait till the Mujahids are loosened by BD


There is very little evidence to prove that the Mujahids are financed, sponsored or trained by BD. They must have other source of supports, I believe.

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## newb3e

SarthakGanguly said:


> I have a lot of respect for Suu Kyi.


and i respect Mahmud Ghazni did what your kind deserved!

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## SarthakGanguly

newb3e said:


> and i respect Mahmud Ghazni did what your kind deserved!


I know. It is natural, is it not?


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## newb3e

SarthakGanguly said:


> I know. It is natural, is it not?


well pigs shouldnt be allowed to roam free they destroy and they need to be eradicated!!

Ghazni did that so i respect him!


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## wiseone2

bluesky said:


> There is very little evidence to prove that the Mujahids are financed, sponsored or trained by BD. They must have other source of supports, I believe.



without support from an external country Rohaniyas do not have a chance


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## Banglar Bir

*Watch this shocking interview from 2012 where the Prime Minister of Bangladesh denies the oppression of the Rohingya Muslims.*
*




 https://www.facebook.com/




*


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## bluesky

wiseone2 said:


> without support from an external country Rohaniyas do not have a chance


Religion-based organizations in BD are too strong financially. They can organize and help the Rohingya militia better than the GoB, because the Islamists, without being traced, will enjoy impunity whereas the GoB will not. Even an indirect assistance by the GoB will cause an international outcry. It seems that the Islamists are already helping them with training and weapons.


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## wiseone2

bluesky said:


> Religion-based organizations in BD are too strong financially. They can organize and help the Rohingya militia better than the GoB, because the Islamists, without being traced, will enjoy impunity whereas the GoB will not. Even an indirect assistance by the GoB will cause an international outcry. It seems that the Islamists are already helping them with training and weapons.



that war is over. Myanmar army has finished off any resistance

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## TopCat

wiseone2 said:


> that war is over. Myanmar army has finished off any resistance



You are wrong. Insurgents are pretty much alive. The objective of the insurgent were met. 
MM gone back to the pariah state with immense international pressure. They are now under investigation.

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## wiseone2

TopCat said:


> You are wrong. Insurgents are pretty much alive. The objective of the insurgent were met.
> MM gone back to the pariah state with immense international pressure. They are now under investigation.



China and India have a little competition as to who can sell the most to Myanmar
They are still an ASEAN member


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## TopCat

wiseone2 said:


> China and India have a little competition as to who can sell the most to Myanmar
> They are still an ASEAN member


MM still a pony market to sell to. ASEAN a dead horse.

China sells 8 billion and India sells 6 billion to BD. Can it be beaten?


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## wiseone2

TopCat said:


> MM still a pony market to sell to. ASEAN a dead horse.
> 
> China sells 8 billion and India sells 6 billion to BD. Can it be beaten?



China and India are not cutting relationship with Myanmar over Bangladesh
If you think India is biased try asking China to support UN resolution against Myanmar


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China, backed by Russia, blocked a short U.N. Security Council statement on Myanmar on Friday, diplomats said, after the 15-member body met to discuss the situation in Rakhine state, where the country's military is conducting a security operation.

The U.N. human rights office last month accused the military of mass killings and rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burning their villages since October in a campaign that "very likely" amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman briefed the council behind closed doors. Britain requested the meeting.

"We did put forward ... some proposed press elements but there was not consensus in the room," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for March, told reporters after the briefing.

Such statements have to be agreed by consensus. Diplomats said Myanmar neighbor China, backed by Russia, blocked the statement.

The short draft press statement, seen by Reuters, would have "noted with concern renewed fighting in some parts of the country and stressed the importance of humanitarian access to all effected areas."

Some 75,000 people have fled Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military began a security operation last October in response to what it says was an attack by Rohingya insurgents on border posts in which nine police officers were killed.


The European Union called on Thursday for the United Nations to send an international fact-finding mission urgently to Myanmar to investigate allegations of torture, rapes and executions by the military against the Rohingya Muslim.

Following a closed-door council meeting in November and as Western nations became increasingly concerned about how Aung San Suu Kyi's government was dealing with violence in the divided northwest, Suu Kyi told diplomats in the capital, Naypyitaw, that her country was being treated unfairly.

Reporting by Michelle Nichols



TopCat said:


> You are wrong. Insurgents are pretty much alive. The objective of the insurgent were met.
> MM gone back to the pariah state with immense international pressure. They are now under investigation.



investigation from whom ?

*China, Russia block U.N. council concern about Myanmar violence*
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China, backed by Russia, blocked a short U.N. Security Council statement on Myanmar on Friday, diplomats said, after the 15-member body met to discuss the situation in Rakhine state, where the country's military is conducting a security operation.

The U.N. human rights office last month accused the military of mass killings and rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burning their villages since October in a campaign that "very likely" amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman briefed the council behind closed doors. Britain requested the meeting.

"We did put forward ... some proposed press elements but there was not consensus in the room," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for March, told reporters after the briefing.

Such statements have to be agreed by consensus. Diplomats said Myanmar neighbor China, backed by Russia, blocked the statement.

The short draft press statement, seen by Reuters, would have "noted with concern renewed fighting in some parts of the country and stressed the importance of humanitarian access to all effected areas."

Some 75,000 people have fled Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military began a security operation last October in response to what it says was an attack by Rohingya insurgents on border posts in which nine police officers were killed.


The European Union called on Thursday for the United Nations to send an international fact-finding mission urgently to Myanmar to investigate allegations of torture, rapes and executions by the military against the Rohingya Muslim.

Following a closed-door council meeting in November and as Western nations became increasingly concerned about how Aung San Suu Kyi's government was dealing with violence in the divided northwest, Suu Kyi told diplomats in the capital, Naypyitaw, that her country was being treated unfairly.

Reporting by Michelle Nichols


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## TopCat

wiseone2 said:


> China and India are not cutting relationship with Myanmar over Bangladesh
> If you think India is biased try asking China to support UN resolution against Myanmar
> 
> 
> UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China, backed by Russia, blocked a short U.N. Security Council statement on Myanmar on Friday, diplomats said, after the 15-member body met to discuss the situation in Rakhine state, where the country's military is conducting a security operation.
> 
> The U.N. human rights office last month accused the military of mass killings and rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burning their villages since October in a campaign that "very likely" amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
> 
> U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman briefed the council behind closed doors. Britain requested the meeting.
> 
> "We did put forward ... some proposed press elements but there was not consensus in the room," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for March, told reporters after the briefing.
> 
> Such statements have to be agreed by consensus. Diplomats said Myanmar neighbor China, backed by Russia, blocked the statement.
> 
> The short draft press statement, seen by Reuters, would have "noted with concern renewed fighting in some parts of the country and stressed the importance of humanitarian access to all effected areas."
> 
> Some 75,000 people have fled Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military began a security operation last October in response to what it says was an attack by Rohingya insurgents on border posts in which nine police officers were killed.
> 
> 
> The European Union called on Thursday for the United Nations to send an international fact-finding mission urgently to Myanmar to investigate allegations of torture, rapes and executions by the military against the Rohingya Muslim.
> 
> Following a closed-door council meeting in November and as Western nations became increasingly concerned about how Aung San Suu Kyi's government was dealing with violence in the divided northwest, Suu Kyi told diplomats in the capital, Naypyitaw, that her country was being treated unfairly.
> 
> Reporting by Michelle Nichols
> 
> 
> 
> investigation from whom ?
> 
> *China, Russia block U.N. council concern about Myanmar violence*
> UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China, backed by Russia, blocked a short U.N. Security Council statement on Myanmar on Friday, diplomats said, after the 15-member body met to discuss the situation in Rakhine state, where the country's military is conducting a security operation.
> 
> The U.N. human rights office last month accused the military of mass killings and rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burning their villages since October in a campaign that "very likely" amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
> 
> U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman briefed the council behind closed doors. Britain requested the meeting.
> 
> "We did put forward ... some proposed press elements but there was not consensus in the room," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for March, told reporters after the briefing.
> 
> Such statements have to be agreed by consensus. Diplomats said Myanmar neighbor China, backed by Russia, blocked the statement.
> 
> The short draft press statement, seen by Reuters, would have "noted with concern renewed fighting in some parts of the country and stressed the importance of humanitarian access to all effected areas."
> 
> Some 75,000 people have fled Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military began a security operation last October in response to what it says was an attack by Rohingya insurgents on border posts in which nine police officers were killed.
> 
> 
> The European Union called on Thursday for the United Nations to send an international fact-finding mission urgently to Myanmar to investigate allegations of torture, rapes and executions by the military against the Rohingya Muslim.
> 
> Following a closed-door council meeting in November and as Western nations became increasingly concerned about how Aung San Suu Kyi's government was dealing with violence in the divided northwest, Suu Kyi told diplomats in the capital, Naypyitaw, that her country was being treated unfairly.
> 
> Reporting by Michelle Nichols




You have no clue what you talking about.

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## wiseone2

TopCat said:


> You have no clue what you talking about.



Bangladesh is a bigger market. Myanmar is too strategic for India and China.

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## TopCat

wiseone2 said:


> Bangladesh is a bigger market. Myanmar is too strategic for India and China.



Ok..


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## Aung Zaya

TopCat said:


> MM still a pony market to sell to. ASEAN a dead horse.
> 
> China sells 8 billion and India sells 6 billion to BD. Can it be beaten?


dead horse ? lol our PPP is more than ur guys. our export and import from China are $4.5b and $6b respectively so not much different with $8b of BD.


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## Banglar Bir

*Hundreds died in Rohingya camps on Thai-Malaysia border*
SAM Staff, July 22, 2017





Migrants collect rainwater at a temporary refugee camp near Kanyin Chaung jetty, in Myanmar in June 2015. These Rohingya and Bangladeshis were rescued from a boat carrying 734 people off Myanmar’s southern coast. They had been at sea for more than two months – at the end with little food or water. Photo: Reuters
More details have emerged about Thailand’s ugly trade in people now that a marathon trial has ended in Bangkok with 62 people convicted of human trafficking and other serious crimes.

Camps set up by traffickers in the jungle on the Thai-Malaysian border to hold Rohingya and other ‘boat people’ existed for many years prior to government crackdown in mid-2015 that curtailed the brutal trade, a key activist group has said.

Freeland, a Bangkok-based non-government group that fights wildlife trafficking and human slavery, worked with Thai police to identify key figures in the smuggling networks that were rounded up and put on trial.

The group said on Friday it “believes that more than 500 people died in the camps where the people in this particular trafficking chain were held, and that the camps were probably there for at least five years or more.”

It also had “digital forensics experts” able to help police access vital data on mobile phones found on drivers and in cars stopped with smuggled Rohingya on board. Data on the phones indicated “the precise route the drivers had taken on multiple occasions… [and] filled in pieces of the trafficking supply chain, and ultimately uncovered the location of some holding camps.”

The data also allegedly led to bank transfers to a senior military officer convicted of trafficking, Lieutenant General Manas Kongpaen. Manas, who was sentenced to 27 years jail, was involved in the notorious ‘pushbacks’ affair in December 2008 and January 2009, when vessels carrying hundreds of Rohingya were towed back into the Andaman Sea and set adrift.

A transcript of the court verdict says that Manas admitted using funds from the International Organization of Migration (IOM) to help pay for the ‘pushbacks’, which sparked a global furore, as hundreds were believed to have died at sea.

*IOM investigating claim its funds were misused*

IOM officials were shocked when notified about this on Friday – and scrambled to go through its accounts to determine if money was diverted from projects in southern Thailand.

IOM had a $1 million migrant health project over five years (2005-09) split between Ranong and Samut Sakhon provinces, the spokesman said. The project “provided basic healthcare, psycho-social help and some non-food aid (probably hygiene kits and clothing) to 200 or so Rohingya migrants who were detained in the Ranong Immigration Detention Centre.

* ‘Everyone knew about it’*

“Everyone knew about it. And few people thought it was wrong. We were shown big houses in Ranong and Kuraburi, where locals claimed they were constructed from the proceeds of trafficking.

Initially, he said, people involved felt they were doing it for good reasons, but after a few years “greedy people” appeared to take over the trade and the treatment of Rohingya got much worse.

Freeland, headed by American Steve Galster, said the Rohingya who sought work in Malaysia were put into three classes by the traffickers once they arrived at the camps in southern Thailand.

“Those in good enough physical condition, young, male and strong, were sold to be militants for the opposition party of Malaysia. The older and weaker were sold as labor to either to Malaysian rubber or palm oil farms, or into the fishing industry. A wife and child could accompany them, as long as the buyer was prepared to pay more.

“The third class was the weakest or those with other means to access money. They included the ill, old, women and children. They were kept in the jungle camps and their only options were either for a relative in Thailand to pay a ‘ransom’ for their release or to stay in the camps until they died. Living on one packet of noodles a day and river water most people were in the camp only between 3-6 months.”

The two-year court trial, which ended with 62 people convicted, was very complex, and hampered by many serious challenges, but Freeland was among the groups that lauded the outcome.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/07/22/hundreds-died-rohingya-camps-thai-malaysia-border/


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## Banglar Bir

EDITORIAL 
*Persecuted Rohingya Muslims vis-à-vis Suu Kyi, OIC, UN
*
Helpless victims of frenzied anti-Muslim communal fire, racist pogrom and irrefutable ethnic cleansing, the starving emaciated hapless Rohingya Muslim men, women and children had to run for their life, leaving their hearth and home in Myanmar as wretched victims of violent followers of Gautama Budddha who preached peace, harmony, fraternity, altruism and humanism.

A United Nations special rapporteur has issued a strongly worded statement accusing Myanmar of implementing policies reminiscent of the previous military government, and of presiding over a worsening security and human rights situation.Yanghee Lee, after ending a 12-day visit to Myanmar on July 25, 2017, had a catalogue of concerns, including reports of killings, torture, the use of human shields by security forces, deaths in custody, and an ongoing humanitarian crisis for the Rohingyas and other minorities forced from their homes.

Myanmar army has been accused of carrying out a bloody crackdown in the western state of Rakhine, leading thousands of the long-persecuted Muslim minority to cross the border into Bangladesh this month. The government has attacked media reports of rapes and killings, and lodged a protest over a UN official in Bangladesh who said the state was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims. More than half of the 101 women interviewed by the UN reported either rape or sexual assault before fleeing Rakhine State — the youngest was 11 years old.Sixty-four percent of those interviewed reporting burning or destruction of property while 37 percent said their own property had been stolen or looted. There were also allegations of torture, including beating and sexual humiliation.[Vide Abuse of Rohingya Muslims in Burma may be ‘crimes against humanity’: Army accused of gang rape, torture and murder”; The Independent.co.uk dated 30 November 2016]

The UN OHCHR said Burma’s treatment of the Rohingya could be tantamount to crimes against humanity, reiterating the findings of a June report, as former UN chief Kofi Annan began a week-long visit that will include a trip to northern Rakhine. “The government has largely failed to act on the recommendations made in a report by the UN Human Rights Office... [that] raised the possibility that the pattern of violations against the Rohingya may amount to crimes against humanity,” the OHCHR said in a statement. Foreign journalists and independent investigators have been banned from accessing the area to investigate the claims.They have made horrifying claims of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of security forces. Around 30,000 have fled their homes and analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been burned. [Ibid]

In August, Mr Annan headed a special commission to investigate how to mend bitter religious and ethnic divides that split the impoverished state. Mr Annan has expressed “deep concern” over the violence in Rakhine, which has seen thousands of angry Muslims take to the streets across Asia in protest. Rape, torture and child murder have been alleged in new UN report into Rakhine State. Myanmar’s security forces are waging a brutal campaign of murder, rape and torture in Rakhine State, a new UN report released on February 4, 2017 has alleged. Eyewitness statements in the report detail “unprecedented” levels of violence, include burning people alive, raping girls as young as 11 and cutting children’s throats. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement the report indicates “very likely commission of crimes against humanity.” [Ben Westcott, CNN, February 4, 2017 ]

Out of the 220 people interviewed, the report said 65percent had witnessed killings, while just under half had personally had a family member murdered.A woman from Kyet Yoe Pyin village alleged her 5-year-old daughter was killed when she tried to stop attackers from raping her mother.Rohingya Muslims targeted in Myanmar. “She was screaming, one of the men took out a long knife and killed her by slitting her throat,” the report says.A young girl told interviewers soldiers killed her father, then raped her mother before locking her inside the family’s house and burning it down. “All this happened before my eyes,” she said.[Ibid]

More than 168,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar in the last five years as a result of violence and desperation, a new report on forced displacement in South-East Asia by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency estimates. UNHCR’s 2016 Report on Mixed Movements in South-East Asia highlights the complex dynamics behind the whys and hows of the continuing exodus from Rakhine state. Sources range from government to non-governmental organizations, media reports as well as more than 1,000 direct interviews with the Rohingya community in the region. While Rohingya displacement has persisted for decades, it made headlines last October when attacks on border posts in northern Rakhine state triggered a security clearance operation that drove an estimated 43,000 civilians into Bangladesh by year’s end. By February this year, the estimate stood at 74,000.

Many of the new arrivals in Bangladesh’s camps and makeshift sites told UNHCR about the burnings, lootings, shootings, rapes and arrests they escaped back home.“These children, women and men are highly vulnerable. They risk being re-victimized even in exile unless urgent action is taken,” said Shinji Kubo, UNHCR’s Representative in Bangladesh. “Many of them need adequate shelter before the rainy season starts. *Without proper support, they also face risks such as child labour, gender-based violence and trafficking.”

Bottom line is, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is rather mysteriously reticent about the man-made disaster resulting in wretched stateless existence perpetrated by the Burmese Army. The OIC is not active yet. What next?

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=4&date=0#Tid=14462*


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## Banglar Bir

*Chinese troops sent to Myanmar border, says TNLA*
SAM Staff, August 2, 2017




Chinese troops are positioning along the China-Myanmar border in preparation of further conflict between the Tatmadaw and rebels, according to an ethic armed group.

Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers have been deployed along the border areas near Mongko, Kyukote (Pang Hseng) and Namhkam townships in Shan State since July 25, said brigadier general Mai Phone Kyaw, spokesman of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).

The TNLA, along with its Northern Alliance partners the Kachin Independent Army (KIA), Kokang’s Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Arakan Army (AA), launched an operation on the 105-mile border trade zone in on November 20, 2016.

With fighting ongoing between Tatmadaw troops and the MNDAA and TNLA in northern Shan State, the Chinese may have anticipated another operation by the Northern Alliance and readied their forces in order to avoid an impact on China, said U Maung Maung Soe, an analyst on federal and ethnic affairs.

China had received incorrect intelligence warning of a Northern Alliance attack on border townships, said brigadier general Mai Phone Kyaw, adding that the Chinese government had asked them for confirmation about another possible attack recently.

The brigadier general explained that although there were clashes with the Tatmadaw in areas controlled by the MNDAA and TNLA, the alliance has no plans to conduct another operation similar to that of November 20.

The Irrawaddy could not reach the public affair and psychological warfare director’s office under the defense ministry for government comment on the reports of a coming attack.

Dr. Hla Kyaw Zaw, an expert on Myanmar affairs who is based on the China-Myanmar border, told The Irrawaddy, “The peace process has become broken but it can be fixed again. It will not be straightforward. As now is the rainy season, there won’t be any operations, but we don’t know what will come after the rain is over.”

The KIA, TNLA, MNDAA and AA are also members of the Federal Political Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC), which was formed with seven ethnic armed groups and led by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) to hold peace talks with the government.

http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/02/chinese-troops-sent-myanmar-border-says-tnla/


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## bluesky

BANGLAR BIR said:


> *Chinese troops sent to Myanmar border, says TNLA*
> SAM Staff, August 2, 2017
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chinese troops are positioning along the China-Myanmar border in preparation of *further conflict between the Tatmadaw and rebels*, according to an ethic armed group.



The Bamans of Myanmar live in the 6th Century world whereby they contempt and bully all other nationalities in their own country who do not happen to wear the tag of Bamans. Myanmar cannot be called a country as its main nationality Banans have continuously failed to upgrade their civility and instead keep on fighting other non-Bamans. Now, they are instigating various groups to fight each other.


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## Banglar Bir

*OIC for BD-Myanmar interfaith dialogue on Rohingya issue*

*Special Correspondent*





Visiting Secretary General of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Dr Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen on Thursday suggested holding an interfaith dialogue between Bangladesh’s Muslim religious leaders and Myanmar’s Buddhist religious leaders to resolve the Rohingya problem.
“The dialogue will help develop a better understanding among them (leaders) and resolve the Rohingya problem,” Dr Yousef said when he met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in the morning.
After the meeting, PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.

The OIC Secretary General thanked Bangladesh for very generous intiative by giving shelter to Rohingya refugees 
Sheikh Hasina said the problem, in fact, started in 1991 and now there are some four lakh undocumented Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. “We’re pursuing Myanmar to take back their nationals as I can’t throw them out,” she added.

Hasina said her government has already earmarked an island to give temporary shelter to the Rohingya refugees so that they could live in a better condition.
In response, the OIC Secretary General appreciated the move saying, “It’s a brilliant idea.”
The Prime Minister said the border guards of both Bangladesh and Myanmar are also having talks between them and they have developed good relations.
Dr Yousef also strongly denounced the twin menace of terrorism and extremism, and said Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.
Hasina said her government has adopted a ‘zero-tolerance’ stance to this end and involved cross-section of people to neutralise it.

She mentioned that people from all strata like imams, teachers and guardians are also participating in combating terrorism and militancy, and it has yielded a positive result.
The Prime Minister alleged some political parties have been patronising terrorism in the country saying there is no room for terrorism in Islam.
Noting that communal harmony exits in the country, she said that country’s people are now leaving in peace and harmony.

Echoing the OIC Secretary General, Hasina said, “Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.”
She said her government’s aim is to establish Bangladesh as a peaceful country to ensure peace and basic needs of all people for which Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had struggled and devoted his entire life.

The OIC Secretary General appreciated Bangladesh’s tremendous socioeconomic development under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership.
“I always say you’re a successful leader and a shining example of Muslim women in the world,” he told Sheikh Hasina.

About Bangladeshi workers, Dr Yousef said they are resilient, hardworking and professional ones.
He noted with happiness that Bangladesh is hosting two important events—OIC Foreign Ministers’ Conference and OIC Tourism Ministers’ Conference—next year.
Dr Yousef said the OIC will be happy to participate in any women development programme in Bangladesh.

The OIC secretary general said his organisation is likely to introduce scholarship programmes for the students of its member states in the fields of science, technology and medicine.
Mentioning the ongoing government stride towards setting up some 100 economic zones across the country, Hasina welcomed investments from OIC members countries in these EZs.
Extending her thanks to the OIC Secretary General for his huge appreciation over the country’s massive socio-economic uplift, Hasina said the aim of her government is to free the country from poverty alongside creating jobs in rural areas.

The Prime Minister congratulated the OIC Secretary General on his election to the new position.
PM’s International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi, PMO Senior Secretary Suraiya Begum, were, among others, present on the occasion.

The OIC secretary general arrived Dhaka on Wednesday night on a four-day official maiden visit to Bangladesh since his assumption of office of the Jeddah-based organisation.
Dr Othaimeen, the former social affairs minister of Saudi Arabia, was elected as the new secretary-general of the OIC on November 17 last year. Founded in 1969, the OIC consists of 57-member states.

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=3&date=0#Tid=14501


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## bluesky

04 Aug 2017, 19:11:22




*'World to be informed about torture stories on Rohingyas'*




Photo: UNB
Visiting Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General Dr Yousef bin Ahmad Al Othaimeen said the world will be informed about shocking tales of brutalities carried by Myanmar army on Rohingya people.

The OIC Secretary General made the remarks while talking to journalists after visiting the Kutupalong Camp in Ukhia upazila of Cox's Bazar on Friday, reports UNB.

He held a meeting with government and non-government officials at the unregistered camp before entering inside the camp.

The OIC chief had a long conversation with a number of women who were brutally tortured in Myanmar by the Myanmar Army. He also had separate conversations with a group of another 30 males and females in an IOM-run school.

Dr Othaimeen expressed OIC’ sympathy and solidarity with the Rakhine Muslims there.

He said pressure will be put on Myanmar to give the Rakhine Muslims citizenship and returning their assets so that they go back to their own country.

Dr Othaimeen thanked the Bangladesh government and its people for hosting Rohingya people for decades. He also urged the Rohingya people to abide by Bangladeshi laws.

Senior government officials, BGB senior officials and representatives of international bodies were present.


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, August 05, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:47 AM, August 05, 2017
*Take back Rohingyas*
*OIC chief calls upon Myanmar, says main responsibility to solve the crisis lies with it*





OIC Secretary General Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen visiting Kutupalong area of Ukhia upazila in Cox's Bazar yesterday. During the visit, he talked to Rohingya refugees and listened to stories of their persecution by security forces in Myanmar. Photo: Star

Diplomatic Correspondent

Urging Myanmar to take back Rohingya populations from Bangladesh, visiting OIC Secretary General Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen yesterday said Myanmar should resolve the ongoing humanitarian crisis over the persecuted minorities.

“Main responsibility to resolve this longstanding crisis is Myanmar's,” he said and called for concrete steps in this regard during his visit to Ukhia upazila in Cox's Bazar.

He met refugees at two camps -- one registered and another unregistered -- and talked to those who escaped Rakhine state following grave human rights violations and widespread persecution by Myanmar security forces.

The OIC chief listened to horrific stories of killings, torture, rape, use of human shields by security forces and deaths in custody. He said the world will be informed of these rights violations.

Rohingya refugees have been a big headache for Bangladesh as the country has been hosting 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 of them for over three decades. After the latest crackdown began on October 9, 2016, some 75,000 new members of the Myanmarese Muslims entered Bangladesh.


Expressing OIC's solidarity with the Muslims there, Othaimeen said pressure will be put on Myanmar to give them citizenship and return their assets so that the refugees can go back to their own country.

He held a meeting with local government and non-government officials.

The OIC Secretary General had a long conversation with a number of women who were brutally tortured by the Myanmar troops. He also had separate conversations with a group of another 30 males and females in an IOM-run school.

While talking to journalists, Othaimeen thanked the government and the people of Bangladesh for hosting the refugees for more than three decades and for providing humanitarian assistances to them.

During his conversation with the Myanmarese refugees, he also urged the Rohingya people to abide by Bangladeshi laws.

Senior government officials, senior BGB officials and representatives of international bodies were present there.

Earlier on Thursday, the OIC chief reminded Myanmar that Rohingya people must be granted full citizenship and basic rights.

"Rohingya people are denied their basic rights. They need to be recognised … They must return to their country. They must have their full citizenship," he said.

Othaimeen, who arrived here on Wednesday night on a four-day tour, also called upon Myanmar government to come up with a roadmap on how to go forward to settle the issue peacefully.

This was Othaimeen's first visit to Bangladesh.

He met President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Thursday.

On July 24, United Nations Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee, after her visit to Myanmar, accused its government of adopting policies reminiscent of the previous military regime and presiding over a worsening security and human rights situation.

“I continue to receive reports of violations allegedly committed by security forces during operations,” she said.

Besides, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi at a press conference on July 10 after meeting refugees in Cox's Bazar said the Muslim minorities in Rakhine state cannot move freely without authorisation and cannot access basic services like healthcare, education and their livelihoods easily.

“These people deserve a better future than the present conditions of extreme poverty, deprivation and isolation,” the UN high commissioner said and put emphasis on implementation of the citizenship verification process “efficiently and rapidly” which will help unblock all the remaining barriers to the solution.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/take-back-rohingyas-1443805


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## Banglar Bir

*The Stateless Rohingya* · 


The head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has called on the international community to help Myanmar’s #Rohingya Muslims living in Bangladeshi refugee camps.




__ https://www.facebook.com/




Credit: Press TV

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## Banglar Bir

*Violence follows confrontation between villagers, police in Rakhine*
SAM Staff, August 5, 2017




Hundreds of people from Outt Nan village in Myanmar’s Rakhine State’s Rathedaung Township resisted security forces on Friday when policemen attempted to arrest men suspected of being militants, according to the State Counselor’s Office and locals from the neighboring village of Zay Di Pyin.

According to U Maung Soe Win, an elder within the largely Buddhist Arakanese Zay Di Pyin village, four suspects were apprehended from Outt Nan while two managed to escape after hundreds of villagers surrounded a dozen policemen and fought back against the armed security forces with machetes, slingshots, and darts.

“Villagers witnessed a huge crowd chasing policemen into a large field,” said another Zay Di Pyin resident U Maung Khin Win.

According to U Maung Khin Win, villagers from a third community, Chwat Pyin, reported the discovery of militant training camps in the Mayu mountain range of northern Rakhine State as they searched for a missing local in July. They then informed the border police, who, following an investigation, arrested a man named Anatulah from Ahtet Nan village on July 27 for allegedly attending a training in the camp months earlier, according to the State Counselor’s Office Information Committee.

While detained, Anatulah reportedly revealed the names of other trainees, as well as camp leaders. This information led to a border police raid by Maj Okka Aung and 25 troops in the Muslim village of Outt Nan on Friday morning.

A statement by the State Counselor’s Office said that police initially arrested six suspects but that nearly 300 villagers surrounded the policemen, who then fired 15 warning shots, but the crowd did not disperse. The statement said that the crowd then “attacked” police, leading to the escape of two suspects.

Villagers from Zay Di Pyin said that a local imam was among the escapees, but at the time of reporting, this could not be verified.

The government statement said that the police were followed by Outt Nan villagers until they left the area, and in total, shot around 50 rounds. It did not mention any injuries or casualties. However, both Buddhist and Muslim residents of Zay Di Pyin told The Irrawaddy over the phone on Friday that, from the scene that was witnessed, they believed some Outt Nan residents endured gunshot wounds which may have been fatal. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify these claims with the border police at the time of reporting.

Representatives from Rathedaung police station declined to comment on Friday’s conflict, but authorities have reportedly been deployed to the area surrounding Outt Nan and Zay Di Pyin to search for the suspects.

SOURCE THE IRRAWADDY
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/05/violence-follows-confrontation-villagers-police-rakhine/

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar govt probe finds no campaign of abuse against Rohingya*
SAM Staff, August 7, 2017



A government-appointed commission on Sunday cleared Myanmar security forces of systematic rape, murder and arson against Rohingya Muslims, dismissing United Nations’ (UN) allegations of widespread abuses during a recent crackdown.

The commission examined the deadly violence which began in northwestern Rakhine State in October last year after attacks by Rohingya militants on police posts near the Bangladesh border.

The government is refusing to allow a UN fact-finding team to conduct its own probe into whether the security response amounted to “ethnic cleansing” of the stateless Rohingya minority.

Giving their conclusions on Sunday, a state-backed commission said it found no evidence that Myanmar security forces carried out a systematic campaign of rape, murder or arson.

Instead any “excessive actions” were likely committed by low-rank “individual members of the security forces”.

“Some incidents (of abuse) appeared to be fabricated… others had little evidence,” according to a press release by the commission.

It also took aim at a detailed report by the UN’s Human Rights Office released in February this year.

That report said it was “very likely” that crimes against humanity had been committed during the crackdown.

Based on interviews with 204 witnesses who fled to Bangladesh, the UN alleged Myanmar security forces gang-raped Rohingya women, butchered children and tortured men.

But “no such cases were uncovered” by the government commission, which said the UN findings lacked balance and failed to recognise the gravity of the attacks by Rohingya militants.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is blocking a visit by a UN team.

She says the government commission is an adequate response to the violence, which left scores dead and displaced tens of thousands of Rohingya to Bangladesh.

The Rohingya are reviled in Myanmar and widely seen as illegal immigrants.

Stateless, poor and subject to tight controls on movement, education and work, roughly 1 million of the Muslim group are hemmed into the impoverished border zone ─ which remains locked down and under curfew.

The commission conceded that foreign media and NGOs should have been granted access to the zone during the conflict to dispel “misconceptions”.

It also called for rights training for low-level security officers, urged local officials to tackle corruption and called for swift and fair trials of suspected militants.

Rakhine State remains violent and on edge.

The government says foreign-backed Rohingya militants are still active in the conflict area, accusing them of killing perceived state collaborators and running “terror” training camps.

Last week seven Buddhists were found dead in the conflict area.

Rohingya villages also continue to be raided.

On Friday, up to 50 “warning shots” were fired at a Rohingya village during a raid.

Unverifiable images on social media showed several people wounded by bullets allegedly fired in the episode.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/07/myanmar-govt-probe-finds-no-campaign-abuse-rohingya/

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## Banglar Bir

*Burma releases report rejecting allegations of human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims*
The army are accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes
Samuel Osborne 
The Independent Online





Rohingya Muslims in a conflict-scarred corner of Rakhine State say fear is one of the few constants in their lives AFP/Getty
The Burmese government’s inquiry into allegations of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during a crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority last year has concluded no such crimes happened. 

Rohingya militants killed nine border guards in October, sparking a response in which the army was accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes, sending an estimated 75,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

A UN report in February said security forces instigated a campaign which “very likely” amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. This led to the establishment of a UN probe which is being blocked by Burma.

The Burmese inquiry accused the UN of making exaggerated claims in its report

Aung San Suu Kyi pushes back against criticism of handling of Rohingya abuses
The country’s own 13-member investigation team – led by former head of military intelligence and now Vice President, Myint Swe – has been dismissed by human rights monitors as lacking independence to produce a credible report.

80,000 Muslim Rohingya children starving in Burma, warns UN agency
US calls on Burma to cooperate with UN in Rohingya Muslim abuse probe
Burma will not let outside world investigate Rohingya ‘genocide’
Burma angered as EU backs UN probe into plight of Rohingya Muslims
Burmese government accused of trying to ‘expel’ all Rohingya Muslims
Speaking at the release of the Rakhine Investigative Commission’s final report, Vice President Myint Swe – a former general – told reporters on Sunday that “there is no evidence of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights claimed”.

He added that “some people from abroad have fabricated news claiming genocide had occurred, but we haven’t found any evidence”.

He also denied charges that there had been gang rapes by the military as it swept through Rohingya villages in a security clearance operation. The army was reacting to deadly attacks against border police posts by a previously unknown insurgent group in October 2016 in the Maungdaw area of Rakhine.

*Rohingya mothers face persecution. *The panel said that the report did not take into consideration “violent acts” committed by the insurgents, instead focusing on the activities of the security forces.

Rights groups have previously expressed their doubts over the commission’s work, saying it lacked outside experts, had poor research methodologies and lacked credibility because it was not independent.




Women and girls have accused soldiers and police officers of rape and sexual assault during months of violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Burma (AFP/Getty)
The commission’s report did accept that some things might have happened that broke the law, attributing it to excessive action on the part of individual members of the security forces.

The Burmese commission had received 21 reports from villagers of incidents of murder, rape, arson and torture by the security forces, but, unable to verify their veracity, it referred them to the authorities.

“We opened doors for them to complain to the courts if they have evidence that they suffered human rights abuses, but no one came to open a lawsuit until now,” Zaw Myint Pe, the secretary of the panel said.

The commission blamed the violence on the insurgents, accusing them of links to organisations abroad, “set up to destabilise and harm Myanmar (Burma)”.




Rohingya men at Sittwe’s bustling fish market in Rakhine, Burma (Reuters)
The treatment of the roughly one million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Burma’s most contentious rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalised and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

_Additional reporting by agencies_
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...im-minority-human-rights-abuses-a7879726.html

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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, August 12, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:57 AM, August 12, 2017
*India plans to deport 40,000 Rohingyas*
*Wants talks with Myanmar, Bangladesh, report says*




Photo: Reuters
Diplomatic Correspondent

India is planning to deport around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims who it says are living in the country illegally.

The Indian government says only around 14,000 of the Rohingya Muslims living in the country are registered with the United Nations refugee agency and that the rest are considered illegal and liable to be sent back.

Reacting to the announcement, the Indian office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it was "trying to find the facts" about New Delhi's plans to deport them.

India is not a signatory to UN conventions on refugees and no national law covers it.

Tens of thousands of Rohingyas have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar to Bangladesh since the early 1990s, with some of them then crossing over a porous border into India.

"These things are being discussed at diplomatic level with both Bangladesh and Myanmar," Interior Ministry spokesman KS Dhatwalia said, according to a Reuters report from New Delhi.

"More clarity will emerge at an appropriate time," added the official.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka is totally unaware about any such talks with Bangladesh.

In fact, India didn't want to get involved in the Rohingya issue when Bangladesh requested, a highly placed source at the foreign ministry told The Daily Star yesterday.

“I have no idea whether Indians have changed their position and are engaging with Bangladesh on Rohingya issue,” said another high official at the foreign ministry.

Contacted, a senior official, who is the focal point on the Rohingya issue at the foreign ministry, expressed his total ignorance about whether India was in talks with Bangladesh on this or planning to deport thousands of the Myanmarese Muslims.

“I give you my 100 percent assurance that this has not come up to my level. I have no idea at which level the India held talks with Bangladesh,” the official said.

Reuters reported yesterday that Junior Interior Minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament on Wednesday the federal government had directed state governments to "constitute taskforces at district levels to identify and deport the illegally staying foreign nationals".

Rijiju was in Myanmar recently to attend an event, although it was not clear if he discussed the Rohingya issue.

Officials in Myanmar could not be contacted immediately for comment.

Rohingya refugees have been a big headache for Bangladesh as the country has been hosting 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 of them for over three decades. After the latest crackdown began on October 9, 2016, some 75,000 new members of the Myanmarese Muslims entered Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Myanmar's government already denies full citizenship to the 1.1 million-strong Rohingya population that lives in Rakhine state, branding them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This is while the Rohingya track their ancestors many generations back in Myanmar.

UN human rights and refugee agencies, Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Commission, UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee and many other human rights groups have repeatedly been urging Myanmar to take back Rohingyas. But all such international calls fell on deaf ears.

Considered by the UN as the “most persecuted minority group in the world,” the Rohingyas have been under a military siege in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since October 2016. The government used a militant attack on border guards back then as the pretext to enforce the siege.

There have been numerous eyewitness accounts of summary executions, rapes, and arson attacks by security forces against the Muslims since the crackdown began.

Amnesty International has said deporting and abandoning the Rohingyas would be "unconscionable".
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/india-plans-deport-40000-rohingyas-1447324

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## bluesky

*India in talks with Myanmar, Bangladesh to deport 40,000 Rohingya*
>> Reuters
Published: 2017-08-11 23:36:12.0 BdST Updated: 2017-08-11 23:36:12.0 BdST







FILE PHOTO: People belonging to Rohingya Muslim community sit outside their makeshift houses on the outskirts of Jammu, May 5, 2017. Reuters
*India is in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about its plan to deport around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims it says are living in the country illegally, a government spokesman said on Friday, with state governments told to form task forces for the purpose.*

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since the early 1990s, with some of them then crossing over a porous border into Hindu-majority India.

New Delhi says only around 14,000 of the Rohingya living in India are registered with the UN refugee agency, making the rest illegal and liable to be sent back. India is not a signatory to UN conventions on refugees and no national law covers it.

"These things are being discussed at diplomatic level with both Bangladesh and Myanmar," Interior Ministry spokesman KS Dhatwalia said.

"More clarity will emerge at an appropriate time."





FILE PHOTO: A girl belonging to Rohingya Muslim community walks past a makeshift settlement on the outskirts of Jammu May 6, 2017. Reuters

Junior Interior Minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament on Wednesday the federal government had directed state governments to "constitute task forces at district levels to identify and deport the illegally staying foreign nationals".

Rijiju was in Myanmar recently to attend an event, although it was not clear if he discussed the Rohingya issue.

Officials in Myanmar could not be contacted immediately for comment.

Amnesty International has said deporting and abandoning the Rohingya would be "unconscionable".

The Indian office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it was "trying to find the facts" about New Delhi's plans to deport them.

Rohingya are generally reviled in India, where its 1.3 billion people are fighting for resources and job opportunities. Nationalist, anti-Islamic sentiments have also fuelled hatred towards them.







FILE PHOTO: Children belonging to Rohingya Muslim community read the Koran at a madrasa, or a religious school, at a makeshift settlement, on the outskirts of Jammu May 6, 2017. Reuters

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Oct. 9 after an insurgent group called Harakah al-Yaqin attacked Myanmar border police posts, prompting a huge security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.

A senior government official in Bangladesh, which has complained of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, said New Delhi was helping it solve the crisis.

The Rohingya in India live mainly in Jammu, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi in the north, Hyderabad in the south, and Rajasthan in the west.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, drew widespread condemnation in April when it threatened to launch an "identify and kill movement" if the government did not deport Rohingya settlers there

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar ramps up troops, curfews in violence-wracked Rakhine*
AFP
Published at 11:19 AM August 12, 2017




File photo of armed Myanmar security forces *Collected*
*Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year*
Myanmar is imposing new curfews and deploying fresh troops to Rakhine state, the government confirmed Saturday, after the UN expressed alarm at reports of a military build-up in the region where authorities are accused of widespread rights abuses.

News that an army battalion was flown into Rakhine this week to boost security was met with criticism from UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee on Friday, who warned it was “cause for major concern”.

Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year when Rohingya militants attacked police posts, sparking a months-long bloody military crackdown.

The army campaign sent more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers.

The Rohinyga are a stateless group long maligned by Mynamar’s Buddhist majority and the UN believes the army’s crackdown may amount to ethnic cleansing — a charge the government vehemently denies.

State media said Saturday that “clearance operations are being heightened” in Rakhine’s May Yu mountain range, an area where the government says Rohingya militants remain active.

The army used the same language to describe counter-insurgency sweeps in October.

“Plans are underway to reinforce security forces and military forces by deployment of additional troops,” the state-run Global New Light of Mynamar said, adding that curfews would be imposed in “necessary areas”.

The goal was to “prevent extremist terrorists from taking a stronghold in the May Yu mountain range,” the state mouthpiece said.

The military build-up comes after a spike in violence in recent months, with dozens of villagers murdered and abducted by masked assassins.

The government blames the killings on the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed the raids on police posts last October.

The group has denied killing civilians in statements issued through an unverified Twitter account.

Rohingya communities in the remote area also continue to be raided, with security forces firing “warning shots” during a face-off with a mob of villagers earlier this month.

UN rights expert Lee urged authorities to carry out their security operations in line with international human rights standards.

“The government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine State,” she said in a statement.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services.

The minority are widely reviled as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite having lived in the area for generations.

A government-appointed commission in the country has dismissed allegations of widespread abuses, while Myanmar is refusing to allow a UN fact-finding team to conduct its own probe.

http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...amps-troops-curfews-violence-wracked-rakhine/

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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, August 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:41 AM, August 13, 2017
*Myanmar must show restraint*
*Says UN over troops deployment in Rakhine*




Myanmar on Sunday, August 6, 2017, rejects allegations of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during a crackdown against Rohingya Muslims last year, accusing the United Nations of making exaggerated claims in its report on the issue. In the Reuters photo, Rohingya villagers watch as international media visit Maung Hna Ma village, Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 14, 2017.

Staff Correspondent

The UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee has expressed deep concern over reports that an army battalion has been flown into the country's Rakhine state to help local authorities boost security in the region.

This development, which reportedly took place on Thursday, is a cause for major concern, reads a UN press release issued in Geneva yesterday.

She said the Myanmar government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine.

“I am particularly reminded of the allegations of serious human rights violations which followed security force operations in the aftermath of attacks against three border guard police facilities in Maungdaw and Rathedaung in October and further clashes in November [last year].

Myanmar officers yesterday said the government had deployed a fresh batch of troops in Rakhine after a recent spate of murders, reported AFP.

They said soldiers have been sent to a mountainous area where a band of militants is actively training.

“Many battalions with hundreds of soldiers from central Myanmar were deployed to the Mayu moutain range,” a military officer told AFP, requesting anonymity.

State media also reported that the government had imposed new curfews, to be set "in necessary areas" as the army beefs up its clearance operations".

“I have noted from the summary report of the investigation commission for Maungdaw in Rakhine state, publically released last Sunday, that many allegations of human rights violations are being investigated or have been recommended for further investigation,” said Yanghee Lee.

The Presidential Commission admitted it was not able to verify many of these alleged violations or crimes including torture, rape and arson, and asked that these be properly addressed by the relevant authorities, the human rights expert added.

“There have been increasing reports of incidents affecting the local population, including the killings of six Mro villagers on August 3,” she said, adding, “I share the concern of the Myanmar government and its people regarding the safety and security of those living in Rakhine state in the light of these incidents.”

The special rapporteur acknowledged the Rakhine state's responsibility to provide security and protect people from attacks by extremists, but said this responsibility had to cover all residents, and the authorities could not afford more security to some than the others.

She reminded that the use of force must always be in line with the principles of necessity and proportionality to ensure full respect for human life. “Any measures security forces take or any operations they undertake to secure the areas concerned must be carried out in line with international human rights norms and standards,” Lee stressed.

Special rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff.

Rakhine has been gripped by violence since October last year when militants attacked police posts, sparking a bloody military crackdown that the UN believes may amount to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority Rohingya.

More than 70,000 Rohingya villagers fled across the border to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers.

The major part of the military campaign ended several months ago, but fear continues to stalk the region amid sporadic bouts of violence.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services.

http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...akhine-un-asks-myanmar-show-restraint-1447765

02:18 PM, October 21, 2015 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:27 PM, October 21, 2015
*Amnesty International warns over Rohingya crisis*




Rohingya refugees fleeing Burma and Bangladeshi economic migrants were found in overcrowded boats in May. Photo: AFP

BBC Online

More than 1,000 people are still unaccounted for after the migrant boat crisis in the Andaman Sea earlier this year, a new report has said.

Amnesty International said Bangladeshi migrants and persecuted Rohingya fleeing Myanmar faced "hellish" conditions on trafficking boats.

The report is based on interviews with 100 refugees who reached Indonesia.

It comes as traffickers are expected to resume operations when the monsoon season ends in October.

The UN estimates that 370 people died between January and June, as thousands of people took to boats across the region.

But Amnesty disputed this, saying eyewitnesses saw dozens of large boats full of people. Only five boats were said by the UN to have landed in Indonesia and Malaysia, it said.

"Hundreds - if not thousands - of people remain unaccounted for, and may have died during the journeys or have been sold for forced labour," the report said.


It says "virtually every Rohingya woman, man and child said they had either been beaten themselves, or had seen others suffer serious physical abuse".

'*Step up response'*
Rohingya have long been fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state, where they are seen as Bangladeshi migrants by the Buddhist majority and denied citizenship by the government.

In May, a crackdown by Thai authorities on major trafficking routes through its territory to Malaysia and Indonesia led to people-smugglers abandoning their human cargo at sea

Thousands of people were stranded in the ocean with no food, water or medical care.

After weeks of maritime authorities from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand towing the boats into each other's waters, eventually some of the migrants that made it to land were allowed to stay in refugee camps in Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to Amnesty, action taken by regional governments to address the crisis have done little to stop the criminal networks who engage in human trafficking, nor have they persuaded migrants to stop making the crossing.

"With the monsoon over and a new 'sailing season' already underway, thousands more could be taking to boats and Amnesty is urging regional governments to urgently step up their response to the crisis," said Anna Shea at Amnesty International.




As the monsoon season comes to an end, human traffickers are expected to resume their deadly trade. Photo: AFP

http://www.thedailystar.net/world/amnesty-warns-over-asia-migrant-boat-crisis-160495

02:18 PM, October 21, 2015 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:27 PM, October 21, 2015
*Amnesty International warns over Rohingya crisis*




Rohingya refugees fleeing Burma and Bangladeshi economic migrants were found in overcrowded boats in May. Photo: AFP

BBC Online

More than 1,000 people are still unaccounted for after the migrant boat crisis in the Andaman Sea earlier this year, a new report has said.

Amnesty International said Bangladeshi migrants and persecuted Rohingya fleeing Myanmar faced "hellish" conditions on trafficking boats.

The report is based on interviews with 100 refugees who reached Indonesia.

It comes as traffickers are expected to resume operations when the monsoon season ends in October.

The UN estimates that 370 people died between January and June, as thousands of people took to boats across the region.

But Amnesty disputed this, saying eyewitnesses saw dozens of large boats full of people. Only five boats were said by the UN to have landed in Indonesia and Malaysia, it said.

"Hundreds - if not thousands - of people remain unaccounted for, and may have died during the journeys or have been sold for forced labour," the report said.


It says "virtually every Rohingya woman, man and child said they had either been beaten themselves, or had seen others suffer serious physical abuse".

'*Step up response'*
Rohingya have long been fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state, where they are seen as Bangladeshi migrants by the Buddhist majority and denied citizenship by the government.

In May, a crackdown by Thai authorities on major trafficking routes through its territory to Malaysia and Indonesia led to people-smugglers abandoning their human cargo at sea

Thousands of people were stranded in the ocean with no food, water or medical care.

After weeks of maritime authorities from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand towing the boats into each other's waters, eventually some of the migrants that made it to land were allowed to stay in refugee camps in Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to Amnesty, action taken by regional governments to address the crisis have done little to stop the criminal networks who engage in human trafficking, nor have they persuaded migrants to stop making the crossing.

"With the monsoon over and a new 'sailing season' already underway, thousands more could be taking to boats and Amnesty is urging regional governments to urgently step up their response to the crisis," said Anna Shea at Amnesty International.




As the monsoon season comes to an end, human traffickers are expected to resume their deadly trade. Photo: AFP

http://www.thedailystar.net/world/amnesty-warns-over-asia-migrant-boat-crisis-160495

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## Banglar Bir

*Time to stop slow-burning genocide in Myanmar*
by Habib Siddiqui | Published: 00:05, Aug 11,2017




EVERYDAY I receive dozens of e-mails. Most of these e-mails, at least 30, are about Myanmar’s inhuman treatment of the minorities. It is simply depressing to read the sad stories of their extermination, aptly termed the slow-burning genocide by Dr Maung Zarni, a fellow human rights activist. 

Who would have thought that in a Buddhist country, run by Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel prize for peace, these unfortunate minorities — mostly Muslims — will continue to be victimised for total annihilation simply because of their different religious and ethnic identity? Obviously, non-violent messages of Siddhartha Gautam Buddha have miserably failed to humanise the Buddhists of Myanmar. They remain mortgaged to their past of extreme intolerance that had terrorised their neighbours for centuries.

I am aware that in the post-9/11 era, some world leaders are willing to look the other way or excuse the inexcusable crimes of Suu Kyi’s government to stopping genocide of the Muslim minorities. But genocide is a serious matter that deserves our serious attention. It would be utterly irresponsible to overlook this grievous crime simply because the country is now run by an elected, popular lady, a practising Buddhist who was the poster lady for democracy, and not a hated military junta that she successfully replaced. 

The United Nations in 1948 defined genocide to mean any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including: (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

As I have repeatedly mentioned since the mid-2000s, what is happening with the minority Muslims, in general, and the Rohingyas of Myanmar, in particular, who mostly live in the Rakhine state (formerly Arakan) bordering Bangladesh, is nothing short of genocide. The overwhelming verdict of the subject matter experts, since at least 2012, has also been the same. The destruction of the Rohingyas — politically, culturally and economically — is a complete one that is carried out both by Buddhist civilians backed by the state and perpetrated directly by state actors and state institutions. I have been calling it a national project that is scripted and directed by the state since the days of General Ne Win enjoying the full cooperation, collaboration, contribution from, and execution by the Buddhist majority — monks, mobs and the military. 

As noted by Dr Maung Zarni and Alice Cowley in their seminal work ‘The slow-burning genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya’, both the state in Myanmar and the local community have committed four out of five acts of genocide as spelt out by the 1948 Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.

What is so disturbing with the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya and Muslim minorities in Myanmar is that it is happening in our time, some 69 years after the UN convention. For the sake of argument, one may find some excuses for the major perpetrators of genocidal crimes of the pre-1948 era saying that they did not know better (this is not to excuse their horrendous crimes!) but what is the excuse for Suu Kyi and her predecessors within the military?

Our human history has repeatedly been tarnished by genocidal crimes of the few. But rarely do we see genocide as a national project with full participation of all to annihilate the ‘other’ people. And yet, such is the reality in today’s Myanmar!

Buddhist monks, businessmen and politicians influence the general public on the need to purify what they call the ‘Buddhist motherland’ from any vestige of ‘outsiders’, the kalar (kala) — Islam and Muslims; false rumours are spread like wildfires to create unfathomed animosity; they stage demonstrations demanding that the government should go tough with the already marginalised targeted group, to put them in concentration camps or to kill them unprovoked creating the urge for the victims to get out of this ‘den of extreme intolerance’ if they still want to survive; cordon off or surround Muslim neighbourhoods with guns, pistols and machetes, and terrorise the victims with all the devious methods known to mankind — scorched-earth policy of burning their homes, businesses, educational, social and religious institutions, arresting, and detaining, harassing and killing innocent people, especially. anyone below the age of 50, and finally, using rape as a weapon of war to dehumanise the victims. And the list of such evil measures goes on with full participation from all the segments of the Buddhist people of Myanmar. It is a complete project of elimination of the Rohingya and other minority Muslims.

Otherwise, how can we explain the ongoing crimes of the Buddhist people and government of Myanmar? It is no accident that Suu Kyi wants to cover Myanmar’s heinous crimes by disallowing any investigation from the international community and using the kangaroo parliament to condemn the efforts and reports of the UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee. For such crimes, I need neither to go to the history of ethnic cleansing drives of the 1930s and 1940s of the British era nor even those of the newly independent Burma. Just the current events in the past week are enough to understand the gravity of the situation and the monumental crimes of the Buddhist Myanmar against the minority Muslims.

A 45-year-old Rohingya man was brutally killed by Rakhine extremists, aided by Myanmar security forces, inside the premises of the Sittwe University on August 5 around 9:30am. The victim was identified as Mohammad Abul, son of U Ali Ahmad of Kone Dagar (Konka Fara) Rohingya IDP camp, Sittwe (formerly Akyab). Commenting on the brutal murder, a Rohingya rights activist lamented the fact that under Suu Kyi’s watch and tacit encouragement the ‘Rakhine extremists are trying to eradicate all Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar systematically. The Buddhist community’s mission is ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority.’ On the same day, a Rohingya youth Eliyaz, 26, son of Mohammed Hassan from the village of Ohn Taw Gyi, is feared to have been killed by Rakhine extremists in the village of Aung Dain.

In the early hours of August 3, a group of about 30 Buddhists armed with sticks and swords attacked the Muslim-majority Sakya Nwe Sin neighbourhood in the former royal capital, Mandalay. A local administrator said that two young Muslim men were injured.
Mandalay residents told Reuters the incident had stirred fears of a repeat of deadly communal violence that hit the same neighbourhood in 2014. 

Mandalay and other central towns have seen sporadic outbreaks of hate crimes against the minority Muslims since Myanmar’s transition from a full military rule began in 2011. 
On August 2, small groups of Buddhist monks with dozens of lay supporters set up two ‘boycott camps’ close to country’s most important Buddhist site, the Shwedagon pagoda, and at a Mandalay pagoda just blocks from scene of the mob attack later that night.

Behind banners accusing Suu Kyi’s administration of failing to protect Buddhism, the monks upturned their alms bowls, a traditional symbol of defiance against the country’s rulers.

Since August 1, the minority Rohingya community — composed of some 650 people — living in the village of ‘Zaydi Pyin’ in Rathedaung Township have remained surrounded by state-backed Rakhine extremists. Their access to food and to roads, forests and rivers are cut off with barbed wire fences erected by the government-backed extremists, thereby restricting their movement and forcing starvation on them. Unless the blockade is removed immediately, many Rohingyas may die.
A human rights activist said, ‘The main reason behind such a blockade is to make them starve and die; and eventually force them to leave their homes once and for all. So, the Myanmar government can tell the world that the Rohingyas are leaving their homes on their own.’ 

On July 30, a group of military and the BGP raided Yedwin Pyin village, northern Maungdaw and fully demolished some Rohingya houses, looted their property such as money, jewellery and other valuables and left the immoveable things destroyed. Then the military and the BGP gang-raped three Rohingya women from the village. 

Nearly 1000 Rohingyas died and tens of thousands were displaced in 2012 in Rakhine state. Genocidal violence against the Rohingya people escalated there in 2016 after attacks on border posts allegedly by Rohingya militants. The military operation sent an estimated 75,000 people across the nearby border to Bangladesh, where many gave accounts of serious abuses. A United Nations report issued earlier this year said that Myanmar’s security forces had committed mass killings and gang-rapes against the Rohingyas during their campaign against the insurgents, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

The European Union has similarly proposed the investigation after the UN high commissioner for human rights said that the army’s operation in the northern part of Rakhine State, where most people are Rohingyas, likely included crimes against humanity. 
Reuters was among international media escorted to the area in the past week in a tour closely overseen by security forces. Rohingya women told reporters of husbands and sons arbitrarily detained, and of killings and arson by security forces that broadly match the accounts from refugees in Bangladesh. Typical of genocide deniers, Suu Kyi’s government continues to deny such accusations and says most are fabricated.

In several recent cases, local officials have bowed to nationalist pressure to shut down Muslim buildings that they say are operating without official approval. Two madrassahs were shuttered in May in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon. 

Local media reported the closure of a mosque and another Islamic school in Oatkan, on Yangon’s outskirts, recently.

Authorities in Kyaukpadaung, central Myanmar, famed for not accepting non-Buddhist residents, in July agreed to demolish a structure that was falsely suspected of being a mosque.
In a letter to Suu Kyi on August 3, 20 groups working on human rights in Myanmar said that the government needed to do more to protect Muslims, who make up 4.3 per cent of the population. ‘The Burma government must not appease the ultra-nationalists who are utilising hate speech, intimidation, and violence to promote fear in Muslim communities across the country,’ said the letter. ‘It is extremely alarming to see how anti-Muslim sentiment has spread beyond Rakhine state, where the Rohingya Muslim minority has been harshly persecuted and isolated, even to major cities like Yangon.’
On August 4, responding to mounting reports of violence in northern Rakhine state, including the deaths of villagers in the past week, Amnesty International’s director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific James Gomez said: ‘The alarming reports of attacks in northern Rakhine state underscore the need for everyone operating in the area to refrain from violence before it spirals out of control. These latest attacks underscore the need for the Myanmar authorities to cooperate fully with the UN fact-finding mission and allow them unfettered access to all parts the country. The people of Myanmar and the international community deserve to know the truth. The authorities’ pledge to respond to the latest killings in Rakhine with “intensive clearance operations” is particularly worrying, given the scorched-earth tactics Amnesty International has documented during these operations in the past. While the Myanmar authorities have the duty to maintain law and order and investigate these attacks, they must ensure that these investigations are conducted in a fair and transparent manner, in accordance with international human rights law.’

In Myanmar, Rohingyas face extinction. They are denied all the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Myanmar’s nationality law, approved in 1982, denies Rohingya citizenship. Rohingyas are not recognised among the 134 official ethnicities in Myanmar because authorities see them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. They are subjected to forced labour, have no land rights and are heavily restricted by the government. They have no permission to leave the camps built for them, have no source of income and must rely on the World Food Programme to survive, which is often restricted to them. The local Buddhists are forbidden to supply food or do any business with them. 

Adolf Hitler’s instruction to his army commanders on August 22, 1939 read: ‘Thus for the time being I have sent to the east only my “death’s head units’ with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need.’
We falsely assumed that after the fall of Nazism, we shall never again see a repeat of such grievous crimes. The fact, however, is Suu Kyi’s government, like her predecessors, has perfected such criminal policies to wipe out the Rohingya and minority Muslims. 

Despite growing evidence of genocide, the international community has so far avoided calling this large scale human suffering genocide because no powerful member states of the UN Security Council have any appetite to forego their commercial and strategic interests in Myanmar to address the slow-burning Rohingya genocide. Dr Zarni quotes Terith Chy, a Khmer criminologist, said, ‘The world is watching and does nothing to end the sufferings of the Rohingya. This is much like what happened in Cambodia and Rwanda. The world stands by. It keeps on watching, watching, watching….’ (Genocide, Documentation Centre of Cambodia)

I wonder how long shall we just watch and watch, and do nothing to stop the genocidal crimes of the Myanmar government!

Dr Habib Siddiqui is a peace and rights activist.

http://www.newagebd.net/article/21689/time-to-stop-slow-burning-genocide-in-myanmar


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## Banglar Bir

*UN chief Guterres concerned about India’s plans to deport Rohingyas refugees*
SAM Staff, August 15, 2017




Antonio Guterres, who was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, is deeply attached to the cause of refugees. (AP)
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about India’s plans to deport Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, according to his spokesperson Farhan Haq. Responding to a question on Monday about reports that India was going to send back Rohingyas, Haq said, “Obviously we have our concern about the treatment of refugees. Once refugees are registered they are not to be returned back to the countries where they fear persecution.” Guterres, who was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is deeply attached to the cause of refugees.

Haq said the office of the UNHCR will take up the issue with the Indian government. He reminded India of a UN dictum against deporting refugees. “You are aware of our principle of non refoulement,” he said referring to the doctrine in the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees.

That principle lays down that a refugee cannot be returned to a place where the person’s life or freedom would be “threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” India has not signed the UN refugees convention.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha last week, “According to UNHCR there are 13,000 Rohingya migrants registered. But we have also got figures from IB (Intelligence Bureau), which shows they have migrated to India in large numbers.”

“Steps are being taken to ensure that we do not get uncontrolled influx of migrants in the country, which creates lots of problem related to social, political, cultural. “And at the same time we want to ensure that the demographic pattern of India is not disturbed,” Rijiju added. He said that a “concentration camp of Rohingyas has come up” in Jammu and Kashmir and later clarified that it was only a detention camp and not a “concentration camp” like those in Nazi Germany.

Subsequently, a Home Ministry official was quoted in media reports as saying that India was in touch with Myanmar and Bangladesh to deport 40,000 Rohingyas illegally in India. UNHCR office in India has reportedly issued refugee IDs to about 16,500 Rohingyas in India.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...erned-indias-plans-deport-rohingyas-refugees/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya insurgency gains momentum in Myanmar*
*Evidence is mounting the new Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army is gearing up for a more lethal and sophisticated campaign against state forces*
By ANTHONY DAVIS AUGUST 15, 2017




A Myanmar border guard police officer escorts reporters upriver in Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Simon Lewis
A village headman assaulted by machete-wielding men in a tea-shop; six villagers stabbed and shot dead in their fields; a blast in a house as locals attempt to assemble a home-made bomb.

This month has seen a marked increase in violence in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state and the unrest is sending security forces a blunt message: despite the ferocity of last year’s army-led crackdown which left scores of Rohingya civilians dead and sent over 70,000 refugees into neighboring Bangladesh, a renewed and almost certainly wider conflict is brewing.

Rohingya Muslim militants, who last October launched surprise attacks on three border police posts that killed nine officers, have stepped up preparations for a revived insurgency during the area’s rainy season that constrains major military sweeps.

That’s involved asserting control over local communities, accelerating recruitment and expanding military training activities across all three majority Rohingya townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, the epicenter of last year’s militant attacks and military crackdown.




A man suspected of being one of the attackers in border raids is taken to a police station in Sittwe, capital of the Rakhine state in an October 10, 2016 photo. Photo: AFP
At the same time, regional intelligence sources who spoke to Asia Times note that external support in the forms of arms and funding have in recent months reached the militants via Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh.

The evidence of preparations for a widened revolt has been regularly reported in Myanmar’s state media, seen in a rising rate of targeted killings of mostly Muslim civilians apparently viewed as collaborating with the security services (such as interpreters) or local government administration.

To eliminate government intelligence assets and to instill an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear, the killings have typically involved individuals being dragged from their homes after dark and stabbed or slashed to death by groups of men sometimes reportedly dressed in black fatigues and wearing face masks. Bodies of abducted individuals have on occasion been found decapitated.

Both the scope and tempo of the killing campaign, which began last year, has risen in recent months. Incidents which started in Maungdaw township where most of the violence in late 2016 was concentrated have now spread to include Buthidaung and Rathedaung, according to local media reports, and appear increasingly to involve brazen day-light assaults.

At the same time, the rate of attacks which early this year occurred roughly once a week or less frequently has now increased notably to several incidents a week. According to official figures from the office of State Counsellor Aung san Suu Kyi, over 50 individuals have now been either murdered or abducted between October and the end of July.




A Myanmar border guard police officer stands guard in Tin May village, Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Simon Lewis
In what was originally an almost exclusively Muslim target-set, the number of Buddhists attacked is now ominously rising.

The arguably most striking incident came on August 3 with the killing of six Buddhist farmers and the abduction of two others in Maungdaw. In some cases, killings of Buddhists have triggered the flight of scores of Buddhist civilians to township centers where state security is assured.

The pattern of insurgent activity suggests a broadly centralized command and control structure on the part of a group which was first identified late last year as Harakat al Yaqin (HaY), or Movement of Faith, but which this year rebranded itself as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

As seen by several security analysts who spoke to Asia Times, the name-change was probably driven by the group’s desire to distance itself from any association with Arabic-sounding jihadist radicalism. HaY/ARSA is understood to have emerged from the extensive Rohingya diaspora in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and the Pakistani city of Karachi.

In its limited interactions with the international media the militant group has been at pains to project itself as an ideologically moderate outfit committed to securing the legitimate rights of an ethnic community of some 1.1 million which has been denied citizenship and basic civil rights by successive Myanmar governments.





A Rohingya refugee woman walks at the Kutupalang Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, July 8, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Attracting less attention than the targeted killings but no less significant in terms of insurgent expansion have been efforts to revive recruitment and training activities for local youths.

This has involved the setting up of temporary camps in remote locations where basic instruction in guerrilla field-craft is imparted, apparently using mostly wooden rifles rather than real fire-arms. According to official sources, youths inducted into the ARSA training modules of one or two weeks are required to swear a vow of secrecy on the Koran and, at least in some cases, are said to be paid.

Much of the training activity has centered on the Mayu Range, a spine of jungled hills that runs broadly north-south between the arable flatlands of Maungdaw to the east and Buthidaung to the west, and is thus easily accessible from both townships.

On June 20, police responding to a tip-off of training activities discovered a camp in the hills a three-hour trek from the nearest village in Maungdaw. One of several now identified, the facility included a large tunnel measuring over four feet high, by five feet wide and 80 feet in length. In the ensuing operation, three militants were killed either in or near the tunnel, while police also retrieved 20 wooden guns, two homemade firearms and food supplies.

Training also appears to have focused on the production of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Probably for logistical reasons and given the smaller number of people involved, these courses have apparently taken place in safe houses in villages rather than the remote jungle camps. In recent weeks, there have been several cases of either security forces breaking up training sessions and triggering clashes or incidents involving apparently accidental explosions.




A Myanmar soldier holding a banner with Arabic writing with pouches containing bullets and documents seized inside a house during military operations in search of attackers in Maungdaw located in Rakhine State on October 14, 2016. Photo: AFP/Myanmar Armed Forces
Several distinct facets of insurgent activity – a systematic campaign of targeted killings of perceived state collaborators and Buddhist civilians, establishing temporary camps for clandestine basic training courses, and ritual oaths of secrecy sworn by new recruits on the Koran – mirror almost exactly the tactics and methods of the Malay-Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, both during its preparatory phase and subsequently.

The extent, if any, to which ARSA militants and Patani-Malay insurgents of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) are in contact remains unclear. What is not in doubt, however, is that both groups have a significant organizational presence in Malaysia and share broadly similar ethno-nationalist objectives within Buddhist-dominated states.

The deteriorating security situation has caused widespread alarm across Rakhine state’s majority Buddhist community and beyond.

Following direct appeals by Arakan National Party (ANP) politicians to armed forces commander in chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, military reinforcements of an estimated 400 troops of the crack 33rd Light Infantry Division (LID) were airlifted into the state capital of Sittwe on August 10 and moved north to Maungdaw the next day.

Given the relatively small size of the reinforcements, the ongoing rains and an absence of any obvious military objectives it seems likely the airlift was intended more to reassure the state’s rattled Buddhist community and bolster local para-military police than as the prelude to immediate large-scale offensive operations.

With the onset of the dry season at year’s end, the traditional time of year for military offensives in Myanmar, expect a more robust security force response to the gathering threat and a potentially better-organized and more lethal militant reaction.
http://www.atimes.com/article/rohingya-insurgency-gains-momentum-myanmar/

*Foreign support gives Rohingya militants a lethal edge*
*Myanmar's rebel Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army is receiving guns, funds and guidance from a diaspora based in countries ranging from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia to Pakistan*
By ANTHONY DAVIS AUGUST 15, 2017




Bangladeshi activists protest in Dhaka against the deaths of Rohingya in Myanmar's Rakhine state late last year. Photo: Mohammad Ponir Hossain, Reuters
Against a backdrop of stepped up preparations for a Rohingya revolt across the majority-Muslim townships of Rakhine state, reports of external assistance including new weaponry reaching the militants have added ominously to the prospects for expanded violence with the onset of the dry season.

Given the large size of the Rohingya diaspora of several hundred thousand in the Gulf, Pakistan and Malaysia, and the wave of international publicity focused on the Myanmar’s brutal military crackdown late last year, the channeling of external assistance to the incipient insurgency is hardly surprising.

The Rohingya organization that has claimed responsibility for recent violence — the Harakat al Yaqin (HaY), now rebranded the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – is understood to have a leadership council based in Saudi Arabia and local leaders with backgrounds in Pakistan. It’s a support network that will almost certainly translate into donations from established businessmen in both countries.

One senior regional intelligence official noted to Asia Times that a group of senior Rohingya clerics based in Saudi Arabia has already played an important role in fundraising and facilitating money transfers. According to the same source, Malaysia has emerged as both a major clearing house for ARSA funding, and, given its Muslim-friendly visa regime, as a transit point for the movement of militants.

There are currently at least 100,000 – and possibly as many as 130,000 Rohingya refugees and migrant laborers – living in Malaysia. Of those only 58,000 are documented with the UNHCR, straining the capabilities of local security services to monitor their movements.




Rohingya refugees wait for access to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 11, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Olivia Harris
With relations between Myanmar and Malaysia in a deep freeze over the Rakhine crisis, and with ties with neighboring Bangladesh perennially fraught, the Myanmar military has looked primarily to Buddhist Thailand to assist in checking as far as possible the movement of money and militants into the emerging zone of conflict along its western border.

Early this year a senior delegation of Myanmar Armed Forces, or Tatmadaw, officials held talks with counterparts in the Thai intelligence community, assuring them that reports of military atrocities against Rohingya civilians during the October-November “clearance operations” were Western propaganda. They also aimed to ramp up intelligence exchanges on the issue of “Islamist terrorism” with the Thais.

Specific concerns have focused on the Thai border town of Mae Sot, which has predictably emerged as the main conduit for couriers and militants traveling overland north from Malaysia and into Myanmar.




Muslims protest against what they say is Myanmar’s crackdown on ethnic Rohingya Muslims, outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, Thailand November 25, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Jorge Silva
A rapidly expanding trade and light industrial hub of some 200,000 people on Thailand’s western border with Myanmar, Mae Sot has long had a significant Muslim population and served as a hub for Myanmar migrant workers — many of them undocumented – to move back and forth across the border.

In the 2013-2014 period, Rohingya militants reportedly made short-lived attempts to establish training courses in or near the town, according to sources in northern Thailand. Whether at any point these involved arms training as distinct from political and organizational courses is not clear, but the activities were shuttered in short order by Thai authorities.

Against a backdrop of decades of strained relations with Bangladesh, Myanmar’s western border, where at least one consignment of small-arms has reportedly reached the militants, poses perhaps a graver threat.

Photographs taken on a mobile phone and seen recently by Asia Times showed a crate of new Kalashnikov-series assault rifles – apparently Chinese manufactured Type 56 7.62mm rifles — and a group of youths in sarongs and tee-shirts being trained in the use of the weapons by older instructors.

In view of the tight security lockdown imposed by the Myanmar security forces across Rakhine state since last October, it is far more likely that the weapons reached ARSA through southern Bangladesh than from inside Myanmar.

It was not clear from the images whether the training was taking place inside Rakhine state or in a secure location across the border in Bangladesh.




A Myanmar border guard police officer stands guard in Tin May village, Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Simon Lewis
Since the October-November crackdown, an estimated 70,000 refugees have fled across the Naf River border to join at least 300,000 displaced Rohingya already settled in the southern Bangladeshi districts of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazaar and Bandarban.

However, if the training was taking place inside Rakhine state, then it seems likely that it would have been conducted close to the land-border rather than in more densely populated areas further south where even in the Mayu Hills security is far more difficult to ensure.

The source of the weapons consignment — or possibly consignments — is also open to conjecture. As funding is likely not a significant constraint, small-arms could be sourced either on Southeast Asia’s brisk black market in weapons, in Karachi, or from Gulf entrepots such as Sharjah and Abu Dubai.

They could then be easily moved ashore from freighters operating in the Bay of Bengal to points along the extended coastline of southern Bangladesh through fishing boats.




Bangladesh coast guards patrol in a vessel in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, February 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
The northern reaches of the Bay of Bengal are already criss-crossed by well-established smuggling operations moving people — both Rohingya and Bangladeshi — from Bangladesh to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the late 1990s and early 2000’s, several major illicit arms shipments to insurgent forces in the northeastern region of India were made via the same route.

In the most notorious such case in April 2004, a massive consignment of black market weaponry consisting of nearly 2,000 assault rifles, grenades and rocket-launchers was intercepted as it landed at a wharf on the Karnaphuli River in Chittagong, having been transshipped from a freighter ‘mothership’ to two fishing trawlers.

Relatively smaller shipments could be landed off smaller fishing boats with far less risk directly onto a beach and overland to Myanmar’s emerging Rakhine state civil war.
http://www.atimes.com/article/foreign-support-gives-rohingya-militants-lethal-edge/

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## Bengal Tiger 71

*BGB is ready to stop the impact of Rakhine unrest on the border.*

Border Guard Bangladesh-Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is preparing to deploy additional troops in the cities of Myanmar near the border and prevent any kind of 'potential' instability in Rakhine. BGB's Additional Director General (Operations) Brigadier General Abul Hasnat Khairul Bashar confirmed that the 'proper preparation' of the paramilitary forces deployed in border security. He told Manjamin yesterday that we are closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar. BOPs in the area have been kept alert. The pretrolling has been extended. We have taken as much preparation as possible to control the impact of Rakhine's unrest. "Meanwhile, the presence of BGB in those areas due to the increasing presence of the Myanmar army on the border, said Teknaf Battalion Captain Lt. Col. SM Ariful Islam. He told the media that Myanmar troops have increased the rally in Maungdaw, Boothding and Rathduong adjacent to the border. As a result, Border Guard Bangladesh (Border Guard Bangladesh) force has been extended to prevent any such disaster. The officer in the field said that due to presence of the army, there is a danger of crossing the border in Rohingya groups. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is ready to prevent such situation. Asked if the Rohingya were entering Bangladesh in the wake of the emergence of the situation, he said that even though there were two separate events, they were reheated. About Myanmar army rally Colonel Ariful Islam said 500 soldiers were taken to Sittu by plane. Apart from this, Myanmar is sending troops to neighboring areas. The army is conducting operations to arrest terrorists in different areas of the border region. Now the Rohingyas claim that they are not targeted. Meanwhile, a foreign ministry official told Manabjamin that Bangladesh has not told anything about the recent incident of the troops that took place in Myanmar border. According to international law, there is the obligation to inform the neighboring country before any army rally. However, the Bangladeshi embassy in Yangon briefly told Dhaka the details of the rally. Myanmar mission is constantly sending reports about the situation. In the wake of the emergence of Bangladesh, it has been recommended to increase the surveillance and patrol of Bangladesh in the border. The BBC has reported that Myanmar has deployed more troops in some cities near the border with Bangladesh. According to the country's military officials, a few hundred soldiers were sent to the Rakhine province after a few series of murders. The news agency Reuters reported similar information. Some army officers in Rakhine told Reuters, that they had killed seven Buddhists in Maungdaw area in Maungdaw last week and miscreants killed them. In its context, Myanmar deployed five hundred troops in several cities including Maungdaw and Boothding. The Rohingya people are facing the possibility of conflict again. The United Nations says raising concerns about the gathering of soldiers, the government should limit the activities of security forces. Tensions spread to Rakhine after a police patrol attack in October. At that time, there was a lot of allegation that the members of the country's army were killed, raped or tortured by the Rohingya community. The Myanmar government has denied these allegations, but the international community including the United Nations has been calling for a neutral investigation of these incidents of Rakhine. In that call, the rally was held in Myanmar. Nearly 75 thousand Rohingya took shelter in Bangladesh to survive the October violence. Some Rohingya refugees have been found in other countries including Malaysia, Indonesia. Bangladesh has been suffering from Rohingya problems for nearly three decades. There are about 3-4 lakh Rohingya and Myanmar citizens from here. A member of the Foreign Ministry responsible for the Rakhine situation told Manabjamin, "Although the incidents of Rakhine are internal affairs of Myanmar, there is a concern among the international community including the United Nations." Bangladesh is also concerned as a close neighbor. Because the effect of Rakhine is its effect on Bangladesh. Especially the Rohingyas increase the pressure on the border.

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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh sees fresh influx of Rohingya from Myanmar*
SAM Report, August 17, 2017




This photo taken on July 14, 2017 shows border police standing guard at Tinmay village, Buthidaung township in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh in recent days following a fresh military build-up in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, community leaders said Wednesday.

They said at least 500 Rohingya had made the difficult journey into Bangladesh, some claiming they had been abused by soldiers in Myanmar.

The latest influx follows a months-long bloody military crackdown on the mainly Muslim minority in Myanmar last year that led tens of thousands to flee across the border. The United Nations has said the violence may amount to ethnic cleansing.

Abu Toyyob said he escaped with his seven-member family as the army vandalised Rohingya houses and detained young men.

“They arrested my younger brother from home and injured my two-year-old son by kicking him with boots,” the 25-year-old told AFP.

“I immediately set off with my family and crossed the Naf two nights ago,” he added, referring to the river that divides the two countries.

Dhaka estimates that nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees are living in squalid refugee camps and makeshift settlements in the resort district of Cox’s Bazar, which borders Rakhine.

Their numbers swelled last October when more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers began arriving, bringing stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of Myanmar soldiers.

Bangladesh border guards said they had stepped up patrols after reports of a military build-up on the other side of the river.

Last week, the UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee voiced alarm at reports that an army battalion had flown into Rakhine to help local authorities boost security in the region.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya who live in Rakhine, who are seen as interlopers from Bangladesh, denied citizenship and access to basic rights.

But they are also increasingly unwelcome in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where police often blame them for crimes such as drug trafficking.

Dhaka has floated the idea of relocating tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote, flood-prone island off its coast, despite opposition from rights groups.

An official with the UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which looks after settlements for unregistered Rohingya refugees, said the organisation was aware of new arrivals.

The numbers were “not as alarming as the October influx,” the official said.

SOURCE AFP
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/17/bangladesh-sees-fresh-influx-rohingya-myanmar/


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## PDF

Banglar Bir said:


> *Burma releases report rejecting allegations of human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims*
> The army are accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes
> Samuel Osborne
> The Independent Online
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rohingya Muslims in a conflict-scarred corner of Rakhine State say fear is one of the few constants in their lives AFP/Getty
> The Burmese government’s inquiry into allegations of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during a crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority last year has concluded no such crimes happened.
> 
> Rohingya militants killed nine border guards in October, sparking a response in which the army was accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes, sending an estimated 75,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.
> 
> A UN report in February said security forces instigated a campaign which “very likely” amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. This led to the establishment of a UN probe which is being blocked by Burma.
> 
> The Burmese inquiry accused the UN of making exaggerated claims in its report
> 
> Aung San Suu Kyi pushes back against criticism of handling of Rohingya abuses
> The country’s own 13-member investigation team – led by former head of military intelligence and now Vice President, Myint Swe – has been dismissed by human rights monitors as lacking independence to produce a credible report.
> 
> 80,000 Muslim Rohingya children starving in Burma, warns UN agency
> US calls on Burma to cooperate with UN in Rohingya Muslim abuse probe
> Burma will not let outside world investigate Rohingya ‘genocide’
> Burma angered as EU backs UN probe into plight of Rohingya Muslims
> Burmese government accused of trying to ‘expel’ all Rohingya Muslims
> Speaking at the release of the Rakhine Investigative Commission’s final report, Vice President Myint Swe – a former general – told reporters on Sunday that “there is no evidence of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights claimed”.
> 
> He added that “some people from abroad have fabricated news claiming genocide had occurred, but we haven’t found any evidence”.
> 
> He also denied charges that there had been gang rapes by the military as it swept through Rohingya villages in a security clearance operation. The army was reacting to deadly attacks against border police posts by a previously unknown insurgent group in October 2016 in the Maungdaw area of Rakhine.
> 
> *Rohingya mothers face persecution. *The panel said that the report did not take into consideration “violent acts” committed by the insurgents, instead focusing on the activities of the security forces.
> 
> Rights groups have previously expressed their doubts over the commission’s work, saying it lacked outside experts, had poor research methodologies and lacked credibility because it was not independent.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Women and girls have accused soldiers and police officers of rape and sexual assault during months of violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Burma (AFP/Getty)
> The commission’s report did accept that some things might have happened that broke the law, attributing it to excessive action on the part of individual members of the security forces.
> 
> The Burmese commission had received 21 reports from villagers of incidents of murder, rape, arson and torture by the security forces, but, unable to verify their veracity, it referred them to the authorities.
> 
> “We opened doors for them to complain to the courts if they have evidence that they suffered human rights abuses, but no one came to open a lawsuit until now,” Zaw Myint Pe, the secretary of the panel said.
> 
> The commission blamed the violence on the insurgents, accusing them of links to organisations abroad, “set up to destabilise and harm Myanmar (Burma)”.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rohingya men at Sittwe’s bustling fish market in Rakhine, Burma (Reuters)
> The treatment of the roughly one million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Burma’s most contentious rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.
> 
> The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalised and occasionally subjected to communal violence.
> 
> _Additional reporting by agencies_
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...im-minority-human-rights-abuses-a7879726.html


Has Myanmar allowed UN or independent investigators to visit the country and review the facts? Myanmar will need to resolve this problem if it wants peace in its country and the region.

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar’s military launches counter insurgency operation against Muslim terrorists*
Larry Jagan, August 17, 2017




A helicopter with Senior diplomats on board from the U.N., United States, China, Britain, the European Union and India departs from Sittwe to visit the troubled Rohingya villages in the Maungdaw area in northern Rakhine State in Myanmar Novenber 2, 2016.
The Myanmar military has air-dropped hundreds of troops into the country’s strife-torn western Rakhine state in preparation for a surgical operation intended to route out accused Muslim rebels and insurgents, according to military sources. The deployment of the 33rd Light Infantry Division commenced last Thursday. They were helicoptered into the regional capital Sittwe, despite inclement weather, and were deployed to Maungdaw the following day. Since then they have down regular sorties in the area, according to local eyewitnesses.

The Myanmar Army or Tatmadaw has also given verbal orders to villagers in northern Rakhine to avoid entering the Mayu mountain range to the north, as they conduct clearance operations in the region. This is where the military believe there are “terrorists” holed up, conducting military training courses. The government’s security forces have been carrying out counter insurgency operations around here for months, searching for suspected Muslim militants in the region, according to military sources. Now with the addition of more than 500 troops these operations have been ratcheted up.

Over the weekend, the authorities extended a curfew that was already in place in the township. At the same time State media also reported that the government had imposed new curfews, to be set “in necessary areas” as the army beefs up its “clearance operations”.

*According to several Asian intelligence sources some 300 Muslim Rohingya have been undergoing foreign-funded training — using automatic rifles — in the Mayu mountains.*

The military operation comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Myanmar government, faced with a barrage of international criticism and demands by the UN to allow a special investigation into the military’s conduct in Rakhine – and allegations by Rohingya villagers of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers — during last year’s security mob up, in response to a series of attacks on police border guard posts, which left nine dead.

More than 70,000 Muslim villagers fled across the border to Bangladesh since then as sporadic violence in the region persists. The government has accused insurgents of murdering and abducting dozens of villagers, who they perceived to be government collaborators.

*According to regional intelligence sources, vast amounts of money and arms are being funneled to the Rohingya, largely through Mae Sot on the Thai border with Myanmar.*

The violence has escalated further recently, the worse, a week or so ago when six ethnic Mro were killed in Maungdaw. Hundreds of villagers have since fled, amid increasing panic in the area. The Mayu mountain range has been the center of the Tatmadaw’s operations over the last few months. In June, the security forces killed three suspected militants during a two-day operation. According to several Asian intelligence sources some 300 Muslim Rohingya have been undergoing foreign-funded training — using automatic rifles — in the Mayu mountains.

The insurgents, known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, were little known until they claimed responsibility for the October raids on the police posts. The group says it is fighting to advance the rights of the Rohingya and has denied killing civilians in statements issued through an unverified Twitter account.

According to regional intelligence sources, vast amounts of money and arms are being funneled to the Rohingya, largely through Mae Sot on the Thai border with Myanmar. The intelligence sources though are unclear whether the weapons – alleged supplies left over from the Cambodian conflict decades ago – are reaching their intended destination.

This a relatively new phenomenon, according to the intelligence sources. Before last October’s attacks, Myanmar intelligence sources believed that at least 200 Rohingya had slipped into neighboring Bangladesh since 2013 for training – in political organization, advocacy and self defense, including the use of arms, funded by Saudi benefactors.

While it is impossible to verify the veracity of these intelligence claims, the increase in violence in Northern Rakhine suggests there is no smoke without fire. At least the Myanmar military are convinced, and are committed to ramp up their counter insurgency efforts there and completely route out the alleged “terrorists”.

The army commander has made it clear – that this time at least – they are responding to the demands of the local residents. A day before the troop airlift, the commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing met leading Arakan National Party (ANP) politicians in Naypyidaw and assured them that the Tatmadaw would not stand idly by and let the violence go unchallenged. The Arakan politicians asked for security to be beefed up and more troops deployed.

“The army chief said he would fully protect ethnic groups in Rakhine State and that he would take care of the routes that are used to illegally infiltrate [into the country], and make sure the Mayu mountains are not used by militants,” according to ANP member Oo Hla Saw, a Lower House MP from the state, who was among the delegation who met Min Aung Hlaing.

*“Aung San Suu Kyi needs to use some of her prestige and popularity to fight back, starting with embracing credible efforts to investigate military abuses and demand the Tatmadaw permit prosecutions of those found to be involved,” Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch told South Asian Monitor*

It was a high-powered military delegation, which met the Arakan politicians, including, deputy commander-in-chief of defense services and army commander-in-chief Vice-Senior-General Soe Win as well as chief of general staff (army, navy and air) General Myat Tun Oo, also believed to be head of the military’s intelligence operations.

As the army commander dispatched reinforcements to Rakhine, the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi convened a meeting of the newly formed Rakhine security committee to discuss the situation in Rakhine, which comprised relevant national ministers – including the three ministers from the army, Border Affairs, Defense and Home Affairs — regional ministers and the state counselor’s national security advisor Thaung Tun. There was no mention of the launched military operation in their statement on Face Book, after their meeting concluded.

It would seem that the Commander-in-Chief ordered this major surgical operation, against Rohingya rebels and alleged insurgents in Rakhine, without directly consulting the Lady. This was his constitutional prerogative, as it was regarded as a military matter and does not need civilian approval, according to sources close to Min Aung Hlaing. Since the very first days if NLD government, the two leaders – Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing – have had a clear understanding on how they would work together: Min Aung Hlaing would take the lead in security matters, while the lady was responsible for the rest, said a former senior military officer.

Of course, both understand that the Rakhine issue is beyond being a strictly internal security matter and deeply affects international relations. But the problem is that there is no direct formal channel for consultation between the country’s two real leaders, other than the National Defense and Security Council, which met six previously – at which the situation in Rakhine was discussed. Although there is no direct channel for two to discuss operational matters, this operation was consistent with their clear understanding and clear terms of engagement, noted a senior retired general.

But according to sources close to the government, Aung San Suu Kyi was indeed aware of the pending operation. Intermediaries informed her, according to military sources: the Vice President, Myint Swe and the defense minister and the interior minister. However, it also does not mean she is happy with this situation. Like the Rohingya villagers, she is concerned to avoid a repeat of the human rights abuses that accompanied the military’s previous counter insurgency operation in Rakhine.

This also concerns the UN especially the special rapporteur Yangkee Lee who reported on the earlier situation Rakhine, concluding that it may amount to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority Rohingya. On Friday, she issued a statement raising “serious concerns” about the launch of the military operation in Rakhine. But most activists and international human rights organizations are calling on Aung San Suu Kyi to be more resolute. “Aung San Suu Kyi needs to use some of her prestige and popularity to fight back, starting with embracing credible efforts to investigate military abuses and demand the Tatmadaw permit prosecutions of those found to be involved,” Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch told South Asian Monitor in an email.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...unter-insurgency-operation-muslim-terrorists/


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## Flynn Swagmire

M.Musa said:


> Has Myanmar allowed UN or independent investigators to visit the country and review the facts? Myanmar will need to resolve this problem if it wants peace in its country and the region.


Do you think Monkeys got brain to understand these?


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## Banglar Bir

*Rights groups urge India not to deport Rohingya*
*BGB on alert*
Agence France-Presse . New Delhi | Published: 00:05, Aug 18,2017 | Updated: 01:14, Aug 18,2017

Rights groups urged India Thursday to abide by its international legal obligations after the government said it was looking to deport tens of thousands of Rohingya migrants.

India’s junior home minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament last week the government had asked state authorities to identify and deport the Rohingya, a stateless ethnic minority who mostly live in neighbouring Myanmar, where they face discrimination and violence.

In recent years, thousands have fled across the border to Bangladesh and on to other countries including India, which does not recognise them as refugees even though the United Nations says they are.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said India should abide by its international obligations.
‘Indian authorities should abide by India’s international legal obligations and not forcibly return any Rohingya to Burma without first fairly evaluating their claims as refugees,’ said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on Thursday.

The number of Rohingya migrants has swelled in recent years. Rijiju said in a written response to parliament that around 40,000 were living illegally in India.
Thousands fled Myanmar after a military crackdown last October in Rakhine state launched in response to an armed attack on border posts.

Witnesses brought stories of soldiers raping and murdering Rohingya and of entire villages being burned to the ground in a campaign the UN has said may amount to ethnic cleansing.
‘Characterising Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers as illegal immigrants... takes no account of the reasons why they had to flee their homes and the grave risks they may face if forcibly returned,’ said Raghu Menon, advocacy manager at Amnesty International India.

‘Indian authorities are well aware of the human rights violations Rohingya Muslims have had to face in Myanmar and it would be outrageous to abandon them to their fates.’
Despite being home to thousands of refugees, India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/22142/rights-groups-urge-india-not-to-deport-rohingya


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## Banglar Bir

*Govt, military discuss ‘Terrorist’ label for Rakhine state militants*
SAM Staff, August 18, 2017




State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been holding talks with military leaders regarding the labeling of militants in northern Rakhine State as terrorists, government spokesperson U Zaw Htay told The Irrawaddy.

“There have been discussions between the State Counselor and military leaders about labeling them as a terrorist organization,” he told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. “As a result of the meeting, we have released a statement. In the English version of the statement, we used the term ‘terrorist act.’ The leaders are still discussing details,” he added, referring to the killing of civilians in Maungdaw Township.

The National League for Democracy government of initially used the terms “extremist” and “terrorist activities” in an Aug. 11 press release by the State Counselor’s Office on Rakhine State.

The statement said that 59 people had been murdered in the area and 33 had gone missing, noting that village heads and those believed to be cooperating with the government or speaking to the media appeared to have been targeted. Specifically mentioned were seven ethnic Mro—a sub-group of the Arakanese—who were found dead of gunshot and machete wounds in early August.

The Myanmar government is still investigating whether the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has established connections with groups based outside the country, and with individuals who have released statements online calling for attacks in the region.

The ARSA released its own statement of demands in March, which included the provision of Myanmar citizenship, and access to education, aid, and freedom of movement for the Rohingya population. It also stated that its target is the “oppressive Burmese regime.”

During the Upper House session on Wednesday, military representative Lt-Col Ye Naing Oo urged the Parliament and government to label militants in Maungdaw as terrorists. He suggested that this would deter local and international organizations from providing them with “support” on the pretext of protecting human rights in the region, as well as stop the international media from “spreading propaganda” about them.

It would not be the first time that a Myanmar legislature has debated the use of the terrorist label: in early December 2016, the Shan State parliament voted to brand the Kachin Independence Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army as “terrorist organizations,” following an urgent Union Solidarity and Development Party proposal to do so, citing offensives by the groups against the Myanmar Army. A similar proposal was previously voted down in the Union Parliament.

SOURCE THE IRRAWADDY
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...cuss-terrorist-label-rakhine-state-militants/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




Al Jazeera English added a new video: 
India wants to deport Rohingya.
India plans to deport 40,000 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar.


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## Banglar Bir

AJE Video
20 August at 23:15 · 
*The UN has has called the Rohingya "the most persecuted minority in the world".*

Full documentary: aje.io/3m7a9 via Al Jazeera World




__ https://www.facebook.com/

Reactions: Like Like:
1


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## Banglar Bir

*Is the Myanmar Army resorting to new tactics to mask a crackdown?*

Adil Sakhawat
Published at 01:32 AM August 22, 2017
Last updated at 02:59 PM August 22, 2017






Rohingya women who fled prosecution in Mayanmar by crossing the Naf River into Bangladesh *Adil Sakhawat*
*'The Moghs took away everything from the houses. They snatched the ornaments from the women’s bodies. When there are no men in the houses, they even take away the livestock'*
Rohingya refugees that have fled across the Naf river into Bangladesh say that the Myanmar Army is resorting to new tactics, including the use of civilian vigilantes, to mask a fresh crackdown on the Muslim minority in the country’s troubled Rakhine State.

The Dhaka Tribune gathered consistent descriptions about new forms of violence that have been unleashed in Rakhine in interviews with newly arrived Rohingyas in the Balukhali area of Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar over the last two days.

Since the fresh military crackdown which reportedly began from the second week of August, there has been a renewed influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh. Several videos purportedly showing Myanmarese soliders torturing Rohingyas are circulating on social media, but their authenticity could not be independently verified.

A UN field agent, refusing to be named, told the Dhaka Tribune that during the first three weeks of August, 700 families have fled to Bangladesh.

The Myanmar Army was heavily criticised last year after the UN said its offensive against Rohingya villages amounted to crimes against humanity. Naypyidaw has rejected the charges, arguing that it is hunting militants in Rakhine.

*Encircling villages with heavy firepower*
Based on interviews with two familites, the Dhaka Tribune collected graphic descriptions of the latest tactics deployed by the Myanmar Army.

On August 18, soldiers surrounded Bali Baazar, a village in Rakine, “to look for extremists”.

A Rohingya man who is now in hiding near Bali Baazar told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone that: “They came in 20 trucks with heavy military hardware. We saw military helicopters overhead. In the morning, the army stormed the villages to look for ‘extremists’. After sunset, the villages were surrounded by the army.”

*A new mode of terror?*
When the Myanmarese Army surrounds a village, they tend to shoot 3-4 blank rounds to announce their arrival. There is a language barrier as the army is largely composed of Burmese-speaking soldiers, whereas Rohingyas speak Arakan.

“The Myanmar military raided the houses and they were shouting outside ‘En Ma La!’ (come out from the houses) and ‘Ammia La Ba!’ (why are you late? Come out fast),” said Abdur Rob, who fled to Bangladesh on Saturday.

The Myanmar Army also uses young men from the Mogh community, which are local Rakhine Buddhists, to raid the Rohingya houses.

“Because the army’s horrifying actions have been recorded and circulated on social media, they were compelled to change tactics,” Rob said.

The army’s crackdown have been defined as crimes against humanities by a UN fact-finding team after the October 2016 crackdown.

Rob’s wife Marium Bibi added: “The Mogh took everything from the houses. They snatched jewelery from the women’s bodies. When there are no men in the houses, they even take away the livestock.”

Rob also said: “The military is not setting fire to our houses this time because the last attack was well-publicised in the media. Now they are encouraging young Buddhist Moghs to destroy our possessions.”

The latest Rohingya refugees said the military’s main target is to find “Bagi”, a term used for suspected insurgents or extremists. Many men have fled their houses, afraid of being accused of being a “Bagi” and detained by the army.

Rohingyas have also been accused of murdering other Rohingyas in Kya Maung village. Newaj claimed the accusations were baseless.

He said: “The army killed them with knives to pin the blame on the locals.”

*Restricted entry*
When the new refugees were asked if the humanitarian agencies still have access to the village tracts, they replied that UN agencies or any international NGOs have very limited access to locations where the army is operating.

Various Bangladesh-based international NGO workers said their colleagues have received very limited acces to those villages, namely Cha Ni Para, Keyari Para and Mohali.

A media representative of the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar told the Dhaka Tribune: “The UN is closely following the situation in Rakhine State, including in Maungdaw township, through contact with government authorities, partners, communities and our staff. We continue to emphasise our communication with the government that lifesaving programmes should be uninterrupted and carried out in the safest manner possible. We also keep reminding all sides of their responsibility to exercise restraint, protect civilians, and resolve differences through dialogue.”
_Names of people interviewed in this article have been changed for security reasons_
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ar-army-resorting-new-tactics-mask-crackdown/


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## Banglar Bir

*The Lady takes aim at the UN*
Larry Jagan, August 23, 2017




Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to the Myanmar community living in Singapore, on the island of Sentosa in Singapore September 22, 2013. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
Myanmar’s restive western state of Rakhine is back in the news. And it is set to be a busy week for Rakhine matters. The military are consolidating their counter insurgency operations in Rakhine — centered in the Mayu mountains — clearing out suspected “terrorists”. At the same time, the Kofi Annan Commission on Rakhine will launch its much-anticipated report later this week. And coincidentally the UN’s International Fact Finding Mission is in Geneva preparing the scope of its projected investigation.

Recent developments have highlighted the critical importance of finding ways to resolve what is increasingly becoming a major communal issue: between the Rakhine majority Buddhists and the displaced Muslim Rohingyas or Bengalis as the local population calls them and most members of the government. In fact, many diplomats fear that the government’s reform programme and the future of the National League for Democracy (NLD) government may be in danger of failing if a solution is not found.

Local politicians and residents are campaigning vociferously against the UN’s activities in northern Rakhine area, and their humanitarian support for the displaced and stateless Rohingya population. Some even complain that they are effectively funding the alleged “terrorist” activities. On top of this there are a number of other rifts: increasingly between the Myanmar government and the UN on one hand and the civilian and military wings of the government.

This week may yet turn out to be a turning point for Rakhine and the country. The most important event will be the final report and recommendations of the Kofi Annan advisory commission on Rakhine – due to be announced later this week. This is undoubtedly the government’s shield against increased international efforts “to interfere in Myanmar”.

Aung San Suu Kyi has continuously rebuffed the UN’s demand to send an international fact finding mission to Rakhine to further investigate allegations by Rohingya villagers of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of soldiers during last year’s security operations in the wake of a series of attacks on police border guard posts which left 9 people dead, and follow up the reports of the UN human rights rapporteur, Yanghee Lee.

The government’s insistence on the importance and relevance of the Kofi Annan investigation, over all others hinges on three key issues. The commission team has already internationalized the issue, with three international members, including the head Kofi Annan – the former UN secretary general – who are all human rights experts, along with six local members.

*At present the civilian government and the military leaders insist they are signing from the same songbook – though there is some evidence that there are major rifts between them. One of the important areas of contention is the militarization of Rakhine. The army has been pushing hard for a state of emergency to be declared, supported by the Rakhine, but strongly resisted by Ausg San Suu Kyi, although limited curfews have been imposed in some areas.*

The UN international fact-finding mission would be no more inclusive or instructive than the UN reports so far this year, according to senior government officials. “It can only be a repeat of the UN’s existing reports and cannot find anything substantively new,” said Janelle Saffin, an Australian lawyer and constitutional expert, actively involved in Myanmar matters.

The team has been working for a year on their investigation and recommendations. The commission has carefully discussed the issues with all people and communities in Rakhine and their views have been listened to, according to a government insider. “There’s been a genuine consultative process,” he said, “and there’s a measure of agreement on the way forward.” Aung San Suu Kyi has seen the recommendations and has committed the government to adopting and fully implementing them all.

So far there are details of the recommendations. But the commission is going to suggest that the government appoint a national level minister to coordinate the government’s plan of action. This is would be a strong strategic move – though it would weaken or by pass the regional administration. But a national minister would have more power and show the government’s commitment. This would also mean a great measure of coordination of the military in Rakhine – though not over operational matters.

*In the meantime friction between the UN and the Myanmar government is increasing. Staff of the UN Office of the Human Rights Council based in Myanmar have been denied visas – they have been sitting in Bangkok waiting permission to return for over four months, according to UN sources, who declined to be identified for fear of further repercussions.*

At present the civilian government and the military leaders insist they are signing from the same songbook – though there is some evidence that there are major rifts between them. One of the important areas of contention is the militarization of Rakhine. The army has been pushing hard for a state of emergency to be declared, supported by the Rakhine, but strongly resisted by Ausg San Suu Kyi, although limited curfews have been imposed in some areas. This would probably be the responsibility of the Union Minister for Rakhine in future if the post is created.

According to the commission, their final report covers all the issues in the commission’s mandate, including conflict prevention, humanitarian assistance, reconciliation, institution building, and development. “The recommendations describe the steps the Myanmar Government can take to address both long-term and structural issues, as well as those requiring urgent action,” said the commission on its website.

Earlier this year the commission issued an interim report in which it made recommendations: which included humanitarian and media access, justice and rule of law, border issues and bilateral relationships with Bangladesh, socio-economic development, training of security forces, citizenship and freedom of movement, closure of the three camps holding Internally Displaced People (IDPs), and inter-communal dialogue, as some ways to ease tensions in conflict areas.

But as the human rights activists insist very few of these recommendations were implemented. There was no closure of the IDP camps – only some 58 families from one were relocated to Dala on the outskirts of Yangon – where as the Commission recommended relocation to their original villages. While thousand of citizenship cards were distributed, no one knows who received them, according to an activists closely involved with monitoring human rights abuses in Myanmar. So many remain skeptical about the government’s commitment to implement the new set of recommendations to be announced later this week.

But what is clear is that the UN and Aung San Suu Kyi are set on a collision course. According to government insiders, the State Counselor will attend the forthcoming annual session of the UN General Assembly next month to lay down the law to the UN. She feels the UN – and the international community – by their recent actions, especially calling for an international fact-finding mission has weakened her position in relation to the military commander.

In the meantime friction between the UN and the Myanmar government is increasing. Staff of the UN Office of the Human Rights Council based in Myanmar have been denied visas – they have been sitting in Bangkok waiting permission to return for over four months, according to UN sources, who declined to be identified for fear of further repercussions. The local staff of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Rakhine have been repeatedly threatened and intimidated. And diplomats based in Yangon fear that the human rights envoy will not be granted another visa – though mandate has some 2 years left.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/23/lady-takes-aim-un/


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## Banglar Bir

05:02 PM, August 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:43 PM, August 24, 2017
*Annan panel calls on Myanmar to end Rohingya restrictions*




Myanmar nationals, who illegally entered Bangladesh following the deadly series of violence in Rakhine state, at a Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar. Photo: Reuters

Reuters, Yangon

Myanmar must scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship for its Rohingya minority if it wants to avoid fuelling extremism and bring peace to Rakhine state, a commission led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday.

Rights groups hailed the report as a milestone for the persecuted Rohingya community because the government of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi had previously vowed to abide by its findings.

The western state, one of the country's poorest, has long been a sectarian tinderbox and mainly Buddhist Myanmar has faced growing international condemnation for its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya there.

Mr Annan was appointed by Ms Suu Kyi to head a year-long commission tasked with healing long-simmering divisions between the Rohingya and local Buddhists.

On Thursday, it released a landmark report, warning that failure to implement its recommendations could lead to more extremism and violence.

"Unless current challenges are addressed promptly, further radicalisation within both communities is a real risk," the report said, describing the Rohingya as "the single biggest stateless community in the world".

"If the legitimate grievances of local populations are ignored, they will become more vulnerable to recruitment by extremists."

Among the key recommendations was ending all restrictions on movement imposed on the Rohingya and other communities in Rakhine, and shutting down refugee camps - which hold more than 120,000 people in often miserable conditions.

It also called on Myanmar to review a controversial 1982 law that effectively bars about a million Rohingya from becoming citizens, to invest heavily in the region and to allow the media unfettered access there.

The commission's task became increasingly urgent after the army launched a bloody crackdown in the north of Rakhine following deadly October attacks on police border posts by a previously unknown Rohingya militant group.

More than 87,000 Rohingya have since fled to Bangladesh bringing with them stories of murder, mass rape and burned villages in what the UN says could constitute crimes against humanity.

The Annan commission's findings will put pressure on Ms Suu Kyi's government to implement its calls for sweeping changes in Rakhine.

But she faces stiff opposition from Buddhist nationalists, who loathe the Rohingya and want them expelled.

Ms Suu Kyi also has little control over Myanmar's powerful and notoriously abusive military.

Read More: 87,000 Myanmar nationals enter Bangladesh since Oct 9 last

Many in Myanmar view the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many can trace their lineage back generations.

Until October's attacks, the Rohingya had largely avoided militancy or violence.

Rights groups welcomed the report, saying its recommendations tallied with what they had long argued for.

"These apartheid-like restrictions drive communities apart rather than together, eroding security and heightening the risk of mass killing," said Mr Matthew Smith from Fortify Rights.

Mr Phil Robertson, from Human Rights Watch, said Ms Suu Kyi's government faced a "key test".

"Myanmar needs to throw its full weight behind these recommendations, and especially not blink in dealing with the harder stuff," he said.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/s...-myanmars-rohingya-crisis-annan-panel-1453519


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## Banglar Bir

11:08 AM, August 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:13 AM, August 25, 2017
*12 dead in Muslim insurgent attacks in northwest Myanmar*




AFP file photo taken on July 14, 2017 shows border police standing guard at Tinmay village, Buthidaung township in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state.

Reuters, Yangon

At least five police and seven Rohingya Muslim insurgents were killed overnight in Myanmar's Rakhine state, the government said on Friday,after militants staged coordinated attacks on 24 police posts and tried breaking into an army base.

The attacks mark a dramatic escalation in a conflict simmering in Rakhine since last October, when similar attacks that killed nine police prompted a massive military counter-offensive beset by allegations of civilian killings, rape and arson.

The military operation then resulted in some 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh and the United Nations accused Myanmar's security forces of likely committing crimes against humanity.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/1...tacks-northwest-myanmar-rakhine-state-1453972


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## Banglar Bir

*Rakhine a human rights crisis: Annan report*
Subir Bhaumik, August 25, 2017




Photo: Mizzima
The Kofi Annan commission on Thursday described the situation in Rakhine state as a ‘human rights crisis’and came up with several recommendations to handle it in its final report.

”While all communities have suffered from violence and abuse, protracted statelessnes and profound discrimination have made the Muslim community particularly vulnerable to human rights violations,” the final report of the Commission said.

Presented before the media at Yangon Sule Shangrila hotel on Thursday, the report said it had recommended a ‘clear timelime and strategy’ for citizenship verification process in Rakhine state.

It was presented to the President’s office on Tuesday.

”This strategy should be transparent, efficient and with a solid basis in existing legislation. The strategy should be discussed with representatives of the Rakhine and the Muslim communities and communicated through a broad outreach campaign,” the commission’s report said.

It said the government should clarify the status of those who have not been granted citizenship.

”Like all countries, Myanmar will need a status for those who reside in the country without being citizens. The rights of those who live and work in Myanmar need to be regulated,” the report said.

It said that those whose citizenship status had been verified must enjoy all benefits of citizenship.

”This will not only strengthen the government’s rule-of-law agenda but will demonstrate the tangible benefits of the verification exercise,” the Annan committee’s final report said.

The commission was formed in September 2016 at the request of the Office of the State Counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in collaboration with the Kofi Annan Foundation, as a neutral and impartial body. It was mandated to address the severe and persistent challenges facing Rakhine State, particularly its low level of socio-economic development, the threats posed by inter-communal tensions, the issues of citizenship and freedom of movement, the infringement of human rights, and the lack of communal participation and representation.

The Commission has six Myanmar and three international members and is chaired by Kofi Annan.

Later Kofi Annan admitted during the media conference that tensions existed between the Myanmar government and the international community, especially in view of the ongoing military operations.

”But it should not lead to a standoff. It is possible to resolve the issues involved,” Mr. Annan said.

The former UN secretary general emphasized that the armed forces had a critical role to play.

”It is important that the process of resolution avoids use of force, highly militarized responses are often counter-productive,” Annan said.

The final report put stress on human rights training for Myanmar security personnel and steps to monitor performance of security forces.

“We told the army chief today that the ongoing military operations should be limited in time and an overtly militaristic approach be avoided. The army chief assured us that the present operations were in the mountains (Mayu mountains) where the number of the civilian population was small,” Mr. Annan said.

Replying to questions from media Mr. Annan said he was optimistic that the recommendations of the Commission would be implemented.

”Daw Suu Kyi assured us today that inter-ministerial mechanisms would be put in place to implement the recommendations of the commission,” Kofi Annan said.

He debunked suggestions that the commission represented some form of ‘foreign interference’.

”It is a Myanmar commission, six members are from this country. Only three are foreigners and I have the great honour in heading it,” Mr. Annan said.

Asked if the commission had recommended priorities for the government, Mr. Annan said ”We did not set any priorities. We leave the government to make the judgement. But the report makes it clear that the citizenship issue, freedom of movement and preservation of human rights are key issues.”

The Annan commission report asked the Myanmar government to work closely with Bangladesh to handle the crisis on the international border, what with reports of considerable Rohingya out-migration.

SOURCE WITH PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE FROM MIZZIMA
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/25/rakhine-human-rights-crisis-annan-report/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Fresh violence kills 89 in Myanmar’s Rakhine State*

AFP
Published at 10:09 AM August 25, 2017
Last updated at 10:05 PM August 25, 2017









A Myanmar border guard police officer stands guard in Taung Bazar village, Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar July 13, 2017 *Reuters*
*Friday's fighting exploded around Rathedaung township which has seen a heavy build-up of Myanmar troops in recent weeks*
At least 89 people including a dozen security forces were killed as Rohingya militants besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar’s authorities said Friday, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees towards Bangladesh.

The state is bisected by religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The office of de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said 12 security officials had been killed alongside 77 militants — the highest declared single day toll since fighting broke out last year.

Friday’s fighting exploded around Rathedaung township which has seen a heavy build-up of Myanmar troops in recent weeks, with reports filtering out of killings by shadowy groups, army-blockaded villages and abuses.

Some 20 police posts came under attack in the early hours of Friday by an estimated 150 insurgents, some carrying guns and using homemade explosives, Myanmar’s military said.

“The military and police members are fighting back together against extremist Bengali terrorists,” Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing said in a statement on Facebook, using the state’s description for Rohingya militants.

One resident in Maungdaw, the main town in northern Rakhine, said gunfire could be heard throughout the night.

“We are still hearing gunshots now, we dare not to go out from our house,” the resident said by phone, asking not to be named.

Footage obtained by AFP showed smoke rising from Zedipyin village in Rathedaung township where fighting was ongoing Friday.

*Rohingya militancy*
Despite years of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.

But a previously unknown militant group emerged as a force last October under the banner of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which claims to be leading an insurgency based in the remote May Yu mountain range bordering Bangladesh.

A Twitter account (@ARSA_Official) which purports to represent the group confirmed its fighters were engaging Myanmar’s military in the area and accused the soldiers of carrying out atrocities in recent weeks.

Myanmar says the group is headed by Rohingya jihadists who were trained abroad but it is unclear how large the network is.

Suu Kyi’s office posted pictures of weapons that had been taken from militants, mainly home-made bombs and rudimentary knives and clubs.

Friday’s violence pushed new waves of Rohingya to flee towards Bangladesh.

But border guards there said they would not be allowed to cross.

“More than a thousand of Rohingya women along with children and cattle have gathered near the land border between Myanmar and Bangladesh since this morning,” Manjurul Hasan Khan, commander of Ukhiya town’s border guards, told AFP.

The flare-up came just hours after former UN chief Kofi Annan released a milestone report detailing conditions inside Rakhine and offering ways to heal the festering sectarian tensions there.

Commissioned by Myanmar’s own government, it urged the scrapping of restrictions of movement and citizenship imposed on the roughly one million-strong Rohingya community in Rakhine.

In a statement Annan said he was “gravely concerned” by the latest outbreak of fighting.

“The alleged scale and gravity of these attacks mark a worrying escalation of violence,” he said.

*New crackdown fears*
The UN’s top official in Myanmar, Renata Lok-Dessallien, called on all sides to “refrain from violence, protect civilians (and) restore law and order”.

The wedge of Rakhine closest to Bangladesh has been in lockdown since October 2016.

Deadly attacks by the militants on border police sparked a military response that left scores dead and forced some 87,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

The UN believes the military crackdown may have amounted to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

But the army and Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government vehemently deny allegations of widespread abuses, including rapes and murders.

They have so far refused to grant visas to UN investigators tasked with probing the allegations.

Amnesty International said there were now fears over how Myanmar’s notoriously abusive security forces might respond.

“This cannot lead to (a) repeat of last year’s vicious military reprisals responding to a similar attack, when security forces tortured, killed and raped Rohingya people and burned down whole villages,” said Amnesty’s regional campaigns director Josef Benedict.

Myanmar security forces have conducted sporadic operations to flush out suspected militants this year, often resulting in casualties among Rohingya villagers.

They have spoken of their fear at being trapped in between security forces and the militants, who are accused of conducting a shadowy assassination campaign against those perceived as collaborators with the state.

Access to the area is severely restricted and verifying information is difficult.

Activists and supporters on both sides of the sectarian divide have a history of posting false images and footage online.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/08/25/12-dead-muslim-insurgent-attacks-northwest-myanmar/

*146 Rohingyas pushed back by BGB*

AKM Faisal Rahman
Published at 02:21 PM August 25, 2017





BGB patrolling the border along the Naf river at TeknafFile Photo
*The border guards have intercepted and sent back the refugees through different points of the border river in the early hours on Friday*
Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have pushed back 146 Rohingyas as they tried to enter Bangladesh through the Naf River in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf upazila.

The border guards intercepted and sent back the refugees through different points of the border river in the early hours on Friday, said Major Saiful Islam Jamaddar, deputy commander of Teknaf BGB battalion-2.

The 146 Rohingya Muslims included women and children, he added.

The BGB official also noted that they had tried to illegally enter Bangladesh following news that the Myanmar army exchanged fire with some insurgents in Rakhine State Thursday night.

On August 12, authorities in Myanmar said hundreds of troops had moved into Rakhine State as it ramps up counterinsurgency efforts there, according to AFP.

Rohingya leaders in Bangladesh told AFP that at least 3,500 Rohingya refugees had crossed into Bangladesh since then.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/08/25/146-rohingyas-pushed-back-by-bgb/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*IOM launches $3.7m fundraising campaign for cyclone-hit Rohingyas*

Tribune Desk
Published at 12:24 AM August 24, 2017
Last updated at 03:59 PM August 24, 2017





Kutupalang Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2016*REUTERS*
*Over 75,000 UMNs have fled to Bangladesh ever since violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in October last year*
International Organization for Migration, or IOM, has launched a $3.7m fundraising campaign to help Rohingya migrants affected by Cyclone Mora in Bangladesh.

The cyclone, which brought 117 km/h winds and heavy rain in late May , tore into makeshift settlements inhabited by over 130,000 Rohingyas, also known in Bangladesh as Undocumented Myanmar Nationals (UMNs).

The cyclone destroyed 25% of shelters and left the rest partially damaged. Power connections to the settlements were cut off, food and fuel supplies hindered, and health and sanitation facilities badly damaged.

The IOM campaign, which aims to help some 80,000 people in the settlements and host communities between now and the end of the year, will target health, water, sanitation, shelter and protection, according to the IOM.

IOM’s emergency response staff working in the settlements said restoration of water and sanitation facilities is their top priority. The storm knocked out 243 latrines, as well as tube wells on which poor residents are solely dependent for clean water.

Shelter and non-food relief items, including plastic sheeting, mosquito nets and blankets, are urgently needed for the estimated 17,000 families that lost their homes.

Over 75,000 UMNs have fled to Bangladesh ever since violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in October last year.

Rocked and displaced by brutalities perpetrated by their government, the Rohingyas have taken shelter in the settlements in Cox’s Bazar, where the IOM provides site management and coordinates the work of other aid agencies.

The UN migration agency, which has been working with the UMNs and host communities in the areas since 2014, also provides water, sanitation assistance, shelter, healthcare and protection from gender-based violence.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...m-fundraising-campaign-cyclone-hit-rohingyas/


----------



## TopCat




----------



## Banglar Bir

The Rohingya dialect seems more like a mix of a local, Sylhoti+ Chatgaia

*Govt to implement Rakhine commission’s recommendations*
SAM Staff, August 26, 2017




The Myanmar government said it would implement the recommendations from the Rakhine State Advisory Commission’s final report “within the shortest time frame possible.”

The commission, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, released its final report on Thursday at the end of it year-long mandate to advise the Myanmar government on long-term solutions for the ethnically and religious divided region.

Within hours of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s meeting with the commission, the State Counselor’s Office released a statement that read: “As an immediate step, the government will form a new Ministerial-led committee responsible for the implementation of the commission’s recommendations.”

Representatives from respective government ministries will be included in the new committee, which will oversee the delivery and regular reporting on the progress of the implementation.

The committee will be assisted by an Advisory Board on Rakhine, it stated, adding that the board will include regional and international experts.

“We hope to set out a full roadmap for implementation in the coming weeks,” it added.

The government stated that “meaningful and long-term solutions are welcome” for Rakhine State, adding that the difficulties cannot be resolved overnight.

Meanwhile, Myanmar Army Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing claimed that the commission’s report included some factual inaccuracies and questioned its impartiality, during the meeting with the commission on Thursday.

The commission criticized several aspects of Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law as failing to meet international standards, pointing out that it contradicts the principles of non-discrimination under international law and treaties signed by Myanmar, as well as recently-approved domestic laws, including the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.

It urged the acceleration of the national verification process in line with the 1982 Citizenship Law in Rakhine State and the creation of a transparent strategy and timeline for granting citizenship to those eligible.

SOURCE THE IRRAWADDY
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/26/govt-implement-rakhine-commissions-recommendations/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Democracy or Development: Myanmar’s big debate*
Subir Bhaumik, August 26, 2017




The debate about whether Myanmar needs development more than democracy seems to have gained some traction in recent months, partly due to the lacklustre performance of the Aung San Suu Kyio government and somewhat due to a recent survey of Myanmar public opinion carried out by the International Republican Institute (IRI) of USA.

The survey questioned 3,000 people above 18 across the states and regions between March 9 and April 1, 2017. Their views about their socio-economic status, political and security scenario in Myanmar, the democratic transition and rights, and perceptions of government, legislature, political parties and the media were sought.

The strange findings of IRI only confuses anyone watching Myanmar. Sample this — only 24 percent of respondents said democratic reform was more important than economic development while another 11 percent described democratic reform as moderately important. *But only forty percent of respondents thought the economy was more important than democracy. So, by default 60 percent of the people surveyed did not think economy was more important.*

But all newspaper and website headlines suggested that the survey had found more people in Myanmar emphasizing on development rather than democracy. IRI reinforced that feeling but the Myanmar people know better. Reading closely through the survey, one would get the feeling that people in Myanmar want both because they know one cannot be achieved without the other.

*A country long afflicted by civil war like Myanmar needs peace and stability that follows from democracy, not otherwise, to develop. Free market economy leads to growth only if there is democracy with distributive justice.*

IRI Asia Senior Advisor Johanna Kao said the survey intended to highlight what the government and political parties should do in the months ahead based on public opinion. So, going by IRI prescription, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government should put conflicts like the one in Rakhine on the backburner and only seek development. Because according to the survey, economy is the biggest concern of the people, followed by peace and resolving conflicts. Thirty-one percent of the respondents answered that the economy should be a higher priority of the government than resolving conflict.

“Most of the voters will focus on their socio-economic life. They will think about other things only when they enjoy their socio-economic status. They will like and accept a government only when it solves their livelihood problems,” said Rob Varsalone of Global Strategic Partners who supervised the survey.

The majority of the respondents were optimistic about Myanmar’s economy with 53 percent answering that it was doing well, while 22 percent said it was doing badly. So where is the issue! If majority of Myanmar people feel the economy is doing well, how can media headlines tend to suggest otherwise. A 53 percent approval rating on the economic performance is not something that can encourage complacency, but also is not something that could be used to undermine the government.

This is why the reporting of Myanmar in the global media has attracted much criticism. Veteran journalist and now vice chairman of the Myanmar Press Council Aung Hla Tun lashed out at them during a recent conference on Myanmar’s Democracy Transition. “They sensationalise and often get it all wrong,” Tun said. Going by the reporting of the IRI survey, one would feel the former Reuters Correspondent has a point.

“It is important to assess those figures based on demographics rather than believing the figures as they are,” said U Tin Maung Oo of the Former Political Prisoner Society. He pointed out the survey did not touch upon issues concerning the military. That is a growing problem with most Western experts — they are not factoring the military when assessing the performance of the Daw Suu Kyi government. How can there be full democracy when the military still controls three crucial ministries, has the last word on conflict in disturbed regions and account for one-fourth of the seats in the parliament. Unless the structure of democracy is fully established, how can one say whether the democracy has worked or failed.

Democracy is a whole package, not the sum total of what its manifestations look like. Yes, one has more free speech in Myanmar now than say five years ago, but the structure of democracy is awfully flawed and will remain so until Suu Kyi can contest for Presidency or the military presence in parliament and government wholly neutralised.

The way Suu Kyi has to walk a tight rope between her aspirational lawmakers and the military has often led to popular frustration. That explains the relative lower ratings the government got in the current IRI survey than the one in 2014.

For instance, 88 percent of respondents said the country was headed in the right direction in 2014, versus 75 percent in the new poll. 
Some 73 percent appraised the economic situation as “somewhat good” in 2014, versus 53 percent today. 
Asked if the current government was doing a “good job,” 58 percent said it was, but that number dipped from 69 percent three years ago.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/26/democracy-development-myanmars-big-debate/


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## Banglar Bir

*Horrors in Rakhine haunt persecuted Rohingyas*

Anwar Hussain, Chittagong
Published at 12:56 PM August 26, 2017
Last updated at 01:27 AM August 27, 2017





Injured Rohingya man Muktar at hospital bedDhaka Tribune
*At least 89 people including a dozen security forces were killed as Rohingya insurgents besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State*
The atrocities by Myanmar’s army during the recent crackdown are still haunting the country’s Rohingya Muslims, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.

Among the latest arrivals, one identified as Musa by his companion died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) from a gunshot wound sustained during the crackdown. The 22-year-old was from Maungdaw in Rakhine state of Myanmar.

Another injured Rohingya man, who called himself Mukhtar, on Saturday told the Dhaka Tribune that he, Musa and another trespassed into Bangladesh after a group of army men with heavy weapons swooped on their village all on a sudden on Thursday night.

“They shot dead a villager. We were injured in the gunfire,” he said.

The third Rohingya was admitted to a hospital at Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar.

“The army men were firing indiscriminately at us. We were running helter-skelter to save our lives. Only two of us managed to escape the atrocities, and two died on the spot. Initially, we took shelter in a nearby hill after fleeing our village with severe injuries. To avoid being caught by the army men, we later left the hill and crawled into another village,” the shell-shocked survivor narrated the horrors of the night, lying on a CMCH bed.

“The villagers provided us with food, water and shelter. Later, we crossed into Bangladesh with the help of agents from the two sides. Scores of Rohingya people, mostly women and children, are still agonisingly waiting to take shelter in Bangladesh,” he said.

At least 89 people including a dozen security forces were killed as Rohingya insurgents besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State, according to The Hindu.

*Also Read- Fresh violence kills 89 in Myanmar’s Rakhine State*

The state is bisected by religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Fearing further persecution, Mukhtar said he did not want to return home.

Standing beside the bullet-hit youth, Jahara Begum, who identified Mukhtar as her son-in-law, said that on information she received and whisked him off to the hospital.

“I live in a registered Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. I am worried as many of our relatives are still passing their days in utter insecurity,” added Jahara.

Contacted, CMCH Director Brig Gen Md Jalal Uddin said the two Rohingya youths were admitted to the hospital with gunshot injuries early Saturday.

“Both of them received bullet injuries two days back in Myanmar. Of the two, one by the name of Musa succumbed to his injuries at the hospital,” said Jalal.

Asked about Mukhtar’s condition, he said: “Mukhtar sustained injuries in the chest. He is showing symptoms of poor consciousness level. We will take decision about surgery after conducting some tests.

“We are hopeful of giving him proper treatment if his health condition does not deteriorate.”

The body of Musa has been kept at the hospital morgue.

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/08/26/rohingya-man-shot-myanmar-dies-chittagong/

12:00 AM, August 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:00 AM, August 27, 2017
*Crisis deepens*
*Myanmar fires on fleeing Rohingyas; refugees keep thronging border; US calls for protecting human rights as Rakhine violence toll now 92*




Rohingya refugees gathered by BGB at Ghundhum of Naikkhangchhari in Bandarban last night. Over 2,000 people crossed the border into Bangladesh to flee fresh escalation of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State. Photo: Star

Star Report
Amid continued bloodshed in Rakhine State of Myanmar and influx of Rohingyas towards Bangladesh, Myanmar troops fired twice on fleeing people near the Bandarban border yesterday.

The first shooting took place at the no man's land of the Naf River near Toombro border under Naikhyangchhari upazila around 1:15pm, said Lt Col Manjurul Ahsan Khan, director of BGB Battalion 34.

The official said the Rohingyas had been staying on boats at the no man's land since Friday night as they were trying to cross the river to enter Bangladesh.

They could not get into the country's territory as BGB members enforced a zero tolerance policy on trespassing, he said, adding that it could not be confirmed if there was any casualty.

The second shooting occurred near Ghumdhum border of the upazila around 4:30pm, the official told The Daily Star. 

An AFP reporter saw in Ghumdum civilians running for their lives as the troops opened fire. It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries.

The news agency quoted a senior BGB official saying that the troops fired on civilians, mostly women and children, hiding in the hills near the zero line. "They fired machine guns and mortar shells suddenly, targeting the civilians. They have not consulted the BGB."

As violence left at least 92 dead since early Friday and clashes continued between suspected Rohingya militants and Myanmar security forces, terrified civilians tried to flee remote villages in northern Rakhine for Bangladesh yesterday afternoon.

In the evening, over “two thousand Rohingyas” entered Bangladesh through different points of Naikhyangchhari, according to a local public representative.




Mukter Miah, a Rohingya from Myanmar, gets treated in Chittagong Medical College Hospital yesterday. He is accompanied by his relative who came to Bangladesh 15-20 years ago. Photo: Prabir Das

“Around 2,000 to 2,500 Rohingyas got into Bangladesh from Myanmar this evening [yesterday],” Md Zahangir Alam, chairman of Ghumdum Union Parishad, told our Cox's Bazar correspondent.

BGB members have cordoned them off and are keeping close watch so that they cannot proceed further into the country. Locals extended a helping hand to the refugees with food, water and other life-saving materials, he said. 

Meanwhile, one of the three Rohingyas, who suffered bullet injuries while fleeing alleged police action in their village in Rakhine State, died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital yesterday. The two other Rohingyas were undergoing treatment at the CMCH.

Rakhine State has become a crucible of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Residents of outlying villages fled to the main town of Maungdaw yesterday, only to be greeted with more violence there. Three village officials were killed overnight near Maungdaw, according to the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Meanwhile, the United States urged Myanmar authorities to avoid a response that would inflame the tensions.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in Washington that as security forces act to prevent further violence and bring the perpetrators to justice, they should respect the rule of law and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

She said the attacks underscored the importance of the government implementing recommendations of a commission chaired by former UN chief Kofi Annan, which published its final report on Thursday recommending that the government act quickly to improve economic development and social justice in Rakhine state to resolve violence between Buddhists and the Rohingya.

At least 89 people were killed as militants besieged border posts in Rakhine on Friday. The office of de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said 12 security officials had been killed alongside 77 militants -- the highest declared single-day toll since fighting broke out last year.

More than a thousand Rohingyas, including women and children, reportedly crossed the Naf River on Friday morning and got into Bangladesh through several points along the Teknaf and Ukhia borders. BGB said it sent back 146 Rohingyas hours after they entered the country.

Attacks on police posts last October sparked a wave of deadly “clearance operations” by Myanmar's army and forced some 87,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Rights groups fear a similar crackdown may take place following Friday's attacks.
*
NO ROHINGYA TO BE ALLOWED*
Md Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, yesterday said the local administration has been directed to try its best to restrict the entry of fresh Rohingyas as not a single person will be allowed further in the name of “humanity”, reports UNB.

He, however, said the government is keeping humanitarian aspect of the situation in mind with due sincerity. "That doesn't mean we'll have to bear the burden for year after year by allowing the entry of people from another country."

The comments were made at an emergency meeting held at the Circuit House on Friday night attended by government officials, representatives of law enforcement agencies, politicians and others.

The meeting has decided to take stern action against those who will help Rohingyas enter Bangladesh.

Bangladesh shares with Myanmar a 272km border that falls in Bandarban and Cox's Bazar. Of this, a 52km stretch is in the Naf River.

The country has been hosting up to 5,00,000 Rohingyas for three decades. More than 32,000 of them are registered and live in two camps in Cox's Bazar. Others live in different areas of Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.

After Myanmar armed forces launched a counterinsurgency operation following attacks on security personnel in Rakhine State in October last year, more than 75,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh.

*THE DEATH AT CMCH*
The Rohingya who died was identified as Mohammad Musa, 23, son of Mohammad Ismail, from Mehendi village under Jeddina Police Station of Maungdaw, said police.

Of the injured, Mohammad Mukter Miah, 27, hailing from the same village, was undergoing treatment at the surgery ward of the CMCH, said Jahirul Islam, in-charge of CMCH Police Camp.

Another injured, 10-year-old Md Idris, was admitted to Neurosurgery ward.

Police said Musa and Mukter were injured in police firing as they went to “attack police camps” in Myanmar, but the injured claimed that they were “innocent” and that sustained bullet injuries while trying to flee police attack in their village.

"Some people brought Musa and Mukter to the CMCH around 3:00am [yesterday],” said Jahirul, adding that Musa suffered bullet injuries in the abdomen, Mukter in left shoulder and Idris in the head.

Idris was brought by a woman around 5:00am, he said.

Mahadi Hasan Manju, a medical officer of surgery ward, said Musa died around 9:45am.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/crisis-deepens-1454569

*Myanmar forces 'fire on fleeing Rohingya'*
AFP . Cox’s Bazar | Update: 23:04, Aug 26, 2017




Myanmar security forces fired mortars and machine guns at terrified Rohingya villagers fleeing northern Rakhine state for Bangladesh on Saturday, according to an AFP reporter and a border official at the scene, as clashes which have killed scores continued for a second day.

The fighting, concentrated around remote border villages, is between suspected Rohingya militants and Myanmar security forces, but is increasingly sweeping in civilians—from the Muslim minority as well as local Buddhists and Hindus.




Rakhine state has become a crucible of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Violence has left at least 92 dead since Friday, according to an official toll, and forced thousands of Rohingya to flee towards Bangladesh.

But authorities there have refused to let most of them in, with thousands of people, mainly women and children, stranded along the “zero line” border zone.

On Saturday an AFP reporter at Bangladesh’s Ghumdhum border post counted over a dozen mortar shells and countless machine gun rounds fired by Myanmar security forces in nearby hills onto a large group of Rohingya desperately trying to cross.

It was not immediately clear if any were hit, but civilians scattered to evade the barrage.

“They have fired on civilians, mostly women and children, hiding in the hills near the zero line,” Border Guard Bangladesh’s (BGB) station chief Manzurul Hassan Khan confirmed.

“They fired machine guns and mortar shells suddenly, targeting the civilians. They have not consulted with the BGB,” he added.




Unwanted by Myanmar, the Rohingya are unwelcome in Bangladesh, which already hosts tens of thousands of refugees from the Muslim minority who live in squalid conditions in the Cox’s Bazar area.

In desperate scenes, many of the Rohingya displaced on Friday have been left without shelter in no-man’s land between the two countries, or forced to return to villages enveloped by clashes between militants and security forces.

Hundreds did make it across the porous border early Saturday when border patrols were relaxed due to heavy rains, an AFP reporter witnessed, with some swimming across the Naf river which separates the two countries.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry summoned Myanmar’s charge d’affaires and expressed “serious concern” at the possibility of a large-scale influx of Rohingyas following the latest violence.

*‘No security’ *
The current flare-up came after a Myanmar government-commissioned report led by former UN chief Kofi Annan into the roots of the Rakhine troubles.

It urged Myanmar’s government to swiftly find a pathway to citizenship for the roughly one million-strong Rohingya minority and ease suffocating restrictions on work and travel.




Violence erupted early on Friday as scores of men purportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), ambushed Myanmar police posts.

Using knives, some guns and homemade explosives they killed at least a dozen security forces.

The fightback has seen at least 77 Rohingya militants killed, according to the office of Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi—the highest declared single day toll since ARSA emerged as a force last year.

The group says it is fighting to protect the Rohingya from abuses by Myanmar security forces and the majority-Buddhist Rakhine community who they accuse of trying to push them out.

Attacks on police posts last October sparked a wave of deadly “clearance operations” by Myanmar’s army and forced some 87,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

The UN believes that military crackdown may have amounted to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

The army denies the allegations, which included civilian killings and mass rape.

On Saturday residents of outlying villages fled to the town of Maungdaw, only to be greeted with more violence there.

Ethnic Rakhine Buddhists armed themselves with knives and sticks as tension soared in a town that has repeatedly been the epicentre of religious violence since 2012.

With panic spreading, scores of Hindu villagers also fled to Maungdaw after rumours that they too were a target for the militants.

“There is no security in the villages,” Buthon, a Hindu man in Maungdaw told AFP.
*
The government has declared ARSA a terrorist organisation.*
http://en.prothom-alo.com/international/news/157635/Myanmar-forces-fire-on-fleeing-Rohingya

12:00 AM, August 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:02 AM, August 27, 2017
*'Stop fresh exodus of Rohingyas'*
*Dhaka hands protest note to Myanmar envoy*




Rohingyas from Rakhine State in Myanmar gather near the border yesterday in Ukhia where border guards stopped them from entering. At least 89 people, including 12 security forces, were killed as insurgents besieged border posts in Rakhine, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees towards Bangladesh. Photo: AFP

Diplomatic Correspondent

Dhaka yesterday handed over a protest note to the Myanmar envoy and called upon the neighbouring country to stop any fresh flow of Rohingyas towards Bangladesh, said foreign ministry sources.

The move came at a time when Bangladesh has seen a sudden influx of the Myanmar nationals in the wake of violence in Rakhine state and a statement from the Myanmar army has said "extremist Bengali insurgents attacked a police station in Maungdaw region”.

Yesterday, the foreign ministry summoned the Myanmar envoy and expressed “serious concern” over the recent happenings, including the fresh entry of Myanmar nationals into Bangladesh.

Thousands of unarmed civilians, including women, children and elderly people from Rakhine, have assembled close to the border and were making attempts to enter Bangladesh, according to a foreign ministry press release issued yesterday.

Aung Myint Minister Counsellor of Myanmar met Secretary (Asia & Pacific) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mahbub Uz Zaman yesterday afternoon at the ministry to discuss the evolving situation in the Rakhine State.

Zaman recalled the influx of Myanmar nationals into Bangladesh due to similar military operations in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on October 9 last year that resulted in about 85,000 civilians crossing over to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has expressed “serious concern” at the possibility of recurrence of such a situation as the country already hosts about four lakh Myanmar nationals, said the foreign ministry statement.

The secretary also emphasised on addressing the underlying root of the prolonged problem through a comprehensive and inclusive approach.

Bangladesh has taken note of renewed clashes after attacks on the Myanmar Border Guard police posts in the Rakhine State on Friday, said the statement.

Bangladesh condemned the attacks on Myanmar forces and expressed concern at the loss of innocent lives in those clashes that occurred following recent deployment of forces in Ratheedaung-Buthidaung areas.

Bangladesh also stressed on the need for respecting the state responsibility to protect its civilian population and urged Myanmar to ensure appropriate protection and shelter for the unarmed civilians, especially women, children and elderly people.

Following her policy of “zero tolerance” towards violent extremism and terrorism of any form and manifestation, Bangladesh assured Myanmar of continued cooperation in dealing with these challenges, the statement said.

Bangladesh also pointed out that the terrorist attack and clashes occurred at a time when the Rakhine Advisory Commission, popularly known as Kofi Annan Commission, made recommendations towards durable solution for the Rakhine State.

At least 89 people were killed as militants besieged border posts in the Rakhine State on Friday.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/stop-fresh-influx-rohingyas-1454575

*US urges non-violent response from Myanmar after clashes with Rohingya militants leave 89 dead*
SAM Staff, August 27, 2017




The United States has urged Myanmar authorities to avoid a response that would inflame tensions after an attack by Rohingya militants left 12 security personnel and 77 Rohingya Muslims dead.

The office of the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said on Friday that military and border police responded to the attacks by launching “clearance operations”.

Police fought off groups of as many as 100 Rohingya attackers who were armed with guns, machetes and home-made grenades. The captured weapons were shown in photos posted online by the government.

A witness in Maungdaw township in Rakhine state said soldiers entered her village at about 10am, burned homes and property and shot dead at least 10 people.

The witness, who asked to be identified only as Emmar, said villagers fled in many directions but mostly to a nearby mountain range. She said gunshots and explosions could be heard and smoke could still be seen late Friday evening.

A militant group named the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) took responsibility for the Thursday night attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were defending Rohingya communities that had been brutalised by government forces. It issued its statement via a Twitter account deemed legitimate by advocates of Rohingya rights.

Suu Kyi called the attacks “a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine state”.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in Washington that as security forces act to prevent further violence and bring the perpetrators to justice, they should respect the rule of law and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

She said the attacks underscored the importance of the government implementing recommendations of a commission that is chaired by former UN chief Kofi Annan. The commission published its final report on the day of the attacks, recommending the government act quickly to improve economic development and social justice in Rakhine state to resolve violence between Buddhists and the Rohingya.

Annan condemned the new attacks, saying “no cause can justify such brutality and senseless killing”, and urged the government to exercise restraint and “ensure that innocent civilians are not harmed”.

Suu Kyi’s office said on Facebook page that the attacks were intended to coincide with the release of Annan’s report.

The latest clashes were deadlier than a string of attack last October by the militants on three border posts that killed nine policemen and set off months of brutal counter-insurgency operations by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya communities in Rakhine state. Human rights groups accused the army of massive human rights abuses including murder, rape and burning down more than 1,000 homes and other buildings.

The army’s abuses fueled further resentment toward the government among the Muslim Rohingya, most of whom are considered by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority to be illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and its rights. ARSA took advantage of the resentment by stepping up recruitment of members.

The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the target of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

According to the UN, more than 80,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since last October’s clashes.

SOURCE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...ces-clashes-rohingya-militants-leave-89-dead/






*Thousands of Rohingyas stranded at Bangladesh border after Myanmar attacks*
SAM Staff, August 26, 2017




Bangladesh has strengthened security along the border with Myanmar as thousands of Rohingyas are fleeing the country after deaths of at least 71 in attacks on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state.

The Rohingya Muslims, who left homes fearing more persecution by Myanmar after the attacks, gathered along the Naf river after crossing it through Palongkhali of Ukhia on Friday.

Border Guard Bangladesh or BGB troops stood guard at some distance to stop the Rohingyas from entering Cox’s Bazar.

The border guards stopped and sent back, with water and food, 146 Rohingyas to Myanmar on Thursday night.

BGB Teknaf-2 Battalion Commander Lt Col Ariful Islam said the border guards ramped up security last week after Myanmar intensified army operations.

“We’ve raised the alarm after last night’s incidents in Rakhaine,” he added.

Around 87,000 Rohingyas joined hundreds of thousands of refugees in Bangladesh after the Myanmar Army crackdown on militants following an attack on a police post in October last year.

The attacks on Friday have now raised fear of another wave of Rohingya influx.

Locals at Ukhia said they heard gunshots from the other side of the border late on Thursday and that the pressure of Rohingyas from Myanmar rose early in the morning.

The Rohingyas took position along several kilometers of the river by afternoon.

Fish farms, swamps, and farmlands separated them from the Bangladeshis, who include locals, BGB troops and village police.

Cox’s Bazar 34 Battalion Commander Lt Col Manjurul Ahsan Khan told that the border guards will try to send them back.

“Now we have strengthened patrol and monitoring so that no one can enter,” he added.

SOURCE BDNEWS24.COM
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...s-stranded-bangladesh-border-myanmar-attacks/


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:34 PM, August 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:44 PM, August 27, 2017
*Rohingya influx into Bangladesh continues*





A BGB personnel stands guard the Rohingya refugges in Ghumdhum in Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Star Online Report

Following yesterday’s mass exodus that saw nearly 2,000 Rohingya refugees entering Bangladesh territory from Myanmar, hundreds of Rohingyas were today seen at the no man's land at Ghumdhum in Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban.

The number of Rohingyas heading towards Bangladesh saw a fresh increase as the bloodshed in the Rakhine State of Myanmar continues.

At least 89 people were killed as Rohingya militants besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State of Myanmar on Friday.

Read More: Crisis deepens
“We heard sounds of heavy gunfire near Toombro border under Naikhyangchhari upazila,” our Cox’s Bazar staff correspondent reports today quoting Zahangir Aziz, chairman of Ghumdhum union.

Quoting witnesses, the chairman told the correspondent that hundreds of Rohingya refugees were waiting near Toombro border trying to enter Bangladesh territory.

Read Also: 'Stop fresh exodus of Rohingyas'

In the evening, over “two thousand Rohingyas” entered Bangladesh through different points of Naikhyangchhari, according to a local public representative.

“Around 2,000 to 2,500 Rohingyas got into Bangladesh from Myanmar this evening [yesterday],” Md Zahangir Alam, chairman of Ghumdum Union Parishad, said yesterday.

BGB members have cordoned them off and are keeping close watch so that they cannot proceed further into the country. Locals extended a helping hand to the refugees with food, water and other life-saving materials, he said.
http://www.thedailystar.net/country...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

*Retweeted Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish):

Bangladeshi border guards say Myanmar troops fired mortars and machine guns at Rohingya civilians* https://t.co/SdfNhCOY7Bhttps://t.co/AGmtUw1WBx


----------



## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/








*My [our] condolences are also with those Burmese security force families who lost their loved ones on August 25.

However, it is not noble to remain silent when the entire #Rohingya community is bullied, harassed and persecuted by the very Burma's Military institution, which has divided the country and the people into pieces.

It is also not the characteristics of a good leader to side with the perpetrators who raped, burned, destroyed, displaced, arrested, tortured and killed countless of Rohingya civilians.*

By Haikal Mansor

*Over a thousand Rohingya crossed the border into Bangladesh after Myanmar Army launched atrocious campaign against the civilians.
Video: AFP*




__ https://www.facebook.com/





*SITUATIONS OF ROHINGYA ALARMING
The situations of Rohingya are alarming as Myanmar army launched military campaigns after clashes with Rohingya insurgents on August 25, as "crimes against humanity" are coming out from Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung with over hundreds killed, houses burnt down and mass displacement.*




__ https://www.facebook.com/





#Rohingya villagers take refuge in a forest after #Myanmar Army burnt down their Chein KarLi, #KoeTanKauk village tract in #Rathedaung.




__ https://www.facebook.com/





APHR Statement on Developments in Myanmar’s Rakhine State 
___*_______________________________________________
By ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights

On behalf of the membership of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, who hail from legislatures across Southeast Asia, I am alarmed by the latest developments in northern Rakhine State in Myanmar, which has seen a dramatic escalation of violence and a heightened risk of atrocities.

These events come on the heels of yesterday’s release of the final report by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which outlines a series of strong, common sense recommendations that the government can take to deescalate tensions, resolve grievances, and promote sustainable peace and prosperity in Rakhine State.
READ MORE*
http://www.thestateless.com/…/aphr-statement-on-development…

#Rohingya #MyanmarArmy #HumanRights #Myanmar #HumanRights #ASEAN #ASEANMP #Maungdaw #Buthidaung




APHR Statement on Developments in Myanmar’s Rakhine State
*By ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights On behalf of the membership of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, who hail from legislatures across…
THESTATELESS.COM*

Crimes Against Humanity




__ https://www.facebook.com/




*Thousands of #Rohingya Muslims are fleeing for their lives from the ongoing Genocide committed by Myanmar Buddhist Govenmernt.*
#Myanmar #RohingyaGenocide 
#SaveRhingya


----------



## Banglar Bir

* Is this the final confrontation for the Rohingya?*
Adil Sakhawat from Naikhongchhari border
Published at 01:59 PM August 27, 2017
Last updated at 03:01 AM August 28, 2017









Border Guard Bangladesh member at the border to prevent Rohingya influx in Bangladesh Dhaka Tribune

*The latest outburst of violence marks the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims
*
Thousands of Rohingyas are waiting at the border for shelter in Bangladesh in a bid to flee from a fresh spate of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Their houses were bombarded and torched by the Myanmar army in what they called the fight against insurgency. The atrocities carried out by Myanmar’s army are haunting the Rohingya Muslims, triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.

Although the reports could not be independently verified, the fleeing Rohingya families carried consistent accounts of brutal military raids and the use of indiscriminate force against Rohingya villages.

The latest outburst of violence marks the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian state. The UN has called the Rohingya one of the most persecuted people in the world.

The Rohingyas, including women and children, have gathered just on the other side of a small canal lying on the international border in Ghumdum area in Naikkhongchhori area of Bandarban district.

Dhaka Tribune correspondent crossed the small canal to talk to the Rohingyas on August 25 afternoon. From there, he learned that many of the Rohingya men were ready to join Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) to fight back to regain their rights.

An estimated 115 Rohingya men have already left Bangladesh to join the ARSA, said the Rohingyas living in makeshift refugee camps. They took their mobile phones with them, but those were found switched off till Saturday night.

On a visit to the Rohingya camp, this correspondent found recruiters collecting the names of those who wanted to join the ARSA movement and fight against the Myanmar army.

Some Rohingya men looked anxiously and furiously towards the other side of the canal as they heard the sound of mortar shells and gunshots in the villages adjacent to the border.

They told Dhaka Tribune that they were not here to enter Bangladesh to flee Myanmar military atrocities; they only wanted to push their family members, including women, children and elderly persons safely through the Bangladesh border.




Rohingya women and children were seen waiting on the border to enter into Bangladesh territory to escape Myanmar army atrocity *Dhaka Tribune*

“We want to go back to our village to join the fight against the Myanmar military. Either the Myanmar army personnel will die or we. We cannot endure such atrocities anymore. We are all members of Harakat al-Yaqeen, (the former name of ARSA),” said a Rohingya man named Irfan.

Gunshots and mortar shells have increased since August 25, said several BGB men patrolling the Ghumdum border.

The Rohingya men waiting at the border did not seem afraid of those heavy firing and sound of the mortars, rather they were motivated to fight back.

Dhaka Tribune received an audio clip of ARSA chief Ata Ullah aka Abu Umar Al Junoni from the ARSA followers and supporters. Ata Ullah said: “I am not fighting to grab power. If there are any Rohingya brothers who are ready to fight, please join us, please save our mothers and sisters.”

Several Rohingyas sent pictures of ARSA leaders and fighters to the Dhaka Tribune, claiming they were freedom fighters.

Dhaka Tribune could not contact ARSA leaders directly as ARSA followers said their leaders were in the battle field.

Sources said ARSA was fighting with a small team, but it was getting larger as many Rohingyas were joining them.

The Central Committee for Counter Terrorism of Myanmar, in a statement published on August 25, declared armed attackers and ARSA as terrorist groups in accordance with the Counter-Terrorism Law of the country, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.





__ https://www.facebook.com/




But the ARSA followers and members told Dhaka Tribune that they started the movement as the Myanmar military’s atrocities became intolerable.

ARSA in its Twitter page claimed they began the resistance as a defence against the Myanmar military and security forces.

ARSA supporters also said that several Rohingya Muslims had been killed in Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships in the Rakhine state, but there were no Buddhist casualties during the crackdown.

Supporter claimed their leader Ata Ullah and fighters were not targeting the Rakhine people, rather their target was the Myanmar military.

*Humanitarian crisis*
In many videos provided by several Rohingyas, hundreds of Rohingyas in Rathedaung were seen hiding in the nearby forests and mountains to escape the military atrocities. They were afraid of further Myanmar security forces’ raid in those hideouts as well.

Rohingya homes were being burned down by the state armed forces and Rakhine extremists, Rohingyas hiding in the mountains said.

Most of the houses in Rathedaung, Chein Khali, Chein Halivillages were torched by the Myanmar joint forces, said the terrified Rohingyas.
View image on Twitter







ARSA_The Army @ARSA_Official
URGENT: Rakhine political groups & Intl Govts MUST immediately put pressure on Burmese army to stop using Rakhine Civilians as Human Shields

“Our region is in total chaos now. They have burnt down our homes using fire, mortars. They have seized our properties and forced us to leave our homes. We have become totally helpless. We don’t know where we will go now,” said one villager Zaydi Pyinover phone.

Myanmar military and joint security forces are carrying out offensives in many villages of Rakhine state including Kwan Thi Pin, MiHtaikChaungWa, Nat Chaung, Taman Thar, Zee Pin Chaung, Lon Doong, Zin Paing Nya, Ye MyetTaung, Kyi KanPyin, Tharay Kun Baung, Pa Nyaung Pin Gyi, Padin, Alay Than Kyaw, ThawanChaung, ThinbawKwe, Udaung, MyintHlut, Taung Bazaar, Phaung Daw Pyin.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/08/27/final-confrontation-rohingyas/

*Panic-stricken Rohingyas stranded in no-man’s land*
Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 03:08 AM August 28, 2017
Last updated at 03:10 AM August 28, 2017




Photohaka Tribune
*'We fled to Bangladesh in terror of our lives'*
Rocked and displaced by the ongoing atrocities by Myanmar’s army, Rohingya refugees with nowhere to go are running helter-skelter in “no man’s land” on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, with both Border Guard Police (BGP) in Myanmar and Border Guard Bangladesh stepping up vigil on their respective sides.

Unable to bear the persistent persecution, the Rohingya Muslims are feeling homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state leaving behind their hard-earned valuables and property. And, many are losing their beloved ones when rushing to escape the brutalities, a scene prevalent all over the border.

Visiting the Jolpaibania border point in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila on Saturday, the Dhaka Tribune correspondent found over 500 refugees, including women and children, stiff from sitting squeezed up against one another in a bamboo orchard owned by one Nurul Islam.

Among them is Moshtaque Ahmed, a resident of Dekibonia village in Rakhine.

The 70-year old said: “I have four sons and six daughters. Army men picked one of my sons up. He will never return home because I am sure that they have already killed him.

“We fled to Bangladesh in terror of our lives.”

A woman by the name of Rohina Akter said a group of army men picked his husband up, calling him a member of Rohingya insurgent group Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement).

Claiming innocence for her husband, she said: “My husband is not involved in the group. They [army men] mercilessly beat my husband before my eyes, inflicting severe injuries on him.”

Speaking from the other side of the border, Nurul Bashar and Mujibur Rahman said a military helicopter arrived at Dekibonia army and BGP camps on Saturday around 2pm. After the helicopter departed at 3pm, army personnel accompanied by BGP and locals swooped on Rohingya-inhabited Dekibonia, Chakkata, Fakirapara and other adjacent villages, launching a blanket attack on the villagers.

According to sources in Rakhine, security forces have been indiscriminately firing on the Rohingyas since the Friday incident.

In addition to setting fire to the Rohingyas’ property, they are targeting girls and young women, said the sources, adding that the Rakhine state will soon be cleansed of Muslims if the persecution continues.

Narrating the brutalities, witnesses said the army men shoot youths to death after hanging them upside down. Some of non-Muslim Rakhine youths have joined the military forces in their campaign of assault on the Muslim minority.

On Friday, at least 89 people including a dozen security force members were killed as Rohingya insurgents reportedly besieged border posts in troubled Rakhine state, prompting the army to launch a new crackdown on the Rohingyas and thus triggering a fresh exodus of refugees to Bangladesh.

Earlier, over 70,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in the aftermath of the October 9, 2016 attacks on security posts, joining as many as 500,000 estimated refugees who have come to Bangladesh during decades of persecution in their motherland.

The previous counterinsurgency operation ceased in mid-February this year, ending a four-month sweep that the UN said may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ick-stricken-rohingyas-stranded-no-mans-land/

12:00 AM, August 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:03 AM, August 28, 2017
*Rohingyas pouring in
Hundreds cross border points in Teknaf, Ukhia, Naikhyangchhari; scores wait on no-man's land*




Rohingya families crossing the border to escape persecution are lodged in a makeshift camp in Ghumdhum point in Cox's Bazar. Families were seen with bottles of water, polythene sheets and other basic essentials as they entered Bangladesh. Photo: Anisur Rahman
*Star Report*
Hundreds of Rohingyas entered Bangladesh through different unguarded border points of Ukhia, Teknaf and Naikhyangchhari yesterday while hundreds more took shelter on no man's land after failing to cross the border.

Although Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the local administration denied entry to Rohingyas, residents and elected representatives in those areas said refugees were coming through six unprotected points.

Locals added that some of the Myanmarese nationals were going to unregistered refugee camps on foot or by battery-run easy bikes.

Visiting different spots and talking with locals in Ghumdhum under Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban, our Cox's Bazar correspondent learnt that many more Rohingyas were waiting to cross the border.

Some of the refugees who got into the country alleged that Myanmar troops were burning down their houses, killing men and torturing women. "We came here to save our lives," one of them told The Daily Star.

Border guards remained on high alert as fresh gunshots were heard in Myanmar's Maungdaw, opposite of Ghumdhum, between 8:30am and 9:00am yesterday, our correspondent reported.

The BGB chief warned of a “befitting response” if Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) creates any untoward situation in the bordering area.

Addressing a press conference at Ghumdhum Border Observation Post yesterday, BGB Director General Maj Gen Abul Hossain also said, “We are on high alert. We will not allow anyone from Myanmar to intrude into Bangladesh.”

*POPE FOR ROHINGYAS*
Pope Francis yesterday appealed for an end to the violent persecution of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, the Vatican Radio wrote yesterday.

Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square at the Vatican, he said, “Sad news has reached us of the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters, a religious minority. I would like to express my full closeness to them -- and let all of us ask the Lord to save them, and to raise up men and women of good will to help them, who shall give them their full rights.”

Quoting a senior Vatican source, Reuters earlier reported that Pope Francis will almost certainly visit Myanmar and Bangladesh, two countries caught up in a crisis over the Rohingyas, before the end of the year.

The trip is likely to take place between the end of November and the start of December but definitely before Christmas, the source added. The Vatican has so far officially said only that a trip to both countries is “under study”.

A Vatican team is visiting both countries to sort out details and report back to the pope, who will make the final decision, Reuters wrote on August 23.

*INDIA'S CONCERN*
*India has said it is “seriously concerned” by reports of renewed violence and attacks by terrorists in northern Rakhine province of Myanmar and hoped that perpetrators of the crimes will be brought to justice.*

*“We are deeply saddened at the loss of lives among members of the Myanmar security forces,” said a statement of India's external affairs ministry issued late on Saturday evening.*

*Extending “strong support” to Myanmar government “at this challenging moment”, it read, “Such attacks deserve to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. We hope that the perpetrators of these crimes will be brought to justice.”*

*The statement came ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Myanmar on his way to China to attend the BRICS Summit in the first week of September, reported our New Delhi correspondent.*

Meanwhile, Myanmar government has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, the government said.

The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, reports Reuters.

The clashes, the worst since at least October, have prompted the government to evacuate staff and thousands of non-Muslim villagers from the area.

Fighting involving the military and hundreds of Rohingya across northwestern Rakhine continued on Saturday with the fiercest clashes taking place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, according to residents and the government.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered in the region since last October, when a similar but much smaller Rohingya attack prompted a brutal military operation beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

As the latest violence in Rakhine triggered a fresh inflow of Rohingyas towards Bangladesh, about 2,000 to 2,500 of them entered Naikhyangchhari on Saturday evening.

They were condoned off by BGB members so that they cannot proceed further into the country. Locals, however, extended a helping hand to the refugees with food, water and other life-saving materials.

Panel Chairman of Ghumdhum Union Parishad Kamal Uddin said if not guarded, the refugees will take shelter in nearby Balukhali and Kutupalong camps.

Quoting a BGB commander, AFP reported that 20 Rohingyas were caught yesterday and sent back.

The country has been hosting up to 5,00,000 Rohingyas for three decades. Around 33,000 of them are registered and live in two camps in Cox's Bazar. Others live in different areas of Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.

After Myanmar armed forces launched a counterinsurgency operation following attacks on security personnel in Rakhine State in October last year, more than 75,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh.

*FOUR OTHER INJURED AT CMCH*
Four more injured Rohingyas were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) yesterday.

They are Ziabul, 27, son of Nuruzzaman; Md Elias, 20, son of Hamid Hossain; Md Toha, 16, son of Hossen Ahmed, and Mubarak Hossain, 25, son of Nabi Hossain, said Assistant Sub-Inspector Allauddin, of CMCH Police Outpost.

All of them are bullet-hit and from Maungdaw town in Rakhine State, he added.

“Mobarak Hossain was admitted to CMCH around 3:30pm yesterday and the rest came in the early hours,” the ASI added. “The condition of Elias is critical as he suffered bullet injuries in his shoulder and head.”

They entered Bangladesh through several points of Bandarban border. They received primary treatment at Kutupalong before being shifted to CMCH.

With the four, the total number of injured Rohingyas admitted to CMCH stands at six.

Mohammad Musa, 23, who suffered bullet wounds while fleeing alleged police action in his village in Rakhine State, died at CMCH on Saturday morning.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingyas-pouring-1455010

12:00 AM, August 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:40 AM, August 28, 2017
*Myanmar must change tack on Rohingyas*




A BGB soldier stands guard near some Rohingya refugees at Ghumdhum in Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban on August 27, 2017. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)

The very fact that Myanmar has termed the recent militant attack on its security forces as being the work of “extremist Bengali insurgents” underlines the very crux of the problem. It restates their position on the Rohingyas, their unwillingness to accept the ethnic minority for what they are. Rohingyas, who happen to be Muslims, are as Bengali as Americans are English. And this attitude of rejecting one of its own has underpinned Myanmar's policy regarding the Rohingyas.

It bears restating that the Rohingyas have been living in Arakan, now Rakhine State of Myanmar, for centuries. Regrettably, it was with one stroke of pen that a minority group, an integral part of the Burmese culture and society, being its citizen, was made stateless by the Burmese strongman and dictator Gen Ne Win. That, we understand, was his reaction to his abortive attempt to force the Rohingyas out of the western province into Bangladesh permanently. He managed to push out nearly one third of the total Rohingya in Arakan, a good 300,000 of them, by a military operation codenamed “Operation King Dragon”ostensibly for the purpose of checking illegal immigrants, in 1978. And this was by an anti-Rohingyain character. But strong international reaction against the ethnic purge forced him to take back most of those from Bangladesh. That policy of expulsion having failed, he resorted to a legal expedient—the Citizenship Law of 1982.

History must be recounted to put a perspective to the issue. The current spate of violence that was started last October is a strategy that Myanmar has used and continues to use to clear its territory of one of its ethnic minorities, made stateless by a government fiat. The Rohingyas have been described as the most persecuted stateless people in the world. That the Rohingyas are ghettoised and have had their movement restricted is nothing new. Their movement has been controlled since 1964 through a law which restricted the movement of the Muslims of Arakan especially prohibiting the movement out of Akyab District towards east. Thus, the Rohingyas were put into a sort of incarceration since 1964.

The latest extremist attack of August 25, which merits the strongest contempt, is also a cause for concern for Bangladesh. Recall the fact that it was the killing of several Myanmar security personnel by the militants that triggered the violence wreaked on the Rohingyas in the name of fighting insurgency in October 2016. That action came in for criticism from the local head of UN refugee agency who went so far as to characterise the killings as ethnic cleansing.

For Bangladesh, the Rohingya problem has cast it between the devil and the deep sea or a Catch 22 situation if you like. While on one hand it cannot officially open its doors to the persecuted Rohingyas, it can neither forcefully turn them back into uncertainty. Strategic compulsions preclude the former stance, it being very unadvisable since that would encourage the Myanmar government to continue to create conditions to leverage all the Rohingyas permanently out of their homeland, and fulfil its longstanding aim. But hosting a large number of refugees will impose, and it already has, adverse security as well as socio-economic consequence on Bangladesh. 

Although Bangladesh is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, it has acted under the obligation of the customary international law and the principle of non-refoulement not to reject asylum seekers at its border when they are escaping persecution in their homeland and trying to seek security from threats to their lives and liberty. Technicalities cannot be impediments to humane behaviour.

It has been our position that since the situation is of Myanmar's own making, it should be for it to resolve it. But that Bangladesh cannot remain an impassive neighbour because it has been directly affected by the developments in the State of Rakhine has been demonstrated by the government's expressed position on the issue.

Amidst all the killings in one part of her country, the silence of Su Kyi was very deafening and all that she could say about the atrocities of the security forces was that they were working as per “the law”. However, a redeeming feature in the entire pathetic situation was the setting up of the Annan Commission in August last year to “find a sustainable solution on the complicated issues in Rakhine State.” 
And if it was not a ruse by Su Kyi to placate international opinion of Myanmar's Rohingya policy, then the government of Myanmar should recognise the merit of the recommendations of the Commission which was handed over to its President on August 24 and act on it.

It is about time Myanmar realised the error of its Rohingya policy. If anything it has festered extremism among the younger members of the Rohingya community. This cannot be allowed to happen. We must make it abundantly clear that our stake in the region is not only humanitarian. If it is allowed to simmer it would adversely affect us in equal measure. And that we cannot allow to happen.
_Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd) is Associate Editor, The Daily Star._

http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...ng/myanmar-must-change-tack-rohingyas-1455016


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Harrowing tales of Rohingyas*
Nazim Uddin . Chittagong | Published: 00:05, Aug 28,2017 | Updated: 02:12, Aug 28,2017

Ten-year-old Idris, with bullet-wound in the head, now struggles for life at ward 28 of Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

His father sits by him anxiously, as he does not know what happened to the other members of his family whom he left behind in the violence-torn Myanmar. 

‘I heard sounds of firing on Friday night. Suddenly a bullet hit my son’s head. I started to run toward Bangladesh border, carrying my son on my shoulder,’ said Rashid. 

‘Some people in Bangladesh border asked me where I was going to. I requested them to allow me to enter into Bangladesh to save my son’s life. They permitted me.

‘I don’t know what happened to the rest members of my family who were at my residence, back in Myanmar,’ said Rashid, tears welling up in his eyes. 
He said he left his four children and wife behind. 

Ziabul, 27, who also sustained injury in the head and a hand, was undergoing treatment at the same ward. 
‘We sent our women and children to the Bangladesh border to save them from possible attack. I, along with my three brothers, was staying in our residence. Myanmar Army raided our village on Saturday afternoon. They killed my brothers in front of my eyes. I was also injured but managed to flee,’ said Ziabul. 

‘I entered into Bangladesh with the help of one of my relative who lives at Kutupalong Rohingya Camp at Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar,’ said Ziabul. 

He said Myanmar Army indiscriminately attacked the villagers, killing many of them and injuring many. 
Md Toha, 15, a five grader, received bullet in the throat. His father Hossain Ahmed, 60, crossed into Bangladesh for treatment of his son. 

‘Army and police attacked our village, Shaheb Bazar of Maungdaw, on Friday night and opened fire on the villagers. I along with some other villagers entered into Bangladesh,’ said Hossain. 
‘I don’t know if my son will survive. I also left nine other members of my family behind. I could not collect any information about them,’ added Hossain. 

On Sunday, four more Rohingyas, who received bullet injuries in Myanmar, were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital in the wake of fresh violence against the minority community in the neighbouring country. 

With the four, a total of eight bullet-hit Rohingyas, including two children, came to CMCH in last two days — Sunday and Saturday. Of them one died from his injuries on Saturday while the rest were undergoing treatment, said the hospital doctors. 

The new victims were identified as Ziabul, 27, son of Nuruzzaman of Debinna of Maungdaw, Elias, 20, son of Hamid Hossain of Nasidong of Maungdaw, Md Toha, 15, son of Hossain Ahmed of Shaheb Bazar of Maungdaw and Mobarak Hosain, 25, son of Nabi Hossain of Shaheb Bazar area of Maungdaw, said Md Alauddin Talukder, assistant sub-inspector of the hospital police outpost. 

He said a total of eight bullet-injured Rohingyas got admitted to CMCH on Sunday and Saturday. 
The others were identified as Idris, 10, son of Md Rashid of Wachhong of Maungdaw, Shamsul Alam, 25, son of Sahar Ahmed of Zimankhali of Maungdaw, Md Musa, 22, son of Md Ismail of Mehendi area of Maungdaw and Md Muktar, 27, son of Gol Mohammad of the same area.

They got admitted to the hospital on Saturday and of them Musa died at the hospital on Saturday morning, said ASI Alauddin.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/22924/harrowing-tales-of-rohingyas

12:00 AM, August 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:56 AM, August 28, 2017
*Nobody's people*




Rohingya refugees gathered by BGB at Ghundhum of Naikkhangchhari in Bandarban last night. Over 2,000 people crossed the border into Bangladesh to flee fresh escalation of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State. Photo: Star
Inam Ahmed and Shakhawat Liton

The latest wave of Myanmar's killing of Rohingyas and the preceding world reaction to the continued genocide happening in the Southeast Asian country have truly put these hapless people at the risk of complete annihilation. It now seems there is nobody to stand by them, nobody to stop the murderous behaviour of a nation that sits at the cradle of so many great civilisations. 

What is equally worrying is that the Rohingya crisis has all the latency of becoming a major crisis relating to terrorism for the whole of Southeast Asia. But the reactions of the South Asian neighbours do not truly reflect that concern.

The new spate of killing started, as if as a counter slap, just after a day of a report by a commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan that came down heavily on Myanmar for the pogrom and urged the country to scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship for its Rohingya minority.

Myanmar's new mindless behaviour was emboldened by at least two events. In March this year, China, backed by Russia, blocked a UN Security Council statement on Myanmar. Just a month before, the UN human rights office had accused the country's military of mass killing and rape of Rohingya Muslims.

The short draft press statement was to stress the importance of humanitarian access to all affected areas in Myanmar. 

And then in May, when Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's ruling party chief, met Chinese President Xi Jinping, she was assured that China would continue helping Myanmar achieve internal peace process. No concerns were raised, at least not publicly, about the Rohingyas, the continued violence on whom now shatters the country's “internal peace”.

Today, China is truly a world power and holds the key to peaceful future of the region. It also has a big influence on Myanmar. When this mighty country shows such a lenient and supportive attitude towards Myanmar, the plights of the Rohingyas look bleak.

China today leads the world in many a good cause, from fighting climate change to saving endangered species and implementing mega projects for building communication network to connect China and the world under the One Belt, One Road initiative. Therefore, its role in Myanmar looks puzzling.

The other Southeast Asian neighbours who had been sitting on the fence so far have also realised the danger that a rootless people pose. The Kofi Annan Commission has clearly highlighted that “the northern Rakhine state may provide fertile ground for radicalisation, as local communities may become increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists”.

In May, Thailand hosted a regional conference to discuss the Rohingya issue that was participated by the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. However, a defiant Myanmar refused to send any representative.

Their main concern was the boatpeople from Myanmar who are fleeing persecution. They do not want these “stateless” people at their door. Violating international laws, they have warded off the boats from landing. Only the Philippines, despite being so far away from the epicenter of the genocide, has announced that it would allow the Rohingyas in.

Before the Thailand meeting, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in an extraordinary conference of foreign ministers of its member countries in Kuala Lumpur in January urged Myanmar to ensure that the security forces act in accordance with the rule of law and that all perpetrators of acts of violence be held accountable.

It urged the Myanmar government to abide by its obligations under international laws, international humanitarian laws and human rights covenants and take all necessary measures to stop the violence and discrimination against Rohingyas.

So international actions stopped short of any effective steps to help the refugees and to give them shelters even as the persecution goes unabated.

And so Rohingya influx into Bangladesh continued, because we are their closest neighbour. Since the last macabre killings, rape and looting in October last year, nearly 100,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border. That has made the situation even more complex here with the Rohingya camps already overflowing with previous refugees, posing a great threat to internal security as well.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news-analysis-nobodys-people-1455025


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## Banglar Bir

*India's Firm Pledge to Support the Myanmar Government.
মিয়ানমার সরকারের পাশে থাকার দৃঢ় সমর্থন ভারতের*




*মিয়ানমার সরকারের পাশে থাকার দৃঢ় সমর্থন ভারতের*



*মিয়ানমারে ৪ শতাধিক রোহিঙ্গা নিহত*



*মিয়ানমার সেনার হত্যাযজ্ঞ: রোহিঙ্গা শিশুরাও রেহাই পাচ্ছে না!*
*মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন প্রদেশে রোহিঙ্গা জঙ্গীদের হামলার তীব্র নিন্দা জানিয়েছে ভারত। সেই সঙ্গে দেশটি জানিয়েছে, তারা মিয়ানমার সরকারের পাশে থাকবে।

দিনকয়েক আগে মায়ানমারের উত্তরের রাখাইন প্রদেশে নিরাপত্তাবাহিনীর সীমান্ত চৌকি অবরোধ করে ব্যাপক হামলা চালিয়েছে রোহিঙ্গা জঙ্গিরা। একাধিক নিরাপত্তা জওয়ান সমেত অন্তত নব্বই জন এর বলি হয়েছেন।
*
*এ ব্যাপারে ভারতের বিদেশমন্ত্রকের মুখপাত্র রভীশ কুমার বলেন, দ্বিগ্ন ভারত, মায়ানমারের নিরাপত্তা জওয়ানদের প্রাণহানিতে আমরা খুবই ব্যাথিত। যতদূর সম্ভব কঠোর ভাষায় এ ধরনের হামলার নিন্দা করা উচিত। এ ধরনের অপরাধে জড়িতরা উপযুক্ত সাজা পাবে বলে আশা করি। মায়ানমারে“মিয়ানমারের উত্তরের রাখাইন প্রদেশে সন্ত্রাসবাদীদের নতুন করে হিংসায় মেতে ওঠার খবরে গভীরভাবে উর বর্তমান সরকারের এই চ্যালেঞ্জের মূহূর্তে তাদের প্রতি দৃঢ় সমর্থন রইল।”*
http://monitorbd.news/2017/08/28/মিয়ানমার-সরকারের-পাশে-থা/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rakhine violence leaves everyone guessing*
Larry Jagan, August 29, 2017




Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) command to the Rohingya people not to cross the canal, who take shelter in No Man’s Land between Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 27, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine erupted into violence on Friday, leaving the government’s efforts to find a solution to the communal tension there in tatters. Insurrection and arson engulfed large areas around Maungdaw and Buttidaung. More than 30 police stations and an army base were attacked in the early hours, by what the government called terrorists and Bengali extremists.

Skirmishes continued over the weekend, and there are fresh reports of clashes between the Myanmar army and police engaged in sporadic fighting with the Muslim attackers all over western Rakhine. However, it is impossible to verify many of these reports, and even the government’s official releases are thin on evidence.

*“It’s a classic guerilla operation,” according to regional intelligence experts. “It’s hit and run, intend to cause the greatest confusion and fear.” Clearly it is intended to disrupt and government plans to implement the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission, announced last Thursday. It has changed the debate over sensible measures to reduce communal tension and violence as outlined in the report, to almost only security issues – at least for the time being.*

The death toll from the latest widespread attacks staged by the Muslim insurgents has climbed to over a hundred, including nearly 80 alleged “insurgents”, and 12 members of the security forces, according to the government’s press release. Government staff, UN officials and aid workers have been evacuated. Many Rakhine villagers have been relocated to safer positions. Thousands of Muslim villagers have also fled the fighting, with nearly 90,000 trying to flee across into Bangladesh since Friday.

The international community is now firmly fixed on Myanmar and the increasing communal violence. The west’s position is clear, use restraint. They stress the need to avoid escalating the violence, and use peaceful means to address the root causes of the communal tension and violence. They all endorse the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission as the way forward: the US, EU and ASEAN parliamentarians endorse the recommendations as the starting point.

One of the members of the commission, the seasoned Dutch diplomat Laetitia van den Assum responded to earlier comments on Rakhine, by saying that recent violence in fact makes the recommendation even more important. “Ignoring them can only worsen an increasing fragile situation,” she said.

*Regional Asian intelligence sources believe substantial funds have been poured in the Rohingya areas – largely through Mae Sot. But senior Myanmar intelligence officials are certain the arms – from Thailand — are being transported on fishing ships to Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh from Ranong, the hub of much of the human trafficking previously. Myanmar’s intelligence sources believe substantial weapons, including shoulder launchers – RPGs – are stockpiled in Bangladesh.*

Kofi Annan also took a strident view, in response to the initial outbreak of violence on Friday. “I strongly urge all communities and groups to reject violence. After years of insecurity and instability, it should be clear that violence is not the solution to the challenges facing Rakhine State,” said in a statement released on Friday. Ang San Suu Kyi also reiterated this view in an early statement condemning the violence. The current administration remains committed to “finding meaningful and lasting solutions for conflict-torn Rakhine,” she said.

But the horrendous carnage and brutality have obscured the political context. For the moment, understandably security issues predominate. Although the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army claim to be behind these current attacks, and took credit for the earlier attacks in October against the Border Guard Forces, leaving 9 dead, little is known about them.

*The Rohingyas are trained in camps on the outskirts of Cox’s Bazaar funded by Qatar, according to one of Myanmar’s most senior intelligence officers.*

Asia intelligence sources believe there are other more sinister hands behind them. Originally it was believed that some 500 Rohingya militants may have been trained in Bangladesh and in Rakhine, in the Mayu mountain range. But the figure been reported estimate the Muslim fighters to be more than a 1,000 strong – but there is no independent verification of numbers.

Regional Asian intelligence sources believe substantial funds have been poured in the Rohingya areas – largely through Mae Sot. But senior Myanmar intelligence officials are certain the arms – from Thailand — are being transported on fishing ships to Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh from Ranong, the hub of much of the human trafficking previously. Myanmar’s intelligence sources believe substantial weapons, including shoulder launchers – RPGs – are stockpiled in Bangladesh

The Rohingyas are trained in camps on the outskirts of Cox’s Bazaar funded by Qatar, according to one of Myanmar’s most senior intelligence officers. Originally regional intelligence sources believed that Saudi funds were being used. And then the fighters are infiltrated into Myanmar. Further training is conducted in the Mayu mountains.

As yet no intelligence source is prepared to speculate who might be behind the recently formed Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which has claimed responsibility for the October attacks and the latest offensive. But all intelligence agencies in Asia and the West are preoccupied with tracing IS connections. As IS is on the retreat – in Syria and the Middle East – Myanmar provides a soft-target they surmise. Any attacks in this area are getting instant international attention and coverage – but the fact that they have not as yet claimed responsibility for them, has some intelligence experts dismissing claims that they are actually behind them and the attacks.

But there seems little doubt that there is a hidden black hand behind these attacks. They are clearly intended to destabilize the government, cause increased dissension between Buddhist and Muslims and create a massive environment of fear. It is one, which no group in Myanmar can benefit from, including the military. But the Tatmadaw and the government have to tread lightly in their security responses, and not acerbate the situation. Returning to the Kofi Annan Commission’s recommendations would be a good start. A peaceful solution has to be found.

Of course, the current fear is that attackers will become more adventurous and launch assaults on tourist attractions. Kofi Annan recommended Mrauk U as a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage status. This makes Myanmar’s intelligence chiefs fear that this may just prompt the “terrorist” to take aim at it. Some specialists even fear they won’t stop there – and will attack other tourist venues, even in Yangon. The security forces will have to prevent this, or the whole country will be up in arms, communal violence spurred throughout the country.

But the battle between Aung San Suu Kyi and the commander in chief, Min Aung Hlaing is increasing now over the militarization of Rakhine. The army – and local Buddhist politicians – want a ‘state of emergency’ declared in Rakhine – especially in the wake of the latest “terrorist” attacks. The State Counselor has repeatedly resisted this, according to government insiders, although limited curfews have been imposed in some areas. But her resistance maybe on the verge of caving in, something human rights activists suggest would give the army carte blanche in Rakhine. And provide a clear recipe for disaster, and a convenient pretext for a military coup.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/08/29/rakhine-violence-leaves-everyone-guessing/

*Rohingyas along border left without food, water*
Mohiuddin Alamgir with Mohammad Nurul Islam in Cox’s Bazar | Published: 00:03, Aug 29,2017 | Updated: 01:44, Aug 29,2017




A Rohingya woman looks on after being restricted by the members of Border Guards Bangladesh to enter into Bangladesh side, in Cox’s Bazar on Monday. — Reuters photo

Thousands of Rohingyas fleeing violence in their homeland Rakhine State of Myanmar remained trapped along the border without shelter, safe drinking water, food and medical care after they failed to enter Bangladesh amid heightened patrols.

Amid untold sufferings of the persecuted ethnic minority Rohingyas, international agencies on Monday reported that Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army continued accusing each other for the violence.

*Bangladesh on Monday proposed joint operations by security forces along borders for containing alleged militant activities in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.*

Twelve more Rohingyas were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital taking to 20 the number of Rohingyas admitting to the hospital with bullet and burn injuries reportedly sustained in Myanmar violence.

Border Guard Bangladesh
thwarted attempts of intrusion by 546 Rohingyas on Monday.
Border guard battalion-2 commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel SM Ariful Islam said that they sent back at least 475 Rohingyas when they were trying to enter the country through different border points.

Border guard battalion-34 commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Manjurual Hassan Khan said that they sent back 71 Rohingyas to Myanmar through Balokhali border point.
Border guards and Bangladesh Coast Guard also sent back 331 Rohingyas on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Border guard director general Major General Abul Hossain said in Dhaka on Monday that they were on alert in defensive position. ‘But, we do not want to detail it. If someone is getting closure, we must retaliate…None will be allowed to cross zero-line.’

He said that they were showing humanitarian attitude to Rohingyas but many were also been sent back.

More than 100 people died since August 25 as scores of men purportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army ambushed Myanmar police posts with knives, guns and homemade explosives, killing at least a dozen security force members.

Rohingya refugee leaders in Bangladesh who have contact with the fleeing Rohingyas in Myanmar said that civilians, including women, children and elderly people, from Rakhine State assembled in no man’s lands along the border were facing untold sufferings in absence of food, shelter, safe drinking water and Medicare.

A Kutupalang Registered Rohingya camp leader said that these people were living under open sky or making shelter with plastic sheets to save themselves from scorching heat or monsoon rain. 
‘People have already finished dry food they carried and there is no Medicare and safe water. Many fell sick as they had to walk a lot,’ he said.

‘Local people are helping them with some food which is in no way near the enough,’ Gumdum union parishad chairman AKM Jahangir Kabir said, adding that 4,000-5,000 Rohingyas gathered along the Gumdum border adjacent areas.

Local people at Jalpaitali near Gumdum said that border guards tried to push back several thousand Rohingyas living there for the past two-three days under the open sky but the Rohingyas returned to the place within an hour as gun shots rang out on the Myanmar sides.

Border guard battalion-50 second in command Major Manjurul Islam said that Rohingyas returned to zero line as firing broke out on the other side of border.

Rohingya leaders from registered and unregistered camps and former Naikhyangchari upazila chairman Mohammad Ikbal said that about 2,500-3,000 Rohingyas sneaked into Bangladesh dodging border forces taking to 6,500-7,000 the number of Rohingyas entered Bangladesh in the past four days.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at its weekly humanitarian snapshot released on Monday said that as of Sunday an estimated 5,200 people were reported to have crossed the border into Cox’s Bazar since August 24.

News agency Agence France-Presse reported from Yangon that Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday accused Rohingya fighters of burning down homes and using child soldiers during a recent surge in violence in troubled Rakhine state, allegations denied by the extremists.
Both sides accused each other of committing fresh atrocities in recent days, accusations difficult to verify because the fighting was taking place in inaccessible villages.

The government department directly run by Suu Kyi, the State Counsellor’s Office, released a flurry of statements on Facebook, including grim pictures of civilians allegedly shot dead by militants.
‘Terrorists have been fighting security forces by using children at the frontline (and) setting fire (to) minority-ethnic villages,’ the office said it its latest statement on Monday.

The statement said that there should be ‘no concerns for civilians who are not linked with extremist terrorists.’ It called on Rohingyas to cooperate with security forces and not brandish ‘sticks, swords and weapons’ when security forces approached.

The extremist group behind the fighting––Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army––hit back with its own allegations on Monday. ‘While raiding Rohingya villages, the Burmese brutal military soldiers bring along with them groups of Rakhine (Buddhist) extremists to attack Rohingya villagers, loot Rohingyas’ properties and later burn down Rohingya houses,’ the group said via its Twitter account @ARSA_Official.

Bangkok based Asia Times on Monday reported that in an exclusive interview with Asia Times, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army said its August 25 attacks were staged in ‘self-defense’ and would continue until Rohingya rights was restored.

The surprise wave of attacks by the group on police and army posts in Rakhine State, their largest operation to date, was a defensive move aimed at pre-empting an escalating security force crackdown on both the rebels’ military wing and Rohingya civilian communities, a senior official of the group told Asia Times.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on August 26, the official said the campaign of Myanmar military suppression and the rebel counter-punch now pushed the majority Muslim northern region of Rakhine state into a state of ‘open war.’ He vowed ‘continued resistance’ until demand for the restoration of citizenship rights of Rohingyas within Myanmar was met.

Reuters reported that Myanmar security forces intensified operations against Rohingya insurgents on Monday, police and other sources said, following three days of clashes with militants in the worst violence involving Myanmar’s Muslim minority in five years.
The violence marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict simmered since October 2016, when a similar but much smaller series of attacks on security posts prompted a brutal military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.

‘Now the situation is not good. Everything depends on them––if they’re active, the situation will be tense,’ said police officer Tun Hlaing from Buthidaung township, referring to the Rohingya insurgents.
‘We split into two groups, one will provide security at police outposts and the other group is going out for clearance operation with the military,’ he said.

The Asian Legal Resource Centre and Bangladeshi human rights organisation Odhikar in a joint statement on Monday wished to bring the situation of the Rohingyas to the notice of the United Nations Human Rights Council. ALRC and Odhikar sought immediate, effective action from the international human rights community to protect the victim Rohingyas from ethnic cleansing by the military and security forces of Myanmar. 

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Monday urged the government and law enforcement agencies to provide shelter to Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar.
The BNP chairperson said the situation turned ‘worst’ due to ‘inattentive’ Bangladesh government’s ‘weak diplomatic efforts’ over the Rohingya crisis. 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/23001/rohingyas-along-border-left-without-food-water


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: What we know*
AFP . Yangon | Update: 22:33, Aug 28, 2017 




Rohingya Muslims are once more fleeing in droves towards Bangladesh, trying to escape the latest surge in violence in Rakhine state between a shadowy militant group and Myanmar’s military.

It is the newest chapter in the grim recent history of the Rohingya, a people of about one million reviled in Myanmar as illegal immigrants and denied citizenship.
*This is a fact box on them:
Who are they? -
The Rohingya are the world’s largest stateless community and of one of its most persecuted minorities.*

Using a dialect similar to that spoken in Chittagong in southeast Bangladesh, the Sunni Muslims are loathed by many in majority-Buddhist Myanmar who see them as illegal immigrants and call them “Bengali”-even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

They are not officially recognised as an ethnic group, partly due to a 1982 law stipulating that minorities must prove they lived in Myanmar prior to 1823 -- before the first Anglo-Burmese war-to obtain nationality.

Most live in the impoverished western state of Rakhine but are denied citizenship and harassed by restrictions on movement and work.

Another 400,000 live in Bangladeshi camps, although Dhaka only recognises a small portion as refugees.

Sectarian violence between the Rohingya and local Buddhist communities broke out in 2012, leaving more than 100 dead and the state segregated along religious lines.

More than 120,000 Rohingya fled over the following five years to Bangladesh and Southeast Asia, often braving perilous sea journeys controlled by brutal trafficking gangs.

Then last October things got much worse.

*What happened in October? -*
Despite decades of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.

But in October a small and previously unknown militant group-the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) -- staged a series of well coordinated and deadly attacks on security forces.

Myanmar’s military responded with a massive security crackdown. Some 87,000 new refugees flooded into Bangladesh bringing with them harrowing stories of murder, rape and burned villages.

The UN believes the army’s response many amount to ethnic cleansing, allegations denied by the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the army.

In recent months the day-to-day fighting died down, but civilians described being trapped between army “clearance operations” and an assassination campaign by the militants, who are murdering anyone suspected of collaboration.

Then last Friday the militants launched a new series of coordinated attacks, killing a dozen security personnel and sparking the latest refugee exodus as the military fought back.

More than 100 have died in the latest round of fighting.
*
What do we know about the militants? -*
They initially called themselves Harakah al-Yaqin (the Faith Movement) and its leader Ata Ulla adopted the rhetoric of other global jihadist movements.

The International Crisis Group says Ata Ullah was born to Rohingya parents in the Pakistani city of Karachi and grew up in Mecca. The group formed after the 2012 communal riots and gathered supporters before its 2016 attacks.

Myanmar authorities have previously said they have links to militants trained by the Pakistani Taliban. They declared them a terrorist organisation over the weekend.

In more recent months the group has become less publicly Islamic, changing its name to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

Members are not well armed. The October ambushes were largely done with swords, sticks and a few firearms, some of them homemade-though they did make off with stolen guns and ammunition.

Photographs of seized items again last weekend showed rudimentary weapons, largely swords, clubs and homemade explosives.

But statements also say the ambushes are being carried out by groups 300-500 strong, suggesting ARSA ranks have grown in recent months.
*
What’s Suu Kyi doing about it? -*
De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced widespread criticism for her stance on the Rohingya.

Her administration has dismissed concerns about rights abuses and refused to grant visas to UN officials tasked with investigating such allegations.

Analysts say Suu Kyi is hampered by the politically incendiary nature of the issue in Myanmar and the fact she has little control over the military.

On Thursday a panel led by former UN chief Kofi Annan which she commissioned released a report on how peace can be brought back to Rakhine.

Among its recommendations was an end to the state-sanctioned persecution of the Rohingya and a path to citizenship for them.

Within hours of the report’s release, renewed fighting broke out.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/international/news/157847/Rohingya-crisis-What-we-know


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## Banglar Bir

*Birth of an ethnic insurgency in Myanmar*
*The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army says its lethal rebellion is strictly homegrown of local grievances and not abetted by transnational terror groups. "We are not jihadists," a spokesman tells Asia Times *
The shadowy militant faction whose offensive late last week threatens to plunge Myanmar’s western Rakhine state into wider conflict, with real potential for large-scale communal violence, is committed to securing citizenship and basic civil rights within Myanmar for the state’s Rohingya Muslim population, a spokesman for its commander stressed to Asia Times in an exclusive interview.

He went on to pointedly reject suggestions that simply because it is Muslim the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has links with, or could be co-opted by, transnational jihadist terror groups.

“Out status as a recognized ethnic group within Myanmar must be restored,” said Abdullah, an authorized representative of Ataullah abu Ammar Junjuni, who heads ARSA. “As long as our demands are not met, resistance will continue and, if unfulfilled, those demands will be upgraded to another level.”

While declining to elaborate on what “another level” might involve, Abdullah stressed repeatedly that the ARSA’s fight is an ethno-nationalist one. “We are not jihadists. This is clear from ARSA’s modus operandi, the way it operates and is run, and the direction it’s moving in. None of this is in line with the goals of Pakistani or other jihadist groups. We are actually much more like any other (ethnic) armed group in Myanmar.”

In an extended interview with Asia Times one day after a wave of ARSA attacks on police posts and an army base across Rakhine state’s northern townships had left nearly 100 dead, Abdullah cautioned the international community against “any perceptions of us as terrorists” or “falling into the trap of the Myanmar government.”

Myanmar officials routinely refer to ARSA insurgents as “Bengali terrorists” and on August 27 the government formally outlawed the group as a “terrorist organization.” The term “Bengali” implies the state’s marginalized Rohingya community of at least 1.1 million are illegal interlopers from Bangladesh rather than Myanmar citizens entitled to civil rights.

Abdullah ridiculed the proposition of illegal Bangladeshi migration into Rakhine, which the military and successive Myanmar governments have used to justify a policy of denying the Rohingya community citizenship and restricting basic rights of travel and education.

“For one thing there is a heavy security force presence including police and military all along the border, so how is it these numbers of people somehow manage to cross in? For another, why would anyone seek to migrate to what is in effect an open prison?”

“Life in Arakan (Rakhine) in many areas is like something out of the Iron Age. In many place there is no electricity from the government yet. Why would anyone risk his life trying to sneak into such a place?”

Since the 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have in fact fled Myanmar to settle in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and the Middle East.

The controversial counter-insurgency campaign launched by the armed forces, or Tatmadaw, in October and November last year following ARSA attacks on three police posts pushed a further 75,000 – 80,000 civilians into Bangladesh, according to aid agencies. Since the latest upsurge of violence began on August 25, a further 4,000 have fled across the border, reports said.

Abdullah noted that ARSA began operating in Rakhine State in 2013 in response to anger and despair, particularly among Rohingya youth, following communal unrest in 2012. The rioting left scores dead and over 130,000 Rohingya confined to squalid camps for the internally displaced around the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, where they have languished ever since.

Against this backdrop, ARSA has developed as an essentially home-grown movement rather than an offshoot of earlier militant groups based in Bangladesh, most notably the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), which today is basically defunct.
“ARSA was a direct consequence of events in 2012 and reflects the emergence of a new generation – young people with access to social media who have experience of the world,” he said.

Part of that experience has clearly involved interaction with the wider Rohingya diaspora, from where its commander Ataullah Junjuni hails. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, to a family of Rohingya refugees, Ataullah later moved to Saudi Arabia, where among a Rohingya diaspora community of around 150,000 he served as an imam, or prayer leader, in a mosque*.*

Currently in his early 40s, he returned to Rakhine in 2013 after being in contact with young people from the state and rose to lead what was first a movement called Harakah al Yaqin (or Faith Movement) and later a clandestine military force, said Abdullah.

Whether Ataullah’s background in Pakistan had any bearing on the emergence of ARSA as a clearly well-organized and tactically competent guerrilla force remains unclear. According to Abdullah, military instructors who have been conducting training for militant recruits in remote camps in Rakhine since at least since 2014 are Rohingya who earlier served in the Myanmar police and military. Ataullah himself was trained in Rakhine by this cadre, added the ARSA spokesman.

Independent analysts who spoke to Asia Times view this version of events as improbable given the blanket discrimination faced by Rohingya in Myanmar, particularly in terms of service with the security forces. Rather more likely, in their assessment, albeit speculative, is that sympathetic ex-servicemen from other countries in the region have been recruited or volunteered their services as instructors.

Both official Myanmar and ARSA accounts concur, however, that military instruction has taken place at camps in jungle or mountain locations across the three northern townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung and particularly in the Mayu range, a line of hills which stretches south from the Bangladesh border between the flatlands of Maungdaw in the east and of Buthidaung to the west.

According to Abdullah, following the induction of new recruits who are required to swear an oath on the Koran pledging allegiance to the Rohingya cause, instruction is conducted at two levels. Basic training using wooden rifles lasts just one or two weeks and is intended essentially to instill discipline and basic guerrilla field-craft. A second module of advanced training lasts two to three months.

Abdullah provided no details on the content of the advanced training, but it is likely to include at very least familiarization with handguns, automatic rifles and machine guns and, importantly, skills in assembling improvised explosive devices (IEDS) of various types using different triggering methods.

It remains to be seen whether, as the conflict escalates and the Myanmar military focus operations in the Mayu Hills, ARSA is able to sustain the level of training it appears to have maintained since 2014.

Abdullah denied that ARSA had benefitted from consignments of weapons from across Myanmar’s border. However, as earlier reported in Asia Times, images of youths in sarongs and tee-shirts training with apparently new Kalashnikov assault rifles have been circulating in intelligence circles.

It also appears highly unlikely that the coordinated attacks of August 25 could have been launched on at least 25 security force positions without a far larger number of automatic weapons than was looted from three Border Guard Police posts attacked on October 9, 2016.

According to official figures released in the aftermath of the attacks, approximately 60-70 firearms were lost by the police in those attacks, some of which have been retrieved in subsequent raids and clashes.
http://www.atimes.com/article/birth-ethnic-insurgency-myanmar/


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## Banglar Bir

*The World doesn't hear the Cries of the Rohingyas: Turkish President
রোহিঙ্গাদের কান্না দেখতে পায় না বিশ্ব : এরদোয়ান*




29 Aug, 2017
*মিয়ানমারের সংখ্যালঘু রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের প্রতি সহায়তার বাড়াতে আন্তর্জাতিক সম্প্রদায়কে অাহ্বান জানিয়েছেন তুরস্কের প্রেসিডেন্ট রিসেপ তাইয়েপ এরদোয়ান। রোহিঙ্গাদের অধিকারের ব্যাপারে বিশ্ব এখন ‘অন্ধ এবং বধির’ বলে মন্তব্য করেছেন তিনি।

বিশ্বের অন্যতম বৃহত্তর রাষ্ট্রবিহীন সম্প্রদায় রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমরা বাংলাদেশে পালিয়ে যাচ্ছেন। মিয়ানমারের রাখাইনে রহস্যময় বিদ্রোহী ও সেনাবাহিনীর সাম্প্রতিক সহিংসতা থেকে পালানোর চেষ্টা করছেন তারা।*

*মঙ্গলবার জাতিসংঘের শরণার্থী বিষয়ক সংস্থা ইউএনএইচসিআর বলছে, গত তিনদিনে বাংলাদেশে তিন হাজারেরও বেশি রোহিঙ্গা প্রবেশ করেছেন। কীভাবে তারা মিয়ানমার সেনাবাহিনীর নিপীড়নের হাত থেকে বাঁচতে পালিয়ে এসেছেন সেই ভয়াবহ অভিজ্ঞতার কথাও তুলে ধরেছেন।

এরদোয়ান বলেন, দুর্ভাগ্যজন হলেও আমি বলতে পারি, মিয়ানমারে যা ঘটছে সেই ইস্যুতে বিশ্ব এখন ‘অন্ধ এবং বধির’। তুরস্কের প্রেসিডেন্ট হিসেবে তিন বছর পূর্তির দিনে টেলিভিশনে দেয়া এক ভাষণে তিনি এসব কথা বলেন। ‘বিশ্ব এখন শুনে না এবং দেখে না।’

বাংলাদেশমুখী রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের স্রোতকে তিনি অত্যন্ত বেদনাদায়ক বলেও মন্তব্য করেন। জাতিসংঘের সাধারণ পরিষদের আগামী মাসের অধিবেশনে রোহিঙ্গা নিপীড়ন নিয়ে আলোচনার আহ্বান জানান তিনি।*





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## Banglar Bir

TRT World

*“It’s like a big crime in Myanmar to be Muslim. They are terrorising us to wipe out the population.”




 https://www.facebook.com/




This weekend, more than 90 Rohingya Muslims were killed in Myanmar. According to the UN, they are one of the most persecuted minorities on the planet. So, who are the Rohingya and why do they live in apartheid conditions?*

*Press TV
Never ending plight of Rohingya Muslims.*








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*
স্বাধীন আরাকানের স্বপ্ন, রুখে দাঁড়াচ্ছে রোহিঙ্গারা*




বিডিটুডে.নেট:স্বাধীন আরাকানের স্বপ্ন, রুখে দাঁড়াচ্ছে রোহিঙ্গারা
*মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন রাজ্যে সেনা অভিযানে অন্তত ৮০ বিদ্রোহীসহ শতাধিক মানুষের মৃত্যু হয়েছে৷ কয়েক দশক ধরে চলা রোহিঙ্গা নির্যাতনের পর এবার মিলছে প্রতিরোধের আভাস৷…
NEWSOFBD.NET*


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## Banglar Bir

*Watch a brief history of Rohingya Muslims.*




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*Press TV*

*United Nations expresses concern over reports of mass killing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar*




*bdtoday.net*

*‘তুমি বাংলাদেশে যাও, বেঁচে না থাকলে জান্নাতে আমাদের দেখা হবে’*




‘তুমি বাংলাদেশে যাও, বেঁচে না থাকলে জান্নাতে আমাদের দেখা হবে’ - মনিটর নিউজ
বিশেষ প্রতিনিধি গত কয়েক দিনে মিয়ানমারের রাখাইনে রোহিঙ্গাদের হত্যাযজ্ঞ ও বাড়িঘর থেকে উচ্ছেদের ঘটনায় অ
MONITORBD.NEWS


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## bluesky

August 30, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:03 AM, August 30, 2017
*Stranded in no man’s land*
*Several thousand Rohingyas from Myanmar build makeshift shelters there*





BGB members stand guard at no man's land at Tomru Bazar in Bandarban's Naikhyangchhari upazila as some Rohingya children wade across a canal to collect drinking water. Fleeing the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State, their families reached the area four days ago. According to locals, several thousand Rohingyas have been living in tents set up along the canal. Photo: Anisur Rahman

Pinaki Roy and Mohammad Ali Jinnat

Several thousand Rohingyas from Myanmar, mostly women, children and elderly people, are waiting in no man's land along the Naikhyangchhari border to enter Bangladesh territory.

Though Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) remains active against trespassing, more than 10,000 Rohingyas have already managed to get into Bangladesh through several points of the 274km Bangladesh-Myanmar border of Cox's Bazar and Bandarban.

Violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine State on Friday triggering a fresh influx of refugees towards Bangladesh. 

Every day, the Myanmar military is conducting patrols by helicopter along the border. Sounds of gunshots came from the other side yesterday morning.

Some Rohingya people with bullet and burn injuries have been admitted to different hospitals in the last three days. They claim to be the victims of Myanmar military offensive.





A Rohingya man passes a child through a border fence near Maungdaw on the border with Bangladesh. Photo: AFP/Reuters/Anisur Rahman


“A total of seven bullet-hit patients have been admitted to our hospital in the last two days,” Dr Shahin Abdur Rahman Chowdhury, resident medical officer of Cox's Bazar Sadar Medical Hospital, told The Daily Star yesterday.

At least 11 others with bullet and burn injuries have come to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

The local authorities are officially denying that already thousands of Rohingyas have arrived in Bangladesh since the outbreak of fresh conflicts in Myanmar. 

“People are coming to Bangladesh like floodwater. My estimation based on reports of different agencies is the number of newly arrived Rohingyas will be 20,000 to 25,000. But I cannot tell the media about it revealing my identity,” said a top official, talking to The Daily Star.

Sarowar Kamal, upazila nirbahi officer of Naikhyangchhari, Bandarban, claims that no Rohingya has entered Bangladesh territory and those who crossed the Myanmar border are still waiting in no man's land.

UNHCR in a statement yesterday said that a total of 5,200 people came to Bangladesh from Myanmar as of Sunday.

*LIFE IN NO MAN'S LAND*
Crossing the barbed-wire fence marking the Myanmar border, Rohingyas have put up a few hundred makeshift tents using polythene sheets and bamboos by the Tambru canal near Tambru Bazar in Ghumdhum, Naikhyangchhari.

A few refugees are allowed to cross the knee-deep canal to go to Tambru Bazar to buy supplies, including food and medicine, when needed. They have to return after the shopping.

They can collect drinking water from houses in Vajabunia and Tambru villages. 






Rohingyas try to enter Bangladesh from no man's land in Cox's Bazar as smoke rises in the background. There were reports of gunshots in the area. Some Rohingyas, Photo: AFP/Reuters/Anisur Rahman


Holding an infant in her arms, Ayesha Begum, a woman from Naichudeng village in Dekibunia of Myanmar, was seen crossing the canal. She was going to a physician at the marketplace as her baby was suffering from cold and fever.

Ayesha Begum said they had left their village two days ago for Bangladesh fearing persecution by Myanmar army.

Zahed Hossain, headmaster of Vajabunia Government Primary School, said at least five thousand people have taken shelter on the other side of the canal.

He reckons two to three thousand people already managed to go to different camps inside Bangladesh in the last two or three days.

“People made this temporary camp across more than one square kilometre area,” said Mohammed Hossain, a resident of Tambru village.

Some Rohingyas in no man's land near Jolpaitoli were seen with cattle brought from Myanmar. These correspondents found at least 50 cows at that point as hundreds of refugees were waiting to enter Bangladesh territory. 

Thousands of Rohingyas have made similar temporary shelters also in no man's land near some other remote areas including Chakdhala, Rizu Aamtali, Borochhankhola and Hatimora of Naikhyangchhari.

A local journalist who visited the areas told The Daily Star that many such tents have mushroomed in two rubber plantations and on some hill slopes of the upazila. 






Walk along the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf road on way to Ukhia of Cox's Bazar. Thousands of Rohingyas have been fleeing ongoing military operations in Myanmar's Rakhine State since Friday. The photos were taken in the last two days. Photo: AFP/Reuters/Anisur Rahman


*NEW ARRIVAL IN CAMPS*
Rohingyas arriving every day are being sheltered by their relatives in Kutupalong and Balukhali unregistered refugee camps.

Around five hundred of them came to the Kutupalong camp yesterday morning from several villages of Maungdaw in Rakhine State. 

Abul Hossain is from Gurkhali village of Maungdaw. He said almost all the people from Gurkhali, Mazarpara and Lemsi and Reika villages either arrived in Bangladesh or were trying to come.

If BGB men do not allow them in, they try some other points, he said when asked how they enter the country despite patrolling by border guards. There are reportedly many unguarded points on Bangladesh-Myanmar border. 

This correspondent found at least one hundred families waiting at the entrance to the Kutupalong and Balukhali camps yesterday. Some of them came empty-handed; some brought utensils and live chickens.

Local sources said Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) have set up a medical camp at Kutupalong to treat injured Rohingyas. But they were not allowing any journalist there.

Asked how many injured they have treated so far, Sazzad Hossain, communication officer of MSF, a humanitarian organisation, said they were not providing any medical information to journalists.

Meanwhile, BGB pushed back 51 Rohingya people to Myanmar on Monday night as they were trying to enter Bangladesh illegally.

The border guards imposed an embargo on fishing in the Naf River, which marks the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. 






*Related Topics*

Reactions: Like Like:
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## Banglar Bir

http://en.prothom-alo.com/
*Allow fleeing Rohingyas to seek shelter in Bangladesh: UN*
UNB . Dhaka | Update: 17:34, Aug 29, 2017
_*Read more: UNHCR seeks open borders for people fleeing Rakhine*_

This latest round of violence comes after the attacks on Myanmar security forces on 25 August.

The UN secretary general, who condemned those attacks, reiterated the importance of addressing the root causes of the violence and the responsibility of the government of Myanmar to provide security and assistance to those in need, according to the statement issued on Myanmar a copy of which UNB obtained.

“Many of those fleeing are women and children, some of whom are wounded,” said the spokesperson.

The UN chief called for humanitarian agencies to be granted unfettered and free access to affected communities in need of assistance and protection.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/157933/Allow-fleeing-Rohingyas-to-seek-shelter-in


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## Banglar Bir

*Take back Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize*
Emerson Yuntho Jakarta, Indonesia




[versi Bahasa Indonesia]
_*“No one told me that I was to be interviewed by a muslim.”*_

This statement was made by Aung San Suu Kyi, after her interview by a BBC Today anchor, Mishal Husain, in 2013. Suu Kyi’s disappointment may be caused by the question asked by Husain on the hardships experienced by muslims in Myanmar. Suu Kyi was also asked to condemn the anti-muslims and those who acted violently against the muslims that led the Rohingyas to leave Myanmar (from Popham, Peter, Journalist for The Independent, The Lady and The Generals — Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s Struggle for Freedom, 2016).

Many people were caught by surprise that those words came from Suu Kyi, a democracy hero in Myanmar and a 2012 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. It might only be one racially-insensitive sentence, but that was one sentence too many, and the meaning is too much for those who love peace.

Many people in many countries, including in Indonesia, respect and admire Suu Kyi. She is known as a figure of patience, of peace loving, who eventually took back the power in her country peacefully from the military dictatorship in Myanmar. Her statement made many more disappointed and angry. This opens up the prevailing question regarding Suu Kyi’s position on the muslim minority in Myanmar. There has been no official position from Suu Kyi with regards to the human right violations that have been rampant as experienced by the Rohingya minority.

Over the past three years more than 140,000 Rohingya muslims have been living in grave conditions in refugee camps in Myanmar and in many other countries, including Indonesia.

What is wrong with being a muslim, Suu Kyi? Doesn't democracy and human rights teach us to respect differences in beliefs and celebrate brotherhood and sisterhood? Whatever the religion, shouldn’t Suu Kyi and all of us respect each other and not discriminate against other human beings?

Coming from a democratic hero, one racist statement is one too many. It destroys the democratic values that respects differences in beliefs. As a laureate of Nobel Peace Prize, a racist statement renders the peaceful values to be artificial, giving rise to suspicions even conflicts.

The Nobel Prize is the highest prize only to be given to “people who have given their utmost to international brotherhood and sisterhood.” These peaceful values need to be nurtured by the laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize, including Suu Kyi, until their last days. When a laureate cannot maintain peace, then for the sake of peace itself the prize needs to be returned or confiscated by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

Therefore, we hereby demand the Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee confiscate or take back the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi. Only those who are serious in keeping the world peace may be awarded such a coveted Prize.
https://www.change.org/p/take-back-..._campaign=share_petition&utm_term=autopublish





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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar - The World’s Most Silent Genocide*
AUGUST 29 ,2017
BY CJ WERLEMAN 




It is the world’s most silent genocide. So silent, in fact, that even in the unlikely event you have heard about it, it’s more than likely you know only its foggiest details.

Under the UN Geneva Convention, the definition of genocide describes both a mental and physical element: “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,” and includes killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

In every sense of the definition, the government of Myanmar is carrying out genocide against its 1.3 million Rohingya Muslim population – one that is being ignored, in the most part, by the international community, despite acknowledgement by the United Nations that mass killings, disappearances, torture, gang rapes, brutal beatings, property dispossession, and forced deportations are occurring in increasing frequency and ferocity.

The UN’s 2017 report into Myanmar’s savage “crackdown” on the country’s northern Rakhine state described the violence as likely “crimes against humanity,” and that “the gravity and scale of these allegations begs the robust reaction of the international community,” but the international community, particularly Western leaders and media continues to ignore Myanmar’s systematic extermination of Rohingya Muslims.

“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,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

ANTHONY BOURDAIN SHOULD STICK TO FOOD
MYANMAR POLICE IN BUTHIDAUNG: ROHINGYAS WILL BE SUED IF THEY PRAY AT MOSQUE
ROHINGYA AND THE BURMESE GENERALS: HOW TO FORGE A DEMOCRACY AND GET AWAY WITH IT
MYANMAR RACISM INTENSIFIES WITH FIRST "MUSLIM-FREE" ELECTION
The cruelty inflicted upon these people by the state obligated to protect their security is on a par with the level of depraved barbarism carried out by the self-proclaimed Islamic State, but whereas the terrorist group’s psychopathic violence attracts global headlines, the cruelty mete out by Myanmar’s security forces goes largely unknown.

Cruelty that includes the slaughter of babies and young children with knives; deliberate destruction of food supplies, and the burning and looting of entire villages. Of 101 Rohingya Muslim women interviewed by the UN, more than half said they had been raped or sexually assaulted.

Sattar Islam Nirob is a 28-year-old Rohingya Muslim refugee in one of the three refugee camps set up inside the Bangladesh border. He and his family have taken refuge in Kutapalong refugee camps, which now holds 13,766 Rohingya Muslim refugees alongside another more than 65,000 held in a neighboring “make shift camp,” Nirob told me.

Nirob said that fresh assaults carried out by Myanmar’s security forces are pushing a rapidly increasing number of Rohingya Muslims towards the Bangladeshi border. Yesterday he estimated there to be more than 3000 waiting, more like pleading, for refugee status, while he estimated a further 1,200 had been arrested by Bangladeshi border patrol officers for trying to cross without a permit.

Yesterday, Bangladeshi security forces forcibly sent back 90 Rohingya Muslims trying to flee Myanmar, and then began firing mortars and machine guns at them, according to _Al Jazeera_.

But even when the “fortunate” few of the likely hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Rohingya Muslims make it safely into neighboring Bangladesh, the refugee camps that await them can only be described as horrific.

He described to me conditions inside Kutapalong camp; breaking down in tears as he recounted witnessing babies starving and dehydrating to death due to a lack of water and emergency milk supplies. Others have described pathways “paved with sewage,” and a “claustrophobic crush of mud huts and tents packed so tightly together that they looked like they were built on top of each other.” This has been Nirob’s home for the past two years. Too afraid to return to Myanmar in the knowledge he’d face certain death, torture, or imprisonment.

When I asked Nirob if he felt his situation was hopeless, he said he had not abandoned hope in the international community, saying, “If the US government and United Nations can work together to pressure the Myanmar government, it will greatly improve the situation for all Rohingya refugees.”

Despite Nirob’s continued optimism in the face of such indescribable adversary, efforts to pressure Myanmar’s de facto leader, San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, have fallen short. Not only has she blocked the UN from investigating Myanmar’s human rights violations, but also she maligned Rohingya Muslims as “terrorists” and/or supporters of terrorism.

Clearly, the international community must do more to halt Myanmar’s systematic extermination and expulsion of Rohingya Muslims. To do nothing is to provide the Muslim world of yet another clear example of the West’s refusal to intervene when Muslim lives are endangered.
*
CJ Werleman is a journalist, political commentator, and author of 'The New Atheist Threat: the Dangerous Rise of Secular Extremists.*
https://ahtribune.com/human-rights/1868-rakhine-genocide.html


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## TopCat




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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

Press TV added a new video: WATCH: Never ending plight of Rohingya Muslims.



*WATCH: The Never ending plight of a voiceless nation!




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*


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar villages burn as Rakhine unrest rages*
AFP
Published at 07:37 PM August 30, 2017





Pictures of victims of violence in the state of Rakhine are displayed on a screen during a news conference held by National security Advisor U Thaung Tun at National reconciliation and peace center office in Yangon, Myanmar August 29, 2017 *REUTERS*
*The violence, which erupted six days ago after Rohingya militants staged surprise raids on police posts, has shown little sign of abating, leaving at least 110 confirmed dead and sending thousands fleeing*
Smoke billowed from at least three burning villages in the remote section of Rakhine state where Myanmar’s military is carrying out sweeps for militants.

The violence, which erupted six days ago after Rohingya militants staged surprise raids on police posts, has shown little sign of abating, leaving at least 110 confirmed dead and sending thousands fleeing.

The displaced include ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, thousands of whom have massed at the “zero line” border with Bangladesh which they are barred from crossing.

The bodies of two Rohingya women and two children washed up on Bangladeshi soil on Wednesday, an official there said, as villagers took to rickety boats or tried to swim across a frontier river.

On Wednesday villagers in Rakhine continued to flee their homes.

A Rohingya villager near the town of Maungdaw, speaking on condition of anonymity, said residents fled his hamlet as security forces approached and torched their homes.

It was not immediately possible to verify his account but Rohingya who have made it into Bangladesh have brought similar testimony with them.

Large fires were visible early Wednesday from the May Yu river that cuts through the area worst hit by unrest.

*Maximum restraint?*
Outlying villages have witnessed some of the worst violence, raising fears security operations are shielded from scrutiny by the danger and inaccessibility of the area.

Rohingya villagers are stuck between police and troops hunting down the insurgents and militants offering sporadic resistance.

But testimony gathered from the displaced reaching Bangladesh suggests some Rohinyga men are heeding a call-to-arms by the militants and are staying behind to fight in their villages.

The Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army claims its men launched Friday’s surprise attacks on police posts, killing 11 state officials, with knives, homemade explosives and a few guns.

After years in which the Rohingya largely avoided violence, the group last October carried out deadly attacks on police posts.

That prompted a months-long security crackdown by Myanmar’s army which left scores dead and forced 87,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

The UN believes that military crackdown may have amounted to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya – allegations denied by the army.

On Sunday Pope Francis led mounting international calls for the protection of “our Rohingya brothers”.

The UN has also urged Myanmar to protect civilians during its operations and called on Bangladesh to allow the displaced into their territory – something Dhaka is loath to do given it already hosts 400,000 displaced Rohingya.

A Myanmar government official on Tuesday said security forces would use “maximum restraint” in coming days but insisted on the country’s right to defend itself from “terrorists”.

Myanmar’s Rohingya are the world’s largest stateless minority and endure severe restrictions on their movements.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/08/30/myanmar-villages-burn-rakhine-unrest-rages/


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## Banglar Bir

02:58 PM, September 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:06 PM, September 01, 2017
*Deportation move of Rohingya refugees challenged in India*
Star Online Report

Two Rohingya refugees have moved India’s Supreme Court challenging the decision to deport them back to Myanmar, where they faced persecution, on various grounds including that such a move is in violation of international conventions.

*The Indian apex court today agreed to hear the petition, filed by the Rohingya migrants, on Monday a plea challenging the decision to deport illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants back to Myanmar, on various grounds including that it violated international human rights conventions, reports our correspondent from New Delhi.
*
A Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, considered the submissions of lawyer Prashant Bhushan that the plea required urgent hearing in view of the decision of the government to send Rohingyas back to their native land.

*India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had issued notice to the Indian government on August 18 over its plan to deport the Rohingya immigrants who are residing in different states and cities of the country.*

The Rohingyas, who fled to India after violence in the Western Rakhine province of Myanmar, have settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and its adjoining areas and Rajasthan.

India’s Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had said in Parliament on August 9 that according to available data, more than 14,000 Rohingyas, registered with the UNHCR, were staying in India.

He had said that around 40,000 Rohingyas were staying in India illegally.

In a communication to all states, the Indian Home Ministry had said the rise of terrorism in the last few decades has become a serious concern for most countries as illegal migrants are prone to getting recruited by terrorist outfits.

The federal Indian government has directed the governments in states to set up a task force at district level to identify and deport illegally-staying foreign nationals.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/m...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Who are the Rohingya Muslims?

Why are the more than one million Rohingya in Myanmar considered the 'world's most persecuted minority'?*

*They are an ethnic Muslim group who have lived for centuries in the majority Buddhist Myanmar. Currently, there are about 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims who live in the Southeast Asian country.

The Rohingya speak Rohingya or Ruaingga, a dialect that is distinct to others spoken in Rakhine State and throughout Myanmar. They are not considered one of the country's 135 official ethnic groups and have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.*

*Nearly all of the Rohingya in Myanmar live in the western coastal state of Rakhine and are not allowed to leave without government permission. It is one the poorest states in the country with ghetto-like camps and a lack of basic services and opportunities.

Due to ongoing violence and persecution, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighbouring countries either by land or boat over the course of many decades.
Where are the Rohingya from?
Muslims have lived in the area now known as Myanmar since as early as the 12th century, according to many historians and Rohingya groups.

The Arakan Rohingya National Organisation has said, "Rohingyas have been living in Arakan from time immemorial," referring to the area now known as Rakhine.

During the more than 100 years of British rule (1824-1948), there was a significant amount of migration of labourers to what is now known as Myanmar from today's India and Bangladesh. Because the British administered Myanmar as a province of India, such migration was considered internal, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The migration of labourers was viewed negatively by the majority of the native population.

After independence, the government viewed the migration that took place during British rule as "illegal, and it is on this basis that they refuse citizenship to the majority of Rohingya," HRW said in a 2000 report. 

This has led many Buddhists to consider the Rohingya as Bengali, rejecting the term Rohingya as a recent invention, created for political reasons.

How and why are they being persecuted? And why aren't they recognised?
Shortly after Myanmar's independence from the British in 1948, the Union Citizenship Act was passed, defining which ethnicities could gain citizenship. According to a 2015 report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, the Rohingya were not included. The act, however, did allow those whose families had lived in Myanmar for at least two generations to apply for identity cards. 

Rohingya were initially given such identification or even citizenship under the generational provision. During this time, several Rohingya also served in parliament. 

After the 1962 military coup in Myanmar, things changed dramatically for the Rohingya. All citizens were required to obtain national registration cards. The Rohingya, however, were only given foreign identity cards, which limited the jobs and educational opportunities they could pursue and obtain.

In 1982, a new citizenship law was passed, which effectively rendered the Rohingya stateless. Under the law, Rohingya were again not recognised as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups. The law established three levels of citizenship. In order to obtain the most basic level (naturalised citizenship), there must be proof that the person's family lived in Myanmar prior to 1948, as well as fluency in one of the national languages. Many Rohingya lack such paperwork because it was either unavailable or denied to them.

As a result of the law, their rights to study, work, travel, marry, practice their religion and access health services have been and continue to be restricted. The Rohingya cannot vote and even if they jump through the citizenship test hoops, they have to identify as "naturalised" as opposed to Rohingya, and limits are placed on them entering certain professions like medicine, law or running for office.

Since the 1970s, a number of crackdowns on the Rohingya in Rakhine State have forced hundreds of thousands to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, as well as Malaysia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. During such crackdowns, refugees have often reported rape, torture, arson and murder by Myanmar security forces.

After the killings of nine border police in October 2016, troops started pouring into villages in Rakhine State. The government blamed what it called fighters from an armed Rohingya group. The killings led to a security crackdown on villages where Rohingya lived. During the crackdown, government troops were accused of an array of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killing, rape and arson - allegations the government denied.

In November 2016, a UN official accused the government of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims. It was not the first time such an accusation has been made.

In April 2013, for example, HRW said Myanmar was conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. The government has consistently denied such accusations.

Most recently, Myanmar's military has imposed a crackdown on the country's Rohingya population after police posts and an army base were attacked in late August.

Residents and activists have described scenes of troops firing indiscriminately at unarmed Rohingya men, women and children. The government, however, has said nearly 100 people were killed after armed men from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched a raid on police outposts in the region.

Since the violence erupted, rights groups have documented fires burning in at least 10 areas of Myanmar's Rakhine State. More than 50,000 people have fled the violence, with thousands trapped in a no-man's land between the two countries. 

According to the UN, hundreds of civilians who have tried to enter Bangladesh have been pushed back by patrols. Many have also been detained and forcibly returned to Myanmar. *

*How many Rohingya have fled Myanmar and where have they gone?
Since the late 1970s, nearly one million Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar due to widespread persecution.

According to the most recently available data from the United Nations in May, more than 168,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since 2012.
In October 2016, military crackdowns on the Rohingya population forced about 87,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

Many Rohingya also risked their lives trying to get to Malaysia by boat across the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Between 2012 and 2015, more than 112,000 made the dangerous journey.

The UN estimated that there are as many as 420,000 Rohingya refugees in Southeast Asia. Additionally, there are around 120,000 internally displaced Rohingya.

The violence in Myanmar's northwest that began in late August has forced around 27,000 Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh, while another 20,000 are stranded between the two countries, Reuters reported, citing UN sources.*

*What do Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar government say about the Rohingya?
State Chancellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the de facto leader of Myanmar, has refused to really discuss the plight of the Rohingya.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her government do not recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic group and have blamed violence in Rakhine, and subsequent military crackdowns, on those they call "terrorists".

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate does not have control over the military but has been criticised for her failure to condemn indiscriminate force used by troops, as well as to stand up for the rights of the more than one million Rohingya in Myanmar.

OPINION: Aung San Suu Kyi's inexcusable silence
The government has also repeatedly rejected accusations of abuses. In February 2017, the UN published a report that found that government troops "very likely" committed crimes against humanity since renewed military crackdowns began in October 2016.

At the time, the government did not directly address the findings of the report and said it had the "the right to defend the country by lawful means" against "increasing terrorist activities", adding that a domestic investigation was enough.

In April, however, Aung San Suu Kyi said in a rare interview with the BBC that the phrase "ethnic cleansing" was "too strong" a term to describe the situation in Rakhine.

"I don't think there is ethnic cleansing going on," she said. "I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening."

In September 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi entrusted former UN chief Kofi Annan with finding ways to heal the long-standing divisions in the region. While many welcomed the commission and its findings, which were released this August, Azeem Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Policy, argued it was just a way for Aung San Suu Kyi to "pacify the global public opinion and try to demonstrate to the international community that she is doing what she can to resolve the issue".

Annan was not given the mandate to investigate specific cases of human rights abuses, but rather one for long-term economic development, education and healthcare.

When setting up the commission, Aung San Suu Kyi's government said it would abide by its findings. The commission urged the government to end the highly militarised crackdown on neighbourhoods where Rohingya live, as well as scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship. The government has not commented on these recommendations since the report was released in late August.

The government has often denied journalists and aid workers access to Rakhine State. Aung San Suu Kyi's office has also accused aid groups of helping those it considers to be "terrorists".

OPINION: Myanmar needs to get serious about peace
In January, Yanghee Lee, a UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said she was denied access to certain parts of Rakhine and was only allowed to speak to Rohingya who had been pre-approved by the government. 

The country has also denied visas to members of a UN probe investigating the violence and alleged abuses in Rakhine.

What does Bangladesh say about the Rohingya?
There are nearly half a million Rohingya refugees living in mostly makeshift camps in Bangladesh. The majority remain unregistered.

Bangladesh considers most of those who have crossed its borders and are living outside of camps as having "illegally infiltrated" the country. Bangladesh has often tried to prevent Rohingya refugees from crossing its border. 

OPINION: Regional actors should take a stand against Myanmar
In late January, the country resurrected a plan to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to a remote island that is prone to flooding and has also been called "uninhabitable" by rights groups. Under the plan, which was originally introduced in 2015, authorities would move undocumented Myanmar nationals to Thengar Char in the Bay of Bengal.

Rights groups have decried the proposal, saying the island completely floods during monsoon season. The UN also called the forced relocation "very complex and controversial".

Most recently, the government in Bangladesh has reportedly proposed a joint military operation in Rakhine to aid Myanmar's battle against armed fighters in the area. The foreign ministry has also expressed fear that the renewed violence will cause a new influx of refugees to cross its border.*

*What does the international community say about the Rohingya?
The international community has labelled the Rohingya the "most persecuted minority in the world".

The UN, as well as several rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have consistently decried the treatment of the Rohingya by Myanmar and neighbouring countries.

The UN has said that it is "very likely" that the military committed grave human rights abuses in Rakhine that may amount to war crimes, allegations the government denies.

OPINION: Only international pressure can save Rohingya now
In March, the UN adopted a resolution to set up an independent, international mission to investigate the alleged abuses. It stopped short of calling for a Commission of Inquiry, the UN's highest level of investigation.

The UN investigators must provide a verbal update in September and a full report next year on their findings.

Rights groups have criticised the government's reluctance to accept the UN investigators.

Human Rights Watch warned that Myanmar's government risked getting bracketed with "pariah states" like North Korea and Syria if it did not allow the UN to investigate alleged crimes.

READ MORE: Myanmar - UN probe 'can only aggravate' Rakhine tension

Most recently, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" about the ongoing violence in Rakhine.
"This turn of events is deplorable," the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said. "It was predicted and could have been prevented," said Hussain, adding that "decades of persistent and systematic human rights violations, including the very violent security responses to the attacks since October 2016, have almost certainly contributed to the nurturing of violent extremism, with everyone ultimately losing."

Both UN officials said they completely supported the findings of the advisory commission, led by Kofi Annan, and urged the government to fulfil its recommendations.

OPINION: The Rohingya crisis and the role of the OIC
What is the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army?
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), formerly known as the al-Yaqeen Faith Movement, released a statement under its new name in March 2017, saying it was obligated to "defend, salvage and protect [the] Rohingya community".
The group is considered a "terrorist" organisation by the Myanmar government. 

The group said it would do so "with our best capacities as we have the legitimate right under international law to defend ourselves in line with the principle of self defence".

It added that it does "not associate with any terrorist group across the world" and does "not commit any form of terrorism against any civilian regardless of their religious and ethnic origin".

The statement also said: "We […] declare loud and clear that our defensive attacks have only been aimed at the oppressive Burmese regime in accordance with international norms and principles until our demands are fulfilled."

The group has claimed responsibility for an attack on police posts and an army base in Rakhine State. According to the government nearly 400 people were killed, the majority of whom were members of the ARSA. Rights groups, however, say hundreds of civilians have been killed by security forces. 

According to the International Crisis group, the ARSA has ties to Rohingya living in Saudi Arabia.

The Myanmar government formally categorised the group as a "terrorist" organisation on August 25.
Source: Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/rohingya-muslims-170831065142812.html*


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## Banglar Bir

*Turkey to Bangladesh: Open your doors to Rohingya Muslims, we'll cover all expenses*
DAILY SABAH WITH ANADOLU AGENCY
ISTANBUL
Asia Pacific Over 18,000 Rohingya Muslims fled violence in Myanmar last week, IOM says 
DiplomacyErdoğan conducts telephone diplomacy with Muslim leaders on Rohingya crisis 
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has called on Bangladesh to open its doors to Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.

Speaking at a Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Eid al-Adha celebration event in the Mediterranean province of Antalya on Friday, Çavuşoğlu reiterated Turkey's call to Bangladesh to open its doors to Rohingya people, and said that Turkey would pay all the expenses.

"We have also mobilized the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. We will hold a summit regarding the Rakhine state this year. We need to find a decisive and permanent solution to this problem," the minister added.

He said that no other Muslim country other than Turkey is showing sensitivity towards the massacres happening in Myanmar.

In terms of humanitarian aid in the world, Turkey ranks 2nd after the United States with $6 billion and $6.3 billion respectively, Çavuşoğlu added.

Çavuşoğlu's comments and offer comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is holding numerous phone calls with Muslim leaders all over the world to call for intensified efforts to solve the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. Erdoğan has so far spoken with the heads of states of 13 countries on the occasion of Eid al-Adha and to convey his concerns about the situation in Rakhine.

Çavuşoğlu also reportedly spoke on the phone with former U.N. Secretary General and head of Advisory Commission on Rakhine State Kofi Annan.

Violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state on Aug. 25 when the country's security forces launched an operation against the Rohingya Muslim community. It triggered a fresh influx of refugees towards neighboring Bangladesh, though the country sealed off its border to refugees.

Media reports said Myanmar security forces used disproportionate force, displacing thousands of Rohingya villagers and destroying their homes with mortars and machine guns.

The region has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.

A security crackdown launched last October in Maungdaw, where Rohingya make up the majority, led to a U.N. report on human rights violations by security forces that indicated crimes against humanity.

The U.N. documented mass gang-rape, killings -- including infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances. Rohingya representatives have said approximately 400 people have been slain during the crackdown.
https://www.dailysabah.com/diplomac...s-to-rohingya-muslims-well-cover-all-expenses


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/








__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*Turkey’s Erdogan calls killing of Rohingya in Myanmar genocide*
Reuters
Published at 03:00 PM September 02, 2017




Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan talks to media after prayers for the Muslim Eid al-Adha celebration in Istanbul, Turkey September 1, 2017*Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Palace/Handout via Reuters*
*Erdogan has long strived to take a position of leadership among the world’s Muslim community*
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the death of hundreds of Rohingya in Myanmar over the past week constituted a genocide aimed at Muslim communities in the region.

Nearly 400 people have died in fighting that has rocked Myanmar’s northwest for a week, new official data showed, making it probably the deadliest bout of violence to engulf the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in decades.

“There is a genocide there. They remain silent towards this… All those looking away from this genocide carried out under the veil of democracy are also part of this massacre,” Erdogan said at his ruling AK Party’s Eid al-adha celebrations in Istanbul.

The army says it is conducting clearance operations against “extremist terrorists” to protect civilians.

Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam, has long strived to take a position of leadership among the world’s Muslim community. He said it was Turkey’s moral responsibility to take a stand against the events in Myanmar.

Around 38,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar, United Nations sources said, a week after Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, prompting clashes and a military counteroffensive.

Erdogan said the issue would be discussed in detail when world leaders convene for the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 12 in New York.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2...ogan-calls-killing-rohingya-myanmar-genocide/


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## Banglar Bir

06:58 PM, September 02, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 09:21 PM, September 02, 2017
*Over 2,600 houses burnt in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar*
*58,600 Rohingyas flee into Bangladesh from Myanmar*




A group of Rohingya refugee people walk towards Bangladesh after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 1, 2017. Photo: Reuters

Reuters, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar's northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.

About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.

Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive.

But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army is aimed at trying to force them out.

The treatment of Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.

The clashes and army crackdown have killed nearly 400 people and more than 11,700 "ethnic residents" have been evacuated from the area, the government said, referring to the non-Muslim residents.

READ MORE: Exodus of refugees turns fatal
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.

"A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists," the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. The group has been declared a terrorist organisation by the government.




Rohingya children cross the Bangladesh-Myanmar border fence as they try to enter Bangladesh in Bandarban, Bangladesh on August 29, 2017. Photo: Reuters
But Human Rights Watch, which analysed satellite imagery and accounts from Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, said the Myanmar security forces deliberately set the fires.

"New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine state may be far worse than originally thought," said the group's deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.

*FULL CAPACITY*
Near the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks set up crude tents or tried to squeeze into available shelters or homes of locals.

"The existing camps are near full capacity and numbers are swelling fast. In the coming days there needs to be more space," said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Vivian Tan, adding more refugees were expected.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries. Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya, more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.

Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.

"The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires...All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot," he said.

Reuters could not independently verify these accounts as access for independent journalists to northern Rakhine has been restricted since security forces locked down the area in October.

Speaking to soldiers, government staff and Rakhine Buddhists affected by the conflict on Friday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said there is no "oppression or intimidation" against the Muslim minority and "everything is within the framework of the law".

"The Bengali problem was a long-standing one which has become an unfinished job," he said, using a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.

Many aid programmes running in northern Rakhine prior to the outbreak of violence, including life-saving food assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP), have been suspended since the fighting broke out.

"Food security indicators and child malnutrition rates in Maungdaw were already above emergency thresholds before the violence broke out, and it is likely that they will now deteriorate even further," said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.

More than 80,000 children may need treatment for malnutrition in northern Rakhine and many of them reported "extreme" food insecurity, WFP said in July.

In Bangladesh, Tan of UNHCR said more shelters and medical care were needed. "There's a lot of pregnant women and lactating mothers and really young children, some of them born during the flight. They all need medical attention," she said.

Among new arrivals, 22-year-old Tahara Begum gave birth to her second child in a forest on the way to Bangladesh.

"It was the hardest thing I've ever done," she said. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/s...houses-burnt-in-rakhine-state-myanmar-1457272

06:58 PM, September 02, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 09:21 PM, September 02, 2017
*Over 2,600 houses burnt in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar*
*58,600 Rohingyas flee into Bangladesh from Myanmar*




A group of Rohingya refugee people walk towards Bangladesh after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 1, 2017. Photo: Reuters

Reuters, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar's northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.

About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.

Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive.

But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army is aimed at trying to force them out.

The treatment of Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.

The clashes and army crackdown have killed nearly 400 people and more than 11,700 "ethnic residents" have been evacuated from the area, the government said, referring to the non-Muslim residents.

READ MORE: Exodus of refugees turns fatal
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.

"A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists," the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. The group has been declared a terrorist organisation by the government.




Rohingya children cross the Bangladesh-Myanmar border fence as they try to enter Bangladesh in Bandarban, Bangladesh on August 29, 2017. Photo: Reuters
But Human Rights Watch, which analysed satellite imagery and accounts from Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, said the Myanmar security forces deliberately set the fires.

"New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine state may be far worse than originally thought," said the group's deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.

*FULL CAPACITY*
Near the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks set up crude tents or tried to squeeze into available shelters or homes of locals.

"The existing camps are near full capacity and numbers are swelling fast. In the coming days there needs to be more space," said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Vivian Tan, adding more refugees were expected.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries. Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya, more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.

Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.

"The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires...All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot," he said.

Reuters could not independently verify these accounts as access for independent journalists to northern Rakhine has been restricted since security forces locked down the area in October.

Speaking to soldiers, government staff and Rakhine Buddhists affected by the conflict on Friday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said there is no "oppression or intimidation" against the Muslim minority and "everything is within the framework of the law".

"The Bengali problem was a long-standing one which has become an unfinished job," he said, using a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.

Many aid programmes running in northern Rakhine prior to the outbreak of violence, including life-saving food assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP), have been suspended since the fighting broke out.

"Food security indicators and child malnutrition rates in Maungdaw were already above emergency thresholds before the violence broke out, and it is likely that they will now deteriorate even further," said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.

More than 80,000 children may need treatment for malnutrition in northern Rakhine and many of them reported "extreme" food insecurity, WFP said in July.

In Bangladesh, Tan of UNHCR said more shelters and medical care were needed. "There's a lot of pregnant women and lactating mothers and really young children, some of them born during the flight. They all need medical attention," she said.

Among new arrivals, 22-year-old Tahara Begum gave birth to her second child in a forest on the way to Bangladesh.

"It was the hardest thing I've ever done," she said. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/s...houses-burnt-in-rakhine-state-myanmar-1457272


----------



## M.R.9

kobiraaz said:


> It is between them Myanmar Rohingyas Vs Myanmar Police.
> 
> Not our problem.



Its international problem.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*NEWSMYANMAR9 HOURS AGO*
*Arson attacks push thousands more Rohingya from Myanmar*
*Myanmar blames armed Rohingya group for burning homes in Rakhine, but survivors pin responsibility on soldiers.*




Myanmar officials blamed a Rohingya armed group for the mass torching of homes [Bernat Armangue/AP]
More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar's restive northwest in the last week, as tens of thousands more refugees fled into Bangladesh over the past 24 hours.

Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the torching of homes in Rakhine State. Hundreds of people have been killed since the recent eruption of violence.
*
Myanmar exodus: Rohingya flee to Bangladesh*
"A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists," the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said.

But civilians fleeing the country accused soldiers of a scorched-earth policy. 

"Our house was torched by the military... We tried to flee towards the mountain but they shot dead my two children along with their mother. I managed to escape with my other kids," said Rohingya refugee Jamal Hossain.

Human Rights Watch said satellite images show the obliteration of an entire village.

"New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine State may be far worse than originally thought," said Phil Robertson, the group's deputy Asia director.

Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.

"The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires... All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot," he said.

READ MORE: Who are the Rohingya Muslims?
Near the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks set up crude tents or tried to squeeze into available shelters or homes of locals.

Vivian Tan, UNHCR regional spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera from the Cox's Bazar region in Bangladesh that refugee camps in the country were at "breaking point".

"The existing refugees have really stepped up and provided support, mobilised community kitchens, opened their homes," she said. "But these camps are filling up really fast and they are reaching breaking point."




Survivors have accused Myanmar's security forces of deliberately setting villages ablaze [Suvra Kanti Das/AP]
The treatment of Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by critics of not speaking out for the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.

Benjamin Zawacki, a South Asia analyst, denounced Suu Kyi for denying visas to human rights investigators seeking to investigate ethnic cleansing in Rakhine. He told Al Jazeera the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was failing to acknowledge attacks on unarmed civilians by the army.

"She was right to condemn violence by Rohingya armed forces or armed insurgents, but she didn't go so far as to condemn violence against Rohingya civilians," Zawacki said of Suu Kyi.

"Until or unless she and the military are able to see a peace process in Rakhine State as encompassing more than a military solution, we are likely to see more of what we've seen this past week."

READ MORE: UN suspends food aid to refugees in Myanmar 
The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries.

Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya with more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.

Speaking to soldiers, government staff, and Rakhine Buddhists affected by the conflict on Friday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said there is no "oppression or intimidation" against the Muslim minority and "everything is within the framework of the law".

"The Bengali problem was a long-standing one which has become an unfinished job," he said, using a term to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.

Why are Rohingya refugees stranded in no-man's land? - Inside Story (25:00)
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/...ousands-rohingya-myanmar-170902141930883.html

*পালিয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গাদের গরু লুট অব্যাহত, যুবতীদেরকে অপহরণ*




*পালিয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গাদের গরু লুট অব্যাহত, যুবতীদেরকে অপহরণ*

*প্রাণ ভয়ে রাখাইন থেকে পালিয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গাদের কাছ থেকে মূল্যবান সামগ্রী লুটপাট চলছ্ইে। সীমান্তের প্রভাবশালী ও দালাল শ্রেণির লোকজন অবাধে এসব করে যাচ্ছে।উখিয়া সীমান্তের আমতলী তুলাতলী পয়েন্টে বাংলাদেশে আসা রোহিঙ্গাদের সাথে রয়েছে মূল্যবান স্বর্ণলঙ্কারসহ অন্যান্য সামগ্রী। এছাড়া রয়েছে গবাদি পশুও।

অনুপ্রবেশ পয়েন্টে এক শ্রেণির দালাল অসহায় রোহিঙ্গাদের স্বর্ণ, মুল্যবান জিনিসপত্র ও গরু লুট করে নিয়ে যাওয়ার পাশাপাশি সুন্দরী যুবতীদের অপহরণ করে নিয়ে যাচ্ছে বলে খবর পাওয়া গেছে।
কক্সবাজারের সংবাদকর্মীরা যারা নিয়মিত সীমান্ত এলাকায় গিয়ে এ সংক্রান্ত সংবাদ সংগ্রহ করছেন। তাদের রিপোর্ট ও ফেসুবক স্ট্যাটাসেও বিষয়টি ফুটে উঠছে।
সাংবাদিক এম আর খোকন ফেসবুক স্ট্যাটাসে ক্ষোভ প্রকাশ করে বলেন, ‘না আর সহ্য হচ্ছে না।ওপারে মুসলমানদের উপর চরম নির্যাতন, বর্বরতা, গুলি, বাড়িঘরে আগুন, প্রাণ বাঁচাতে ছুটে আসার পথে নাফনদীতে ডুবে অসংখ্য নারী-শিশুর মৃত্যু। আর যারা জীবিত এপারে পৌঁছে তাদের স্বর্নালংকার লুটপাট, যুবতীদের শ্লীলতাহানি। এই যেন আইয়ামে জাহেলিয়াতকেও হারমানায়।এ অবস্থায় সোচ্ছার না হয়ে কোন পরিণতিতে গেলে আমাদের মানবাধিকার সংগঠনগুলো কথা বলবে।’

উখিয়ার সংবাদ ও সমাজকর্মী নুর মোহাম্মদ সিকদারের ক্ষোভ এভাবেই‘ মাননীয় জেলা প্রশাসক, আসসালামু আলাইকুম ওয়ারাহমতুল্লাহ। উখিয়াবাসীর পক্ষ থেকে ঈদুল আযহার আগাম শুভেচ্ছা রইল। আপনি অবগত থাকলে ও ইসলাম ধর্মের অনুসারী হিসাবে আবেদনের সাথে অভিযোগ করিতে চাই, পার্শ্ববর্তী মিয়ানমারেরর আরকানে রক্তের হুলিখেলা থেকে প্রাণ, ইজ্জত বাচাঁতে নারী, শিশু, বৃদ্ধরা দুর্বল চিত্তের যুবকরাও বান্দরবান, কক্সবাজার জেলার বিভিন্ন উপজেলায় আশ্রয় নিচ্ছে, সরকার নমনীয় হওয়ায় কিন্তু অত্যন্ত দু:খ এবং লজ্জার বিষয় আমাদের উখিয়া উপজেলা ঘেষে বর্ডারের বিশেষ করে রেজু আমতলী, ঘুমধুম জলপাইতলী, পালংখালীর রহমতের বিল বালুখালী দিয়ে ক্যাম্পে প্রবেশের পূর্বে চলছে লুটপাট, ছিনতাই, রাহজানি। যা মুসলিম হিসাবে পরকালে অবশ্যই জবাবদিহীর সম্মুখীন হতে হবে। আপনি এই জবাবদিহীতার বাইরে নয়।

আপনি সর্বোচ্চ ক্ষমতাধর জেলার একমাত্র কর্তা। গত কদিনে শত শত গরু রোহিঙ্গাদের কাছ থেকে ছিনিয়ে নিয়েছে, লুট করেছে স্বর্নালংকার। সুন্দরীযুবতীদের ধর্ষনের অপচেষ্টায় লিপ্ত অনেকেই। সর্বহারা রোহিঙ্গা আবাল,বৃদ্ধ, বণিতারা ফুফিয়ে কাদঁছে। যা অল্লাহার আরশ কাপঁছে। কারন এরা মজলুম। তাই এদের সবক্ষেত্রে বিবেচনায় রাখা সকলের নৈতিক দায়িত্ব। অতএব মহোদয় পবিত্র মাসে পবিত্র হজ্ব দিবসে আপনার কাছে বিনীত আরজ সরকারি দলের অংগ সংগঠনের কতিপয় যুবক, সাবেক, বর্তমান রাজাপালং ইউপির কয়েক মেম্বারকে আইনের আওতায় এনে রাষ্ট্র, জাতির ভাবমূর্তি ও আইন শৃংখলা পরিস্তিতির উন্নয়নে আপনার পবিত্র কঠোর হস্তক্ষেপ আশা করি।
সাংবাদিক সরওয়ার আলম শাহীনের ক্ষোভ প্রকাশ করে বলেন, মিয়ানমার থেকে পালিয়ে আসা রোহিঙ্গাদের ১২ মহিষ লুট করেছে জালিয়াপালং ইউনিয়নের মেম্বার মোজাম্মেল ও মুছা। ১২ টি মহিষের মধ্যে ২ মেম্বার ৪ টি মহিষ রেখে বাকী ৮ টি মহিষ বিক্রি করে দেয় ডিলার কবির, মৌলভী নুরুন্নবী, মোস্তাক, মোসলেম মিয়া, বদি আলম তৈয়বের নিকট। বুধবার রাত সাড়ে ১১ টায় উখিয়া থানার ওসি আবুল খায়ের লুটকৃত মহিষগুলো জালিয়াপালং ইউনিয়ের চেয়ারম্যান নুরুল আমিন চৌধুরীর জিম্মায় নিতে নির্দেশ দেন। বিজিবি ও আইনশৃঙ্খলা রক্ষাকারী বাহিনীর ভাইদের বলছি, রোহিঙ্গা অনুপ্রবেশে বাঁধা দিবেন ঠিক আছে, কিন্ত বাংলাদেশ যারা চলে এসেছে তারা এপারে লুটপাট সহ আরো কয়েক দফা নির্যাতনের শিকার হচ্ছে। তাদের নিরাপত্তা নিশ্চিত করুন।

পালংখালী ইউনিয়নের আওয়ামীলীগ নেতা শাহাদত হোসেন জুয়েল ক্ষোভ প্রকাশ করে বলেন, মাননীয় প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ হাসিনার মায়ানমারের সামরিক জান্তার আগ্রাসনের স্বীকার মুসলমানদের প্রতি সহনশীল হওয়ার আহবান সত্ত্বেও পালংখালী আন্জুমান পাড়া সীমান্ত দিয়ে অনুপ্রবেশ করা রোহিঙ্গাদের সাথে নিয়ে আসা তাদের সামান্য সম্বল গরু-মহিষ লুট করে নিচ্ছে স্থানীয় কিছু রাজনৈতিক ছত্রছায়ায় থাকা ঘাপটি মারা নরপশু। গতকাল মধ্যরাতেও বেশ কিছু মহিষ লুট করেছে দলের নাম ভাঙ্গিয়ে। হাইরে মানুষ! পশুর উপর দিয়ে চালালি তুদের নেতৃত্বের কর্তৃত্ব! নির্যাতিতদের সহযোগিতা না করি…কিন্তু লুট করার অধিকার তো কেও দেয়নি!!! কেমন দল করিস তুরা? মমতাময়ী নেত্রীর আহবানকে বৃদ্ধাঙ্গুলি দেখিয়ে? কারা অসহায় মানুষের মানবতা লুট করছে প্রশাসন ও আইনশৃঙ্খলা বাহিনীকে মুখোশ উম্মোচন করে আইনের আওতায় আনার জোর দাবী জানাচ্ছি।

আশ্রয়হীন, নির্যাতিত, অসহায় রোহিঙ্গাদের শেষ সম্বল গরু জোর করে, ভয় দেখিয়ে কেড়ে নেয়ার সংবাদ সর্বত্র ছড়িয়ে পড়েছে! আরকানে মিয়ানমারের সেনা কর্তৃক রোহিঙ্গাদের উপর নির্যাতন শুরুর পর বৈধভাবে এদেশে কোন গবাদি পশু আসেনি। স্থানীয় কিছু প্রভাবশালী মহল, চিহ্নিত অসৎ জনপ্রতিনিধি এমন অমানবিক ব্যবসায় লিপ্ত! এবারের কোরবানি কেমন হবে? ৩০ আগষ্ট রেজু আমতলী বিওপিতে ১ শত ৫৫ টি গরু নিলামে যায়েজ করা হয়েছে!
অভিযোগ রয়েছে যে গরু গুলো নিলাম করা হয়েছে তা বাজার মূল্যের চেয়ে অনেক কম। অনেকটা গোপনে নিলাম সম্পন্ন হয়েছে। ১৫৫ টি গরু মাত্র ২০ লাখ টাকায় বিক্রি হয়েছে।

বিজিবি কক্সবাজারের ভারপ্রাপ্ত সেক্টর কমান্ডার লে.কর্নেল মো.আনোয়ারুল আযীম বলেন, এরকম ঘটনা ঘটার কথা না। তুবও বিষয়্িট খতিয়ে দেখা হচ্ছে। বিজিবি কিছু গরু আ্টক করে নিলাম দিয়েছে। সীমান্তে জনবল বাড়ানো হয়েছে এবং সার্বক্ষণিক সতর্ক অবস্থায় রয়েছে বিজিবি।
http://rtnews24.net/crime/76881*


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## Banglar Bir

*58,600 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh: UNHCR*
Staff Correspondent | Published: 19:54, Sep 02,2017 | Updated: 20:07, Sep 02,2017
At least 58,600 Rohingyas have so far crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar, fleeing persecution in their homeland Rakhine state since the eruption of the latest spell of violence on August 25, estimates UN refugee agency UNHCR.

UNHCR Bangladesh spokesman Joseph Tripura told New Age Saturday evening that different humanitarian agencies’ cumulative estimations showed that at least 58,600 Myanmar citizen had entered Bangladesh after the fresh violence erupted in Rakhine state.

He said that many of these Myanmar citizens, including children, women and elderly people, were suffering from food, shelter and medicine crisis.

‘So far we do have no estimation of Myanmar citizens stranded along Bangladesh border,’ Joseph Tripura said.

Local people in Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar and leaders of registered and unregistered Rohingya camps, however, said that the number of Rohingyas entering Bangladesh was much higher than the UNHCR estimation.

They also said that more Rohingyas added on Saturday to thousands of Rohingyas trapped in the border, and were suffering food and drinking water crisis.

They said that the minority Muslims in Rakhine state were on the run on Saturday when Muslims of neighbouring countries celebrated one of their biggest religious festival Eid-ul-Azha, crowding mosques and prayer grounds to offer prayers and sacrificing cattle.

The recent violence erupted on August 25, when Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army reportedly attacked at least two dozen different police posts and checkpoints and one military base across three townships in northern Rakhine State and the Burma Army launched ‘clearance operations’.

The insurgent group, later, said that they launched the attacks to pre-empt possible attack my Myanmar army and security forces on Rihingyas.

Officials in Dhaka said that Rohingyas had continued entering Bangladesh fleeing persecution of the ethnic minority in Myanmar since 1978.

The problem turned acute after the influx of Rohingyas in 1991-92, 2012 while 87,000 Rohingya refugees had entered Bangladesh in 10 months since October 2016, according to an estimate of International Organization for Migration.

Currently, only 33,000 Rohingyas are registered in the two official refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. The Planning Commission in its project proposal for a census said that 3-5 lakh unregistered Rohingya refugees were living in Bangladesh.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/23263/58600-rohingyas-fled-to-bangladesh-unhcr


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*রোহিঙ্গা হত্যাকাণ্ড বন্ধে ইন্দোনেশিয়ায় বিক্ষোভ
Protests in Indonesia for Ending the Genocide on Rohingyas*




*03 Sep, 2017
মিয়ানমারের রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের বিরুদ্ধে চলমান হত্যাকাণ্ড এবং সহিংস নির্যাতন বন্ধের দাবিতে ইন্দোনেশিয়ায় বিক্ষোভ হয়েছে। রাজধানী জাকার্তায় মিয়ানমার দূতাবাসের সামনে বিক্ষোভ করার চেষ্টা করলে পুলিশে সঙ্গে বিক্ষোভকারীদের হাতাহাতি হয়।

অবশ্য বিক্ষোভকারীরা শেষপর্যন্ত মিয়ানমারের কূটনৈতিক মিশনের সামনে সমাবেশ করেছে। এ সময়ে তারা মিয়ানমারের রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের বিরুদ্ধে চলমান সহিংসতা বন্ধের দাবিতে শ্লোগান দেন। এ ছাড়া, মিয়ানমারের মুসলমানদের সঙ্গে সংহতিও প্রকাশ করেন তারা।

বিক্ষোভকারীরা ইন্দোনেশিয়া থেকে মিয়ানমারের রাষ্ট্রদূতের বহিষ্কারের দাবি জানায়। তারা অং সান সুকির সরকারের বিরুদ্ধে শ্লোগান দেয়। এ সময়ে তারা সুকির ছবি সংবলিত পোস্টার পদদলিত করে। পোস্টারে সুকির ছবির নিচে ‘সবচেয়ে আমানবিক নারী’ কথাটি লেখা ছিল।

বিক্ষোভে ইন্দোনেশিয়ার সর্বশ্রেণীর মানুষ অংশ গ্রহণ করে। বিক্ষোভকারী দক্ষিণপূর্ব এশিয়ার দেশটিতে মুসলমানদের বিরুদ্ধে সহিংসতা বন্ধের জোরালো আহ্বান জানান। এদিকে, জাতিসংঘ এবং জাকার্তা সরকারকে রোহিঙ্গা নির্যাতন বন্ধে কার্যকর ব্যবস্থা নেওয়ার পৃথক আহ্বান জানিয়েছে ইন্দোনেশিয়ার সবচেয়ে বড় মুসলিম সংস্থা নাহদাদুল উলেমা।

রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানদের বিরুদ্ধে হত্যাকাণ্ড বন্ধের দাবিতে ইন্দোনেশিয়ায় বিক্ষোভ
উৎসঃ আস
http://www.newsofbd.net/newsdetail/detail/34/333055*

*Rohingya women: The face of unspeakable horror*
Shafiur Rahman
Published at 12:31 PM September 03, 2017




Screenshot of a documentary on Rohingya women by Shafiur Rahman
*Having had their dignity compromised by the Myanmar security forces, more than a dozen Rohingya young women abandoned their niqab while sharing stories of murder and rape with Shafiur Rahman, an independent documentary maker*

This story was originally published in February 2017. It is being republished in light of the recent conflict in Myanmar which has seen overwhelming casualties and forced displacement of the Rohingya people, which nations and media are calling a genocide.

The victims described to a UK-based film maker how they had been shamed and abused in front of their families and communities during the army’s four-month-long “clearance operations” in Rohingya-dominated Rakhine State.
*Click here to read the full version of the story
Also Read- Special: Kutupalong- Playing ping pong with Rohingya lives*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/special/2017/09/03/rohingya-women-face-unspeakable-horror/


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## Banglar Bir




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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

*Secret document shows Myanmar recognised Rohingyas as citizens*
Tribune Desk
Published at 06:34 PM September 03, 2017
Last updated at 06:38 PM September 03, 2017





Myanmar justifies its persecution of the Rohingya community by claiming that they have no legal residence in the countryMahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune
*There are allegations that the Myanmar military used forced eviction, rape and murder to terrorise the Rohingyas*
The Buddhist government of Myanmar is systematically terrorising the minority-Muslim Rohingya population, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh with their lives.

Myanmar justifies its persecution of the minority community by claiming that the Rohingya have no legal residence in the country.

In an attempt to erase the Rohingya’s historical ties to Rakhine state that date to the 8th century AD, the Myanmar government even asked the international community to stop using the term “Rohingya.”

*However, a report published by Forbes claims that a “Repatriation Agreement” with Bangladesh in 1978 constitutes evidence that Myanmar acknowledged that the Rohingya had legal residence in the country. The document, which is marked “Secret,” was published by the Princeton University in 2014.*

Myanmar (then known as Burma) began repressing the Rohingyas from 1962. The country started registering its citizens to screen out “foreigners,” namely the Rohingya population, in 1977.

There are allegations that the Myanmar military used forced eviction, rape and murder to terrorise the Rohingyas. Approximately 200,000 Rohingya refugees entered Bangladesh and settled into 13 UN refugee camps near the border by May 1978.

The Burmese authorities claimed that the fleeing refugees are illegal residents, the report said.

However, Bangladesh urged Burma to accept the refugees back and managed to enter into an agreement with the then Burmese government regarding the refugee crisis with the help of United Nations.

*Passage 1(a) of the “Repatriation Agreement” states: “The Government of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma agrees to the repatriation at the earliest of the lawful residents of Burma who are now sheltered in the camps in Bangladesh on the presentation of Burmese National Registration Cards…”*

Mistreatment and religious persecution caused another 250,000 Rohingya refugees to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh from 1991 to 1992. An agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh made in 1992 similarly acknowledged the lawful residency of the Rohingya in Burma. *The document is titled the “Joint statement by the foreign ministers of Bangladesh & Myanmar issued at the conclusion of the official visit of the Myanmar Foreign Minister to Bangladesh 23-28 April 1992.”*

The international community must acknowledge Myanmar’s violations of its past agreements and the human rights of the Rohingya, and should increase economic and diplomatic pressure on the country to resolve the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/03/secret-document-myanmar-rohingyas-citizens/





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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

bdtoday.net



*রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে সুচিকে সতর্ক করলেন ব্রিটিশ পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী*




বিডিটুডে.নেট:রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যুতে সুচিকে সতর্ক করলেন ব্রিটিশ পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী
*ব্রিটেনের পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী বরিস জনসন মিয়ানমারের নেত্রী অং সান সুচিকে সতর্ক করে বলেছেন, রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের উপর নিপীড়ন দেশটির সুনাম ক্ষুণ্ন করছে। বিবিসির…
NEWSOFBD.NET*


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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

*The Real History of the Rohingyas*
*জেনে রাখুন: রোহিঙ্গা ইতিহাস নিয়ে সাতটি বিচিত্র তথ্য*
৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০১৬




*ছবির কপিরাইট এপি
Image caption টেকনাফের অস্থায়ী শিবিরে রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থী
মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন রাজ্যে সংখ্যালঘু মুসলমান রোহিঙ্গাদের ওপর নির্যাতন এখন বিশ্ব সংবাদ মাধ্যমগুলোর শিরোনাম।

কিন্তু রোহিঙ্গাদের ইতিহাস সম্পর্কে আমরা কতটুকু জানি? এখানে রোহিঙ্গা জাতির প্রায় ভুলে যাওয়া ইতিহাসের কিছু তুথ্য তুলে ধরা হলো:*

*রোহিঙ্গাদের আবাসভূমি আরাকান ছিল স্বাধীন রাজ্য। ১৭৮৪ সালে বার্মার রাজা বোডপায়া এটি দখল করে বার্মার অধীন করদ রাজ্যে পরিণত করেন।*
*আরাকান রাজ্যের রাজা বৌদ্ধ হলেও তিনি মুসলমান উপাধি গ্রহণ করতেন। তার মুদ্রাতে ফার্সি ভাষায় লেখা থাকতো কালেমা।*
*আরাকান রাজ দরবারে কাজ করতেন অনেক বাঙালি মুসলমান। বাংলার সাথে আরাকানের ছিল গভীর রাজনৈতিক ও অর্থনৈতিক সম্পর্ক।*
*ধারণা করা হয় রোহিঙ্গা নামটি এসেছে আরাকানের রাজধানীর নাম ম্রোহং থেকে: ম্রোহং>রোয়াং>রোয়াইঙ্গিয়া>রোহিঙ্গা। তবে মধ্য যুগের বাংলা সাহিত্যে আরাকানকে ডাকা হতো রোসাং নামে।*
*১৪০৬ সালে আরাকানের ম্রাউক-উ রাজবংশের প্রতিষ্ঠাতা নরমিখলা ক্ষমতাচ্যুত হয়ে বাংলার তৎকালীন রাজধানী গৌড়ে পলায়ন করেন। গৌড়ের শাসক জালালুদ্দিন শাহ্ নরমিখলার সাহায্যে ৩০ হাজার সৈন্য পাঠিয়ে বর্মী রাজাকে উৎখাতে সহায়তা করেন। নরমিখলা মোহাম্মদ সোলায়মান শাহ্ নাম নিয়ে আরাকানের সিংহাসনে বসেন। ম্রাউক-উ রাজবংশ ১০০ বছর আরাকান শাসন করেছে।*
*মধ্যযুগে বাংলা সাহিত্যচর্চ্চার একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ কেন্দ্র ছিল রোসাং রাজ দরবার। মহাকবি আলাওল রোসাং দরবারের রাজ কবি ছিলেন। তিনি লিখেছিলেন মহাকাব্য পদ্মাবতী। এছাড়া সতী ময়না ও লোর-চন্দ্রানী, সয়ফুল মুল্ক, জঙ্গনামা প্রভৃতি কাব্যগ্রন্থ রচিত হয়েছিল রোসাং রাজদরবারের আনুকূল্যে।*
*ভাই আওরঙ্গজেবের সাথে ক্ষমতার দ্বন্দ্বে পরাজিত হয়ে মোগল যুবরাজ শাহ্ সুজা ১৬৬০ সালে সড়ক পথে চট্টগ্রাম-কক্সবাজার হয়ে আরাকানে পলায়ন করেন। তৎকালীন রোসাং রাজা চন্দ্র সুধর্মা বিশ্বাসঘাতকতা করে শাহ্ সুজা এবং তার পরিবারকে নির্মমভাবে হত্যা করেন। এর পর আরাকানে যে দীর্ঘমেয়াদী অরাজকতা সৃষ্টি হয় তার অবসান ঘটে বার্মার হাতে আরাকানের স্বাধীনতা হরণের মধ্য দিয়ে।*
*সূত্র: রোহিঙ্গা জাতির ইতিহাস, এন. এম. হাবিব উল্লাহ্, এপ্রিল-১৯৯৫*
http://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-38225004


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## Banglar Bir

*Nearly 90,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh in past month*

Reuters
Published at 12:22 PM September 04, 2017
Last updated at 01:07 PM September 04, 2017





Rohingya people take shelter at the Aju Khaiya village after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border at Amtoli *Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune*
*Hundreds of Rohingya milled beside the road while others slung tarpaulins over bamboo frames to make rickety shelters against the monsoon rains*
Nearly 90,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar in August, pressuring scarce resources of aid agencies and communities already helping hundreds of thousands of refugees from previous spasms of violence in Myanmar.

The violence in Myanmar was set off by a coordinated attack on August 25 on dozens of police posts and an army base by Rohingya insurgents. The ensuing clashes and a major military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people.

Myanmar officials blamed the Rohingya militants for the burning of homes and civilian deaths but rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army aims to force them out.

The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.

The number of those crossing the border – 87,000 – surpassed the total of Rohingya who escaped Myanmar after a much smaller insurgent attack in October that set off a military operation beset by accusations of serious human rights abuses.

The newest estimate, based on the calculations of United Nations’ aid workers in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, takes to nearly 150,000 the total number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October.

“We are trying to build houses here, but there isn’t enough space,” said Mohammed Hussein, 25, who is still looking for a place to stay after fleeing Myanmar four days ago.

“No non-government organisations came here. We have no food. Some women gave birth on the roadside. Sick children have no treatment here.”

An unofficial camp for Rohingya refugees that sprang up at Balukhali after the October attacks is being dramatically expanded. Hundreds of Rohingya milled beside the road while others slung tarpaulins over bamboo frames to make rickety shelters against the monsoon rains.

More than 11,700 “ethnic residents” had been evacuated from northern Rakhine, the government has said, referring to non-Muslims.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who said on Friday that violence against Muslims amounted to genocide, last week called Bangladesh’s President Abdul Hamid to offer help in sheltering the fleeing Rohingya, the south Asian nation’s foreign ministry said.

The statement did not clarify if financial assistance was offered.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi will meet Suu Kyi and other officials in Myanmar on Monday, to urge a halt to the violence after a petrol bomb was thrown at the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta over the weekend.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...e-myanmar-violence-humanitarian-crisis-looms/


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar govt blocks UN aid to northern Rakhine*
Tribune Desk
Published at 02:03 PM September 04, 2017




*The Guardian reports that 16 major non-governmental aid organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, have also complained that the Myanmar government has restricted access to the conflict zone.*
The Myanmar government has barred United Nations aid agencies from delivering vital supplies of food, water and medicine to thousands of desperate civilians in violence-torn northern Rakhine state.

According to a report published by The Guardian, the UN halted all aid distributions, after militants reportedly attacked government forces on August 25, prompting the army to respond with a counteroffensive that has killed hundreds.

“The security situation and government field-visit restrictions rendered us unable to distribute assistance there. Aid was being delivered to other parts of Rakhine state,” the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar said in a statement.

Staff from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), could not conduct any field work in northern Rakhine since last week. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it also had to suspend distributions of aid to other parts of the state, leaving a quarter of a million civilians without access to food.

The Guardian reports that 16 major non-governmental aid organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, have also complained that the Myanmar government has restricted access to the conflict zone.

More than 100,000 Rohingya, who have lived in displacement camps in Rakhine since 2012, also stopped receiving assistance last week. Authorities have also denied international staff access by holding up visa approvals, The Guardian reports.

The country’s military is being accused of atrocities against the persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority, causing thousands of them to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Many refugees received severe injuries, including bullet wounds, while escaping the army crackdown.

“Humanitarian organisations are deeply concerned about the fate of thousands of people affected by the ongoing violence in northern Rakhine,” said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar.

Refugees who fled to Bangladesh last week have spoken of horrific stories of massacres in the villages, allegedly committed by soldiers. Thick black smoke was seen rising from small settlements near the Bangladesh border. The Myanmar government, on the other hand, has blamed the so-called rebels for burning down their own homes, and has accused them of killing Buddhists and Hindus.

The Rohingya have suffered oppression for decades. However, the recent spike in violence is being seen as a dangerous escalation by the international community, as it was likely sparked by a new Rohingya militant group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. The military says 400 people have been killed, and have labelled the vast majority of them as terrorists.

However, a government block on access to Rakhine makes it impossible to verify official figures.

Hardline leaders in the Buddhist majority Myanmar have fuelled anti-Muslim sentiments and have accused relief workers of a pro-Rohingya bias. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also forged an increasingly antagonistic relationship with humanitarian organisations.

Her office accused aid workers in Myanmar of helping “terrorists” last week.

Pierre Peron, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said: “There is an urgent need to ensure that displaced people and other civilians affected by the violence are protected and are given safe access to humanitarian assistance including food, water, shelter, and health services.”

An estimated 1.1 million Rohingya live in Myanmar. The country’s government is refusing to grant them citizenship and has been internationally condemned for its treatment of the ethnic minority.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/09/04/myanmar-blocks-un-aid-northern-rakhine/





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## Banglar Bir

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## LuCiFeR_DeCoY

Al Hamdulilla, footages shows 20 to 50 thousand people after walking hundreds of miles are entering Bangladesh per day escaping the animal land. Almost 90% of them are women and children. BGB is helping them, Gob bless them.




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listen their horrific genocide history by Burmese animals


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## LuCiFeR_DeCoY

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Burmese animals setting fires can be seen from Bangladeshi border


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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

*Live: PM Modi visits Ananda Temple In Bagan, India, Myanmar ink 11 deals*
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Myanmar comes amid a spike in ethnic violence against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine. Here are the latest updates and developments
Livemint





✔@narendramodi
Presented Daw Aung San Suu Kyi a special reproduction of original research proposal she submitted for fellowship at IIAS, Shimla in May 1986

■ Suu Kyi has a strong connection with India. She studied political science from the Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi and graduated in 1964. She was also a fellow in Shimla at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. Suu Kyi had also spent time with her husband Michael Aris and two sons Kim and Alexander in the former summer capital of the British India. (_PTI_)

■ India said on Wednesday that it shares Myanmar’s concerns over the “extremist violence” in the Rakhine state and urged all stakeholders to find a solution that respects the country’s unity. The two leaders also vowed to combat terror and boost security cooperation with Modi emphasising that it was important to maintain stability along the long land and maritime borders of the two countries.

Modi’s first bilateral visit here comes at a time when the Myanmarese government led by Nobel laureate Suu Kyi is facing international pressure over the 125,000 Rohingya refugees that have poured across the Bangladeshi border in just two weeks after Myanmar’s military launched a crackdown in the Rakhine state.

Modi, in his joint press statement with Suu Kyi after the talks, said India understands the problems being faced by Myanmar. He said India shares Myanmar’s concerns over the “extremist violence” in the Rakhine state, especially the loss of innocent lives of the people and the military personnel.

“When it comes to a big peace process or finding a solution to a problem, we hope that all stakeholders can work together towards finding a solution which respects the unity and territorial integrity of Myanmar,” Modi said. At the same time, the solution can bring about peace, justice, dignity and democratic values for all, he said. (_PTI_)

■ Read full text of Prime Minister’s statement during the joint media briefing with State Councillor of Myanmar in Naypyidaw.

■ India and Myanmar today signed 11 agreements in a range of sectors, including one on maritime security cooperation, to further strengthen their multifaceted partnership. The MoUs were signed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

— India and Myanmar signed an MoU to strengthen maritime security cooperation.

— The two sides also signed an agreement for sharing white shipping information to improve data sharing on non-classified merchant navy ships or cargo ships.

— The MoUs include one between the Election Commission and Union Election of Myanmar, the national level electoral commission of Myanmar.

— An MoU was also signed to organise cultural exchange programme for the period 2017-2020, according to a statement issued by Ministry of External Affairs.

— India and Myanmar also signed agreements on cooperation between Myanmar Press Council and Press Council of India, extension of agreement on the establishment of India-Myanmar Centre for Enhancement of IT skill.

— The two countries also signed agreement to cooperate in ‘Medical Products Regulation’ and in the field of health and medicine.

— They also signed MoU on enhancing the cooperation on upgradation of the women’s police training centre at Yamethin in Myanmar.

List of MoUs/Agreements signed during State visit of Prime Minister to Myanmar.

■ Together we can ensure that terrorism is not allowed to take root on our soil or on the soil of neighbouring countries: Suu Kyi.

■ Would like to thank India for taking a strong stand on the terror threat that Myanmar faced recently: State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

■ We want all stake holders to work towards preserving Myanmar’s unity and territorial integrity: PM after talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Earlier, _AFP_ reported Suu Kyi as saying on Wednesday that a “huge iceberg of misinformation” was distorting the picture of the Rohingya crisis, which has forced 125,000 of the Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh. In her first comments since Rohingya militant attacks sparked unrest on 25 August, Suu Kyi said fake news was “calculated to create a lot of problems between different communities” and to promote “the interest of the terrorists”.

■ It is important to maintain security and stability along the long land and maritime borders of India and Myanmar: PM Modi.
#IndiaMyanmar - Strengthening a multifaceted partnership. pic.twitter.com/Ke6O4aVzHV
Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) September 6, 2017
■ India stands with Myanmar over the issue of violence in the Rakhine state which has led to loss of innocent lives: PM Modi.

■ Citizens of Myanmar who wish to visit India will be given gratis visas, and 40 Myanmarese citizens in Indian jails will be released: PM Modi (_ANI_)

■ Your (Aung San Suu Kyi) courageous leadership to the Myanmar peace process needs to be lauded: PM Modi. (_ANI_)

■ PM Narendra Modi : Deepening relationship with Myanmar is a priority for India, as a neighbour and also in the context of ‘Act East Policy’.

■ PM Narendra Modi: We would like to contribute to Myanmar’s development efforts as part of our ‘Sabka saath sabka vikaas’ initiative.




Meeting a valued friend. PM @narendramodi with the State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi
■ “Meeting a valued friend. PM @narendramodi with the State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

■ Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday presented Myanmar President Htin Kyaw a sculpture of Bodhi tree.

■ The prime minister’s visit to Myanmar comes amid a spike in ethnic violence against Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state. He is expected to raise the issue of the exodus of the ethnic Rohingyas into neighbouring countries.

The Indian government is also concerned about Rohingya immigrants in the country, and has been considering to deport them. Around 40,000 Rohingyas are said to be staying illegally in India.

■ India and Myanmar were also looking at strengthening existing cooperation in areas of security and counter- terrorism, trade and investment, infrastructure and energy, and culture, Modi had said ahead of his visit.

■ Modi arrived in Myanmar on the second leg of his two-nation trip during which he travelled to southeastern Chinese city Xiamen where he attended the annual Brics summit and held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders.

This is Modi’s first bilateral visit to Myanmar. He had visited the country in 2014 to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-India summit. Myanmar is one of India’s strategic neighbours and shares a 1,640-km-long border with a number of northeastern states including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.
_Agencies contributed to the live updates_
First Published: Wed, Sep 06 2017. 10 19 AM IST
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/cH...s-Myanmars-state-counsellor-Aung-San-Suu.html


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, September 09, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:55 AM, September 09, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: A concern for the region*
Mahfuz Anam

Reacting to the insurgent attacks on some police outposts and an army camp on August 25, the Myanmar security forces have unleashed a "war" of sorts against the Rohingya—an ethnic minority group living for centuries in the Rakhine state of Myanmar—burning down their villages, killing their men and raping their women, committing what can be termed as "crimes against humanity" that has resulted in nearly 500 dead and nearly 200,000 taking shelter in Bangladesh, which has hosted Rohingya refugees for more than three decades in varying numbers depending on the level of oppression across the border.

Myanmar, then called Burma, became independent in 1948 from the British, a year after the latter's withdrawal from the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Geographically Rakhine state, where the current conflict is taking place, is separated from the rest of Myanmar by barren mountain range. Ancient history gives the area its own separate past with a distinct Rakhine Kingdom being established in 1430 with its capital in Mrauk U located as a link between Buddhist and Muslim Asia with close ties with the Sultanate of Bengal. 

After 350 years of independent existence Rakhine State was conquered by the Burmese in 1784. This annexation was short lived as the territory was occupied by the British in 1824 and made a part of the British Indian Empire. Today the Rohingyas are about 1.1 million Muslim citizens of the Rakhine state but are not recognised legally as one of the 135 ethnic groups constituting a part of the citizenry of Myanmar.




It is perhaps not just a coincidence that the current attack on the Rohingyas follows on the heels of the report of the Rakhine Advisory Commission led by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. 

This Commission was set up with active participation of the Myanmar government, albeit under severe pressure from the international community, and whose findings it had earlier pledged to implement. Now with the latest spate of violence the prospect of implementation of the Rakhine Commission appears remote and the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the Rohingya crisis may elude us once more.

The Commission has correctly identified the central questions to be “citizenship verification, documentation, rights and equality before the law” and goes on to say that “… if they are left to fester, the future of the Rakhine state-and indeed of Myanmar as a whole-will be irretrievably jeopardised.”

As we see it from Bangladesh, it is not only the future of Myanmar which will be jeopardised but that of this region itself as the Secretary General of the UN warned last Wednesday (September 6) China, given its historical links, will take more than a passing interest in this affair, an effort in which it will be supported by Russia the indications of which is discernible in their pattern of voting at the UN Security Council on recent resolutions on the Rohingya issue.

The block of Arab and Muslim countries will naturally be drawn into this fray as fellow Muslims are being slaughtered. Already there is sufficient reason for concern at the flow of Middle Eastern money in the region with distinct fundamentalist overtones. We all know about Rohingyas finding their way into various Arab and Muslim countries with stories of atrocities invoking a natural reaction for seeking justice and fighting a future of fear and intimidation by building up some sort of resistance including armed. These are but natural outcomes of prolonged oppression to which the Annan Report clearly alludes to.

The US is likely to be more interested than usual given its deteriorating relationship with both China and Russia and the rising tiff in the South China Sea, not to speak of tension with North Korea and its unpredictable and dangerous consequences.

India has completely surprised Bangladesh by its all out endorsement of Myanmar's position. We, naively as it now appears, were hoping that Prime Minister Modi's visit to Myanmar would help, if not to solve issue but at least to stop the violence and ebb the flow of refugees. PM Modi's support to the Myanmar's position and the absence of any substantive reference to the refugee issue and the consequent humanitarian disaster has greatly disappointed Bangladesh.

The rising terrorism that both Prime Minister Modi and the Aung San Suu Kyi have pledged to fight is created and sustained by oppression and ignoring the rights of a minority group. That has been the experience everywhere. For the so-called “Jihadists”, the oppression of the Rohingyas fits the bill completely as a cause they will espouse to gain credibility in the Muslim world whose natural support for this oppressed group of Muslims is only obvious.

In this regard the emergence of ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) is something that should concern all. In the early hours of August 25 this group, whose Arabic name is Harakah al-Yaqin, simultaneously attacked 30 police posts and an army base in the northern side of the Rakhine state. Twelve Myanmar troops and officials and 77 insurgents were killed. This is by far the most audacious and damaging attack by the insurgents who are mostly equipped with machetes, few small arms and hand held explosives. The emergence of such an armed group cannot be welcomed by any country wanting peace and stability in this region.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) termed this as the most serious escalation in the conflict. Obviously the biggest losers from the escalation and continuation of this conflict will be the two countries directly affected—Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has not yet taken any hard-line against its only other neighbour save India and has tried, over the years to reach an understanding with Myanmar. It has internationalised the issue only to the extent of seeking humanitarian aid and nothing more. It first received about 300,000 Rohingya refugees in 1978. Through negotiations about 210,000 were repatriated with the rest continuing to live in Bangladesh.

However, the latest situation has changed everything. Bangladesh will now be under severe pressure from the Arab and Muslim world to internationalise the issue and take a tougher stance than it has hitherto taken. The visits of the Indonesian and Turkish foreign ministers are indications of that. If there is no change in the situation on the ground Bangladesh will be left with little option but to take a more stringent approach that would further complicate the situation.

Myanmar, on its part must, realise that blaming all the current atrocities on the so-called terrorists and claiming that its security forces had nothing to do with the crimes committed, in spite of unvarying accounts of thousands of refugees to the contrary, is neither credible nor helpful in solving the situation.

The Kofi Annan Commission has painstakingly worked out what international experts say to be a realistic path towards peaceful resolution of a conflict that left to itself may become a dangerous crisis. Myanmar must pay heed to the recommendations of that report.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar needs to remember what she herself said in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech that “Whenever suffering is ignored, there will be seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages”.

Myanmar needs to remember what she herself said in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech that “Whenever suffering is ignored, there will be seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages”.

Mahfuz Anam is Editor and Publisher, _The Daily Star._
This is a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors and columnists from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers and websites across the region.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/asian-editors-circle/rohingya-crisis-concern-the-region-1459393


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## Banglar Bir

*A crisis out of hand*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 04:30 PM September 08, 2017




Photo: MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
*The ceaseless persecution of the Rohingya runs the risk of empowering extremist elements*
Repeated calls to the international community regarding the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar appear to be falling on deaf ears.

But if the world is unwilling to take action on the humanitarian grounds to help these unfortunate souls, there is another reason that should incline us all to pay attention to the crisis.

*The ceaseless persecution of the Rohingya runs the risk of empowering extremist elements into seizing their plight as an opportunity, and, in turn, widening the conflict to trans-national terror groups.*

The greater the inaction of the international community regarding this issue, the greater the space for extremist groups to swoop in and gain a foothold in a region they have thus far been unable to penetrate.

*History teaches us that extremism thrives where there is a breakdown of the state. If what we are witnessing in Rakhine State gets mutated into a full-blown insurgency, it leaves the region open to terror networks to conduct operations in.*

*It is in the interests of both Bangladesh and Myanmar, the whole world in fact, to avoid such circumstances. But if the world continues to let the Myanmar army burn the Rohingya out of their villages, that is where we may all end up.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/09/08/a-crisis-out-of-hand/*


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## chatterjee

Buddhist community of Bangladesh protesting against the barbaric military regime of burma.






a big slap to the shangis

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2


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/

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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## fitpOsitive

Why don't BD expends her territory into Burma? Dear BD, take Rohingya, and take them with their land. Someone might help. Its a bold step, but it will earn you alot.

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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis explained in maps*
*A visual explainer of the unrest in Myanmar that has forced around one million Rohingya to flee their homes.*
Shakeeb Asrar | 11 Sep 2017 13:52 GMT | Rohingya, Myanmar, Interactive, War & Conflict, Bangladesh
Rohingya are a majority-Muslim ethnic group who have lived in the Buddhist nation of Myanmar for centuries.

The maps below follow the path of Rohingya from their ethnic homeland of Rakhine state in Myanmar to Bangladesh's district of Cox's Bazar, as well as several other countries in Asia, where the Rohingya have sought sanctuary since the 1970s. 

READ MORE: All you need to know about the Rohingya

*Where are the Rohingya located?*
The Rohingya have faced persecution at the hands of Myanmar's military since the country's independence in the late 1940s.

In October 2016, a military crackdown in the wake of a deadly attack on an army post sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Similar attacks in August 2017 led to the ongoing military crackdown, which has led to a new mass exodus of Rohingya.

Most Rohingya have sought refuge in and around Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.








*Which countries are hosting the Rohingya?*
About one million Rohingya have fled Myanmar since the first brutal military action in 1977. The majority have taken refuge in Bangladesh, but other countries in Asia and the Middle East have also opened their doors to one of the world's most prosecuted communities.





*Are there other ethnic groups in Myanmar?*
There are 135 official ethnic groups in Myanmar, but the Rohingya have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.




*Follow Shakeeb Asrar on Twitter: @shakeebasrar*
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/in...ya-crisis-explained-maps-170910140906580.html


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## Banglar Bir

*"I am Burma"*


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## bdslph

fitpOsitive said:


> Why don't BD expends her territory into Burma? Dear BD, take Rohingya, and take them with their land. Someone might help. Its a bold step, but it will earn you alot.



No one is going to help us plus it will complicate things more

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1


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## fitpOsitive

bdslph said:


> No one is going to help us plus it will complicate things more


Don't worry. Its just Burma. Get them.


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, September 15, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:53 AM, September 15, 2017
*Reporter’s Diary: Massacre, every day*
Osama Rahman
As I was heading towards Shah Porir Dwip, the uninterrupted range of lush green mountains had an entrancing effect. Momentarily, I forgot my purpose for visiting. As I was marveling at the clouds delicately clinging to the mountains, like lovers reuniting after a long time, I realised, not all the wisps were clouds; some were smoke, billowing from villages on the Myanmar side, clearly on fire.

On the roadside, I could see Rohingyas staring at the columns of smoke in the distance. Someone had set their homes alight; everything they had known and loved was going up in flames. Now, they were witnessing the loss of their homes with their feet planted on a land strange to them. I wondered if the mountains themselves, protecting Naypyidaw from the disapproving of glare of the world, knew whether they were Rohingyas or not.

Soon we reached Shahpori Dwip, the point where Bangladesh ends and the land of genocide begins. The first thing that hits you there is the long lines of people pouring in. The second thing that shocks you is the silence. Heads bent low, the procession of pain, formed fresh off the boat, trudge along with nary a word spoken.

We often feel that we can talk our way out of things. These people had tried. They had failed. They had pleaded. They had failed. Words had failed them. Why should they give them another chance?

Searching the crowds for someone to talk to, all I see are eyes staring back; each eye is silently questioning my very conscience. It feels like they are poring deep into your soul, threatening to bare everything you hold inside as a cost for what they have been put through. Suddenly, I find a young girl in her father's arms. As our eyes meet, a shy smile touches the corners of her lips. Her hair is golden, unexpected given where we are.

“Her name is Reshmi,” her father, Abdullah, says, informing us that she is four. Reshmi escaped with her parents yesterday. “They burned our house. They were slaughtering people in front of us. We began to run,” he says. Even in these trying times, I feel a sense of happiness. They had all made it. Except, any happiness you feel here comes from a lack of knowing. “My 5-year old son couldn't make it. I saw him get shot. He died in front of me,” Abdullah adds. The words send a chill through my bones. A father seeing his son murdered in cold blood.

I go up to Reshmi's mother, Sabekun Nur, and ask her what she dreams for her daughter now. Draped in a burqa, only her eyes are visible. “What dreams? My son is dead,” she adds with finality. I can say nothing more to her. Abdullah interjects saying he wants to send Reshmi to school. His son, Syedullah, loved school.

He then tells me he has to leave. Before I look for someone else to talk to, 35-year-old Azizul, from Rashidong approaches. His Bangla is pretty good, so our conversation is not difficult. “I came here with my four kids and wife. I was a madrasa teacher there,” he says. The family has been surviving on dates and water for the last six days. As he becomes increasingly restless, I ask him about Al-Yaqin and he says he has never seen them.

I begin to walk towards where the boats are docking. Shahanaz, a girl in a pink kameez crosses my path, tears streaming down her face. She seems alone. I ask her where everyone is. “My mother is dead. They killed her,” she says, before running away. While no one speaks here, sudden cries interrupt the silence now and then. Now, it comes from Zahida Begum, 13, a resident of Rashidong, who has come here with her 10 brothers. I am almost afraid to ask her what's wrong. She sees me and sniffles. “They took my father,” she cries out when I ask.

After a few minutes' walk I see two men carrying a woman, each of her arms around their shoulders. Meet 85 year old Sokina. Another resident of Rashidong, she has travelled seven days. She is being carried by her son Lal Miah and his son, Ziaul Haque. I ask her how she is. “What will I say? I have lost three sons. They were all shot.”

Before I can depart, a horrible sight greets me. A woman, drags herself across the rocky shoreline. Her two children watching her from a distance are delighted. This is Nur Nahar. Her leg was burnt when the military launched grenades. The eight months pregnant woman can walk no longer. “We were in the hills for days,” she says. “The military threw us in to the river. Told us to swim across or die.”

Today Myanmar's government talks about eliminating terrorists. I look at her children and anger overcomes everything. Myanmar is lying. A massacre is taking place in Myanmar every day. It cannot go unpunished.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...is-reporters-diary-massacre-every-day-1462366


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, September 15, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:51 AM, September 15, 2017
*Too little, too late*
Inam Ahmed and Shakhawat Liton

Although it came quite late in the series of events, the UN Security Council statement Wednesday just reminded the world how terrible is the nature of persecution and massacre of the Rohingya. So grave is the matter now that even China and Russia which in the past had blocked several UN resolutions since 2007 including the one mooted in March this year did not object to Wednesday's censure.

After the statement, British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said it was the first time in nine years the council had agreed to a statement on Myanmar.

This is probably because the world has this time been totally convinced of what the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), had concluded in its 2015 report that “the Rohingya faces the final stages of genocide”.

The ISCI, a highly respected community of scholars working to expose, document, explain and resist state crimes, is based at Queen Mary University of London. Its other partners are University of Hull, University of Ulster and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Eminent linguist, historian and philosopher Noam Chomsky is one of its honorary fellows.

Nevertheless, its report said to be the most systematic study on the treatment of the Rohingya had gone largely unnoticed or been ignored by the international community. Otherwise the world would not have waited for 2017. And the ongoing murders and rapes of the Rohingya could perhaps be avoided.

While doing the study, ISCI had found that of the six stages of genocide -- stigmatization; harassment, violence and terror; isolation and segregation; and systematic weakening of the Rohingya -- had been completed in Myanmar by 2015. The final two -- mass annihilation and finally symbolic enactment involving the removal of the victim group from the collective history -- is now being staged in the Rakhine State.

The ISCI also documented how these genocide processes have been orchestrated at the highest levels of state and local Rakhine government. The actions were led by state officials, Rakhine politicians, Buddhist monks and Rakhine civil society activists.

“The State's persistent and intensified 'othering' of the Rohingya as outsiders, illegal Bengali immigrants and potential terrorists has given a green light to Rakhine nationalists and Islamophobic monks to orchestrate invidious campaigns of race and religious hatred reminiscent of those witnessed in Germany in the 1930s and Rwanda in the early 1990s,” the report said.

ISCI discovered a leaked document apparently adopted by the Myanmar regime in 1988 which reveals the country's State Peace and Development Council's commitment to eliminating the Rohingya from Myanmar.




These include reducing the population growth of the Rohingyas by gradual imposition of restrictions on their marriages and by application of all possible methods of oppression and suppression against them, denying them higher studies, government jobs, ownership of lands, shops and buildings.

The council's plan is literally to stop all their economic activities and secretly convert the Muslims into Buddhists.

ISCI also showed how the Arakan National Party (ANP), the majority Buddhist political party in Rakhine, has adopted Nazi ideology in its documents. ANP mouthpiece magazine The Progress in its November 2012 editorial after the June violence on the Rohingya wrote: “Hitler and Eichmann were the enemy of the Jews, but were probably heroes to the Germans…In order for a country's survival, the survival of a race, or in defense of national sovereignty, crimes against humanity or in-human acts may justifiably be committed as Hitler and the Holocaust... If that survival principle or justification is applied or permitted equally [in our Myanmar case] our endeavors to protect our Rakhine race and defend the sovereignty and longevity of the Union of Myanmar cannot be labelled as "crimes against humanity", or "inhuman" or "in-humane". ... We no longer wish to hold permanent concerns about the Bengali in our midst. We just want to get it over and done with, once and for all."

This policy continued in bits and pieces until the actions escalated in October last year and again this time in 2017 that has successfully reduced the Rohingya population by half in Myanmar.

Wednesday's UN move, although too late for the genocide to be avoided, is still a flicker of hope for a people left without a land. A people who “are not alive or dead”.

If the world treats this ISCI report more seriously, the UN should move more determinedly with robust actions, including investigations into crimes against humanity and sanctions.

It is after all the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, himself agreed with the observations of the report and said “the International State Crime Initiative arrives at a convincing conclusion” that a process of genocide against the Rohingya population is underway in Myanmar.”

Now that the UN human rights chief has termed the situation “a textbook case of ethnic cleansing” the demand for more actions can be heard louder.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-too-little-too-late-1462351


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## Banglar Bir




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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: The other face of today’s humanity*




__ https://www.facebook.com/




Looking at the fleeing Rohingyas today – young, old and new born, men and women – all trying to escape a murderous Myanmar army, one may wonder if we have come away from the age of Halagu Khan and his atrocities. The brutality that the Myanmar junta and its Buddhist supporters showed can only match that of Khan and what he inflicted during his siege of Baghdad in 1257. His victims look no different from what we see in the Rohingyas.

Today, in a world we boast of being complete with compassion, empathy and advancements, a pair of twins, barely days old and fleeing for their lives, confront and compel us to reflect on all the things we behold as achievements and progress in humanity. A fleeting mass of people we name as Rohingyas who made desperate attempts to scurry for refuge with stories of mass persecution, torture, rape and arson shake us back to the reality of a world we thought was long left behind.

This is a full coverage of what we have so far written and documented on the Rohingya persecution
http://www.thedailystar.net/myanmar-rohingya-crisis-the-other-face-of-todays-humanity


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## bluesky

Inside Story of 2000 Naf River war between Bangladesh and Myanmer.
Must Read





The whole deteils is writen by our WAR HERO - "Alm Fazlur Rahman"

"Naf is a bordering river between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Upper Naf has about 12 branches of smaller river. In 1966, Pakistan and Burma concluded a treaty agreeing that none of the countries will train the Naf river or branches of rivers . With the natural shifting of depth of river the demarcation of boundary between the countries will shift. When I took over as DG BDR I was told that 28 hundred acres TOTAL DIP OF BANGLADESH had been grabbed by Myanmar by shifting the depth of Naf river by building dams, groans and spars on the stewaries of main Naf river taking advantage of 1966 treaty. 

Suddenly, Myanmar started building dam on the last branches of Naf river, if completed whole TAKNAF would go into the sea. We protested but in-vain. Myanmar didn't stop. To protect the building side Myanmar deployed two divisions Army under command two major generals one from army and another from Navy. We positioned 2500 BDR troops under DDG BDR and kept the command directly under me. In one night, I moved 25 lac different types of ammunition and bombs in Cox's Bazar. Kept half in Cox's Bazar and sent half to the war positions. 

On 1st January 2000 at about 2.30 pm, I gave order for firing and the offensive strick was on. It lasted for 3 days in which 600 Myanmar army soldiers were killed. The war was live broadcasted by reporters Z. I. Mamun and Supan Roy on Ekushey Television. On 4th January, Myanmar's Head of the State Senior General Than Shwe call all the diplomats in Rangoon telling them that, Myanmar wants no war with Bangladesh. Cease fire was effected and a letter came from Myanmar govt saying, "We invite a delegation from Bangladesh to discuss all outstanding matters between two countries without any preconditions". 

Negotiation started under joint secretary (political affairs) Janibul Haque of the Ministry of Home Affairs, who headed the Bangladesh delegation in Myanmar. During the bilateral talks, Myanmar side was so wrought-up that they didn't even provide typewriters. And the treaty was signed on hand written documents. Myanmar dismantle the dam, thus we could save Teknaf from being lost into the Bay of Bengal. We defeated Myanmar's forces completely with no loss of life from our side. This is in nutshell about NAF WAR."


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## Homo Sapiens

http://www.smh.com.au/world/rohingy...nmar-of-ethnic-cleansing-20170917-gyj2i9.html
September 18 2017 - 12:04AM

* Rohingya crisis: Bangladesh to accuse Myanmar of 'ethnic cleansing' *
*Lindsay Murdoch*
 
*Bangladesh says it will accuse Myanmar's security forces of ethnic cleansing and call for international intervention in the Rohingya crisis at the United National General Assembly this week.*

*On Wednesday Aung San Suu Kyi's office announced she had cancelled a visit to New York for the meeting. *​

The cancellation will stoke further criticism of the Myanmar State Counsellor, Noble laureate and one-time democracy icon who has strongly defended the military's crackdown on Rohingya that survivors say includes extrajudicial killings, the widespread torching of villages, gang rape and slaughter of children.

In her first address to the assembly last year, after being swept into office at historic elections, Ms Suu Kyi defended her government's treatment of Rohingya.

*Related Articles*

*She has one day to save her reputation*
*But instead of going to New York this year she will make a television speech at home on Tuesday.*

"She is trying to control the security situation, to have internal peace and stability and to prevent the spread of communal conflict," her spokesman said.
*

The General Assembly is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss what the UN describes as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing."*



Relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar have collapsed after more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine over the past three weeks, creating what aid agencies say is an emerging humanitarian catastrophe in squalid border camps.






A Rohingya Muslim man Abdul Kareem walks towards a refugee camp carrying his mother Alima Khatoon after crossing over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, at Teknaf, Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. United Nations agencies say an estimated 409,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when deadly attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on police posts prompted Myanmar's military to launch "clearance operations" in Rakhine state. Those fleeing have described indiscriminate attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin) Photo: AP
Bangladesh accuses Myanmar of flying drones and helicopters over its border, violating its air space, over the past week and warned more "provocative acts" could have "unwarranted consequences."

"Bangladesh expresses deep concern at the repetition of such acts of provocation and demands that Myanmar take immediate measures to ensure that such violation of sovereignty does not occur again," Bangladesh's foreign ministry said in a statement.






A Rohingya Muslim man walks to shore carrying two children in Bangladesh after they arrived on a boat from Myanmar. Photo: AP
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is travelling to New York to speak at the UN General Assembly where she would call for international pressure to ensure Myanmar takes everyone back after stopping its "ethnic cleansing', her press secretary, Ihsanul Karim said.

Ms Hasina has asked Myanmar to implement recommendations of a panel led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that include restoring basic rights such as citizenship to Rohingya, who have been living in Rakhine for generations.

Poor and overcrowded Bangladesh is moving to fence off its border with Myanmar and build 14,000 shelters, each with the capacity to hold six families, after existing camps reached capacity.

Aid agencies have struggled to provide food, shelter and health care.

Aid groups worry diseases like cholera will spread through the settlements.

Myanmar's military launched the crackdown after Muslim insurgents attacked police posts and a military base on August 25.

*The terror group al-Qaeda has warned the violence against Muslims will not go unpunished and urged jihadists to set out to Myanmar to "resist this oppression."*

Save the Children says the unprecedented arrival of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is putting huge stress on humanitarian agencies and more than 380,000 refugees who were already living in border camps.

* "Many people are arriving hungry, exhausted and with no food or water, having left their homes in fear of their lives," said Mark Pierce, Save the Children's Country Director in Bangladesh.*

"I'm particularly worried that the demand for food, shelter, water and basic hygiene support is not being met due to the sheer number of people in need," he said.

"If families can't meet their basic needs, the suffering will get even worse and lives could be lost."

Mr Pierce warns the number of displaced people at the border could rise beyond one million by the end of the year if the influx continues, including about 600,000 children.

* "Local communities have been extremely accommodating, often welcoming the Rohingya into their homes and sharing precious food and water," he said.

"Aid agencies are doing all they can to help, however the humanitarian response needs to be rapidly scaled up, and that can only be done if the international community steps up funding."*

More than 1,100 separated or unaccompanied Rohingya children have fled Rakhine, aid agencies say.

Some became orphans when their parents were killed in the violence.

"Beneath the hardship and suffering faced by the Rohingya who've arrived in Bangladesh, there is a child protection crisis on our doorstep," Mr Pierce said.

"We're seeing a number of children arriving alone and in desperate need of help," he said.

"This is a real concern as these children are in an especially vulnerable position, being at increased risk of exploitation and abuse, as well as things like child trafficking."

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## UKBengali

Excellent!

BD government needs to ramp up it's diplomacy and highlight the behaviour of the savages next door.

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## Homo Sapiens

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/0...ms-at-un-foreign-affairs-minister_a_23212050/

*Canada Will Stand Up For Rohingya Muslims At UN: Foreign Affairs Minister*
*But Canada's foreign affairs minister was vague on details.*
09/16/2017 23:47 EDT | *Updated* 3 hours ago

Michelle McQuigge Canadian Press

TORONTO — Canada's foreign affairs minister says the government is very concerned about the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and plans to speak up on their behalf.

Chrystia Freeland says both she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plan to "focus" on the issue at next week's United Nations General Assembly in New York.


She did not elaborate on the specific actions she or Trudeau plan to take.

Freeland also told a Toronto rally in support of the Rohingya that she also discussed the issue with Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General who is currently leading a commission investigating the crisis unfolding in Myanmar.



She says another key focus for Canada is getting the ambassador into the area of heaviest conflict to report first-hand on the situation.

Myanmar's powerful military is accused of torching the homes of 400,000 Rohingya Muslims, forcing them to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh as refugees. Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has come under harsh international criticism for failing to speak out against the violence, with some arguing she should be stripped of both her Nobel Peace Prize and her honorary Canadian citizenship.


Freeland did not address those concerns, but told the rally that Trudeau expressed his "very strong condemnation" of the treatment of the Rohingya directly to Suu Kyi earlier this week.

Freeland said Trudeau also asked Suu Kyi to "raise her voice" on behalf of the Muslim minority in her country.

"I want you to know that this is an issue that matters to me very, very much," she told the crowd. "It's an issue that matters very much to the prime minister."

_Watch: PM Pressed About Aung San Suu Kyi's Honorary Citizenship_


Officials speaking on condition of anonymity have said Canada has been reluctant to overtly blame Suu Kyi for the violence against the Rohingya because it believes Myanmar's military is using it to undermine her global reputation.

Canada believes elements in Myanmar's powerful military see the current crisis as an opportunity to weaken Suu Kyi's ambitions to bring democracy to their country.

Officials have said Freeland recognizes that Suu Kyi is in a precarious political position because she does not control the actions of her military, which once ruled her country with impunity and placed her under house arrest before she prevailed and won power in democratic elections.

Freeland did not offer details on the substance of what she or Trudeau plan to do at the UN Assembly, but did say the issue is one that both would be "focusing on."






NurPhoto via Getty Images
Rohingya girl prepare food in the side of her makeshift tent at the Thenkhali refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh on Sept. 16, 2017.
Freeland also emphasized the importance of gaining ambassadorial access to Rakhine State, the scene of much of the violence. Officials have previously said that Myanmar has rebuffed several recent requests by Canada and other western countries to send envoys into Rakhine for a first-hand look.

"Our ambassador is seeking access to Rakhine State," Freeland told the rally. "We would like our ambassador to go there so we can have Canadians seeing first-hand what is happening."

Another rally in support of the Rohingya is planned in Ottawa for Sunday afternoon.

The 72nd session of the UN General Assembly is slated to get underway on Tuesday.

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## UKBengali

Well done Canada.

It is at times like this, you know who are the real humanitarians in this world.

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## gangsta_rap

brownie points

in truth caanda doesnt care one bit


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## idune

* ‘We will kill you all’, say Rakhine, Myanmar Buddhists *
*Rohingyas in Myanmar beg for safe passage*

Reuters . Sittwe, Myanmar | Published: 01:01, Sep 18,2017

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in violence-wracked northwest Myanmar are pleading with the authorities for safe passage from two remote villages that are cut off by hostile Buddhists and running short of food.
*‘We’re terrified,’ Maung Maung, a Rohingya official at Ah Nauk Pyin village, said by telephone. ‘We’ll starve soon and they’re threatening to burn down our houses.’
Another Rohingya contacted by Reuters, who asked not to be named, said ethnic Rakhine Buddhists came to the same village and shouted, ‘Leave, or we will kill you all.’
Fragile relations between Ah Nauk Pyin and its Rakhine neighbours were shattered on Aug 25, when deadly attacks by Rohingya militants in Rakhine State prompted a ferocious response from Myanmar’s security forces.*

At least 430,000 Rohingya have since fled into neighbouring Bangladesh to evade what the United Nations has called a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’.
About a million Rohingya lived in Rakhine State until the recent violence. Most face draconian travel restrictions and are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Tin Maung Swe, secretary of the Rakhine State government, said he was working closely with the Rathedaung authorities, and had received no information about the Rohingya villagers’ plea for safe passage.
‘There is nothing to be concerned about,’ he said when asked about local tensions. ‘Southern Rathedaung is completely safe.’
National police spokesman Myo Thu Soe said he also had no information about the Rohingya villages, but said he would look into the matter.
Ah Nauk Pyin sits on a mangrove-fringed peninsula in Rathedaung, one of three townships in northern Rakhine State. The villagers say they have no boats.
Until three weeks ago, there were 21 Muslim villages in Rathedaung, along with three camps for Muslims displaced by previous bouts of religious violence. Sixteen of those villages and all three camps have since been emptied and in many cases burnt, forcing an estimated 28,000 Rohingya to flee.
Rathedaung’s five surviving Rohingya villages and their 8,000 or so inhabitants are encircled by Rakhine Buddhists and acutely vulnerable, say human rights monitors.
The situation is particularly dire in Ah Nauk Pyin and nearby Naung Pin Gyi, where any escape route to Bangladesh is long, arduous, and sometimes blocked by hostile Rakhine neighbours.
Maung Maung, the Rohingya official, said the villagers are resigned to leaving, but the authorities have not responded to their requests for security. At night, he said, villagers had heard distant gunfire.
‘It’s better they go somewhere else,’ said Thein Aung, a Rathedaung official, who dismissed Rohingya claims that Rakhines were threatening them.
Only two of the Aug 25 attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army took place in Rathedaung. But the township was already a tinderbox of religious tension, with ARSA citing the mistreatment of Rohingya there as one justification for its offensive.
In late July, Rakhine residents of a large, mixed village in northern Rathedaung corralled hundreds of Rohingya inside their neighbourhood, blocking access to food and water.
A similar pattern is repeating itself in southern Rathedaung, with local Rakhine citing possible ARSA infiltration as a reason for ejecting the last remaining Rohingya.
Maung Maung said he had called the police at least 30 times to report threats against his village.
On Sept 13, he said, he got a call from a Rakhine villager he knew. ‘Leave tomorrow or we’ll come and burn down all your houses,’ said the man, according to a recording Maung Maung gave to Reuters.
When Maung Maung protested that they had no means to escape, the man replied: ‘That’s not our problem.’
On Aug 31, the police convened a roadside meeting between two villages, attended by seven Rohingya from Ah Nauk Pyin and 14 Rakhine officials from the surrounding villages.
Instead of addressing the Rohingya complaints, said Maung Maung and two other Rohingya who attended the meeting, the Rakhine officials delivered an ultimatum.
‘They said they didn’t want any Muslims in the region and we should leave immediately,’ said the Rohingya resident of Ah Nauk Pyin who requested anonymity.
The Rohingya agreed, said Maung Maung, but only if the authorities provided security.
He showed Reuters a letter that the village elders had sent to the Rathedaung authorities on Sept 7, asking to be moved to ‘another place’. They had yet to receive a response, he said.
Relations between the two communities deteriorated in 2012, when religious unrest in Rakhine State killed nearly 200 people and made 140,000 homeless, most of them Rohingya. Scores of houses in Ah Nauk Pyin were torched.
Since then, said villagers, Rohingya have been too scared to leave the village or till their land, surviving mainly on monthly deliveries from the World Food Programme. The recent violence halted those deliveries.

http://www.newagebd.net/article/24329/we-will-kill-you-all-say-rakhine-buddhists

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## Burhan Wani

Lord please save our Muslim brothers and Sisters under aggression every where.

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## Michael Corleone

where is the UN... it was quick to get support of the world agaisnt iraqi invasion of kuwait.... 
just because there isn't any business benefit, there is no actions taken. same way jews have been persecuted in germany and league of nations kept silent.

shame really, everyone is a businessman or a hypocrite these days.

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## Centaur

What a tragedy for our Muslim brothers and sisters.Most of muslim countries need nuclear weapon essentially, so that the cruel world shows respect to us.
Nuclear powers backing miyanmer, so only nuke can save Muslims.
And atleast two Muslim country like Pakistan and turkey should claim veto power in UN.

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## Samurai_assassin

Certainly is a devastating tragedy faced by the Rohingya. Pakistan should open its doors fully the Rohingya as it did for the Afghans, Somalis and Bosnians.

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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> Lord please save our Muslim brothers and Sisters under aggression every where.


My friend lord will only save you when you will try your best to.save yourself.
What is the stance of Pakistan on china's decision to support miyanmer? Pakistan should try to convince China.
We expect more responsibility from China and Pakistan can use it's influence as China Pakistan are best allies!


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## Burhan Wani

Jacksparrow47 said:


> My friend lord will only save you when you will try your best to.save yourself.
> What is the stance of Pakistan on china's decision to support miyanmer? Pakistan should try to convince China.
> We expect more responsibility from China and Pakistan can use it's influence as China Pakistan are best allies!


Our Government has already taken initiatives to sop this religious-ethnic cleansing but we are not that powerful.

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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> Our Government has already taken initiatives to sop this religious-ethnic cleansing but we are not that powerful.


Sadly most of muslim countries are like that. Smaller countries, smaller economy, and almost no power. I see no way to get out from this bad condition in near future!
But Shia sunni alliance can bring good result. But they are busy screwing each other. 
Look at Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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## Burhan Wani

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Sadly most of muslim countries are like that. Smaller countries, smaller economy, and almost no power. I see no way to get out from this bad condition in near future!


Some time i feel unlucky to be born in this era. I don't know why Bengali religious organisation were not waging jihad against them.

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## Samurai_assassin

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Sadly most of muslim countries are like that. Smaller countries, smaller economy, and almost no power. I see no way to get out from this bad condition in near future!


On forign matters Pakitan is extreamly poor diplomatically with virtually no power. It's wasted 16 years of fighting uncle Sams war. I was previously apprehensive of Pakistanis as a nation to be armed but now I fully endorse the concept. Hundreds and thousands of rural communities in Pakistan are fully armed and prepared in the case of any foriegn invasion. The people cannot depend on their governments to defend them.

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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> I don't know why Bengali religious organisation were not waging jihad against them.


Because of our government.they are busy licking seculars.
Sometimes they support deobandis though as eye wash.
Honestly Bangladeshi intelligence should train the Rohingya freedom fighters and Muslim countries should fund them.
Saudi Arabia and other Arabian countries can do this, but they will not too, as the became puppet to super powers.
They only can boycott qatar and nothing else.


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## Burhan Wani

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Because of our government.they are busy licking seculars.
> Sometimes they support deobandis though as eye wash.
> Honestly Bangladeshi intelligence should train the Rohingya freedom fighters and Muslim countries should fund them.
> Saudi Arabia and other Arabian countries can do this, but they will not too, as the became puppet to super powers.
> They only can boycott qatar and nothing else.


If Guns were the part of Rohingiya culture like Paashtuns they will create unrest in entire region.


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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> If Guns were the part of Rohingiya culture like Paashtuns they will create unrest in entire region.


Then what is the solution? I see no good options left here.
What say you? stance of China making me disturbed, though I know China can be surrounded by enemies if they make miyanmer angry.

Russia is also supporting miyanmer.


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## Samurai_assassin

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Then what is the solution? I see no good options left here.
> What say you? stance of China making me disturbed, though I know China can be surrounded by enemies if they make miyanmer angry.
> 
> Russia is also supporting miyanmer.


 As no super
Power is interested in supporting the Rohingya the only current viable solution is for nations such as Iran, Turkey & Pakistan to team up with Bangladeh and dispatch medical aid, medicine, nurses & doctors, equipment to help with shelter, food and water.

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## Burhan Wani

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Then what is the solution? I see no good options left here.
> What say you? stance of China making me disturbed, though I know China can be surrounded by enemies if they make miyanmer angry.
> 
> Russia is also supporting miyanmer.


Bangladeshi people have to take some daring steps in this situation, rebel against your Government and Mayanmar at once. We are with you.


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## Samurai_assassin

Burhan Wani said:


> Bangladeshi people have to take some daring steps in this situation, rebel against your Government and Mayanmar at once. We are with you.


I second that! In the early days of US invasion of Afghanistan 2001, Pakistanis in their thousands crossed the border to help the Afghan Taliban despite attempts by Gen Musharraf to put a stop to it, the Pak
people rebelled and took up arms to fight along side their Afghan brethren against the most powerful army in the world. It wasn't the first time in 1979 Pakistanis most notebly the SSG commandos nicknamed the Black Storks by the Soviets help train the Afghan Mujahideen and fought along
side them in the highest mountainous peaks of Afghanistan.


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## Safriz

And now when Rohingya fight back, they will be called Terrorists.
They should fight back.

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## Burhan Wani

Samurai_assassin said:


> I second that! In the early days of US invasion of Afghanistan 2001, Pakistanis in their thousands crossed the border to help the Afghan Taliban despite attempts by Gen Musharraf to put a stop to it, the Pak
> people rebelled and took up arms to fight along side their Afghan brethren against the most powerful army in the world. It wasn't the first time in 1979 Pakistanis most notebly the SSG commandos nicknamed the Black Storks by the Soviets help train the Afghan Mujahideen and fought along
> side them in the highest mountainous peaks of Afghanistan.


So we helped our neighbors at the time of difficulty by hosting migrants and helping armed fighters. Pakistanis also cross Line of Control to help Kashmiri freedom fighters since decades.


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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> Bangladeshi people have to take some daring steps in this situation, rebel against your Government and Mayanmar at once. We are with you.


I don't think it is possible. And also not necesarry. If the govt fall, another will come and result is same.no good news.



Samurai_assassin said:


> As no super
> Power is interested in supporting the Rohingya the only current viable solution is for nations such as Iran, Turkey & Pakistan to team up with Bangladeh and dispatch medical aid, medicine, nurses & doctors, equipment to help with shelter, food and water.


Well looks that's the only way at that moment.
But this will provoke miyanmer to persecute more Rohingyas. As miyanmer was always a savage nation.


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## Burhan Wani

Jacksparrow47 said:


> I don't think it is possible. And also not necesarry. If the govt fall, another will come and result is same.no good news.
> 
> 
> Well looks that's the only way at that moment.
> But this will provoke miyanmer to persecute more Rohingyas. As miyanmer was always a savage nation.


Host them well at least.

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## Centaur

Samurai_assassin said:


> I second that! In the early days of US invasion of Afghanistan 2001, Pakistanis in their thousands crossed the border to help the Afghan Taliban despite attempts by Gen Musharraf to put a stop to it, the Pak
> people rebelled and took up arms to fight along side their Afghan brethren against the most powerful army in the world. It wasn't the first time in 1979 Pakistanis most notebly the SSG commandos nicknamed the Black Storks by the Soviets help train the Afghan Mujahideen and fought along
> side them in the highest mountainous peaks of Afghanistan.


Unfortunately Bangladeshi population only have big mouth.they will not take such action. They only can do heated debate in forums and Facebook.


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## MultaniGuy

idune said:


> * ‘We will kill you all’, say Rakhine, Myanmar Buddhists *
> *Rohingyas in Myanmar beg for safe passage*
> 
> Reuters . Sittwe, Myanmar | Published: 01:01, Sep 18,2017
> 
> Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in violence-wracked northwest Myanmar are pleading with the authorities for safe passage from two remote villages that are cut off by hostile Buddhists and running short of food.
> *‘We’re terrified,’ Maung Maung, a Rohingya official at Ah Nauk Pyin village, said by telephone. ‘We’ll starve soon and they’re threatening to burn down our houses.’
> Another Rohingya contacted by Reuters, who asked not to be named, said ethnic Rakhine Buddhists came to the same village and shouted, ‘Leave, or we will kill you all.’
> Fragile relations between Ah Nauk Pyin and its Rakhine neighbours were shattered on Aug 25, when deadly attacks by Rohingya militants in Rakhine State prompted a ferocious response from Myanmar’s security forces.*
> 
> At least 430,000 Rohingya have since fled into neighbouring Bangladesh to evade what the United Nations has called a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’.
> About a million Rohingya lived in Rakhine State until the recent violence. Most face draconian travel restrictions and are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
> Tin Maung Swe, secretary of the Rakhine State government, said he was working closely with the Rathedaung authorities, and had received no information about the Rohingya villagers’ plea for safe passage.
> ‘There is nothing to be concerned about,’ he said when asked about local tensions. ‘Southern Rathedaung is completely safe.’
> National police spokesman Myo Thu Soe said he also had no information about the Rohingya villages, but said he would look into the matter.
> Ah Nauk Pyin sits on a mangrove-fringed peninsula in Rathedaung, one of three townships in northern Rakhine State. The villagers say they have no boats.
> Until three weeks ago, there were 21 Muslim villages in Rathedaung, along with three camps for Muslims displaced by previous bouts of religious violence. Sixteen of those villages and all three camps have since been emptied and in many cases burnt, forcing an estimated 28,000 Rohingya to flee.
> Rathedaung’s five surviving Rohingya villages and their 8,000 or so inhabitants are encircled by Rakhine Buddhists and acutely vulnerable, say human rights monitors.
> The situation is particularly dire in Ah Nauk Pyin and nearby Naung Pin Gyi, where any escape route to Bangladesh is long, arduous, and sometimes blocked by hostile Rakhine neighbours.
> Maung Maung, the Rohingya official, said the villagers are resigned to leaving, but the authorities have not responded to their requests for security. At night, he said, villagers had heard distant gunfire.
> ‘It’s better they go somewhere else,’ said Thein Aung, a Rathedaung official, who dismissed Rohingya claims that Rakhines were threatening them.
> Only two of the Aug 25 attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army took place in Rathedaung. But the township was already a tinderbox of religious tension, with ARSA citing the mistreatment of Rohingya there as one justification for its offensive.
> In late July, Rakhine residents of a large, mixed village in northern Rathedaung corralled hundreds of Rohingya inside their neighbourhood, blocking access to food and water.
> A similar pattern is repeating itself in southern Rathedaung, with local Rakhine citing possible ARSA infiltration as a reason for ejecting the last remaining Rohingya.
> Maung Maung said he had called the police at least 30 times to report threats against his village.
> On Sept 13, he said, he got a call from a Rakhine villager he knew. ‘Leave tomorrow or we’ll come and burn down all your houses,’ said the man, according to a recording Maung Maung gave to Reuters.
> When Maung Maung protested that they had no means to escape, the man replied: ‘That’s not our problem.’
> On Aug 31, the police convened a roadside meeting between two villages, attended by seven Rohingya from Ah Nauk Pyin and 14 Rakhine officials from the surrounding villages.
> Instead of addressing the Rohingya complaints, said Maung Maung and two other Rohingya who attended the meeting, the Rakhine officials delivered an ultimatum.
> ‘They said they didn’t want any Muslims in the region and we should leave immediately,’ said the Rohingya resident of Ah Nauk Pyin who requested anonymity.
> The Rohingya agreed, said Maung Maung, but only if the authorities provided security.
> He showed Reuters a letter that the village elders had sent to the Rathedaung authorities on Sept 7, asking to be moved to ‘another place’. They had yet to receive a response, he said.
> Relations between the two communities deteriorated in 2012, when religious unrest in Rakhine State killed nearly 200 people and made 140,000 homeless, most of them Rohingya. Scores of houses in Ah Nauk Pyin were torched.
> Since then, said villagers, Rohingya have been too scared to leave the village or till their land, surviving mainly on monthly deliveries from the World Food Programme. The recent violence halted those deliveries.
> 
> http://www.newagebd.net/article/24329/we-will-kill-you-all-say-rakhine-buddhists


I think its better for the Muslims to leave Myanmar.

Muslims are facing persecution in Myanmar.

Better to leave Myanmar.


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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> Host them well at least.


Yes we are doing so, hope government will do better with the aid of other nations ( as food shelter, medicine and other necesarry things for living as we are unable to do it alone).


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## gangsta_rap

the UN has its head stuck up in an unnatural manner. This is gonna be worse than srebrenica and bosnian purges

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## Burhan Wani

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Yes we are doing so, hope government will do better with the aid of other nations ( as food shelter as we are unable to do it alone).


Is there any hurdle between Migrants and Bangladesh to cross or political issue?


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## Samurai_assassin

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Unfortunately Bangladeshi population only have big mouth.they will not take such action. They only can do heated debate in forums and Facebook.


One of the most commendable and brave people who have stood against oppression and continued massacres has to be the Palestinains. Despite limited resources, continued blockade, forceful restrictions and no assistance from neighbouring Arab states the Palestinians have never given up their dream of an end to Israeli occupation and have also militarised their youth. They have very little resources but yet groups such as Hammas can still produce their own homemade rockets used to defend against the might of the US funded Israeli army. Bangladesh will have to support the Rohingya militarily so the community can defend itself.

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## idune

Jacksparrow47 said:


> I don't think it is possible. And also not necesarry. If the govt fall, another will come and result is same.no good news.



This is WRONG description of Bangladesh situation. If current indian stooge awami regime goes, Myanmar will be under pressure and will not able to conduct genocide. There is historic proof of 1978 and 1991 what Bangladesh did in similar situation and Myanmar was forced to backed off.


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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> Is there any hurdle between Migrants and Bangladesh to cross or political issue?


No political issues atm. But miyanmer set land mine so that fleeing Rohingyas die. Atleast our newspapers say so.
And at past regional politics of South aisa played dirty role but finally government overcome it.



Samurai_assassin said:


> One of the most commendable and brave people who have stood against oppression and continued massacres has to be the Palestinains. Despite limited resources, continued blockade, forceful restrictions and no assistance from neighbouring Arab states the Palestinians have never given up their dream of an end to Israeli occupation and have also militarised their youth. They have very little resources but yet groups such as Hammas can still produce their own homemade rockets used to defend against the might of the US funded Israeli army. Bangladesh will have to support the Rohingya militarily so the community can defend itself.


Agreed. And few bangladeshi also fought in Palestine. Bangladesh govt backed them that time.now they are oppressed and govt also will do opposite as they need to serve someone you know!


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## Burhan Wani

Jacksparrow47 said:


> No political issues atm. But miyanmer set land mine so that fleeing Rohingyas die. Atleast our newspapers say so.
> And at past regional politics of South aisa played dirty role but finally government overcome it.
> 
> 
> Bangladesh govt backed them that time.now they will do opposite as they need to serve someone you know!


That means they don't want them to just leave their country they want them dead. Alas.

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## Centaur

idune said:


> This is WRONG description of Bangladesh situation. If current indian stooge awami regime goes, Myanmar will be under pressure and will not able to conduct genocide. There is historic proof of 1978 and 1991 what Bangladesh did in similar situation and Myanmar was forced to backed off.


Partly agree. Current awami league government really became Indian stooge.
But you should know that we have a third party and no one can go against them.perhaps this is true for Pakistan and Egypt too.
How fast the elected morsi government was thrown out by the 3rd party?
Btw I cant give any evidence .


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## idune

Burhan Wani said:


> That means they don't want them to just leave their country they want them dead. Alas.



Exactly, this is classic case of genocide and ethnic cleansing by Myanmar. That is exactly what UN, human right organization and other countries are calling it.

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## Centaur

Burhan Wani said:


> That means they don't want them to just leave their country they want them dead. Alas.


Yes pure savages.


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## Burhan Wani

idune said:


> Exactly, this is classic case of genocide and ethnic cleansing by Myanmar. That is exactly what UN, human right organization and other countries are calling it.


This is completely acceptable. Our religious people here in Pakistan are dying to cross every barrier and avenge lives of Burmese Muslims.



Jacksparrow47 said:


> Yes pure savages.


Jut leave this case for Almighty Allah. I am sure Almighty will provide every assistance to Burmese muslims from heavens. Amen

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## bluesky

*Rohingya crisis one of the fastest growing in recent years, warns UN refugee agency*
In-Depth Coverage
15 September 2017 – The humanitarian situation in parts of Bangladesh sheltering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees continues to deteriorate, making the crisis one of the fastest growing refugee crises of recent years, according to the United Nations.

"[The crisis is] creating enormous humanitarian needs in an area of Bangladesh already affected by earlier refugee influxes, recent floods and not equipped to cope with large numbers of new arrivals," Andrej Mahecic, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists at a media briefing in Geneva today.

According to estimates, some 380,000 Rohingya refugees, fleeing violence in Myanmar, have crossed the border into Bangladesh since 25 August.

"A visit to the area this week by a UNHCR team, led by Assistant High Commissioner for Operations George Okoth-Obbo, found people suffering real hardship and some of the most difficult conditions seen in any current refugee situation," said Mr. Mahecic.

Refugees continue to arrive daily outside of the two established camps which are already substantially overflowing, and many people have received little meaningful help to date, he added.

The UN agency has been responding to the situation and assisting those coming but its in-country stocks have been exhausted, noted the UNHCR spokesperson, adding that deliveries of more aid – flown in earlier this week – are currently underway.

_*Children worst affected*_

Challenges, however, are the greatest for children. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), there are at least 240,000 children among the refugees, including about 36,000 who are less than a year old. There were also 52,000 pregnant and lactating women.

"Conditions are ripe for the spread of disease," Marixie Mercado, a UNICEF spokesperson highlighted at the briefing, noting that refuges have little protection from the elements and lack drinking water.

"There is nowhere near enough latrines, and extreme mosquito activity has been forecast for the coming days. It is important to note that even before the crisis, half of the children in Rakhine state [in Myanmar] had suffered from chronic malnutrition, meaning they were vulnerable to disease," she said.

To help cope with this situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) is stepping up its efforts, and starting 16 September, will launch a polio and measles vaccination campaign to cover 150,000 newly arrived children aged 6 months to 15 years old, said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the UN agency.

"In the coming days, [we will also] distribute emergency medical kits to cover 100,000 people, 2 million water purification tablets and cholera kits for 20,000 people," he added, noting that the UN health agency is also supporting the Government of Bangladesh in providing medical teams to new spontaneous settlements.

The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN's emergency food assistance agency, has also upped its response, delivering high-energy food bars, and together with partners, hot food and rice for cooking to tens of thousands of refugees.

_*'Remarkable generosity' of Bangladeshi communities*_

Mr. Mahecic also noted that Bangladeshi communities have shown "remarkable generosity," welcoming refugees into their homes and sharing resources with them.

However, as the number of new arrivals continues, UN agencies are in urgent need of additional funds to provide protection and life-saving assistance.

Among them, UNHCR has appealed for an initial amount of $30 million for its emergency response in the country until the end of year.

Similarly, UNICEF made an initial appeal for $7.3 million over three months, including almost $3 million for water and sanitation alone, but that amount was calculated on the basis of 200,000 people and that number had now doubled.

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## CriticalThinker02

Burhan Wani said:


> Lord please save our Muslim brothers and Sisters under aggression every where.



Ameen


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## Bilal9

bluesky said:


> Similarly, UNICEF made an initial appeal for $7.3 million over three months, including almost $3 million for water and sanitation alone, but that amount was calculated on the basis of 200,000 people and that number had now doubled.



That bill of $14.6 Million (and any subsequent ones) needs to be sent to Myanmar Govt., since this happened under their direct involvement (and probably under their long-term deliberate planning).

Should be loose change for them because they reportedly spent $17 Billion on their Military in 2016 alone which is 25% of their GDP.

I wonder what was our military budget? $1.7 Billion or so?

Sad.....


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## t_for_talli

Jacksparrow47 said:


> What a tragedy for our Muslim brothers and sisters.Most of muslim countries need nuclear weapon essentially, so that the cruel world shows respect to us.
> Nuclear powers backing miyanmer, so only nuke can save Muslims.
> And atleast two Muslim country like Pakistan and turkey should claim veto power in UN.



Why Nuclear, Cant you fight conventionally, 
BD has 2 times population, 3 times GDP of Myanmar, BD is better even in per capita terms, 
Who is stopping you to fight for Rohingya, 

But you know the real fact, everyone in this world looks after his interests, 
UN acted on Kuwait because entire oil belt was in danger, 
India supported mukti bani because it was hitting Pakistan, 

What will BD get for fighting for Rohingya ? 
Nuclear, Veto are just excuses, with twice population and thrice GDP if BD is not willing to fight for Rohingya then forget nations which are 1000s of Km away


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## idune

t_for_talli said:


> India supported mukti bani because it was hitting Pakistan



you spilled the beans....didn't we know it all along.


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## Centaur

t_for_talli said:


> But you know the real fact, everyone in this world looks after his interests,


Yes that's why I am talking about nuclear. A conventional fought can't be won in present days.
If we have nuclear power may country will give us value as they are giving value to North Korea.
And not only nuclear power but we also need to be strong economically.
We or other Muslim countries can't have bigger economy like India despite how gdp per capita income is because India has huge population.
So Muslim countries should try another way like good business policy, and will have to make better military logistics.
Dependency on others will bring zero result.
Thanks to Erdogan that atleast he bought weapons from Russia.
So instead of being puppet and so called friend of various super powers Muslim counetreies should choose different ways.
Like Muslim countries of American block must seek for others like
Turkey did. And also Chinese and Russian gang should choose different side too. As no one is parmanent ally without own interest.


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## UKBengali

t_for_talli said:


> Why Nuclear, Cant you fight conventionally,
> BD has 2 times population, 3 times GDP of Myanmar, BD is better even in per capita terms,
> Who is stopping you to fight for Rohingya,
> 
> But you know the real fact, everyone in this world looks after his interests,
> UN acted on Kuwait because entire oil belt was in danger,
> India supported mukti bani because it was hitting Pakistan,
> 
> What will BD get for fighting for Rohingya ?
> Nuclear, Veto are just excuses, with twice population and thrice GDP if BD is not willing to fight for Rohingya then forget nations which are 1000s of Km away



Actually BD has 3 times population and 3.5 times GDP of Myanmar.


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## idune

Amnesty published pictures extent of Myanmar genocide against Rohingya.












all mass killings by Myanmar and evidence are documented, genocidal charge will be brought against Myanmar regime and Suu Kyi. In such case none of Myanmar regime will able to travel outside, perhaps except China, india and Russia. If Myanmar think it can develop its economy, that is thrown out of the window now.


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## Samurai_assassin

UKBengali said:


> Actually BD has 3 times population and 3.5 times GDP of Myanmar.


Certainly BD has a much larger population so there will be no problem having men of fighting age available. Only issue is do Bangladeshis have the will and fight?


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## Destrius

How can Bangladesh fight Myanmar? Both India and China support Myanmar and India will put a stop to any aggressive action from Bangladesh.

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## Md Akmal

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Sadly most of muslim countries are like that. Smaller countries, smaller economy, and almost no power. I see no way to get out from this bad condition in near future!
> But Shia sunni alliance can bring good result. But they are busy screwing each other.
> Look at Saudi Arabia and Iran.



@ They had been screwing them self for centuries together and will remain so.

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## Samurai_assassin

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Unfortunately Bangladeshi population only have big mouth.they will not take such action. They only can do heated debate in forums and Facebook.


It is unfortunate how some sections of Bangladeshi society wish only to curse, abuse and mock Pakistanis. On Many online forums, Bangladeshis show their great hatred for Pakistan. The spend too much time spewing online abuse towards Pakistan rather then condemning their own government.

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## Centaur

Samurai_assassin said:


> It is unfortunate how some sections of Bangladeshi society wish only to curse, abuse and mock Pakistanis. On Many online forums, Bangladeshis show their great hatred for Pakistan. The spend too much time spewing online abuse towards Pakistan rather then condemning their own government.


The main problem is most of our peoples are led by hype. They read some fabricated history from text books written by some pseudo intellectuals, and easily believe them. 
On the other hand most of them have deep hatred to those intellectuals too. 
So that means they read fabricated history and believe them because they don't know who are the writers, or even if knows they don't pay attention. 
Contradiction became the habbit of bangladeshi peoples. 
And also shouting against Pakistan give them an option to prove themselves pattriot, but they don't know or don't want to know that Pakistan was mainly founded by their forefathers sacrifice.


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## ashok321

*Congress urges government to take all parties into confidence on Rohingyas:*

The Congress today urged the government to take all parties into confidence and not have a "blanket approach" on the issue of the Rohingyas. 

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the matter was "very sensitive" and the government must act responsibly while maintaining a balance between internal security and international obligations while taking a call on the issue. 

"It is incumbent and obligatory on the government to take every part of the political spectrum into confidence in a collective sense on this very important and sensitive matter," he told reporters in New Delhi.

The Congress leader said such collective consultations would help the government decipher genuine national security problems.

"A blanket approach is never helpful. We beseech the government not to use blanket approaches. We are given to understand that in the affidavit given to the Supreme Court the government has suggested that it is not bound by any international treaty," he said.

Singhvi said whether it was a technical point or a blanket approach, "you should be very guarded" because the government ultimately changes, parties and time change, but the country and the affidavit in the Supreme Court are permanent.

On the Centre's plea that the Rohingyas were involved in anti-national activities, Singhvi said this was a sensitive matter and "all have to be restrained and responsible about this".

The Centre told the Supreme Court today Rohingya Muslims were illegal immigrants in India and their continued stay had "serious national security ramifications".


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## Mirzah

Destrius said:


> How can Bangladesh fight Myanmar? Both India and China support Myanmar and India will put a stop to any aggressive action from Bangladesh.


Bangladesh is aggressive if we try to stop a genocide? And Myanmar is pacifist! India will not try to stop the genocide of rohingya by Burma but will stop Bangladesh from trying to save rohingya ,the world is upside down


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## mb444

ashok321 said:


> *Congress urges government to take all parties into confidence on Rohingyas:*
> 
> The Congress today urged the government to take all parties into confidence and not have a "blanket approach" on the issue of the Rohingyas.
> 
> Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the matter was "very sensitive" and the government must act responsibly while maintaining a balance between internal security and international obligations while taking a call on the issue.
> 
> "It is incumbent and obligatory on the government to take every part of the political spectrum into confidence in a collective sense on this very important and sensitive matter," he told reporters in New Delhi.
> 
> The Congress leader said such collective consultations would help the government decipher genuine national security problems.
> 
> "A blanket approach is never helpful. We beseech the government not to use blanket approaches. We are given to understand that in the affidavit given to the Supreme Court the government has suggested that it is not bound by any international treaty," he said.
> 
> Singhvi said whether it was a technical point or a blanket approach, "you should be very guarded" because the government ultimately changes, parties and time change, but the country and the affidavit in the Supreme Court are permanent.
> 
> On the Centre's plea that the Rohingyas were involved in anti-national activities, Singhvi said this was a sensitive matter and "all have to be restrained and responsible about this".
> 
> The Centre told the Supreme Court today Rohingya Muslims were illegal immigrants in India and their continued stay had "serious national security ramifications".




Who cares what congress thinks. Put Indian news in Indian section... is that too much to ask.


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## idune

*Amnesty International releases satellite images of burnt Rohingya villages in Rakhine*






























6 images





Sep 18, 2017, 9:11 am SGT
Facebook0 Twitter Email

DHAKA (REUTERS) - Amnesty International has released fresh satellite images of burnt villages in Rakhine state, alleging that Myanmar's security forces have led "systematic" clearances of Rohingya Muslim settlements over the last three weeks.

At least 26 villages had been hit by arson attacks in the Rohingya-majority region, the rights group said last Friday (Sept 15), with patches of grey ash picked up in photos marking the spots where homes had once stood.

Backing up the pictures, Amnesty International said fire sensors deployed on satellites had detected 80 large-scale blazes across northern Rakhine state since Aug 25, when the army launched "clearance operations".


"Rakhine state is on fire" in a "clear campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar security forces", said Amnesty researcher Olof Blomqvist.

The group quoted Rohingya witnesses who described security officers and vigilantes using petrol or shoulder-fired rocket launchers to set homes alight, before firing on villagers as they fled.

"It's very difficult to conclude that it is anything other than a deliberate effort by the Myanmar military to drive Rohingya out of their own country by any means necessary," Blomqvist added.


The latest round of violence in Rakhine state started on Aug 25, when deadly attacks by Rohingya militants on police posts and an army camp prompted a ferocious response from Myanmar's security forces.

At least 430,000 Rohingya have since fled into neighbouring Bangladesh to evade what the United Nations has called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".








http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se...-images-of-burnt-rohingya-villages-in-rakhine


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## Md Akmal

@ _*" Ab tera kia hogare kalia "*_


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## UKBengali

@Aung Zaya 

So what you say boy?


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## UKBengali

Bilal9 said:


> That bill of $14.6 Million (and any subsequent ones) needs to be sent to Myanmar Govt., since this happened under their direct involvement (and probably under their long-term deliberate planning).
> 
> Should be loose change for them because they reportedly spent $17 Billion on their Military in 2016 alone which is 25% of their GDP.
> 
> I wonder what was our military budget? $1.7 Billion or so?
> 
> Sad.....




No that is wrong.

For the current fiscal it is 2 billion US dollars which is 3% of GDP.

In contrast BD is spending 3.2 billion US dollars which is 1.25% of GDP.

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## idune

not only invoice for cost but also conviction judgement for committing genocide need to be sent against entire Myanmar leadership.


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## Homo Sapiens

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Ec...to-begin-refugee-verification-process-Suu-Kyi

September 19, 2017 1:19 pm JST (Updated September 19, 2017 3:35 pm JST)
*Myanmar ready to begin refugee verification process: Suu Kyi*
State counselor condemns all human rights abuses, violence in Rakhine

YUICHI NITTA, Nikkei staff writer





Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks during a televised national address in Naypyitaw on Sep. 19 (Photo by Shinya Sawai)

NAYPYITAW -- Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday condemned all human rights violations in the state of Rakhine in the west of the country, adding that the government is ready to begin a national verification process of refugees who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in order to facilitate their return. 

Over the past month, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Suu Kyi has come in for widespread international criticism for not speaking out more forcefully as more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims escaped the Buddhist-majority country into Bangladesh.

"It is not the intention of the Myanmar government to apportion blame or to abdicate responsibility," Suu Kyi said during a highly anticipated televised national address in the capital, where some 500 diplomats and members of the media were gathered. 





A member of Myanmar's security forces escorts media on an organized visit to conflict areas in northern Rakhine State on Aug. 30. (Photo by Thurein Hla Htway)


"We condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence. We are committed to the restoration of peace and stability and rule of law throughout the state," Suu Kyi said. The address marks the first time Suu Kyi has spoken about the recent crisis.

The exodus of refugees was triggered by the military's response to attacks by Muslim militants in Rakhine state on Aug. 25. The military offensive reportedly included acts of arson, killings and torture, and was described by the United Nations as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

During the 30-minute address, Suu Kyi did not touch upon the allegations but said security forces "have been instructed to adhere strictly to the code of conduct in carrying out security operations, exercise all due restraint and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians."

There had been "no armed clashes" and "no clearance operations" against the insurgents since Sep. 5., she said. 

On reports that Rohingya villages have been burned down by security forces, Suu Kyi said: "There are allegations and counter-allegations and we have to listen to all of them. And we have to make sure these allegations are based on solid evidence before we take action."





A Rohingya woman and children come ashore after boating across a narrow stretch of the Bay of Bengal that separates Bangladesh and Myanmar on Sept. 5. © Reuters


Meanwhile, pointing to a report issued by an advisory commission on Rakhine state headed by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Suu Kyi said the Myanmar government will move forward with the verification process for refugees who have fled the country. 

The commission, appointed last year by Suu Kyi, asked for freedom of movement for the refugees as well as recommending the government revise the country's citizen rights law, which does not recognize the Rohingya as one of the country's ethnic groups and denies them citizenship.


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## Homo Sapiens

*Trudeau calls on Suu Kyi to condemn violence against Rohingya Muslims*
*PM says Suu Kyi has a 'moral and political obligation to speak out against this appalling cruelty'*
The Canadian Press Posted: Sep 18, 2017 5:26 PM ET Last Updated: Sep 18, 2017 5:51 PM ET






A Rohingya refugee boy carries his belongings as he walks to a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Monday. The UN estimates some 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Aung San Suu Kyi must publicly condemn the atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, or else her rhetoric and global reputation as a champion of human rights will mean nothing.

Suu Kyi, an honorary Canadian citizen and a long-celebrated Nobel Peace Prize winner, has come in for withering international criticism for failing to stop — or even speak out against — the violence.

"It is with profound surprise, disappointment and dismay that your fellow Canadians have witnessed your continuing silence in the face of the brutal oppression of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim people," Trudeau wrote Monday in a letter to Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar.

The powerful military in Myanmar is accused of burning down the homes of Rohingya Muslims, forcing more than 400,000 members of the persecuted minority to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, according to the latest UN figures.

Suu Kyi has said she won't be attending the UN General Assembly meeting that is currently drawing leaders from around the world to New York.


*Violence against Rohingya 'looks a lot like ethnic cleansing,' Freeland says*
*Calls on Ottawa to revoke Myanmar leader's honorary citizenship*
The letter from Trudeau, which follows a telephone call last week, outlines the reports of what Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, recently called "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing," including extrajudicial killings, burning villages and land mines.



It was released publicly Monday after the prime minister made reference to it in a joint news conference in Ottawa with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

"As the de facto democratic leader of Myanmar and as a renowned advocate for human rights, you have a particular moral and political obligation to speak out against this appalling cruelty, and to do whatever is in your power to stop it," he wrote.


*Canada provides $2.5M in funding for Rohingya refugees*
"By publicly condemning the violence and taking immediate steps to protect and defend the rights of all minorities, you can help guide the people of Myanmar to surmount these deep ethnic divisions."

Trudeau also outlined further steps he would like the Myanmar government and military to take, calling on the Myanmar security forces to end the violence and bring the perpetrators to justice through independent and impartial investigations.



He also asked the Myanmar government to publicly welcome the return of all Rohingya refugees, alongside a commitment to address the issue of their citizenship, equality and human rights.

The prime minister also asked the Myanmar government to provide the UN and international humanitarian agencies full access to the region.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. envoy to the UN, had a similar message on Monday, urging Myanmar to end military operations and grant access to humanitarian workers. Haley also called for Myanmar to help with the safe return of displaced civilians.

The Liberal government has been coming under increasing pressure from advocates to strip Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship — an issue Trudeau did not address either in the letter or when asked about it Monday.

But he did quote Suu Kyi's 2012 Nobel lecture, in which she spoke of the value of kindness.

"These are laudable words," Trudeau wrote.

"In order for them, and your various honours, to retain any meaning, you must defend the Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tru...n-violence-against-rohingya-muslims-1.4295723


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## Homo Sapiens

http://www.gulftoday.ae/portal/52043dca-ff64-4a41-bcd4-3cf3713d84ea.aspx
UN urged to punish Myanmar army

* 
 
September 19, 2017  

 





YANGON: Pressure tightened on Myanmar on Monday as a rights group urged world leaders to impose sanctions on the country’s military, which is accused of driving out more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims in an orchestrated “ethnic cleansing” campaign.

The call from Human Rights Watch came as the UN General Assembly prepared to convene in New York, with the ongoing crisis in Myanmar billed as one of most pressing topics.

The mass exodus of Rohingya refugees to neighbouring Bangladesh has billowed into an humanitarian emergency as aid groups struggle to provide relief to a daily stream of new arrivals, more than half of whom are children.

There are acute shortages of nearly all forms of aid, with many Rohingya huddling under tarps as their only protection from monsoon rains.

Myanmar’s government hinted on Sunday that would not take back all who fled across the border, accusing those refugees of having links to militants whose raids on police posts in August set off the army backlash.

Any moves to block the refugees’ return will likely inflame Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, who will press the UN General Assembly for more global pressure on Myanmar to repatriate all of the Rohingya massing in shantytowns along her border.

Human Rights Watch also called for the “safe and voluntary return” of the displaced as it urged governments around the globe to punish Myanmar’s army with sanctions for the “ongoing atrocities” against the Rohingya.

“The United Nations Security Council and concerned countries should impose targeted sanctions and an arms embargo on the Burmese military to end its ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims,” the group said in a statement.

It called on the UN General Assembly to make the crisis a priority, urging countries to issue travel bans and asset freezes on Myanmar officers implicated in the abuses, as well as expand arms emargoes.

“Burma’s senior military commanders are more likely to heed the calls of the international community if they are suffering real economic consequences,” said John Sifton, HRW’s Asia advocacy director.

Myanmar’s government has defended the military campaign as a legitimate crackdown on the Rohingya militants, who first emerged as a fighting force last October.

On Sunday Myanmar’s Information Committee accused those who fled to Bangladesh − more than a third of the Rohingya population − of working in cahoots with the Rohingya militia, a rag-tag group of fighters armed with mostly rudimentary weapons.

“Those who fled the villages made their way to the other country for fear of being arrested as they got involved in the violent attacks,” the statement said.

“Legal protection will be given to the villages whose residents did not flee,” it added.

The violence has gutted large swaths of northern Rahkine in just over three weeks, with fires visible almost daily across the border from the Bangladesh camps.

Some 30,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus have also been displaced by the unrest.

While the world has watched the refugee crisis unfold with horror, there is little sympathy for the Rohingya inside mainly Buddhist Myanmar.

Many Buddhists revile the group and have long denied the existence of a Rohingya ethnicity, insisting they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Agence France-Presse 
*


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## SoulSpokesman

While BDs buy rice from them......

Regards


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## bluesky

This bitch of a woman should talk to the UN refugee authority who will certify the authenticity of rohingyas returning to their homes in Arakan. But, the bitch is talking in front of the newsmen as if Bangladeshis will be added to the returning Rohingyas. Thus, she is implying the illegal entrance of our people in the past into their holy monkey land. All these talks are to mislead the world about the true identity of the Rohingyas.

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## Homo Sapiens




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## TopCat

bluesky said:


> This bitch of a woman should talk to the UN refugee authority who will certify the authenticity of rohingyas returning to their homes in Arakan. But, the bitch is talking in front of the newsmen as if Bangladeshis will be added to the returning Rohingyas. Thus, she is implying the illegal entrance of our people in the past into their holy monkey land. All these talks are to mislead the world about the true identity of the Rohingyas.


Refugee verification process.. 
Those people came across Naf are severely malnourished infected with measles, polio, HIV. Any better verification she has in her mind?

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## Bengal Tiger 71

LOL''


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## idune

*"Suu Kyi’s rhetoric meant to hide calculated ethnic cleasning in Myanmar"*

Tuesday’s much-awaited speech by Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi on an ongoing bout of brutality against the Rohingya Muslims was indeed hollow rhetoric to create confusion on the "calculated ethnic cleansing" and minimize the significance of statistics and evidence attesting to their plight, says a political analyst.


In an interview with Press TV, Barry Grossman, an international lawyer and activist from Bali, Indonesia, touched on Suu Kyi’s failure to denounce the obvious excesses imposed by the Buddhist army on the Rohingyas.


As for her reference to Myanmar’s embrace of the recommendations by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, chaired by former UN chief Kofi Anan, Grossman said, she seemed to sidestep the core issue of "restoring the citizenship of more than one million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar” who have been stateless since the 1980s.


He talked of the already discriminatory practices in place which deny the Rohingya the ability to get birth documents to establish their citizenship.


According to Grossman, Suu Kyi talked of evidence of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army - a new organization committed to protecting the Rohingya - being involved in terrorism without referring to any evidence "which we all know is non-existent."


The commentator dismissed as irrelevant Suu Kyi’s remarks on Myanmar’s commitment to the peace process in the context of the current crisis, arguing that there is no armed conflict and no need to talk about the peace process "but a handful of Rohingya armed with stones, spears, knives and a few outdated pistols which may or may not have ammunition which the Myanmar military could deal with very easily.”


Grossman drew an analogy between the Rohingyas’ exodus from Myanmar and the forced mass migration of Palestinians after Israel occupied their land, and said this is a plan of “calculated ethnic cleansing supported by unrestrained massacres, rapes, murder and the burning of countless villages designed to scare the Rohingya Muslims out of Myanmar into neighboring countries, exactly the same way the Zionists did with the Palestinians in 1948.”


He highlighted the need for a comprehensive international investigation into the situation on the ground, “bearing in mind that there are thousands of victims recounting their experience.”





PressTV-Suu Kyi defends handling of violence against Muslims
Myanmar's leader says the reasons why Rohingyas are fleeing to Bangladesh elude her. Amnesty says she is "burying her head in the sand" in the face of "crimes against humanity." 
More than 417,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims, who have suffered years of persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have been forced to flee the country in the wake of a massive brutal crackdown by the regime which the UN rights body has described as “ethnic cleansing." 

The government claims over 400 people have been killed, but the UN estimates the death toll to be well above 1,000. Just days into the outbreak of the violence in August, the European Rohingya Council said between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslims had been killed in Rakhine.


Neighboring Bangladesh has already taken in several hundred thousand refugees.
*
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/09/19/535680/Myanmar-Rohingya-Ayng-San-Suu-Kyi*

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## Destrius

It's an undeniable truth that the rohingyas are involved in terrorism. What's wrong with Myanmar trying to bring peace in Arakan?


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## idune

*Suu Kyi ‘burying head in sand’ over Rakhine crisis: Amnesty *

Aung San Suu Kyi and her government are ‘burying their heads in the sand’ over the violence in Rakhine state, Amnesty International said Tuesday, criticising Myanmar’s leader for failing to condemn the army’s alleged abuses in a televised speech.

The United Nations, rights groups, and a tide of Rohingya refugees pouring into Bangladesh have accused Myanmar’s military of using bullets and arson to wage an ‘ethnic cleansing campaign’ against the Muslim minority.

In her speech Tuesday, Suu Kyi expressed sympathy for the ‘suffering of all people’ swept up in the violence but did not address accusations of ethnic cleansing.

She instead said only that anyone guilty of rights abuses would be brought to justice.

‘Aung San Suu Kyi today demonstrated that she and her government are still burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine State. At times, her speech amounted to little more than a mix of untruths and victim blaming,’ Amnesty said.

The rights group blasted Suu Kyi for remaining ‘silent about the role of the security forces’, whom they have accused of being ‘engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing’.

The watchdog also criticised Suu Kyi’s call for international observers to visit Myanmar to assess its troubles for themselves, citing her government’s blocking of a UN fact-finding mission to probe alleged army atrocities in Rakhine.

‘Aung San Suu Kyi’s claims that her government ‘does not fear international scrutiny’ ring hollow... If Myanmar has nothing to hide, it should allow UN investigators into the country, including Rakhine state,’ Amnesty said.

http://www.newagebd.net/article/24409/suu-kyi-burying-head-in-sand-over-rakhine-crisis-amnesty

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## atan651

Burma is doing exactly the right thing! Do not give in to international pressure.


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## mb444

Utter rubbish by the Whore of Rangoon!!!!

No one is fooled

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## idune

genocidal Myanmar and their partner in crime, inidia is only promoting genocide.

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## EastBengalPro

_*Student leaders of Rangoon University in 1936. MA Rashid is the person sitting in the upper chair. On the right, Suu Kyi father Aung San and the left person are the future army chief General U Nu. These leaders are the forerunners of the freedom struggle of Burma. But the rulers of the country want to eradicate this non-communal glory today.*_

Burmese army commander General Min Aung Haiyang asked all the citizens of his country to be united against Rohingya. And after the assassination of General Min Aung's army in Arakan on August 25, the country's ruling chief Aung San Suu Kyi had earlier given the statement, calling Rohingyas 'Bengali' and calling them Burmese citizenship.

It may be seen from the statements of these two characters of Burma's current time, in the history of the Islamic community or the Rohingya of Arakan, there is no role to feel. The history of Burmese is the contribution of Muslims to zero. But the reality speaks differently.

General Min Aung Haiyang and Suu Kyi have virtually denied the political history of Burma when they expressed their hatred of nationality. Muslim Abdul Razzaq was one of the main political associates of Suu Kyi's father General Aung San. Razzaq also served as president of Burma Muslim League. He was one of the six ministers who were killed along with General Aung San, Razzaq, on 19 July 1947, Education and Planning Minister of Burma's independence-pre-interim cabinet, and one of the few who were killed. Burma still maintains statehood as 'Shaheed Day' on July 19th. How will Suu Kyi delete the name of Razzaq from the memorial of the martyr?

Not only Abdul Razzaq, there were many Muslims among Suu Kyi's father and the closest political allies of General Aung San, 'father of the nation' of Burma.

It is known to many that during British rule, Burma's nationalist movement was one of the main areas of Rangoon University. At that time, students of Rangoon University controlled All Barma Student Union and Central Student Students Union of Rangoon University, which was briefly called RUSU.
Aung San Rangoon was admitted to the university in 1933. In the year of the establishment of RUSU (1930) it was General Secretary MA Rashid. At that time MA Rashid and Wu Nou became the main political companions of Aung San. Aung San RUSU was elected Vice President in 1936 and MA Rashid was elected president in that year.





*MA Rashid (in the back row) among the leaders of the Arakan Muslim Association of Rangoon World University in 1956.*

At Rangoon University, Rashid, Aung San and Wu Nou were friends of three people. In May 1936, at the Jubilee of Rangoon, 'All Barma Students Union' (ABSU) was formed by a student conference and Rashid was the first president of BSU. MA Rashid is the only student leader in Burma's history, who at the same time was the President of both the organizations of ABSU and RUSU. Shortly after Jawaharlal Nehru came to Burma and to give him a reception, the committee, which was proposed by the students, was proposed by Aung San and it was general secretary in Rashidai.
MA Rashid was called 'Aung San', 'Rashid Bhai'. The political friendship of these three was maintained till the death of Aung San's abnormal death.

Note that in 1947, Rashid was one of the draft agents of the Burmese Constitution. Later, he became the Labor Minister of the country.

Aung San-Rashid-ur-Nur-Razzaq, friendship of Burmese, in the wake of independence, on the basis of the possibility of 'unity between diversity' in Burma, a historic national assembly was convened in Pahalong, Shanti, in February 1947 and there Aung San had said that Burmese would be the people of all nations A 'union', where 'Barmanars get one, others will get one.' And the glass standing on this historic promise Karen-Shan-non-Muslim all day Burma joined the union.
But today the daughter of Aung San Suu Kyi denied the existence of Muslim Rohingyas in Burma. The army also says that Burma has no legitimate ethnicity and was not even a Rohingya.
The Burmese government and the army of that country are now very loud, Arakan's Rohingya is not a citizen of that country, people from Bangladesh
This claim is contradictory how many contradictory From international ranges, anyone from the army commanders of Suu Kyi and Burma can ask that from 1948 to 1990, Sultan Mahmud, Abul Bashar, Abdul Gaffar, Johora Begum, who represented the Muslim majority areas of Arakan, represented the parliament of the country in the parliament for years (even the minister was!). How is it possible? How did these people stand in the election? Akiyab's MP, Sultan Mahmud, who headed the U. W. Noor, became the Minister of Health in the central cabinet of 1960, as a national identity?





*Arakan's Rohingya candlelight for the release of Suu Kyi*

Even in 1990, when the multi-party elections were held for the first time in Burma (after the election of Aung San Suu Kyi, in which the government was not formed even after long after the military), then B-Ming (Shamsul Anwar, Boothding-1), Md. How did the Rohingyas get elected in parliament from North Arakan? Nur Ahmed (Boothdung-2), Wu Chit Luig (Ibrahim, Maungdaw-1), Fazal Ahmed (Maungdaw-2) How did the Arakan Rohingya (eight seats) get permission from the National Democratic and Human Rights Party? According to the law, everyone was allowed to vote except the 'foreign' in that election. Then who were elected by the Rohingyas of Boothdung and Maungdaw?

At this stage, it is to be mentioned that Shamsul Anwar from Aung San Suu Kyi, from the above four Rohingya MP winners of the 1990 election of Burma, invited the Rohingyas to join the People's Parliament as a representative of the Rohingyas in 1998, and only because of their response to this call 47 years were imprisoned. Even Shamsul Anwar's sons and daughters were sentenced to 17 years. However, Suu Kyi denies the presence of Rohingas in Arakan. Incidentally, in the 1990's election, elected Baptist-1 MP Master Shamsul Alam took his Bachelor Degree from Rangoon Institute of Economics and till 1985 he was the headmaster of a government secondary school. How could it be possible for him to manage long education and career if he was not a citizen?

In fact, it is a matter of great misfortune, Burmese rulers have created a situation by eliminating the whole citizen of the Rohingya community in a systematic way, like Shamsul Alam, that only the way of militant is open only. But mainstream Rohingyas are thanked for the fact that they are not involved in terrorism in Arakan or Arakan-Burma, even after they have gone to other countries in spite of facing the massacre. Although both Aung San and General Min are trying hard to prove their terror, they are not practical yet realistic in their proof of evidence except YouTube's vague video clips.





*Suu Kyi legal adviser UC Niall discussing Myanmar's constitution at a meeting of the NLD team*

Barrister U Koki was killed on January 29 this year in the process of eradication of Burmese Muslim leadership. Suu Kyi has no way to deny his contribution behind today's position. When the military junta Aung San Suu has prevented the adoption of constitutional posts when children are allowed to have foreign citizenship, then there is a way to find out the constitutional expert. Within the constitution of the military junta, he showed the path of creating the post of State Counselor for Suu Kyi as alternative head of government. After serving the responsibility of Suu Kyi legal counsel for a long time, the government team joined the NLD in 2013. Criticizing the military and taking away the citizenship of the Rohingya, it was perhaps his crime to criticize the 1982 law. Demonstrating political history of Muslims in Burma's National Politics also ends in the killing of a former military intelligence officer by shooting him down. A month after the incident, Suu Kyi described the murder as terrorism by calling Suu Kyi as a martyr. Today the terrorists have become his friends, and friends have been enemies.

বার্মার সেনাবাহিনীর কমান্ডার জেনারেল মিন অং হ্লাইয়াং রোহিঙ্গাদের বিরুদ্ধে তাঁর দেশের সব নাগরিককে ঐক্যবদ্ধ হতে বলেছেন। আর ২৫ আগস্ট আরাকানে জেনারেল মিন অংয়ের বাহিনীর অভিযানের পরপরই দেশটির ক্ষমতাসীন দলের প্রধান অং সান সু চি প্রথম যে বিবৃতি দিয়েছিলেন, তাতে রোহিঙ্গাদের ‘বাঙালি’ হিসেবে অভিহিত করে তাদের বার্মার নাগরিকত্ব অস্বীকার করেছিলেন তিনি।

বার্মার বর্তমান সময়ের প্রধান এই দুই চরিত্রের এরূপ বক্তব্য থেকে প্রতীয়মান হতে পারে, দেশটির ইতিহাসে মুসলমান সমাজ বা আরাকানের রোহিঙ্গাদের বোধ হয় কোনোই ভূমিকা নেই। বার্মার ইতিহাস বোধ হয় মুসলমানদের অবদান শূন্য। অথচ বাস্তবতা ভিন্ন কথাই বলে।

জেনারেল মিন অং হ্লাইয়াং এবং সু চি—উভয়েই জাতিঘৃণার প্রকাশ ঘটাতে গিয়ে কার্যত বার্মার রাজনৈতিক ইতিহাসকেই অস্বীকার করছেন। সু চির বাবা জেনারেল অং সানের অন্যতম প্রধান রাজনৈতিক সহযোগী ছিলেন একজন মুসলমান আবদুল রাজ্জাক। রাজ্জাক তখন বার্মা মুসলিম লিগের সভাপতির দায়িত্বও পালন করছিলেন। জেনারেল অং সানের গঠিত বার্মার স্বাধীনতা-পূর্ববর্তী অন্তর্বর্তীকালীন মন্ত্রিসভার শিক্ষা ও পরিকল্পনামন্ত্রী ছিলেন রাজ্জাক এবং ১৯৪৭-এর ১৯ জুলাই জেনারেল অং সানের সঙ্গে যে ছয়জন মন্ত্রী খুন হয়েছিলেন, তাঁদের অন্যতম ছিলেন তিনি। আজও বার্মা ১৯ জুলাই রাষ্ট্রীয়ভাবে ‘শহীদ দিবস’ হিসেবেই পালন করে থাকে। সু চি কীভাবে শহীদ দিবসের স্মৃতিগাথা থেকে রাজ্জাকের নাম মুছবেন?
কেবল আবদুল রাজ্জাকই নন, সু চির বাবা এবং বার্মার ‘জাতির পিতা’ জেনারেল অং সানের সবচেয়ে ঘনিষ্ঠ রাজনৈতিক সহযোগীদের মধ্যে আরও অনেক মুসলমান ছিলেন।

এটা অনেকেরই জানা, ব্রিটিশ অধীনতার সময় বার্মার জাতীয়তাবাদী আন্দোলনের অন্যতম কেন্দ্রভূমি ছিল রেঙ্গুন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়। সে সময় রেঙ্গুন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের ছাত্ররাজনীতি নিয়ন্ত্রণ করত অল বর্মা স্টুডেন্ট ইউনিয়ন আর রেঙ্গুন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের কেন্দ্রীয় ছাত্রছাত্রী সংসদ—যাকে সংক্ষেপে বলা হতো আরইউএসইউ। 
অং সান রেঙ্গুন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে ভর্তি হয়েছিলেন ১৯৩৩ সালে। আরইউএসইউ প্রতিষ্ঠার বছরই (১৯৩০) তাতে সাধারণ সম্পাদক ছিলেন এম এ রাশিদ। ওই সময় অং সানের প্রধান রাজনৈতিক সহযোদ্ধা হয়ে ওঠেন এম এ রাশিদ ও উ নু। অং সান আরইউএসইউতে ১৯৩৬ সালে ভাইস প্রেসিডেন্ট নির্বাচিত হয়েছিলেন আর সে বছর তাতে প্রেসিডেন্ট নির্বাচিত হয়েছিলেন এম এ রাশিদ।

রেঙ্গুন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে রাশিদ, অং সান এবং উ নু ছিলেন তিন প্রাণের বন্ধু। ১৯৩৬ সালের মে মাসে রেঙ্গুনের জুবলি হলে এক ছাত্র সম্মেলনের মাধ্যমে ‘অল বর্মা স্টুডেন্টস ইউনিয়ন’ও (এবিএসইউ) গড়ে তুলেছিলেন এরাই এবং রাশিদ ছিলেন বিএসইউর প্রথম সভাপতি। এম এ রাশিদ হলেন বার্মার ইতিহাসে একমাত্র ছাত্রনেতা, যিনি একই সময় এবিএসইউ এবং আরইউএসইউ এই উভয় সংগঠনের সভাপতি ছিলেন। এর কিছুদিন পরই জওহরলাল নেহরু বার্মা এসেছিলেন এবং তাঁকে সংবর্ধনা জানানোর জন্য যে কমিটি করে ছাত্ররা, অং সানের প্রস্তাবমতো তাতে সাধারণ সম্পাদক ছিলেন রাশিদই।
এম এ রাশিদকে অং সান বলতেন ‘রাশিদ ভাই’। অং সানের অস্বাভাবিক মৃত্যুর দিন পর্যন্ত এই তিনজনের রাজনৈতিক বন্ধুত্ব বজায় ছিল।

উল্লেখ্য, ১৯৪৭ সালে বার্মার সংবিধানের অন্যতম খসড়াকারীও ছিলেন রাশিদ। পরবর্তীকালে তিনি দেশটির শ্রমমন্ত্রীও হন। 

অং সান-রশিদ-উ নু-রাজ্জাক প্রমুখের বন্ধুত্ব স্বাধীনতার উষালগ্নে বার্মায় ‘বৈচিত্র্যের মাঝে ঐক্যে’র যে সম্ভাবনা তৈরি করেছিল, তার ভিত্তিতেই ১৯৪৭-এর ফেব্রুয়ারিতে শান স্টেইটের পাংলংয়ে ঐতিহাসিক জাতি-সম্মেলন আহূত হয়েছিল এবং সেখানে অং সান বলেছিলেন, বার্মা হবে সব জাতির একটি ‘ইউনিয়ন’, যেখানে ‘বর্মনরা এক কায়েত পেলে অন্যরাও এক কায়েত পাবে।’ আর এই ঐতিহাসিক প্রতিশ্রুতির ওপর দাঁড়িয়েই কাচিন-কারেন-শান-মুসলমান সবাই বর্মা ইউনিয়নে যোগ দিয়েছিল সেদিন।
অথচ আজ সেই অং সানের কন্যা বার্মাতে মুসলমান রোহিঙ্গাদের অস্তিত্বই অস্বীকার করছেন। সেনাবাহিনীও বলছে, রোহিঙ্গা বলে বর্মায় কোনো বৈধ জাতিসত্তাই নেই এবং ছিলও না।
বার্মা সরকার এবং সে দেশের সেনাবাহিনী বর্তমানে বেশ জোরেশোরেই বলে থাকে, আরাকানের রোহিঙ্গারা সে দেশের নাগরিক নয়, বাংলাদেশ থেকে যাওয়া মানুষ। 
এই দাবি যে কত স্ববিরোধী, তা বহুভাবেই প্রমাণযোগ্য। আন্তর্জাতিক পরিসর থেকে সু চি ও বার্মার সেনা কমান্ডারদের যেকেউ জিজ্ঞাসা করতে পারেন যে ১৯৪৮ থেকে ১৯৯০ পর্যন্ত সুলতান মাহমুদ, আবুল বাশার, আবদুল গাফ্ফার, জোহরা বেগম প্রমুখ যে আরাকানের মুসলিমপ্রধান এলাকাগুলো থেকে এমপি নির্বাচিত হয়ে দেশটির পার্লামেন্টে প্রতিনিধিত্ব করেছিলেন বছরের পর বছর (মন্ত্রীও হয়েছিলেন!), সেটা কীভাবে সম্ভব হলো? এই ব্যক্তিরা কীভাবে নির্বাচনে দাঁড়ালেন? আকিয়াবের এমপি সুলতান মাহমুদ যে উ নুর নেতৃত্বে গঠিত ১৯৬০-এর কেন্দ্রীয় মন্ত্রিসভায় স্বাস্থ্যমন্ত্রী হয়েছিলেন, সেটা কোন জাতিসত্তা পরিচয়ে?
এমনকি ১৯৯০-এ যখন সামরিক বাহিনীর অধীনেই বার্মায় বহুদিন পর প্রথমবারের মতো বহুদলীয় নির্বাচন হলো (যে নির্বাচনে অং সান সু চির দল নির্বাচিত হয়েও সরকার গঠন করতে পারেনি), তখন খ মিং (শামসুল আনোয়ার, বুথিডং-১), মো. নুর আহমেদ (বুথিডং-২), উ চিট লুইঙ (ইব্রাহিম, মংডু-১), ফজল আহমেদ (মংডু-২) প্রমুখ রোহিঙ্গারা কীভাবে উত্তর আরাকান থেকে পার্লামেন্টে নির্বাচিত হতে পারলেন? কীভাবে তখন আরাকানের রোহিঙ্গারা (আটটি আসনে) নিজস্ব রাজনৈতিক দল (ন্যাশনাল ডেমোক্রেটিক অ্যান্ড হিউম্যান রাইটস পার্টি) থেকেই প্রার্থী হতে অনুমতি পেয়েছিল? আইন অনুযায়ী ওই নির্বাচনে ‘বিদেশি’ ছাড়া সবাইকেই ভোট দিতে দেওয়া হয়েছিল। তাহলে বুথিডং ও মংডুর এই রোহিঙ্গারা কাদের ভোটে নির্বাচিত হয়েছিলেন?

এ পর্যায়ে এ-ও উল্লেখ করতে হয়, বার্মার ১৯৯০-এর নির্বাচনে বিজয়ী ওপরের চারজন রোহিঙ্গা এমপির মধ্য থেকে শামসুল আনোয়ারকে অং সান সু চি ১৯৯৮ সালে রোহিঙ্গাদের প্রতিনিধি হিসেবে ‘পিপলস পার্লামেন্ট’-এ যোগ দেওয়ার আমন্ত্রণ জানান এবং শুধু এই ডাকে সাড়া দেওয়ার কারণে তাঁর ৪৭ বছরের জেল হয়েছিল। এমনকি শামসুল আনোয়ারের পুত্র-কন্যাদেরও ১৭ বছর করে সাজা দেওয়া হয়। অথচ সু চি উত্তর আরাকানে রোহিঙ্গাদের কোনো রূপ উপস্থিতির কথা অস্বীকার করে যাচ্ছেন। প্রসঙ্গক্রমে এ-ও উল্লেখ করতে হয়, ১৯৯০-এর নির্বাচনে বুথিডং-১ থেকে নির্বাচিত এমপি মাস্টার শামসুল আলম রেঙ্গুনের ইনস্টিটিউট অব ইকোনমিকস থেকেই তাঁর ব্যাচেলর ডিগ্রি নিয়েছিলেন এবং ১৯৮৫ পর্যন্ত তিনি সরকারি মাধ্যমিক একটি স্কুলের হেডমাস্টার পর্যন্ত ছিলেন। নাগরিক না হলে তাঁর পক্ষে কীভাবে দীর্ঘ শিক্ষা ও কর্মজীবন পরিচালনা করা সম্ভব হলো?
বস্তুতপক্ষে এটা বড় দুর্ভাগ্যের বিষয়, বার্মার শাসকেরা শামসুল আলমের মতো নিয়মতান্ত্রিক পথে রাজনীতিতে সক্রিয় রোহিঙ্গাদের পুরো নাগরিক পরিমণ্ডল থেকে নিশ্চিহ্ন করে দিয়ে এমন এক পরিস্থিতি তৈরি করেছে, যাতে কেবল জঙ্গিপনার পথই কেবল খোলা থাকে। তবে মূলধারার রোহিঙ্গাদের এ জন্য ধন্যবাদ দিতে হয় যে গণহত্যার মুখোমুখি হয়েও তারা প্রাণভয়ে অন্য দেশে চলে এলেও আরকান কিংবা আরাকান-বহির্ভূত বার্মায় সন্ত্রাসে লিপ্ত হচ্ছে না। যদিও তাদের সন্ত্রাসী হিসেবে প্রমাণের জন্য অং সান ও জেনারেল মিন দুজনই বৈশ্বিক পরিসরে বেশ চেষ্টা করছেন কিন্তু ইউটিউবের অস্পষ্ট কিছু ভিডিও ক্লিপ ছাড়া তাদের সাক্ষ্য-প্রমাণের ভান্ডারে কার্যত এখনো বাস্তব কিছু নেই।

বার্মার মুসলমান নেতৃত্বকে মুছে দেওয়ার প্রক্রিয়ায় এ বছরের ২৯ জানুয়ারি হত্যা করা হয় ব্যারিস্টার উ কো নিকে। সু চির আজকের অবস্থানের পেছনে তাঁর অবদান অস্বীকারের উপায় নেই। যখন সন্তানদের বিদেশি নাগরিকত্ব থাকার অজুহাতে সামরিক জান্তা অং সান সু চির সাংবিধানিক পদ গ্রহণে বাধা তৈরি করে, তখন একটা উপায় বের করেন সংবিধান বিশেষজ্ঞ কো নি। সামরিক জান্তার সংবিধানের ভেতরই তিনি বিকল্প সরকারপ্রধান হিসেবে সু চির জন্য স্টেট কাউন্সেলর পদ সৃষ্টির পথ দেখিয়ে দেন। দীর্ঘদিন সু চির আইনি উপদেষ্টার দায়িত্ব পালনের পর ২০১৩ সালে সরকারি দল এনএলডিতে যোগ দেন। সামরিক বাহিনীর সমালোচনা এবং রোহিঙ্গাদের নাগরিকত্ব কেড়ে নেওয়া ১৯৮২ সালের আইনের সমালোচনা করাই হয়তো ছিল তাঁর অপরাধ। সাবেক এক সেনা গোয়েন্দা কর্মকর্তার নির্দেশে গুলি করে তাঁকে হত্যার মধ্যে দিয়ে বার্মার জাতীয় রাজনীতিতে মুসলমানদের গণতান্ত্রিক রাজনৈতিক ইতিহাসও আপাতত অবসিত হয়। ঘটনার এক মাস পর অনুষ্ঠিত স্মরণসভায় সু চি এই হত্যাকাণ্ডকে সন্ত্রাসী কাজ বলে কো নি-কে শহীদ বলে আখ্যায়িত করেছিলেন। আজ সন্ত্রাসীরা তাঁর বন্ধু হয়েছে, আর বন্ধু হয়েছে শত্রু।

*আলতাফ পারভেজ: সাংবাদিক ও গবেষক

http://www.prothom-alo.com/opinion/article/1327221/যে-অতীত-সু-চি-মুছে-ফেলতে-চান*

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## Homo Sapiens

Rohingyas were MPs even cabinet minister during Suu Kyi's father's govt.Now Suu Kyi even wouldn't spell the word 'Rohingya'.Rohingyas were stripped off all of their rights one by one and now on verge of extinction.Is there any incidence like this one in the world where an ethnic group faced such a horrible injustice?


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## UKBengali

idune said:


> genocidal Myanmar and their partner in crime, inidia is only promoting genocide.




Good thing about Indian attitude is that all BD'shis have now seen how much hate Hindus have for Muslims. It will weaken pro-India politics in BD definitely.

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## idune




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## Nilgiri

Homo Sapiens said:


> Rohingyas were MPs even cabinet minister during Suu Kyi's father's govt.Now Suu Kyi even wouldn't spell the word 'Rohingya'.Rohingyas were stripped off all of their rights one by one and now on verge of extinction.Is there any incidence like this one in the world where an ethnic group faced such a horrible injustice?



Plenty of much worse ones, normally when there was no source country right next door to even return/flee to (which makes the claim of so called injustice a debate rather than any settled fact).

Extinction btw means complete ridding of a population. I know the word genocide is a much used one in BD (along with it being 3 million in size)....but when people overall move from A to B they are not being made extinct FYI. Rohingya culture can flourish in its hearth Bengali muslim culture in BD. Get your aid from whoever you need to and integrate them.


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## UKBengali

Nilgiri said:


> Plenty of much worse ones, normally when there was no source country right next door to even return/flee to (which makes the claim of so called injustice a debate rather than any settled fact).
> 
> Extinction btw means complete ridding of a population. I know the word genocide is a much used one in BD (along with it being 3 million in size)....but when people overall move from A to B they are not being made extinct FYI. Rohingya culture can flourish in its hearth Bengali muslim culture in BD. Get your aid from whoever you need to and integrate them.



Myanmar is willing let Rohingya back dude.
BD is winning this one.


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## EastBengalPro

*On Bangladesh-Myanmar border, refugees respond with anger and skepticism to leader's first speech on Rohingya crisis.*

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - Breaking her silence on the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state that has sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing, the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has condemned "all human rights violations" there.

In a highly-anticipated speech to the nation from the capital, Naypyitaw, she said on Tuesday that she "feels deeply" for the suffering of the people caught up in the crisis, and warned that anyone responsible for abuses would face action.

But, she failed to address UN accusations of a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against the Rohingya by Myanmar's military - an offensive that has forced more than 420,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. 

Instead, she suggested the minority group was partly responsible, saying a "great majority" of Muslims within the region stayed and that "more than 50 percent of their villages were intact". 

Suu Kyi, whose party won a landslide victory in 2015 ending five decades of dominance by the army, also said her government was ready to start a "verification process" at any time to bring back refugees who had fled the violence.

Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country, has for years faced criticism for its treatment of the more than one million Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and struggle to access basic services. 

Here are reactions to the speech from Rohingya refugees Al Jazeera has spoken to near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

*Khairul Amin, 40, Balukhali camp *
I want to go back if I am ensured my basic rights. But it's hard for me to believe Suu Kyi will act on her words. 

Suu Kyi is a traitor. A majority of the Rohingya voted for her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on the promise that she would provide us with national identification cards.

But once she won, she joined hands with the army-backed party [the USDP] and forgot about us.

*Sultan Ahmed, 80, Balukhali camp*
I lost everything. What's the meaning of returning back?

Suu Kyi is a traitor, we can't rely on her words.

Suu Kyi is only a name there [Myanmar], nobody cares about her. Everything is run and decided by the army.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/rohingya-refugees-react-suu-kyi-speech-170919111823443.html


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## EastBengalPro

For generations, Rohingya Muslims have called Myanmar home. Now, in what appears to be a systematic purge, the minority ethnic group is being wiped off the map.

After a series of attacks by Muslim militants last month, security forces and allied mobs retaliated by burning down thousands of Rohingya homes in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

More than 500,000 people — roughly half their population — have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the past year, most of them in the last three weeks.

And they are still leaving, piling into wooden boats that take them to sprawling, monsoon-drenched refugee camps in Bangladesh.


In a speech Tuesday, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi did not address a U.N. statement that the army has engaged in a "textbook case" of ethnic cleansing. Instead, she told concerned diplomats that while many villages were destroyed, more than half were still intact.

U.N. General-Secretary Antonio Guterres told the General Assembly on Tuesday that "I take note" of Suu Kyi's speech.

"This is the worst crisis in Rohingya history," said Chris Lewa, founder of the Arakan Project, which works to improve conditions for the ethnic minority, citing the monumental size and speed of the exodus. "Security forces have been burning villages one by one, in a very systematic way. And it's still ongoing."

Using a network of monitors, Lewa and her agency are meticulously documenting tracts of villages that have been partially or completely burned down in three townships in northern Rakhine state, where the vast majority of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya once lived. It's a painstaking task because there are hundreds of them, and information is almost impossible to verify because the army has blocked access to the area. Satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday shows massive swaths of scorched landscape and the near total destruction of 214 villages.


The Arakan Project said Tuesday that almost every tract of villages in Maungdaw township suffered some burning, and that almost all Rohingya had abandoned the area.

Sixteen of the 21 Rohingya villages in the northern part of Rathedaung township — in eight village tracts — were targeted. Three camps for Rohingya who were displaced in communal riots five years ago also were torched.

Buthidaung, to the east, so far has been largely spared. It is the only township where security operations appear limited to areas where the attacks by Rohingya militants, which triggered the ongoing crackdown, occurred. Separated from the other Rohingya townships by mountains, and with more Buddhists and more soldiers, Buthidaung has historically had fewer tensions.

In her speech, Suu Kyi noted that most Rohingya villages did not suffer violence, and said the government would look into "why are they not at each other's throats in these particular areas." Rohingya refugees angrily viewed that as the government deflecting blame for attacks by its own forces.

The Rohingya have had a long and troubled history in Myanmar, where many in the country's 60 million people look on them with disdain.

Though members of the ethnic minority first arrived generations ago, Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in 1982, denying them almost all rights and rendering them stateless. They cannot travel freely, practice their religion, or work as teachers or doctors, and they have little access to medical care, food or education.

The U.N. has labeled the Rohingya one of the world's most persecuted religious minorities.

Still, if it weren't for their safety, many would rather live in Myanmar than be forced to another country that doesn't want them.

"Now we can't even buy plastic to make a shelter," said 32-year-old Kefayet Ullah of the camp in Bangladesh where he and his family are struggling to get from one day to the next.

In Rakhine, they had land for farming and a small shop. Now they have nothing.

"Our heart is crying for our home," he said, tears streaming down his face. "Even the father of my grandfather was born in Myanmar."

This is not the first time the Rohingya have fled en masse.

Hundreds of thousands left in 1978 and again in the early 1990s, fleeing military and government oppression, though policies were later put in place that allowed many to return. Communal violence in 2012, as the country was transitioning from a half-century of dictatorship to democracy, sent another 100,000 fleeing by boat. Some 120,000 remain trapped in camps under apartheid-like conditions outside Rakhine's capital, Sittwe.

But no exodus has been as massive and swift as the one taking place now.

The military crackdown came in retaliation for a series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya militants led by Attaullah Abu Ammar Jununi, who was born in Pakistan and raised in Saudi Arabia.

Last October, the militants struck police posts, killing several officers and triggering a brutal military response that sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing. Then on Aug. 25, a day after a state-appointed commission of inquiry headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan released a report about the earlier bloodshed, the militants struck again.

They attacked more than 30 police and army posts, causing casualties.

It was the excuse security forces wanted. They hit back and hard. Together with Buddhist mobs, they burned down villages, killed, looted and raped.

That sent a staggering 421,000 fleeing as of Tuesday, according to U.N. estimates.

"The military crackdown resembles a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return," Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said earlier this month in Geneva, calling it a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

It could be months before the extent of the devastation is clear because the army has blocked access to the affected areas. Yanghee Lee, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, said at least 1,000 civilians were killed. The government claims more than 400 died, the vast majority Rohingya militants. They put the number of civilians killed at 30.

Whether it's the end game for the Rohingya in Myanmar remains to be seen, said Richard Horsey, a political analyst in Yangon. It depends in part on whether arrangements will be made by Bangladesh and Myanmar for their eventual return and the extent of the destruction.

"We are still waiting for a full picture of how many villages are depopulated versus how many were destroyed," he said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-myanmar-rohingya-suu-kyi-20170919-story.html


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## EastBengalPro

At last the United Nations head has spoken and sent out a warning to the Nobel laureate and Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to halt her army offensive that has forced hundreds of thousands of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. However, it is better late than never. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, warned the Myanmarese leader that she has “a last chance” to stop what was being considered by the UN as a genocide against the Muslim population in the heavily Buddhist populated northern Myanmar state of Rakhine.

“Unless she acted now”, he told the BBC World News on September 18, “the tragedy will be absolutely horrible”. Guterres’ warning came after Bangladesh declared its toughest restriction against more than 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have been forcibly displaced from Myanmar in the last three weeks. Over many decades of persecution, almost 900,000 Rohingya have so far fled to southern Bangladesh and other surrounding countries, following similar vicious acts of ethnic cleansing in the country.







Rohingya, stateless Indo-Aryan race in Rakhine state, are now subject to real genocide. Before the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis and the Myanmar military crackdown in 2016 and 2017 with the full knowledge of Suu Kyi, the Rohingya population in Myanmar was around 1.3 million residing chiefly in the Rakhine, almost 90 per cent of the entire population of the northern state. Additionally, more than 100,000 Rohingya in Myanmar are strictly confined in camps for internally displaced persons.

What’s happening in Myanmar is in many ways a painful reminder of what’s been unfolding in Palestine over seven decades. Huge mass evacuation and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and expropriation of their land since the creation of Israel in 1948. Both peoples, Rohingya and Palestinians, have been repeatedly persecuted, displaced and denied citizenship.

Rohingya majority are Muslim while a minority are Hindu. Described by a 2013 UN report as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya are officially denied citizenship under the 1982 ‘Burmese Citizenship Law’. This law effectively denies the Rohingya the right of acquiring a nationality. According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Myanmarese law does not recognise the ethnic minority as one of the country’s national races even though history traces the Rohingya back to the arrival of Islam in the 8th century in South East Asia.

Rohingya are also face restrictions regarding freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs. They have been subjected to military crackdowns repeatedly in 1978, 1991-1992, 2012, 2015 and 2016-2017, with no effective protest from the world community till now. The UN is now officially describing Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya as ‘ethnic cleansing’, and the UN special investigator on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, believes this persecution would eventually lead to the expulsion of the entire Rohingya population from the country. Myanmar’s government refuses to recognise the term ‘Rohingya’ and refers to them instead as Bengalis. HRW is now comparing the conditions faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar with ‘apartheid’.

Based on the information available to many human rights organisations, Myanmar seeks to establish a religiously homogenous Buddhist population in Rakhine, and hence the brutality against its Muslim Rohingya with the aim of driving them out of the country. The reports are horrific: unknown thousands have been killed, entire families burned alive, villages set on fire, children as young as five beheaded, women raped and borderlands deliberately booby-trapped with landmines as tens of thousands of civilian innocent people try to escape to the safe territories of Bangladesh.

According to a damning study by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at the Queen Mary University of London, the Muslim Rohingya community of Myanmar “has been systematically persecuted and expunged from the national narrative — often at the behest of powerful extremist groups from the country’s majority Buddhist population and even government authorities — to the point where complete extermination is a possibility”.

Denunciations have started to pour in, though too late, accusing the Buddhist majority and Myanmar’s government of committing genocide. ISCI report concludes that after decades of oppression, “the Rohingya have reached the final stages of genocide”. The report borrowed the genocide expert Daniel Feierstein’s framework of the six stages of genocide as outlined in his book Genocide as Social Practice, to examine event in Myanmar.

Based on interviews, media reports and government documents, the report established how the Rohingya have undergone the first four stages: stigmatisation and dehumanisation; harassment, violence and terror; isolation and segregation; systematic weakening and are on the verge of ‘mass annihilation’. The sixth stage that involves the “removal of the victim group from collective history”, is already underway in Myanmar according to the report.

Rohingya are the only group of the country’s 135 officially recognised ethnicities that have been targeted by the Myanmarese Buddhist majority, the military junta and government. They have undergone decades of discrimination and deprivation, but now they are on the verge of total cleansing. The country’s de facto leader and Nobel laureate, is saying almost nothing. She had even cancelled her scheduled slot to address the UN General Assembly to avoid criticism. Suu Kyi is certainly neglecting her moral responsibility as a former human rights leader, to say the least. If she gets away with it, as many believe she will, her inaction would only encourage states such as Israel, and its most extreme government to escalate persecution against the Palestinians.

http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinker...reminder-of-the-palestinian-tragedy-1.2092738


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## Sayed Hamza Amir Khalil

*Read the article on Times of Islamabad, Google it "RAW backed insurgency in Myanmar" Sadly i can not attach the link but here is the proper name of Opinion..




RAW backed Insurgency, Oil Interests, CPEC & Massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

*


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## war&peace

Śakra said:


> We should support Myanmar against their terrorist insurgency.


No surprise, you are an Islamophobe hindu and you always support terrorists.

Reactions: Like Like:
3


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## Nilgiri

UKBengali said:


> Myanmar is willing let Rohingya back dude.
> BD is winning this one.



LOL, why dont you actually wait and see what's implemented.

You think MM army cares much for what Suu Kyi announces optically?

People simply cannot return to villages that do not physically exist anymore right now.

ARSA did a good job all around to give MM motive for this wave


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## UKBengali

Nilgiri said:


> LOL, why dont you actually wait and see what's implemented.
> 
> You think MM army cares much for what Suu Kyi announces optically?
> 
> People simply cannot return to villages that do not physically exist anymore right now.
> 
> ARSA did a good job all around to give MM motive for this wave




This is the beginning of the climbdown.

It matters little that the villages have been destroyed as Myanmar will just have to pay to rebuild them again. They have been caught red-handed setting fire to Rohingya villages in the first place.

PS - Did you like the photo where they staged an incident where they forced a Hindu Ronhingya woman to wear a table cloth in place of a headscarf and then she was photographed in a Hindu camp? These savages are as dumb as f*ck.


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## bluesky

September 20, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:02 PM, September 20, 2017
*Suu Kyi’s award suspended by UK union over Myanmar crisis*






Star Online Report

One of Britain’s largest trade unions has suspended an award given to Aung San Suu Kyi when she was a political prisoner, as international criticism mounts over Myanmar refugee crisis, according to a report of The Guardian.

Unison, the country’s second largest trade union, came up with the move as a number of British institutions say they are reviewing or removing honours bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi during her campaign for democracy under Myanmar’s oppressive military junta, the report said.

This suspension comes as many British institutions say they are reviewing or removing honours bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi during her campaign for democracy under Myanmar’s oppressive military junta, reports The Guardian.

“The situation facing the Rohingya of Myanmar is appalling,” The Guardian reports quoting Margaret McKee, Unison’s president.

“Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary membership of Unison has been suspended, and we hope that she responds to international pressure,” McKee added according to the report.

Bristol University, one of the universities that awarded honorary degrees to Suu Kyi during her time in opposition, also said it was reviewing its award in light of the accusations of brutal mistreatment of the Rohingyas in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, described by the UN as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

“The university shares the growing concern with the ongoing situation in Myanmar,” a spokesperson for Bristol University said, according to The Guardian.

“In 1998 we awarded an honorary degree of doctor of laws to Dr Aung San Suu Kyi, who at the time was leading the struggle for human rights and democracy in the then Burma.”

“In terms of this award it would be wrong to make any decision at this time to consider revoking such an honour but we will continue to monitor and review the situation as necessary.”

The London School of Economics student union said it would be stripping the former political prisoner of her honorary presidency.

“We will be actively removing Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary presidency as a symbol of our opposition to her current position and inaction in the face of genocide,” said Mahatir Pasha, the union’s general secretary.

Over the last 3 decades Aung San Suu Kyi has been awarded with honorary degrees from several UK universities including Glasgow, Bath and Cambridge, as well as the freedom of several cities, and other honours.

Oxford councillors announced that they might reconsider the freedom of the city of Oxford awarded to Suu Kyi in 1997 at next month’s council meeting, the report said.


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## Banglar Bir

*Lady: “Caught between a rock and a hard place”*
Larry Jagan, September 18, 2017




Four hundred thousand Muslim Rohingyas have fled across the border to Bangladesh from Myanmar in the last 3 weeks to escape the army’s clearance operations. Human rights groups claim it’s a “scorched earth” policy – reminiscent of the military’s traditional ‘four cuts’ strategy for dealing with other conflict zones. Some 3,000 houses have been razed to the ground, according to local activists.

The international hue and cry has become deafening: with the European Union cancelling an important trade mission in retaliation. The Bangladesh prime minister Sheik Hasina – once a close ally of Aung San Suu Kyi, especially when she was under house arrest – will raise the Rohingya issue as a matter of urgency at the UN general assembly next week, according to senior Bangladesh government officials.

The prime minister will highlight the basic causes behind the Rohingya crisis: “She will ask [the UN] for immediate implementation of the recommendations made by Kofi Annan’s commission [Advisory Commission on Rakhine State],” the Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told a press conference in Dhaka last week. Other world leaders have also urged the Myanmar government to adopt the Kofi Annan recommendations, as a matter of urgency.

Aung San Suu Kyi is skipping the UN meeting next week – with the vice president leading the Myanmar delegation instead — to allow her to concentrate on tackling the Rakhine situation, using the Kofi Annan recommendations as the basis of the government’s approach.

This is in fact was the Lady’s strategy all along, according to government insiders, but the security situation in Rakhine has prevented this so far. “The security forces have been instructed to adhere strictly to the Code of Conduct in carrying out security operations, to exercise all due restraint, and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians in the course of carrying out their legitimate duty to restore stability,” said a statement issued by Aung San Suu Kyi’s office late last week.

However Aung San Suu Kyi will address the nation in a few days outlining the government’s roadmap to reconciliation in Rakhine state, according to government sources. As part of this plan, a “Ministerial-led Committee to monitor the progress of the implementation of the recommendations will be established speedily, and an Advisory Board comprised of eminent persons from home and abroad will also be constituted to assist the Committee in its work,” according to Aung San Suu Kyi’s latest statement.

But the Lady is between a rock and a hard place, according to diplomats and analysts based in Yangon. “She does not have complete freedom to move, when it comes to the situation in Rakhine,” a diplomat told SAM on condition of anonymity. It is the army commander who is calling the shots, he added.

The civilian government and the army are in a power sharing arrangement, established by the Constitution drawn up by the previous military regime, before they stood down. Under the constitution, the military appoints 25 percent of MPs in both houses in the national parliament and all 14 regional assemblies. The army appoints one of the 3 vice presidents, and three ministers in the Cabinet – Border and Home Affairs and the Defense minister – including the police.

“With its control over the three key power ministries, the Tatmadaw [the Myanmar military] and it’s minions in the GAD [General Administration Department – the local bureaucratic administration] are running rings around the National League for Democracy’s chief ministers, who find themselves ‘home alone’, cut out of decisions and relegated to ribbon cutting ceremonies” said long-time Myanmar observer, and regional head of the Human Rights Watch, Phil Robertson.

This is certainly the case in Rakhine, where the local NLD administration is close to the military and the hardline local politicians of the Arakan National Party, whose outlook is distinctly anti-Muslim. Inside Rakhine State, the local Buddhist population is even more hostile. Conflict between them and the Rohingya — who they refer to as Bengalis — goes back many decades. This discrimination dates back to before Independence.

In fact much of the looting and burning of Rohingya homes, is actually carried out by Rakhine villagers, who accompany the police and military on their “clearance operations”.

Much of the Myanmar population agrees with the official view that they are not citizens of Myanmar, but illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many Rohingya families have been in the country for generations.

This has left Aung San Suu Kyi in an impossible position in terms of public opinion – she cannot be seen to openly support the Rakhine Muslims, for fear of alienating the majority of the country’s dominant Myanmar ethnic groups – the Bamar. This antipathy has intensified after the attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) last October and again in August.

So instead of using her moral authority, she remained silent on the issue, as far back as the first contemporary outbreak of violence in 2012. Now she has the added complication of having to work with the army. After the election, the two leaders had to find ways to work together. She had the mandate, the generals the real power.

“Since the very first days of the NLD government the two real leaders – the Lady and the General — have had a clear understandings on how they should work together,” said a former senior military officer. “It’s a mutual recognition of their de facto leadership: Min Aung Hlaing leads in security matters and Aung San Suu Kyi the rest,” he explained.

The problem is that there is no arena for the two to discuss overlapping concerns as with the current situation in Rakhine. The National Defense and Security Council is the only meeting ground, but the military holds the numbers: six out of 11 seats are military appointees. But the NDSC also has the power to suspend democratic government. Aung San Suu Kyi is loath to call it for fear she will loose the upper hand.

The NDSC has never met during the NLD government, according to senior government officials. Although there has been two quasi meetings on Rakhine – one last October and the other shortly after the ARSA attacks. The other reason the Lady is resisting calling such a meeting is Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s term of office is due up shortly – and the only place a formal extension can be agreed is at the NDSC. He wants an extension till 2020. And Aung San Suu Kyi, according to government insiders, wants to avoid a confrontation on this issue – at least for the time being.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/18/lady-caught-rock-hard-place/

*Geo-politics behind India’s U-turn on Rohingyas*
P K Balachandran, September 16, 2017




Geo-politics appears to be behind India’s U-turn on Rohingyas. On Thursday, New Delhi swung from voicing unreserved support to Aung San Suu Kyi’s tough militaristic policy on the Bengali-speaking Muslim community to strongly approving Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s view that continued military action by Myanmar against the Rohingyas will destabilize Bangladesh economically and politically with grave implications for the entire region.

From wholeheartedly endorsing Suu Kyi’s view that the Rohingya issue is essentially an Islamic terrorist plot with security implications for both Myanmar and India, New Delhi is now saying that international pressure will be brought on Suu Kyi to take a more “restrained” (humanitarian) and “mature” approach to the issue.

Late at night on Thursday, the Indian External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, rang up Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to say that India is pushing Myanmar both “bilaterally and multilaterally” to take back the refugees. According to Bangladeshi officials what India is saying is that Myanmar must stop atrocities against the Rohingyas and take the 400,000 displaced back.
*India rushes aid*

Earlier in the day, Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, handed over 53 tons of relief material to the Bangladesh authorities.

Sensing great disappointment with, and anger against India in Bangladesh, Shringla met Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in New Delhi on Wednesday and secured sanction for the supply of humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas.

The supplies arrived Chittagong on Thursday and the Indian High Commissioner himself distributed the relief material among the displaced Rohingyas at Cox’sBazaar..

Preceding this, last Saturday, the Bangladesh High Commissioner in New Delhi, Syed Muazzem Ali, had worked on Indian Foreign Office officials and secured a statement from South Block saying that Myanmar should approach the Rohingya issue with “restraint and maturity with focus on the welfare of the civilian population alongside those of the security forces”.

“It is imperative that violence is ended and normalcy in the state is restored expeditiously,” the Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said.

Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Shringla’s was then called to New Delhi urgently to brief the Foreign Office in South Block. The security-conscious officials at the Home Ministry in North Block were also briefed as, after all, it was the Deputy Home Minister, Kiren Rijiju, who had declared the 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India are “illegal immigrants” who ought to be thrown out.
*Reasons behind change*

While the immediate reason for the policy change can be attributed to diplomatic pressure from Bangladesh, there are deeper causes.

Although China continued to back Myanmar on the Rohingya issue, India felt isolated, with every country including its strategic ally, the United States, condemning Suu Kyi. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Chief, Prince Zeid, had also criticized the Indian government’s plans to deport Rohingyas.

A stage had been reached at which India had no option but to abandon its policy of copying China in every sphere in a bid to outdo it. It had to take an independent stand based on a cool calculation of its own interests.

If New Delhi failed to back Bangladesh’s plea that if Myanmar did not stop military action and take back the Rohingyas Bangladesh would be under tremendous economic strain, the consequences to India itself would be multifarious and highly detrimental.

And if the Bangladeshi economy were to break down, the common Bangladeshi would blame India for it. That would go against the India-friendly Sheikh Hasina in the next Bangladeshi parliamentary elections.

Bangladeshi Islamic militants, who are now kept on a leash by strong police action, will gain popular support to the detriment of Hasina’s Awami League and to the advantage of the not-so-India- friendly Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Sheikh Hasina herself might go easy on the Islamic militants to retain public support. She may have no incentive to take stern action against Indian Jehadists seeking shelter in Bangladesh. Indo-Bangla security cooperation, which has been working well for India so far, might be a thing of the past.

And finally, Rohingyas, now pouring into Bangladesh, may spill over into India (as they are already doing) and cause communal tension in West Bengal, ruled by the anti-Modi Chief Minister Mamata Banerji.

In short, a problem in distant Myanmar might become a domestic headache for the government of India and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
*Economic stakes in Myanmar*
Furthermore, India’s ambitious economic projects in Myanmar, like the deep-water port in Sittwe and the road linking Mizoram in India with Thailand passes through the now troubled North Myamnar. Sittwe is in Rakhine State – the home of the Rohingyas.

These projects, taken up to counter growing Chinese influence over Myanmar, will grind to a halt if the area continues to be restive and violence-ridden.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/16/geo-politics-behind-indias-u-turn-rohingyas/

*Where is Myanmar? What is Going on There?*





Where is Myanmar?

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, previously known as Burma, is located in south east Asia. It is bordered by Thailand in the southeast, Laos in the east, China in the north and northeast, India to the northwest, Bangladesh to the west, and the Bay of Bengal in the south. The capital of Myanmar is Naypyidaw, and the majority in the country practice Theravada Buddhism.

The history of Myanmar is marked by turbulent strife – first against British colonial rule, then against the military junta, and then the civil war that has been fought between the various ethnic groups that form the country. More recently, in 2015 democratic elections were held after two decades, and a popular government installed. The recent Rohingya crisis has once again cast a shadow over the country.
*
Who are the Rohingya?*
The Rohingya are a minority ethnic community that live in Myanmar, but are not recognized by the government as indigenous Myanmar citizens. As of 2015, about 1.1 million Sunni Islam practicing Rohingya Muslims were living in the state of Rakhine (in the country of Myanmar). The ethnic violence in Myanmar stems from this dispute. The government of Myanmar claims that the community entered the country from Bangladesh during the British colonial rule and is still living on as a refugee community. Bangladesh, on the other hand, claims that the Rohingya are not Bangladeshi since they have lived in Myanmar for over six centuries now. This leaves the community largely stateless.

The Rohingya community (in Myanmar) lives in a state of abject poverty. The living conditions are dismal, and as a group, they have minimal civil rights. The community has no access to healthcare or education, and cannot marry outside the community. The Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar have been facing systemic discrimination, gross human rights violations, and abuse.

Violent attacks against members of the Rohingya community are very common, according to the UN. Waves of violence often erupt and hundreds are killed or injured. So much so, that over the years these attacks are being considered a form of ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and a government sanctioned genocide.
*
What is the recent crisis?*
Last year, a group of militants from the Rohingya community mounted an armed attack on numerous Myanmar border outposts. In response, the state’s army attacked and killed hundreds of young boys and men. Women were raped, and thousands were forced to flee. This year again, the militants from the community attacked military bases, and the Myanmar forces responded furiously, destroying over 80 villages and killing hundreds of civilians. News reports suggest that the Myanmar government has now restricted food and water to the Rakhine state as well.

Some 370,000 Rohingya have fled their homes over the past years and sought refuge in the neighboring country of Bangladesh. Furthermore, there are about 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India. Both Bangladesh and India are not interested in letting the refugees stay on indefinitely and want Myanmar to take them back.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the State Counsellor, is the head of the elected government but does not control the military. To date, Suu Kyi has been unwilling to denounce this treatment of the Rohingya for fear of losing the support of the Buddhist majority and the powerful military. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize awardee and her silence is drawing serious flak from all over the world.

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the violence against civilian in Myanmar and has asked the country to ensure that peace is restored and the safety of the Rohingya ensured. As yet, the crisis remains unresolved.

Related Maps:




Myanmar map




Bangladesh map




India map




Largest Muslim Population Countries


----------



## Banglar Bir

*The Great Lie
After decades of suppression it should surprise no one that the Rohingya have tried to defend themselves *
Forrest Cookson 

“A Lie told once remains a Lie, but a Lie told a thousand times becomes the truth” JosephGoebbels In Myanmar today the army is engaged in massive ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya. There were about one million Rohingya in the Rakhine State of Myanmar on January 2017. 

By January 2019 there will be 100,000-200,000 left inside Myanmar, the residue of the ethnic cleansing. Where will they all go? There are two destinations—Bangladesh or death. Already the UN reports 300,000 have come across the border recently [to join the 400,000 already in Bangladesh] a The crossing rate is of the order of 10,000-20,000 per day and in another 20 days there will be some 500,000 new refugees in Bangladesh. By January 2019 there will be 600-800,000 for a total of at least one million in Bangladesh. One can expect 100-200,000 dead, killing at the rate 500 per day is feasible for the Myanmar army over the next year. Who is going to stop them?

This is genocide. Make no mistake. The intent of the Myanmar army is to kill or drive out all of the Rohingya, most of whom are Muslim. This is being done by burning down the villages where the Rohingya live, killing their cattle, killing men and children, raping women and girls in a systematic way to destroy the society. The evidence for this is in the space pictures of the villages burning and in the testimony of thousands who have crossed into Bangladesh and told their story.

The abuse and ethnic cleaning of the Rohingya is not a new story there have been many incidents in the past in the past few years and the cruelty and evil of the Tatmadaw [Myanmar army] has been well documented. There is for example a detailed legal assessment done at the Yale Law School 2015 that concludes that the three points needed to reach a finding that the Genocide has been committed according to the Genocide Convention. These points are:

1.The Rohingya are a group according to the convention
2. Genocidal acts have been committed by the Burmese Government.
3. The intent is to destroy the Rohingya

The abuse and killing have gotten much worse since 2015. The world has done little about this terrible situation. The person who fought for democracy in Myanmar has exposed herself as a cruel leader no longer unworthy of respect. 

After decades of suppression it should surprise no one that the Rohingya have tried to defend themselves. The Arakan Salvation Army [ARSA] in 2016 launched attacks against police posts where lurked the monsters that were raping and killing. The Tatmadaw saw an excuse to attack ever more viciously now trumpeting the excuse that the poor Myanmar army had been attacked by the ferrous ARSA Islamic insurgents. ARSA on September 10 announced a cease fire to try to bring the killing and destruction to an end which the Myanmar Government rejected with the claim that “we do not negotiate with terrorists”. George Orwell has returned to Burma.

The Myanmar Government with the support of their friends has commenced trumpeting the Great Lie. The Great Lie is the assertion that the burning of the villages and the killing is the work of the ARSA determined to establish an independent Islamic fundamentalist Rakhine State. This is the trap that faces any oppressed group that attempts to defend itself against violence perpetuated against them. This self-defense is then used as an excuse for further violence and attacks against the oppressed group. This is more or less what happened to the population of East Pakistan.

The Myanmar Government has invited the international press into Myanmar and fed them this Great Lie. Most independent journalists will not fall for this. One important television correspondent repeated the claims of the Myanmar Government in such a way to convey their falsehood.
However it is worse. The Chinese press is repeating the same lies over and over. So is the Russian press. Even the Prime Minister of India to his everlasting shame has signed on to the Great Lie.

The quotation from Joseph Goebbels the great propagandist of Nazi Germany is directly on point. Goebbels used this technique repeatedly for example in Czechoslovakia to claim abuse of German residents as an excuse for intervention.

The Russian press is going even further and asserting that this an operation of the United States Government modeled on Kosovo!! 

These are the ways that the Great Lie is created and repeated and repeated as Goebbels taught. Everyday now Myanmar helped by India, China, and Russia are building this Great Lie. 

This will be used to reject and push back against the accusations of Genocide against the leaders of the Myanmar state, their security forces and intelligence services. While trumpeting the Great Lie the killing, destruction of villages, raping of women and girls goes on. All in the name of fighting against the ARSA. 

One expects the Chinese and the Russians to see rape, torture, destruction of property, and killing to be legitimate state policy. We have seen so much of this behavior by these two states that we are numb to their evil. We expect this from the Myanmar army driven on by a wild Buddhist monk who it is known is high on narcotics when he preaches. But we are disappointed with the lack of courage of Aung San Sun Kyi who is now persona non grata among moral people. We are disappointed in Prime Minister Modi who has thrown India in with this evil.

The point of recognizing the Great Lie is that it must be fought. The reality of the oppression of the Rohingya must be fought by proving the Great Lie is just that. How do that?

The Bangladesh Government must invite the press corps of the world to come and see for themselves, to interview the poor souls who have made it across the border and hear the stories of the behavior of the Tatmadaw. The Bangladesh Government should establish its own record keeping by interviewing and building oral records of the refugees. Care must be taken to be sure they can be located as in time these records will be the basis of trials for Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide. Bangladesh should also mobilize its considerable legal talents to build a case against the Myanmar Government. 
A systematic case of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity can and should be built. 

A list of generals and others in Myanmar should be assembled and the UN Security Council, the US Government, the EU and Japan approached to bring sanctions against these people. 

The Great Lie must be fought under Bangladesh leadership. While other countries may provide support and funding, this is an effort that Bangladesh should take. It is Bangladesh that is bearing the brunt of the oppression of the Rohingya. This is an undeclared war against Bangladesh and should be met by appropriate opposition.
http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/114668


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## Nilgiri

UKBengali said:


> This is the beginning of the climbdown.
> 
> It matters little that the villages have been destroyed as Myanmar will just have to pay to rebuild them again. They have been caught red-handed setting fire to Rohingya villages in the first place.
> 
> PS - Did you like the photo where they staged an incident where they forced a Hindu Ronhingya woman to wear a table cloth in place of a headscarf and then she was photographed in a Hindu camp? These savages are as dumb as f*ck.



Yeah like the tall claims you made about shooting down the next MM aircraft that violates BD airspace officially. (Which you still haven't conceded to btw). 

Keep the butthurt of realised reality coming....clinging on to the little scraps thrown optically as always to assuage it.


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## Banglar Bir

*Al Jazeera World - The Rohingya: Silent Abuse*


----------



## Banglar Bir

*RSS complicity in Rohingya Muslim genocide*
*Abdul Majid Zargar*
Countercurrents.org

A SILENT genocide of Myanmar Muslims is in progress. Such is the urgency shown by Burmese government to annihilate its Rohingya Muslims that it has even used Gunship helicopters to fire lethal and heavy ammunition on fleeing Muslims. The international community is a mute spectator to the organized holocaust and 57 Muslim Countries, except with the honorable exception of Turkey, is watching the carnage with disbelieving eyes. UN has issued a warning to Mynamar sans any action. It has also issued an advisory to Myanmar to accord a legal status to Country’s Muslims without any response.

Indian Prime Minster, Narendra Modi, in his recent visit to Myanmar, has endorsed and supported the Burmese leadership in dealing with the unfolding humanitarian crisis. This amounts to a clear signal to the leadership to go ahead with its ethnic cleansing pogrom. In an earlier tweet, Modi had extended cooperation to ruling dispensation to deal, among other things, with counter-terrorism (read Muslim persecution) operations.
*RSS wedded to its ideology*
People who expected a different response from Modi tend to forget that he is basically and essentially an RSS man wedded to its anti-Muslim ideology and bound by an oath to spread it nationally and internationally. And the present anti-Muslim pogrom in Myanmar has definite & explicit connections with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founded in 1925. Widely regarded as the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the RSS is one of the principal organizations of the Sangh Parivar group.

Traditionally Buddhism has remained a peaceful religion with around 500 million followers around the globe. But in India’s vicinity, RSS has made deep inroads to radicalize the Buddhist society in Myanmar, Sri-Lanka and our own Ladakh. To achieve the objective, RSS and its tributaries use the time tested weapon of spreading falsified version of history to convince them about the injustice meted out to Buddhists during Mughal empire rule. The self-exiled Buddhist community from Tibet and living in Himachal Pradesh is also used as grist to the propaganda mill of RSS. Incidentally the capital of Tibetian Govt. in exile is in Macleod Gunj, a small hill resort in Himachal Pradesh.
*RSS has a branch in Myanmar*
Few people know that RSS has a branch in Myanmar fully beholden and dedicated to promotion of its wicked ideology. It is known as Sanatan Dharma Swayamsevak Sangh (SDSS). This organization has developed close relations and rapport with military dictators in Myanmar who have propped up characters like Ashin Wirathu to propagate hatred for Muslims in the country. This organization is freely allowed to indulge in political activities. How close RSS is to the military junta can be measured from the following report which appeared in ‘Organiser , the official organ of the Indian RSS, in its February 28 and March 5, 2000 issues:

“The 50th anniversary of the Sanatan Dharma Swayamsevak Sangh (SDSS) was held at the National Theatre on Mayoma Kyaung Street, Yagnon, recently. Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council, Lt. Gen. Tin Oo attended the meeting. The programme was attended by ministers and senior military officers. Minister for Commerce Brig. Gen. Pyi Sone; Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Maj. Gen. Sein Htwa; Minister for Health, Maj. Gen. Ket Sein were among the prominent persons who attended the function…The Secretary delivered speech at the function.

This report appeared with two photographs. In one photograph five military Generals including second in command of the military junta, Lt. Gen. Tin Oo, were seen standing on the stage in the midst of SDSS leadership wearing khaki shorts. In the other photograph leading lights of the Burmese military junta were seen sitting in the front row of the auditorium.
*‘Bodo Bala Sena’ in Sri Lanka*
Besides Myanmar, RSS has also made a deadly alliance with ultra-orthodox Buddhist organization ‘Bodo Bala Sena’(BBS) in Sri Lanka for cleansing minorities in general and Muslims in particular.
The marriage of ideological convenience with this anti-Muslim extremist organization can be gauged from the following Facebook post dated March 28, 2013 of Mr. Ram Madahav, one of the important functionaries of RSS.

“The Muslim population in Sri Lanka is growing fast…There are mosques and madrassas sprouting everywhere in the country. A rough estimate suggests that of the 1.2 million Muslims, every 50 households have a mosque. In Colombo itself a new magnificent mosque is coming up, so are in many other places. Increasing number of ‘burqa’-clad women and skull cap-wearing men can be sighted on the streets of Sri Lankan cities and towns now.”

Ram Madhav also noted that Muslims in Sri Lanka have been insisting on halal products. He noted approvingly that “the BBS essentially talks about protecting the Buddhist culture of the country from foreign religions. By this it also means the Christian missionaries who are trying to convert people”. He was happy to note that “the BBS has maintained that Hindus and Buddhists of the country should work together on these issues.” He ended by commending, “So far, the issues raked up by the BBS are worthy of active and sympathetic consideration”.

On Twitter, Madhav wrote: “Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) is able to capture the attention of the Buddhist population of Sri Lanka.” Bodu Bala Sena: A new Buddhist Movement in SRI LANKA.
The relations between Sri Lankan Buddists & RSS can further be measured from the statement of Sri lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesing when he visited India in September 2015. At his only public address, he said: “There were only two appointments in Delhi I wanted to confirm: one with Prime Minister Modi, and the other with the India Foundation.” India Foundation is a Delhi based core strategic RSS think tank.
*RSS spreads hate among Ladakhi Buddists*
In our own state, RSS is spreading hate & venom among the Ladakhi Buddists. As Ajay Shukla writes in rediff.com on April 21, 2016:

“Identity politics have spread to Ladakh, with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh instigating Buddhist groups there against the Muslims who comprise half of Ladakh’s population.
We, should, therefore, be least surprised if we witness more anti-Muslim pogroms in Sri Lanka, Ladakh etc. in near future.
The author is a practicing chartered Accountant. Feedback: abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx

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## Banglar Bir

*
Rohingya crisis exposes the regional conflicts and threats*
*Abdur Rahman Khan*






The exodus of a large number of Rohingya minority population from Rakhaine state of Myanmar has exposed the barbaric attitude of the quasi military government of the Southeast Asian country inviting global condemnation for a systematic ethnic cleansing and genocide of the world’s most persecuted people.

Myanmar’s presidential spokesman Zaw Htay las week confessed that 176 ethnic Rohingya villages are now empty after all of their residents fled during recent violence in Rakhine state. He said in addition to the 176 villages, some residents fled from at least 34 other villages. There had been a total of 471 Rohingya villages in three townships.
*‘Catastrophic’ humanitarian situation*
Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are facing a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said. He urged Myanmar authorities to end violence against the majority-Buddhist country’s Rohingya Muslims that has forced some 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.
Guterres said the situation in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine was best described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar army says it is fighting the militants and denies targeting civilians.

The UN Security Council “expressed concern about reports of excessive violence during the security operations and called for immediate steps to end the violence in Rakhine, de-escalate the situation, re-establish law and order, ensure the protection of civilians ... and resolve the refugee problem.”
It was the first statement from the Security Council on Myanmar in nine years. Such statements have to be agreed by a consensus and Russia and China have traditionally protected Myanmar from any such action.

However, amidst the global condemnation and protest, the Rohingya crisis has exposed the open economic and strategic conflict involving regional and international powers, mainly the two neighbouring country – China and India and the only superpower USA.

China has said it supports the Myanmar government’s efforts to maintain peace and stability in Rakhine state of Myanmar. “The Chinese side supports Myanmar’s efforts to safeguard the peace and stability of the Rakhine State,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said last week.




During the last decade has also found a shift in Indian policy toward Myanmar – from its opposition to the military junta to a more pragmatic, non-interventionist policy. This shift is mainly due to four factors: the political and economic development of India’s Northeast states, its increased interest in trade and investment with ASEAN, and search for energy security, and China’s increasing influence in Myanmar.
*China’s growing interest*
What is taking Beijing from siding with the persecuted Rohingya minority? Simple: It is the country’s geopolitical, strategic and economic interest.

According to an article published in May 2017 in The Maritime Executive magazine, a Chinese state-owned firm is seeking a stake of up to 85 percent in Kyaukpyu port, a strategically important deepwater port on the Bay of Bengal coast of Rakhine state, Myanmar. It is the latest acquisition in China’s Indian Ocean “String of Pearls” or “Maritime Silk Road,” a series of ports running westward from Malacca to Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Djibouti.

Kyaukpyu was known as Akyab during the British colonial rule and remained so until the military changed the name of the state that was also known as Arakan state which borders Bangladesh in the north and the Bay of Bengal to the west.

An agency report said a consortium led by CITIC Group won the contract to develop the port at Kyaukpyu last year would like to take 70 to 85 percent of the $7 billion facility. The deal would give China control over an oil receiving terminal that feeds a cross-border pipeline to Yunnan province, bypassing the Strait of Malacca, the strategic chokepoint between the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific.

The long-delayed pipeline finally opened last month, connecting PetroChina’s new refinery in Kunming with oil shipments arriving by tankers from the Middle East. It is expected to supply as much as six percent of China’s crude imports.

Kyaukpyu, which would provide direct access to the Indian Ocean linking Kunming in China, is of vital economic interest to Beijing. Kyaukpyu’s overland links between Myanmar and southern China can save travel distance by 5,000 kilometers for shipments to reach China from India and points beyond.
*India joins Japan to counter*
Beijing’s relationship with Myanmar presently has two fronts, the new capital Nay pyi daw (the seat of civilian government controlled by Suu Kyi’s NLD) and the Tatmadaw, the military.
Besides, China plays a key role in Myanmar’s internal peace process, wherein it now regularly mediates between Nay pyi daw and the various non-ceasefire rebel groups in the north. Beijing now steers some important organs of the dialogue process, largely through its dependable proxy in Shan State, the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

Recently, Nay pyi daw’s political approach to the peace process (through the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference) has helped develop further China-Myanmar relations. After a request from Nay pyi daw, Beijing mediates, and logistically supports the Northern Alliance’s participation in the government’s peace dialogue.

There also lies conflicts of interests between India and China, wherein both are now (and long have been) competing for greater geostrategic space in the Greater Sub-Mekong Region. India, however, remains apprehensive of the fast-expanding Chinese sway in Myanmar. If seen in conjunction with the latter’s decisive inroads into Pakistan and the elaborate infrastructure that it has constructed in the country, this expansion not only spurs a two-front threats to India, but could also act as a spoiler in its desires to become a net security guarantor for the Bay of Bengal region.

Myanmar’s military appears to seek alternatives. The recent official visits of the Tatmadaw’s commander in chief to both India and Japan to balance Beijing’s influence in Nay pyi daw. India is providing the Tatmadaw with training in peacekeeping and endorsed Myanmar’s bid to join UN peacekeeping operations. The Tatmadaw has reportedly endorsed India’s Act East policy and agreed to strengthen ties with Japan. This appears a new move to support Japan’s “Indian Ocean Economy” and the Japan-India partnership to invest in Myanmar in major infrastructure facilities aimed at countering China’s influence.
*India’s activated role*
India is also the seventh most important source of Burma’s imports. The Indian government has worked to extend air, land and sea routes to strengthen trade links with Myanmar and establish a gas pipeline. While the involvement of India’s private sector has been low and growing at a slow pace, both the governments are enhancing cooperation in different fields.
In 2001 India and Burma inaugurated 250 kilometre Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo highway, popularly called the Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road, built mainly by the Indian Army’s Border Roads Organisation and aimed to provide a major strategic and commercial transport route connecting Northeast India, and to Southeast Asia.

Unlike it predecessor, the present Modi government sees real potential in Myanmar as a strategic “land bridge” to the tiger economies of Southeast Asia, and trying hard to develop a counterbalancing entity against Beijing’s fast growing clout in Southeast and South Asia.

Over the past three years, New Delhi has made an active effort to reach out to Myanmar along various modalities of bilateral cooperation, with military-to-military cooperation occupying the frontline. The renewed military-to-military framework, which extends to both the territorial and maritime fronts, was laid down during the first India-Myanmar Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting in July 2015, where India agreed to support the modernization of Myanmar’s armed forces and to build a “professional and capable Myanmar Navy.”

Since then, New Delhi has slowly pushed up its defence sales to Myanmar. The basket of arms that India has sold to the Myanmar army and navy so far is bulky: 105mm light artillery guns, rocket launchers, rifles, radars, mortars, bailey bridges, communication gear, night-vision devices, war-gaming software, road construction equipment, naval gunboats, sonars, acoustic domes, and directing gear. What’s more, India recently inked a $37.9 million deal to supply Myanmar with lightweight torpedoes.

The naval forces of both countries have also made port calls on each other and conducted joint maritime patrols several times in the past three years.
*Northeast’s insurgency dictates*
At the outset, the key driver for this engagement is securing the India-Myanmar border regions, both the maritime frontier and the 1,624-kilometer-long land border. While several insurgent groups from India’s Northeast states routinely use the land border to enter western Myanmar – a safe haven for them. The Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal hold common economic and strategic interests for both countries.

India hopes that the Myanmar army will now play a greater role in keeping the Indian insurgents in its northwestern Sagaing Division at bay, thus fortifying the otherwise unguarded border. New Delhi particularly began to emphasize this point after the June 2015 ambush in Moreh, Manipur, which killed 18 Indian soldiers.

Since 2012, the Myanmar army has maintained an informal ceasefire arrangement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) (NSCN-K), the biggest anti-India insurgent group in Sagaing and the de facto leader of the rest (including the United Liberation Front of Asom and National Democratic Front of Bodoland). Thus, while NSCN-K has not signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) so far, it maintains a peaceful status quo with the Myanmar army. The recent demise of its iconic leader, SS Khaplang, opens up space for second-generation leaders to step in, thus consolidating possibilities for further rapprochement with the Myanmar army.

Despite the return of a parliamentary democracy, the military still calls the shots in matters relating to security and border management. However, this peculiar dynamics could hinder India’s diplomatic outreach to Myanmar, as the Tatmadaw could operate on its own accord beyond, and perhaps in contravention of, the New Delhi-Nay pyi daw diplomatic rubric.

India’s current diplomatic template for Myanmar remains bereft of human security concerns. The Indian establishment appears apathetic about the humanitarian ramifications of emboldening an army that has been widely accused of serious human rights violations and subversion of democracy. This is particularly relevant within the current security situation in Rakhine, Shan, and Kachin states where some of the Tatmadaw’s actions have come under intense scrutiny of international organizations and advocacy groups, including the United Nations.
*US interest unfolded*
As super power, US claim to have an interest anywhere in the world.
So, it has the major economic interest in the untapped resources of Myanmar as well as the strategic interest in the Andaman sea and the Bay of Bengal that Myanmar shares.
Besides, US has the long brewed interest to bring war close to the Chinese border to keep the Asian giant engaged otherwise.

However, following signs of liberalization in Myanmar, the US government began the process of improving its links with it since 2011. With improving ties in 2012, the White House planned Ambassador nomination, the first since 1990.

The Burma Freedom and Democracy Act (BFDA), passed by Congress and signed by the President in 2003, included a ban on all imports from Burma, a ban on the export of financial services and a freeze on the assets of certain Burmese financial institutions, extension of visa restrictions on Burmese officials. Congress has renewed the BFDA annually.

On September 10, 2007, the Burmese Government had accused the CIA of assassinating a rebel Karen commander from the KNU who wanted to negotiate with the military government.

Later, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visited Burma in November–December 2011. In this visit, the first by a Secretary of State since 1955, Clinton met with the President of Burma, Thein Sein, in the capital Nay pyi daw, and later met with democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon. The US announced a relaxation of curbs on aid and raised the possibility of an exchange of ambassadors.
In July 2012 the United States formally eased sanctions on Burma. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced plans in the spring of 2012 for a “targeted easing” of sanctions to allow American dollars to enter the country, but companies could not move ahead until the sanctions were formally suspended. Same month, President Obama ordered the U.S. Treasury Department to issue two licenses, one giving special permission for investment in Burma and the other allowing financial services SH/Militant threats feared In September 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi as State Councilor of Myanmar visited United States and which has set a mile stone for the relationship between United States and Myanmar issuing a joint statement in which President Obama is lifting the Executive Order-based framework of the Myanmar sanctions while restoring Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade benefits to Myanmar Meanwhile, the militant outfits sought to cash in on Rohingya crisis. There is a danger of developing a Syria like situation where the US and some Middle-Eastern countries collaborated in the name of Islamic States.

Security specialists in Bangladesh and India fear that the entire region of Southeast Asia could face another security risk if the militants become active surrounding the Rohingya crisis .Global jihadist groups and several international and native militant outfits have already exchanged such ‘jihadi’ invitations on social media.

The Rohingya crisis also created a scope for coalition among the militants, forced out Rohingyas and extremist groups near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border areas over the issue, security experts’ fear.
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – after allegedly attacking Myanmar’s security personnel – that triggered the recent violent crisis for the Rohingyas, declared a ceasefire from offensive military operations for a month, September 10 onwards.

The outfit, however, claims to have no jihadi ambitions. Al-Qaeda, titling the project as Burma Calling, called out to the jihadists of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines to go and fight against the Myanmar military.

Pakistan-based militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad’s chief Maulana Masood Azhar has asked his followers to get ready to take action against Myanmar where a brutal military campaign has forced nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

“We have to do something, and do it urgently,” Azhar wrote, adding that the Muslims were “feeling the pain of the Muslim nation”.

Hizb-ut Tahrir, condemning the oppression on Rohingyas and urging countrymen to raise their voice, pasted various posters on the street walls in Dhaka, Chittagong and other cities of Bangladesh. Al-Qaeda affiliate Harkat al-Shabab, in a statement, warned Muslims “especially in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, India and Indonesia: know that the tragedy of the Rohingya today will be your tragedy tomorrow if you let them down and be silent.”

The recent call to jihadists by global jihadist groups over the Rohingya crisis is not the first of its kind. The Indian Express reported, ‘Indian intelligence believed Jaish-e-Muhammad operatives had helped train Rohingya jihadists’.

Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Azhar’s call has sparked fears that Myanmar’s crackdown on Rohingyas could lead to terrorist violence across the Rakhine state, reports The Indian Express.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=24&date=0#Tid=14781


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## Zibago

*Rohingya crisis: Hundreds of Buddhists gather to block aid shipment reaching Burma’s fleeing Muslims*
September 22, 2017

By: Samaa Web Desk

Published in Global, Weird

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*NEWS DESK: Hundreds of Buddhists in Burma tried to block a shipment of aid to Muslims in Rakhine state where the United Nations has accused the military of ethnic cleansing, with a witness saying protesters threw petrol bombs before police dispersed them by firing into the air, reported The Independent.*

The protest was testament to rising communal animosity that threatens to complicate the delivery of vital supplies, and came as US President Donald Trump called for a quick end to the violence that has raised concern about Burma’s transition from military rule.

The aid shipment, being organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was bound for the north of the state where insurgent attacks on 25 August sparked a military backlash.

The violence has sent more than 420,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh but many remain in Burma, hiding in fear of being caught up in more violence without food and other supplies, aid workers believe.

Several hundred people tried to stop a boat being loaded with about 50 tonnes of aid at a dock in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe late on Wednesday, a government information office said on Thursday.

Protesters, some carrying sticks and metal bars, threw petrol bombs and about 200 police were forced to disperse them by shooting into the air, a witness said, adding that he saw some injured people. Eight people were detained, the government information office said in a release.

A spokeswoman for the ICRC was not immediately available for comment. Police in Sittwe were also not immediately available for comment.

Tension between majority Buddhists and Rohingya in Rakhine state has simmered for decades but it has exploded in violence several times over the past few years, as old prejudices have surfaced with the end of decades of military rule.

The latest bout of bloodshed began in August when Rohingya insurgents attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp, killing about 12 people.

The government says more than 400 people, most of them insurgents have been killed since then.

Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say the army and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have mounted a campaign aimed at driving out the Muslim population and torching their villages.

Burma rejects the charge, saying its forces are tackling insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army who it has accused of setting the fires and attacking civilians.

The violence and the exodus of refugees has brought International condemnation and raised questions about the commitment of government leader Aung San Suu Kyi to human rights, and prospects for Burma’s political and economic development.

Suu Kyi addressed the nation about the crisis on Tuesday and condemned abuses and said all violators would be punished, adding that she was committed to peace and the rule of law.

However, she did not address UN accusations of ethnic cleansing by the military, which is in charge of security.

US President Donald Trump wanted the UN Security Council to take “strong and swift action” to end the violence, US Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday, declaring the crisis a threat to the region and world.

Pence repeated a US call for the military to end the violence and support diplomatic efforts for a long-term solution for the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in a country where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants.

It was the strongest US government response yet to the violence.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy is in Burma and was due to meet government officials and representatives of different communities in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state.

Military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Wednesday visited an army camp in the state that was attacked on 25 August.

“This was a British colony over 100 years ago, we are facing the consequences of their reckless acts until now,” he was quoted as saying in a military release.

This week, Britain suspended a training programme for Burma officers because of the violence and called on the army to stop the violence.

The Burma military said five officers in Britain were being brought home and “no trainees… will be sent to Britain any more”.

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## Banglar Bir

[URL='https://www.facebook.com/saverohingas/?hc_ref=ARTLun4bb1Mwr89t823pByuNXw7uXGvRiZ-BzRSDHpdroGFXvMn7LmzZ8YSS0PhVhto']SaveRohingyas
*History of Rohingya & Genocide! (Part 1)*[/URL]
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority living in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and adjacent areas of neighboring Bangladesh. They are not recognized by the Myanmar government as an official ethnic group and are denied citizenship. Their population within Myanmar has been estimated at roughly 800,000. Most of this population lives in the townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, where Rohingya are the majority, as well as in neighbouring towns and the state capital, Sittwe.

The Rohinyas are the majority population of Rakhine State which was historically the Arakan Kingdom. Arakan was an independent kingdom around 100 BC. That is even before Bengal was formed. Burmese Empire included present day most part of Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and parts of China. Arakan people were Indianized in their complexion. 
It was a fair mix of mongoloid, and Indians/Bangalis which made the Arakanis. 
They were Rakhine groups.
(Arakan before Bengal 001 AD)
(Arakan neighbouring Bengal, 700 AD)

There had been three major Burmese invasion of Arakan since 7th century. First major Burmese invasion in Arakan was in 1044. During this invasion Rakhines as well as Chakma fled Arakan and settled in south Chittagong. Chakma are originally mongoloid.

The second invasion took place in 1406 by Burmese King Min Khaung Yaza. The Arakani king Narameikhla took shelter along with large number of followers at Gaur (Bengal), the court of Bengal Sutlan Giasuddin Azam Shah. After 24 years in exile, with the help of Sultan Jalal Uddin Khan, Narameikhla got restored to his throne and changed name to Sulaiman Shah. Sultan of Bengal assisted him with 20 thousand Pathan army lead by Wali Khan on certain conditions one of which was to establish Persian as Arakan’s state language. When Narameikhla disputed on this Wali Khan took him as prisonerand became the ruler himself. Wali khan changed Arakani state language to Persian. Narameikhla later escaped to Bengal and sought help from the then Sultan of Bengal Nadir Shah.

1433, Nadir Shah helped NarameiKhla with 30 thousand soldiers and restored him as King of Arakan. After this event Arakan became province of Bengal as per the condition given by Nadir Shah. As a return of favour NarameiKhla (Sulaiman Shah) returned 12 feuds of Chittagong to Bengal. This is essentially the whole of southern Chittagong. Arakanese began to pay annual taxes to Mughol Empire via Bengal. Narameikhla appealed to Nadir Shah to let him keep the soldiers from Bengal in order to be able to defend his kingdom from Burmese forces. As a result, number of Muslim armies settled in Arakan who were sent by Nadir Shah to help Narameikhla.
*
(Kingdom of Arakan)*
Bengali literature gained popularity from Bengali Muslim presence in Arakan. The great poet Alaol of Bengal was member of the King’s court. He introduced Nadir Shah’s system of coins bearing the Kalima as used in Bengal since Muslim conquest of 1203 and its fellows that the coinage of Mrauk-U was subsequently modelled. Later on he struck his own coins which had the name of the king in Arakanese letters on one side and his Muslim title in Persian on the other. According to historian M.S Collis, it took the Arakanese a hundred years to learn Islam from the Muslem-Mongolians. When it was well understood, they founded what was known as the Arakanese Empire. 

For hundred years 1430 to 1530 AD, Arakan remained feudatory to Bengal, paid tribute and learnt history and politics. Twelve kings followed one after another at Mrauk-U in undistinguished succession. They struck coins and some have been found. In this way Arakan become definitely oriented towards the Muslem State. Contact with a modern civilization resulted in a renaissance. The country’s great age began. In 1531 AD Min Bin as Zabuk Shah ascended the throne. With him the Arakanese graduated in their Muslem studies and the great Arakanese Empire was founded. But according to Arakanese historian U Aung Tha Oo, all 13 kings including Min Bin received Muslim titles and state Emblem from the Bengal Sultans.
*
(Arakan shown part of Bengal Sultanate)*
Names of the kings Muslim Names Reigning period

1. Narameikhla (aka) Sawmon Solaiman Shah 1430-1434 AD.
2. Meng Khari (aka) Naranu Ali Khan 1434-1459
3. Ba Saw Pru (aka) Kalima Shah 1459-1482
4. Dawlya (aka) Mathu Shah 1482-1492
5. Ba Saw Nyo (aka) Mohammed Shah 1492-1493
6. Ran Aung (aka) Noori Shah 1493-1494
7. Salimgathu (aka) Sheik Abdullh Shah 1494-1501
8. Meng Raza (aka) Ilias Shah – I 1501-1513
9. Kasabadi (aka) Ilias Shah – II 1513-1515
10. Meng Saw Oo (aka) Jalal Shah 1515
11. Thatasa (aka) Ali Shah 1515-1521
12. Min Khaung Raza (aka) El-Shah Azad 1521-1531
13. Min Bin (aka) Min Pa Gri Zabuk Shah 1531-1553
14. Min Dikha (aka) Daud Khan 1553-1555
15. Min Phalaung (aka) Sikender Shah 1571-1591
16. Min Razagri (aka) Salim Shah – I 1593-1612
17. Min Khamaung (aka) Hussain Shah 1612-1622
18. Thiri Thudama (aka) Salim Shah – II 1622-1637

The third and final Burmese invasion of Arakan happened in 1784 when it was Mrauk-U Empire in Arakan. This invasion had been considered by historians as a genocide for its ruthlessness massacre of the Arakanese population of both Rohingya and Rakhine groups. The Burmese King Budapawa attacked Arakan with 30 thousand soldiers and returned to capital in the east with 20 thousand prisoners. They destroyed temples, shrines, masjids, libraries and state institutions killing all influential Muslims.

During the Burmese invasion of Arakan, Chittagong came under British rule. British never tried to free Arakan from the Burmese. Burmese rule was devastating. History of an oppressive ruling started. Harvey says, traditionally Burmese cruelty was such that “to break the spirit of the people, they would drive men, women and children into bamboo enclosures and burn them alive by the hundreds.” This resulted in the depopulation of minority groups such that “there are valleys where even today the people have scarcely recovered their original numbers, and men still speak with a shudder of ‘manar upadrap’ (the oppression of the Burmese).”

The fall of Mrauk-U Empire was a mortal blow to the Muslims for everything that was materially and culturally Islamic was razed to the ground. During 40-years of Burmese rule (1784-1824) rule two third or two hundred thousand (200,000) of the inhabitants (Rohingyas and Rakhines) of Arakan were said to have fled to Bengal. The then British East India Company Govt. made no objection to the settlement of those people in the Southern parts of Chittagong region. Today the indigenous Muslims found in and around Mandalay and Central Burma are descendants of those Rohingyas of Arakan. Thereafter British occupied Arakan in 1824.

There was large-scale conversion of Buddhists to Islam during 15th to 18th centuries. Muslim influence was also intensified when Moghul prince Shah Shuja, brother of Aurangzeb, fled to Arakan in 1660. King Sandathudama murdered Shuja, but his followers were retained at the court as archers of the royal guards in which role they frequently intervened as king-makers. The Rohingya population went on increasing from centuries to centuries and they were in clear majority in 1942.

In 1941 Japan declared war on Britain and occupied Rangoon, the capital city of Burma. Due to Japanese aggression British forces withdrew from Arakan in 1942. The Rakhine communalists in connivance with Burma Independence Army (BIA) led by Bo Rang Aung massacred about 1,00,000 innocent Rohingya Muslims, driving out 80,000 of them across the border to Bengal, devastating their settlements and depopulating the Muslims in some parts of Arakan. According to Mr. Sultan Mahmud, former Health Minister and Member of Parliament from Akyab district stated that, “I refused to accept that there was a communal riot in Arakan in 1942. It was a pre-planned cold-blooded massacre.”

Below the number of Muslem villages totally destroyed in the various townships in 1942. They are: (1) Myebon in Kyaukpru District 30 villages; (2) Minbya in Akyab District 27 villages; (3) Pauktaw in Akyab District 25 villages; (4) Myohaung in Akyab District 58 villages; (5) Kyauktaw in Akyab District 78 villages; (6) Ponnagyun in Akyab District 5 villages; (7) Rathedaung in Akyab District 16 villages; and (8) Buthidaung in Akyab District 55 villages. Total 294 villages. All the villages in Buthidaung Township were re-occupied and rehabilitated by the original inhabitants and refugees after the war but not a single one in other townships. Soon the Rakhine Buddhists were streaming in droves from the north as the Rohingya Muslims were streaming from the south, and Arakan stood divided into two distinct territories, a Muslim north and a Buddhist south one. Since then, the traditional relation between the two sister communities deteriorated.

Habib Siddiqui identifies some of the major armed operations of intimidation & genocide against the Rohingya people, orchestrated by the Burmese government since 1948:

1. Military Operation (5th Burma Regiment) – November 1948
2. Burma Territorial Force (BTF) – Operation 1949-50
3. Military Operation (2nd Emergency Chin regiment) – March 1951-52
4. Mayu Operation – October 1952-53
5. Mone-thone Operation – October 1954
6. Combined Immigration and Army Operation – January 1955
7. Union Military Police (UMP) Operation – 1955-58
8. Captain Htin Kyaw Operation – 1959
9. Shwe Kyi Operation – October 1966
10. Kyi Gan Operation – October-December 1966
11. Ngazinka Operation – 1967-69
12. Myat Mon Operation – February 1969-71
13. Major Aung Than Operation – 1973
14. Sabe Operation February – 1974-78
15. Naga-Min (King Dragon) Operation – February 1978-79 (resulting in exodus of some 300,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh)
16. Shwe Hintha Operation – August 1978-80
17. Galone Operation – 1979
18. Pyi Thaya Operation, July 1991-92 (resulting in exodus of some 268,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh)
19. Na-Sa-Ka Operation, since 1992.

Many claims that the descendants of the Muslim soldiers and migrants from Bengal to Arakan who settled there since 8th century, are the Rohingya people of today.

The Rohingya people, then, are actually direct descendants of the Bengalis from very old times.

To be continued ……

(Historical Sources: Wikipedia, rohingyasinternational.wordpress.com/history & multiple online)

M Naufal Zamir
Socio-political Analyst,
Entrepreneur & Barrister-at-law
Twitter: @naufalzamir 
Email: info@naufalzamir.co.uk Web: www.naufalzamir.co.uk


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis explained in maps*
*A visual explainer of the unrest in Myanmar that has forced around one million Rohingya to flee their homes.*
Shakeeb Asrar | 20 Sep 2017 06:41 GMT | Rohingya, Myanmar, Interactive, War & Conflict, Bangladesh
Rohingya are a majority-Muslim ethnic group who have lived in the Buddhist nation of Myanmar for centuries.
The maps below follow the path of Rohingya from their ethnic homeland of Rakhine state in Myanmar to Bangladesh's district of Cox's Bazar, as well as several other countries in Asia, where the Rohingya have sought sanctuary since the 1970s. 
READ MORE: All you need to know about the Rohingya
*Where are the Rohingya located?*
The Rohingya have faced persecution at the hands of Myanmar's military since the country's independence in the late 1940s.

In October 2016, a military crackdown in the wake of a deadly attack on an army post sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Similar attacks in August 2017 led to the ongoing military crackdown, which has led to a new mass exodus of Rohingya.

Most Rohingya have sought refuge in and around Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.








*Which countries are hosting the Rohingya?*
About one million Rohingya have fled Myanmar since the first brutal military action in 1977. The majority have taken refuge in Bangladesh, but other countries in Asia and the Middle East have also opened their doors to one of the world's most persecuted communities.




*Are there other ethnic groups in Myanmar?*
There are 135 official ethnic groups in Myanmar, but the Rohingya have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.



*Which villages are being attacked?*
More than 80 villages in northern Rakhine State have been set ablaze by Myanmar security forces and vigilante mobs since August 25, according to Amnesty International. Myanmar's government has said that nearly 40 percent of Rohingya villages had been targeted by the army in so-called "clearance operations", with 176 out of 471 villages emptied of people, and an additional 34 villages "partially abandoned".
*Follow Shakeeb Asrar on Twitter: @shakeebasrar*
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies




*'Who will take us?': Myanmar's fleeing Rohingya Muslims*
Forced out of their home country, Rohingya Muslims share their experiences of crossing to Bangladesh.
Topic: Asia, Myanmar, Rohingya, Myanmar-Bangladesh, Human Rights





*Rohingya warn of 'another Srebrenica' if violence rages*
Members of Myanmar's Muslim minority urge international community to stop a 'targeted military campaign' against them.
Topic: Myanmar, Rohingya, Myanmar-Bangladesh, Asia, Aung San Suu Kyi
here.


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## Banglar Bir

*Religion is not the only reason Rohingyas are being forced out of Myanmar*
September 12, 2017 12.35pm AEST •Updated September 19, 2017 11.43am AEST
*Authors *Giuseppe Forino

PhD Candidate in Disaster Management, University of Newcastle


Jason von Meding
Senior Lecturer in Disaster Risk Reduction, University of Newcastle


Thomas Johnson
PhD Candidate in Disaster Vulnerability, University of Newcastle
*Disclosure statement*
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
*Partners*






University of Newcastle provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU

Republish this article


Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons licence.




Minorities in Myanmar, including the Rohingya, are resilient in the face of persecution. Giuseppe Forino, Author provided
Recent weeks have seen an escalation of violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine, the poorest state of Myanmar. A tide of displaced people are seeking refuge from atrocities – they are fleeing both on foot and by boat to Bangladesh. It is the latest surge of displaced people, and is exacerbated by the recent activity of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

Religious and ethnic differences have been widely considered the leading cause of the persecution. But it is becoming increasingly hard to believe that there are not other factors at play. Especially given that Myanmar is home to 135 official recognised ethnic groups (the Rohingya were removed from this list in 1982).

In analysing the recent violence, much of the western media has focused on the role of the military and the figure of the de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Her status as a Nobel Peace prize laureate has been widely questioned since the latest evidence of atrocities emerged.

She continues to avoid condemning the systematic violence against the Rohingya. At least the media gaze has finally shifted somewhat towards their plight.

But there remain issues that are not being explored. It is also critical to look beyond religious and ethnic differences towards other root causes of persecution, vulnerability and displacement.

We must consider vested political and economic interests as contributing factors to forced displacement in Myanmar, not just of the Rohingya people but of other minorities such as the Kachin, the Shan, the Karen, the Chin, and the Mon.





Major ethnic groups in Myanmar. Al Jazeera
*Land grabbing*
Land grabbing and confiscation in Myanmar is widespread. It is not a new phenomenon.
Since the 1990s, military juntas have been taking away the land of smallholders across the country, without any compensation and regardless of ethnicity or religious status.

Land has often been acquired for “development” projects, including military base expansions, natural resource exploitation and extraction, large agriculture projects, infrastructure and tourism. For example, in Kachin state the military confiscated more than 500 acres of villagers’ land to support extensive gold mining.

Development has forcibly displaced thousands of people - both internally and across borders with Bangladesh, India, and Thailand - or compelled them to set out by sea to Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.

In 2011, Myanmar instituted economic and political reforms that led it to be dubbed “Asia’s final frontier” as it opened up to foreign investment. Shortly afterwards, in 2012, violent attacks escalated against the Rohingya in Rakhine state and, to a lesser extent, against the Karen. Meanwhile, the government of Myanmar established several laws relating to the management and distribution of farmland.

These moves were severely criticised for reinforcing the ability of large corporations to profit from land grabs. For instance, agribusiness multinationals such as POSCO Daewoo have eagerly entered the market, contracted by the government.

*A regional prize*
Myanmar is positioned between countries that have long eyed its resources, such as China and India. Since the 1990s, Chinese companies have exploited timber, rivers and minerals in Shan State in the North.

This led to violent armed conflicts between the military regime and armed groups, including the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and its ethnic allies in eastern Kachin State and northern Shan State.

In Rakhine State, Chinese and Indian interests are part of broader China-India relations. These interests revolve principally around the construction of infrastructure and pipelines in the region. Such projects claim to guarantee employment, transit fees and oil and gas revenues for the whole of Myanmar.

Among numerous development projects, a transnational pipeline built by China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) connecting Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, to Kunming, China, began operations in September 2013. The wider efforts to take Myanmar oil and gas from the Shwe gas field to Guangzhou, China, are well documented.




Pipeline from the Shwe gas field to China. The Shwe Gas Movement
A parallel pipeline is also expected to send Middle East oil from the Kyaukphyu port to China. However, the neutral Advisory Commission on Rakhine State has urged the Myanmar government to carry out a comprehensive impact assessment.

In fact, the Commission recognises that pipelines put local communities at risk. There is significant local tension related to land seizures, insufficient compensation for damages, environmental degradation, and an influx of foreign workers rather than increased local employment opportunities.

Meanwhile, the Sittwe deep-sea port was financed and constructed by India as part of the Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project. The aim is to connect the northeast Mizoram state in India with the Bay of Bengal.

Coastal areas of Rakhine State are clearly of strategic importance to both India and China. The government of Myanmar therefore has vested interests in clearing land to prepare for further development and to boost its already rapid economic growth.

All of this takes place within the wider context of geopolitical maneuvering. The role of Bangladesh in fuelling ethnic tensions is also hotly contested. In such power struggles, the human cost is terribly high.

*Compounding the vulnerability of minorities*
In Myanmar, the groups that fall victim to land grabbing have often started in an extremely vulnerable state and are left even worse off. The treatment of the Rohingya in Rakhine State is the highest profile example of broader expulsion that is inflicted on minorities.

When a group is marginalised and oppressed it is difficult to reduce their vulnerability and protect their rights, including their property. In the case of the Rohingya, their ability to protect their homes was decimated through the revocation of their Burmese citizenship.





Rohingya settlement near Sittwe. Thomas Johnson
Since the late 1970s around a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar to escape persecution. Tragically, they are often marginalised in their host countries.

With no country willing to take responsibility for them, they are either forced or encouraged to continuously cross borders. The techniques used to encourage this movement have trapped the Rohingya in a vulnerable state.

The tragedy of the Rohingya is part of a bigger picture which sees the oppression and displacement of minorities across Myanmar and into neighbouring countries.

The relevance and complexity of religious and ethnic issues in Myanmar are undeniable. But we cannot ignore the political and economic context and the root causes of displacement that often go undetected.

_This article was amended after publication to correct the mislabelling of the Karen as Muslim._
https://theconversation.com/religio...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer


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## Banglar Bir

*টাইমের প্রচ্ছদে রোহিঙ্গা!*
http://time.com/4951180/myanmars-shame-aung-san-suu-kyi/





*টাইমের প্রচ্ছদে রোহিঙ্গা!*
http://time.com/4951180/myanmars-shame-aung-san-suu-kyi/

05:50 PM, September 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:19 PM, September 22, 2017
*India using chilli sprays, stun grenades to dissuade Rohingya influx*




A Rohingya refugee child cries as others queue to receive aid in Cox's Bazar, September 22, 2017. Photo:Reuters
Reuters, New Delhi

India has stepped up security along its largely porous eastern border with Bangladesh and is using "chilli and stun grenades" to block the entry of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from violence in their homeland of Myanmar, officials said on Friday.

Border forces in Hindu-majority India, which wants to deport around 40,000 Rohingya already living in the country, citing security risks, have been authorised to use "rude and crude" methods to stop any infiltration attempts.

"We don't want to cause any serious injury or arrest them, but we won't tolerate Rohingya on Indian soil," said a senior official with the Border Security Force (BSF) in New Delhi.

"We're using grenades containing chilli spray to stop hundreds of Rohingyas trying to enter India ... the situation is tense," added the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.

More than 420,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when a coordinated attack by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces triggered a counteroffensive, killing at least 400 people, mainly militants. The United Nations has called the assault a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

Densely populated Bangladesh is struggling to shelter all the refugees desperate for space to set up shacks, sparking worries in India that the influx could spill into its territory.

RPS Jaswal, a deputy inspector general of the BSF patrolling a large part of the border in India's eastern state of West Bengal, said his troops were told to use both chilli grenades and stun grenades to push back the Rohingya.

A chilli grenade makes use of a naturally-occurring compound in chilli powder to cause severe irritation and temporarily immobilise its target.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government is growing increasingly hostile towards the Rohingya in India, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh calling on Thursday for their deportation as illegal migrants.

Seeking to get legal clearance for the deportation plan, the home ministry told the Supreme Court this week it would confidentially provide it with intelligence information showing Rohingya links with Pakistan-based militants.

Most of the peaceloving refugees had no link to criminal activity, two Rohingya men protesting against the deportation move told India's top court on Friday.

An official of India's federal investigations agency said it was seeking help from Muslim religious leaders to step up surveillance of the Rohingya.

Police have arrested a suspected al Qaeda member they believe was trying to recruit Rohingya in the country to fight security forces in Myanmar. More than 270 Rohingya have been in Indian jails since 2014.

"Our investigations have revealed that Al Qaeda wants to use India and Bangladesh as their base to start a religious war against Myanmar," said New Delhi police official Pramod Singh Khuswah. "Clearly they are a threat to our security." 
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...tun-grenades-dissuade-rohingya-influx-1466053


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## Banglar Bir

*Int'l tribunal finds Myanmar guilty of 'genocide'*
*7-member tribunal calls on Myanmar authorities to put an end to violence against Muslim minorities*
September 22, 2017 Anadolu Agency
Since Aug. 25, some 429,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

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.

The tribunal also called on the international community to provide financial help to countries such as Bangladesh and Malaysia that are hosting the influx of refugees escaping the violence.




*UN estimates $200 mln needed for Rohingya in Bangladesh for six months*
The United Nations estimates that $200 million will be needed over the next six months to help Rohingya Muslims refugees who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in "massive numbers" to escape a bloody military campaign.

Bangladesh and humanitarian organisations are struggling to help 422,000 Rohingya who have arrived since Aug. 25, when attacks by Rohingya militants triggered a Myanmar counter-insurgency offensive that the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing.

Bangladesh was already home to some 400,000 Rohingya who fled earlier bouts of violence and persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.The United Nations launched an appeal for $78 million on Sept. 9, but the refugees have kept coming."Right now, we’re looking at $200 million," Robert D. Watkins, U.N. resident coordinator in Bangladesh told Reuters in an interview in his office in the capital, Dhaka, on Friday."It has not been confirmed, but it is a ballpark figure based on the estimates on the information we have," he said, adding that would be for six months."We base these appeals on immediate needs, and right now we know they’re going to be here for six months.

"Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing, saying its security forces are fighting insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army who claimed responsibility for attacks on about 30 police posts and army camp on Aug. 25.The insurgents were also behind similar but smaller attacks in October last year, that also led to a brutal Myanmar army response triggering the flight of 87,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.Watkins said the exodus since Aug. 25 was much bigger than the flows sparked by ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s."It’s different from that here because the numbers are so much bigger ... massive numbers in such a short period of time," he said.Video: 

Thousands rally in Pakistan to protest the persecution of Rohingya Muslims'SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY'The monsoon rains have compounded the problems for the aid agencies, turning roads into quagmires. Watkins said the United Nations was working with Bangladeshi authorities to build new roads.He said the situation had not stabilised in terms of new arrivals so it was difficult to say for how many people they were planning for, or for how long."We don’t want to plan a 10-year operation, obviously, because we want to maintain hope that there will be a way for negotiating a return of the population," he said."We can’t plan too far in the future because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

On the one hand, politically, it sends a strong signal, which we don’t want to send, which is that people are going to be here for a long time."And our donors are not prepared to respond to anything beyond a one-year time frame given the massive amounts of money we are asking for.

”The Rohingya are regarded as illegal immigrants in Myanmar and most are stateless.Video: Rohingya Muslims slaughtered by fanatic Buddhists Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said this week Myanmar was ready to start a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993 under which anyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back "without any problem".But many Rohingya are pessimistic about their chances of ever going home, partly because many do not have official papers confirming their residency. Video: Humankind 'insensitive' to persecution of Rohingya Muslims: Erdoğan

Malaysia currently hosts one of the largest urban refugee populations in the world. As of 2014, some 146,020 refugees and asylum seekers had been registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, of which the vast majority or some 135,000 are from Myanmar.

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.

Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
*Rohingya crisis in numbers*
The number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar is increasing by the day. The extent and implications of the crisis remain uncertain and the numbers paint a grim story.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/gundem/...glish&utm_campaign=facebook-yenisafak-english


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## Banglar Bir

*What is a safe zone?*
Niloy Alam
Published at 04:52 PM September 22, 2017




In this photograph taken on September 7, 2017, a house burns in Gawdu Tharya village near Maungdaw in Rakhine state in northern Myanmar. The wooden structure on fire was seen by journalists during a Myanmar government sponsored trip for media to the region *AFP*
*Most recently, safe zones were a key part of the conflict discussions by the pro-Assad and Syrian rebel forces in the Syrian civil war*
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for the creation of a “safe zone” in the Rakhine state of Myanmar for the Rohingya refugees in her address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

*But what is a “safe zone” supposed to be?*
Its origins lie within Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The article stated that during a time of conflict, countries could declare areas “safe zones” for people who are not involved in the fighting. It usually means hospitals and other localities to protect the wounded, women, the elderly and children from war.

However, in modern usage, a safe zone, as declared by the United Nations, is a vague concept that is thrown about regularly for its sound theoretical stance. They have the provision of including no-fly zones.

An area designated by the UN as a safe zone in a conflict zone is conceived to protect civilians from military attack. However, there is no written definition of a safe zone by the UN, only precedents to refer to.

In any case, safe zones have never yielded any good for the people they were set up to protect. Back in 1995, the UN declared Srebrenica a safe zone among six others in what used to be Bosnia-Herzegovina. The UN had even posted 300-400 peacekeepers to protect the Bosnian Muslims, in case the Serb forces defied the UN resolution.

Srebrenica, a small mining town in the mountains, fell to the overwhelming Serb forces who proceeded to annihilate 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. It is by admission, considered to be the UN’s greatest failure till date.

In 1994, the Hutu-Tutsi ethnic conflict in Rwanda led to the genocide of at least one million Tutsi people. Although there were safe zones throughout the country, the Hutu forces operated with impunity inside the areas.

Most recently, safe zones were a key part of the conflict discussions by the pro-Assad and Syrian rebel forces in the Syrian civil war. The safe zones were planned to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees.

As of September 21, a total of 422,000 Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. There are allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Myanmar armed forces. Given the precedence of safe zones and the condition prevailing in Rakhine, the Rohingya will be repatriated with the ashes of their houses, with more threats to their lives waiting for them. Without a strong UN peacekeeping force present, a “safe zone” is safe in name only.

The UN would have to establish clear grounds in regards to the safe zone and the international community will have to ensure Myanmar abides by the terms of the resolution.


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## Banglar Bir

*Suffering has a name*
Aung San Suu Kyi’s response to the crisis at home is starkly duplicitous and false
Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee, September 22, 2017




Suffering is universal and part of the human condition and life. In history however, suffering is quite specific. Suffering carries a name, sometimes of an individual and often of a community. Suffering has a face, or faces. Today we are witnessing the suffering of isolated groups of individuals who are victims of terror attacks. But we are also witnessing the deep violence against communities that are targeted in the name of racist and religious nationalism. These are forms of historical violence that do not fall within the general idea of universal suffering. It includes the collective plight of people, of refugees and minorities, who face majoritarian violence. These instances are often accompanied by the apathy of the state or its direct or tacit encouragement. These sufferers have a name. These names belong to people who suffer the logic of territoriality that dogs the spirit of history and the nation’s paranoia.

Rohingya is such a name. That is why Aung San Suu Kyi’s not mentioning “Rohingya” in her address to the nation, where she refers to the specific crisis at home in general terms, appears odd and deliberate. As if the word is taboo, the name too hard to utter. Rohingya is just not the name that designates a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar, but a minority that is suffering majoritarian violence. The word is not simply a political category, but resonates with an ethical appeal in relation to their specific condition. It is a condition born out of historical prejudice and political malice. Meanwhile, the Rohingya crisis has spilled over, posing questions for other nations to rehabilitate political refugees. The UN raised eyebrows over India’s handling of the crisis, as the Narendra Modi government told the Supreme Court that the Rohingya people posed a threat to national security. The paranoia of security has become a legitimate logic used by the state to absolve itself of ethical responsibilities. Yet Suu Kyi, despite facing worldwide condemnation and petitions to strip her off the Nobel Peace Prize, maintained a disturbingly long silence.

Suu Kyi’s address comes very late. To be late is a problem, for it betrays reluctance and perhaps even refusal to address the nature of crime. This dubious style of responding late to serious crimes where the victim isn’t named is currently being pursued even by the political regime in India. Suu Kyi’s response to the crisis at home is starkly duplicitous and false. She said, “We condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence.” That is a misleading statement, for she does not need to answer a universal problem but the problem of a minority. To say “all human rights violations” is to not mention the one violation which alone is everything that she has to respond to. That one is the singular universal. The universal cannot be reduced to the concrete one. It is a trick of language, to subsume the one within the universal and erase it. Erase its name. The politics of the universal is the politics of not naming (the one).

Universal suffering is not political. Only particular people in historical time have suffered violence. To take their names, mention their suffering in relation to their perpetrators, is our ethical and historical task. Not to name the one, in this sense, shows a lack of responsibility. All responsibility is ethical and for that reason, particular. No one is (held) responsible for universal suffering. The language of affectation is as much an ethical sensibility. The language of mourning is also meant for the one, for that one name who suffers, not for everyone, for any universal notion of the sufferer. To mourn is always to mourn for the other, for that one, bereaved other, who is the victim of fate or history. This is what the French ethical thinker, Emanuel Levinas, calls the “inter-human”, which takes cognisance not of the universal, but the particular other, the neighbour, who needs help, care or justice.

In her most recent interview to ANI, Suu Kyi reiterated the problem, pointing to the “controversies with regard to the term used to describe the Muslims of the Rakhine.” Her explanation reveals her position vis-à-vis this politics of naming: “There are those who want to call them as Rohingyas or who want to refer the Muslims there as Rohingyas. And the Rakhines will not use any term except Bengalis, meaning to say that they are not ethnic Rakhines. And I think that instead of using emotive terms, this term has become emotive, and highly charged. It’s better to call them as Muslims which is a description that nobody can deny.” The politics of naming is contextual.

In India, the term ‘Muslim’ is enough to name a minority being targeted by Hindu vigilante groups in the pretext of violating majoritarian sentiments. The political establishment in turn won’t name the Muslim in the pretext of not adding communal colour to crimes that are communal in nature. In Suu Kyi’s case, ‘Muslim’ is more politically suitable, for the term ‘Rohingya’ designates an etymology and history that establishes their relationship with the region, gives it pre-colonial status and disturbs the territorial idea of a nation-state. It is a term that contests the unitary claims of the “ethnic Rakhines” to be the sole, legitimate inhabitants of Myanmar. Suu Kyi is clearly siding with the sentiments of the ethnic Rakhines by shying away from using the word Rohingya.

No wonder that Suu Kyi does not want to name the name Rohingya. To mourn or take responsibility were not her intention from the beginning. To name that minority will mean two things, she probably wants to avoid: First, take responsibility for the condition of what that name, of what people who bear that name, faces today in her country; and second, to accept the suffering specific to that one community, of the minority she can’t wish away in the name of a fantasy she may call her nation. A nation where a minority cannot exist is a majoritarian fantasy. It is the minority that presents the problem of the one, for by naming her the majority’s claim is divided into two, and the majority wants absolute claims. Majoritarian politics would always want to deny the one its place, so that the majority remains the only, incontestable one.

The difference between Mahatma Gandhi and Suu Kyi is that Gandhi recognised the twoness between Hindus and Muslims. Remember Gandhi invoking the simile of “two brothers” in _Hind Swaraj_ for the Hindu-Muslim relationship. In a historically unique and perhaps unparalleled gesture, Gandhi placed the Muslim demand before (prior to) the Hindu. When Gandhi said, “unity cannot be reached without justice between communities”, his placing the question of justice prior to unity is precisely to endorse the minority’s claim first. There is no need for justice if the majority is the sole, legitimate claimant to political power. It is the minority that introduces the question, the necessity, of justice in a nation-state in the first place.

In contrast, without recognising the minority, Suu Kyi said, “We feel deeply for the suffering of all the people caught up in the conflict.” It may easily mean both victims and perpetrators, as both are “caught up” in the “conflict”. It is a gross violation of ethical sensibility and intention. This political language that speaks for “all” deliberately hides the suffering of the one. In the ANI interview, Suu Kyi said, “We have to be fair to all communities. We have always maintained this that we don’t condemn either of the communities. We condemn actions that are against the rule of law and that are against the humanitarian needs of all people. But we have never condemned communities as such.” This equalisation of violence and victimhood is certainly not fairness. It is unfair to the beleaguered, outnumbered, persecuted people, who are at the receiving end of what the UN has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Again, you find the politics of language where the one is subsumed by an apparently fairer concern for the “all”.

Apart from being a late response, Suu Kyi’s statements are strategically silent on meaningful clarification and intent. In the light of her language, it is difficult to accept her claim that her “true feelings are very very simple”. Both language and silence fall short of naming the violence. Silence is surely not the language of justice. Suu Kyi hasn’t spoken the language of justice yet. Something that hinders the idea of justice holds back her tongue. Call it the silence of prejudice or the prejudice of silence.

*Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee*_ teaches poetry at Ambedkar University, New Delhi. He is a frequent contributor to _The Wire _and has written for_ The Hindu, The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica, Outlook _and other publications._
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/22/suffering-has-a-name/

12:00 AM, September 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:04 AM, September 23, 2017
*Rohingya crisis and the norm of R2P*




With the Rohingya crisis spiralling into a disaster of magnanimous proportions, this maybe an appropriate time to invoke R2P against Myanmar. PHOTO: STAR
Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed
Sovereignty is sometimes an overused yet largely exploited concept in the world of international relations. In its truest sense, sovereignty is a fundamental term designating supreme authority over a certain polity. 

Sovereignty has been used by some as a tool to continue the activities of authoritarian regimes, whilst others have sought to celebrate it through the practice of democracy. Realising the practical implications of misusing sovereignty as an international norm, the global powers initiated a 21st-century political commitment called the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). With the Rohingya crisis spiralling into a disaster of magnanimous proportions, this maybe an appropriate time to invoke R2P against Myanmar.
*
In 2005, member-states of the United Nations endorsed R2P to prevent four types of humanitarian crisis: genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. *

The Rohingya crisis has been recognised by the Bangladesh government and many global institutions as being under the category of ethnic cleansing. So, what does R2P entail? As a norm, it demands that national governments essentially do not take sovereignty for granted. R2P is based on the principle that sovereignty requires a responsibility to protect all populations from mass atrocity crimes and human rights violations. 

Myanmar government's failure to protect a large proportion of the Rakhine-based Rohingyas makes a strong case for an intervention by the international community, either through taking measures stated in the R2P framework or by involving regional powers such as China or India to achieve a solution to an ever-growing problem.

Consider the case of Libya in which R2P was invoked to make a military intervention. However, one may be prompted to think that R2P automatically means direct military intervention on the part of the global powers. That is not the case. The basic tenets of R2P also involve measures such as mediation, diplomatic cooperation and economic sanctions as part of a mechanism to ensure that sovereignty is respected within a certain nation. 

According to the R2P doctrine, “The primary purpose of the intervention, whatever other motives intervening states may have, must be to halt or avert human suffering. Right intention is better assured with multilateral operations, clearly supported by regional opinion and the victims concerned.”

But “there must be a reasonable chance of success in halting or averting the suffering which has justified the intervention,” it states, “with the consequences of action not likely to be worse than the consequences of inaction.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already made it clear that her government has taken in Rohingya people purely on humanitarian grounds, nothing else. The Rohingya crisis ensued after the Myanmar government failed to exercise its responsibility to protect its own people from the horrors of ethnic cleansing. Considering that, many nations have initiated diplomatic efforts to pressure Aung San Suu Kyi into recognising the severe failures of her government with regard to Rakhine and the outflow of migrants towards Bangladesh.

R2P also covers an interesting point that makes it even more applicable for the Rohingya crisis. Its coverage is extensive in the sense that R2P recognises the fundamental rights of all people, whether one is a citizen or not—aliens or stateless. The fact that the Rohingyas are now stateless and being subjected to mass atrocity crimes means the R2P-bound international community has no option but to intervene to address Myanmar government's lack of accountability and action. 

It also means that the international community has a moral and legal obligation, as per international law, to pressure Myanmar into taking action to prevent ethnic cleansing and simultaneously support Bangladesh in its effort to ensure the survival of the refugees.

Interestingly, it was a Bangladeshi—Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury—who helped shape many tenets of the R2P. Chowdhury, who served as the Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Caretaker Government of 2007-08, had worked as a diplomat to negotiate several paragraphs of the R2P norm. It is now up to Bangladesh to persuade the global community to act immediately based on those tenets.

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has suggested that Bangladesh is pushing for placing the Rohingya agenda at the UN Security Council, although it is unlikely that it will result in quick action thanks to the council's history of bureaucratic red tape and veto politics. 

However, the European powers have supported Bangladesh's stance on the crisis, with UN-based organisations asking nations to provide concrete support to the Hasina government. While it is disappointing to observe India's lack of condemnation towards Aung San Suu Kyi, one hopes that both India and China will eventually overcome the practical impediments holding back a formal condemnation, and intervene to pressure the Myanmar government into ending what surely qualifies as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar is a proud, sovereign nation with a rich history. The same nation is now ignoring the plight of its people, and pushing the country to the brink of unrest by facilitating the massacre of one of its own ethnic groups. Identity politics and the politics of power cannot, and should not, be used as a basis for perpetrating ethnic cleansing. Myanmar cannot hide behind its sovereignty status to cover up state-supported crimes. 

The international community should seriously consider going for soft R2P interventions such as mediations and sanctions, and this seems to be the only way to convince a Nobel Peace icon that the path she and her government have taken is morally, legally, and constitutionally wrong.

Aung San Suu Kyi's chapter in history began with her bold, courageous and symbolic effort to institute democracy in her country. That she was able to do to some extent. But the world is getting increasingly disillusioned to see one of its greatest champions of democracy tread a dangerous and morally unacceptable path. 

She cannot hide behind the curtains of sovereignty and democracy any more, as the R2P demands that she take action to resolve the crisis that her government and the military have undoubtedly aggravated.

Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed is a student of economics and international relations at the University of Toronto.
http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/mayanmar-refugee-rohingya-crisis-and-the-norm-r2p-1466200

12:00 AM, September 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:55 AM, September 23, 2017
*Myanmar found guilty of genocide*
*International peoples' court delivers verdict*




From left, judges Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, Shadi Sadr, Boehringer, Feierstein, Helen Jarvis, Nello Rossi and Zulaiha Ismal at the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal at University of Malaya yesterday. Photo: The Star Online (Malaysia)
Star Report

Myanmar is guilty of genocide against the Rohingya people, according to the verdict of international Permanent Peoples' Tribunal.

A seven-member panel announced the verdict yesterday after considering documentary and expert evidence as well as the testimony of some 200 victims of the atrocities committed against the Rohingya, Kachin and other minority groups in Myanmar, reports The Star Online of Malaysia.

Head judge Daniel Feierstein, who founded the Centre for Genocide Studies in Argentina, read out the findings following five days of hearing held at the moot court of the law faculty of University of Malaya.




On the strength of the evidence presented, the tribunal reached the consensus ruling that Myanmar has the intent to commit genocide against the Kachin and other groups, the tribunal said.

“The State of Myanmar is guilty of the crime of genocide against the Rohingya group.... the casualties of that genocide could be even higher in the future if nothing is done to stop it,” it added.

A preliminary unedited version of the judgment was available on the website of the tribunal last night.

The verdict came at a time when over 4,20,000 Rohingyas fled persecution in Myanmar to Bangladesh in last four weeks.

The influx was triggered by Myanmar army's response to alleged insurgent attacks on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine State on August 25.

The UN has denounced the “cruel military operation” against Rohingyas as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

The panel, which included Zulaiha Ismail (Malaysia), Helen Jarvis (Cambodia/Australia), Gill H Boehringer (Australia), Nursyahbani Katjasungkana (Indonesia), Shadi Sadr (Iran) and Nello Rossi (Italy), made 17 recommendations.

It said visas and full access must be granted to the UN investigators for probing the atrocities committed against the Rohingya, Kachin and other groups in Myanmar.

The Myanmar government should amend its constitution and abolish discriminatory laws to give rights and citizenship to the oppressed minorities, it added.

The tribunal recommended imposing an immediate arms embargo on the government of Myanmar.

About the implication of the verdict, eminent war crimes researcher Mofidul Hoque said the verdict is “very significant” and sends a strong moral message to the world.

Also the director of Centre for the Study of Genocide and Justice in Bangladesh, he said the verdict clearly says that what's happening in Myanmar is not just ethnic cleansing; it's a classic example of genocide.

“The verdict gave a clarion call that United Nations and relevant international bodies must act to bring the Myanmar authority to book for committing genocide,” Mofidul, also a trustee of the Liberation War Museum, told The Daily Star.

This is the first time the tribunal delivered a verdict accusing a government having link with a Nobel laureate, he said. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Myanmar's de facto leader, is now facing growing criticism over the Rohingya issue.

Tureen Afroz, a senior prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh, said the verdict established what prominent individuals and different countries and international organisations are saying: Myanmar is committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingyas.

“The verdict will help draw international attention to the atrocities,” Tureen, also a law professor of a private university, told The Daily Star.

She, however, called for persuading the prosecution team at the International Criminal Court to initiate trial proceedings against Myanmar for the crimes as the verdict of the people's tribunal has “no legal basis.”

“And, in that case, the tribunal verdict will be helpful,” Tureen said.

The tribunal's findings, judgment and recommendations would be forwarded to international bodies and civil groups, said an organiser.

*OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS*
The international community must provide financial help to countries such as Bangladesh and Malaysia that are hosting the refugees.

Myanmar must prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses, hate crimes, genocidal massacres, rape, torture, arson and ethnic and religious violence against the Rohingya, Kachin and other groups in its courts. There must be no more impunity for military personnel or militias.

An independent, non-governmental commission should be established to develop a programme for rehabilitation and compensation for victims.

Targeted sanctions, for example freezing of overseas bank accounts and travel ban outside Myanmar, need to be imposed on government officials and perpetrators of human rights abuse.

There should be a plan to escalate sanctions if the government fail in its general duty to protect its people and to stop the human rights violations by the military and private persons and organisations.

An independent, international non-governmental commission should be formed to investigate the causes behind the harms about which the world has now been made aware.

*WHAT IS PERMANENT PEOPLES' TRIBUNAL?*
PPT was established in Bologna in 1979 as a direct continuation of the Russell Tribunal on Vietnam (1966-67) and Latin America (1973-76), according to its website.

The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, Russell-Sartre Tribunal, or Stockholm Tribunal, was a private body organised by British philosopher and Nobel Prize winner Bertrand Russell and hosted by French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre.

It investigated and evaluated American foreign policy and military intervention in Vietnam after the defeat of French forces in the battle of Diên Biên Phu in 1954 and the establishment of North and South Vietnam.

Since its establishment, PPT is built around an international network of experts, social actors and scholars from several countries of Europe, South America, Asia and Africa, recognised for their independence and competence.

The characteristic of “permanency” and the selection criteria used in the appointment of its judges, renowned for their independence and expertise, have made this opinion tribunal a laboratory of denunciation and interdisciplinary research, it said.

Based in Rome, the tribunal has held 43 sessions on numerous cases involving human rights and genocide. Cases relating to Armenian genocide, war crimes in Sri Lanka, crimes against humanity in former Yugoslavia, among others, were dealt by it. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...-crisis-myanmar-found-guilty-genocide-1466263


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## Banglar Bir

*Without a Home, and Without Hope*
September 23, 2017
Brook Larmer | National Geographic
“Dance!” shouted the army officer, waving a gun at the trembling girl. Afifa, just 14 years old, was corralled in a rice paddy with dozens of girls and women—all members of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. The soldiers who invaded her village that morning last October said they were looking for militants who had carried out a surprise attack on three border posts, killing nine policemen. The village’s men and boys, fearing for their lives, had dashed into the forests to hide, and the soldiers began terrorizing the women and children.

After enduring an invasive body search, Afifa had watched soldiers drag two young women deep into the rice paddy before they turned their attention to her. “If you don’t dance at once,” the officer said, drawing his hand across his throat, “we will slaughter you.” Choking back tears, Afifa began to sway back and forth. The soldiers clapped rhythmically. A few pulled out mobile phones to shoot videos. The commanding officer slid his arm around Afifa’s waist.




Rohingya refugees queue outside Kutupalong camp near the town of Cox’s Bazar, waiting to receive staples from the World Food Programme. About half a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh.
“Now that’s better, isn’t it?” he said, flashing a smile.

The encounter marked only the beginning of the latest wave of violence against the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya who live, precariously, in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. The United Nations considers the Rohingya one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. Muslims in a nation dominated by Buddhists, the Rohingya claim that they are indigenous to Rakhine, and many are descended from settlers who came in the 19th and early 20th century. Despite their roots, a 1982 law stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship. They are now considered illegal immigrants in Myanmar as well as in neighboring Bangladesh, the country to which as many as half a million have fled.

Five years ago, clashes between Buddhist and Muslim communities left hundreds dead, mostly Rohingya. With their mosques and villages torched, 120,000 Rohingya were forced into makeshift camps inside Myanmar (also known as Burma). This time the assault was unleashed by the Burmese military, the feared Tatmadaw, which ruled over Myanmar for five decades before overseeing a transition that led last year to a quasi-civilian government.




Early in the morning, family members warm themselves around a fire in an alley in Kutupalong. Refugees construct their huts from branches, leaves, and black plastic sheeting. Many of these flimsy shelters were ruined in May by a cyclone.

What began ostensibly as a hunt for the culprits behind the border post attacks turned into a four-month assault on the Rohingya population as a whole. According to witnesses interviewed by the UN and international human-rights groups, as well as National Geographic, the army campaign included executions, mass detentions, the razing of villages, and the systematic rape of Rohingya women. Yanghee Lee, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, believes it’s “very likely” the army committed crimes against humanity.

The full extent of what happened in northern Rakhine state is not yet known because the government has not allowed independent investigators, journalists, or aid groups unfettered access to the affected areas. Satellite imagery at the time showed Rohingya villages destroyed by fire. Amateur video appeared to show charred bodies of adults and children lying on the ground in the torched villages. Rights groups say hundreds of Rohingya have been killed. One incontrovertible truth is that the army assault triggered the exodus of more than 75,000 Rohingya into overcrowded refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh. Nearly 60 percent are children. (An estimated 20,000 or more Rohingya have been displaced within Myanmar’s borders.)




With no access to Bangladesh’s health facilities, Rohingya women with a malnourished baby wait to be seen by medical professionals who work for international non-profits. 

Before the soldiers left Afifa’s village that day, she says they set fire to the harvest-ready rice fields, looted houses, and shot or stole all of the cattle and goats. The devastation and fear compelled Afifa’s parents to split the family into two groups and escape in different directions—to improve their odds of survival. “We didn’t want to abandon our home,” Afifa’s father, Mohammed Islam, told me five months later, when five of the family’s 11 members staggered into Balukhali, a refugee camp in Bangladesh. “But the army has only one aim: to get rid of all Rohingya.”

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. More than a year ago, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi became Myanmar’s de facto leader, and international human-rights groups—as well as many Rohingya—hoped she would help move Rakhine toward peace and reconciliation. The daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero and martyr, General Aung San, she is celebrated for her fearless resistance to the country’s military dictatorship. After enduring more than 15 years under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi led her National League of Democracy to a sweeping electoral victory in 2015. (A clause in the military-drafted constitution prevented her from becoming president, so a loyal underling serves as president while she runs the government as “state counselor.”)

“We had a very big hope that Suu Kyi and democracy would be good for us,” says Moulabi Jaffar, a 40-year-old Islamic cleric and shop owner from a village north of Maungdaw, sitting in his shack in Balukhali camp. “But the violence only got worse. That came as a big surprise.”




Men pray at a mosque being built from bamboo at Balukhali, a refugee camp in Bangladesh. The Rohingya are Muslims, while Buddhism is the dominant religion in Myanmar. Buddhist firebrands have stirred up hatred for the minority Rohingya. 

Despite her reputation as a human-rights icon, Aung San Suu Kyi has seemed unwilling or unable to speak about the violence against the Rohingya, much less bring perpetrators to justice. When reports of army atrocities emerged late last year, she broke her silence—not to rein in abusive soldiers but to scold the United Nations and human-rights groups for stoking “bigger fires of resentment” by dwelling on the testimonies of Rohingya who had fled to Bangladesh. It doesn’t help, she said, “if everybody is just concentrating on the negative side of the situation.” Aung San Suu Kyi has yet to visit northern Rakhine. But in a BBC interview in April, she said, “I don’t think there is ethnic cleansing going on.”

Aung San Suu Kyi remains an immensely popular figure in Myanmar, where 90 percent of the population is Buddhist and the military still wields enormous power. But her role in shielding the army from scrutiny in Rakhine has tarnished her global reputation, even prompting a letter from 13 Nobel laureates upbraiding her for failing to protect the rights of the Rohingya. “Like many in the international community, we expected more of Suu Kyi,” says Matthew Smith, co-founder of Fortify Rights, a Bangkok-based human-rights group. “She is operating in a delicate situation politically, but that doesn’t justify silence or wholesale denials in the face of mountains of evidence. The army launched an attack on a civilian population, and nobody has been held accountable.”

Myanmar set up three commissions to look into the turmoil in Rakhine state, but none is independent. The army’s report, released in May, proclaimed its innocence—except for two minor incidents, including one in which a soldier borrowed a motorbike without asking. A member of the main government inquiry dismissed reports of atrocities and contended that Burmese soldiers couldn’t have raped Rohingya women because they are “too dirty.” That commission’s final report, issued in early August, was another blanket denial, contending that “there is no evidence of crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing.” Aung San Suu Kyi says her government will accept outside guidance only from an international commission chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Its report is also due this month, but its mandate is to make policy recommendations—not to investigate human-rights abuses.




Young boys study the Quran inside a madrassa in one of the older parts of the Kutupalong camp. Most Rohingya children in Bangladesh do not have access to formal schooling because they are unregistered refugees. Most attend the many madrassas found throughout the camps. 

In June, when a newly formed UN fact-finding mission sought to investigate human-rights violations in Myanmar, including Rakhine, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government refused to grant visas to the team members. “We don’t accept it,” she said, arguing that the mission could exacerbate divisions between Buddhists and Muslims. When Lee, the UN special rapporteur, returned to Myanmar in July, she and Aung San Suu Kyi shared a warm embrace—before Lee excoriated the government for blocking her access and intimidating witnesses, the same tactics used by the military junta. “In previous times, human rights defenders, journalists, and civilians were followed, monitored, and surveyed, and questioned—that’s still going on."

Afia, her father, and siblings spent five months on the run inside Myanmar, sticking mostly to the forests to avoid the military, often going days without food. On their first attempt to cross the Naf River, which separates Myanmar and Bangladesh, a Burmese patrol boat opened fire, capsizing their boat and killing several refugees. It would be three months before they risked the crossing again.

I met Afifa in March on the day that half of her family finally reached Balukhali camp, where more than 11,000 new arrivals have turned the forested hills into a dusty hive of bamboo huts and black tarpaulins. Afifa wore the same soiled brown shirt she wore the day she danced for the soldiers five months before. “It’s all I have,” she says. Another family from their home village of Maung Hnama offered food to eat and a safe place to sleep, but Islam wept quietly. His wife and their five other children were still in hiding in Myanmar.




Rohingya from Shaplapur village, who work for local fishermen, shove a boat to sea, where some will spend the night.Right: Nur Haba dries fish at a factory in Cox’s Bazar, where she has worked for 10 years. She lives in Kutupalong refugee camp with four children and her husband, who has been unable to find work.

The refugee camps that line Bangladesh’s border are a short drive from the Bangladeshi resort of Cox’s Bazar. Tourists there cavort on the wide beach, taking grinning selfies in the surf, while a few miles away, hundreds of thousands of refugees marinate in grief and neglect. In Kutupalong, a sprawling camp with some 30,000 Rohingya refugees, the wood and bamboo dwellings radiate from the center like rings on a tree, each layer marking a wave of violence the Rohingya have fled.

Rozina Akhtar, 22, has lived here since she was seven years old. With no real hope of leaving—“we have no passports, no ID cards, so what can we do?”—she tries to help new arrivals adjust to their lives as refugees. “We can’t reject them,” she says. “These are our sisters and brothers.” Akhtar helps newcomers get medical care, plastic tarpaulins, and food rations, but what they really need are jobs. Men can occasionally get day jobs, fishing, harvesting rice, or laboring in the salt flats for a dollar or two a day, but many of the women beg for money along the road outside the camp.

Under a sprawling fig tree in Kutupalong, new arrivals gather to talk about the atrocities they endured in Myanmar. Nur Ayesha, 40, pulls back her headscarf to reveal bleached-white burn scars across her forehead; soldiers set fire to her house while she was still inside, she says. Residents of Kyet Yoe Pyin say the Burmese soldiers who firebombed their houses also gunned down six women and a man who had stayed behind to attend the birth of a baby—the mother included.




Minara, an 18-year-old in a black burqa, speaks about her missing family members before revealing that Burmese soldiers gang-raped her and several other young women in her village. Her voice barely rises above a whisper. As we talk, Minara, who, like many victims, didn’t choose to reveal her last name, bites the edge of her sleeve, pulling it over her face. By the end, only her eyes, darting back and forth, are visible. “We’re too scared to go back,” she says.




Left: Nur Ayesha says she was burned on her face and arm when the Burmese military torched her house while she was in it. She has received treatment at Kutupalong.Right: Nurul Amain, who also lives at Kutupalong, was shot by soldiers multiple times in his arm, which had to be amputated when he finally found a doctor.




Molia Banu, 60, arrived at Kutupalong about two months before this photograph. She and her daughters fled when the military began burning a house next to theirs. Still suffering from an operation to remove a tumor, Banu supports her family by begging on the main road. 

On a hill back in Balukhali camp, I meet a 14-year-old boy, Ajim Allah, getting his hair combed by a friend. Ajim shows me his shriveled left arm, shattered, he says, by a police bullet when he emerged from a madrassa last October; three of his friends died of gunshot wounds that night, he says. In a hut nearby, Yasmin, 27, recounts how soldiers burst into her home in Ngan Chaung village and took turns raping her at knifepoint in front of her five-year-old daughter. “When my daughter screamed, they pointed guns at her and told her they’d kill her if she made any more noise,” she says. The worst moment came after the soldiers left. Yasmin says she went out to look for her eight-year-old son, who had fled when the soldiers came into the village. She found him lying in a rice paddy, a bullet hole in his back.

The Rohingya are caught between two countries—and welcome in neither. More than 500,000 Rohingya now live in Bangladesh. Only 32,000 are officially registered, however, and no new Rohingya refugees have been registered since 1992—an apparent attempt to dissuade more Rohingya from seeking refuge in Bangladesh. That strategy hasn’t worked, but it means that there are close to half a million undocumented Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh with no right or access to employment, education, or basic health care.





Toward the end of day, a boy walks along a path past houses in through a more established section of Kutupalong camp toward a playground that attracts many children. 

Bangladesh, already poor and overpopulated, shows no enthusiasm for hosting the Rohingya. Conditions in the camps are miserable, but the government has declined many offers of humanitarian aid. It has even floated a plan to move the refugees to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal. The radical proposal seemed designed to keep Rohingya away from the tourist hub of Cox’s Bazar—and to push refugees to return to Myanmar. Many Rohingya, however, are too traumatized to go back to Rakhine, an area historically known as Arakan. One rape victim I spoke to recalled the chilling words of her army attacker: “He kept saying, ‘This kind of torture will continue until you leave the country.’”




Children push a child in a wheelchair along a path in Kutupalong where enterprising refugees have set up shops and cafes. Almost two-thirds of the refugees who recently fled Myanmar for Bangladesh are children, raising concerns that they are at increased risk of being forced into child labor, early marriage or the sex trade.
A few years ago, many Rohingya men, including Yasmin’s husband, risked a perilous sea journey to seek construction work in Malaysia or Indonesia. With no citizenship and no passport, travel had to be undertaken illegally. Smugglers packed the refugees onto unregistered ships and cycled them through secret jungle camps, beating or starving to death the ones whose families didn't pay exorbitant smuggling fees. A crackdown on human trafficking in Southeast Asia has closed off that route, leaving a lot of Rohingya men languishing in the refugee camps without any way to make a living. The mixture of despair and marginalization, experts warn, is a recipe for radicalization. Many refugees seek solace in religious faith. In the camps, clusters of young men armed with holy Korans go door to door, urging refugees to pray more devoutly. Out of sight, locals say, is something more ominous: A newly formed militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, is reportedly trying to recruit refugees to join a nascent insurgency against the Burmese army and its local government collaborators.

The last time I saw Afifa, she was sweeping a rectangular patch of dirt on a hill near the refugee camp’s edge—the site of the family’s new shelter. Her father had borrowed $30 from a fellow refugee to buy a horse-cart full of bamboo poles and strips, and he’d already erected the thickest poles at the corners. Islam, a former Arabic teacher, was dressed in a white skullcap and a clean cream-colored tunic, getting ready to attend midday Friday prayers—the jumu’ah—for the first time since he left his village five months before.

Just down the sandy path from their plot, barefoot men in sarongs scrambled to secure the bamboo scaffolding of Balukhali’s new mosque. It would be another week before the structure was finished, with palm fronds as the roof, but the muezzin sounded the call to prayer and dozens of bearded men in white caps gravitated to a small carpet in the center of the mosque. Islam found a spot in the first row and bowed in front of the imam, who stood on a red plastic stool. Later, as Islam walked back from the mosque, he smiled: “I feel better now.”

The misery, however, has continued. In late May, a cyclone ripped through southern Bangladesh, destroying the family’s shelter and thousands of others in the camps. Nobody died in Balukhali, and Afifa’s mother and other siblings have since made it to Bangladesh, easing the girl’s anxiety. Still, food remains scarce, the monsoon rains continue, and there are troubling reports of renewed violence in Rakhine from both sides—military operations by the Burmese army and occasional attacks by Rohingya militants. In this predicament, it’s unclear when, or if, Afifa and her family will ever have a place to call home.




Some Rohingya live outside the camps near Cox’s Bazar. This man lives in a settlement on the Bay of Bengal, near trees planted to prevent erosion and close to a hotel catering to tourists drawn by the beach. 
As one neighbor lamented: “Bad days for us never end.”
(c) 2017 National Geographic
http://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/2017/09/22/Without-a-Home-and-Without-Hope


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## Banglar Bir

*Elderly Rohingya die on the way or arrive sick to camp*
*Many old Rohingya are close to death for lack of sanitary drinking water and muddy living conditions*
September 22, 2017 Anadolu Agency




*Rohingya plight through the eyes of the children*
Saddam Hossain’s days had been filled with his parents’ love and affection. He was studying at an Islamic school in Myanmar. He had many classmates and playmates. But then, a sudden disaster changed everything.Saddam, 10, told Anadolu Agency that his father was shot dead by Myanmar’s military.“When my father was shot dead by the army, afterwards I fled with my mother, but I lost her at the border,” he said.He crossed the border with other Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh -- one of 421,000 Rohingya who have crossed from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, according to the UN.

He now lives at the Nayapara refugee camp.Suu Kyi must act to stop Rohingya crisis: US senator Saddam witnessed horrific scenes of the army hurling torches onto houses to burn them down.According to satellite images, 214 villages in Rakhine have been largely destroyed over the last month, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.Saddam still seems to be in shock, as he has undergone major trauma.He has not yet fully understood that something has gone seriously wrong. What he notices is that he is living with many fellow Rohingya in a very small room.

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.

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.

Video: Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh submerged in water Families torn apart Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. Investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.Karim Ullah, 10, is the eldest of a group of brothers and sisters who fled Myanmar.His sister Ajida and brother Sadiq, both aged eight, fled the county with their grandmother Sayeeda Khatun, 70, and are now staying in a school at the Nayapara camp.

Karim Ullah says that after his father was shot dead and his mother was taken away, the group of children hid themselves in a jungle with their grandmother.UK to suspend its military ties with Myanmar

On the way to Bangladesh, he lost one of his brothers and they only reached this camp on Monday, he said.His grandmother does not know what will happen to her grandchildren, and the children have yet to realize that their lives have entered a time of deep uncertainty.Naim Ullah, eight, has two brothers and three sisters. 

Until recently they lived at Shilkali, Myanmar, and studied at a local Islamic school.With their mother, they fled the violent crackdown in Myanmar. For the time being, they are at the Kutupalang camp in Bangladesh.His father Badsha Mia, a fisherman, is still in Myanmar but, according to Naim Ullah, “brings daily necessities only at night” in his trawler.Naim Ullah’s grandmother, Kulsum Khatun, 75, fled Myanmar for fear of her life.However, the horrors she witnessed, being separated from her son and the rigors of the journey to Bangladesh proved too much and she passed away two days ago.

Video: Child-friendly spaces in Rohingya camps aim to monitor, prevent abuse
Traumatic atrocities

UNICEF says 60 percent of the fleeing Rohingya are children. Some 1,200 have fled without any other family members. The agency said those children needed $7.3 million in aid over the next three months to ensure their health.Rohingya taking shelter in Myanmar have welcomed Turkey's extensive humanitarian aid programs.“We always see many Turkish people here at the camps,” Mohammad Nour, a Rohingya refugee, told Anadolu Agency. “And they always bring us food and other things we need since we arrived.”

Turkey has taken the lead in providing aid to Rohingya refugees, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pushing the issue at this week’s UN General Assembly.

Nour said he and his family had little time to put together their belongings before fleeing, leaving them without basic household essentials such as cooking pots, mats and blankets.Turkish aid agencies such as the Red Crescent, Disaster and Emergency Management Agency, IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation and Sadaka Tasi have been distributing aid packages containing food, clothes, basic kitchen equipment, hygiene materials, and household tools at camps.

“These people are overjoyed when they see us and our humanitarian groups because there aren’t many other organizations here,” Mustafa Demir, IHH’s regional coordinator, said.“This is not only because we help them, it is also because we are connected to them all the way back to the Ottoman Empire.”Demir warned that once the world spotlight on the region moves, it is unclear if humanitarian assistance would remain at current levels.

“It is now easier for us as humanitarian groups to access the region and provide all kinds of assistance to the Rohingya Muslims following President Erdogan urging the government of Bangladesh to give us easier access and assistance,” he said.

Maaryam Adhikari, a 46-year-old-woman living in Kutupalong, the second-largest refugee camp along the Bangladeshi border, said she did not have to struggle for aid because of the organized and structured help from Turkish agencies.“I don't have to fight others to get aid packages because they have us form a single-file line and they are very kind to us,” she told Anadolu Agency.




*Suu Kyi must act to stop Rohingya crisis: US senator*
Myanmar's de facto leader must act to stop the Rohingya crisis, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Tuesday."Aung San Suu Kyi has long been dismissive of human rights concerns," Senator Bob Corker said in a statement."She had yet another opportunity today to stand up for the Rohingya minority in Burma but instead refused to acknowledge the military’s role in the ongoing atrocities."Burma is the preferred name of the U.S. government for the state also known as Myanmar.

His comments come hours after Suu Kyi claimed there has been no conflict or military operation in the country's Rakhine State since Sept. 5 despite reports to the contrary that show desperate villagers fleeing the area.

She said her government will grant access to international observers in the conflict-hit western state."As a national figure, Aung San Suu Kyi must demonstrate far greater leadership in efforts to stop the bloodshed or risk destroying her reputation as a force for continued progress in Burma," Corker said.

Prior to adopting her leadership role in the country, Suu Kyi drew accolades for her work to bring democratic reform to the military ruled country, which earned her a Nobel Peace Prize. But her handling of the ongoing crisis has led to calls for her to be stripped of the award.Since Aug. 25, around 421,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

More than 170,000 newly arrived Rohingya refugees have not received any primary healthcare services, a senior UN official said Tuesday.The World Health Organization launched an urgent immunization program Saturday to vaccinate 150,000 newly arrived children.

The spokeswoman for the UN's refugee agency told a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday that 250,000 children had fled Myanmar for Bangladesh.During a call with Suu Kyi, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "welcomed the Burmese government’s commitment to end the violence in Rakhine state and to allow those displaced by the violence to return home".

"He also urged the Burmese government and military to facilitate humanitarian aid for displaced people in the affected areas and to address deeply troubling allegations of human rights abuses and violations," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.





*Turkish charity gives aid to 110,000 Rohingya Muslims*
Turkey-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said Tuesday it distributed emergency aid among 110,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh after facing persecution from the country’s armed forces.In a statement, IHH said it distributed tents, food, kitchenware and clothing among more than 22,000 families. It also supplied materials that can be used to build shelters for 250 families.Seven wells were also dug up at refugee camps and the charity also provided transport to around 30 injured refugees, it added.

IHH Deputy Chair Vahdettin Kaygan said in the statement that around 10,000 children had been left orphaned due to the ongoing violence in the conflict-hit Rakhine state.Video: Heavy rain in Bangladesh devastates Rohingyas at refugee camp“Many children who migrated to Bangladesh have seen their own parents getting killed in front of their eyes,” Kaygan added.He also said 85 percent of the refugees were children at the Putibunia Camp in Teknaf area near the Myanmar border.

Influenza, pneumonia, diarrhea and water-borne illnesses were also being reported among refugees, the statement added.People who wish to donate can contribute 5 liras ($1.45) by writing the text “ARAKAN” to 3072.

Since Aug. 25, more than 420,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.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 Bangladesh, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.UN: 421,000 Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar to Bangladesh

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will raise the issue at 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.

Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/dunya/e...glish&utm_campaign=facebook-yenisafak-english

*Indian minister calls Rohingya ‘illegal immigrants’*
*Rights activists, Indian Muslim leaders slam government’s plan to deport Rohingya*
September 21, 2017 Anadolu Agency




*Rajnath Singh*
Rohingya Muslims settled in India are “illegal immigrants”, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Thursday.

“They have entered India from Myanmar. We need to understand this reality that Rohingya are not refugees,” he said during an event in the capital New Delhi.

Singh said that no-one from the Rohingya community had applied for asylum, adding that the country would not be violating international law by deporting them.

The government is facing criticism over a plan to deport 40,000 Rohingya refugees and activists have demanded the withdrawal of the plan.

In an affidavit submitted on Sept. 18 to the Supreme Court, the government justified its deportation plan, claiming the Rohingya posed a national security threat through connections with terror groups.

“It is observed by the central government that some Rohingya are indulging in illegal/anti-national activities,” the affidavit said.

Singh added: “The issue of national security is involved with regard to illegal immigration which our country can’t undermine.”

A junior minister in the Indian home ministry earlier this month said government is looking for ways to deport Rohingya living in the country.

Zafarul Islam Khan, a New Delhi-based journalist and senior Muslim leader, condemned the government’s plan on humanitarian grounds.

“This is not a good decision,” he told Anadolu Agency. “This is a humanitarian issue and several countries are accepting the refugees while speaking against the atrocities.”
*Persecuted minority*
Since Aug. 25, more than 421,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

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.

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.

However, security analysts have said the decision to deport Rohingya refugees from India is in the national interest.

“The humanitarian angle notwithstanding, India's stand on Rohingya refugees is to be seen from the point of view of the current global perception on migration, which is perceived as a security threat,” Samir Patil, director of the Centre for International Security at the Gateway House think tank, told Anadolu Agency.

“There are some genuine concerns on linkages of Rohingya extremists with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia... Therefore, Indian policy makers are doing best to secure India's interests.”

Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/indian-minister-calls-rohingya-illegal-immigrants-2794101

*UN scales up response as number of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar nears 500,000*




Rohingya refugees navigate their way around the Kutupalong extension site where shelters have been erected on land allocated by the Bangladesh Government. Photo: UNHCR/Keane Shum
_By_ UN News
September 22, 2017
With the number of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar arriving in south-east Bangladesh edging towards half a million, United Nations agencies are stepping up delivery of life-saving aid to two official refugee camps, where the health concerns are quickly growing. 

At the request of Bangladeshi authorities, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is speeding up the distribution of plastic sheeting to get as many people as possible under at least minimal protection from monsoon rains and winds. 

“On Saturday, we plan to begin distribution of kitchen sets, sleeping mats, solar lamps and other essential relief items to an initial 3,500 families who have been selected by community leaders,” UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told a press briefing in Geneva. 

Refugee volunteers and contractors are helping newly arriving refugees moving into emergency shelter, but it is vital that UNHCR site planners have the opportunity to lay out the new Kutupalong extension in an orderly way to adequately provide for sanitation and to make sure structures are erected on higher ground not prone to flooding. 

In total, more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh; 420,000 of them have arrived in the past three and a half weeks. 
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi will be in Bangladesh this weekend to get a first-hand look at the scale of the crisis as well as UNHCR’s response, and meet with refugees. 
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that camps are bursting at the seams and there is a huge risk of disease.

“WHO is very concerned about the health situation on the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, given the very crowded settlements, most of them spontaneous,” said Fadela Chaib, the agency’s spokesperson in Geneva. 

“It has been challenging to roll out the emergency response, not least because of the difficult terrain and the very heavy rains, and the fact that the population in question is dispersed, mobile and often injured,” she added.

Ms. Chaib said the greatest risk is related to water and sanitation, with poor conditions increasing the risk of vector- and water-borne diseases. Cholera, which is endemic in Bangladesh, cannot be ruled out. WHO has provided some 20,000 people with water purification tablets.

“Immunization rates among children is very low,” she said, explaining that when children are malnourished and exposed to the elements, the risk of childhood diseases such as measles are very high. 

WHO, together with other agencies, recently launched an immunization campaign against polio and measles. Owing to the poor weather conditions and the continuous influx of people, the campaign has been extended.

Around 40 WHO staff have been dispatched to Bangladesh, and the agency will deploy a team of epidemiologists over the weekend to support risk assessment for infectious diseases. 
For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) has now reached at least 385,000 people with food aid as of today. Together with its partners, WFP feeds more than 5,000 people daily in the area. 
“The situation is dire and WFP is on the frontlines trying to reach people as quickly as possible,” spokesperson Bettina Luescher told reporters in Geneva. 
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/09/un-scales-up-response-as-number-of.html

*Sk. Hasina and Rohingyas: There is goodwill not political will*
Afsan Chowdhury, September 23, 2017




In this Sept. 16, 2017, file photo, Abdul Kareem, a Rohingya Muslim man, carries his mother, Alima Khatoon, to a refugee camp after crossing over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, at Teknaf, Bangladesh. Picture: AP/Dar Yasin
Sheikh Hasina at this point is certainly more admired than Suu Kyi, but as her speech at the UN shows, she can gather a lot of goodwill but not the political will necessary to make Myanmar take back the Rohingya refugees. Her 5-point plan are more like appeals to a ‘conscientious’ world which in reality is a very cynical one. Sadly, for her, Bangladesh doesn’t matter much to the world and nobody is about to push resource rich Myanmar into doing something ‘humanitarian’. It’s obviously round one to Suu Kyi, a soiled icon cum military puppet and the Generals running the show in Myanmar.

The difference between Hasina and Suu Kyi on the refugee issues is that the Myanmar leader is a puppet by choice while the Bangladesh leader has been forced upon. Her proposals reflect that predicament of a leader without global power. None of the solutions she offers is in her hand and all are all up to Suu Kyi and her Generals to consider, making Hasina dependent on them as well.

As the most powerful politician Bangladesh has ever seen the situation must be painful to her. But she is harvesting at this moment, the collective failure of various governments of Bangladesh since the issue was born in the 70s. State bureaucracy, never encouraged to be pro-active has let the state leadership down.

Of the five points placed by her at the UNGA only is a call to practical action which is creation of a ‘safe zone’ a plan which the Myanmar government has already rejected. The rest are not going to considered because that would mean admitting that Myanmar had pushed the Rohingyas out and committed atrocities. Ultimately, the proposals are unrealistic because it depends on international political will not international goodwill to be enforced. And that is very missing.
*Contradictions within Bangladesh*
Bangladesh is also caught by its own contradictions. Rohingyas like any other refugee groups are not liked by Bangladeshis. Current sympathy is generated by two sources. First, the horror of the Rohingya refugee experiences as seen on media. And second, a common sense of Muslim identity. This identity part is a trifle complicated as it’s the Islamic groups that are pushing this and not the Government which is also aware that a religious identity generated movement as it may carry a large political cost.

However, sympathy is much less among many people living in the border district where the refugees have arrived. Public resentment is high there which was openly expressed in the initial days but are now muted as it would be interpreted as a ‘non-humanitarian’ expression which the official position now upholds. But refugee fatigue is inevitable and that may impact on Bangladesh’s internal politics.

The official reality is that the Government wasn’t expecting this latest huge rush and is being reactive without any preparation. Given that this is the third or fourth push from Myanmar since 1972 which each time has been bigger than the one before, those saying they never saw it coming are in denial. Why the authorities over several decades failed to see that coming remains a mystery. Even now, the main theme of the Government and its friends is “Myanmar must take them back” without saying how that is going to happen.

The authorities are caught between placing a “humanitarian’ image and a practical reality check of refugee management where it doesn’t look good. While the PM’s brave statement, “If we can feed 160 million we can feed another 700k” has gone down well with many, it is also pushing the line that Bangladesh can’t host such a large number of refugees for long.
*A poor reading of what friendship means*
Given the track record, Bangladesh may require a level of diplomatic capacity that it has not shown yet to manage the crisis internationally. Bangladesh is also in denial about its two main allies – China and India — letting it down. The silence of the official world about the positions taken by both is amazing though understandable. The statement of “support” by Indian Foreign Minister Sushama Swaraj has been described as a major diplomatic victory by the Bangladesh Foreign Office. However, this also shows that it has only a few inches of its foot inside India’s Foreign Office as it had no inkling about what the Indian position was on Myanmar though its Bangladesh’s closest neighbor in every way. China of course remains silent indicating that it really doesn’t need to even look ‘friendly’ in Bangladesh’s eyes.

Having trashed US for long, Bangladesh really hasn’t found the right language not to mention policy to make friendly gestures to the US. On top of that, the PM said, the US would offer nothing on the Rohingya issue though the Foreign office said that Trump will aid Bangladesh.

All in all, not a great phase for Bangladeshi diplomacy as it fails to mobilize global action which us understandable but also fails to present a policy based response on the Rohingya issue which should have been there. In the final interim audit, the personal image of Sheikh Hasina which has grown since the crisis began may be the most unexpected and only political windfall coming out of a crisis its struggling to understand let alone cope with.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/23/sk-hasina-rohingyas-goodwill-not-political-will/


----------



## Banglar Bir

http://yenisafak.vod.ma.doracdn.com...17/09/23/11f1e1af61264048aa8aebf861ac7416.mp4
*Erdoğan speaks out about Rohingya Muslims*
*Haber Merkezi 12:37 September 23, 2017 Yeni Şafak
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on the international community to take immediate action to end the tragedy of Rohingya Muslims. The Turkish president was speaking at an event in the USA.*

Wish Bangladesh had a true Muslim Leader like him.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: UN to investigate reports of ethnic cleansing by Burmese military of the Muslim minority group*
At least 400,000 people are believed to have fled over the border into Bangladesh
Caroline Mortimer
@cjmortimer




A Rohingya refugee woman is carried in a sling, through a swollen water stream in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh Reuters
The UN has announced it will investigate reports of mass killings, torture, sexual violence, and the burning of Rohingya villages in Burma.

At least 400,000 people are believed to have fled over the border into Bangladesh to escape widespread rape, murder and the destruction of whole villages in the western state of Rakhine by the Burmese military and mobs from the country's Buddhist-majority population.

Desperate refugees have reportedly been seen climbing over wire border fences in an attempt to escape and the Burmese military are reportedly laying land mines to ensure they do not return.
*READ MORE*

Suu Kyi 'burying head in sand' over Rohingya 'horrors', says Amnesty
Aung San Suu Kyi plays down Burma's Rohingya crisis despite exodus
Rohingya refugees 'could starve to death' after fleeing persecution
One fleeing Rohingya told reporters that ethnic Rakhine Buddhists came to the villages and shouted: "leave or we will kill you all".

The Rohingya, who are predominately Muslim, have faced persecution in Burma for decades but there has been a fresh upsurge in violence against them since 25 August after a small group of Islamist militants attacked 30 police stations and a military base.

The UN has previously said the violence was a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and urged the Burmese military to end operations in the region, grant access to humanitarian groups and commit to aiding the safe return of civilians to their homes.

The chairman of the fact-finding mission, Marzuki Darusman asked the Human Rights Council for a further six months to investigate the violence – taking it up to September 2018.

He said the team "will go where the evidence leads us" but warned that he still needs a clear signal from the Burmese government that they will be allowed into the country.

He also called for the Burmese government to release its own investigation in the violence in Rakhine state which was completed in August.

But the Burmese ambassador to the UN, Htin Lynn, said the investigation was "not a helpful course of action" and said Burma was taking proportionate security measures against terrorists to restore peace.

Although there has been a small upswing in militant activity among the Rohingya in recent years, the overwhelming majority of the population has remained peaceful in spite of the violence against them.




READ MORE
*Suu Kyi 'burying head in sand' over Rohingya 'horrors', says Amnesty*
The Burmese government officially claims the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh but the community can trace back its roots in Burma for centuries.

They are denied full citizenship, have little access to healthcare or education and their movements are strictly controlled by the military.

Burma's civil leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has rejected international condemnation of the violence and claimed the country does not fear global "scrutiny".

She invited diplomats to visit Rakhine to see for themselves what was going on and claimed that "more than half" of Rohingya villages remained intact.
_Additional reporting by Reuters
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...im-minority-villages-bangladesh-a7954626.html_

*Rohingya crisis: UN to investigate reports of ethnic cleansing by Burmese military of the Muslim minority group*
At least 400,000 people are believed to have fled over the border into Bangladesh
Caroline Mortimer
@cjmortimer The Independent Online




A Rohingya refugee woman is carried in a sling, through a swollen water stream in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh Reuters
The UN has announced it will investigate reports of mass killings, torture, sexual violence, and the burning of Rohingya villages in Burma.

At least 400,000 people are believed to have fled over the border into Bangladesh to escape widespread rape, murder and the destruction of whole villages in the western state of Rakhine by the Burmese military and mobs from the country's Buddhist-majority population.

Desperate refugees have reportedly been seen climbing over wire border fences in an attempt to escape and the Burmese military are reportedly laying land mines to ensure they do not return.
*READ MORE*

Suu Kyi 'burying head in sand' over Rohingya 'horrors', says Amnesty
Aung San Suu Kyi plays down Burma's Rohingya crisis despite exodus
Rohingya refugees 'could starve to death' after fleeing persecution
One fleeing Rohingya told reporters that ethnic Rakhine Buddhists came to the villages and shouted: "leave or we will kill you all".

The Rohingya, who are predominately Muslim, have faced persecution in Burma for decades but there has been a fresh upsurge in violence against them since 25 August after a small group of Islamist militants attacked 30 police stations and a military base.

The UN has previously said the violence was a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and urged the Burmese military to end operations in the region, grant access to humanitarian groups and commit to aiding the safe return of civilians to their homes.

The chairman of the fact-finding mission, Marzuki Darusman asked the Human Rights Council for a further six months to investigate the violence – taking it up to September 2018.

*In pictures: Rohinga refugees in Bangladesh*
He said the team "will go where the evidence leads us" but warned that he still needs a clear signal from the Burmese government that they will be allowed into the country.

He also called for the Burmese government to release its own investigation in the violence in Rakhine state which was completed in August.

But the Burmese ambassador to the UN, Htin Lynn, said the investigation was "not a helpful course of action" and said Burma was taking proportionate security measures against terrorists to restore peace.

Although there has been a small upswing in militant activity among the Rohingya in recent years, the overwhelming majority of the population has remained peaceful in spite of the violence against them.




READ MORE
*Suu Kyi 'burying head in sand' over Rohingya 'horrors', says Amnesty*
The Burmese government officially claims the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh but the community can trace back its roots in Burma for centuries.

They are denied full citizenship, have little access to healthcare or education and their movements are strictly controlled by the military.

Burma's civil leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has rejected international condemnation of the violence and claimed the country does not fear global "scrutiny".

She invited diplomats to visit Rakhine to see for themselves what was going on and claimed that "more than half" of Rohingya villages remained intact.
_Additional reporting by Reuters_
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...im-minority-villages-bangladesh-a7954626.html

*‘We are not terrorists’ – an exclusive interview with an ARSA commander*
Syed Zain Al-MahmoodManik Miazee
Published at 11:34 PM September 23, 2017
Last updated at 02:03 PM September 24, 2017




Abdus Shakoor, a commander of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in the Maungdaw district in northern Rakhine *Syed Zain Al-Mahmood/Dhaka Tribune
An Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army commander in an exclusive interview with the Dhaka Tribune recounts the story of the August 25 attack on a Myanmar border guard post and claims that his outfit isn’t a terrorist organisation*
The man sat slumped in a chair inside the thatched hut, the shadows lengthening over his face in the gathering dusk. Tall and gaunt, he was in his mid-twenties but sounded younger. Wearing a traditional blue-and-white check lungi and a cotton shirt, he did not really look like a rebel.




His youthful voice hardened, however, as he reeled off the names of the villages which had been burnt down by the Myanmar army in his home state of Rakhine since August 25, when his organisation attacked border posts and an army base, an operation in which he took part with “200 men from our area.”

“We hit their soldiers, they hit our women and children,” he said. “The Burmese military are cowards.”

An intermediary introduced him as Abdus Shakoor, a commander of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army or ARSA in the Maungdaw district in northern Rakhine. We met him near a barbed wire fence separating Bangladesh and Myanmar after a long trek through swaying rice fields and rolling hills, a deceptively pristine setting for a desperate tale of loss, recklessness and forlorn hope.

After a succession of guides took turns to lead us through a maze of dirt tracks, we came upon a cluster of huts. Children played in a clearing nearby. Chickens scrabbled in the dirt. There were no guns in sight. It was oddly appropriate for the insurgency that Shakoor was describing – almost entirely rural, a peasant war fought in the Rakhine countryside.

The meeting with the ARSA commander was set up after a week of enquiries, dead-ends, and several false starts. ARSA fighters are under severe pressure from the Myanmar army, which has reacted to the August 25 attacks with a scorched-earth campaign that the UN and international human rights groups have denounced as ethnic cleansing.
Yangon has denied that the security forces have targeted civilians, claiming that the army is trying to hunt down terrorists.

It is an accusation to which Shakoor is extremely sensitive. “We are not terrorists,” he said, using the English word, which he pronounced as ‘tetarist.’ “We stood up for our haqq, our rights. There’s nothing else that we want, nothing!”

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, or “Faith Movement,” attacked border guard posts, police stations, and army bases on August 25, killing at least 10 policemen and an army soldier.

Shakoor described why and how his group planned and carried out the attack.

“Our zimmadars or elders said we must fight back because the Myanmar government was starving us, killing us slowly. They slaughter our people for no reason, they dishonour our women. They want to uproot us from the land that was handed down from our forefathers.

“To save our people, to save our mothers and sisters, to take back our rights, we took up sticks, and axes and knives and rose up against the oppressors.”

For several nights before the attack, his men took stock of the situation around the army post, he said, noting troop strength, weapons and duty shifts. Similar preparations were taken in other districts in Rakhine.

Then around 1am, the coordinated attacks began.

Although some units in other parts of Rakhine had a small number of firearms, his fighters didn’t have guns, Shakoor said. “We just had knives and axes and some homemade bombs that didn’t explode,” he said almost ruefully.

That statement seems to tally with an official statement from the Myanmar army released on August 26. “In the early morning at 1am, the extremist Bengali insurgents started their attack on the police post … with the man-made bombs and small weapons,” said the army, referring to the Rohingya with the derogatory term implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

“If we had weapons, we would have defeated them,” Shakoor said. “We knew we were going up against guns and mortars. We resolved to die so our people could live free.”

He said he carried an axe that he used to chop wood and a couple of Molotov cocktails. His men had hoped that the Myanmar soldiers would be asleep. “We had the numbers. But maybe they had advance warning, because they started firing as soon as we approached.”

The army response – a “clearance operation” – has pushed 400,000 Rohingyas out of Rakhine. Did he think the attack on the army base and the outposts were a mistake?

He paused for a moment before responding, “Our zimmadars made decisions that we thought were necessary under those circumstances.”

Shakoor claimed that the Al-Yaqeen outfit has given rise to a potent insurgency, which has grown in size and morphed from an armed group of a few hundred men into something more akin to a widespread movement.

“Our qaum – or people – support us,” he said. “They know what we want. If the Shaan or Karen people in Myanmar can fight for their rights, so can we.”

He is quick to point out that his outfit hasn’t attacked civilians. “We have nothing against Rakhine people or any other people,” he claimed. “The huqumat or regime is guilty of oppression.”

Shakoor joined ARSA just under a year ago, after the group came out of nowhere to stage attacks on Myanmar police posts, killing nine policemen in October 2016. He was a student at a clandestine madrasa in Maungdaw near the river Naf. The Myanmar authorities had banned schools and madrasas and placed restrictions on the Rohingya which denied them education, he said. “We even have to study in secret,” he said.

The ARSA group is led by a man believed to have been born into a Rohingya family in Pakistan who goes by the name Ata Ullah.

Shakoor said he had never seen Ata Ullah. “He is the ameer (commander or leader in Arabic) and our zimmadaar (senior officials) relay his instructions verbally or through audio-video recordings.”

Because Shakoor had some education, he was quickly appointed a supervisor and then a commander. Now, he says the future is uncertain.

“We want the international community to help us,” he said. “We want nothing more than to live in peace as human beings.”

As the darkness deepens and the hut is illuminated by a single bulb powered by a solar panel placed in the yard, Shakoor says his people are grateful to Bangladesh for allowing 400,000 Rohingya to take refuge in the country.

“Bangladeshis have done a great thing by helping our women and children,” he said. “They have acted like human beings.”
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/23/we-resolved-die-our-people-live-free/





__ https://www.facebook.com/





*HRW: Myanmar landmines deadly for fleeing Rohingya*

Tribune Desk
Published at 01:39 PM September 24, 2017





File Photo: A Rohingya man carrying his belongings approaches the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Bandarban, an area under Cox's Bazar authority, Bangladesh, August 29, 2017 *Reuters*
*According to witness accounts, independent reporting, and photo and video recordings, Myanmar soldiers have in recent weeks laid anti-personnel landmines at key crossing points on the country's border with Bangladesh*
Myanmar security forces have laid landmines during attacks on villages and along the Bangladesh border – posing a grave risk to Rohingya Muslims fleeing atrocities, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a press release issued on Saturday.

HRW suggested that the Myanmar government immediately stops using anti-personnel landmines and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

HRW South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly said: “The dangers faced by thousands of Rohingya fleeing atrocities in Burma [Myanmar] are deadly enough without adding landmines to the mix.” She said Myanmar military needs to stop using these banned weapons “which kill and maim without distinction.”

According to witness accounts, independent reporting, and photo and video recordings, Myanmar soldiers have in recent weeks laid anti-personnel landmines at key crossing points on the country’s border with Bangladesh.

Witnesses told HRW that Myanmar military personnel also planted mines on roads inside northern Rakhine state prior to their attacks on mainly Rohingya villages. Myanmar government, in turn, has accused the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) of using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against infrastructure and security forces, HRW reported.

Two Rohingya refugees from inner areas of Rakhine state – one from Buthidaung and another from Rathedaung township – told HRW they saw the Myanmar military planting anti-personnel mines on roads as the military entered and attacked villagers.

Mohammad, 39, told HRW, he saw a neighbour’s son stepped on one of the mines laid by the military. The mine blew his right leg off.

HRW said that a landmine exploded on a path used by many refugees near the hamlets of Taung Pyo Let Yar – about 200 meters from the Bangladesh border – on September 4.

The rights organisation witnessed “smoke arising from the hamlets, suggesting burning by the military that caused villagers to flee.”

The next day, three Rohingya men were wounded in three separate landmine explosions near the same border point, HRW said.
*Also Read – Landmine explosion kills 3 Rohingyas on Myanmar border*
Since late August, Myanmar security forces, following a coordinated attack by ARSA militants, have carried out “a campaign of ethnic cleansing involving mass arson, killing, and other abuses against the Rohingya population” – causing the flight of more than 420,000 people to neighboring Bangladesh, the rights group further said.

HRW have also has called on members of the United Nations Security Council to hold a public meeting and adopt a resolution that condemns the Myanmar military’s ethnic cleansing campaign and threatens to impose further measures, including targeted sanctions on military leaders and an arms embargo.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/09/24/hrw-myanmar-landmines-deadly-fleeing-rohingya/


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## Banglar Bir

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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## Banglar Bir

*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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## Banglar Bir

*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, Myanmar*Mahmud 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/





__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*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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## Banglar Bir

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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## Banglar Bir




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## Banglar Bir

*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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## Banglar Bir

*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/_


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## 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


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## 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/


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## 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, 2017*Reuters*
*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


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## 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


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: Saudi Arabia stays silent on growing humanitarian disaster despite oil interests and historic ties*
Burma's Muslims fled persecution in 1960s and found sanctuary under protection of King Faisal. This time, the Gulf superpower has been far less forthcoming with offers of aid
Aya Batrawy
The Independent Online





A Saudi oil pipeline under construction near the Burmese border with China. Riyadh has oil and gas networks passing through Rakhine state, where Burma's persecuted Rohingya live, but has done little to help Eugene Hoshiko/AP

When Rohingya Muslims fled persecution and slaughter in Burma in past decades, tens of thousands found refuge in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites. This time around, Muslim leaders from the Persian Gulf to Pakistan have offered little more than condemnation and urgently needed humanitarian aid.

The lack of a stronger response by Muslim-majority countries partly comes down to their lucrative business interests in South East Asia, experts say. Much of the Middle East is also buckling under its own refugee crisis sparked by years of upheaval in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan.

More than 500,000 people — roughly half the Rohingya Muslim population in Burma — have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh over the past year, mostly in the last month. The United Nations human rights chief has described Burma's military crackdown and allied Buddhist mob attacks as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”




READ MORE
*Red Cross truck carrying Rohingya aid in fatal crash after mob clashes*
Saudi Arabia is already home to around a quarter-million Burmese people who took refuge in the kingdom under the late King Faisal in the 1960s. The kingdom pledged $15 million in aid to the Rohingya this week.

As the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia competes with Russia to be China's top crude supplier. Expanding its footprint there requires Burma's help.

A recently opened pipeline running through Burma, also known as Burma, carries oil from Arab countries and the Caucuses to China's landlocked Yunnan Province. The 771-kilometre (479-mile) pipeline starts at the Bay of Bengal in western Burma's Rakhine state, from where most of the Rohingya have been forced out.

In 2011, a subsidiary of state oil giant Saudi Aramco and PetroChina, an arm of China's state-owned CNPC, signed a deal to supply China's southwestern Yunnan Province with up to 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil, just under half of the pipeline's capacity.

Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment on shipments through the pipeline.

“One could argue that Saudi Arabia is less likely to be outspoken on this (Rohingya) issue because it actually relies on the Burmese government to protect the physical security of the pipeline,” said Bo Kong, a senior associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies who has written about China's global petroleum policy.

The pipeline became operational in April following years of delays. It allows tankers to bypass the Strait of Malacca, cutting typical voyages by about seven days. A natural gas pipeline from Burma's Shwe gas field runs alongside it.

Daniel Wagner, founder of consulting firm Country Risk Solutions, said Saudi Arabia is moving ahead with its economic and political agenda in Burma and Southeast Asia, yet can still “claim to have stood the moral high-ground” by previously taking in refugees and providing financial aid.

“The important point is that natural gas and oil flows through Rakhine state,” he said.

Muslim-majority countries have been increasingly promising aid as the number of refugees swells in Bangladesh.

Azerbaijan, which also appears to be exporting crude to China through the pipeline, has ordered 100 tonnes of humanitarian aid to be dispatched.

Turkey, which like Iran jostles with Saudi Arabia to be the Islamic world's centre of influence, has mobilised millions of meals for refugees in Bangladesh and vowed to maintain a refugee camp there. It has also provided clothing, part of more than 150 tonnes of humanitarian aid supplied overall.

Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival, has sent at least 40 tonnes of aid. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently took a swipe at other Muslim countries with business interests in Burma, urging them to ramp up pressure on the government there.

“There are tens of Muslim countries and governments, some of whom have financial and economic transactions with them,” he said. “If we sit somewhere and engage in condemnations, what is the use of this?”

Images of burnt Muslim villages in Burma and of traumatised and often barefoot Rohingya women, children and elderly crossing into Bangladesh sparked protests in several Muslim countries.
*READ MORE*
UK bans military training in Burma due over ethnic cleansing
UN to investigate reports of violence against Rohingya in Burma
Facebook is 'silencing' Rohigyna Muslim reports of 'ethnic cleansing'
Aung San Suu Kyi plays down Burma's Rohingya crisis despite exodus
India trying to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslim 'terrorists'
A large rally was held to denounce the crisis in Indonesia, which is working to boost bilateral trade with Burma to $1 billion a year.

In Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, tens of thousands protested. Lawmaker Farhatullah Babar of the Pakistan People's Party has pushed his government to suspend or at least slow the implementation of defence agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars with Myanmar.

He told the Associated Press that an official responded to his request by saying Pakistan is pressing Burma through diplomatic channels to stop the violence.

“Pakistan should not be seen as strengthening a regime that is using weapons against its own people,” Babar said. He declined to elaborate on the details of the defence agreements.

A report by IHS Jane's in February said Burma two years ago bought 16 JF-17 Thunder aircraft, co-developed by Pakistan and China. The defence weekly said Burma is now in advanced negotiations with Pakistan for licensed production of the fighter jet's advanced third-generation variant.

The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation held an emergency session on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week to discuss the crisis.

The organisation, headquartered in Saudi Arabia, issued a lengthy statement earlier this month expressing “grave concern” over the exodus of Rohingya. But unless its member states take tougher action on their own, there is little the OIC can do to pressure Burma's government.

Jason von Meding, a specialist in disaster response at the University of Newcastle in Australia, said religious differences are not the only reason Rohingya are being forced out.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...on-rakhine-oil-bangladesh-china-a7958716.html

*Monk-led mob attacks Rohingya refugees in Sri Lanka*
Agence France-Presse
Published at 07:36 PM September 26, 2017




Myanmar has been accused of ethnically cleansing Rohingya minorityREUTERS
*Sri Lanka's extremist Buddhist monks have close links with their ultra-nationalist counterparts in Myanmar*
Radical Buddhist monks stormed a United Nations safe house for Rohingya refugees near Sri Lanka’s capital Tuesday and forced authorities to relocate the group, officials said.

Saffron-robed Buddhist monks led a mob that broke down gates and entered the walled multi-storied compound as frightened refugees huddled together in upstairs rooms, a police official said.

“We have pushed back the mob and the refugees will be relocated in a safer place,” the official told reporters, asking not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The 31 Rohingya refugees were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy in May after they were found drifting in a boat off the island’s northern waters.

The Rohingya were eventually to be resettled in a third country, the official said, adding that they were authorised to remain in Sri Lanka pending the processing of their papers.

A monk who stormed into the building was filmed by his radical Sinhale Jathika Balamuluwa (Sinhalese National Force) as he urged others to join him and smash the premises.

“These are Rohingya terrorists who killed Buddhist monks in Myanmar,” the monk said in his live commentary on Facebook, pointing to Rohingya mothers with small children in their arms.

Sri Lanka’s extremist Buddhist monks have close links with their ultra-nationalist counterparts in Myanmar. Both have been accused of orchestrating violence against minority Muslims in the two countries.

The police official said the refugees were taken into “protective custody” and had been brought back to their safe house when the mob returned and started throwing stones.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in the face of the current wave of violence in that country.

The Rohingya Muslims have been the target of decades of state-backed persecution and discrimination in mainly Buddhist Myanmar.

Many view them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite their long-established roots in the country.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...-led-mob-attacks-rohingya-refugees-sri-lanka/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, September 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:23 AM, September 27, 2017
*Rohingyas: Where are the Saudis?*




Khademul Islam
The Saudi response to the current Rohingya crisis, in contrast to previous ones, has been noticeably low-key. During past attempts by Myanmar at ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas, Saudi Arabia would be in the lead in providing relief aid and taking up the cause in international forums. 

It is the only Arab state to have openly supported the Rohingyas; in 2013, in a rare move for the kingdom, it publicly condemned Myanmar at a UN meet. Much earlier, King Faisal had offered stateless Rohingyas safe haven; later King Abdullah extended them residency permits and access to free education, healthcare and employment. 

Today there are about 250,000 Myanmar Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Westerners have levelled broadsides at the Saudis for segregating them in slums, but with zero other options that criticism is neither here nor there. In the present crisis younger Arabs have been vocal on social media in supporting the Rohingyas and condemning Myanmar, but official Arab reactions have been routine and laggard. The lead this time was taken by Turkey and Indonesia, with an angered President Erdogan dispatching his wife on a high-profile visit to Bangladesh and the Indonesian foreign minister jetting in to Bangladesh and Myanmar to try and resolve matters. 

It may be that the kingdom is distracted by its own set of crises. 

Saudi Arabia has long been known to be opaque and enigmatic, but signs of disquiet can be discerned through the veil. One was the way the present King Salman rode roughshod over the traditional rules of succession to place his 31-year-old son Prince Muhammad bin Salman unassailably on the path to the throne. The concentration of the posts and powers of general secretary to the court, defence minister and crown prince in him, and an ailing 81-year-old king, means that the prince is effectively the ruler of the land. 

Potential dissenters to the new dispensation—such as three prominent clerics not on the royal payroll—have been silenced. Saudi Arabia is a wealthy nation yet is also a welfare state where, as Malise Ruthven recently wrote in the _London Review of Books_, “40 per cent of people between the ages of 20 and 24 are unemployed, where 40 per cent of Saudis live in relative poverty and at least 60 per cent can't afford to buy homes”. 

Its economy urgently needs to be diversified. It is critically dependent on both foreign technical expertise at the top and manual labour at the bottom. The younger generation is net savvy and restless, hungry for change and wanting a more equal distribution of the riches. The gerontocracy of the ruling house of Al Saud has signalled that its time is up, and that fresh blood and youthful energy are required to tackle these problems. So for the first time a grandson, and not a son, of the state's founder King Abd al-Aziz is poised to ascend to the throne. Appearances to the contrary, the Saudi ship is setting sail into uncharted waters and nobody can tell what turbulences lie ahead. 

The 2011 Arab Spring was a shock to the Saudi monarchy, which tended to view it through the prism of its conflict with Iran, more as Shia uprisings instigated by Iran instead of a popular movement for democracy. It was especially alarmed by the Shia-led (that the Shias were also poor and marginalised seemed incidental to the Saudis) protests that seriously threatened the ruling royals of Bahrain, until Saudi troops dealt with the revolt. Uneasy, ever since, have been the heads that have worn the Saudi crown. The conflict has sharpened, with merciless proxy wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia fought in Syria and Yemen. 

These wars are currently stalemated, frustrating the Saudis and the new crown prince who was gung-ho about them. The latest fiasco is the split with Qatar over its relationship with Iran, with the Qataris refusing to kow-tow and causing a crack in the Saudi-designed coalition of Sunni states. Though the Saudis portray the long-running conflict with Iran as a sectarian Sunni-Shia one, it is also rooted and energised by antagonistic ideologies that offer competing models of state and government for Muslims worldwide. Iran is deeply anti-monarchial, a modified theocracy armed with anti-colonial rhetoric and continuing hostilities with the USA. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is an absolute monarchy, tied umbilically to the USA and governed by a family currently numbering 7,000 members in a finessed partnership with extremely orthodox Wahabi clerics. 

This is not a fight destined to end soon.

Which brings it right back to aid for the Rohingyas. While the UAE has given tents, Saudis have provided emergency relief and the Qataris have dispatched a medical team, Arab posts on WhatsApp noted that Qatar donated USD 30 million for Hurricane Harvey while giving, over the years, a grand total of USD 100,000 to the Rohingyas. Equally, the Saudis, who recently hosted Trump, aside from the USD 110 billion arms deal also, as reported in the American press, presented him with 83 gifts including a wool robe lined with white tiger fur and a jazzy collection of swords, daggers and holsters. 

On reflection, perhaps Qatar could have shaved a million dollars off the Harvey relief cash and redirected them to the Rohingyas shivering under sheets of monsoon rain? And the Saudis could have presented 82 gifts, minus one jewel-encrusted sword whose cost no doubt could feed a thousand starving Rohingya families for a month? 

Surely, the Americans were not going to miss a mere million bucks, or Trump threaten to nuke Riyadh over one fancy scimitar?
_Khademul Islam is the editor of the literary journal Bengal Lights._
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/mayanmar-refugee-crisis-rohingyas-where-are-the-saudis-1468105


----------



## Banglar Bir

*UN Security Council moves to confront Myanmar crisis*
AFP
Published at 09:40 AM September 27, 2017




The United Nations estimates that 480,000 Rohingya have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence in Myanmar *Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune*
*The military operation followed attacks on August 25 by Rohingya militants on police posts*
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Tuesday to discuss the violence in Myanmar, moving to step up its response to the exodus of 480,000 Rohingya in what has been condemned as “ethnic cleansing.”

The meeting will set the stage for a public session of the top UN body on Thursday, during which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to brief on the crisis and China, along with other council members, will deliver remarks.

International alarm is growing over the fate of the Rohingya who have been fleeing an army campaign in Rakhine state that the United Nations says has included killings, rape and the torching of villages.

The military operation followed attacks on August 25 by Rohingya militants on police posts.

British Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen said the council must “send a clear message to the authorities of Myanmar that the violence needs to stop.”

Humanitarian aid must be allowed in Rakhine state and the status of the Rohingya, who are stateless in Myanmar, must be addressed, he said.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said he was pushing for a “strong and united response” from the council to pile pressure on authorities in Myanmar.

China, a supporter of Myanmar’s former junta, backed a council statement earlier this month calling for an end to the violence, but the exodus has continued.

Rights groups, which have accused the council of dragging its feet on Myanmar, are calling for urgent action to address what they have denounced as crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.

“The council urgently needs to consider an arms embargo against the Burmese military and targeted sanctions against those responsible for the criminal campaign against the Rohingya,” said Human Rights Watch’s UN director Lou Charbonneau.

“We hope the secretary-general will drive home the importance of urgent action now by the council,” he said.

France, which takes over the council presidency in October, has invited former UN chief Kofi Annan to brief next week on his recent report which advocates citizenship for the Rohingya.

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has disappointed human rights groups who had campaigned for her freedom during the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s 15 years under house arrest by a military junta.

The council meeting will measure the level of support Suu Kyi still enjoys with Western allies after her nationwide address last week failed to quell the outrage.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/09/27/217929/

*Culpability through denial and inaction*
September 24, 2017
C R Abrar | The Daily Star,




A Rohingya refugee cries as he holds his 40-day-old son, who died as a boat capsized in the shore of Shah Porir Dwip while crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, on September 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Finally, the barbaric regime of Myanmar has been put on the dock and found guilty of the crime of all crimes: genocide. The verdict was delivered on the last day of the final session of the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) on alleged state crimes against the Rohingya, Kachins and other ethnic minority groups on September 22 in Kuala Lumpur after three days of deliberations. In the opening session held in London in March this year, following preliminary hearings on the complaints of Kachins, Rohingyas and other Muslim populations in Myanmar, the court convened this final hearing.

The tribunal, comprised of eminent jurists, genocide scholars and those involved in past genocide trials, heard testimonies of a number of survivors, members of victims' families, witnesses and expert witnesses. Oral testimonies, documents and records, including those of the Burmese government and the military (retrieved from archival sources of different countries), and visual materials (photographs and video footages) were presented before the tribunal.

Although symbolic, the verdict has major significance. For the first time, a conclusion has been drawn by competent authorities following thorough examination of facts and rigorous legal scrutiny: “The State of Myanmar is guilty of the crime of genocide against the Rohingya group.” It went on to observe that “genocide against the Rohingya is now taking place with ongoing acts of genocide and the possibility the casualties of that genocide could be even higher in the future if nothing is done to stop it.” This essay argues that despite overwhelming evidence there has been a palpable reticence of the international community to call it genocide.

The international community refused to acknowledge that the Burmese state's intent and actions were systematically directed to dismantle the structures of protection that the Rohingyas enjoyed until the martial law regime of General Ne Win in 1962. Jettisoning the country's pluralist and secularist practices from the get-go, the military government was hell-bent on ridding the country of the Rohingya population. 1978 witnessed the brutal execution of that intent when about 280,000 were driven out of Arakan with the launch of Operation Naga Min, or Operation King Dragon. The 1978 exodus was not the outcome of any communal strife between the Buddhist Rakhines and the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan. It was the result of a deliberate policy of banishing an ethnic minority from their ancestral habitat by the Burmese state.

Within months of their arrival in Bangladesh, Myanmar (then Burma) had to concede to Bangladesh's demand of taking back the Rohingyas who by law were still its citizens. By the subsequent enactment of the 1982 Citizenship Law, Rohingyas were stripped of their rightful status. In pursuit of its genocidal agenda the Burmese state crafted a comprehensive policy to destroy the Rohingya identity by systematically denying the community members to live in dignity and pursue their faith and cultural traditions. Since then a plethora of laws, regulations and administrative orders have been passed and institutions such as the infamous security force Nasaka were created—subjecting the Rohingyas to what a witness during the Kuala Lumpur trial termed as “sub-human”. Despite the absence of any looming threat, the northern Arakan region was gradually turned into a militarised zone. Its Muslim residents have been subjected to degrading treatment, discrimination, torture, forced labour, forced relocation, and arbitrary taxes, and denied opportunities to practise their faith and culture and access justice. As a logical follow-up to such “systematic weakening” another state-sponsored mass flight was orchestrated in 1992 resulting in 250,000 Rohingyas seeking refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. The international community still chose to look the other way, remaining resolute in its denial mode.

Shrewd Burmese generals by then framed the project of depopulating Arakan of Rohingyas—not by brute force (that would draw international media attention and condemnation) but by creating conditions in which sustaining life became impossible. This resulted in slow and incremental outward movement of Rohingyas in small groups since 1992. Their number cumulatively stood at 300,000 in Bangladesh until the unfolding of events following August 25, 2017. In the interim, spikes in violence in Arakan shored up the number of incoming refugees.

Little effort was given to find out what prompted the cross-border movement of the Rohingyas. Compassion fatigue for the residual caseload of 23,000 registered refugees living in camps (the number by now swelled to 31,000) evoked little interest of the outside world towards the “most persecuted minority of the world”. The Rohingyas' claim to secure international protection was perhaps further constrained by the fact that unlike Iraq and Libya, Arakan remains void of black gold. In the headquarters of international agencies in New York and Geneva and national capitals of concerned countries, it was perhaps a conscious choice to not confront the bitter truth of enduring genocide since it would necessitate urgent international action. Despite the ongoing genocide, Rohingyas were left to face the vicious state forces quite like their poor cousins in Burundi and Rwanda.

By foot-dragging over the issue of recognising the Burmese government's acts as genocide, powerful states and international actors—who champion rule of law, democracy and freedom, and human rights—allowed the murderous Burmese army to act with impunity in implementing its long-drawn-out genocidal agenda on the Rohingyas. The international community's denial also contributed to the Burmese military's decision for the “final solution” of the Rohingya question that the world is now faced with. There appears to be a striking similarity between Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany and that of these entities' strategy of placating the Burmese military.

The heart-wrenching testimonies and video footages presented before the tribunal convinced the judges in no uncertain terms what Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer who coined the term “genocide”, meant: “Destruction of a nation or an ethnic group.” The tribunal concurred with Lemkin that in the Rohingya case, the national identity of the oppressed group was destroyed and national identity of the oppressor was imposed. The Rohingya case also sufficiently meets renowned genocide scholar and Genocide Watch's President Gregory Stanton's ten conditions of genocide: classification, symbolisation, discrimination, dehumanisation, organisation, polarisation, preparation, persecution, extermination and denial. Stanton reminds us that these stages are predictable but not inexorable, and the process is not linear. Most importantly, “at each stage, preventive measures can stop it.”

In their rush to embrace the once-pariah state of Myanmar, the powerful countries expediently sacrificed the Rohingyas at the altar of strategic and commercial interests, and international organisations hid behind the façade of intricacies of legal interpretations. Their usage of the term “ethnic cleansing”, a term that has no place in international law, is a scheme to not state the fact. As Daniel Feierstein, the chair judge of the PPT, poignantly reminded the court, “It's a concept created by the perpetrator Slobodan Miloseviç.” It's a shame that the world is resorting to the perpetrator's language to justify its inaction. 

Days ago, the UN Secretary-General, in response to a question about whether he agreed with UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein that what's happening in Rakhine State is ethnic cleansing, retorted back to the journalist saying, “When one-third of the Rohingya population had to flee the country, can you find a better word to describe it?” 
*Yes, Mr Secretary-General, it's the G word.*
http://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/2017/09/24/Culpability-through-denial-and-inaction


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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya: Southeast Asia's Palestinians*




Nada Elia
*The Rohingya: Southeast Asia's Palestinians*
Myanmar seeks to establish a religiously homogeneous Buddhist state by displacing its predominantly-Muslim Rohingya population[Anadolu]
Date of publication: 12 September, 2017
Rohingya, Palestinians, Israel, genocide, UN, citizenship, repression, ethnic cleansingAs they approach genocidal dimensions, with close to 300,000 hounded civilians forced to flee in the past two weeks alone, the Myanmar junta attacks on the Rohingya community are finally making headlines in the mainstream news. 
The reports are horrific: Untold thousands have been killed, entire families burned alive, villages set on fire, children as young as five beheaded, women raped and the borderlands are booby-trapped with landmines, as members of "one of the most persecuted communities in the world" try to escape to safer ground in Bangladesh.

Denunciations are pouring in too - much too late, as is always the case in genocides. A damning new study by Queen Mary University of London concludes that after decades of oppression, the Rohingya have reached "the final stages of genocide".

Yet one important aspect of the government's attacks on this population remains mostly hushed up, with the exception of a few courageous voices: The weapons used by the Burmese military for this ethnic cleansing have been field tested in another set of racist assaults, namely Israel's cyclical wars on the Palestinian people; mostly civilian refugees trapped in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. 

The alliance between Israel and Myanmar should come as no surprise. Even though Jews had historically experienced anti-Semitism in Europe, not Palestine, the Palestinian people was made to pay the price for the pogroms and Holocaust.




*Today, as it emerges from decades of colonialism followed by military rule, Myanmar also shows signs of nationalism gone awry*




Israel's insistence that it be recognised as "the Jewish state," even though, or more correctly because it is built on the ruins of what used to be a thriving multi-religious land, stems from its desire to legitimise ethnic cleansing. 

Today, as it emerges from decades of colonialism followed by military rule, Myanmar also shows signs of nationalism gone awry, as it seeks to establish a religiously homogeneous Buddhist state by displacing its predominantly-Muslim Rohingya population.

The many parallels between Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people, and Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya communities, are also worth exploring.

Palestinian-American journalist Ramzi Baroud has already pointed out that, for anyone familiar with the circumstances of the Palestinian people, the similarities are obvious. 

Indeed, the latest escalation by Myanmar against the Rohingya follows a pattern most familiar in Israel: Myanmar's attacks, launched on 26 August, are described as a "response" to attacks by Rohingya militants on 25 August.

That the latest escalation by the Burmese military should be presented as "response," with no reference to the context of extreme decades-long repression, is uncomfortably reminiscent of Israel's murderous assaults on an entire population, in response to rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip that, in most cases, fizzle harmlessly across an illegal border.

Indeed, Israel is notorious for its disproportionate collective punishment of entire families, generally in "response" to an angry teenager's lashing out at the egregious injustice they are subjected to. And the genocidal blockade on the Gaza Strip is Israel's response to the outcome of democratic elections which were not to its liking.

Israel was founded on the genocide of the Palestinian people. While common knowledge to anyone who cares about justice, that reality has historically been hushed up and denied too, because accusing a country of genocide necessitates multinational intervention and sanctions, which the United Nations clearly is unwilling to implement. 




Demonstrators gathering in front of United Nations High Commissioner building stage a rally
to protest Myanmar's oppression of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state, in Gaza, Gaza City on 10 September, 2017 [Anadolu]

This is despite the fact that the UN's own definition of genocide would incriminate Israel. Additionally, Israel has maintained its Jewish supremacy against the "demographic threat" posed by the Palestinian people through a violent military occupation, punctuated by episodes of all-out wars against the Gaza Strip. It describes these episodes as "mowing the lawn", a sanitised expression that erases the indiscriminate violence against the two million mostly-civilian refugees trapped in one of the most densely populated areas in the world. 

Myanmar stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship in 1982, and has since engaged in episodic attacks against this community, repeatedly forcing them to flee into neighboring countries, with harrowing stories of murder, rape and torched villages. Myanmar's official position is that the Rohingya are originally from Bangladesh, and it refers to them as "Bengalis," just as Israel would have the Palestinians be "southern Syrians," (as Golda Meir put it) or “Jordanian,” and refers to them as “Arab,” rather than Palestinian.
Yusuf Jimoh Aweda @yusufomo99
Dear @UN, the way you're about sanctioning NK for NW, please sanction Israel for occupying Palestine and Burma for the Rohingya genocide.
Israel has a two-tier system of citizenship, whereby only Jews are "nationals," while non-Jews can be "citizens," with a different and unequal set of rights. 

Moreover, even as it violates the universally recognised human "right of return," which would allow Palestinians displaced in 1948 to return to their homeland, Israel has a "Law of Return" that allows anyone with a Jewish grandparent to claim nationality in Israel.

Myanmar has a multi-tiered citizenship system which also legitimates institutional racism. The 1982 Burmese Citizenship Law has three levels of citizenship, namely "citizenship," "associate citizenship," and "naturalised citizenship". 
_Read more: Call it what you wish, it amounts to Apartheid_
"Citizens," the most privileged category, are members of what are considered "national races," or people whose ancestors can document a presence in the country prior to 1823, the beginning of the British occupation of the region. 

"Associate citizens" are those who cannot produce evidence of ancestral presence in Burma before 1823, but who had applied for citizenship prior to independence in 1948. "Naturalized citizens" must be able to provide "conclusive evidence" that they, or their parents, lived in the country prior to 1948. 

Additionally, to qualify for any category of citizenship, one must be of "good character" and "sound mind," and fluent in one of the "national languages," (which do not include Rohingya). 

With these arcane and highly subjective criteria, the Rohingya are disqualified from citizenship. Finally, and in violation of international law which states that an infant born in a country should receive that country's nationality if it is otherwise stateless, Rohingya babies do not qualify for Myanmar citizenship. 
Denunciations of one genocide but not another sound hollow at best, self-serving at worst. If one recognises "the precursors of genocide," one should denounce these everywhere.



*Myanmar's official position is that the Rohingya are originally from Bangladesh, and it refers to them as 'Bengalis,' just as Israel would have the Palestinians be 'southern Syrians,'*




Cameron Hudson, director of the Holocaust Museum's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, says, "government efforts to deny Rohingya citizenship rights, restrict their freedom of movement and the practice of their faith, and deny their basic human rights have all been identified as leading precursors to a genocide". 

With this in mind, we should also denounce these same measures elsewhere: Israel denies Palestinians their basic human rights, it restricts their freedom of movement with hundreds of checkpoints and a 12-year siege, it prevents them from practicing their faith by denying them access to al-Aqsa mosque, and by banning the Muslim call to prayer.

The Rohingya and the Palestinian people have much in common, as both have been persecuted, repeatedly displaced, denied citizenship, and are now subjected to genocide, for the sake of maintaining the ethnic supremacy of one ruling group. 

Hopefully, the outrage over the latest attacks on the Rohingya will not subside as soon as a ceasefire is announced, as the oppression is systemic, institutionalised, relentless, just as Israel's violation of the human rights of the Palestinians is a permanent feature of "the Jewish state". 

But Israel's crimes go beyond its own borders, and if turning a blind eye to genocide makes the rest of the world complicit, what does supplying the guilty party with the weapons of genocide make Israel? 
*Nada Elia is a Diaspora Palestinian scholar, writer, public speaker and BDS organiser.*
Follow her on Twitter: @nadaelia48
_*Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.*_ 
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2017/9/12/the-rohingya-southeast-asias-palestinians


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## Banglar Bir

*Religion And Nationalism: Is Southeast Asia Turning Into The Next Middle East?*
NGO workers distribute food to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh - Can Erok/ZUMA  
*The tragedy of the Rohingya in Myanmar should be viewed within the region-wide context of the resurgence of religious nationalism across Southeast Asia.*
Dominique Moisi
LES ECHOS
English edition • WORLDCRUNCH 2017-09-26
_-Analysis-_

Does Southeast Asia risk turning into the new Middle East? Will it be the next region to be dominated by the encounter of a culture of humiliation and a culture of violent rivalry between and within nations? Luckily we aren’t there yet, nor is it inevitable. But the question itself underscores the significance of the new situation created by the rise of religious nationalism throughout Southeast Asia.

The eruption of Islamic fundamentalism appears to have contributed to the awakening of Buddhist nationalism, like in Myanmar, or to Hindu nationalismas has happened in Narendra Modi’s India.

The tragedy of the Rohingya in Myanmar must be considered within the context of the resurgence of religious nationalism. A minority that has always been humiliated, the Rohingya do not even have the right to citizenship. As French President Emmanuel Macron said in his speech at the United Nations, it is not a matter of restoring, but of establishing their rights in a country where being Burmese means being Buddhist.
_*Now Myanmar, with the Rohingya, has its 'unnamables.'*_
Of course they are a tiny minority: 88% of the Myanmar population is Buddhist, with 6% Christian and only 4% Muslim. In an address ahead of the UN General Assembly, Aung San Suu Kyi, the icon of Burmese democracy, did not even mention the Rohingya by name.

India has its “untouchables” and now Myanmar, with the Rohingya, has its “unnamables.” Suu Kyi’s silence is probably as much the product of her personal disregard for the fate of a minority that does not exist in her eyes as it is the result of a political calculation in relation to the armed forces with which she currently shares power.

“Local” at first, the Rohingya tragedy became over time a regional, if not international crisis in a part of the world where national and religious identity increasingly tend to overlap. Was Pakistan not created in order to absorb the Muslim minority of the Indian former empire? How can the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has accompanied the progressive establishment of peace and prosperity in the region, survive the emergence of divisions based strictly on religion: Buddhists on one side, Muslims on the other?

In Myanmar and Thailand, the population’s majority is Buddhist; in Malaysia and Indonesia, the majority is Muslim. The legacy of the empires, British and Dutch, has left scars in this region that could reopen at any time. During the Raj, the British, like all the empires before them, tended to use the minorities to establish their authority. “You are mistreated. Let us protect you against the discrimination of which you are victims,” they used to say. Once the colonization ended, these minorities were not only still considered inferior; they were now also traitors.




_The Mesjid Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia — Photo: Cazzjj_
It was this discrimination that drove a minority of Rohingya youth to choose the path of violence, encouraged, perhaps, by the fiery speeches of Muslim fundamentalists in the Middle East or even in Asia. The tragedy is that this radicalization of a minority of Muslims emerged precisely as we were witnessing a similar fundamentalist and ultra-nationalist strain rising within the Buddhist community.

Buddha might well have preached peace and tolerance, but the fervent monks started to behave like modern-day Savonarolas, inciting hatred against the Muslims. This led to a succession of religiously motivated massacres, at first entirely ignored by the international community. “What do you want..." the thinking seemed to be. "This is happening very far away, and aren’t the victims Muslims, potential terrorists?”

And there, precisely, lies the problem in this era of globalization and the communications revolution. Defeated on the ground in Syria and Iraq, can terrorist organizations like the Islamic State (ISIS), dream of using the fate of the Rohingya to mobilize the emotions of Asia’s Muslims? Demographically, the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia, is in the region. After the fate of the Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan war in the 1990s, the tragedy of the Rohingya now provides a new opportunity to denounce the selective sympathies of the Western world.

It is essential to put an end to this cultural, more than religious, trend, if we want to avoid a domino effect that will have catastrophic consequences for the equilibrium of the entire region. Maybe the UN can add action to its words and find in the Rohingya crisis an opportunity to save its reputation by stopping Southeast Asia from becoming a new Middle East? 
Now that's a lot to hope for.
https://www.worldcrunch.com/opinion...theast-asia-turning-into-the-next-middle-east


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## Banglar Bir

*UNICEF: Children at heart of Rohingya Crisis*
UNICEF'S Edouard Beigbeder explains to CNN what is needed for child refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar.
Source: CNN
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...GIG83fyruUr8RxR26qvozTdcISYb-6TVXIrh3hVVEAacR


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## Banglar Bir

*Fresh Rohingya refugees arrive in Bangladeshi camps*
*UN warns of heightened risk of human trafficking for more than 800,000 Rohingya*
September 26, 2017 Anadolu Agency




*Archive*
The number of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh in the past month has risen to 436,000, the UN said Monday.

Men, women and children fleeing atrocities by Myanmar security forces in the western state of Rakhine faced a “heightened risk” of falling victim to human trafficking, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said.

Rohingya have been targeted by what UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

They 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.

In total, more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh.

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has 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/world/f...glish&utm_campaign=facebook-yenisafak-english

*Resources: The Untold Story Behind Myanmar’s Rohingyas*
09/24/2017 09:59 am ET




The Western media have rightly focused on two critical aspects of the Rohingya tragedy in Myanmar – the humanitarian crisis it has created and Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure to publicly criticize the Myanmar government’s policy of ethnically cleansing Rakhine state. 
Left unsaid, however, is the reason why the government is pursuing its policy, and the role of other nations in creating an atmosphere conducive to the crackdown. *In short, it is a tale of greed, money, and power.*

The roots of the violence in Rakhine State are multifaceted and rooted in British colonial officials’ failure to include the word “Rohingya” in censuses taken of the then-British colony, which was subsequently used as a means of falsely characterizing the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighboring regions, with no historical legitimacy in Burma. That is of course not true, but based on the opening the British created, the former military regime and the current democratically-elected government have both denied the Rohingya full citizenship, strictly limiting basic freedoms of movement and suffrage.

Suu Kyi finds herself in a precarious position, reemphasizing her support for non-violent political change, while at the same time referring to the Rohingya’s disrespect for the “Rule of Law” as a justification for a strong military presence in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi was quite happy to be portrayed as a human rights icon while she was herself a political prisoner, but since becoming the country’s de facto leader, where the Rohingyas are concerned, she may rightly be referred to as a garden variety politician, beholden to the power behind the throne (the military). The West appears to have been wrong to have placed her on such a human rights pedestal.

While her silence has certainly contributed to the sad plight of the Rohingyas, it is ultimately Myanmar’s military rulers, who have plundered the great natural resource wealth of the country for decades, that are ultimately to blame for this state of affairs. Having refused to give up their power while allowing a thin veil of ‘democracy’ (with a distinctly small ‘d’) to descend over the country, their ongoing unbridled pursuit of wealth from the sale of the country’s natural resources to countries around the world is the ultimate reason why the brutal assault on the Rohingyas persists.
If Rakhine state was devoid of natural resource wealth, and if it were not geostrategically important to the transport of oil and gas to China and beyond, perhaps the government would not care quite so much about the Rohingyas. But the truth is that countries from around the world are involved in the extraction of natural resources from Myanmar more generally, and Rakhine state specifically. For example, in 2013, China completed construction of a natural gas pipeline from Myanmar’s coast that begins and runs through Rakhine state, the result of a 30-year contract agreed to with the country’s military. Such a multi-billion dollar contract will take precedence over other concerns in a kleptocracy such as Myanmar.

Saudi Arabia has also been working with the Burmese and Chinese governments to industrialize natural resource production and distribution within Rakhine State. Saudi Arabia and some of its smaller Persian Gulf neighbors became deeply involved in Myanmar’s oil industry in 2011, when Riyadh and Beijing signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which China pledged to provide 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day through the Sino-Burma oil pipeline. The United Arab Emirates has also built roads and hotels to supplement Rakhine State’s booming oil industry. And in 2014, Qatar began transporting methane to China via Myanmar, further emphasizing the important role of Burma in connecting China and the Arab Gulf states.

It would be difficult to imagine, given the monetary stakes involved, that the military in Myanmar will ever give up power, or allow human rights to supersede their ability to continue to rule the country with an iron fist. For that reason, the government is unlikely to reverse its position on the Rohingya in the future — with or without Suu Kyi at the helm. It is clear that Suu Kyi has made her deal with the devil in order to remain in her position, but much of the world must be asking if the price of doing so it simply too high. Having embarked on this path, it would seem that the military in Myanmar will not rest until the Rohingya have been scrubbed from Rakhine state.

*Daniel Wagner is founder of Country Risk Solutions, managing director of Risk Cooperative, and author of the new book “Virtual Terror”.
This article was first published in the _South China Morning Post_.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ources-the-untold_us_59c7b9bce4b0b7022a646b53

*'Take Myanmar to UN court for crimes against humanity’*
*Bangladesh’s rights body urges Myanmar to face top UN court over persecution of Rohingya Muslims*
September 27, 2017 Anadolu Agency




*File photo*
Bangladesh’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) called on the international community on Tuesday to take the government of neighboring Myanmar to the UN Court of Justice for committing crimes against humanity in Rakhine state.

“We urged the OIC and the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] member states and UN organs to consider referring the matter [of persecution of Rohingya Muslims] to the International Court of Justice or the International Human Court,” commission head Kazi Reazul Hoque said at the International Ombudsman Conference in Istanbul.

He also called on the UN Human Rights Commission and the international community “to mobilize political pressure on Myanmar’s government to find a durable solution” to the Rohingya crisis.

“The durable solution must include the right to return to their homelands in a safe, secure and dignified way,” Hoque added.

“All fundamental rights of the Rohingya should be respected in the process of resolving the current crisis.”

Hoque, who led a four-member delegation on an emergency fact-finding mission on Sept. 9-11, interviewed several Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh, and reported horror stories of cruelty and shocking tales of brutality, including serious injuries from bullets, burning, and physical torture.

“All these atrocities are carried out by the Myanmar military…This is an extreme violation of human rights, these are crimes against humanity,” he mentioned.

“Crimes against humanity are only possible when racism, xenophobia, and hate speech are practiced in extremely high degrees.
*- Traumatized*
The fact-finding body also found that most refugees, particularly women and children, are traumatized, according to Hoque.

“They have gone emotionless, they are concerned more about safety rather than food.”

He underlined the pervasive discrimination in Rakhine state, saying, “It is clear that Rohingya are severely subjected to religious discrimination.”

The commission has also sent out a call for action to many international, regional, and local entities, including UN agencies, ASEAN’s Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and diplomatic missions in capital Dhaka which directly or indirectly have a stake in the issue.

“It is the unequivocal responsibility of the government of Myanmar to ensure the protection of Rohingya living in Rakhine regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or citizenship status," he said, urging an immediate end to the violence and unhindered access to humanitarian aid.

Hoque said Bangladesh is hosting “around one million Rohingya" refugees, including the arrivals since Aug. 25, and the country is trying to handle the situation despite being a “lower-middle income and densely populated country”.

Despite these difficulties, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave them shelter and committed to extend all basic necessities for them, he added.

He also urged emergency humanitarian assistance for Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
*- Fleeing violence*
Since Aug. 25, more than 436,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN's migration agency’s latest report on Monday.

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 Erdoğan highlighted the issue at this year's UN General Assembly.

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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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Documentary: ‘A boy with no name for a people with no identity’*








Channel 4 News
Published on Sep 18, 2017*
Almost 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have now fled the violence in Myanmar in the last three weeks, including 240,000 children. Refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh are overflowing, and aid agencies fear it could get worse, warning up to a million could flee. Jonathan Miller has been in the region to see it all first hand.*










*Rohingya's Exodus: A special report on Myanmar*
Sky News


*This is the real Aung San Suu Kyi.*
Ton Kraayenvanger


*AL JAZEERA WORLD S2017 • E20*

*Al Jazeera World - The Rohingya: Silent Abuse*
Al Jazeera English
*Rohingya news: the desperate journey to safety*
Channel 4 News
*THE LISTENING POST S2017 • E43 *
*The Listening Post - Rohingya: Hate speech, lies and media misinformation*
Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera Investigates - Genocide Agenda

*Featured Documentary - The Hidden Genocide*
Al Jazeera English

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*Rohingya crisis: Meeting Myanmar's hardline Buddhist monks - 
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*Myanmar - Rohingya Genocide - In the NOW*




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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar government will take over burned Rakhine land*
Reuters
Published at 02:14 PM September 27, 2017
Last updated at 02:19 PM September 27, 2017




Rohingya refugee children pose for a picture in a camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 26, 2017* Reuters*
*'According to the law, burnt land becomes government-managed land,' Myanmar minister for Social Development said*
Myanmar’s government will manage the redevelopment of villages torched during violence in Rakhine state that has sent nearly half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, a minister was reported on Wednesday as saying.

The plan for the redevelopment of areas destroyed by fires, which the government has blamed on Rohingya insurgents, is likely to raise concern about the prospects for the return of the 480,000 refugees, and compound fears of ethnic cleansing.

“According to the law, burnt land becomes government-managed land,” Minister for Social Development, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye told a meeting in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

Win Myat Aye also heads a committee tasked with implementing recommendations on solving Rakhine’s long-simmering tensions.

Citing a disaster management law, he said in a meeting with authorities on Tuesday that redevelopment would “be very effective”. The law states the government oversees reconstruction in areas damaged in disasters, including conflict.

There was no elaboration on any plan or what access to their old villages any returning Rohingya could expect. The minister was not immediately available for comment.

Human rights groups using satellite images have said that about half of more than 400 Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine state have been burned in the violence.

Refugees arriving in Bangladesh have accused the army and Buddhist vigilantes of mounting a campaign of violence and arson aimed at driving Rohingya out of Myanmar.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has rejected UN accusations of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in response to coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on the security forces on August 25.

The government has reported that about half of Rohingya villages have been abandoned but it blames insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army for the fires and for attacking civilians.

The government says nearly 500 people have been killed since August 25, nearly 400 of them insurgents. It has also rejected accusations of crimes against humanity, levelled this week by Human Rights Watch.
*Number keep rising*
The violence and the refugee exodus is the biggest crisis the government of Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi has faced since it came to power last year in a transition from nearly 50 years of military rule.

Myanmar regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and bouts of suppression and strife have flared for decades. Most Rohingya are stateless.

Suu Kyi has faced scathing criticism and calls for her Nobel prize to be withdrawn. She denounced rights violations in an address last week and vowed that abusers would be prosecuted. She also said any refugees verified as coming from Myanmar under a 1992 process agreed with Bangladesh would be allowed back.

But many refugees are gloomy about their chances of going home, saying they fear they lack the paperwork they expect would be demanded to prove they came from Myanmar.

A group of aid organisations said on Tuesday the total number of refugees who had fled to Bangladesh since August 25 had been revised up to 480,000, after 35,000 people were found to have been missed out of the previous tally.

Aid agencies say refugees are still arriving though at a slower rate, and they have a contingency plan for a total of 700,000.

That figure is part of an overall plan to help 1.2 million people, including 200,000 Rohingya who were already in camps in Bangladesh and 300,000 people in “host communities”, or people helping refugees who also need aid.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ar-minister-government-will-take-burned-land/

*UN Security Council to discuss Bangladesh PM's 5-point proposal on the Rohingya*
Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Published at 12:41 PM September 27, 2017




*Nearly half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since August 25*
The United Nations will discuss the Rohingya humanitarian crisis, which it has described as “ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s five-point proposal to resolve the crisis has been submitted to the UN for its consideration.

A senior government official said the Security Council discussed the Rohingya issue twice before. “It will discuss the issue again on Thursday,” the official said. “Before that, the foreign minister will brief ambassadors of Security Council member countries.”

The plight of Rohingya has caught global attention. Bangladesh, which shelters nearly 900,000 Rohingya, has been pushing for a solution to the crisis for a long time.
*Also Read-*_*The untapped wealth of Rakhine and the persecution of the Rohingya*_
When asked if any resolution would be adopted, the official said: “We will have to wait and see.”

About China and Russia’s roles, the official said: “It would be impossible to hold any discussions in the Security Council without their support. But the [Rohingya] issue has been discussed twice there and will be discussed again. We can understand their stance from this development.”

But Russia has dubbed the Rohingya issue an internal matter of the Myanmar government. China, which has huge business interest in Myanmar, is expected to block any move that would put pressure on Yangon.
*Also Read- Bangladesh PM at UNGA: Create safe zones inside Myanmar for the Rohingya*
The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. They are not recognised as citizens by Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

A violent military crackdown targeting the minority has sent nearly half a million Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh since August 25.

The Security Council discussed the Rohingya issue in August. It held talks on the matter again the next month and issued a statement on Myanmar




Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who went to the UN after visiting the refugees in Cox’s Bazar, put forth her five-point proposal during her speech at the assembly on September 21.

They included stopping violence and ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine state, returning Rohinngya to their homeland, creating a ‘safe zone’ in Myanmar and implementation of the Kofi Annan Commission Report’s recommendations.

“Bangladesh is keeping in touch with the global communities to resolve the Rohingya crisis,” a government official in Dhaka said.
_The article was first published on Bangla Tribune_
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...gladesh-pm-hasinas-5-point-proposal-rohingya/


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## Banglar Bir

05:42 PM, September 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:49 PM, September 27, 2017
*"Big question" is whether Rohingya can go home:UN refugee chief*




UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi attends a news conference on Myanmar at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, September 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Reuters, Geneva

The United Nations refugee chief called today for the plight of up to 800,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to be resolved, saying the "big question" was whether they would be allowed to return to their homeland.

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, speaking on return from a visit to Bangladesh, said that he hoped to discuss the issue of statelessness of Rohingya with Myanmar authorities at a meeting in Geneva next week.

"It is very clear the cause of this crisis is in Myanmar but that the solution is also in Myanmar," he told a news conference in Geneva. He warned that "the risk of spread of terrorist violence in this particular region is very very high" unless the issue are resolved.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/m...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=al


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## Banglar Bir

*Yeni Şafak*
Nearly 436,000 Rohingya Muslims who have crossed into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, escaping the Myanmar army's violence, live in tent camps. Almost a quarter of a million of them are children, most of whom face malnutrition and diseases. A care center built in the Kutupalong camp provides Rohingya children with clean water and food.
http://www.yenisafak.com/…/rohingya-refugee-children-face-r…




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*Rohingya widow with five children struggles at refugee camp in Bangladesh*
Haber Merkezi 15:21 September 27, 2017 Yeni Şafak
Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh face new adversities at camps. They must line up to receive their food rations. Approximately 480,000 refugees have fled their homes in Myanmar due to what the UN calls an “ethnic cleansing." Human rights groups using satellite images have said that about half of more than 400 Rohingya villages in the north of Rahkine State have been burned in the violence.
http://yenisafak.vod.ma.doracdn.com...17/09/27/465abdc586fa44d4827942446ebdae8d.mp4

http://yenisafak.vod.ma.doracdn.com...17/09/27/465abdc586fa44d4827942446ebdae8d.mp4


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## Banglar Bir

*China Unlikely to Back Tougher UN Actions Against Myanmar*
September 26, 2017
William Ide and Saibal Dasgupta | VOA




A Rohingya refugee reacts as people scuffle while waiting to receive aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 26, 2017.
The United Nations will focus its attention this week on the Rohingya humanitarian crisis and what has been described as “ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, although analysts say China is unlikely to support any actions that would put pressure on Yangon and its military.

One key reason Beijing is unlikely to back tougher steps, the experts note, is because the crisis is happening in a state where China has huge business interests.

The business interests not only account for billions of dollars in investment, but are part of the country’s ambitious global “Belt and Road” trade project.
Almost right in the middle of Rakhine state’s coastline on the Bay of Bengal, a consortium led by China’s CITIC Group has proposed taking a 70 percent to 85 percent stake in a $7.3 billion deep sea port. The port at Kyauk Pyu is a key link in China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, and what some Chinese analysts call “blue economic passageways.”




In addition to the sea port, China also plans to build an industrial park and a special economic zone there, where Chinese companies will be located.

The project is a crucial link in a larger passageway connecting China’s southwestern provinces with the Indian Ocean, Africa and further to the Mediterranean Sea. The port is also where oil and gas pipelines begin and run through Myanmar to China’s southern Yunnan province.

“The importance of your investments, to secure your investments and ensure that this region [Rakhine state of Myanmar] is peaceful so that your important pipelines can pass through. I would say that this takes more precedence against the humanitarian issue,” says Irene Chan, an associate research fellow with the China Programme at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. “Chinese foreign policy is very much driven by domestic needs.”




A Chinese port terminal is seen in Made island outside Kyauk Pyu, Rakhine state, Myanmar, May 18, 2017.

Chan adds that Beijing is trying to use neighboring countries like Myanmar to export its industrial overcapacity, and provide the necessary development impetus to its relatively backward western region.

The latest outbreak of violence began in late August when a group of Rohingya militants attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The group says the attack was launched to protect their ethnic minority from persecution.




Fleeing Buddhist Rakhine residents arrive by ship from the unrest in Maungdaw region at the jetty, Aug. 29, 2017, in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar.

At least 400 people have been killed in the violence and subsequent clashes, while a military counteroffensive has pushed more than 400,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Some of the world’s major countries including China, Russia and India have refused to specifically condemn the ongoing violence against the Rohingyas.

Beijing has offered small amounts of humanitarian aid to both Bangladesh and Myanmar, and Chinese officials have spoken about the need for a permanent solution to the crisis.




Rohingya refugees queue for aid at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 26, 2017.

When it comes to the crisis and the ongoing violence, however, China has put its support squarely behind the Myanmar government and military, and what it says are efforts to “protect its national security.”

“It [China] clearly is supporting the government of Myanmar in addressing the issue of how it responded to the attack by the so-called [Arakan] Rohingya Salvation Army. China is telling the Myanmar, telling the U.N. that it understands and supports Myanmar’s attempts to preserve its sovereignty,” said Murray Hiebert, who serves as senior adviser and deputy director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Tuesday, the U.N. will hold a closed-door briefing on the crisis. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres will address the Security Council about the situation. So far, a U.N. Human Rights Council fact-finding mission, established earlier this year, has been barred from visiting Myanmar's Rakhine state.




Houses are on fire in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar, Sept. 7, 2017.

The United States has called for “strong and swift action” to end the violence, but already earlier this month there were reports that Myanmar was negotiating with Russia and China to protect Yangon from any Security Council actions.

“China certainly would not accept resolution or something of this kind at the Security Council at this point, that’s for sure,” Hiebert said. “I don’t know if it could change its position depending on what the wording of the resolution would be, but China very much would stand behind the Myanmar government’s opposition to the U.N. taking any political action, taking any direct action.”

Hiebert, does not think, though, that China needs to placate Yangon to forward its economic agenda in Myanmar.

Kerry Brown, a professor of Chinese studies at London’s King College said, “[China] will need to produce a balancing act, where it will not antagonize an important regional partner and ally, nor through this action irritate the international community.”

He says Beijing is likely to “assert to the Myanmar leadership the imperative that they maintain stability and do not create a crisis, but in such a way that it still will be regarded as non-interventionist and a relatively benign ally.”

Analyst say the Western world is divided about whether it should put more pressure on Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Some believe that international disapproval of her role on the Rohingya crisis would offer Myanmar’s military an opportunity to push her out of the picture and assume full control.
(c) 2017 VOA
http://www.genocidewatch.com/single...ly-to-Back-Tougher-UN-Actions-Against-Myanmar


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## TopCat




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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, September 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:01 AM, September 28, 2017
*Heat, unsafe water take toll on kids*
*Diseases spreading at refugee camps*




Feverish toddlers put to sleep at Thyingkhali Rohingya camp in Ukhia. Their mother placed the branches to protect them from yesterday's sweltering heat. Photos: Anisur Rahman
Wasim Bin Habib

Wrapping his two-year-old daughter in a towel, Jiraman Ali was walking fast towards a medial camp near their temporary shelter at Balukhali in Ukhia.

He looked pale and tired as the child, Jashmin Ara Bibi, had been running a high fever for the last four days.

"We took her to the camp two days ago. Doctors there gave her some syrup. She is taking it on time but the temperature is not coming down,” said the Rohingya man as the baby girl kept coughing with a stuffy nose. 

Eleven days ago, Ali, in his 30s, along with five of his family members arrived in Bangladesh fleeing persecution in Maungdaw. As usual, their journey was not smooth. First, they had to walk down the hills for days and then ride a rickety wooden fishing boat to cross the Naf river.

During the journey, Ali's eldest son badly hurt himself falling off a slope and was taking medicines. But the man told The Daily Star yesterday he was terrified that his baby girl was not improving. 

Like Jashmin, children living at temporary Rohingya shelters in Ukhia and Teknaf of Cox's Bazar are falling ill every day mainly due to unhealthy living conditions and lack of safe drinking water, say doctors. The hot and humid weather was only increasing their woes.

Fever, respiratory tract infection, cough, dysentery, diarrhoea and skin diseases are spreading among the Rohingyas, especially the children, say the doctors at the medical camps set up by the government and non-government organisations (NGOs).

The exact number of the children fallen sick is hard to come by, but the doctors say they are grappling with a huge number of patients, mostly children.

The scorching heat during the daytime was making the life of the Rohingyas extremely difficult. Also, their makeshift shacks with polythene roofs were hardly able to save them from the rain. Probably, these were making the refugees, even the adults, sick, according to the physicians.

Many others fell sick because they had days of starvation during their perilous journey to Bangladesh.

"During the daytime, we feel like being roasted inside the shack. We bathe in our own sweat," Sanjida, a 33-year-old Rohingya woman, told this correspondent near the crowded medical camp at Balukhali yesterday afternoon.

Her four-year-old son was suffering from diarrhoea and got prickly heat all over his body.

"During the night, we place large pieces of polythene over our muddy floor and sleep on them. It's quite cold there and we've got nothing to keep us warm,” she said, adding, they could not bring anything with them as they had to flee for their lives in Myanmar.

"Things get even worse when it rains. The polythene over our head either gets washed away or rainwater leaks through it. We get drenched every time it rains.”

Sanjida lamented that she was not being able to properly feed her ailing son. “We're eating whatever we're being given as relief. We are surviving somehow; but the lack of drinking water is our biggest problem.”

The number of tube wells set up for the Rohingyas is inadequate, she added.

At the camp in Bagguna of Palangkhali union, Rohingya woman Suraiya found out a unique way to keep her ailing sons -- Osman and Saifat -- cool amid the scorching heat.

The mother covered the babies with leaves of a tree. "The green leaves won't let the heat go in,” she said.

Yards away, Abdul Malek, another refugee, was pouring water on the forehead of his two-year-old son inside their tiny hut. The little boy was shivering. 

Mohammed Alam, a doctor from the medical team formed jointly by the directorate general of the family planning and the health ministry for the Balukhali shelter, said most of their patients were suffering from fever, dysentery and diarrhoea.

Dipayan, another doctor at the camp, said given the huge number of the refugees, their challenge would be to check the spread of contagious diseases like Hepatitis B and tuberculosis.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim yesterday sought assistance from the icddr,b for preventing any outbreak of diseases in the Rohingya refugee camps.

"I would expect the icddr,b to explore how a mass vaccination of Rohingya refugees, especially of children under five, can be carried out to prevent any imminent disease outbreak,” Nasim told a discussion, titled “Collaboration Between The Government of Bangladesh and icddr,b: Past, Present and Future”, organised by icddr,b at its Sasakawa Auditorium, says a press release.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...is-heat-unsafe-water-taking-toll-kids-1468780


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## Banglar Bir

*ARSA denies involvement in violence against civilians*
Tribune Desk
Published at 12:26 AM September 28, 2017
Last updated at 12:56 AM September 28, 2017




*'ARSA will be conducting thorough investigations and issuing detailed statements from time to time in relation to the ongoing war crimes'*
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Wednesday denied their involvement in any violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar on August 25.

“ARSA categorically denies that any of its members or combatants perpetrated murder, sexual violence, or forcible recruitment in the villages of Fakirabazar, Riktapara, and Chikonchhari in Maungdaw on or about August 25, 2017,” the Rohingya insurgent group said in a press release.

In addition, the group also called for the Myanmar government to stop “victim blaming” and allow investigations into the atrocities and human rights abuses in the conflict stricken area.







ARSA_The Army @ARSA_Official
STATEMENT (27.9.2017)
Burmese Govt has to Stop 'Victim Blaming', Allow Investigations into Atrocities;
ARSA Denies of Targetting Civilians
Sep 27, 2017
“ARSA will be conducting thorough investigations and issuing detailed statements from time to time in relation to the ongoing war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and human rights abuses committed by the Burmese (Myanmarese) brutal military regieme,” the press release read.

ARSA also expressed their sympathy for all victims of the violence in Rakhine state “irrespective of ethnic or religious background.”

Over 480,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since August 25, when alleged insurgent attacks on security officials sparked a renewed military crackdown in the Rakhine state.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/28/arsa-denies-involvement-violence/

26 September, 2017 11:05:38 AM
*The Great Lie 2: The conspiracy*
Denied citizenship on spurious grounds, the Rohingya exist without nation and will little hope for a better future
Forrest Cookson








The Great Lie is the claim put forth by the Myanmar Government that the military actions against the Rohingya are in response to the August 25 attacks of the ARSA on a number of police posts and army camps. The position that the violence involving the Rohingya was caused by these uprisings by an organization allegedly a Islamic fundamentalist group connected with ISIS or Al-Qaida is a fabrication put forth by the Myanmar authorities and repeated endlessly, accompanied by their allies in China and Russia joining in the chanting. 

In this article I describe the conspiracy underlying the events in Myanmar of the past month. Years of abuse by the Myanmar army, the police, the Buddhist clergy, and the civil administration have left the Muslim Rohingya in poor condition. Most living in poverty with low levels of health, little access to education, scorned and looked down on by much of the Myanmar population, this group has been driven to bottom of Burmese society. Denied citizenship on spurious grounds, the Rohingya exist without nation and will little hope for a better future. 

Many of the young men attempted to escape to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, usually by sea, seeking employment in Malaysia or Indonesia. This passage was dangerous and often ended in death from the cruel behavior of the Thai and Indonesia authorities. A recent trial in Thailand convicted a Thai general and many military persons of engaging in trafficking of people and murdering many Rohingya making their way to Malaysia and Indonesia. 

The strategic objective of the Myanmar Government is to get rid of the Muslim Rohingya. They are prepared to do so by driving Rohingya out of the country into Bangladesh or by killing them. There have been various efforts to do so in the past few years; these efforts have increased in recent months. The generally accepted estimate is that at the beginning of 2017 there were about 1 million Rohingya in Myanmar in early 2017. [Reliable population data is not available]. 

At the time of writing there are about 500,000 Rohingya that have crossed the border into Bangladesh. Many attempting to reach Bangladesh have been killed, a process that continues. There are no reliable numbers of those killed or who have died from disease or starvation but it will run into many thousands. We make an estimate below of how many the Myanmar army may have slaughtered.

It is no surprise that many young men seeing the treatment of their families and the wickedness of the Myanmar Buddhists react by by fighting back. Most young Rohingya men want to draw their sword to protect their families, so the formation of groups to fight back is the natural response of this tortured population. One should not underestimate the Myanmar intelligence services. They are fully cognizant of the formation of resistance groups and undertake to penetrate and learn about the membership and activities of these Rohingya opposition groups. 

What happened on August 25 this year was a sinister plot of the Myanmar Intelligence Service [I will call them MIS] under the guidance of the sinister, evil General Soe Htut. The Myanmar army was very upset that the Kofi Annan Commission Report on the Rakhine State would recommend actions towards restoring citizenship to the Rohingya and essentially argue for their legitimate presence in Myanmar. To misdirect the attention of the world, the ARSA infiltrated by and partly directed by the MIS encouraged attacks against police posts and an army post. Arms, tactical guidance and encouragement were provided by the MIS to an unwitting ARSA. 

The attacks were coordinated with a counter propaganda campaign and military counterstrikes. Both occurred so rapidly as to reveal to any alert observer that the MIS had advanced warning of these attacks. But it was more than advanced warning, the MIS was behind these attacks. The scope and violence of the Myanmar army’s response is clear evidence that they were waiting for the August 25 ARSA attack. The date of the attack corresponded to the Kofi Annan report, strongly suggesting that the MIS controlled the timing.

The propaganda war launched by the Myanmar army then got into full gear. “Not only had these monsters attacked our police stations but now they were burning down their own villages.” The Myanmar army had to have some explanation of the burning of the villages as the view from space showed exactly what was going on. What better than to blame it on the Rohingya themselves. Foreign reporters were brought to Myanmar and fed this nonsense.

*The Indian Government, the Chinese Government, and the Russian Government may or may not have known about the plot but all three fell into line supporting the Myanmar Government, trumpeting their opposition to Islamic sponsored violence and supporting the violent repression of the Rohingya. Innocents around the world joined in justifying the so called self defense measures of the poor Myanmar army attacked by these powerful, monstrous Muslim Rohingya. *

The results are here for all to see, almost 500,000 people pushed out of their homes, their houses burnt down, their livestock killed, their possession destroyed or looted. The deaths of Rohingya will certainly total more than 100,000 if one could ever count. Preliminary reports show two characteristics: Most people interviewed report that at least one member of their family was killed while fleeing to Bangladesh. Allowing five persons per family, then for 100,000 families fleeing there should be 100,000 killed over the past month. Bangladeshis know all too well how many people can be killed by an army on the rampage against unarmed civilian populations. The second observation is the limited number of men in the masses of Rohingya that have come over the border. 

A family of five would on the average have 3 adults and 2 children. So there are 1.5 adult males per family. If there is only 0.5 adult males per family that would mean about 50,000 adult males in the 500,000 and would be perceived as a shortage of men. Again this implies about 100,000 men killed. In this picture we have 200,000 children and 250,000 women.

Not only have the Rohingya been pushed out of their land, but there is a case that at least 100,000 have been killed; while many women and girls were raped. Most interviews report at least one woman or gir has been raped. 

Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been driven into Bangladesh while this slaughter and rape took place in Myanmar. All of this was triggered by a plot of the Myanmar army to concoct an excuse to attack this unarmed population to kill and push them into Bangladesh.

This cruel vicious program has been cheered on by the Chinese, the Indians and the Russians. It is hard to come to terms with people so cruel and so callous. 

All of these people continue to chant the Great Lie. How can Bangladesh perceive these three nations as friends of Bangladesh?

The expulsion and murder of the Rohingya are genocide.This expulsion is also equivalent to an act of war against Bangladesh. The Indian, Russian and Chinese Governments are complicit in this genocide and aggression against Bangladesh.
The writer is an economist
http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/115963

*China affirms support for Myanmar on Rakhine issue*
SAM Report, September 28, 2017




Myanmar Vice President U Myint Swe (center right) and Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang at the reception to mark the 68th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China in Naypyitaw. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang showed his support for the Myanmar government’s handling of the issues in Rakhine State, assuring that China would stand “firmly” by Myanmar on the international stage.

“We hope that the international community will create a good external environment so that Myanmar can solve its problems properly,” said Hong Liang at a reception on Tuesday to mark the 68th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China ahead of an open discussion on Rakhine at the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Myanmar has faced increasing international pressure over government security operations in northern Rakhine State that have left hundreds dead, sent nearly 500,000 self-identifying Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, and been labeled a “text book example of ethnic cleansing,” by the UN.

Myanmar’s UN representative U Hau do Suan, however, insisted at the UN General Assembly on Monday that ethnic cleansing was not taking place against Muslims in Rakhine “in the strongest terms.”

Hong Liang promised to continue providing humanitarian aid for people in Rakhine State, noting the Chinese government provided 200 million kyats for Rakhine State through the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement last week.

China supports cooperation between Myanmar and Bangladesh to solve border problems and sincerely hopes that the Myanmar government will be able to bring harmony, stability and prosperity to societies in Rakhine State, he said.

“Myanmar and China have always maintained bilateral cooperation as well as close cooperation in areas of mutual interest in regional and international arenas including the UN,” Myanmar Vice-President U Nyan Tun said at the reception.

When asked about China’s view on State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s briefing to foreign diplomats last week, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at the ministry’s regular press conference on Sept. 19 that her speech will “help the international community to better know about the situation in Myanmar and understand and support the Myanmar government’s effort to achieve domestic peace and national reconciliation”

“As a friendly neighbor of Myanmar, the Chinese will continue providing necessary assistance for [Myanmar] to uphold internal stability and development,” he said.

Myanmar is economically dependent on China while China also requires Myanmar to expand its influence on the international stage, and the two countries need each other, said U Myo Zaw Aung, member of Lower House International Relations Committee.

*“China has its interests not only in Kyaukphyu [of Rakhine State], but also across the country. It has friendly ties with the Myanmar government partly because of those interests. There is a need for a stronger bond between two countries to continue to engage in businesses of great mutual interests,” said U Myo Zaw Aung.*

Despite China’s Special Envoy of Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang’s request for China’s direct involvement in solving the Rakhine issue, the Myanmar government replied in April that it would only cooperate with Bangladesh to find a solution.

China has funded schools, hospitals, the renovation of Bagan temples, afforestation, scholarships and eye surgeries for Myanmar people, which reflect the friendship between two countries, said Hong Liang.
SOURCE THE IRRAWADDY
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/28/china-affirms-support-myanmar-rakhine-issue/


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## Banglar Bir

*Yeni Şafak*
Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh face new adversities at camps. They must line up to receive their food rations. 
http://www.yenisafak.com/…/rohingya-widow-with-five-childre…




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*Erdogan accuses Myanmar of ‘Buddhist terror’ against Rohingya*





_By_ AFP September 26, 2017
*ISTANBUL*: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the security forces in Myanmar of waging a “Buddhist terror” against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled to Bangladesh.

Erdogan, who has repeatedly highlighted the plight of the Rohingya, again accused the Yangon government of carrying out a “genocide” against the people in Rakhine state.
In a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan lamented the failure of the international community to lay sanctions against the Myanmar government over its campaign.

“There is a very clear genocide over there,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan, who has held talks by phone with Myanmar’s key leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sang Suu Kyi, added: “Buddhists always get represented as envoys of goodwill. At the moment, there is a clear Buddhist terror in Myanmar... I don’t know how you can gloss over this with yoga, schmoga. This is a fact here. And all humanity needs to know this.”

Erdogan takes a sharp interest in the fate of Muslim communities across the world and notably sees himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause.

Returning for a key personal theme, he lambasted the international community for being quick to denounce “Islamic terror” but not “Christian terror,” “Jewish terror” or “Buddhist terror.”
Erdogan’s remarks came as UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Bangladesh must not force Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar to move to camps on a desolate island.
Authorities have stepped up moves to house the Rohingya on the island in the Bay of Bengal since a new surge which now totals 436,000 refugees started arriving on Aug. 25.

Grandi said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had mentioned the relocation plan when they met in July. There were already 300,000 Rohingya in camps near the border at Cox’s Bazar before the latest influx started.
But he insisted that any move from the camps to Bhashan Char island — also known as Thengar Char — “has to be voluntary on the part of the refugees.”

“We cannot force people to go to the place. So the option for the medium term, let’s say — I don’t want to talk about long-term — has to be also something that is acceptable to the people that go there,” he said.
“Otherwise it won’t work. Otherwise people won’t go.”

The UN has praised Bangladesh for taking in the Rohingya, who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar. It has appealed for international help for the authorities.

“It is good to think ahead. These people (Rohingya) may not be able to go back very quickly and especially now the population has now doubled,” Grandi told a Dhaka press briefing.
The UNHCR chief said his agency was ready to help the island plan with a “technical study of the options.
“That’s all that we are ready to give. We are not giving it yet because I have not seen any concrete options on any paper.”

The small island in the estuary of the Meghna river is a one-hour boat ride from Sandwip, the nearest inhabited island, and two hours from Hatiya, one of Bangladesh’s largest islands.
The government has tasked the navy with making it ready for the Rohingya. Two helipads and a small road have been built.

The authorities first proposed settling the Rohingya there in 2015, as the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar became overstretched.

But the plan was apparently shelved last year amid reports that the silty island, which only emerged from the sea in 2006, was often unhabitable due to regular tidal flooding.
In recent weeks, Bangladesh has appealed for international support to move the Rohingya to the island as the impoverished nation struggles to cope with the influx

More than 436,000 refugees have crossed the border from Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August 25 when a military crackdown was launched following attacks by Rohingya militants.

There is not enough food, water or medicine to go around. Roads around the camps are littered with human excrement, fueling UN fears that serious disease could quickly break out.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/09/erdogan-accuses-myanmar-of-buddhist.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Japan ‘fully supports’ Bangladesh on Rohingya issue*
Published: 2017-09-27




Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Iwao Horri has said that Tokyo “fully supports” Dhaka to solve the “difficult crisis” of Rohingya refugees.
Talking to journalists after his meeting with state minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam on Wednesday, he said the issue is a “great concern” for Japan.

“We also offer assistance for them in Bangladesh,” he said at the state guest house Padma.

Bangladesh State Minister Shahriar Alam said Japan was with Bangladesh from the beginning. “If you read their statement on Aug 29, you will clearly understand that,” he said.
*Japan also wants full implementation of Kofi Annan Commission report what Bangladesh has been pressing for.*




A boy is pulled to safety as Rohingya refugees scuffle while queueing for aid at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 26, 2017. Reuters 

“Japan is a friendly country for us,” he said, adding that in the meeting he also reminded that Bangladesh did not contest the Security Council election for Japan.
Vice-Minister Horri arrived in Dhaka late on Tuesday for a day-long visit to discuss Rohingya crisis.

The matter drew global attention after the Aug 25 violence that forced nearly 500,000 people from the Rakhine State to flee “ethnic cleansing”.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has presented her five-point proposals to the UN General Assembly for the solution of this decades-old crisis.

Bangladesh will also present its case before the Security Council on Thursday in an open debate when UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to publicly brief the 15-member body.
*http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2017/09/27/japan-fully-supports-bangladesh-on-rohingya-issue*


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## Banglar Bir

*IOM Bangladesh*
কেবল একটু এগিয়ে আসার প্রয়োজন।
২৫ অগাস্ট থেকে এই পর্যন্ত ৪৩৫,০০০ রোহিঙ্গা বাংলাদেশে প্রবেশ করেছে।

তাদের মানবিক সহায়তা নিশ্চিত করণের লক্ষে জাতিসংঘের অভিবাসন সংস্থা আইওএম, ব্যক্তিগত ও সাংগঠনিক অনুদান গ্রহণ করছে। আগ্রহী ব্যক্তি বা সংগঠন নিম্নে উল্লেখিত ব্র্যাক ব্যাংক অ্যাকাউন্টের মাধ্যমে সাহায্য প্রদান করতে পারেন।

The UN Migration Agency- IOM is accepting donations from individuals and institutions to provide essential lifesaving support to the #Rohingya living in Bangladesh.
*You can contribute in local currency via BRAC Bank
Account Name: International Organization for Migration – haf
Account No: 1501202779346002
Branch: Gulshan 1, Dhaka, Bangladesh*

Individuals living abroad or willing to contribute in international currency can donate through the following link by selecting Bangladesh humanitarian assistance fund from the ‘donate to’ tab.
https://www.kintera.org/…/IOM__Make_a…/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp…
100% of the funding will spent for the community making your every penny count!
Inbox us for more. #Rohingya #Coxsbazar




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya mothers and babies: Hungry and traumatised*
*Mothers recount giving birth as they fled, their children crying in hunger and their fears over long-term trauma.*
Showkat Shafi | 28 Sep 2017 11:14 GMT | Rohingya, Humanitarian crises, Human Rights, Bangladesh, Myanmar
Myanmar army attacked her village and started indiscriminately killing villagers.

Members of the persecuted Rohingya community, Sameron, her husband, Anwar, and their three-year-old daughter, Sabiha, fled their home in Rajarbill in Myanmar's Rakhine state. It was August 25.

Heavily pregnant, Sameron ran and walked through the night with her family.




Sameron holds her newborn daughter Sadiha [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
"In the morning, we reached a village named Itella," she recalls. "The village was deserted after the army had attacked it."

They found an abandoned house with enough food items inside it to sustain them for five days. 

But then the army came again. "We escaped," says Sameron. 

The next stage of their journey was the hardest. The family walked for an entire day and night without any food or water. 

"I don't even want to think about that pain," she says. "I had constant pain in my stomach and I was feeling sick. In the middle of this journey, I started having unbearable pain in my stomach and I would sit down and crouch in an effort to reduce it. I had gone into labour."

Tears well in her eyes as she recalls it. 
"It was the most terrifying phase of my life. I somehow would keep breathing and walking. My husband would carry me and then carry my daughter, who had also started crying from the pain of walking. We were all weeping from pain, desperation and hunger."
MORE: Rohingya refugees search for shelter in Bangladesh
The family eventually reached the village of Mongni Para. There were still people living there and some of the old women helped to deliver Sameron's baby. 

"We had to leave this village after five days. I was in no condition to walk but I somehow managed to reach a place from where we got on a boat to enter Bangladesh by crossing the Naf River. We had to pay 650,000 Kyat (around $477) to the boatman [for the rent of the entire boat]. He initially refused to take us because we didn't have enough money, but some people helped us," she says as she stands in a queue with her newborn daughter, waiting for medical treatment at a clinic that has been temporarily set up outside a mosque in the Bangladeshi port city of Cox's Bazar. 

As a result of her strenuous journey and weak state, Sameron hasn't been able to breastfeed her baby, who she has named Sadiha. "There was hardly any food for any of us as we walked for days. How would I produce enough milk to breastfeed my daughter?" she asks.

Many others are in a similar situation. 

Mayang Sari, a nutritionist with UNICEF, says "young mothers and children are the most vulnerable".

"The extremely stressful and hard conditions have led to mothers and children becoming traumatised," Sari adds. "This has made it difficult to breastfeed babies and this could become a bigger problem."
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/in...abies-hungry-traumatised-170925084205580.html


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## livingdead

how many bangladeshis here have donated for rohingyas?
@Bangla bir you should start a thread about it, and help people donate to right org.


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## Banglar Bir

6:08 PM, September 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:37 PM, September 28, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: IOM chief shocked over sexual, gender-based violence in Myanmar*




Rohingya refugees assembled at the coordination camp in Hariakali Government Primary School on September 28, 2017. Photo: Anisur Rahman/ STAR
Star Online Report
*Director General of UN Migration Agency William Lacy Swing today said he is deeply shocked and concerned over the human rights abuse, sexual and gender-based violence against Rohingyas in Myanmar.*
“Sexual and gender-based violence is a severe, life-threatening public health and human rights abuse and I am deeply shocked and concerned by reports we are receiving from new arrivals in Cox’s Bazar,” he said in a statement of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Particularly women and girls, but also men and boys, have been targeted for and are at risk of further exploitation, violence and abuse simply because of their gender, age and status in society, he said.

An estimated 480,000 Rohingya people have so far arrived in Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh since August 25 when violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Prior to this most recent influx, Rohingyas had been fleeing Rakhine state for years following various waves of insecurity, including approximately 74,000 people last October.

Gender-based violence has been recorded in needs assessments, fact finding missions and through the provision of life-saving services, according to IOM, which is providing urgent medical and psychological support to survivors.

Rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and child marriage, have been identified among other forms of gender-based violence, and require immediate, holistic responses from humanitarian actors, the IOM statement said.

Although the known number most likely represents only a small portion of actual cases, IOM doctors have treated dozens of women since August, who have experienced violent sexual assault.

Since October 2016, IOM has treated or received reports from hundreds of Rohingya women and some men.

“IOM is supporting survivors but I cannot emphasize enough that attempting to understand the scale of gender-based violence through known case numbers alone is impossible. This type of egregious violence and abuse is under-reported even in the best resourced and most stable settings worldwide,” Swing said.

“In crises like this, where usual social systems and protections are no longer in place, many barriers stand in the way of survivors seeking support,” he also said, adding that IOM staff are working to break down these barriers and get to those who are most in need.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...rohingya-people-rakhine-state-myanmar-1469023


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya mothers and babies: Hungry and traumatised*
*Mothers recount giving birth as they fled, their children crying in hunger and their fears over long-term trauma.*
Showkat Shafi | 28 Sep 2017 11:14 GMT | Rohingya, Humanitarian crises, Human Rights, Bangladesh, Myanmar
Myanmar army attacked her village and started indiscriminately killing villagers.

Members of the persecuted Rohingya community, Sameron, her husband, Anwar, and their three-year-old daughter, Sabiha, fled their home in Rajarbill in Myanmar's Rakhine state. It was August 25.

Heavily pregnant, Sameron ran and walked through the night with her family.




Sameron holds her newborn daughter Sadiha [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
"In the morning, we reached a village named Itella," she recalls. "The village was deserted after the army had attacked it."

They found an abandoned house with enough food items inside it to sustain them for five days. 

But then the army came again. "We escaped," says Sameron. 

The next stage of their journey was the hardest. The family walked for an entire day and night without any food or water. 

"I don't even want to think about that pain," she says. "I had constant pain in my stomach and I was feeling sick. In the middle of this journey, I started having unbearable pain in my stomach and I would sit down and crouch in an effort to reduce it. I had gone into labour."

Tears well in her eyes as she recalls it. 

"It was the most terrifying phase of my life. I somehow would keep breathing and walking. My husband would carry me and then carry my daughter, who had also started crying from the pain of walking. We were all weeping from pain, desperation and hunger."
MORE: Rohingya refugees search for shelter in Bangladesh
The family eventually reached the village of Mongni Para. There were still people living there and some of the old women helped to deliver Sameron's baby. 

"We had to leave this village after five days. I was in no condition to walk but I somehow managed to reach a place from where we got on a boat to enter Bangladesh by crossing the Naf River. We had to pay 650,000 Kyat (around $477) to the boatman [for the rent of the entire boat]. He initially refused to take us because we didn't have enough money, but some people helped us," she says as she stands in a queue with her newborn daughter, waiting for medical treatment at a clinic that has been temporarily set up outside a mosque in the Bangladeshi port city of Cox's Bazar. 

As a result of her strenuous journey and weak state, Sameron hasn't been able to breastfeed her baby, who she has named Sadiha. "There was hardly any food for any of us as we walked for days. How would I produce enough milk to breastfeed my daughter?" she asks.

Many others are in a similar situation. 

Mayang Sari, a nutritionist with UNICEF, says "young mothers and children are the most vulnerable".

"The extremely stressful and hard conditions have led to mothers and children becoming traumatised," Sari adds. "This has made it difficult to breastfeed babies and this could become a bigger problem."




Khalida, 20, with her one-year-old daughter Shahana. "It took us five days to reach here and I consider myself fortunate that my entire family is with me," she says. "The army had invaded our village and was burning houses and killing people. We also ran to save our lives and crossed over to Bangladesh on a boat. My husband goes out in the day to get relief material and food for us. I would want to go with him and get more food, but it's tough to stand in a queue with an infant and struggle to find food." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Sona Mehar, 45, with her three-month-old daughter Mirana Begum. "I am taking care of my seven children alone," she says. "My husband was shot with a bullet in the shoulder and is getting treated in the hospital. I stand in the queue for the entire day with this baby in my arms to secure a meal." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Twenty-five-year-old Haseena with her 18-month-old daughter, Muneera. "I came here with my husband and two children. We had only managed to take enough food to last us for two days. The rest of the days we walked hungry. I had to leave my cow behind, when we ran to save our lives. I wish I could have brought her with me." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Hamida, 33, with her four-month-old nephew Yousuf. "His parents were killed. I grabbed him and brought him with me, [or] else he would have just died there alone," she says. "I have six children of my own and one of them is six months old. I have to breastfeed both of them because they cannot be given this food. It is hard for me because even I hardly get to eat one meal in a day." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Sixteen-year-old Bushra Begum with her three-month-old son Mohammad Kaisar. "We crossed over to Bangladesh on foot. It took us 10 days to reach this refugee camp in Kutupalong," she says. "I am worried for my son. I think this journey has emotionally traumatised him. He has drunk only a little milk since the day we escaped from our home. The journey was tough and there were days we went without food, and this also affected his health." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Hamida, 35, with her one-year-old son, Mohammad Alam. "They murdered my husband. I had to run to save the lives of my five small children. I have nobody to help me get the relief material and food. I need the food packets desperately to feed my children. I have been waiting in a queue for the past three hours and haven't been able to secure anything. The men are healthy and stronger and they jump and grab any aid that is thrown towards us, while women like me keep waiting," she says. [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Twenty-four-year-old Tahira with her seven-month-old daughter Rusma Akhtar. "We were sleeping in the night at our home when we heard screams outside. We saw fire everywhere outside and people screaming and running around. My husband grabbed my daughter and we ran out with others," she recalls. "All my belongings must have been destroyed. I wish I had managed to get our big family photo from the wall." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Shams-un-Nehar, 35, with her two-month-old twins, Eesa and MusaI. "I have 10 more children apart from these two and we walked for three days to reach the border. We did not get to eat a single morsel of food in these three days and I was as a result not able to breastfeed my twins. They kept wailing in thirst and hunger. It was so frustrating and painful to see them starve like this in front of me," she says. [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




Yaemeena Ara, 30, with six-month-old daughter Rohana. "Our village was attacked on Eid last month, and we escaped that day. It took us five days and nights to reach here. I have six children, including her. My husband and I had to carry each child in our arms and on our shoulders, in order to cross into Bangladesh, as they could not walk for so long." [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]




*Inside the hospital treating Rohingya refugees*
In a Bangladeshi hospital, Rohingya are treated for wounds sustained when the Myanmar army burned down their homes.
Topic: Rohingya, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Refugees, Asia Pacific




*'Who will take us?': Myanmar's fleeing Rohingya Muslims*
Forced out of their home country, Rohingya Muslims share their experiences of crossing to Bangladesh.
Topic: Asia, Myanmar, Rohingya, Human Rights, Humanitarian crises
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/in...abies-hungry-traumatised-170925084205580.html

01:15 PM, September 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:18 PM, September 28, 2017
*Why China, Russia should back UN action against Myanmar*




A Rohingya refugee cries as he holds his 40-day-old son, who died as a boat capsized in the shore of Shah Porir Dwip while crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, on September 14, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Shakhawat Liton
Political memories are wafer thin. Three years ago when the UN Security Council held a discussion on the occasion of the twentieth commemoration of Rwanda genocide, China and Russia joined other members of the council to air their voices against genocide. With their support the UNSC unanimously passed a strongly worded resolution renewing its commitment to fight against genocide.

But three years down the line, the global body now found the duo changed their stance to take action against what the UN termed "a textbook case of ethnic cleansing" in Myanmar. In March this year, China backed by Russia vetoed an UNSC resolution to censure Myanmar government for atrocities against Rohingya by the security forces. After eruption of the ongoing violence against Rohingya last month, China and Russia again sided with Myanmar. Their stance put the UN at a risk of being failed again to deliver on its core goal--prevention of genocide.

Lack of political commitment of the big nations enjoying veto power in the UNSC made the world body unable to stop genocides in some countries in past. But an appalling failure in Rwanda causing massacre of 800,000 people in only 100 days in 1994 forced the UN and other world leaders to seek apology for this.
READ MORE: UN Security Council meets Thursday on Rohingya crisis
Twenty years after the genocide in Rwanda, the Security Council in 2014 unanimously passed the resolution and condemned without reservation any denial of the genocide and called for international cooperation for timely prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.

Before passage of the resolution, China and Russia along with other members of the UNSC issued strong worded statements against genocide and renewed its commitment to fight it.

Chinese diplomat Wang Min said the unprecedented carnage that occurred in Rwanda should be remembered forever. Lessons learned from the genocide in Rwanda had been considered by the international community to improvements in conflict prevention and resolution, he said.

"Preventing genocide also required that Governments protected their civilians and that all parties abide by humanitarian law. For its part, the international community should acquire a deep understanding of the situation on the ground, as well as strengthen coordination efforts for protecting civilians," he asserted.

The Russian diplomat, Vitally Churkin, said the tragic events in Rwanda should have and could have been prevented. The Second World War's harsh lessons learned from horrific Nazi actions against his and other countries had demonstrated that the signs of genocide should have been recognized in other situations. And yet, the international community had failed to see genocide as it unfolded in Rwanda, he added.

"The United Nations had truly betrayed Rwanda and the cost of inaction was 1 million lives. Those mistakes of the past must be corrected. It was important to among other things recognise and prevent incitement of violence over ethnic differences," he said.

The diplomat of France, Gerard Araud, though his country along with USA prevented the UN from intervening timely to stop Rwanda genocide also said the Security Council must renew its commitment to do everything possible, so that the lessons of the horrors of the past were not repeated.

The statements made by the diplomats of China and Russia demonstrated their concerns about genocide. But their present stance on Myanmar does not match with that spirit.

Ahead of the UNSC's today's meeting on Rohingya issue, the one positive thing is that in the wake of global outcry China and Russia has relaxed to some extent their stances on Myanmar two weeks before. This development helped the Security Council to issue a statement in middle of September asking Myanmar to end violence.

But the call fell flat. This means a mere call can not put enough pressure on the Myanmar government and military to stop atrocities against Rohingyas. The world body must take tougher actions like imposing sanction on Myanmar and for this support of China and Russia is a must. The duo should honour their commitment they made in 2014 along with other members of the Security Council and back the Security Council's move to take any strong action to end "the ethnic cleansing" in Myanmar. If they fail to do so, they will be blamed for the UN's failure to prevent the genocide in Myanmar as USA and France were held largely responsible for the global body's failure in Rwanda.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...tions-security-council-action-myanmar-1468975

*Conflict-hit Rakhine a magnet for Chinese cash*
Agence France-Presse
Published at 05:04 PM September 28, 2017




This picture taken on September 27, 2017 shows burnt houses in Maungdaw in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state AFP
*Rakhine, a vast area of farmland, coast and off-shore gas reserves, has been roiled by communal violence for decades, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims*
Battered by global outrage over an army crackdown on Rohingya, Myanmar has found comfort in an old friend – China, an Asian superpower whose unflinching support is tied to the billions it has lavished on ports, gas and oil in violence-hit Rakhine state.

Close to half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in the last month after a militant attack sparked a vicious military campaign that the UN has called “ethnic cleansing”.

China, which is expected to speak later Thursday at a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis, has fallen out of step with much of the world in condemning the army-led crackdown.

“We think the international community should support the efforts of Myanmar in safeguarding the stability of its national development,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said earlier this month.

That support was far from unexpected from an ally who ploughed cash into Myanmar even as its economy choked under a half century of military rule and US sanctions.

Most of those sanctions were rolled back in 2014 as a reward for democratic elections. But those freedoms meant little to Beijing anyway.

Between 1988 and 2014, China invested more than $15 billion in the junta-run country, according to its official Xinhua news agency, mostly in mining and energy. It also propped up the pariah military regime with weapons.

“They have a few major economic projects under way with the Myanmar government,” said Sophie Boisseau du Rocher, Southeast Asia expert at the French Institute for International Relations.

That includes a planned $9 billion deep-sea port and economic zone in Kyaukpyu, south of the epicentre of the recent violence, by Beijing’s massive CITIC investment group slated for 2038.

China has already pumped money into the restive state.

In April this year, a $2.45 billion pipeline from Rakhine to China’s Yunnan province opened, securing a key route for Beijing to import crude from the Middle East.

That same month, Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose ‘One Belt, One Road’ strategy aims to hook in China’s neighbours with huge trade and infrastructure projects, rolled out the red carpet for his Myanmar counterpart Htin Kyaw in Beijing.
*Valuable land*
Rakhine, a vast area of farmland, coast and off-shore gas reserves, has been roiled by communal violence for decades, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims.

Clashes erupted last October when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) carried out deadly attacks on unsuspecting border police.

Swathes of land have been abandoned with scores of Rohingya villages burnt to the ground allegedly by the Burmese army and Rakhine mobs.

“The land freed by the radical expulsion of the Rohingya might have become of interest to the military and its role in leading economic development around the country,” said Saskia Sassen, sociology professor at Columbia University.

“Land has become valuable due to the China projects,” she added.

The government said this week it would manage all fire-damaged land in Rakhine for “redevelopment” purposes, without elaborating.

It is not clear what that might mean for the masses of Rohingya who have been pushed into Bangladesh over the past month, with questions looming about how or when they could return.

Despite its natural resources, Rakhine is one of Myanmar’s poorest states – some 78% of the population live below the poverty line, nearly double the national average.

Ethnic Rakhine, who remain deeply suspicious of the motives of Myanmar’s Bamar majority, have seen scant benefits from increased investment in the area.

There is also discomfort among the public with Chinese influence across Myanmar.

“These massive Chinese projects in Rakhine state have deeply upset local populations who have not seen any positive fallout,” said Alexandra De Mersan, Rakhine expert and researcher at the French School of Oriental Studies (Inalco).

An August report by a government-backed commission on Rakhine’s troubles, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, echoed alarm about who is really benefiting from investments in the area.

But Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that development is a top priority for the region, even as rights groups have warned against investing in Rakhine.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/28/conflict-hit-rakhine-magnet-chinese-cash/

*Economic geopolitics of the Rakhine crisis*
M Sakhawat Hossain | Update: 19:45, Sep 28, 2017 




The total number of Rohingya presently in Bangladesh, driven out of Myanmar recently and previously, exceeds 900,000. This is a difficult crisis for an over-populated country like Bangladesh, though it has no hand in the matter. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appealed to the world conscience and the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) to come forward resolve the matter. 

*Other than Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, no other OIC member has put pressure on the Myanmar government. The European Union has issued strong warnings against ethnic cleansing, but has taken no effective measures to do anything about the issue. The UK has imposed a degree of pressure. The US has condemned the atrocities and has committed assistance for the Rohingya refugees. India has sent relief too. But India, China and Russia have sided with Myanmar. Though the UN has taken a stand supporting Bangladesh, nothing tangible can be done without the cooperation of these big powers.*

The support of these countries in favour of Myanmar is shaped by economic and geopolitical interests in the region. These reasons make Myanmar more important to them than their bilateral relations with Bangladesh. 

Bangladesh has resolved India’s major geographical limitations. We have long-standing economic, military and trade ties with China. The present government took great strides to improve relations with Russia, which include purchase of US$ 1 billion worth of arms and cooperation in the nuclear sector. Both India and Russia lent their full support during Bangladesh war of liberation. 

Despite all of this, they have sided with Myanmar. One must understand the geopolitical and economic stand of these countries in connection with Myanmar to understand their present position concerning the ethnic cleansing and atrocities in Myanmar.
*
In context of India’s ‘Act East’ the country has several projects centred in Myanmar. From a geopolitical stand, one of their main objectives is to counter China’s extended influence in the Bay of Bengal off the shore of the Rakhine state. Their biggest challenge to China here is the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transport Project. The Modi government has released US$ 500 million for the project so far.*

The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project is a project that will connect with the Sittwe seaport in Rakhine State, Myanmar by sea. In Myanmar, it will then link Sittwe seaport to Paletwa via the Kaladan river boat route, and then from Paletwa by road to the India-China border. It will then go on to the Indian state of Mizoram. Once the Kaladan project is complete, South Bay of Bengal will be used to transport cargo from Haldia in Kolkata to Sittwe. China has significant presence here.

*India has two major geopolitical viewpoints in this regard. 
Firstly, it has its eyes on China’s One Belt One Rood project. It wants to curb China’s influence in this region. In the meanwhile, on 17 July for the first time China took unrefined Saudi oil by pipeline up to Kunming. 

India’s second objective is to reduce the use of the Siliguri corridor, referred to as the Chicken Neck in geopolitical jargon, and create a strategic alternative route.*

The Chicken Neck of Siliguri Corridor was the only connecting route between India and its northeast states. It is just an 18 mile stretch between Bangladesh and Nepal and very close to the Chinese border.

It may be recalled that the Akhaura-Tripura road link has been established via Bangladesh’s Bhairab and a railway link is underway. This linkage will reduce India’s dependence on the Siliguri corridor.

The long-standing bone of contention between India and China is China’s claim to a northern part of Arunachal. China still retains this claim. Only recently, Indian and Chinese troops confronted each other at Dokhlam, a connecting point at Bhutan. These tensions have egged India on further for a separate route and the Kaladan project can even be an alternative to the proposed corridor through Bangladesh.

On top of this all, India is on the best of terms with Myanmar’s present military and civil leaders. The Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing paid an eight-day visit to India in 2015. And when the homes of Rohingyas in Rakhine were being burnt down, Myanmar’s naval chief was visited India and won Indian support. Military cooperation between India and Myanmar has been expanded. 

India has proposed selling patrol boats to the Myanmar navy and has also committed selling arms to the military. Delhi’s geostrategic analysts say that while the whole world is castigating Myanmar for its atrocities, India is siding with it in order to counter China’s influence. 

India is rid Rakhine of Rohingyas in its own interests. They regard Rohingyas as a risk factor. Even though the Rohingyas are in such a distressed state, the Indian government has ordered that 40,000 of them be sent back. The Indian judiciary has halted this move for the time being, but their fate in India will be decided upon shortly.

China is still ahead of India in its influence over Myanmar. It has established and begun operating a fuel oil terminal in the Rakhine region. This pipeline is a long-standing plan of China to ensure its geostrategic presence in the Bay of Bengal. 

A natural gas pipeline has been laid down parallel to the oil pipeline. A total of 12 billion cubic metres of gas flows through the pipeline annually, of which 20 per cent is used by Myanmar. US$ 2.5 billion has been invested in this pipeline alone. In all, investment of US$ 18 billion has been planned for the Rakhine state.

There had been a lot of opposition to the Chinese pipeline in the Rakhine state due to land acquisition, environmental harm and disruption of the fishermen’s livelihood. The Myanmar government dealt with this firmly and removed the Rohingyas to settle them in two camps in a camp near Sittwe.

Security has been stepped up for the pipeline not just in Rakhine, but cantonments have been established all over the region. In Rakhine alone there are three regional commands. The 16 Light Infantry Division’s 10 Infantry Battalion is in charge of Operation Clearance against the Rohingyas. The army chief himself is in overall charge. Laying this pipeline, and particularly setting up the oil terminal, is a move by China to bypass the Malacca strait.
* M Sakhawat Hossain is former Election Commissioner, columnist and PhD researcher and can be contacted at hhintlbd@yahoo.com. 
This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla print edition, has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/161171/Economic-geopolitics-of-the-Rakhine-crisis


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## Banglar Bir

*Uncertainty looms over the Rohingya return*
*Abdur Rahman Khan*
The United Nations refugee chief called on Wednesday for the plight of up to 800,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to be resolved, saying the “big question” was whether they would be allowed to return to their homeland.

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, speaking in Geneva on return from a visit to Bangladesh, said that he hoped to discuss the issue of statelessness of Rohingya with Myanmar authorities at a meeting in Geneva next week.
“It is very clear the cause of this crisis is in Myanmar but that the solution is also in Myanmar,” he told a news conference in Geneva. He warned that “the risk of spread of terrorist violence in this particular region is very, very high” unless the issue are resolved.
*The Buddhist Terror*
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused the security forces in Myanmar of waging a “Buddhist terror” against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

Erdogan, who has repeatedly highlighted the plight of the Rohingya, again accused the Myanmar government of carrying out “genocide” against the people in Rakhine state. In a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan lamented the failure of the international community to lay sanctions against the Myanmar government over its campaign.

“There is a very clear genocide over there,” Erdogan said. Erdogan, who has held talks by phone with Myanmar’s key leader the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sang Suu Kyi, added: “Buddhists always get represented as envoys of goodwill.” “At the moment, there is a clear Buddhist terror in Myanmar... I don’t know how you can gloss over this with yoga, schmoga. This is a fact here. And all humanity needs to know this.”

More than 430,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to Bangladesh from a military campaign which the UN says likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the stateless minority. Before the most recent surge of violence, there were over one million Rohingyas in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state in the west of the overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

Erdogan, himself a pious Muslim, takes a sharp interest in the fate of Muslim communities across the world and notably sees himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause. Returning for a key personal theme, he lambasted the international community for being quick to denounce “Islamic terror” but not “Christian terror”, “Jewish terror” or “Buddhist terror”.
*World Bank offers grant*
Meanwhile, the World Bank offered grants to Bangladesh for programmes exclusively for the Rohingya refugees, “The World Bank stands ready to support the government in addressing the growing refugee crisis if the government seeks the World Bank’s assistance,” WB Country Director Qimiao Fan told reporters at his office in Dhaka.

He made the comments while speaking at the release of the Bangladesh Development Update. Zahid Hussain, lead economist of the WB Bangladesh, delivered the keynote presentation. Qimiao said the money would come from a new window opened under the current round of the WB’s cheap loans for the poor countries.

The bank in its first-ever move of such kind has allocated $2 billion for the sub-window for refugees within the International Development Association (IDA) for those seeking refuge in different parts of the world, under which any nation can get a maximum share of $400 million.
*Dhaka wants strong UNSC action*
However, Dhaka wants the UN Security Council to take “strong stance and swift action” to end the “ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar and to restore peace and stability in the strife-torn Rakhine State to facilitate a smooth return of Rohingyas.

“We expect such concrete steps through which the forcibly displaced people from Myanmar can return to their homeland smoothly and without any fear,” Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said on Wednesday.

He made the comment after briefing the Dhaka-based diplomats of the Security Council member countries ahead of the UNSC’s meeting Thursday to discuss the violence in Myanmar and hear a briefing from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the crisis.

Bangladesh is scheduled to put across its case to the UN Security Council debate as countries which are not UNSC members can give their speeches in the open debate beginning Thursday.
Britain, France, the US and four other countries—Sweden, Egypt, Senegal, and Kazakhstan—have requested the meeting after around half a million Rohingyas, fled a military crackdown in Myanmar since August 25 and crossed into Bangladesh.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called the security operation as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and French President Emmanuel Macron last week went further, calling it “genocide.”

The diplomatic briefing held at state guesthouse Meghna was attended by the envoys of five UNSC permanent members—the US, the UK, France, Russia and China—and four non-permanent members—Japan, Italy, Sweden and Egypt.

Amid fear that China and Russia may veto any strong statement or resolution, which may come out from the UNSC meeting, Dhaka had hectic talks with the envoys of the two countries in Dhaka and New York.

Bangladeshi envoys also met foreign ministry officials in Moscow and Beijing to persuade them to refrain from any move against the ongoing humanitarian crisis which is adversely affecting Bangladesh.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx


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## Banglar Bir

*UN: Myanmar violence could spread, displace more Rohingya*
Reuters
Published at 01:47 AM September 29, 2017
Last updated at 01:48 AM September 29, 2017




UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks as the Security Council holds a meeting to discuss the violence in Myanmar at the United Nations in New York on September 28, 2017AFP
*Secretary General condemned the humanitarian nightmare for Myanmar's Rohingya and demanded that the government end military operations and open humanitarian access to its conflict-wracked western region*
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that the violence against Myanamar’s Rohingya Muslims in the northern part of Rakhine state could spread to central Rakhine, where 250,000 more people were at risk of displacement.

Guterres told the UN Security Council during its first public meeting on Myanmar in eight years, that the violence had spiralled into the “world’s fastest developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare.”

“We have received bone-chilling accounts from those who fled – mainly women, children and the elderly,” he said. “These testimonials point to excessive violence and serious violations of human rights, including indiscriminate firing of weapons, the use of landmines against civilians and sexual violence.”








✔@UN_Spokesperson
.@antonioguterres warns situation in #Myanmar is breeding ground for radicalization, calls on Security Council to support peace efforts.
More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in the past month since insurgents attacked security posts near the border, triggering fierce Myanmar military retaliation that the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing.

Sweden, the United States, Britain, France, Egypt, Senegal, and Kazakhstan requested Thursday’s council meeting.

Guterres demanded immediate humanitarian aid access to areas affected by the violence and expressed concern “by the current climate of antagonism towards the United Nations” and aid groups.

“The failure to address this systematic violence could result in a spill-over into central Rakhine, where an additional 250,000 Muslims could potentially face displacement,” Guterres said.
*
“The crisis has generated multiple implications for neighbouring States and the larger region, including the risk of inter-communal strife. We should not be surprised if decades of discrimination and double standards in treatment of the Rohingya create openings for radicalisation,” he said.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/myanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-humanitarian-nightmare-1469506


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## Banglar Bir

*UN: Myanmar violence could spread, displace more Rohingya*
Reuters
Published at 01:47 AM September 29, 2017
Last updated at 01:48 AM September 29, 2017




UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks as the Security Council holds a meeting to discuss the violence in Myanmar at the United Nations in New York on September 28, 2017AFP
*Secretary General condemned the humanitarian nightmare for Myanmar's Rohingya and demanded that the government end military operations and open humanitarian access to its conflict-wracked western region*
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that the violence against Myanamar’s Rohingya Muslims in the northern part of Rakhine state could spread to central Rakhine, where 250,000 more people were at risk of displacement.

Guterres told the UN Security Council during its first public meeting on Myanmar in eight years, that the violence had spiralled into the “world’s fastest developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare.”

“We have received bone-chilling accounts from those who fled – mainly women, children and the elderly,” he said. “These testimonials point to excessive violence and serious violations of human rights, including indiscriminate firing of weapons, the use of landmines against civilians and sexual violence.”








✔@UN_Spokesperson
.@antonioguterres warns situation in #Myanmar is breeding ground for radicalization, calls on Security Council to support peace efforts.
More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in the past month since insurgents attacked security posts near the border, triggering fierce Myanmar military retaliation that the United Nations has branded ethnic cleansing.

Sweden, the United States, Britain, France, Egypt, Senegal, and Kazakhstan requested Thursday’s council meeting.

Guterres demanded immediate humanitarian aid access to areas affected by the violence and expressed concern “by the current climate of antagonism towards the United Nations” and aid groups.

“The failure to address this systematic violence could result in a spill-over into central Rakhine, where an additional 250,000 Muslims could potentially face displacement,” Guterres said.
*
“The crisis has generated multiple implications for neighbouring States and the larger region, including the risk of inter-communal strife. We should not be surprised if decades of discrimination and double standards in treatment of the Rohingya create openings for radicalisation,” he said.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/myanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-humanitarian-nightmare-1469506


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## Banglar Bir

*Finding the humanity*
SAM Staff, September 29, 2017





Thirty one Rohingya Muslim refugees have unwittingly become the epicentre of controversy after a group of hardline nationalists including Buddhist monks attacked a detention centre that they had made their temporary home after a court order handed them over to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The refugees, who were arrested in April along with two suspected Indian traffickers in a boat in Sri Lankan seas, were taken into protective custody and then to a detention centre outside Colombo. This detention centre was then attacked by an extremist group claiming the refugees were “terrorists.” Such a charge is wrong to the point of ludicrousness and they were in Sri Lanka with the knowledge and contest of the Sri Lankan Government.

The Rohingya group fled Myanmar in 2012 and lived in India as refugees for nearly five years before trying to migrate illegally, according to reports. These are people who have already lost their homes and their lives and yet they were not allowed to remain peacefully by an organisation with twisted interests.

It is truly disappointing that a country which has known war and has sent thousands of their own citizens as refugees to neighbouring countries could not find a vestige of empathy for these people. It is high time that Buddhism, a religion that preaches tolerance, humanity and charity, should be used as an excuse by elements that will never stand for the best interests of Sri Lanka or its people.

Too long Sri Lankan authorities have stood by without taking full action against such organisations. This has led to perceived impunity and it is time they are dealt with by the strictest legal provisions and action is taken to ensure these sorts of demonstrations are never allowed again.

Tens of thousands Muslim Rohingya have fled mostly Buddhist Myanmar since 2012. Tension between majority Buddhists and Rohingya, most of whom are denied citizenship, has simmered for decades in Rakhine, but it has exploded several times over the past few years, as old enmities, and Buddhist nationalism, surfaced with the end of decades of harsh military rule.

About 480,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh since October, straining relations between the two neighbours who each see the stateless Muslim minority as the other nation’s problem.

Often they have no choice but to leave their homes, and they must have unhindered access to basic human rights, in particular the right to protection and healthcare.

Behind every statistic, there is a story – of a mother seeking safety and security for her children, a boy forced to be a man and seek work to support his ailing parents, a girl running from rape and abuse by armed combatants, a father seeking a safe and dignified life for his family, a child who wants to be able to play and go to school. Basic needs that are often taken for granted. The dangerous journey they undertake to a better life costs more than anyone of us can afford.

Refugees should receive humane and fair treatment. Their dignity, human rights, safety and wellbeing must be protected, regardless of where they’re coming from or where they’re going.
SOURCE DAILY FT
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/29/finding-the-humanity/


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## Banglar Bir

*Has the UN failed Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims?*
By Jonah FisherBBC News, Yangon




Image copyright AFP
Image caption Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are sheltering in refugee camps in Bangladesh
The UN leadership in Myanmar tried to stop the Rohingya rights issue being raised with the government, sources in the UN and aid community told the BBC.

One former UN official said the head of the UN in Myanmar (Burma) tried to prevent human rights advocates from visiting sensitive Rohingya areas.

More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled an offensive by the military, with many now sheltering in camps in Bangladesh.
The UN in Myanmar "strongly disagreed" with the BBC findings.

In the month since Rohingya Muslims began flowing into Bangladesh, the UN has been at the forefront of the response. It has delivered aid and made robust statements condemning the Burmese authorities.

But sources within the UN and the aid community both in Myanmar and outside have told the BBC that, in the four years before the current crisis, the head of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), a Canadian called Renata Lok-Dessallien:

tried to stop human rights activists travelling to Rohingya areas
attempted to shut down public advocacy on the subject
isolated staff who tried to warn that ethnic cleansing might be on the way.
One aid worker, Caroline Vandenabeele, had seen the warning signs before. She worked in Rwanda in the run-up to the genocide in late 1993 and early 1994 and says when she first arrived in Myanmar she noticed worrying similarities.

"I was with a group of expats and Burmese business people talking about Rakhine and Rohingya and one of the Burmese people just said 'we should kill them all as if they are just dogs'. For me, this level of dehumanisation of humans is one sign that you have reached a level of acceptance in society that this is normal."
UN demands access amid Myanmar 'nightmare'
Myanmar postpones diplomats' Rakhine visit
For more than a year I have been corresponding with Ms Vandenabeele, who has served in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Nepal.

Between 2013 and 2015 she had a crucial job in the UNCT in Myanmar. She was head of office for what is known as the resident co-ordinator, the top UN official in the country, currently Ms Dessallien.

The job gave Ms Vandenabeele a front-row seat as the UN grappled with how to respond to rising tensions in Rakhine state.

Back in 2012, clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists left more than 100 dead and more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims in camps around the state capital, Sittwe.

Truth, lies and Aung San Suu Kyi
'Torture' of Myanmar Muslim minority - UN
Since then, there have been periodic flare-ups and, in the past year, the emergence of a Rohingya militant group. Attempts to deliver aid to the Rohingya have been complicated by Rakhine Buddhists who resent the supply of aid for the Rohingya, at times blocking it and even attacking aid vehicles.




Image copyright REUTERS
Image caption Some Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state have been razed
It presented a complex emergency for the UN and aid agencies, who needed the co-operation of the government and the Buddhist community to get basic aid to the Rohingya.

At the same time they knew that speaking up about the human rights and statelessness of the Rohingya would upset many Buddhists.

So the decision was made to focus on a long-term strategy. The UN and the international community prioritised long-term development in Rakhine in the hope that eventually increased prosperity would lead to reduced tensions between the Rohingya and the Buddhists.
Top UN official in Myanmar to be changed
'Mass Hindu grave' found in Rakhine state
Reality Check: Fake photos of Myanmar violence
For UN staff it meant that publicly talking about the Rohingya became almost taboo. Many UN press releases about Rakhine avoided using the word completely. The Burmese government does not even use the word Rohingya or recognise them as a distinct group, preferring to call them "Bengalis".

During my years reporting from Myanmar, very few UN staff were willing to speak frankly on the record about the Rohingya. Now an investigation into the internal workings of the UN in Myanmar has revealed that even behind closed doors the Rohingyas' problems were put to one side.




*Where have the Rohingya fled to*







Multiple sources in Myanmar's aid community have told the BBC that at high-level UN meetings in Myanmar any question of asking the Burmese authorities to respect the Rohingyas' human rights became almost impossible.
Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya?
Ms Vandenabeele said it soon became clear to everyone that raising the Rohingyas' problems, or warning of ethnic cleansing in senior UN meetings, was simply not acceptable.

"Well you could do it but it had consequences," she said. "And it had negative consequences, like you were no longer invited to meetings and your travel authorisations were not cleared. Other staff were taken off jobs - and being humiliated in meetings. An atmosphere was created that talking about these issues was simply not on."

Repeat offenders, like the head of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination for Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) were deliberately excluded from discussions.

Ms Vandenabeele told me she was often instructed to find out when the UNOCHA representative was out of town so meetings could be held at those times. The head of UNOCHA declined to speak to the BBC but it has been confirmed by several other UN sources inside Myanmar.

Ms Vandenabeele said she was labelled a troublemaker and frozen out of her job for repeatedly warning about the possibility of Rohingya ethnic cleansing. This version of events has not been challenged by the UN.

Attempts to restrict those talking about the Rohingya extended to UN officials visiting Myanmar. Tomas Quintana is now the UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea but for six years, until 2014, held that same role for Myanmar.

Speaking from Argentina, he told me about being met at Yangon airport by Ms Dessallien.

"I received this advice from her - saying you should not go to northern Rakhine state - please don't go there. So I asked why and there was not an answer in any respect, there was just the stance of not trying to bring trouble with the authorities, basically," he said.

"This is just one story, but it demonstrates what was the strategy of the UN Country Team in regards to the issue of the Rohingya."

Mr Quintana still went to northern Rakhine but said Ms Dessallien "disassociated" herself from his mission and he didn't see her again.

One senior UN staffer told me: "We've been pandering to the Rakhine community at the expense of the Rohingya.

"The government knows how to use us and to manipulate us and they keep on doing it - we never learn. And we can never stand up to them because we can't upset the government."




Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Many Rohingya fled by night into Bangladesh leaving everything behind
The UN's priorities in Rakhine were examined in a report commissioned by the UN in 2015 entitled "Slippery Slope: Helping Victims or Supporting Systems of Abuse".

Leaked to the BBC, it is damning of the UNCT approach.

"The UNCT strategy with respect to human rights focuses too heavily on the over-simplified hope that development investment itself will reduce tensions, failing to take into account that investing in a discriminatory structure run by discriminatory state actors is more likely to reinforce discrimination than change it."

There have been other documents with similar conclusions. With António Guterres as the new secretary general in New York, a former senior member of the UN was asked to write a memo for his team in April.

Titled "Repositioning the UN" the two-page document was damning in its assessment, calling the UN in Myanmar "glaringly dysfunctional".

In the weeks that followed the memo, the UN confirmed that Ms Dessallien was being "rotated" but stressed it was nothing to do with her performance. Three months on Ms Dessallien is still the UN's top official there after the Burmese government rejected her proposed successor.

"She has a fair view and is not biased," Shwe Mann, a former senior general and close ally of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told me. "Whoever is biased towards the Rohingyas, they won't like her and they will criticise her."

Ms Dessallien declined to give an interview to the BBC to respond to this article.

The UN in Myanmar said its approach was to be "fully inclusive" and ensure the participation of all relevant experts.

"We strongly disagree with the accusations that the resident co-ordinator 'prevented' internal discussions. The resident co-ordinator regularly convenes all UN agencies in Myanmar to discuss how to support peace and security, human rights, development and humanitarian assistance in Rakhine state," a statement from a UN spokesperson in Yangon said.

On Tomas Quintana's visits to Rakhine, the spokesperson said Ms Dessallien had "provided full support" in terms of personnel, logistics and security.

Ten ambassadors, including from Britain and the United States, wrote unsolicited emails to the BBC when they heard we were working on this report, expressing their support for Ms Dessallien.

There are those who see similarities between the UN's much-criticised role in Sri Lanka and what has happened in Myanmar. Charles Petrie wrote a damning report into the UN and Sri Lanka, and also served as the UN's top official in Myanmar (before being expelled in 2007).

He said the UN's response to the Rohingya over the past few years had been confused and that Ms Dessallien hadn't been given the mandate to bring all of the key areas together.

"I think the key lesson for Myanmar from Sri Lanka is the lack of a focal point. A senior level focal point addressing the situation in Myanmar in its totality - the political, the human rights, the humanitarian and the development. It remains diffuse. And that means over the last few years there have been almost competing agendas."

So might a different approach from the UN and the international community have averted the humanitarian disaster we are seeing now? It's hard to see how it might have deterred the Burmese army's massive response following the 25 August Rohingya militant attack.




Image copyright AFP
Image caption Bangladesh says it is struggling to cope with the refugees
Ms Vandenabeele said she at least believed an early warning system she proposed might have provided some indications of what was about to unfold.

"It's hard to say which action would have been able to prevent this," she told me. "But what I know for sure is that the way it was done was never going to prevent it. The way it was done was simply ignoring the issue."

Mr Quintana said he wished the international community had pushed harder for some sort of transitional justice system as part of the move to a hybrid democratic government.

One source said the UN now appeared to be preparing itself for an inquiry into its response to Rakhine, and this could be similar to the inquiry that came after the controversial end to Sri Lanka's civil war - and which found it wanting.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41420973


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## Banglar Bir

'*One country, however, has expressed unwavering public support for the country and its policies. China supports Burma’s efforts to “uphold peace and stability,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sept. 12. 
That same week, to show support for the regime, Beijing opened a liaison office in Naypyidaw, the capital — a step other powerful nations have been reluctant to take because of the city’s isolation and its association with the former ruling junta.'*




Opinion | The one country that refuses to condemn the ethnic cleansing in Burma
Beijing's response to the crisis shows what a Chinese-led world will look like.
WASHINGTONPOST.COM

Reactions: Like Like:
1


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya: US demands prosecution of Myanmar officials*
*US ambassador's comments to UN Security Council come as more than 50 Rohingya are missing after their boat capsized.*




More than 500,000 Rohingya refugees have now escaped into Bangladesh [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
The United States says action must be taken against Myanmar's military leaders whose operations have forced 500,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee into Bangladesh.

UN chief calls for urgent end to Rohingya 'nightmare'
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, accused Myanmar's authorities on Thursday of carrying out "a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority".

"The time for well-meaning, diplomatic words in this council has passed," she told the UN Security Council, which held its first public meeting on Myanmar since 2009, though it failed to arrive at a resolution.

Haley's comments came as more than 50 Rohingya refugees were missing on Friday after their boat capsized in driving wind, rain, and high seas.

The UN's International Organisation for Migration said about 130 people were believed to have been on board. Bangladesh police said there were 27 survivors, 19 dead, and more than 50 missing.
READ MORE: UN chief calls for urgent end to 'Rohingya nightmare'
Using the country's former name Burma, Haley said, "We must now consider action against Burmese security forces who are implicated in abuses and stoking hatred among their fellow citizens."

It was the first time the United States had called for punishment of Myanmar's military leaders, but she stopped short of threatening to re-impose US sanctions that were suspended under the Obama administration.

Fleeing Rohingya refugees recall Myanmar attacks

Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and has denounced human rights abuses.

Its military launched a sweeping military offensive in response to coordinated attacks on the security forces by Rohingya insurgents in Rakhine state on August 25.

Haley said Myanmar's military must immediately remove and prosecute those accused of abuses. She said it also must allow unhindered humanitarian access for UN agencies and other relief organisations, and "commit to welcoming all who have been displaced to return to their original homes".

In what appeared to be a rebuke to the country's Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Haley said of the Rohingya crisis, "it should shame senior Burmese leaders who have sacrificed so much for an open, democratic Burma". 

Myanmar, however, received strong support from close ally China as well Russia. 

"The international community must be aware of the difficulties faced by the Burmese government, be patient and provide its assistance," Chinese envoy Wu Haitao said.

Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia shifted the blame towards Rohingya fighters for "burning villages". "We must be very careful when we talk about ethnic cleansing and genocide," he said.

Nebenzia warned "excessive pressure" on Myanmar's government over the violence "could only aggravate the situation in the country and around it".
READ MORE: Scores of Rohingya feared drowned after boat capsizes 
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council the violence had spiralled into the "world's fastest developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare".

He previously called the Rohingya crisis "ethnic cleansing" but didn't repeat those words on Thursday. Instead he referred to "a deeply disturbing pattern" of violence leading to "large movements of an ethnic group".

Myanmar's national security adviser said the crisis in Rakhine state "is due to terrorism and is not based on religion", and he urged the Security Council not to take measures that exacerbate the situation. "There is no ethnic cleansing and no genocide in Myanmar," U Thaung Tun said.

Diplomats accompanied by the media will visit northern Rakhine on Monday, U Thaung Tun said.
The Stream - What is really happening to the Rohingya?
Source: News agencies
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/...cution-myanmar-officials-170929043932384.html


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## Banglar Bir

04:19 PM, September 29, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:35 PM, September 29, 2017
*Investigate atrocities on Rohingyas, Bangladesh tells UN*




Fatema, a survivor, cries over the body of her nine month old son near Cox's Bazar on September 29, 2017. The boy had died after a boat with Rohingya refugees capsized in Bay Yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Star Online Report
*Terming the atrocities in Myanmar as a result of “state failure”, Bangladesh has called upon the United Nations Security Council to fully examine the persecution of Rohingyas.*
“Likewise, the new narratives of ‘Muslims-killing-Muslims’ or ‘Muslims-killing- Hindus’ should be seen as the State’s failure or abnegation of its primary responsibility to protect its civilians,” said Ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to United Nations Masud Bin Momen.

In his statement to the UN Security Council Meeting on the “Situation in Myanmar” (under Rule 37) yesterday, he said, “Allegations and counter-allegations of various forms of atrocities, which amount to crimes against humanity, must be fully investigated by a Security Council-mandated fact-finding mission.”

He also alleged that reportedly more than two divisions of armed forces had been deployed by Myanmar in areas near our border since the first week of August 2017.

“Troops were spotted within 200 meters of the zero line, and heavy armaments and artillery are reportedly placed in close proximity of our border. There have been 19 reported incidents of Bangladesh’s air space violation by Myanmar helicopters and drones, including the latest one the day before yesterday,” he added, terming these as “repeated, unwarranted and wilful provocations”.

He also protested the remarks of Myanmar leaders who referred to the alleged extremists as ‘Bengali terrorists’.

“There is perhaps no taker for the baseless and malicious propaganda to project Rohingyas as ‘illegal immigrants from Bangladesh’. This is not only a blatant denial of the ethnic identity of the Rohingyas, but also an affront to Bengalis all over the world. This has to stop,” he added.

He also called upon the Council to examine whether military operations and consequent developments in northern Rakhine State point to any "threat to peace" and "breach of the peace" and what could be done to restore peace.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/m...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

*Exodus of hungry, haunted Rohingya continues*
Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 02:29 PM September 29, 2017
Last updated at 02:32 PM September 29, 2017




Rohingya refuge seekers arriving in Shahporir Dwip are taken to Hariakhali Government Primary School in Teknaf's Sabrang union on September 29, 2017 *Abdul Aziz*
*Thousands of Rohingya continue to flee Myanmar*
Thousands of Rohingya – hungry, tired and traumatised from their harrowing experience in Myanmar and arduous journey to Bangladesh – have continued to gather at Teknaf’s Shahporir Dwip to flee persecution in Rakhine state which the UN has labelled as ethnic cleansing.

In the last four days, nearly 6,500 Rohingya men, women and children have landed there. Many of them, having lost their parents, children and relatives, were still haunted by the painful memories.

Members of the Bangladesh army were collecting information of the refuge seekers who were taken to Hariakhali Government Primary School in Teknaf’s Sabrang union. From there, they were given aid and sent to various camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf.

Dos Mohammad, 35, came from Maungdaw’s Sikdar Para with five members of his family. He crossed the river on a boat with 25 others Wednesday morning. He had to pay Tk10,000 for the ride.

Mariam Begum, waiting for relief on the school grounds, said the Myanmar army was continuing its persecution in Rakhine state. They torched houses couple of days ago. She said she was happy to have made it to Bangladesh with other members of her family.

But Abdullah was not so fortunate. The man from Ghonapara said he had to leave behind his parents and siblings. He crossed the Naf River with his two sons, daughter and wife.

“About a week ago, the army told us not to escape. But later, they made mass arrests and killed people. They raped and murdered the women and set our houses on fire,” he said, visibly shaken and exhausted.

Myanmar army’s violent offensive targeting the Rohingya followed insurgent attacks on police posts and an army base on August 25. More than half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since then.

The military and local mob have been burning and looting Rohingya villages while raping and killing their residents.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has institutionalised discrimination against the mainly-Muslim ethnic group, which it does not recognise and see as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Before the latest influx, Bangladesh already hosted around 400,000 Rohingya. Dhaka has been successfully building up global support to compel Naypyitaw to allow the Rohingya to return home.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/09/29/rohingya-exodus-continues/


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## EastBengalPro

*http://www.prothom-alo.com/opinion/article/1333816/রাশিয়াও-কেন-মিয়ানমারের-পক্ষে*

_রাশিয়াও কেন মিয়ানমারের পক্ষে_

*আগের নিবন্ধে রাশিয়ার প্রসঙ্গ টানা হয়নি। কারণ, বঙ্গোপসাগরে চীন ও ভারতের টানাপোড়েনে রাশিয়া এখন পর্যন্ত যুক্ত নয়। মিয়ানমারকে রাশিয়ার সমর্থন দেওয়ার বিষয়টি ওই দুই দেশের মতো সরাসরি ভূরাজনীতির প্রেক্ষাপটে হয়তো তেমন গুরুত্বপূর্ণ নয়, কিন্তু পরোক্ষ যুক্ততা রয়েছে। ভৌগোলিক অবস্থানের কারণে ভারত মহাসাগর তথা প্রশান্ত মহাসাগরীয় অঞ্চলে রাশিয়ার শক্তি প্রদর্শনের বিষয়টি নেই বললেই চলে। মিয়ানমারে রাশিয়ার স্বার্থ হচ্ছে সেখানে অর্থনৈতিক প্রভাব বিস্তার করা, বিশেষ করে আণবিক শক্তি রপ্তানি ও সামরিক সরঞ্জামাদি রপ্তানির মাধ্যমে। রাশিয়া ও ভারত—দুটি দেশই মিয়ানমারে চীনের প্রভাব কমিয়ে নিজেদের অবস্থান জোরদারে ব্যস্ত।*

*এটা সবারই জানা যে মিয়ানমারের দীর্ঘদিনের একঘরে থাকার বিষয়টির অবসান ঘটে ২০১৫ সালে নির্বাচন ও সেই নির্বাচনে অং সান সু চির বিজয়ের পর। তবে সু চির দল রাষ্ট্রীয় ক্ষমতায় থাকলেও তাঁর কাছে পূর্ণ ক্ষমতা নেই। বলা যায়, এখনো মিয়ানমারের সামরিক বাহিনীর ক্ষমতা কিছু কিছু জায়গায় প্রায় একচ্ছত্র। ১৯৯০-এর পর সামরিক বাহিনীর শক্তি বেড়েছে বহুগুণ। উত্তর-পূর্ব মিয়ানমারের অঞ্চলে ‘বিদ্রোহ’ মোকাবিলায় এই শক্তি কাজে লাগানো হচ্ছে। অং সান সু চির চেষ্টায় ১৪টি বিদ্রোহী বাহিনী যুদ্ধবিরতি ঘোষণা করলেও আটটি শক্তিশালী বাহিনী এখনো যুদ্ধ করে যাচ্ছে। স্বাধীনতা বা অধিকতর স্বায়ত্তশাসনের দাবিতে এই যুদ্ধ চলছে। জানা যায়, চীনের প্রভাবে বর্তমান যুদ্ধবিরতিগুলো সম্ভব হয়েছে। কারণ, এসব বিদ্রোহী মূলত চীনের সমর্থন নিয়েই মিয়ানমার বাহিনীর সঙ্গে লড়াই করে আসছিল।*

*চীন গত প্রায় পাঁচ দশক এককভাবে মিয়ানমারকে সব ধরনের সহযোগিতা করলেও প্রয়োজনে মিয়ানমারের ওপর চাপ প্রয়োগের কৌশল হিসেবে বিদ্রোহীদের সহায়তা দিয়ে আসছিল। বর্তমানেও সেই একই অবস্থা বজায় রয়েছে। মিয়ানমারের ওপর নিষেধাজ্ঞার কারণে সামরিক বাহিনীসহ দেশটির অর্থনীতি কার্যত চীনের ওপর নির্ভরশীল ছিল। তবে একুশ শতকের শুরু থেকে চীনের প্রভাব কমতে শুরু করে। মিয়ানমারের ব্যাপারে চীনের যে দ্বিমুখী নীতি, তা মেনে নেওয়া ছাড়া একসময় মিয়ানমারের আর কোনো পথ ছিল না। সেই অবস্থার অবসান ঘটে মিয়ানমার উন্মুক্ত হওয়ার পর। ২০১৫ সালের পর থেকে মিয়ানমার চীনের প্রভাব কমাতে বেশ সতর্কভাবে এগোচ্ছে। চীনের প্রভাব কমার কারণেই পূর্ব বঙ্গোপসাগরে ভারত তার অবস্থান শক্ত করতে উদ্যোগী হয়েছে। পূর্ব-পশ্চিম থেকে চীন ভারতকে ঘিরে ফেলতে পারে, এই ভয়ে ভারত ভীত। পূর্বে রাখাইনে চীন গভীর সমুদ্রবন্দর এবং গ্যাস ও জ্বালানি তেলের টার্মিনাল তৈরি করেছে, আবার ঠিক একইভাবে পশ্চিমে পাকিস্তানের বন্দর কাসেম থেকে গ্যাস ও জ্বালানি করিডর চীনে নিয়ে যাওয়া হয়েছে। তৈরি হচ্ছে রেলওয়ে লাইন। তবে রাখাইন থেকে চীন পর্যন্ত রেলওয়ে লাইন বিছানো প্রাথমিক পরিকল্পনায় থাকলেও আপাতত স্থগিত রয়েছে পরিবেশবাদী ও স্থানীয় অঞ্চলের বাসিন্দাদের আন্দোলনের কারণে।*

*চীন-মিয়ানমার আগের সম্পর্কে কিছুটা ফাটল ধরলেও মিয়ানমারের অভ্যন্তরীণ নিরাপত্তার ওপর চীনের যেমন প্রভাব রয়েছে, তেমনি চীনের অস্ত্র ব্যবহার করে বিদ্রোহী গোষ্ঠীগুলো লড়াই চালিয়ে যাচ্ছে। বলা হয়, এখনো কাচিন বিদ্রোহী, টাং ন্যাশনাল লিবারেশন আর্মি, সান স্টেট আর্মি ও ওয়াহ টেস্ট আর্মিকে চীন সহায়তা জুগিয়ে যাচ্ছে। এই সংগঠনগুলো তাদের জায়গায় নিরাপদ অঞ্চল তৈরি করেছে। অতি সম্প্রতি এশিয়া টাইমস পত্রিকায় বার্টিন লিন্টার তাঁর এক নিবন্ধে চীন-মিয়ানমারের সম্পর্কের ফাটলের বিষয়টি বিস্তারিতভাবে আলোচনা করেছেন। তিনি উদাহরণ টেনে এ বছরের এপ্রিল মাসে সান প্রদেশের কোকাং অঞ্চলে বিদ্রোহীদের বিরুদ্ধে অভিযানে মিয়ানমারের বাহিনীর ক্ষয়ক্ষতির চিত্র তুলে ধরেছেন। ওই যুদ্ধে ৩২ জন সামরিক কর্মকর্তা ও ৪১২ জন সৈনিক মৃত্যুবরণ করেন। এ ছাড়া চীনের সীমান্তসংলগ্ন ওই অঞ্চলে ২০১৫ সালের শুরুর দিকে কয়েক মাসের সংঘর্ষে মিয়ানমার বাহিনীর ৬৬ লাইট ইনফেন্ট্রি ডিভিশন প্রায় নিশ্চিহ্ন হয়ে গিয়েছিল। কাচিন রাজ্য বিদ্রোহীদের বিরুদ্ধে অভিযানে সেনাবাহিনীকে বিমান হামলা করতে হয়েছে। হামলায় প্রথমবারের মতো রাশিয়ার অত্যাধুনিক জঙ্গি বিমান মিগ ২৯ ও এমআই ৩৫ গানশিপ ব্যবহার করা হয়।*

*বর্তমানে বিভিন্ন অঞ্চলে বিদ্রোহীদের সঙ্গে চলমান যুদ্ধে সেনাশক্তির বদলে বিমানশক্তি ব্যবহৃত হচ্ছে। যে কারণে মিয়ানমারের বিমানবাহিনীকে রাশিয়ার দ্বারস্থ হতে হচ্ছে। বর্তমানে চীনের ওপর মিয়ানমার খুব একটা ভরসা রাখতে পারছে না, বিশেষ করে কারেন, কাচিন ও সান অঞ্চলের বিদ্রোহীদের প্রতি চীনের পরোক্ষ প্রভাবের কারণে। চীনের সঙ্গে মিয়ানমারের অভিন্ন সীমান্তদৈর্ঘ্য ২ হাজার ১৯২ কিলোমিটার। বর্তমানে যে দুটি অঞ্চলে বিদ্রোহীদের সঙ্গে সবচেয়ে বেশি সংঘর্ষ হচ্ছে, সেই কাচিন ও সান রাজ্যের অভিন্ন সীমান্ত রয়েছে চীনের সঙ্গে। এই রাজ্য দুটিতে একাধিক বিদ্রোহী গ্রুপ সক্রিয় রয়েছে এবং তাদের মুক্তাঞ্চল রয়েছে। সান রাজ্যে রয়েছে ইউনাইটেড ওয়াহ স্টেট আর্মি এবং তাদের দখলে রয়েছে প্রায় ১৫ হাজার বর্গকিলোমিটার এলাকা। ‘পাঙ্গসাং’ নামক চীন-মিয়ানমার (সান রাজ্য) সীমান্ত শহরটি ওই অঞ্চলের অঘোষিত রাজধানী হিসেবে পরিচিত (সূত্র: বার্টিন লিন্টার: গ্রেট গেম ইস্ট ইন্ডিয়া, চায়না অ্যান্ড দ্য স্ট্রাগল ফর এশিয়াস মোস্ট ভোলাটাইল ফ্রন্টিয়ার)। এই ইউনাইটেড ওয়াহ স্টেট আর্মি শুধু ক্ষুদ্র অস্ত্রে সজ্জিত নয়, তাদের রয়েছে আর্মার্ড পারসোনেল ক্যারিয়ারসহ অন্যান্য ভারী অস্ত্র এবং একাধিক গোলন্দাজ বাহিনী।*

*এমন পরিস্থিতিতেও মিয়ানমার চীনের বলয়ের বাইরে যেতে পারছে না। খুব শিগগির পারবে বলেও মনে হয় না। তবে সামরিক বাহিনীতে চীনের প্রভাব কমাতে মিয়ানমার সামরিক সরঞ্জামের জন্য বিভিন্ন দেশের দ্বারস্থ হতে শুরু করেছে, যার মধ্যে সবার ওপরে রয়েছে রাশিয়া। হেলিকপ্টার, গানশিপ ও মিগ-২৯ কেনার কথা আগেই বলেছি। আরও বেশ কিছু মিগ-২৯ জঙ্গি বিমান কেনার বিষয়টি প্রক্রিয়াধীন রয়েছে। বিমানবাহিনীর সঙ্গে বাণিজ্য সম্প্রসারণের লক্ষ্যে রাশিয়া মিয়ানমারের বাণিজ্যিক শহর ইয়াঙ্গুনে ‘মিগ’ কোম্পানির অফিস খুলেছে। মিয়ানমারের ছাত্রদের উচ্চশিক্ষার ক্ষেত্রে রাশিয়া ভূমিকা পালন করছে। ১৯৯৩ থেকে ২০১৩ সাল পর্যন্ত রাশিয়ায় ৪ হাজার ৭০৫ জন ছাত্র উচ্চশিক্ষা শেষ করেছেন। এই ছাত্রদের মধ্যে ৭০০ ছাত্র পারমাণবিক বিদ্যায় পড়াশোনা করেছেন।*

*বর্তমানে রাশিয়া শুধু অস্ত্রের সরবরাহ করছে না, অন্যান্য ক্ষেত্রেও এবং বিশেষভাবে অর্থনৈতিক সহায়তা ও প্রযুক্তি রপ্তানির ক্ষেত্র তৈরি করছে। ২০১৩ সালে পারমাণবিক চুল্লি তৈরির ব্যাপারে রাশিয়ার সঙ্গে মিয়ানমারের সমঝোতা স্মারক সই হয়েছে। এর আওতায় দুটি পারমাণবিক বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্র তৈরির চুক্তি হয়ে গেছে। রাশিয়ার নজর রয়েছে মিয়ানমারের তেল ও গ্যাসক্ষেত্রগুলোর দিকে। রাশিয়ার সরকারি কোম্পানি ‘গ্যাজপ্রম’ অফিস খুলেছে ইয়াঙ্গুনে। গত মে মাসে মিয়ানমারের প্রেসিডেন্ট হিতিন কেইও রাশিয়ায় দেশটির প্রেসিডেন্ট ভ্লাদিমির পুতিনের সঙ্গে জ্বালানি তেল ও গ্যাস উত্তোলনে রাশিয়ার বিনিয়োগ ও প্রযুক্তি দিয়ে সহযোগিতার ক্ষেত্র সম্প্রসারণের আলোচনা করেছে। এ ক্ষেত্রে মিয়ানমারের প্রেসিডেন্ট রাশিয়াকে সব ধরনের বিশেষ সুযোগ-সুবিধা দেওয়ার অঙ্গীকার করেছেন।*

*ভারতের কাছ থেকে অস্ত্র সংগ্রহের লক্ষ্যে মিয়ানমারের সেনা কর্মকর্তারা ভারত সফর করেছেন। রাশিয়া ও ভারত—এই দুই দেশই মিয়ানমারের সামরিক কর্মকর্তাদের সামরিক প্রশিক্ষণ দিচ্ছে। কিন্তু পরিস্থিতি যা-ই হোক, মিয়ানমার চীন থেকে সম্পূর্ণভাবে মুখ ফিরিয়ে নিতে পারবে না। চীনের সঙ্গে মিয়ানমারের দীর্ঘ সীমান্ত ও বিদ্রোহের কারণে ভূকৌশলগত এই নরম-গরম সম্পর্ক বজায় থাকবে বলেই মনে হয়।*

*ওপরের আলোচনার পরিপ্রেক্ষিতে এটা পরিষ্কার যে বর্তমান রোহিঙ্গা সংকটকে জাতীয় স্বার্থের বিবেচনায় ভারত, চীন বা রাশিয়া মোটেই গুরুত্বপূর্ণ বলে বিবেচনা করছে না। বিশেষ করে, রাখাইন ও উত্তর মিয়ানমারে ভূকৌশলগত গুরুত্ব ও বিশাল বিনিয়োগ নিয়ে প্রতিযোগিতার কারণে ভারত ও চীনের কাছে এই সংকটে বাংলাদেশের পক্ষ নেওয়ার চেয়ে মিয়ানমারের পক্ষ নেওয়া বেশি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ বলে বিবেচিত হচ্ছে। বিভিন্ন তথ্য ও বিশ্লেষণে সেটাই দেখা যাচ্ছে। ভারতের একাধিক বিশ্লেষকও মনে করেন, বাংলাদেশের এ ক্ষেত্রে কিছু আশা করাও উচিত নয়।*

*রোহিঙ্গাদের সঙ্গে জঙ্গিদের যোগাযোগ অথবা আরসা জঙ্গি তৎপরতা চালাচ্ছে—মিয়ানমারের এমন অবস্থানের সঙ্গে চীন প্রকাশ্যে সায় দেয়নি। কিন্তু এই অঞ্চলে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের উপস্থিতিকে চীন বিপজ্জনক হিসেবে বিবেচনা করে। ‘উইঘুর’ অঞ্চলে মুসলিম বিদ্রোহীদের দমাতে চীন এখনো হিমশিম খাচ্ছে। কাজেই ভবিষ্যতে কোনো সময়ে রাখাইনে কাচিন, কারেন অথবা ওয়াহ স্টেট আর্মির মতো শক্ত বিদ্রোহী গ্রুপ দাঁড়ালে তা চীনের স্বার্থপরিপন্থী হবে। অন্যদিকে ভারতের বহু রাজনৈতিক ও আন্তর্জাতিক ভূকৌশল বিশেষজ্ঞ মনে করেন, রাখাইনে রোহিঙ্গাদের উপস্থিতি ভবিষ্যতে জঙ্গি তৎপরতার জন্য সহায়ক হলে তা ভারতের স্বার্থের বিরুদ্ধে যাবে।*

*রোহিঙ্গা প্রশ্নে এই তিন দেশ যে বাংলাদেশের পাশে থেকে মিয়ানমারকে চাপ দেবে না, তা প্রায় নিশ্চিত। এরপরও রাখাইন অঞ্চলে রোহিঙ্গাদের ফিরিয়ে নেওয়া এবং নাগরিক অধিকার ফিরিয়ে দিতে বাংলাদেশের দাবির বিষয়ে অন্তত মধ্যস্থতার উদ্যোগে রাজি করাতে বাংলাদেশের কূটনৈতিক প্রচেষ্টা অব্যাহত রাখতে হবে। এই তিন দেশকে বুঝতে হবে যে একটি দুর্বল জনগোষ্ঠীকে শক্তিশালী রাষ্ট্রীয় সন্ত্রাসের মুখে নিশ্চিহ্ন হতে দেওয়া যায় না।*

*যাহোক, রোহিঙ্গা ইস্যু যেমন বাংলাদেশের জন্য সংকট সৃষ্টি করেছে, তেমনি মিয়ানমারকে ঘিরে এ অঞ্চলে বৃহৎ শক্তিগুলোর ভূরাজনৈতিক প্রতিযোগিতা বাড়ানোর আশঙ্কা রয়েছে। সে ক্ষেত্রে মিয়ানমারের রাখাইন ও রোহিঙ্গা পরিস্থিতি আরও জটিল হওয়ার আশঙ্কা রয়েছে এবং তেমন কিছু হলে এর মাশুল গুনতে হবে বাংলাদেশকে।*

*এম সাখাওয়াত হোসেন: সাবেক নির্বাচন কমিশনার, কলাম লেখক ও পিএইচডি গবেষক।*

*hhintlbd@yahoo.com*


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## Banglar Bir

*UN official in Myanmar tried to stop rights groups from visiting Rakhine*
Tribune Desk
Published at 12:07 PM September 29, 2017
Last updated at 08:32 PM September 29, 2017





Renata Lok-Dessallien, head of the United Nations Country Team in Myanmar *UNFPA*
*The UN in Myanmar 'strongly disagreed' with the BBC findings*
A former UN official allegedly said the head of the UN in Myanmar tried to stop human rights advocates from visiting sensitive Rohingya areas.

In the wake of almost 501,800 Rohingya fleeing the crackdown by Myanmar military and crossing over to Bangladesh for shelter, the BBC has found out questionable steps taken by the UN in Myanmar fours years ago which have worked as a catalyse to the current crisis.

Sources from within the UN and the aid community both in Myanmar and outside have talked to the BBC’s Jonah Fisher and confirmed the matter.

They said the head of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), a Canadian called Renata Lok-Dessallien who had earlier been posted to Bangladesh, “tried to stop human rights activists travelling to Rohingya areas; attempted to shut down public advocacy on the subject; and isolated staff who tried to warn that ethnic cleansing might be on the way.”

The UN in Myanmar “strongly disagreed” with the BBC findings, writes Fisher.

He quotes an aid worker, Caroline Vandenabeele, who had a “crucial job” in the UNCT in Myanmar between 2013 and 2015.

According to Vandenabeele, the crackdown on the Rohingya in 2012 which led 100,000 Rohingya to the camps “presented a complex emergency for the UN and aid agencies.” They needed the assistance of the Myanmar government and the Buddhist community to get basic aid to the Rohingya. At the same time they were aware that “speaking up about the human rights and statelessness of the Rohingya would upset many Buddhists.”

Ultimately, it came to a point where talking about the Rohingya became “almost taboo” for the UN staff.

The BBC’s Jonah Fisher writes: “During my years reporting from Myanmar, very few UN staff were willing to speak frankly on the record about the Rohingya. Now an investigation into the internal workings of the UN in Myanmar has revealed that even behind closed doors the Rohingyas’ problems were put to one side.

“Multiple sources in Myanmar’s aid community have told the BBC that at high-level UN meetings in Myanmar any question of asking the Burmese [Myanmarese] authorities to respect the Rohingyas’ human rights became almost impossible.”

Vandenabeele told the BBC that it soon became clear to everyone that raising the Rohingyas’ problems, or “warning of ethnic cleansing in senior UN meetings, was simply not acceptable.”

Fisher says Vandenabeele told him that she was often instructed to find out when the UNOCHA representative was out of town so meetings could be held at those times.

Fisher writes: “The head of UNOCHA declined to speak to the BBC but it has been confirmed by several other UN sources inside Myanmar. Vandenabeele said she was labelled a troublemaker and frozen out of her job for repeatedly warning about the possibility of Rohingya ethnic cleansing. This version of events has not been challenged by the UN.”

Attempts to restrict those talking about the Rohingya extended to UN officials visiting Myanmar, Fisher adds.

Another senior UN staffer told Fisher: “We’ve been pandering to the Rakhine community at the expense of the Rohingya.

“The government knows how to use us and to manipulate us and they keep on doing it – we never learn. And we can never stand up to them because we can’t upset the government.”
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...reventing-rights-groups-visit-rohingya-areas/


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## Banglar Bir

*Analysis by analogy: Myanmar is not Syria*
by Tony Cartalucci | Published: 00:05, Sep 30,2017 | Updated: 23:18, Sep 29,2017




MANY geopolitical analysts and commentators have noted many worthwhile similarities between the Syrian crisis and the one now unfolding in the Southeast Asian state of Myanmar. However, what is different about these two crises is just as important as what is the same.
*The similarities *
PARTICULAR focus has been placed on evidence emerging that US-ally Saudi Arabia is serving as an intermediary fuelling militancy in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. The militants, however, consist of a foreign armed, funded, and led cadre, constituting a numerically negligible minority of the Rohingya population they claim to represent, and are in fact no more representative of the Rohingya people than militants of al-Qaeda and the so-called ‘Islamic State’ are representative of Syria or Iraq’s Sunni Muslim populations.

While it is crucial to point out the foreign-funded nature of a militancy attempting to co-opt the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, it is equally important to understand precisely where this militancy fits into Saudi Arabia’s and ultimately its American sponsors’ larger plans.

Another similarity pointed out by analysts is the use of US and European-funded fronts posing as nongovernmental organisations. These include larger organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as organisations on the ground in Myanmar funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy, its various subsidiaries including the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, USAID, and Open Society.

These organisations are intentionally seeking to control the narrative, inflame rather than smooth over tensions, and create a pretext for wider and more direct intervention in Myanmar’s expanding crisis by western nations.

Analysts and commentators, however, cannot stop here. They must commit to equal due diligence in unravelling what stands behind Myanmar’s government — who it was that assisted them into power during the relatively recent 2016 elections, who built up their political networks across the country over the course of several decades, and what role their actions play in Western designs for the nation’s near and intermediate future.
*The differences* 
SYRIA’S government is the creation and perpetuation of localised special interests — backed by various alliances ranging from the former Soviet Union in the past, to Russia, Iran, and to a lesser degree China in present day.

The United States and its Arab partners — particularly Saudi Arabia — have engineered militancy along and within Syria’s borders beginning in 2011 for the explicit purpose of overthrowing Syria’s government and dividing what remains of the nation among proxies and client regimes controlled from Washington, London, and Brussels.

In Myanmar, while the US and its Saudi partners are apparently fuelling militancy among the Rohingya population, it was the US itself who for decades built up the political networks of the current ruling regime, with Aung San Suu Kyi a whole-cloth creation of Western media narratives, immense funding and political support, and a carefully crafted facade to obfuscate from the public for decades the true, nationalist and even genocidal nature of Suu Kyi’s supposedly ‘Buddhist nationalist’ support base.
An extensive 2006 report by Burma Campaign UK titled, ‘Failing the People of Burma?’ would reveal how virtually every facet of Myanmar’s current government is a creation of Western political and financial support. (Note: The US and the UK still often refer to Myanmar by its British colonial name, ‘Burma’).

*The report would lay this out in great detail, stating:*
‘THE restoration of democracy in Burma is a priority US policy objective in Southeast Asia. To achieve this objective, the United States has consistently supported democracy activists and their efforts both inside and outside Burma…Addressing these needs requires flexibility and creativity. 

Despite the challenges that have arisen, United States Embassies Rangoon and Bangkok as well as Consulate General Chiang Mai are fully engaged in pro-democracy efforts. The United States also supports organisations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute (nb no support given since 2004) and Internews, working inside and outside the region on a broad range of democracy promotion activities. US-based broadcasters supply news and information to the Burmese people, who lack a free press. US programs also fund scholarships for Burmese who represent the future of Burma. The United States is committed to working for a democratic Burma and will continue to employ a variety of tools to assist democracy activists.’

The 36-page report would enumerate US and European programmes in detail — ranging from the creation and funding of media, to organising political parties and devising campaign strategies for elections, to even scholarships abroad to indoctrinate an entire class of political proxies to be used well into the future upon transforming the nation into a client state. Virtually every aspect of life in Myanmar was targeted and overturned by western-backed networks over the course of several decades and an untold amount of foreign-funding.

Similar evidence reveals that many of the so-called ‘Buddhist’ nationalist groups also enjoy a close relationship with US and European interests and that they played a pivotal role in bringing Suu Kyi to power.

Additionally, many in Suu Kyi’s current government are the recipients of US-funded training. Narratives concerning the current Rohingya crisis are being crafted by Suu Kyi’s ‘Minister of Information,’ Pe Myint.

Pe Myint was revealed in a 2016 article in the Myanmar Times titled, ‘Who’s who: Myanmar’s new cabinet,’ to have participated in training funded by the US State Department. The article would report (emphasis added):

‘Formerly a doctor with a degree from the Institute of Medicine, U Pe Myint changed careers after 11 years and received training as a journalist at _the Indochina Media Memorial Foundation in Bangkok_. He then embarked on a career as a writer, penning dozens of novels. He participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 1998, and was also editor-in-chief of The People’s Age Journal. He was born in Rakhine State in 1949.’

The Indochina Media Memorial Foundation is revealed in a US diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks as fully funded by the US state department through various and familiar intermediaries. The cable titled, ‘An Overview of Northern Thailand-Based Burmese Media Organisations.’ would explicitly state (emphasis added): ‘Other organisations, some with a scope beyond Burma, also add to the educational opportunities for Burmese journalists. The Chiang Mai-based Indochina Media Memorial Foundation, for instance, last year completed training courses for Southeast Asian reporters that included Burmese participants. _Major funders for journalism training programs in the region include the NED, Open Society Institute, and several European governments and charities.’
_
Many of those among Myanmar-based US-funded ‘NGOs’ apparently opposing Suu Kyi’s government are in fact alumni of the same US-funded programs as many members of the current government.
In essence, the primary difference between Myanmar and Syria is that while in Syria the US is fuelling militancy to topple a government beyond its reach and influence, in Myanmar, the US is manipulating the entire nation via two vectors its controls entirely — a militancy it is growing on one side, and a political establishment it has created from whole-cloth on the other.
*Moving beyond analysis by analogy*
HELPING readers understand various aspects of the current crisis in Myanmar by comparing it to various aspects of Syria’s ongoing conflict can be instructive. However, drawing entire conclusions about the implications of the Myanmar conflict by simply assuming it is repeat of Western efforts in Syria is fundamentally flawed.

While the US seeks to divide and destroy the entire state of Syria, its efforts in Myanmar are concentrated to the western state of Rakhine with little possibility of spreading because of Myanmar’s demographics.

This is also precisely where China has invested deeply in its One Belt, One Road project, with a seaport in Sittwe, central Rakhine, and road, rail, and pipeline projects slated to expand onward toward China’s border and eventually Kunming.

Opposition in the form of local NGOs underwritten by US State Department cash, or violence covertly backed by the US and its intermediaries, have attempted to systematically disrupt Chinese infrastructure projects around the globe, including in Myanmar. Chinese-built dams in Myanmar are opposed by networks of US-funded NGOs, militant groups accused of receiving US backing have attacked Chinese projects throughout the nation, and the current conflict in Rakhine fuelled on both sides by the US threaten to not only derail Chinese projects there, but may even serve as a pretext for positioning Western forces inside Myanmar — a nation that directly borders China.

Placing American forces — in any capacity — along China’s borders has been a long-term stated goal of US policymakers for decades. From the Vietnam War-era Pentagon Papers to the 2000 Project for a New American Century report, ‘Rebuilding America’s Defences,’ to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s ‘Pivot to Asia’ policy, a singular theme of encircling and containing China either with client states obedient to Washington, or chaos all along China’s peripheries has prevailed.

It is clear that American designs in Syria and Myanmar employ similar networks and tactics and that both conflicts fit into a larger, global strategy. There are undoubtedly familiar themes emerging from both conflicts. However, what is different about Syria and Myanmar’s conflicts is just as important.
Analysts and commentators must account for the decades of US and European funding that placed the current government of Myanmar into power. 

They must account for the surgical nature of destabilisation confined to Myanmar’s Rakhine state versus the full-spectrum destabilisation being fuelled in Syria. They must also identify the motives underpinning US designs in Myanmar.Simply assuming that a US-Saudi-backed militancy exists to topple a government rather than grease the wheels for another, more indirect objective — one that perhaps even aims at preserving Myanmar’s current government rather than toppling it by pinning blame on the nation’s still powerful and independent military — will only aid rather than impede injustice. Analogies drawn from two different conflicts are only helpful in simplifying explanations and conclusions analysis by deep research have already arrived at.

New Eastern Outlook, September 26. Tony Cartalucci, a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, writes especially for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/25131/analysis-by-analogy-myanmar-is-not-syria


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## Banglar Bir

*US ups pressure on Myanmar as refugee exodus tops 502,000*
SAM Report, September 30, 2017




A woman covers the face of a Rohingya refugees body on Inani beach, near Cox’s Bazar after their boat capsized. At least 19 drowned on Sept 28 with scores more feared dead after the boat went over off Bangladesh. Photo: AFP/Fred Dufour

More than 50 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were missing after their boat capsized, with 20 confirmed dead, Bangladesh police said on Friday, as a new surge in the numbers fleeing a Myanmar military campaign took the total to more than half a million. Reports Reuters.

The refugees drowned in heavy seas off Bangladesh late on Thursday while, in New York, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar over violence against Rohingya Muslims.

It was the first time the United States had called for punishment of Myanmar’s military, but she stopped short of threatening to reimpose US sanctions which were suspended under the Obama administration.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and has denounced rights abuses.

Its military launched a sweeping offensive in response to coordinated attacks on the security forces by Rohingya insurgents in the north of Rakhine State on Aug. 25.

Refugees arriving in Myanmar have told of attacks and arson by the military and Buddhist vigilantes aimed at driving Rohingya out.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council the violence had spiraled into the “world’s fastest developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare”.

Bangladeshi border officials said more refugees had arrived over the past day or two after the number seemed to be tailing off. Aid groups said 502,000 refugees had arrived in Bangladesh since late August.

*20 bodies recovered, including 12 children*
“It stopped for a while but they have started coming again,” Colonel Anisul Haque, head of the Bangladeshi border guards in the town of Teknaf, told Reuters, adding that about 1,000 people had landed at the main arrival point on the coast on Thursday.

The refugee boat that capsized went over in driving wind and rain and high seas. Police said 20 bodies had been recovered, 12 of them children, while 27 people survived and more than 50 were missing.

Survivor, Abdul Kalam, 55, said at least 100 people had been on board. His wife, two daughters and a grandson were among the dead, he said.

Kalam said armed Buddhists had come to his village about a week ago and taken away livestock and food. He said villagers had been summoned to a military office and told there were no such people as Rohingya in Myanmar. After that he decided to leave and headed to the coast with his family, avoiding military camps on the way.

*US accuses Myanmar of ethnic cleansing*
In a sharp ramping up of the pressure on Myanmar, also known as Burma, Haley echoed UN accusations that the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Rakhine State was ethnic cleansing.

“We cannot be afraid to call the actions of the Burmese authorities what they appear to be – a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority,” Haley told the UN Security Council.

The United States had earlier said the army response to the insurgent attacks was “disproportionate” and the crisis raised questions about Myanmar’s transition to democracy, under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, after decades of military rule.

Suu Kyi has no power over the generals under a military-drafted constitution that bars her from the presidency. She has nevertheless drawn scathing criticism from around the world for failing to speak out more strongly and stop the violence.

The military campaign against the Rohingya insurgents is well supported inside Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has surged over the past few years.

Haley said the military must respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“Those who have been accused of committing abuses should be removed from command responsibilities immediately and prosecuted for wrongdoing,” she said.

“And any country that is currently providing weapons to the Burmese military should suspend these activities until sufficient accountability measures are in place,” Haley said.

*UN Secretary-General Guterres invited to visit*
Myanmar national security adviser Thaung Tun said at the United Nations there was no ethnic cleansing or genocide in Myanmar.

He told the Security Council that Myanmar had invited Guterres to visit. A UN official said the secretary-general would consider visiting under the right conditions.

China and Russia both expressed support for the Myanmar government. Myanmar said this month it was negotiating with China and Russia, which have veto powers in the Security Council, to protect it from any possible action by the council.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/30/us-ups-pressure-myanmar-refugee-exodus-tops-502000/


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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya Crisis: Conflict Scenarios and Reconciliation Proposals*
By Andrew Korybko
Global Research, September 08, 2017
Oriental Review 7 September 2017
Region: Asia
Theme: Global Economy, Police State & Civil Rights, Terrorism




_The Rohingya Crisis will probably get a lot worse before it gets any better, and it might even escalate to the point of prompting a multilateral international intervention, but the only real and globally acceptable solution that Myanmar might have left to avoid this eventual worst-case scenario is to involve the Rohingyas in some capacity in the ongoing Panglong 2.0 federalization peace talks._

The Rohingya Crisis has taken the world by storm over the past two weeks, but none of what’s happened should come as a surprise for those who’ve been astutely following the Myanmar Civil War. The background into this conflict is very complex, and for that reason the author is going to simply refer the reader to some of his earlier published pieces on the matter in order for them to become familiarized with the overall situation:
June 2015:
“The American Plan For A South Asian “Kosovo” In Rohingyaland” (Part I and Part II)
October 2016:
“Hybrid War Country Study On Myanmar” (History, Political Transition and Geostrategy, Ethno-Regional Contradictions, and Scenario Forecasting)
September 2017:
“The Rohingya Crisis: Reality, Rumors, And Ramifications”
Instead of rehashing most of what’s contained in the abovementioned materials, the present analysis will focus solely on Myanmar’s conflict scenarios and the most realistic possibilities for bringing peace to the war-torn country, which will constitute the first and second parts of this research. The third and final one will then discuss the way that China could overcome the challenges to implementing the proposed peace plan in Myanmar and thereby play an indispensable role in facilitating the conflict resolution process there.
*From Bad To Worse*
The following scenarios aim to shed light on the most likely way that the Rohingya Crisis could escalate to the point of triggering an international “humanitarian intervention”, which is understood as the worst-case scenario from a geopolitical perspective. The reader should be under no illusions that the below-mentioned conflict phases will necessarily happen in the order that they’re described, or that any of them will even occur at all.

The whole point of this exercise is to obtain an accurate idea about the most likely trajectory that the country’s war will proceed along given its current dynamics and the most probable ends that it could lead to.

It should be kept in mind at all times, however, that each stage of the conflict could either climax at its current level, or rapidly proceed to the final phase of a large-scale Libyan-like war if the US and/or its “Lead From Behind” regional allies decide to launch one on the pretext that the Tatmadaw is guilty of ethnic cleansing or genocide (whether against the Rohingya Muslims or the Christian peripheral minorities in the North and East).
*Swift Success:*
As the best-case scenario implies, the Tatmadaw achieves a swift success in stamping out the Rohingya’s “terrorist”/”rebel” forces, thereby quickly ending the crisis. This may, however, result in disproportionate civilian casualties as “collateral damage”, whether inflicted by the insurgents themselves, the military, or both. The media hype surrounding this affair soon dies down, although some international activists and foreign information outlets will continue to agitate for this cause. China’s investments in Myanmar are secured, and a future high-speed railway is eventually built parallel to the two oil and gas pipelines leading from the central Rakhine port of Kyaukphyu, thereby formalizing the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) as a complement to CPEC in the other northern corner of the Indian Ocean.
*Regional Crisis:*
The Rohingya Crisis only gets worse in its humanitarian, military, and diplomatic dimensions, which leads to it becoming a globally recognized regional crisis due to the overspill into neighboring Bangladesh and the resultant destabilization that it inflicts on this already fragile state. India, China, the US, ASEAN, and the UN become more vocal about the evolving, though still obscured, events in Rakhine State, and uncertainty prevails over exactly what’s happening there because Myanmar refuses to let international observers into the region ostensibly for their own security. Non-state actors such as concerned Bangladeshis, Muslim volunteers from abroad, NGOs, and even terrorist groups (none of which are mutually exclusive) begin to get involved, and this catalyzes a violent hyper-nationalist reaction from the country’s majority-Buddhist population which ends up leading to deadly pogroms.

Due to these destabilizing events, the future viability of CMEC becomes uncertain, and China begins to worry about the safety of its oil and gas pipelines in Rakhine State, as well as the hefty investments that it’s pouring into developing Kyaukphyu Port. Myanmar feels compelled to reach out to its Chinese and Indian neighbors for military aid, though attempting to play one off against the other in their New Cold War rivalry in a bid to reap the most benefits from this competition. For the time being, China and India avoid being drawn into an escalating security dilemma with one another in the territory of their mutual neighbor, though they begin to wonder which geopolitical direction Myanmar will ultimately lean closer towards if it’s successful in resolving this regional crisis.
*Jihad Central:*
*Rakhine State, and Myanmar more generally, becomes the new international jihadist destination after Daesh is driven out of “Syria a*nd its supporters across the world decide to focus on the perceived plight of the Rohingya Muslims. It’s still not clear exactly what’s going on in the Southeast Asian country and who’s truly at fault for the escalating violence there, but the outcome is undeniable as hundreds of thousands of refugees swarm into Bangladesh, and most international media organizations and their state allies unite in laying the blame solely at the feet of the Tatmadaw. Whether intentionally or not, this development and the attendant flood of fake news which will inevitably follow it end up encouraging the radicalization of Muslims in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines), South Asia (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan), and the Mideast and inspiring them to wage militant jihad in Myanmar and repeating the Syrian scenario from a few years prior.




Rakhine State marked in yellow.

China gives up any plans that it ever had for developing CMEC, and its energy pipelines turn into an irresistible terrorist target and are soon brought permanently offline. China and India’s in-country citizens are attacked by jihadists who are angry that their governments are providing military aid to the Tatmadaw, blaming them for being “complicit in the genocide of Muslims”. Several lone wolf, or possibly even Daesh-coordinated, terrorist attacks occur in these two countries as a result, and India’s Trilateral Highway through Myanmar becomes endangered, too. International investment plummets in this once-promising emerging economy while the US and its Western, and possibly even Eastern (ASEAN and some Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC]), partners contemplate sanctions against the country. The UN tries to push through heavily politicized resolutions which could open the door for multilateral military intervention just like they did in Libya, but this attempt is as unsuccessful as it was in Syria because Russia and China unite in opposing it.
*The Ceasefire Ceases To Exist:*
The Rohingya Conflict leads to a regional crisis, which eventually gives way to a terrorist one that in turn snowballs into a state of affairs whereby most or all of the previous ceasefire signatories realize that they have more to gain by pulling out of the agreement and recommencing full-scale hostilities against the state. The Panglong 2.0 federalization peace talks totally collapse, and more countries implement sanctions against Myanmar in response, which turns Suu Kyi into a “Southeast Asian Saddam” in terms of just how far she’s fallen from being the one-time darling of the West to its now-hated pariah. Whether coordinated through some new mechanism or carried out independently of one another, the country’s various rebel groups go on a large-scale offensive which inflicts heavy losses on the Tatmadaw, pushing it into relying on even more forceful countermeasures which lead to the ever-expanding conflict spilling over the border into Northeastern India (where it threatens to set off a chain reaction of unrest), Southwestern China, and Western Thailand.




Myanmar’s two Great Power neighbors fortify their borders in response and begin contemplating emergency contingency measures for safeguarding their frontiers, which could likely involve China and India carrying out limited military operations modelled off of Turkey’s “Operation Euphrates Shield” in Syria. Russia joins with its BRICS and SCO partners to extend military and diplomatic support to Myanmar, though choosing to formally stay out of direct involvement in the conflict owing to Moscow’s lack of immediate national interest in its outcome and the massive geographic distance to the battlefield which would severely strain the Kremlin’s logistical networks. Many members of the Ummah take serious umbrage at China, India, and even Russia’s support of Myanmar, and this is exploited by the US in order to fan the flames of distrust against these Great Powers with the ultimate intent of disrupting their connectivity projects through Muslim-majority countries (China’s CPEC and its Central Asian Railway plans to Iran, and Russia & India’s North-South Transport Corridor through Iran and Azerbaijan).
*Myanmarese Meltdown:*
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, as it’s officially known, collapses into the type of Hobbesian conflict unseen since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, thereby triggering large-scale stabilization interventions from China and India. Herein lays the crux of the geostrategic problem, though, because one or both of these states might not have been invited by the central authorities to assist like how Russia was in Syria, thereby skyrocketing the security dilemma between these two Great Power rivals and raising the chances that they might clash somewhere in central Myanmar if their forces come within proximity to one another. There’s of course the very faint chance that they’d coordinate their in-country operations or at least leave some sort of communication mechanism intact between them so as to avoid accidental military clashes, but this can’t be taken for granted and it’s much more probable that a direct engagement between the two forces would take place.
*Libya 2.0:*
Myanmar is completely in shambles as its ultra-diverse population goes on multi-sided killing sprees following the collapse of central authority that accompanies the rebel advance, and neither China nor India is able to put a stop to it, or at least not quickly enough. The US and its allies, one of which might very well have been India to begin with, decide that now is the right time to launch a “shock and awe” military campaign against the country in order to complete its “Balkanized” fragmentation into a constellation of identity-centric (and potentially mutually antagonistic) statelets.

The ostensible pretext for this massive intervention is that it’s the only thing that can “stop the killing”, but in reality it would serve the ulterior purposes of assisting Indian forces in their drive to secure the Trilateral Highway; preventing China from reestablishing control over its pipeline corridor and formerly envisioned CMEC one; and creating a checkerboard of “South Asian Kosovos” for the US to ‘leapfrog’ across in eventually deploying its military forces right on China’s mainland doorstep. Just like with Libya, the US would leave behind an enduringly destabilizing regional legacy that would take years to fix.




*Peace And Its Problems*
Myanmar doesn’t have to turn into the next Libya, or even the next Yugoslavia, so long as the Rohingya Crisis is nipped in the bud through a creative peace settlement before it spirals out of control in engendering the phased conflict escalations that were just described in the earlier section. To this end, here’s the two-step process that’s proposed for resolving this issue, followed by an analysis of the three categories of problems which could impede its implementation:
*Reconciling With The Rohingyas:*
_*“Terrorists” vs. “Rebels”*_
It’s hard for any observer to know the exact proportion for certain, but it’s objectively recognized that there are militant Rohingya groups mixed in with the majority-civilian population. These organizations, especially the leading “Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army” (ARSA), are designed at “terrorists” by the Tatmadaw, though it can be assumed that many Rohingyas and of course their myriad international state and non-state supporters abroad lionize them as “rebels” fighting for “democracy” and “freedom”. The intent here isn’t in render outside judgement about which of the two categories the ARSA and other armed groups fall into, but just to draw attention to the fact that Myanmar sees the Rohingya militants as terrorists whereas it recognizes other fighting forces elsewhere in the country as rebels.
_*The Syrian Model*_
This distinction allows for the possibility that the Tatmadaw could come to consider some of the Rohingya forces as rebels too, though possibly in exchange for them taking up arms to fight against the ARSA, which Naypyidaw will probably never reconsider as less than terrorists. In exchange for rendering their anti-terrorist services, non-ARSA armed Rohingya could then be officially recognized as rebels party to the ongoing Panglong 2.0 federalization peace talks, following the “normalization” model first spearheaded by Russia in Syria when it abruptly switched from seeing Jaysh al-Islam as terrorists to feting its leader Mohamed Alloush as the senior rebel representative in Astana after the group turned against Al Nusra and Daesh. In theory, this model could also be applied to Myanmar’s conditions in enticing “moderate” Rohingya militants to break ranks with the “hardline” ARSA.
_*Panglong 2.0*_
Should this plan be successfully put into practice, then official Rohingya representation in the Panglong 2.0 peace process could potentially placate the demographic’s concerns that the government is criminally neglecting their needs, though Naypyidaw would of course first have to grant citizenship or some type of legal interim status to the Rohingyas (at least those who remained in Myanmar) in order to legitimize this group’s participation. This is a lot easier of a scenario to talk about than to implement into action, though Myanmar might feel pressured to comply with the proposal in order to relieve the heavy international pressure being brought against it for its extant refusal to even recognize the Rohingya. Provided that this happens, then the non-ARSA Rohingya rebels would acquire a political-administrative stake in the country’s forthcoming federalized structure.
_*Double Devolution*_
There’s no chance that the central government, and probably even most of the Rohingyas’ “fellow rebels”, will ever allow this group to carve out their own separate federal state in the country, so what could conceivably happen is that they seek to nest a “federation within a federation”, or in other words, engage in “double devolution”. This model was described both in general and in specific pertinence to Myanmar in the author’s article about “Identity Federalism: From ‘E Pluribus Unum’ To’ E Unum Pluribus’” for Russia’s National Institute For Research Of Global Security last year, and the idea is that Rakhine State – just like its much more diverse Shan State counterpart in the East – could federalize within its sub-state administrative boundaries to form a “doubly devolved” constituent in a future Federation of Myanmar/Burma.
_*Bosnifying Burma*_
Essentially, this would be recreating the Bosnian Scenario, which in its namesake case is a state-wide federation comprised of Republika Srpska (Serbs) and the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina (Muslims and Croats). In the Myanmarese one, however, this would take place on a much larger geographic and population scale within the country’s two prospective “federations within a federation”. It might seem difficult to understand at first read, but this would basically see each state within Myanmar becoming a separate federal entity, with Shan and Rakhine States “doubly devolving” into “federations within a federation” due to their distinct demographic makeup. Of relevance to this research, the Rohingya would obtain control over the northern part of Rakhine State, while the Buddhist Rakhine would control the central and southern parts, making the former a de-facto extension of Bangladesh and the latter the guardians of China’s New Silk Road terminal.
*Roadblocks To Rapprochement:*
_*Buddhist Bamar*_
It’s expected that the abovementioned proposal for the state to enter into a rapprochement with the “moderate” Rohingyas and subsequently enact “double devolution” would be met with furious opposition from the Buddhist Bamar majority, the most hyper-nationalist and extreme elements of which could carry out pogroms against the ethno-religious minorities in their periphery out of anger at what they see as the imminent internal partitioning of their country. There could be other unspoken factors at play, though, such as the majority demographic’s refusal to cede the sovereignty of the central government over the resource-rich minority-populated periphery, which the Tatmadaw would do anything to prevent. Moreover, if the authorities went forward with this proposal despite lacking the support of the Buddhist Bamar majority and Tatmadaw, then a Color Revolution or military coup could be launched against them in putting an immediate halt to this process.
_*Competitive Connectivity Complications*_
The other factor which could stand in the way of the peace proposal, though much more indirectly than the Buddhist Bamar, are China and India’s concerns that their competitive connectivity projects through the country could be negatively affected by its “peaceful Balkanization”. Neither Asian Great Power wants to have their trade and energy corridors going through a checkerboard of quasi-independent identity-centric statelets due to the inherent hard security risks that this entails if some of them become militantly at odds with one another. There are also worries that the devolution of a formerly centralized state into a collection of semi-sovereign stakeholders could lead to each transit entity competing with the one another, the federal government, and China over taxes and tolls, which could unnecessarily complicate what had hitherto been a smooth bilateral state-to-state agreement and consequently diminish the attractiveness of doing business along these routes if the issue isn’t resolved.
_*Geopolitical Pitfalls*_
Expanding off of the previously mentioned point, the next logical one is that the quasi-independent and identity-centric statelets that would be formed from any forthcoming federalization of Myanmar (including its possible “double devolution” of “federations within a federation”) could be exploited to function as “lily pads” for the US to “leapfrog” its military forces up to China’s southwestern border. Beijing has every reason to be worried about this happening because it fully aligns with the US and its UK hegemonic predecessor’s historic divide-and-rule stratagem all across the world, being seen most recently in relation to the US’ desire to carve the “second geopolitical ‘Israel’” of “Kurdistan” out of the Mideast for the same purposes vis-à-vis the four targeted and thenceforth surrounding states. The same springboard principle could be applied against China, too, except instead of one big “geopolitical ‘Israel’”, many so-called “South Asian Kosovos” could be created to this effect.
*The Chinese Key To Success*
China has the most to lose by far from what’s happening in Myanmar out of any external stakeholder, so it therefore must play the leading role in offsetting the fast-developing Hybrid War there. Whether it plays out violently as per the first part of the research’s scenarios or peacefully in accordance with the second one’s proposals, the current dynamics in their present state are leading to a slew of outcomes which work out to China’s grand strategic disadvantage in one way or another, so it must harness the political will to get involved in what’s occurring. China, however, has no experience in anything of the sort that’s required of it because of its long-standing policy of non-interference in its partner’s affairs, though it’s nowadays becoming compelled by the circumstances to consider modifying its approach in order to protect a major Silk Road investment.

Whether it’s in Myanmar in the near future or elsewhere across the world in any of the countless countries that are participating in the One Belt One Road (OBOR) global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, China will eventually have to sooner or later take on a leadership role in safeguarding these corridors, so an argument can be made that it’s better for it to experiment within doing so in its “Near Abroad” of Southeast Asia before it attempts to do so further afield in Afro-Eurasia. Bearing this in mind, it’s worthwhile to consider the ways in which China could use its possible experience in the Myanmar case to develop and refine its own unique conflict resolution model for utilization all across any future Silk Road battlegrounds, so the concluding part of this research will attempt to create the structural basis for this approach.

Before proceeding, it should be mentioned that there are several situational qualifiers which will impact on the success of China’s possible peacemaking initiative in Myanmar, just as other country-specific factors will influence the same in whatever other state Beijing might end up applying this strategy towards. In this instance, everything is conditional on India not interfering to the degree that it actively works to counter China’s moves, which in this example would be either through the extraordinarily unlikely odds that it would support armed groups in Myanmar (which it has no history of doing and probably never will) or the more probable chances that it could seek to commence its own rival peace initiative instead. In addition, if the conflict escalates per the aforementioned scenarios, especially if actual or suspected ethnic cleansing and genocide are used to suddenly commence a Libya 2.0 “humanitarian intervention” scenario, then China might not have any chance whatsoever at success.

Having explained all of that, here’s the four-step conflict resolution model that China could debut in Myanmar and perfect for future application abroad in any Hybrid War hotspots that the US succeeds in cooking up along the New Silk Roads:
*Broker Third-Party-Hosted Talks:*
China can learn a lot from Russia in this respect because of Moscow’s experience in attempting to do this for Ukraine through the Belarusian-hosted Minsk Peace Process for Ukraine and its eventually much more successful Kazakh-based Astana one for Syria. The pattern here is for a Great Power to lead conflict resolution talks in the neutral territory of a relevant allied state, so in the case of Myanmar, China could request that Laos fulfill this role in hosting Rohingya peace talks or even the broader Panglong 2.0 ones if anything comes up to interfere with the latter’s ongoing progress (i.e. repeated violations by either side and a subsequent breakdown in trust).
*Become A Neutral Balancer:*
Once again, China could take a useful cue from Russia when it comes to positioning itself as a neutral balancer. Just as Moscow’s foreign policy progressives are working to diversify their country’s foreign partnerships to the point of one day dispelling any plausible accusations of bias towards any given state or another, so too could Beijing attempt to do the same in counteracting the perception that it’s too supportive of the Myanmarese government. In pursuit of this, it could expand its internal partnerships within the country with various rebel groups beyond those located in its immediate borderlands of Shan and Kachin States just like Russia has sought to do with its multidimensional outreaches to the “moderate rebels” in Syria.

The reason why it’s important to become a neutral balancer is because it endows the relevant Great Power with the irreplaceable role of a trusted mediator, thereby allowing it to powerfully determine the course of any conflict resolution process and subsequently shape its outcome. In regards to Myanmar and in particular the Rohingya Crisis, however, this takes on an even more significant and sensitive purpose because it would contradict the weaponized infowar narrative that China is “anti-Muslim” because of its support for Naypyidaw. The US is hoping to exploit this carefully crafted and misleading perception in order to undermine China’s New Silk Road projects in the Muslim-majority countries of Central Asia, the Mideast, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia (the latter of which is relevant for its billions of dollars of Vision 2030 investments).

So long as China can prove that it’s not an “enemy of Muslims worldwide” by balancing its approach to the Rohingya Crisis, then it can avoid falling into the soft power trap that the US has set for it. Not only would this ensure the stability of China’s Silk Road investments in the Ummah, but it would also provide less fuel for provocateurs to use in trying to stir up anti-government resentment in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, which is one of OBOR’s main continental hubs. That being said, China mustn’t ever waver from its unflinching zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism, especially that which is being waged under radical Islamic slogans, so it would have to work with Myanmar in separating “moderate” Rohingyas from the “hardline” ones just like Russia cooperated with Syria in doing the same concerning the former’s armed groups.
*Suggest Decentralization:*
China should encourage conflict resolution outcomes which at the very least provide some sort of symbolic administrative-territorial decentralization rights for the “moderate” identity-centric adversaries which break from their “hardline” counterparts, as this could provide the basis for an enduring post-conflict political solution. The reader should remember that decentralization doesn’t always mean devolution, with the former usually being known for its autonomous zones while the latter is marked by federal states. In any case, it shouldn’t be assumed that either of them automatically endangers the unity of the host state, though that could end up being an inadvertent outcome which would predictably play out to the US’ anticipated divide-and-rule “Balkanization” grand strategy for the Eastern Hemisphere.

For example, Uzbekistan has the Karakalpakstan autonomous republic, which in no way poses any threat to the centralized Uzbek state due to the practical limits placed on its actual autonomy. Likewise, China has several autonomous regions and even bestows local autonomy for certain minority groups in some prefectures and counties in the country, though this also doesn’t impede with the centralized operations of the People’s Republic. As for federations, Ethiopia is a good example of one in which federalism pretty much only carries a symbolic purpose, in this case for placating the main ethnic groups in the country after the end of the civil war, and it for all intents and purposes functions as a centralized state. Russia, too, is a federation, though one with considerably more rights granted to its subjects, especially those inhabiting autonomous republics, but it doesn’t have any real problems. Bosnia, however, is the worst example of a federation and is utterly dysfunctional, representing the type of governing model that the US would ideally like to reproduce all across Afro-Eurasia.

The Russian-written “draft constitution” for Syria proposed controlled decentralization which could in theory broaden into devolution if the people voted for it, and this was suggested despite Damascus’s previous well-known opposition to these processes, so it wouldn’t by any comparison be amiss for China to facilitate the already-ongoing federalization talks of its Myanmarese partner. What’s absolutely imperative for either the Syrian or Myanmarese decentralization-devolution processes to succeed is for the prospective statelets to not have the power to conduct their own military-political relations with foreign states, except in a cynical sense if it’s with Russia and China respectively. If the negotiations stall at this point, then it might be necessary for the central government to concede greater (resource) revenue flows to these entities in order to “buy” their “loyalty”.
*Silk Road Incentives:*
Last but not least, and in connection with the “trade-off” that might have to take place in ensuring the “patriotic commitment” of the prospective decentralized-devolved entity to the country that they’re (at least still) formally a part of, it would be best if China were to craft creative ways to make the transit statelets self-interested stakeholders in protecting and stabilizing its New Silk Road corridors. The possibilities for this include allowing them to reap a yearly payment from the People’s Republic for securing and enabling the flow of resources and products across their Chinese-financed (and in some cases, -built) infrastructure; offering free educational and job-training programs for the locals; and assisting with post-conflict stabilization measures in the relevant territory.

About the latter point, Article 52 of the 2017 Xiamen BRICS Declaration emphasizes “the important contribution of BRICS countries to United Nations peacekeeping operations, and the importance of United Nations peacekeeping operations to international peace and security”. This suggests that China, as the world’s largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, might seek to self-interestedly leverage its experiences in this field in one day safeguarding its Silk Road investments through Beijing-led UN or unilateral (as per the agreement of the host state and relevant, likely by then federalized, territory) missions in these strategic transit regions after an earlier conflict has been resolved (also through Chinese mediation per the aforementioned four-step model).

It should also be added that training local security forces would epitomize China’s neutral balancing strategy between state and non-state actors as well, and it would provide the People’s Republic with invaluable military-diplomatic knowledge that could be later applied elsewhere across the world as needed. If China can succeed in offering a host of Silk Road incentives to its partners in helping them and their warring compatriots resolve their differences in a win-win manner, then Beijing can solidify its role as the main driving force in the emerging Multipolar World Order and sustain all of the positive gains that it’s achieved thus far. It would also make China the only country in the world capable of competing with the US in this regard, thereby elevating it from the level of a Great Power to a Global Superpower, though with all of the attendant strategic risks for overreach that this entails.

_*Andrew Korybko* is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare.
All images in this article are from the author._
The original source of this article is Oriental Review
Copyright © Andrew Korybko, Oriental Review, 2017
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-r...cenarios-and-reconciliation-proposals/5608149


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar: Top UN official in Myanmar to be changed*
By Jonah Fisher BBC News, Myanmar
13 June 2017




Image copyright UNDP
Image caption Renata Lok-Dessallien is currently on leave
The United Nations has confirmed that its top official in Myanmar is being moved from her position.
Diplomatic and aid community sources in Yangon told the BBC the decision was linked to Renata Lok-Dessallien's failure to prioritise human rights.

In particular, this referred to the oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority.
Internal UN documents - shown to the BBC - said the organisation had become "glaringly dysfunctional", and wracked by internal tensions.

A UN spokeswoman confirmed Ms Lok-Dessallien, a Canadian citizen, was being "rotated", saying this had nothing to do with her performance which she said had been "consistently appreciated".




Media caption Rohingya Muslims "hated and hounded from Burmese soil"
Late last year as tens of thousands of Rohingya fled rape and abuse at the hands of Burmese soldiers, the UN team inside Myanmar was strangely silent.

Ms Lok-Dessallien and her spokesman declined simple requests for information; and on one absurd occasion she visited the conflict area, but on her return refused to allow journalists to film or record her words at a press conference.

The BBC was told that on numerous occasions aid workers with a human rights focus were deliberately excluded from important meetings.

Those moments reflect a wider criticism of Ms Lok-Dessallien and her team, namely that their priority was building development programmes and a strong relationship with the Burmese government - not advocating that the rights of oppressed minorities, like the Rohingya, should be respected.

In an internal document prepared for the new UN secretary general, the UN team in Myanmar is described as "glaringly dysfunctional" with "strong tensions" between different parts of the UN system.

Ms Lok-Dessallien is currently on leave but has been told that her position is being upgraded, bringing her role to an end after three-and-a-half years, rather than the usual term of up to five years.


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## Banglar Bir

*India rules out mediation between Myanmar, Bangladesh on Rohingya issue*
SAM Report, September 30, 2017




A boat carrying Rohingya refugees leaves Myanmar on the Naf River while thousands of others wait their turn. Photo: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said that the government has no plans to act as a mediator between Myanmar and Bangladesh to solve the Rohingya refugee crisis. Reports _Sputnik._

India has categorically said that the government will only provide humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh to deal with the heavy influx of Rohingyas who have been entering the country after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

“We are focusing on the humanitarian assistance under ‘Operation Insaniyat’ and we have sent out three sorties of relief material. Thousands of family packets have been delivered, these items consist of materials to be used by the families who have been displaced and who are in Bangladesh,” MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said today.

“The two countries are in close touch, they are coordinating the situation which is developing out of the arrival of the displaced persons in the country. We are committed to assist Bangladesh and are extending our full support in handling this issue,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said.

Earlier, Bangladesh had asked India to use its influence to put pressure on Myanmar to end violence in Rakhine state.

The sudden influx of around half a million Rohingyas in Bangladesh has put enormous strain on the government. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has appealed to the international community for help.
*India Reluctant to Send Its Diplomats to Tour Myanmar’s Volatile Region*
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has declined to confirm the participation of Indian officials in the international ‘Diplomatic Core Team’ that is to visit Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state next week.

The team comprises diplomats from various countries invited by the Myanmar government to have a sense of the ground situation in Rakhine state where the government forces and the Rohingya community, the majority of which are Muslims, are engaged in a bloody armed conflict. The Myanmar government which is under strong international pressure to stop the military action against the Rohingyas has denied any human rights violation and has instead accused the Rohingyas of unleashing terror.

India’s reluctance to send a government team to visit Rakhine comes amid reports of the alleged massacre of Hindu Rohingyas by the Muslims. The Indian government has said it hopes authorities in Myanmar would punish the perpetrators of the crime and ensure safety and security of the Hindus.

“We have seen the press reports about the Hindu graves. We are also looking at the statement that was issued by the State Counselors’ office. I can say that we condemn terrorism in all forms, we emphasized that there is no justification for any acts of terrorism which targets civilians. In this conflict, we do hope that the authorities will be able to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice. We hope that the families of the victims will be extended all possible assistance so as to instill a sense of security and return of normalcy,” the MEA spokesperson said during the presser today.

Myanmar’s Army has claimed that they have discovered a mass grave of Hindus in Rakhine state and has blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for those killings.
SOURCE SPUTNIK
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/30/india-rules-put-mediation-myanmar-bangladesh-rohingya-issue/


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## Banglar Bir

Al Jazeera English
*These Rohingya refugees are racing to find lost kids before human traffickers get to them.*




__ https://www.facebook.com/





*Press TV
This is how Rohingya children entertain themselves in Bangladeshi camps*




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar-Russia ties reviewed*
THE MYANMAR TIMES 27 MAR 2017
*Myanmar and Russia are commemorating their 70th anniversary of relations next year with strong military, rather than economic, cooperation. But their relationship is evolving and diversifying to cover other non-military areas – such as science and technology, education and tourism.*
Dr Ludmila Lutz-Auras, assistant professor at the University of Rostock, Germany, pointed out that Russia views Myanmar as part of its pivot to Asia, and as key to extending Moscow’s foothold in Southeast Asia. “Engagement in Myanmar offers a good opportunity to check its own positions on the international political stage,” she said.
She viewed Russia as a new “balancer role” in Myanmar’s relations with major powers, especially the US, China and India. Both countries could further exchange experience regarding political and economic transformation.

Although Myanmar-Russia ties are comprised mainly of military sales, she said, they were not aimed at any one country. “For Russia, it is about economics, not against anyone or to engage in conflict,” she said, adding that the US arms embargo also contributed to Russian arms sales.

Russia could also impart its expertise on military technology, energy, and science and technology, she said.

In addition, it could serve as a gateway for Myanmar products to post-Soviet areas and other new markets. Russia leads the Eurasia Union, a new free-trade grouping comprising newly independent states that were formerly part of Soviet Union. Vietnam is the only ASEAN member to join.

*The Russian oil company Bashneft and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise have secured block EP4 PSA in the central Myanmar Basin, for which Bashneft has invested US$38.3 million.

In 2015, bilateral trade reached $130.5 million. This was small compared to trade with China, which reached $10 billion. This year, Myanmar-Russia trade is expected to increase to $500 million.*

Besides arms sales, Myanmar imports Russian machinery, industrial equipment and vehicles, chemical products and metals, while exporting rice and textiles to Russia.
*
Myanmar was the fifth biggest importer of Russian weapons and fighters, spending $20.4 million on Russian weapons in 2014, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In 2009-10, Russia exported a squadron of MiG 29B, MiG 29SE, MiG 29UB fighter jets worth $511 million, according to Ludmila’s research.*

She was speaking Friday at “Myanmar-Russia: Friends in Need”, an event organised by the Yangon-based Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS).

Both Russia and Myanmar have suffered from economic sanctions imposed by western countries, Ludmila said, so they naturally sympathize with and want to help each other.

Russia, as well as China, opposed UN resolutions that sought to condemn Myanmar for the 2007 conflict. The two countries also recently vetoed a UN resolution on the situation in Rahkine State.

Russia and Myanmar established ties in 1948, and three years later, opened embassies in each other’s country. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited Myanmar in 1955.

In a regional context, ASEAN and Russia last year commemorated 20 years of relations with a special summit meeting in Sochi, where Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with ASEAN leaders for the first time.

Russia hopes to become a strategic partner of ASEAN soon. Other strategic partners of the group include China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand and the US.
https://www.mmtimes.com/national-news/25467-myanmar-russia-ties-reviewed.html

*Rohingya refugee crisis: The fundamental questions*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/09/rohingya-refugee-crisis-the-fundamental-questions.html




Rohingya refugees react as they see the remains of a family member, whose family says he succumbed to injuries inflicted by the Myanmar Army before their arrival, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton
By Tom Farrell, Big Issue

*Is it Aung San Suu Kyi’s political expediency or fundamentalism that is fuelling the Rohingya refugee crisis? Tom Farrell visited Myanmar to report on the latest horrific chapter of a long-persecuted minority*
It has been one of the most harrowing examples of ethnic cleansing in recent years. And it is a bitter irony that the exodus is taking place in Bangladesh. In 1971 newly independent Bangladesh was scene to one of the biggest humanitarian crises of the late 20th century. That year’s calamity inspired massive relief efforts and a concert organised by George Harrison, as millions of refugees, fleeing civil war, poured into India.

Firstly, there has been the reaction of Myanmar’s ‘state counsellor’ Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate, long feted by the likes of Bono and Barrack Obama, to the Tatmadaw (Armed Forces) expelling over 420,000 Rohingyas from their lands in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where most of them live. Her response was silence at first.

Then asinine complaints followed about “an iceberg of misinformation” surrounding the Rohingya. When she finally acknowledged the crisis on September 19, her speech downplayed the civilian suffering and was seen as deferential to the military. Is she genuinely a racist or simply in fear of the same 400,000 strong Tatmadaw that ruled Myanmar (Burma) for decades and placed her under house arrest for 15 years?




Armed Forces guard a checkpoint into Aung Mingalar, a suburb inhabited by Rohingya

Secondly, there has been the rise in militancy by many Buddhist monks, applauding the expulsion of what they claim are unwelcome Muslim invaders. Accustomed to the smiling benevolence of the Dalai Lama and its unworldly mysticism, many westerners are taken aback: surely violent, intolerant Buddhism is a contradiction in terms?

Some time before the current wave of violence erupted, I took a flight from the Myanmar capital of Yangon (Rangoon) to Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State. Its population is a mix of Rohingyas and Rakhine Buddhists.

The town appeared as a somnolent sprawl from my upper storey guest house window, corrugated iron rooftops and the occasional gleaming temple amid lines of tamarinds and coconut palms. But also visible, skulking at checkpoints, were border police and soldiers from the Tatmadaw.




Rohingya refugees Dildar Begum and her daughter recover in hospital in Bangladesh, after being stabbed by Myanmar soldiers

Sittwe had already been purged of most of its Rohingya population. The 19th century Jama Mosque was cordoned off, with policemen sitting in front of barbed wire. The mosque still bore the fire damage of the previous year when it was torched by a mob of Rakhine Buddhists, allegedly with Tatmadaw complicity.

A few streets away, I found a row of gutted and bullet pocked buildings, former Rohingya houses and shops. When I started snapping shots, shouting locals chased me away.

I already had the number of a local community leader named Aung Win and we arranged to meet in the last remaining Rohingya sector of the town. But having hailed a motorised trishaw, I was stopped at a checkpoint because I had no clearance. A surreal episode then ensued as Aung Win, visible down several hundred yards of road, chatted with me.
*Surely violent, intolerant Buddhism is a contradiction in terms?*
“It started June last year,” said the 57-year old via his mobile. “Rakhine’s extremists arrived and they attacked Rohingya villages. My family was very lucky because my neighbours didn’t attack my house.”

All the while, the police sat near the checkpoint and looked listlessly at the few vehicles allowed to proceed into the Rohingya area

I ventured into the local government buildings, hoping to secure an afternoon pass into the ‘Rohingya area.’ A Rakhine civil servant scowled at me under spinning fans.

“They are not called Rohingyas! They are called Bengalis!” he snapped.

This reflected a prevailing view that the Rohingyas, contrary to archaeological evidence, are just migrants from next door Bangladesh.

“When we got independence [from Britain] in 1948, the parliamentary government already recognised the Rohingya as one of the ethnic groups in Burma,” Abu Tahay, a Rohingya legal expert told me in his office after I returned to Yangon. He added that the junta stripped them of citizenship in 1982, two decades after the military takeover.
Refugee crisis: “Every pair of shoes tells a story”
In Yangon it is easy to find CDs and DVDs of inflammatory sermons by right-wing monks, inveighing against rising Muslim birth rates in Myanmar and reminding the faithful that Buddhism’s reach across Asia was once much greater, Islam having extinguished its presence centuries ago.

Most prominent is the ‘969 Movement,’ led by Ashin Wirathu, a monk who was imprisoned from 2003-10 for inciting hatred against Muslims. The sermons of Wirathu, who in one interview said: “We would like to be like the English Defence League: not carrying out violence but protecting the public,” are all over social media and disseminated in the markets via DVD.




Sinhala Ravaya monks clash with police outside government buildings

But it is hard to believe Mrs Suu Kyi and Wirathu are cut from the same cloth. As her biographer Peter Popham has pointed out, there is little evidence of personal Islamophobia. After arriving in Oxford in 1964, Suu Kyi’s first serious boyfriend was a Pakistani fellow student. A close confident within her National League of Democracy (NLD) was a Burmese Muslim journalist and satirist named Maung Tha Ka, who perished in jail in June 1991, soon after the old junta cancelled an election result that the NLD had decisively won.

Mrs Suu Kyi’s inaction on the recent Buddhist-led violence may be explained by the Myanmar constitution. It prevented her from becoming President due to her having foreign sons with her late husband, British academic Michael Aris.

With a ‘caretaker’ military-backed regime now in power, she decided to stand for parliament in 2011, deeply suspicious of the document, imposed three years before, in a rigged referendum. In December that year, under pressure from Hilary Clinton, then US Secretary of State, she agreed to abide by the document.




Children in the town of Tak Bai, near the Malaysian border, have an armed escort

The constitution has ensured that the Tatmadaw still has massive powers. It has block representation within parliament and control of three key ministries: home affairs, defence and border affairs. The generals can still suspend democracy in the name of national security.

But Buddhist militancy is also on the rise in Sri Lanka and Thailand: the 969 Movement is known to have contacts with the Boda Balu Sena (Buddha Strike Force) in the former country. Operating as a kind of Buddhist vigilante group, the Buddha Strike Force has organised attacks on mosques and Christian churches.

In the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s murderous 26-year civil war, many more right-wing Buddhists feel validated in their belief that Buddha himself once consecrated ‘Holy’ Lanka as uniquely sacred to the faith. Likewise in Thailand, the separatist insurgency in the Muslim far south since 2004 has drawn many monks towards a more intolerant stance against Thai Muslims, even if many Muslims reject the notion of an independent state.

As more Rohingyas pour out of Myanmar, the much vaunted ‘Burma Spring’ seems as dead as its Arab namesake. Regardless of the faith in question, fundamentalism and militarism are a lethal mix in any nation’s politics.


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya are human, too: How we can deal with persecuted refugees and still keep India safe*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/09/rohingya-are-human-too-how-we-can-deal-with-persecuted-refugees-and-still-keep-india-safe.html
By Chetan Bhagat




By Chetan Bhagat, The Times of India
News reports suggest BSF is using pepper spray and stun grenades to stop Rohingya refugees from entering Indian territory. The government also seems keen to get rid of 40,000 odd Rohingya already in India, citing security threats.

Many of our TV news channels seem to want the same. We have even heard anchors screaming, “Let Rohingya be found floating around in the Indian Ocean. Don’t dump them here.” Well, we are talking about human beings here. That includes little children, women and elderly people. These are people who live in our neighborhood.

Some border villages of Myanmar’s Rakhine province (where Rohingya come from) are about 100km from towns in Mizoram. These people are ethnically close to Indo-Aryans. Their own country has marginalised them for decades.




Illustration: Chad Crowe
They are denied citizenship or passports, need state permission to marry (which takes years), need state permission to travel to neighbouring villages, and are denied state jobs. Worse, there is a systemic campaign of racism and hate against them in Myanmar. Imagine living in your own country like an officially hated outsider, denied basic rights, and people from your community routinely killed from time to time just for being who you are.

If you can understand this suffering as a human being, then it is perhaps also time to disclose that majority of the Rohingya are Muslims. Does it make a difference? Is their suffering any less because of their religion?

So why are we pepper spraying their kids and screaming to get them out?

There are several reasons. Some are actually valid. Others simply reek of our bigotry and lack of human empathy. They also ignore potential benefits and opportunity here for India in being a regional big brother.

But first, the valid reasons for not having Rohingya. According to the government some Rohingya in India may have terror links, or are at risk of radicalisation. The assessment is not wrong. Unfortunately, there are fundamentalist groups within Rohingya.

To fight the injustice Rohingya have been subjected to organisations like Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) popped up, using violent means to grab attention for their cause. In fact, the recent purge of the Rohingya by the Myanmar government was a result of ARSA terror attacks.

Rohingya are not just seen as victims, but also a community with significant radical elements. People who have grown up in strife, have limited means and are discriminated against, are more vulnerable to being indoctrinated. In fact, plenty of Indians fit these criteria and can be exploited too.

Having said that, if we had a proper registry of the Rohingya in India, and we could monitor them better, such probability is reduced. If we gave them a legal way to stay in India as refugees (rather than hide from authorities), say by issuing refugee cards, we could have a better idea of what they are up to. Like any community, over 99% of them would not be terrorists.

Spraying them with pepper or sending them back to the country that will probably kill them doesn’t seem something a civilised, democratic and humane country would do. Another reason cited for doing so is the ‘burden’ refugees create on the state. For one, the total number of Rohingya left in Myanmar is probably around a million now.

Most of the Rohingya refugees move to Bangladesh, as where they live in Myanmar borders Bangladesh. In the recent exodus alone Bangladesh received over 4,00,000 refugees, 10 times as many as the total Rohingya in India. These refugees fend for themselves, get very little state benefits and mostly work as daily labour. Are they really going to create such a burden?

The bigger question is how do we handle refugees in general. What would we have done, for example, if Hindus were persecuted in Pakistan to the point they were forced to run to us? Will we accept them and give them asylum, or will we pepper spray them back?

We need to provide a mechanism for refugees in our neighbourhood to legally apply for asylum. If they can prove persecution, religious, ethnic or otherwise, they may be eligible. Economic reasons alone will not be enough. These refugees will be tracked. They would be obligated to inform of their movements and activities more than regular citizens.

Of course, a formal refugee policy doesn’t mean India alone takes refugees while the rest of the continent does nothing. Just as in the EU, there should be sharing arrangements in the Asean region to handle any refugee crisis. Richer nations can contribute more money for resettlement.

Meanwhile, if India took the lead in handling the Rohingya crisis, it would lift our image as a serious power and problem solver in the region. Instead, if we fear monger and pepper spray, it will only show us as immature.

Ultimately, the Myanmar government cannot be absolved of its actions which have created the crisis. To deny citizenship to people who have lived in your country for decades is deplorable and unjustified, whatever the rationale. Myanmar is a Buddhist majority country. We see Buddhism as one of the world’s most non-violent religions. Hence, the extreme violence meted out to Rohingya is, frankly, shocking to most Indians.

India can play a big role in pressuring Myanmar to fix this problem peacefully. We have to decide. Are we going to be the scared, xenophobic and closed-minded India of the past, or a more open, humane and mature society?

How we treat the helpless at our door goes a long way in determining that.

*The Rohingya issue: The need for humanistic retrospection*
Frances Bulathsinghala, October 1, 2017




That the Rohingya community is one of the most victimized of communities, hounded and subject to that of a stateless position, is clear to the world. Also clear is the fact that yesterday’s persecuted is not necessarily tomorrows empath. 

Case in point being Aung San Suu Kyi hailed as a democracy campaigner for her country who had the sympathy of the world when she was held under house arrest for most of her political life and bestowed with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Accepting the prize in 2012 after the end of military rule in Myanmar, it would be ironic now to recall her words that were part of her prize acceptance speech.

Steven Erlanger wrote in _The New York Times_ that she “asked the world not to forget other prisoners of conscience, both in Myanmar and around the world, other refugees, others in need, who may be suffering twice over, from oppression and from the larger world’s compassion fatigue.”

Now as the State Counselor of Myanmar and having been in that position since November 2015 following the victory of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD)in the General Elections, we have in Aung San Suu Kyi a Nobel Prize Winner making an absolute mockery of that prize.

Five years after she expressed distress for the world’s persecuted, we have her watching on as her country brutalizes the rights of fellow human beings; the Rohingya community which have had a long and consistent historical affiliation with the Rakhine territory that they are now chased away from. Prior to British colonization and the coming to being of the concept of nation states the Rohingyas were a community who were part of the Rakhine region who exercised freedom of movement to the adjoining Bangladesh (then India). These are the people who are now branded as stateless and declared by Myanmar to be ‘Bengalis.’

At best, the benefit of doubt to Aung San Suu Kyi would be to say that her mind, conscience and will power is still under the arrest of Myanmar’s military. This would mean that Myanmar’s current ‘democracy’is merely a dictatorship that is run through its former prisoner, to fulfill goals of the military Junta.

And in a world where religion is (selectively) equated with terrorism we now have the justification of the fear to treat the Rohingya community with the humanism they deserve and offer then refugee status, by branding them as religious extremists or potential religious extremists.

The treatment of those such as the Rohingyas are to be contemplated upon as we approach the month of October, the month in which the United Nations came into being in 1945. Seventy two years after its inception it would be an interesting introspective process to ask ourselves if the UN charters and strictures have significantly prevented human atrocities in the world.

The purpose of the conceptualization of the United Nations, coming at a time when the world was still aghast at the crimes of Nazi Germany against the Jews, was to see that such crimes never occurred again.

Its main aims was to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,…to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,…to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”

The year 2015 saw pleas from the then U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, appealing to Southeast Asian leaders in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia to uphold international law and obligation of ‘rescue at sea’ in the wake of thousands of Rohingya migrants being stranded in the Andaman seas.

Meanwhile, if vile elements that use religion to garb terrorism, use this hapless community for their devious ends, it would be the fault of the modern world, which, checkered by demarcations of territories and restrictions, have forgotten the basic aspects of humanity. Wewho have split the atom and propelled humans into a vast realm of technological innovations have not departed from the mental attitudes of those of the ancient tribalism and cannibalism era.

What then will we, people who have inherited the modern, colonization-triggered concept of the nation states, do with thousands of our fellow humans who have been for the past years stranded at seas, prevented entry at the countries they tried to get refugee status in, and overall treated as dirt.

Before we qualify to be called humans, it would do us merit to think whether we are twisting humanistic philosophies such as Buddhism to tie it to the flagpole of nationalism and browbeat others on account of their faith such as that of the Rohingyas.

In 2016 and 2017 in the wake of increased brutality against Rohingyas in Arakan,thousands have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh while others attempted to get some safety and redress from neighbouring countries in the region such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka. Recently Sri Lanka saw some 31 Myanmar Rohingya refugees who had earlier fled to India and had been settled in the Hindu part of Kashmir, arriving in the island and subsequently being the victims of a dastardly attack led by few extremists Buddhist monks.

However, on Friday Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province said it is ready to accommodate these refugees while the Sri Lankan government has announced that it is proceeding against police officers who looked on passively as a mob led by Buddhist monks threatened to storm into the houses of Rohingyas despite the fact that the refugees were under the charge of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC).

Given that every human being is a human resource with unlimited potential to make a change for the better of this planet earth, let this be realized and humans no longer victimized and demonized on account of either their faiths, their ethnicity or their geographical location.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/01/rohingya-issue-need-humanistic-retrospection/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:34 AM, October 01, 2017
*WFP to help feed 5 lakh Rohingyas*




Rohingya women with their toddlers, suffering mostly from fever, on Ukhia Upazila Health Complex premises yesterday. They began to gather there since daybreak and waited for the service that started at 9:00am. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Staff Correspondent

The World Food Programme will provide food support to the five lakh Rohingyas, who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, until they are repatriated, Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya yesterday said.

It will also give special food for children and pregnant women, he told reporters after a meeting with WFP Executive Director David Beasley at Westin Hotel in the capital.

For the time being, the displaced Myanmar nationals will be sheltered in Cox's Bazar, but if their repatriation is delayed, they would be shifted to Bhashanchar of Noakhali where Bangladesh Navy is developing land.

"Cox's Bazar is a tourist area. We have to protect it. Besides, there are safety issues," Maya said, explaining why the Rohingyas would probably be relocated.

Asked if the refugees were getting all the basic things they needed in the camps, the minister avoided giving a direct answer but said, "No one has died of food shortage."

The government is working with the international community to increase pressure on Myanmar for fast repatriation of the Rohingyas. "We are not alone. The whole world is with us," Maya added.




Children receive plates, jugs and dry food. Photo: Anisur Rahman
WFP official David Beasley said the world leaders need to do "everything possible" to pressure the Myanmar government and other actors into solving the problem diplomatically so that the refugees from Myanmar can go back home.

"The other most important task now for the international community is to support Bangladesh so that Bangladesh does not bear the burden of the refugees alone," said the WFP official on a visit from Geneva to see the Rohingya crisis.

"We are very proud that Bangladesh has been so cooperative to every one of us ... ," he said.

*1,300 LEARNING CENTRES*
The UN Children's Fund will establish over 1,300 learning centres for Rohingya children who have fled violence.

Currently, the Unicef runs 182 learning centres at Rohingya camps and makeshift settlements in Cox's Bazar with 15,000 children enrolled.

"It plans to increase the number of learning centres to 1,500” over the next year to facilitate education of 2 lakh children, a statement issued yesterday.

“These children, who have suffered so much in this crisis, should have access to education in a safe and nurturing environment,” said Unicef representative in the country Edouard Beigbeder, so that they get a future to look forward to. 

*CHOLERA VACCINE*
The International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision will release 900,000 doses of the Oral Cholera Vaccine from the global stockpile to prevent the spread of cholera among Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox's Bazar.

The ICG, a coordinating body of the World Health Organisation, Unicef, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the International Federation of the Red Cross, approved the appeal in 24 hours after Bangladesh government's request on September 27.

ICG partners – with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – will deliver 900,000 doses of OCV to Bangladesh within two weeks for an immunization campaign due to start in October, says a press release of the WHO yesterday.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...crisis-wfp-help-feed-5-lakh-rohingyas-1470139


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## Banglar Bir

*New deal with Myanmar Red Cross to boost aid in Rakhine: Turkish Red Crescent*
SAM Staff, October 1, 2017



A renewed cooperation deal with Myanmar Red Cross will help the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) access hard-to-reach places in Myanmar’s state of Rakhine, where people have been suffering as a result of government’s campaign against the insurgents, TRC President Dr.KeremKinik told Sputnik on Friday.

On Wednesday, the TRC renewed a cooperation agreement with Myanmar Red Cross for another three years.

“TRC’s renewed partnership and scaled up humanitarian operation in Myanmar will include capacity-building and experience-sharing activities with the Myanmar Red Cross and implementing further community resilience- building programmes. Having greater access via the signed cooperation agreement to hard-to-reach areas in Rakhine State, where, if not all, most targeted and affected populations are Muslims, TRC’s programmes will continue to assist all people in need in the area with no discrimination of any kind but based on humanitarian needs only,” the TRC president said.

The organization has been also helping the refugees from Myanmar, mainly the members of the Rohingya minority, fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. According to Dr.Kinik, a large fund-raising campaign is launched in Turkey, which is ongoing with generous contributions of the Turkish people, the government, NGOs and private sector.

“Funds raised in this campaign will be used in relief activities both in Myanmar and Bangladesh hubs for the displaced populations and host communities in need,” Dr.Kinik underlined.

According to the humanitarian organization’s president, the TRC has started to deliver food, hygiene kits and other necessities to 10,000 people daily, in partnership with the Turkish Development Agency (TIKA), “particularly for new arrivals in Kutupalong and Balukhali refugee and makeshift camps,” and plans to increase its capacities in the next few weeks.

“Regular delivery plans have been scheduled for the months ahead and local procurement of 50,000 monthly family food packages and 50,000 hygiene kits have been completed. In addition to this, in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Turkey, two field hospitals from Turkey will be shipped by the TRC and activated soon, in Cox’s Bazar [a city in Bangladesh, not far from the border with Myanmar’s troubled state of Rakhine],” Dr.Kinik said.

The logistics capacities of Bangladesh Red Crescent, helping refugees from Myanmar, are set to be improved by new mobile storage units, he added.

“An air delivery from Turkey is being prepared to transport the field hospital, mobile storage units and other items assessed as necessary,” the president specified.

Dr.Kinik expressed gratitude to the government of Bangladesh, which facilitated the access to people in need for the humanitarian organizations.

“TRC will continue to engage, together with the Bangladesh Red Crescent, with the Government of Bangladesh and likewise in Myanmar and maintain a regular dialogue with the authorities and decision-makers to ensure that rights and needs of those seeking refuge and protection in Bangladesh or those in Myanmar are addressed and policies are informed of humanitarian imperatives and principles,” the TRC president said.

Myanmar’s government has been leading a military campaign in the state of Rakhine against Rohingya insurgents since late August. The operation followed an attack on the state security forces’ posts.

The Rohingya minority is denied citizenship under Myanmar’s law as a result of a decades-long conflict.

The international community has repeatedly urged the country’s government to address the crisis.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/1...cross-boost-aid-rakhine-turkish-red-crescent/


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## Banglar Bir

*The plight of Rohingya refugees | Turning Point*
CBC news 
The National 
*As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees flee Myanmar for Bangladesh, questions linger about how to intervene and whether the term “ethnic cleansing" applies.




 https://www.facebook.com/




*




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*The World Knew Ahead of Time the Rohingya Were Facing Genocide*




_By_ Kate Cronin-Furman
Foreign Policy
September 20, 2017
*We've never known more about oncoming atrocities, but are still mostly helpless to stop them.*
A humanitarian crisis is unfolding on the border between Burma (also known as Myanmar) and Bangladesh. Over the last three weeks, nearly 400,000 Burmese Rohingya have fled the country, driven out by the devastating violence unleashed upon them by the military. Their stories are horrific: parents slaughtered in front of their children, systematic rape and sexual torture, wholesale destruction of villages. Aid and advocacy groups describe the rate of population displacement as unprecedented and the human misery among the refugees as unparalleled.

The violence is shocking, but at the same time it is entirely unsurprising. For the past three years, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Early Warning Project has identified Burma as one of the top three countries most at risk for a mass atrocity. Other researchers argued as early as 2015 that a genocidal campaign was already underway. With such clear indications that a crisis was coming, why did the world fail to protect the Rohingya?

The question is all the more puzzling because in 2005, the member states of the United Nations endorsed the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) framework, which obligates the international community to protect civilians from mass atrocities when their governments are “unwilling or unable” to keep them safe. R2P was borne out of collective guilt over the mass slaughter of civilians in Rwanda and Bosnia and promised a new era of “timely and decisive” atrocity response. In pursuit of this goal, early warning efforts to identify the precursors of mass atrocities became a focus for both international and state actors.

But if the Rohingya crisis has revealed anything, it’s that early warnings were never going to be enough to prevent mass atrocities.

As the death toll mounts, many observers are asking whether Burma is committing genocide. But the question hinges on intent, not scale. The mass slaughter of civilian members of a minority group by state forces is a crime against humanity. It may also be genocide if committed with the goal of destroying that group “in whole or in part.” And, practically speaking, the distinction doesn’t matter — neither for the Rohingya, who are being subjected to a brutal and systematic attack whatever the motive, nor for the international community, whose options and obligations in the face of mass atrocity do not depend on the name of the crime.

Called “the world’s most persecuted minority,” the Muslim Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination and abuse at the hands of their Buddhist neighbors and the Burmese security forces. Although the Rohingya have lived in Burma’s western Rakhine state since the era of British colonial rule, Burma does not recognize their citizenship and insists that they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. As a result of this deprivation of nationality, they have been systematically discriminated against and denied access to state services.

The Rohingya’s precarious legal status has made them particularly vulnerable to violence from other groups. In 2012, when ethnic riots erupted between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine state, 100,000 Rohingya fled their homes. Human rights groups documented the collusion of state forces in the violence, suggesting that the Rohingya’s subsequent forced relocation to squalid displacement camps and urban ghettos in the name of security was part of a deliberate plan to restrict their freedom of movement. In 2015, another alarm bell rang: The situation in the camps had become so dire that thousands of Rohingya boarded unsafe vessels on the Andaman Sea. An international crisis ensued when, in the face of the unprecedented numbers seeking asylum, Burma’s neighboring countries began turning back the boats.

When Rohingya insurgents attacked several border posts in October 2016, the government responded with unrestrained fury. Openly invoking the hate speech propagated by militant Buddhist monks, government officials have characterized the Rohingya as “dirty,” terrorists, and liars. 

By November 2016, human rights groups were warning that the military was systematically employing extrajudicial killings, torture, and sexual violence against the civilian population in the name of counterinsurgency. And in February 2017, a U.N. report concluded that the so-called “clearance operations” likely amounted to crimes against humanity. The violence, already severe, escalated sharply following the deaths of 12 security officers on Aug. 25. 

In response, the military launched an all-out attack on the Rohingya. Credible estimates suggest that over a third of the Rohingya population has fled. Thousands more attempt to cross the border into Bangladesh every day.

The plight of the Rohingya suggests that early warnings do little to prevent atrocities against vulnerable groups. The high risk of mass atrocities was clear from the escalating communitarian violence, the documented uptick in online hate speech beginning in 2012, and the tightening of official restrictions on the Rohingya’s movement and activities.

And the Rohingya are not the only post-R2P victims of long-telegraphed mass atrocities. In 2009, Sri Lanka slaughtered tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in the final phase of its war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The bloodbath was neither sudden nor unpredictable. The security forces had committed systematic abuses throughout the conflict and had expelled aid workers and journalists from the field of combat in late 2008. More recently, South Sudan’s descent into violence and anarchy was preceded by the breakdown of a power-sharing agreement and rumors of ethnic militias forming. In both cases, the threat of atrocities was clear, yet the international community took no action to prevent them.

These examples underscore the fact that a lack of advance notice is not the critical obstacle to action on mass atrocities. It’s politics. Many powerful countries are reluctant to permit action that impinges on another state’s sovereignty, lest the precedent be used against them later. This is particularly true for countries (like China, India, and Russia) fighting insurgencies within their own territory. And for those who lack these disincentives, the costs of action may still present a barrier. International actors are aware that humanitarian interventions are rarely simple exercises and often presage long-term commitments. And in the aftermath of the Libyan intervention, where R2P was explicitly invoked, they are particularly wary of the potential for making a bad situation worse.

Early warning has not saved the Rohingya because it can’t offset the countervailing interests or cooperation challenges that make preventing or halting mass atrocities difficult. And unfortunately, these dynamics are particularly pronounced in the present crisis. The Burmese government, including its Nobel Peace laureate civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has made a concerted push to brand the Rohingya as Islamic militants. Tapping into international counter-terrorism narratives simultaneously bolsters the legitimacy of the military operation against the Rohingya and undermines their status as innocent civilian victims of state abuse.

Additionally, the international community is already struggling to respond to mass atrocities elsewhere, most prominently in Syria, but also in the often-overlooked wars in Yemen, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan. In tandem, these two factors mean that the Rohingya are in competition with other atrocity victims for attention and assistance — and the terrorism allegations, however far-fetched, may make them appear comparatively less deserving.

Finally, the fact that the attacks on the Rohingya are taking place against the backdrop of a singularly apathetic U.S. administration further reduces the likelihood of intervention on their behalf. Under President Trump, the U.S. has removed human rights conditions on arms sales, gutted the State Department’s human rights and democracy promotion mission, and threatened to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council.

However vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy the United States has been in the past, its rhetorical commitment to human rights and willingness to exert pressure has provided a constraint on repressive states that seek the support of the West. But a world in which the United States openly ignores human rights constitutes a permissive environment for the commission of atrocities. Burma knows this, and it has seized the opportunity to finally rid itself of the Rohingya with little risk of interference.
_Photo credit: Allison Joyce/Getty Image_


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Children Witness Crimes Against Humanity*




Two brothers, "Abdulaziz" (age 9) and "Zahid" (age 6), watched from across the river as their family was massacred. They watched the attackers execute their father along with the other men in the village, and then take their mother and three siblings to a house which was set on fire. Kutupalong camp, September 25. © 2017 Anastasia Taylor-Lind for Human Rights Watch
_By _Peter Bouckaert
Human Rights Watch
September 29, 2017
*Orphans are traumatized after Burmese Security Forces Abuses
“Abdulaziz” is only nine years old, but his serious look and stern demeanor makes him seem much older. There’s a reason for that: three weeks ago, he watched Burmese soldiers murder his parents and siblings, and now he has to look after his little brother, “Zahid,” 6, the only survivors from what was once a family of seven.
*
When Burmese soldiers attacked hundreds of Rohingya Muslims in the village of Tu Lar To Li on August 30, Abdulaziz took his brother Zahid by the hand, and together they swam across an adjoining river to escape, even as soldiers fired at them, killing some of those swimming alongside.

From across the river, the little boys watched as the soldiers first shot dead their father Mufiz, 35, and then took their mother Rabu, 30, their brothers Janatullah, 10, and Shabullah, 5, and their sister Mumtaz, 3, into a nearby house. The house was soon engulfed in flames.

Nearby in the sprawling Kutupalong refugee camp on the Bangladeshi side of the border stood another little boy, 10-year-old “Ali,” whose parents and three siblings were killed in the same massacre by the Burmese military. According to those taking care of him, Ali has not spoken since the killings.
The ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslims since an attack by Rohingya militants on police posts in late August has harmed countless children, many of them shot or hacked to death by uniformed soldiers.

Approximately 480,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, and according to UNICEF the majority among them are children. These children are deeply traumatized and have had their lives ripped apart by the violence they have experienced and witnessed.

Reading about half a million Rohingyas fleeing violence in Burma in just over one month may leave many feeling powerless. But each refugee, like Abdulaziz and his brother Zahid, have real needs that can be met – from safe shelter, food, and clean water, to psychosocial counseling to deal with the trauma they experienced, and, urgently, an education that can eventually help them realize their full potential. 

Sadly, the United Nation’s emergency request for funding for education has fallen on deaf ears, even though more than 100,000 of the refugees are children who should soon be in school.
Those responsible for these crimes need to be held accountable. But for the children who have lost their families, experiencing some sense of normalcy, as well as justice, is essential to healing such deep wounds.


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## Hephaestus

Banglar Bir said:


> *'ARSA will be conducting thorough investigations and issuing detailed statements from time to time in relation to the ongoing war crimes'*
> The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Wednesday denied their involvement in any violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar on August 25.
> 
> “ARSA categorically denies that any of its members or combatants perpetrated murder, sexual violence, or forcible recruitment in the villages of Fakirabazar, Riktapara, and Chikonchhari in Maungdaw on or about August 25, 2017,” the Rohingya insurgent group said in a press release.


Liars...


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Cultural Anthropology*
Sun, 2017-10-01 08:48 — editor
By Dr. Shwe Lu Maung
Myanmar, with her rich cultural and natural resources, has every potential to be a world leader that everybody will love. However, to my anguish:?

(The author's note: The account given here is a very short summary of the facts drawn from my published books. Deeper and broader presentations and discussions can be found in my books).

With hate ideology and violent persecution of the Rohingya people Myanmar has now entered into the darkest era of human civilization in the post WWII. Based on the 1990 Myanmar election data, I calculated in my book The Price of Silence (2005), p 252, that there were 1.87 million Rohingya in a total population of around 4 millions in the Rakhine State, in 1990. Today, based on the latest United Nations and media reports as of September 29, 2017, Rohingya exodus passed half a million mark at 501,000, in addition to earlier mass exoduses since 1978. As such, there is left less than 500,000 Rohingya inside Myanmar. That means more than 73% of Rohingya population has been forced out of Myanmar.
*Beyond doubt, this is 'ethnic cleansing'.*
In the statues of International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the 'ethnic cleansing' is defined as a 'crime against humanity' and depending upon the severity it may amount to genocide. In spite of the obvious brutal scorched-earth criminal activities of the Myanmar authorities it is saddening to see that certain powers are putting blame on 'Rohingya,' as the central cause of the crisis, asserting that 'Rohingya' is a political construct of the Bengali illegal immigrants to gain a hold in Myanmar.

*At the same time, undue supports to the Myanmar authorities are being showered by certain powers with the hope of getting a mega slice of Myanmar natural resources and economic benefit. Rohingya Mayu region is rich in gas, oil, and coal.*

Under such global attitude of greed for power and money, how shall a common man like me go against the world powers, against the socio-economic currents, and fight for justice in this case of Myanmar’s crimes against humanity? At least, with the hope that, one day, there will be an international tribunal for Myanmar crimes against humanity, I can try to tell the factual story with a presentation of the Rohingya cultural anthropology, which constitutes a strong antithesis of the Myanmar hate ideology.
*Part 1: The Rohingya - a legend, not a myth*
A legend is a tradition or history based on the actual event, extraordinary in nature, in a distant past, whereas a myth is purely a make-to-believe imaginary fictional story.

Let us see. Myanmar accuses that Rohingya is a political construct of the Mujahideens in 1958 in light of the absence of the word "Rohingya" in the existing Myanmar historical records. However, upon a careful examination, I find that the existence of Rohingya is manifested in the Rakhine chronicles by the Rakhine historians themselves, such as _Rakhine Maha Razawin _by Saya Me, written in 1840. The first book on Myanmar (Burma) history by a non-Burman is History of Burma by Sir Arthur Phayre, published by Trübner & Co., London, in 1833. This is the earliest and most reliable recorded history of Burma written by a person who had long experience in Arakan and Myanmar from 1824 to 1867 as a soldier, diplomat and governor. The following is his description of Arakan.

“The country known in Europe as Arakan extends for 350 miles along the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal. It is called by the natives Rakhaingpyi, or land of the Rakhaing. The same word in the Pali form, Yakkho, and also Raksha, is applied to beings, some good and some bad, who have their abode on Mount Meru, and are guards round the mansion of Sekra or Indra." (Sir Arthur Phayre, History of Burma, 1883, p 41).

This is a legend but not a myth. The Myanmar version of Mt. Meru is Mt. Mayu. In Burmese dialects 'e' and 'a' sounds are indistinguishable and 'r' is pronounced as 'y', like 'Yangon' for 'Rangoon'. Now, it is a striking coincidence that we have the Rohingya people in the region along the ridge, east and west, of Mt. Mayu, in Arakan. "Rohingya" is a derivative of the Sanskrit word "Raksha" whereas "Rakhine" comes from the Pali version "Rakkha." (For more detail consult The Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya). It is also possible that the term "Ra-khine-thar" simply is a Burmese transliteration of "Ra-k-sha." The words mean a guard or soldier in English. 

They are the soldiers who guard Mt. Meru, the abode of King Indra of Heaven. The oriental cosmology with Mt. Meru as the center of universe is the main stay in Myanmar culture. In Burmese literature, Mt. Meru is popular as Myint Mohr, Myint for Mount and Mohr is the direct adaptation of Devan?gar? Meru into Burmese script. While Mt. Meru is an object of belief, Mt. Mayu in Arakan is a reality. In deed, we do not know when or who gave the name. When I try to connect the dots in the "out-of-African" human migration that gradually populated the world, it makes me ponder when I find that Mt. Meru also exists near the Tanzanian Olduvai Gorge, the famous archaeological site of human evolution, where the fossils of the early human species _Homo habilis, Paranthropus boisei, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens _have been found. In the midway of Tanzania and Arakan, another Mt. Meru stands in Garhwal Himalayas of the Uttarakhand region, India.

In Arakan, it is a fact bigger than reality to find Mt. Meru, or Mt. Mayu in Burmese, is guarded by the Rohingya of Raksha descent. Raksha or ogre is the identity given to the native dark skin people by the invaders of light skin color. A similar scenario can be found in Sri Lanka history of the invader Prince Vijaya and the native ogre woman called Kuveni. Therefore, it is sound to conclude that the term "Rohingya" is not a myth of 1958 political construct by the then Mujahideens, but a legend embedded with facts and recorded in the Rakhine chronicles written by the Rakhine themselves.

Then, the question arises: who are the Rakhine?
*Part 2: The Rakhine - children of the conquerors.*
The legendary aboriginality of the Rohingya is supported by the Rakhine's claim that they are the descendants of the conquerors and the indigenous people. Most distinctly, the most famous and prominent Rakhine intellectual, aristocratic politician and Barister-at-law, U Kyaw Min (ICS, MP), who was one of the elite eight Indian Civil Service (ICS) of all British Burma, and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1950 to 1962 in the independent Burma, representing the Rakhine political party known as _Ratanya_ (Arakan National United Organization), asserted that "the Arakanese people are of Aryan stock mixed with the indigenous people who have inhabited Arakan from time immemorial," in his extremely popular pamphlet The Arakan State, the Pye Daw Tha Press, 1958, see page 1, _Mistaken Belief._ 

He wrote it in a serious rebuttal to the Burmese assertion that the Rakhine are also the Burmese who have acquired some distinct characteristics due to localization for a long time. The Rakhine being the descendents of the Indo-Aryan stock is the well accepted Rakhine legend. Every Rakhine will proudly say as such, regardless of his or her biometric phenotype.

How come? A satisfactory answer came from another famous Rakhine intellectual U San Tha Aung, who was a professor of physics, and became the Vice Chancellor of Rangoon University and then the Director General of Higher Education in the days of Ne Win's regime. In his famous book The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan, Chapter 1: Geographical Description, Subheading: _The Peoples of Arakan,_ he wrote, "The earliest people who lived in Arakan were Negritos who are mentioned in the chronicles as "Bilus" (cannibals). They appear to have been the direct neolithic descendents of the Arakanese soil. Later, waves of peoples of different races came into this land from the north." Based on the legends of First Dhannyawaddi Kingdom recorded in the Arakanese chronicles, it is possible that the Indo-Aryan peoples of Northern India conquered Arakan in an ancient past, most likely in the days of Great Mauryan Empire 322 to 187 BCE. 

The first king of Dhannyawady Kingdom was Marayu, which is a corruption of Maurya. In this regard, I must say that the Rakhine historians placing of the King Marayu in 2600 BCE is a mysterious error. The language of the Mauryan Empire was Magadha. 

This is the reason why the Rakhine people say that every body spoke Magadha in the old days and now, only the birds do so. 

U San Tha Aung believed that the Magadha-speaking Rakhine were known as Magh or Mogh by the people of Bengal. Up to today some Bengali and Rohingya call the Rakhine Mogh. However, they say a 'Mogh' means a 'pirate', referring to a period of the Portuguese and Rakhine pirates operating in the Bay of Bengal in early 1600s. I agree with U San Tha Aung since the term Magh or Mogh existed much earlier than the age of the Portuguese pirates. Again, in support of the Magadha origin, the scholars also know that a Bengali poet named Daulat Qazi who served the Rakhine king Thiri Thu-Dhamma Raja (r.1622-1638 CE), in his epic poem ‘Satî Mainâ’, mentioned Magadha descent of the king and his kingdom as follow.

“To the east of the river Karnafuli there is a palace, Roshang
City by name – like the Heaven.
There rules the glorious king of Magadha descent a follower
of the Buddha,
Name being Sri Sudhamma Raja, renown for his justice.
His power is like the morning sun, famous in the world,
Grooms the subjects like his own children.
Reveres the Lord [Buddha] and purely religious,
One’s sins are forgiven when one sees his feet…”
(The Rakhine State Violence Vol. 2: The Rohingya, p 173)

It is important note that the 17th century poet of the Arakan Palace, Daulat Qazi, used the word 'Roshang' but not 'Rakhine'.

Now, the Rakhine also claim that they are also the descendants of Rakha (Rakkha) or Bilu. Rakkha is the Pali version of the Sanskrit word "Raksha." Sanskrit is an earlier language than Pali. Therefore, it is reasonable to accept that the Pali version Rakkha became prominent when the ancient land of Arakan was conquered around 322 BCE and ruled by the Mauryans who spoke Magadha, a Pali language. 

Both U Kyaw Min and U San Tha Aung clearly believed that the Rakhine are the descendants of the conquerors, the Magadha-speaking Mauryans, and the indigenous people. As such, they came to be known as the Rakhine in Pali version. In light of these statements, it is reasonable to believe that the Sanskrit version 'Rohingya' and the Pali version 'Rakhine' diverged beginning at the time of the Mauryan rule of Dhannyawady Kingdom. So must also be the Rohingya, the natives, and the Rakhine, the children of the conquerors married to natives.

Then, the question arises: why the Rakhine speaks a Burmese dialect today? The answer came from the internationally accepted history. It is a common knowledge that the Mauryan Empire fell and the Dyannyawadi Kingdom also vanished. 

Then, there emerged Sanskrit-speaking Three City Kingdoms, namely Samatata, Harikela, and Ves?l?, with the symbol of ?r?vatsa. Today, the Rakhine State Flag still is embedded with the symbol of ?r?vatsa. The former two kingdoms are in today’s Chittagong region and Ves?l? is in today’s Rakhine State of Myanmar. Rakhine Ves?l? was ruled by a dynasty bearing the name Chandra, using Sanskrit as its royal language, but we do not know the language of the commoners in that period. 

No matter what, Ves?l? was conquered by the Burmese in 957 as per candid description of Maurice Collis who in his famous book The Land of Great Image (1943, pp 136-137) wrote that Arakan was conquered by the "Mongolian barbarians" in 957 CE and as a result, the inhabitants are "a mixture of Mongolian and Indian races."

Maurice Collis was a British Commissioner of Arakan and his knowledge of Arakan is formidable. He is in agreement with Professor Daniel George Edward Hall, who was the founding father of the Department of History at Rangoon University in 1921. Professor Hall wrote in his book, A history of Southeast Asia (1964), that Burmese arrived at Arakan only in the 10th century AD and the earlier kingdoms of Arakan belonged to the Indians "ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal." 

Again, these historical events are supported by another prominent scholar, Randy J. LaPolla, who is currently a Professor, at the Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He wrote, "The people we have come to think of as the Burmese had been in Yunnan, under the control of the Nanzhao kingdom, and moved down into Burma beginning in the middle of the ninth century." (See p. 237 of Randy J. LaPolla, The role of migration and language ... Case Studies in Language Change, Oxford University Press, November 2001). 

According to him, the Burmese established themselves by conquering the Pyu and the Mon. Later, they conquered Arakan. Since then, the Rakhine has been under the influence of the Burmese. Consequently, the Rakhine today speaks a dialect of Burmese and, in deed, the Burmese blood also runs in them. As such, the Rakhine are a mixed population of the aborigines Negritos, Mauryans who are the Northern Indo-Aryans, and the Burmese of Yunan origin. That is why you will find many skin color shades, from black, yellow, golden to snow-white, among the Rakhine. I can see these beautiful phenotypes in my clan. 

I came from a large and well-established clan whose forebears founded and ruled Laymro and Mrauk-U dynasties from 13th to 18th century. I have relatives and distant relatives through out Arakan spanning from Bandarban and Cox's Bazar area of Bangladesh to Taungup and Gwa area of Rakhine State, Myanmar. I came to realize this amazing genetic diversity when I learned Mendelian inheritance laws and Punnett Squares at Rangoon University and I am proud that I am a_ Homo sapiens _having a rich gene pool, though I am not a tall, dark and handsome man.

Similarly, today Rohingya are no longer the Raksha of the ancient days. Their gene pool has been enriched by the waves of new settlers in the days of the Arakan Empire as described by the famous poet Alaol in his epic poem,_ Padmavati _(1648).
*Part 3: The Rohingya of Central Arakan*
It will be naive to say that there is no Bengali in Arakan. Based on the commonness of mtDNA macrohaplogroup M in both Bengal and Myanmar, a very similar, if not the same, population must have lived in both regions some 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. 

Thousands of years passed and Professor DGE Hall, based on the archaeological artifacts, found evidence that before the Burmese occupation in the 10th century Arakan had a similar population to that of Bengal. 

We must keep in our mind that what we now know as Bengal and Burma (Myanmar) took their respective politico-cultural shapes only in the 12th century. Accordingly, the first recorded Bengali settlers in Arakan are the soldiers of Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah of Gaur, then the capital of independent Bengal, who were given to the dethroned Rakhine King Mun Saw Mwan, to restore his throne from the Burmese occupation in 1430 CE.

The Burmese hatred towards the Bengali probably began here. The number of soldiers described by the scholars varies from 30,000 to 50,000 but we do not know how many stayed on. We do know that a good number of the Bengali soldiers served the Rakhine kings of Arakan from 1430 to 1784. The Rakhine kings ruled the twelve cities of Bengal, including Chittagong for 150 years. 

Many captives from the occupied areas were forced to slave-labor in the paddy fields of the Rakhine kings as witnessed and recorded by the Portuguese Augustinian friar Sebastião Manrique's in 1628. With the help of the Bengali and with the revenues and exploits from Bengal, Arakan prospered. Even the most famous king of Arakan Min Bin (r.1531-1553) had Bengali queens as noted by Professor Pamela Gutman in her book Burma's Lost Kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan (p. 100). As such, even the Rakhine royals carried the Bengali genes.

In the course of time, they all became Arakanized and mostly settled in the central Arakan, not in the northern Arakan. Their descendents prefer to be known as the Rakhine Muslims. Again, R.B. Smart on the page 90 of his report wrote, "They (Mussalmen) differ but little from the Arakanese except in their religion and in the social customs which their religion directs; in writing they use Burmese, but amongst themselves employ colloquially the language of their ancestors. 

Long residence in this enervating climate and the example set by them, the people among whom they have resided for generations, have had the effect of rendering these people almost as indolent and extravagant as the Arakanese themselves." 

This I know because I had Muslim friends in my school and university days and about 10% of them, with trust, confided me that they were the descendents of these Arakanized Bengali and that they had Rakhine father or mother in their family tree, and therefore they are also the 'Rakhaingthar' or 'Roshangya'. This is the reality of cultural anthropology brought about by the Arakan Empire and, naturally, we must accept its manifestations in every aspect.

Most of the Arakanese Muslim soldiers were killed, along with their Arakanese Buddhist comrades in defense of Arakan against the Burmese occupational war in 1784. 

During the Burmese genocidal occupation of Arakan from 1784 to 1824, some 250,000 Arakanese people (The Price of Silence (2005), p 244), both Buddhists and Muslims, were killed and more than 100,000 were enslaved by the Burmese kings either as the forced labor to build the pagodas (e.g. Mingun), and water reservoirs (e.g. Meiktila Lake), or as the conscripts in their fight against Siam (now Thailand). Near the Thai border, a southern Burmese community known as the Beik-thar (also known as Myeik) is made up of the descendents of the Rakhine soldiers who settled there during the Burmese-Siamese Wars (1785-1812). 

They still speak Burmese with distinctive Rakhine accent. Many Arakanese Muslims were forced to dig Meiktila Lake and they are known as the Mye-du (Muslim), meaning earth-diggers. Today, they live in or around the city of Meiktila and suffered serious attack from the Buddhist extremists in 2013.

At the event of the 1784 Burmese genocidal occupation of Arakan, the people of Arakan (Arakanese), including Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and animists, fled. Later, many more fled from the brutality of the Burmese occupational forces. Again, more people fled from the First Anglo-Burma War (1824-1826). Most of them returned to Arakan when the British occupied it in 1826. The return of the Arakanese Buddhists, Hindus, and animists are viewed as the return of the natives by the today Burmese authorities, but the return of the Arakanese Muslims is considered as the Bengali infiltration and they now face the ethnic cleansing. Therefore, we must carefully review the historical records. Two very important reports are discussed here. The emphases in italics are mine.

1. As per British record (B.R. Pearn, King-Bering, Jour. Burma Research Soc., Vol. XXXIII (II), 1933, p445), is that "by the year 1789, two-thirds of the inhabitants of Arakan were said to have deserted their land." Please note the term 'the inhabitants of Arakan,' which carries the meaning that all communities of Arakan, fled into the British territory in Bengal and India.

2. The British Deputy Commissioner, R.B. Smart in his report (Burma Gazetteer Akyab District Volume A, Rangoon, Superintendent, Government Printing, Burma, 1917, p 84) wrote, "When Arakan was first ceded it was_found to be depopulated but immigrants soon flocked in, composed mainly of persons who had been driven out by the Burmese or who escaped during the war and who came back to their homes from Chittagong and other neighboring districts,_and as the country became more settled the immigration increased." Arakan was ceded by the Burmese to the British in 1826 when the Burmese was defeated in the First Anglo-Burma War, 1824-1826.

The Deputy Commissioner Smart's elaboration that _"the immigrants" are "composed mainly of persons who had been driven out by the Burmese or who escaped during the war"_is the critical information we must bear in our minds in every page when we read his report. It is imperative to do so. Deputy Commissioner Smart used the word 'immigrants' for all returnees. In the later sections of his report, his use of the word 'Arakanese' only for the 'Rakaing' (i.e. Rakhine) is arbitrary since the word 'Arakanese' is a derivative of the name of the country 'Arakan' and as such it covers all inhabitants of Arakan. 

He also generalized in the use of the word 'Chittagonian' for the 'Arakanese Muslims', and 'Chittagonian Hindu' for the 'Arakanese Hindu' for the simple reason that they all came from _"Chittagong and neighboring districts"_ where they had been exiled during the Burmese occupation (1784-1824) and the First Anglo-Burma War (1824-1826), for more than 40 years. Many of them must have been born there. Therefore, in the eyes of the British who effectively ruled Bengal since 1765 they were all Bengali or Chittagonians.

Futhermore, R.B. Smart on the page 89 of his report, clearly mentioned that the Mahomedans _"were, for the most part, descendants of slaves captured by the Arakanese and Burmese in their wars with their neighbours."_ As such, the word 'Chittagonian' in his report is a much generalized term for the convenience of reporting.

Today, the Myanmar authorities' assertion that the Muslims of Arakan are the Bengali Chittagonian illegal immigrants of British era is absolutely invalid because it totally ignores the abovementioned report of B.R. Pearn (1933) and clarification of R. B. Smart (1917). The accusation that today Arakanese Muslims are the Chittagonian agricultural laborers (coolies) is also wrong because Deputy Commissioner Smart, in his report on pages 103 and 104, clearly mentioned that the _'coolies come from Chittagong, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway districts," and "with the exception of a few who obtain further employment, return to their home."_

At the same time, Myanmar's assertion that all 'returnees' were the Rakhine only does not reflect the historical reality of Arakan. We must be fully aware of the fact that Arakan Kingdom was multi-ethnic and multicultural, as recorded by the famous Bengali poet Alaol in his epic poem _Padmavati, _written in 1648. Alaol served in the royal palace of Rakhaing kings Narapadigyi (r.1638-1645 CE), Thado Mintar (r.1645—1652 CE), and Sandathu-dhamma (r.1652-1684 CE). In his description of the multi-ethnic and multicultural society of Arakan, which id given below, I counted 41 ethnic groups.

“People from every country, hearing the magnificence of Roshang, Took shelter under the King. Arabian, Michiri [Egyptian], Shami [Syrian], Turkish, Habsi [African], Rumi Khprachani and Uzbek. Lahuri, Multani, Sindi, Kashmiri, Dakkhini (Deccanese), Hindi, Kamrupi [Assamese] and Bangadeshi [Bengali], Ahopai Khotanchari, Karnali, Malayabari, From Achi, Kuchi [Cochi] and Karnataka. Countless Sheik, Soiyadjada, Moghul, Pathan warriors, Rajput, Hindu of various nationals. Avai [Inwa], Burmese, Siam [Thai], Tripura, Kuki to name. How many more should I elaborate. Armenian, Olandaz [Dutch], Dinemar, Engraj [English], Castiman and Franças [French]. Hipani [Spanish], Almani [German], Chholdar, Nachhrani [Nestorian], Many races including Portuguese."

As such, when we read carefully various historical accounts it is clear that Arakan was a multiethnic and multicultural and that the settlers at various phases of Arakan’s history intermarried with the local people. 

In particular, the multiethnic and multicultural diversification as well as the melting or intermixing took place in central Arakan, far away form the Mayu region. The mixed descendants are also known as the Roshangya that changes into Rohingya in the course of time. 

This may seem to complicate the scenario because we now have a second layer of Rohingya. Nevertheless, the second layer of the Rohingya does not compromise the aboriginality of the Rohingya; rather it enriches the Rohingya culture and gene pool. 

Notwithstanding, the second layer of Rohingya was a making of the Rakhine people, their kings, and the Burmese conquerors, and consequently the responsibility devolves onto the Rakhine and their master, the Burmese. Therefore, Myanmar today must handle the Rohingya issue with a sincere sense of due responsibility.

Let us not forget that, in the 17th century, Poet Alaol, like Daulat Qazi, also referred Arakan as Roshang, which is the direct derivative the Sanskrit word 'Raksha'. 
Therefore, it is obvious that Arakan was also known as Roshang and as such, the 'Roshangya' or later 'Rohingya' are also Arakanese. 

In the later days, due to the racial and cultural divergence the Arakanese Buddhists prominently became 'Rakhine' with Pali inclination and the Arakanese Muslims remain as 'Rohingya' having Sanskrit lineage. 
With the event of the Buddhist dominance, in particular after the Burmese genocidal occupation of Arakan in 1784, the 'Rohingya' faded into the unknown place of history. The Buddhist dominance gradually advanced to Buddhist ultra-nationalism or Myanmarism, which is a hate ideology, (see The Price of Silence. ISBN-13: 978-1928840039, 2005), resulting in ethnic cleansing, with the event of General Ne Win's fascist militarism in 1962 and his racist Citizenship Act of Burma, 1982. Why Myanmar is still acting as the occupational force? Why the world is tolerating such crimes against humanity? This is 2017, not 1784.
*Part 4: Rohingya - neither Bengali nor Burmese*
A study of the linguistic scenario also renders strong support to the abovementioned legends and history of Rohingya aboriginality, elucidating that they are neither Bengali nor Burmese.

It has been established that the Rohingya is a dialect within the Indic (Indo-Aryan) languages of Indo-European language phylum. 
Therefore, it is native to South Asia as per today’s geographical classification. Burma is included in the Southeast Asia. 

However, if we look at the map, say the Google Earth, we can easily see that Arakan of Burma is more of South Asia than of Southeast Asia. 

As a matter of fact, I have concluded that Arakan or the ancient legendary Rakkhapura was an extension of the Brahmaputra Civilization (p 223, The Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya). Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the Rohingya speakers are the indigenous to the region. 
On the other hand, the Rakhine language is an archaic dialect of today’s Burman language, which is classified as the Tibeto-Burman branch of Sino-Tibetan phylum. 

According to Professor Randy J. LaPolla, a distinguished scholar of linguistics the Sino-Tibetan language was originated in the Yellow River valley of China some 6,500 years ago (p 99, The Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya). As such, it is clear that the Tibeto-Burman speakers of Myanmar are the emigrants from north China. This squarely invalidates the assertion by the Myanmar scholars and authorities that Myanmar is a native land of the Tibeto-Burman speakers.

Furthermore, a Sino-Burmese scholar named Chen Yi-Sein who taught at Rangoon University and was a member of the Burma Historical Commission from 1956 to 1987, identified the Pyu of Taungdwingyi, central Burma, being the Dravidian speakers, contradicting the popular version that the Pyu were the Tibeto-Burman speakers. 
Current scholars like Michael Aung-Thwin, University of Hawaii at Manoa, has described that the Pyu musicians entertained with Sanskrit songs at the Tang Court in 800–802 as per the Chinese records. Pyu scripts are based on the Southern Indian Brahmi scripts. 

The artifacts found in various Pyu archaeological sites, dating from 1st to 9th century CE, were written in Pyu, Sanskrit or Pali. In addition, from the available archaeological artifacts we have good reasons to believe that Pyu belonged to the same stock of South Asian people such as Tamil. 

The native people of Taungdwingyi and Prome (pyay) region have dark skin color and the girls are popular as 'nyochaw' or 'brown beauties'. Burmese chronicles also mention that two blind Princes of Tagaung were cured to regain their eye sights by an ogre-nymph in the region of Shinma-daung and Mt. Popa, at the bank of Irrawaddy River. 
The ogre-nymph is, for sure, a dark-brown Dravidian speaking lady. The names, Mt. Popa (Puppha) and River Irrawaddy (Iravati) are not of Tibeto-Burman but are of Indic and Dravidian origin. In parallel, it is well-established that the Mon of Mon-Khmer people were in Burma long before the arrival of the Tibeto-Burman speakers. The Mon-Khmer language is in the family of Austroasiatic language phylum. In addition to the Mon, the languages of the Palaung and the Wa of Myanmar also fall in the family of the Austroasiatic languages.

There was no mentioning of Rakhine in Ves?l? ?nandachandra Sanskrit stone inscription. The word Rakhine (Rakkhaing) first appeared only in the 14th century literature known as_ Shin Nagainda Mawgwun, _an epic poem. It says they are known as the Rakhine (the guardians) because they safeguard two faculties such as Amyo (kindred) and Sila (religion). The Burmese script first appeared along with Pali, Pyu and Mon scripts in the Myazedi Stone Inscription made by Prince Raza Kumar of Pagan (Bagan) in 1113 CE. And it is believed that the Myanmar scripts were invented based on the Pyu scripts. As such, among the major languages and scripts, the Burmese language and scripts are the last to appear in Burma.

Today, the Rohingya language is unique with its own features within the Indo-European language family. It is also important to know that the Rohingya language is not legible to the Bengali and vice versa; however, a Rohingya can understand the Chakma language and vice versa, as pointed out by Dr. Muhammad Firdaus, M.D., FACP, an American physician of Rohingya ancestry, in USA. 

As such there is some affinity to each other between the Chakma and Rohingya languages. This intrigues me because Marayu, the founding king of Dhannyawadi is recorded to be the son of a Chakma woman and a Mauryan prince (The Rakhine State Violence Vol. 2: The Rohingya, pp 89-90). For sure, the Rohingya is not a Bengali dialect as concocted by the Myanmar authorities. 
Accordingly, we must reject the Burmese wrongful alienation of the Rohingya by calling them Bengali just because they speak an Indic but not Tibeto-Burman dialect. Finally, we must, with all due justice, respect the uniqueness of the Rohingya and its own identity, independent of Bengali and Burmese. Thereby, we must honor their rights to self-identification and self-determination.
*Part 5: Rohingya - the aborigines and siblings*
Today, no evidence is complete in the absence of genetics and DNA technology. There are two distinct lines of genetics inheritance, one from the mother and the other from the father. We can follow the genetic trail by tracing the genetic markers known as the haplotypes and those having the same haplotypes are grouped into the haplogroups. 
The genetic materials known as the mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA is uniquely inherited from the mother only. Therefore, from the studies of the mtDNA, we can trace the origin of our maternal ancestry way back to the remote time of human evolution. 
In light of present knowledge, it is established that our Mitochrondrial Eve lived some 194,000 years ago, possibly somewhere in East Africa, and she carried the macrohaplogroup L. 
The mother macrohaplogroup L branched out to L1-6 macrohaplogroups. It would appear that the early human who had mtDNA macrohaplogroup L3 came out of Africa probably some 94,000 years ago. 
From the macrohaplogroup L3 emerged the macrohaplogroups M and N, as early as some 62,000 years ago. 
All the European population carries the macrohaplogroup N whereas the Asian population, from the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia to Far East, has the mcarohaplogroup M. 
The mother's mtDNA is a better indicator of the aboriginality of a local group because it is men who usually migrate or invade. For example, from the studies of Venezuelan population genetics we know that all the paternal Y-chromosome comes from almost exclusively of the European invaders while the maternal mtDNA is purely of the indigenous women, indicating that the indigenous males were wiped out.

In a study of 44 complete mtDNA sequences of Myanmar people by M. Summerer and his colleagues _(BMC Evolutionary Biology,_ 2014, 14:17, pp 1471-2148) they found that all Burmese mtDNA fall in the macrohaplogroup M. 
Most interestingly, M. Metspalu and his colleagues (BMC Genetics 2004, 5:26, pp 1471-2156) discovered that the frequency of macrohaplogroup M peaks at 86% at West Bengal, indicating that Bengal serves as the _Grand Central _of human migration from South to East and Southeast Asia. 

Therefore, it is not surprising when HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium, consisting of 92 scientists (Science, 2009, 326: pp 1541-1545), concluded, "the evidence from our autosomal data and the accompanying simulation studies...point toward a history that unites the Negrito and non-Negrito populations of Southeast and East Asia via a single primary wave of entry of humans into the continent."* In other words, it is not wrong to say that Bengali women are the mothers of all Southeast and East Asian population that includes the Burmese as well.*

As such, the entire population of South, East, and Southeast Asia is connected by the mtDNA macrohaplogroup M and all are the descendants of the Asian Negritos. 
This is in absolute agreement with the statements of U Kyaw Min and U San Tha Aung that the earliest people of Arakan are Negritos. Thus, there is overwhelming agreement between science and legend supporting the Rohingya existence since the time immemorial and they are known as Raksha or Bilu (meaning dark and ugly ogre) in the Myanmar chronicles. 
It is excitingly so because Raksha or Bilu are the guards of Mt. Meru and the Rohingya today are concentrated in the region of Mt. Mayu, which is the physical representation of the Buddhist cosmological Mt. Meru. The Buddhists must be very grateful to the Rohingya for safe-guarding their sacred mountain since the beginning of the world.

Beyond doubt, with the science of modern genetics, it confirms that the Rohingya, who appears to be a modern image of our ancestral Negritos, are the aborigines of Arakan. 
Now, the Burmese still call the Chinese 'paukphaw', meaning 'sibling', reflecting their historical cultural lineage. I would like to suggest that the Burmese may also call a Rohingya 'paukphaw' because he is also a sibling in light of the anthropological genetics. Again, based on the population genetics, we also know with certainty that of the total three billion DNA nucleotides in our human genome 99.99% is the same in the entire human population. As such, we all are siblings.
*Part 6: Rohingya - the victims of civilization*
In the days of Arakan Kingdoms, there were slavery and discrimination, but there was no recorded communal violence or ethnic cleansing. The same is true during the days of British rule. 
The Rohingya problem emerged only when the British withdrew in 1947-48, and the three nation states known as Pakistan, India and Burma were created. 
Many peoples got divided along the new border lines. The biggest example is the division of Great Bengal into lesser West Bengal and East Bengal within India and Pakistan respectively. East Bengal, in 1971 violently broke off from Pakistan to become an independent sovereign nation, Bangladesh.

The smaller peoples, such as Baloch, Kashmiri, Naga, Mizo, Manipuri, Chakma, Rohingya, Rakhine, Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kaya, Karen, Mon etc., are not that fortunate. The Rohingya are the worst because they got cemented at the bottom of the Myanmar racial hierarchy, as illustrated below.





The Rohingya dilemma began when their ancestral region was divided into Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Burma, along the midstream of Naaf River. 

They are agriculturists and fishermen, and still are nomadic to some extent. Their ancestral land runs along the east and west Banks of Naaf River. They were caught in the brand new nationalism and citizenship acts of Pakistan and Burma. 

They had no understanding of what the heck a nation state or citizenship is in the modern civilized world. All they knew was that their freedom had been severely restricted and their villages were divided by the demarcation of a border line running in the middle of their ancestral land. 
In confusion, chaos and rebellion broke out. U Nu Government of Burma settled the situation in a peaceful manner, which is well reflected in the speech of Brigadier General Aung Gyi on the 4th of July 1961 when he welcomed the end of armed insurrection of some 200 Rohingya. 
Aung Gyi's speech reads as follow in my English translation from the original Burmese that appeared in the Khit-ye Sa-saung (p 31, The Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya).

"First, I would like to talk about the matter that is concerned for all people of Mayu District. Our Mayu District is bordered in the West with Pakistan. Due to the border connection there are people of Muslim religion both at the East and West sides of the border. 
The people at the West [of the border] are called Pakistani and those at the East [of the border] inside Myanmar are known as the Rohingya. I would like to say this: This place [Mayu District], which is connected with Pakistan, is not the only place where the same “kind of people” (Lumyo) lives at both sides of the border."

Then, he gave the examples of Lisu, E-kaw, La-Wa, Shan living inside Myanmar and China, and Tai, Mon, Karen inside Myanmar and Thailand. After that he said the following.

"At this moment, before the audience, I would like to say openly and precisely. People in the bordering regions have relatives on either side. Despite having the relatives, those who live over there must be Pakistani and those who live here must be citizens of the Myanmar Union."




*Thus, U Nu Government implemented peace and citizenship to the Rohingya. The problem was solved and ended there, in 1961. 
However, in 1962, most unfortunately, General Ne Win and his army seized power, abolished all democratic institutions, and introduced militarized ultra-nationalism and racial hierarchy. With hate ideology, Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingya has reached to a point of genocide and crimes against humanity. 
For long 55 years from 1962 to 2017, the civilized world did nothing. U Nu had said, "It is a sin to kill, but it is a greater sin to watch the killing with folded arms." As long as the world remains silent with folded arms the Rohingya and their alike will be suffering in the hell of civilization.*

*Dr. Shwe Lu Maung*, is an author of several books on Burma (Myanmar), and is a living authority on his native Rakhine (Arakan) state. He is a scientist by training and profession and claims to be a social Darwinist. Before settling in the USA, he spent decades living both in Burma and Bangladesh.
- Asian Tribune -
http://www.asiantribune.com/node/91042


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## Banglar Bir

*What's next to stop Myanmar?*
Sun, 2017-10-01 11:31 — editor
By Habib Siddiqui
According to aid workers inside Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, as of last Friday, more than half a million Rohingyas have poured into the country from Myanmar. More than 60% of these refugees are women and children under the age of twelve. *It is feared that young Rohingya men are either butchered by the Myanmar security forces or are being detained and tortured or lynched by security forces and Buddhist neo-fascists, and some may also be hiding in jungles to escape the killing fields. They are victims of a very sinister genocidal campaign inside Myanmar that has become a national project to eliminate Rohingya presence in this Buddhist majority country.*

The United Nations have condemned vehemently the criminal activities of Suu Kyi’s government and her ‘rapist and arsonist’ military/security forces. The UN Secretary General has called it a ‘text book case of ethnic cleansing.’ 

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday, September 28, called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar over violence against Rohingya Muslims until the military puts sufficient accountability measures in place. It was the first time the United States called for punishment of military leaders behind the repression, but stopped short of threatening to re-impose U.S. sanctions which were suspended, rather foolishly or thoughtlessly, under the Obama administration.

“We cannot be afraid to call the actions of the Burmese authorities what they appear to be - a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority,” Haley told the U.N. Security Council, the first time Washington has echoed the U.N.’s accusation that the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Rakhine State was ethnic cleansing.

“The Burmese military must respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Those who have been accused of committing abuses should be removed from command responsibilities immediately and prosecuted for wrongdoing,” Haley said. “And any country that is currently providing weapons to the Burmese military should suspend these activities until sufficient accountability measures are in place,” Haley said.

Meanwhile, international aid groups in Myanmar have urged the government to allow free access to Rakhine State, where an army offensive has sent more than 500,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh, but hundreds of thousands remain cut off from food, shelter and medical care. Many refugees have died while trying to get into Bangladesh.

The United Nations said lately that at least 15 refugees, including nine children, drowned when their boat capsized off the coast in bad weather.

The Myanmar government has stopped international aid groups and U.N. agencies from carrying out most of their work in the north of Rakhine state, citing insecurity since the Aug. 25 insurgent attacks. Aid groups said in a joint statement they were: “increasingly concerned about severe restrictions on humanitarian access and impediments to the delivery of critically needed humanitarian assistance throughout Rakhine State.” “We urge the government and authorities of Myanmar to ensure that all people in need in Rakhine Sate have full, free and unimpeded access to life-saving humanitarian assistance.”

The sad reality is that despite all condemnations from the world leaders and worries and concerns of international aid agencies and human rights activists, Myanmar is not going to change her criminal course. Its rouge government, since the time of Ne Win, has learned how to ignore world opinion and reinvent its savagery.

The other grim fact is that our world media have had a very small attention span and that soon the ongoing genocidal crimes of the murderous Myanmar government and its neo-fascists within the general public will all be forgotten only to be rudely awakened with another surge of violence inside and refugee exodus from Myanmar. At this rate, I am afraid that not a single Rohingya would be left behind in that of den of extreme intolerance.

Last week, I got a call from my cousin (Sheikh Fariduddin Ahmed Chowdhury who was one of the Dhaka University student leaders of the 1969 Students’ Movement in the then East Pakistan) in Chittagong who had gone to the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar to personally find out the condition of the Rohingya refugees and provide humanitarian aid. He was simply horrified to learn of their plight first hand. He said he had never seen a people in such a hopeless and despair condition in his life. To the refugees, the world has failed to stop their suffering and life has lost all its charms and meaning to live long; they are totally hopeless.

It is there that - what's next - is crucial for us to ponder about and find an answer to that may help us all to avoid a repeat of the current events.

'Boycott Myanmar' seems to be a good slogan and tactic to try given that all other earlier activities of human rights activists and conscientious global citizens have failed to put the moral compass right for our powerful world leaders. The latter have not done anything to stop the bleeding process other than airing empty words that don't bite. Talks will surely not sober a rogue and pariah state that has known and learned that it has its backers in China, India, Israel and Russia - to name just few countries.

We have also seen the failure of the BDS movement in making a difference for the Palestinian people again for the same reason - Israel has its powerful patrons within the UNSC. No matter what this 'other apartheid' state does, with patrons like the USA it need not fear the world opinion. Thus, we had dismal failure to repeat the success of the South African experiment.

This experience sums up our dilemma vis -a-vis Myanmar! As brother Dr. Shwe Lu Maung told me the other day when a person chooses not to wake up and pretends to sleep he would ignore the cries and screams of others; even a bucket full of hot water thrown at him may not do the trick. That is what is happening with Suu Kyi and her criminal government, rapist and arsonist military and neo-fascist lynch mobs and monks! As part of a national project to eliminate Rohingyas from the soil of its ancestors, these criminals will continue to do what have proven to expedite their criminal plan. They are all in a state of self-delusion and -denial of their evil!

Perhaps the only way we could stop these savages is to hang them high - of course, via Nuremburg type trials. Will that ever happen in our time? I am not sure. The Rohingyas, sadly, don't have celebrity lawyers like Amal Clooney to start the process of incriminating Myanmar government and its murderers.

All said, we can surely try a BDS campaign for Myanmar. Who knows what did not work for Israel may work for Myanmar, after all, Myanmar is not Israel! If European countries and the USA plus Japan can be influenced by the moral justification to boycott Myanmar, others may find it difficult to trade with it.
- Asian Tribune -
http://www.asiantribune.com/node/91043


----------



## Banglar Bir

*The Principle of Responsibility to Protect: The Case of Rohingya in Myanmar*
*Article · August 2015 *
Hariati Ibrahim
*International Islamic University Malaysia
Rohaida Nordin
National University of Malaysia
Abstract
This article discusses the plight of the Rohingya, an ethnic group in Myanmar who has been suffering an institutionalised persecution and discrimination since the administration of military junta. The paper argues that the Rohingya is facing a serious threat of genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, while the government of Myanmar has failed in its primary duty to protect them. 

Due to such failure, the responsibility to protect them falls on the international community to prevent the occurrence of mass atrocities under the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P). 

The objectives of this article are twofold. 
First is to provide an understanding of the plight of the Rohingya and 
Second is to analyse the application of R2P as a solution to the crisis. 
This article provides recommendations to the government of Myanmar, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (UN) on the role to be played through tripartite action for the application of the principle of R2P in Rohingya crisis. 
To do this, the researchers conducted a qualitative analysis of plethora of literatures and official reports on Rohingya crisis and R2P.*
*Discover the.........*
*Click on the link to read the PDF article*
*https://www.researchgate.net/public...ty_to_Protect_The_Case_of_Rohingya_in_Myanmar*

*Responsibility to Protect the Rohingya?*
2017-09-18 / CHARLI CARPENTER 
_This is a guest post (begun as a series of tweets) by Phil Orchard, Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations at the University of Queensland and the Research Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. 
He is the author of A Right to Flee: Refugees, States, and the Construction of International Cooperation, the forthcoming Protecting the Internally Displaced: Rhetoric and Reality and, with Alexander Betts, the co-editor of Implementation and World Politics: How International Norms Change Practice. 
He tweets @p_orchard._

The past three weeks have seen remarkable violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. On 25 August, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) launched a series of coordinated attacks on police posts and a military base which killed twelve government officials. 

The ARSA, an armed insurgency organization which began its first attacks in October, claims that their goal is have the Rohingya be “a recognized ethnic group within Myanmar.” While many Rohingya can trace their roots back centuries in Myanmar, the government considers them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 
It does not recognize the term Rohingya, and has refused to grant them citizenship; as a result “the vast majority of the group’s members have no legal documentation, effectively making them stateless” and face significant discrimination and government restrictions.

The Myanmar government has responded to the ARSA by branding it a terrorist organization and claiming that the Tatmadaw, the Armed Forces of Myanmar, is using “clearance operations” to target militants. 

Even Aung San Suu Kyi has “blamed ‘terrorists’ for ‘a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different countries.’” The government has also claimed that the Rohingya are burning their own villages, however reporters from the AFP and BBC have documented several incidents being staged. The government has also denied requests for UN humanitarianagencies and US government officials to access the area.

The violence has led an estimated 391,000 Rohingya refugees to flee across the border into Bangladesh. There is also evidence that the Tatmadaw, the Armed Forces of Myanmar, have been laying mines along the border with Bangladesh to deliberately target Rohingya refugees crossing the border. And the government has suggested that any civilians seeking to return from Bangladesh will need to show “proof of nationality.”

Over the past week, and following a significant upsurge in reporting on the crisis, the UN system has begun to respond. 
On September 11th, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, labelled the attacks as a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing, a view which has been supported by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supported. 

*Ethnic cleansing, while it has never been defined as a crime in international law, is included alongside genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine as mass atrocity crimes.* 
*
The R2P doctrine recognizes that states have three responsibilities. *
This has been called the three pillar approach following UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s 2009 Report on the Responsibility to Protect that states have a responsibility to protect their own populations from these four atrocity crimes 
*(Pillar 1), that the international community has a responsibility to assist states in upholding their own responsibilities 
(Pillar 2), and that, in cases where states are manifest failing in their responsibility, the UN Security Council can take action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter 
(Pillar 3). *Pillar 3 R2P actions are rare – the only intervention to occur without the concerned state’s consent was that of Libya in 2011. *But it is important to note that the R2P does not require such interventions to occur. *

Instead, Jennifer Welsh has referred to it as a ‘duty of conduct’ by members of the international community, which requires them “to identify when atrocity crimes are being committed (or when there is threat of commission) and to deliberate on how the three-pillar framework might apply.” Alex Bellamy has similarly argued that what the R2P does is create “shared expectations within international society that 
*(1) governments and international organizations do, in fact, exercise this responsibility; 
(2) they recognize both a limited duty and a right to do so; and 
(3) failure to fulfill this duty should attract criticism.”*

The UN Security Council did meet on Wednesday and issued a statement following the meeting – a major shift as the Council had not been able to agree on a common stance on Myanmar for nine years. The statement (which was circulated on twitter by Human Rights Watch’s Ken Roth) is relatively innocuous. 
The Council members note their deep concern and call for immediate steps to end the violence, ensure the protection of civilians and resolve the refugee problem, but does not specifically identify perpetrators. In fact, it spends more time on the issue of aid, noting that the government of Myanmar had made commitments “to provide humanitarian assistance to all displaced individuals” and that the government needed “to fulfil these commitments.”

Two elements suggest the Council is unlikely to take other action. 
The first is the politics of the Council – China continues to support the government of Myanmar and is unlikely to authorize further action. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson noted on September 12th that while China condemns the violent attacks, “the international community should support the efforts made by Myanmar to maintain national development and stability and create enabling external conditions for the proper settlement of the issue of Rakhine State.” Any further actions would need China’s support.

The second is that the Council has been far slower to take action in situations where there is just large scale displacement, as opposed to large scale killings. While the cleansing has been brutal, it appears to have led to relatively few deaths. 
The government suggests 430 people have been killed, mostly insurgents, while the government of Bangladesh has estimated the death toll at 3,000. States deliberately displacing their own populations is surprisingly common. 

The Council’s past practice has simply been to condemn large scale displacement, and only rarely has it taken action when refugee flows were large enough to potentially a threat to regional or international peace and security. Combined, therefore, these two elements suggest the Council is unlikely to take further concrete actions unless the situation further deteriorates.

Other UN mechanisms have been similarly stymied. The UN Human Rights Council created a Fact-Finding Mission to investigate the situation in Rakhine State in March, but the government has refused it entry.

*But there is also another path forward on this crisis, a path that goes to the International Criminal Court.*

Ethnic cleansing is not an international crime, but in a report released on Thursday based on widespread satellite imagery, photographs, videos, and interviews, Amnesty International noted that: “There is a clear and systematic pattern of abuse here. 
Security forces surround a village, shoot people fleeing in panic and then torch houses to the ground. In legal terms, these are crimes against humanity – systematic attacks and forcible deportation of civilians.”

I’ve argued that forced displacement can constitute an international crime if it includes either the forcible transfer of civilians within a state’s territory or the forced deportation of civilians across an international border. 
Forced deportation can constitute a crime against humanity, meaning the “forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law” as established by Article 7(1)(d) and Article 7(2)(d) of the ICC’s Rome Statute. 
This does not require an armed conflict to be present. For it to be widespread requires it to be a large-scale action involving a substantial number of victims, while for it to be systematic requires a high degree of orchestration and planning, both of which appear to be the case here.
*
How does the ICC become involved?* Bangladesh has ratified the Rome Statute, and therefore has the ability to refer a case to the Court. 
The Rome Statute establishes only that a “State Party may refer to the Prosecutor a situation in which one or more crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court appear to have been committed…” (Art 14(1)). And Article 12(2) establishes that jurisdiction applies if it is “the state on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred…” or if “the State of which the person accused of the crime is a national.” So, the Court’s jurisdiction would appear to be clear – it is only on the territory of the state where the conduct occurred, which would mean that Myanmar would need to refer the issue. 

But forced deportation – perhaps uniquely – is a crime by definition that includes people being forced to cross borders. This leads to a possible argument by Bangladesh that the Court would have jurisdiction as the conduct is occurring across the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
*
Would the Court accept such an argument? *It would be an important precedent if it did. Even if it did not, though, a Bangladeshi referral might have important immediate deterrent effects. Right now, the Tatmadaw is operating with impunity against the Rohingya. Yet, there is increasing evidence that the ICC may be having a deterrent effect. 
As Jo and Simmons argued last year, among the effects are a “reduction in intentional civilian killing by government actors when states implement ICC-consistent statutes in domestic criminal law…” Such effects would certainly be limited in this case, but it would demonstrate a credible form of international action in response to this crisis, and at least put the Tatmadaw on notice
http://duckofminerva.com/2017/09/responsibility-to-protect-the-rohingya.html


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: 'Persecution' could be used by IS group to fight the West, Julie Bishop warns*
Matthew Doran
Posted Sun at 7:09am
*VIDEO:* Julie Bishop says Australia is "deeply disturbed" by situation in Myanmar (ABC News)
*RELATED STORY:* Rohingya children among 19 dead, more than 50 missing after boat capsizes near Bangladesh
*RELATED STORY:* Australia to continue Myanmar military training despite rights abuses
*MAP: *Burma violence continues against ethnic minorities in Myanmar, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has warned.
*Key points:*

*Rohingya crisis could give rise to broader problems, Julie Bishop says*
*Aung San Suu Kyi faces strident criticism of her handling of the situation*
*"Australia maintains an arms embargo on Myanmar," DFAT says*
It is believed more than half-a-million Rohingya Muslims have fled persecution in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
*Who are the Rohingya?*




The plight of Myanmar's Rohingya refugees, a Muslim ethnic minority group rendered stateless in their homeland and detained in transit nations, is desperately bleak.
The situation has triggered a humanitarian crisis in neighbouring Bangladesh, which has accepted the refugees pouring over the border.

Ms Bishop argued the ongoing violence, prompted by a military offensive in Myanmar, could give rise to broader problems.

*"We are deeply concerned that the persecution of a significant group of Muslim Rohingyas will be used by ISIS and other terrorist groups as part of their narrative to take up arms and to fight against the West," Ms Bishop told Insiders.*
"That's why this Myanmar situation must be resolved.
"There's got to be a political resolution but in the meantime, the humanitarian disaster needs our full attention."

Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has faced strident criticism over her handling of the situation, with many describing it as a lack of action from the once-lauded political activist.

Earlier this week, Bangladesh police said more than 50 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were reported missing and dozens died after their boat capsized.





*PHOTO:* Rohingya refugee sisters, who just arrived under the cover of darkness by wooden boats from Myanmar, try to find their parents. (Reuters: Damir Sagolj)





*PHOTO:* Lalu Miya cries over the bodies of his wife and children, who died after a boat with Rohingya refugees capsized. (Reuters: Damir Sagolj)
*'Australia maintains arms embargo': Bishop*
Ms Bishop told Insiders Australia supported a UN-led investigation.
"Australia has supported an independent investigation to verify the facts on the ground, a UN-led investigation," Ms Bishop said.
*Was the speech too little, too late?*





Aung San Suu Kyi may be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, but her address to the nation was more the speech of a politician, writes Anne Barker.
"State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi has confirmed that she will invite UN representatives and international diplomats into Rakhine state this Monday — Australia's ambassador to Myanmar will attend that visit."

Earlier in the week, the United States ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar over violence against Rohingya Muslims.

"Australia maintains an arms embargo on Myanmar due to concerns about ongoing conflict, weapons proliferation and human rights," a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the ABC.

"This prohibits the export of arms and related materials and associated services to Myanmar.
"Australia does not sell weapons or conduct joint military exercises with Myanmar."





*PHOTO:* UN has called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar over violence against Rohingya Muslims. (AP: Bernat Armangue)
*Topics:* refugees, unrest-conflict-and-war, religion-and-beliefs, burma, bangladesh, australia
*MYANMAR'S ROHINGYAS*
*Why are the Rohingya stateless?*



*How the military still controls Myanmar, not Aung San Suu Kyi*




*As Rohingya camps spread, disease fears grow*


*Rohingya Muslims fight for scarce resources in Bangladesh refugee camps*
*Was Aung San Suu Kyi's speech too little, too late?*


*Myanmar could be on the brink of genocide, UN expert says*


*Suu Kyi in an unenviable position as plight of Rohingya worsens*


*Malala calls on Suu Kyi to condemn 'shameful' Rohingya abuses*
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-...ya-crisis-to-fight-west,-bishop-warns/9005326


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:42 PM, October 01, 2017
*UNSC FAILS TO CENSURE MYANMAR*
*Can Rohingyas return to their homeland?*




With the current inflow of over 500,000 Rohingyas, the total number of Rohingya refugees presently living in Bangladesh is now nearly one million. PHOTO: STAR
Mahmood Hasan
On September 28, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres briefed members of the Security Council in an open session on the ongoing violence in Rakhine which had forced 500,000 Rohingyas to take refuge in Bangladesh. The meeting was held at the request of 7 members of the Security Council. No statement was issued by the President of the Council—currently held by Ethiopia.

At the briefing, Secretary General Guterres said that “the situation has spiralled into the world's fastest developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare…We have received bone-chilling accounts from those who fled.” Testimonies pointed to serious human rights violations, noted Guterres. “This is unacceptable and must end immediately,” demanded the Secretary General.

Myanmar's representative U Thaung Tun, echoing Aung San Suu Kyi, denied all allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Bangladesh's Ambassador Masud Bin Momen reflected on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's plan, calling for the creation of safe zones inside Myanmar and repatriation of the displaced Rohingyas. US Ambassador Nikki Haley said, “We must consider action against Burmese security forces who are implicated in abuses and stoking hatred.” US, Britain and France, all permanent members, were joined by other members demanding immediate end to the ongoing violence and a strong UNSC response. Japan condemned the attacks on civilians. But Chinese deputy Ambassador Wu Haitao said that the situation in Rakhine was stabilising and that all parties should work constructively. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia warned that “excessive pressure” on Myanmar's government “could only aggravate the situation in the country and around it.” China and Russia, both permanent members, were against issuing any statement.

Bangladesh wanted a consensus leading to a strong statement from the UNSC calling upon the Myanmar authorities to stop the ethnic cleansing and create a situation that would facilitate the return of the Rohingyas from Bangladesh. With the current inflow of over 500,000 Rohingyas, the total number of Rohingya refugee presently living in Bangladesh is now nearly one million—an untenable economic burden on Bangladesh. Clearly, the permanent members were divided—a serious setback for Bangladesh.

The crux of the crisis lies in the Myanmar authorities' refusal to grant citizenship to the Rojhingyas and the systematic discrimination against them that has continued since the promulgation of the 1982 Citizenship Law. The narrative that follows is all too familiar for repetition.

The Annan report also mentioned the citizenship issue very cursorily. There are serious lacunae in the recommendations—it does not use the term “Rohingya” but “Muslims of Rakhine”; it does not call upon Myanmar to restore citizenship and basic rights of the Rohingyas, but only calls on the Myanmar government to quicken the verification process and revisit (not change) the 1982 Citizenship Law.

Suu Kyi in her speech to the Myanmar parliament on September 19 mentioned that all Rohingyas (she did not use the term) would be able to return after a process of verification. This is a clear trap; as the verification process would drag on for years, if not decades. Primarily because the majority of Rohingyas do not possess any document issued by the Myanmar authorities. It would be a herculean task for international organisations—IOM, OCHA, UNHCR, etc—to prove that these are displaced Rohingyas, who fled Rakhine following brutal persecution.

The Annan report is clearly a tailored document that fits in with the Rohingya expulsion plan of the Myanmar junta. The Commission was set up by Suu Kyi, presumably at the junta's advice, to deflect world opinion. It neither had any international mandate nor was Bangladesh involved in setting it up.

The junta has been planning for decades to change the demographic composition of Rakhine. It had planned to expel the Rohingya Muslims and Hindus from Rakhine and establish Buddhist majority in the state. That policy led to repeated violence against the Rohingyas since 1978 and forced these people to repeatedly take refuge in Bangladesh.

After the current spate of ethnic cleansing, the junta is determined not to allow the displaced Rohingyas to return to Myanmar. The junta's policy towards Rohingyas was made abundantly clear by Myanmar's Army Chief General Min Aung Hlaing when he said, “They have demanded recognition as Rohingyas, which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar.” The Myanmar military has planted landmines along the border with Bangladesh. According to reports, it has mobilised 70 battalions of troops with heavy artillery and equipment to crush ARSA insurgency and thwart the Rohingyas from returning to Rakhine.

Referring to the process of repatriation of Rohingyas, Guterres said that the 1993 Joint Statement by the Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh and Myanmar was not sufficient in the present circumstances. “The Muslims of Rakhine state should be granted nationality” the Secretary General insisted. If Suu Kyi's offer for the verification process is taken along with the Annan recommendations, only a handful of Rohingyas will be able to go back to Myanmar—much less than those of 1978 and 1993. General Hlaing, it seems, will certainly not agree to take back all the Rohingyas.

The Rohingya issue is an internal issue for Myanmar; but has become an international issue because of the exodus of Rohingyas into Bangladesh. Therefore, Bangladesh must keep the UN Security Council fully involved in the repatriation of these people and in resolving the problem permanently. It would be a folly if Bangladesh tries to resolve this problem bilaterally with Myanmar.

Bangladesh has to convince China and Russia and get the UNSC to adopt a binding resolution with the following included: i) impose economic sanctions on Myanmar, for as long as this crisis is not permanently resolved; ii) repatriation of all Rohingyas within a fixed timeframe, under UN supervision; and, iii) grant full citizenship to all Rohingyas with their human rights fully recognised.

Unless the UNSC comes forward with a stringent resolution under Chapter VII of its Charter, it appears that Bangladesh is doomed to host these hapless Rohingyas for a long time.
Mahmood Hasan is former Ambassador and Secretary.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/bystander/can-rohingyas-return-their-homeland-1470073

*India, Myanmar, and the convenient discovery of Hindu mass graves*




A Hindu family stays in a shelter near Maungdaw, in the north of Rakhine state, Myanmar, September 12, 2017 
Reuters
_By_ Fazlur Rahman Raju
Dhaka Tribune
October 1, 2017
*'Thousands have been killed, where are their bodies, their mass graves?'*
Security experts and human rights activists believe Myanmar is carrying out a media campaign to blame Rohingya insurgents for the killing of Hindus in Myanmar in a bid to take attention away from the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Myanmar army in the Rakhine state, and also to influence public opinion in India.

“Myanmar is trying to get support from India by trying to establish that the ARSA is involved the anti-Hindu activities,” said veteran journalist and political commentator Afsan Chowdhury.
Myanmar, said security analyst Major General Md Abdur Rashid (retd), is trying to prove that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) had killed the Hindus to convince the outside world that the army clampdown was a timely and a right one.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on a two-day state visit to Myanmar around two weeks after the country’s army started a crackdown on the Rohingya, on September 7, where he refrained from criticising the government for the atrocities being carried out on the Rohingyas.

On September 27, Myanmar claimed to have discovered mass graves containing bodies of 45 Hindu Rohingyas, including 28 bodies in one place, and blamed Rohingya insurgents for it. Most international publications and news agencies promptly ran the story, including all major Indian outlets. India Today and Daily Mail took it a step further and ran stories on the “forced conversion” of Hindus in the Bangladeshi refugee camps.

India on Friday asked Myanmar to bring the people linked to the Hindu carnage to justice.
Maung Zarni, a Burmese academic exiled in the UK, on Tuesday told The Citizen that this development came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s endorsement of Suu Kyi, adding, “I do not believe it at all, not at all.”

“Thousands have been killed, where are their bodies, their mass graves?” he asked.
“The information [about the corpses] has come from the Burmese military and government and not an independent source. If this is so then let the government bring in the United Nations to investigate these mass graves and determine whether indeed this crime has taken place at all,” he said.
Abdur Rashid said: “Myanmar initially tried to defend the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in the name of fighting terrorism, which the rest of the world did not believe.”

“When Myanmar realised that its counter-terrorism theory was failing, it tried to label Rohingya people as Bengali terrorists, but in vain, as Bangladesh protested the issue vigorously,” he said.
Shahab Enam Khan, associate professor of International Relations Department at Jahangirnagar University, said: “The first question is whether the ARSA really is capable of killing a huge number of Hindus in Myanmar? Until now, it is just a tiny outfit which was suddenly made out to be a huge force by the Burmese Junta.”
“…Myanmar’s claim of Hindus being killed is an effort to dress it in the garb of Islamic terrorism and a ridiculous attempt to divert the world’s attention from the Rohingya genocide,” he said.
Myanmar government’s Information Committee on September 25, quoting an unnamed person, said 300 ARSA militants had detained some 100 people from Yebawkya village, killing most of them the same day.

Reuters, on Wednesday, while reporting that Myanmar authorities displayed the bodies of Hindu villagers they say were killed by Muslim insurgents, described them as ‘victims of a surge of violence in someone else’s fight, now playing their part in a propaganda war.’
On the same day, Human Rights Watch also published a statement critical of the discovery of Hindu bodies.

“While Burmese authorities have put on a stage-managed tour to the Hindu village in question, as well as Rohingya villages unaffected by the recent violence, they have denied access to independent monitors to the mass graves and the rest of northern Rakhine State…,” it said in the statement.
The government’s quick conclusion on ARSA’s guilt contrasts sharply with its own unwillingness to credibly investigate countless alleged crimes committed by its own forces against Rohingya Muslims, it said.

“Burma’s government should stop playing politics with the dead. Beyond stopping military atrocities, it should allow the United Nations fact-finding mission into the country to investigate all crimes,” the rights body further said.
Maung Zarni said many powerful western countries have completely rejected Myanmar’s claim over the mass grave, however South Asia has bit into the narrative being put out by Myanmar, as was visible when Modi went and stood by SuuKyi despite strong world criticism.
“What is really scary is the Burmese military’s attempt to expand the circle of enemies against the Rohingya,” Zarni said.

Meanwhile, the editor and executive director of Myanmar Times, the oldest privately owned and operated English-language newspaper in Myanmar, Kavi Chongkittavorn, made some revealing statements about Myanmar’s position vis-à-vis the Rohingya.

“What is the role of media under the current government?” Chongkittavorn posed the question to himself during a panel discussion that ran from August 11 to 13. His answer: “The most important [role] is constructing the Myanmar narrative.”

“You read Aung San Suu Kyi’s comments, you read New Light of Myanmar, and you read everything that comes from the government. The government wants to construct the Myanmar narrative, which is still absent,” Chongkittavorn said.

“You need a massive [number of] people to believe the same thing.”


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis splits Asean on religious lines*
*Malaysia's open criticism of Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority speaks to the potential for wider regional communal conflict*
By NILE BOWIE SINGAPORE, OCTOBER 1, 2017




A woman makes her way to the shore as hundreds of Rohingya refugees arrive under the cover of darkness by wooden boats from Myanmar to Shah Porir Dwip, in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, September 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Clear divisions are emerging among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) over Myanmar’s military operations in Rakhine state, a diplomatic divide that threatens to split the regional grouping on religious lines.

Myanmar’s military-led “clearance operations” have led to civilian causalities, allegations of grotesque rights abuses and the displacement of over 500,000 ethnic Rohingya who have sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.

Malaysia took the rare step last week of disassociating itself from a joint statement issued by the Philippines, the grouping’s current chairman, because from Kuala Lumpur’s perspective it misrepresented the situation. Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, in an unusually sharp rebuke, maintained that the chairman’s remarks failed to reflect Asean’s founding principle of consensus.

The Asean statement expressed support for Myanmar in efforts “to bring peace, stability, rule of law and to promote harmony and reconciliation between various communities,” and omitted the term “Rohingya” in referring to the persecuted Muslim minority group – in accordance with Naypyidaw’s opposition to its use as an official ethnic group classification.




Rohingya refugees reach for food near Balukhali in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, September 4, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Malaysia’s dissenting remarks followed on Prime Minister Najib Razak’s own activist stance on the issue, demonstrated by his championing of the Rohingya cause in the international arena and at political rallies at home where he has characterized Myanmar’s treatment of the minority community as an “insult to Islam.”

“What’s the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?” asked the premier referring to Myanmar’s de facto leader as he addressed a massive protest rally alongside the leader of the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) last December at a stadium in Kuala Lumpur. In the same address, he urged the United Nations to take action in support of the Rohingya.

Najib also expressed hope that the United States would play a positive role in diffusing the crisis during his recent meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.

Malaysia has simultaneously called on China – which views the conflict as an “internal affair” and has welcomed Myanmar’s efforts to combat extremists – to help resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis. Najib has cultivated close economic and strategic ties with Beijing in recent years.

Muslim-majority Malaysia’s coast guard announced earlier this month that it would no longer turn away Rohingya fleeing Myanmar’s violence, promising to provide temporary shelter to refugees fleeing the Myanmar military’s scorched earth clearance operations.




Rohingyas living in Malaysia protest against the treatment of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims at the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur, September 8, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Lai Seng Sin
That assault was triggered by surprise lethal attacks on police and military posts staged on August 25 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an emergent Rohingya militant group whose leadership has alleged ties to extremist elements in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Although it is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Malaysia hosts an estimated 59,000 Rohingya refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), although unofficial numbers are believed to be nearly double that number.

While Najib has provided generous amounts of humanitarian aid to refugees in Bangladesh and displayed broad solidarity with the Rohingya, asylum seekers in Malaysia are still considered illegal immigrants under local immigration laws, barring refugees from legal employment, access to state schools and leaving them subject to arrest, detention or deportation.

Critics of Malaysia’s premier, who has been embroiled in money laundering controversies related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, claim his proactive stance on the Rohingya issue falls short on solutions and appears motivated by political considerations to consolidate domestic Malay Muslim support ahead of general elections that must be held at the latest by August 2018.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has accused Najib’s government of violating the Asean charter of non-interference and exploiting the crisis “to promote a certain political agenda.” Najib has also claimed that Myanmar’s de facto leader Suu Kyi has outright refused to meet Foreign Minister Anifah Aman to discuss the Rohingya issue.




Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak (C) speaks to supporters during the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) 71st anniversary celebration in Bukit Jalil stadium on May 11, 2017. Photo: Mohd Rasfan.

The snub was part of a wider diplomatic spat. Last year, Naypyidaw barred its citizens from working in Malaysia, a top regional destination for migrant labor due to relatively higher wages, and suspended its policy of visas-on-arrival for Malaysians in January, making it the only Asean country whose citizens need to acquire a visa before visiting Myanmar.

Despite diplomatic tensions, bilateral trade has grown, up from around US$900 million in 2015 to US$1.15 billion in 2016, according to statistics from the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Martrade). Around 4.5% of Myanmar’s imports originate from Malaysia, while Myanmar was Malaysia’s sixth largest trading partner within Asean in 2015.

“Asean risks losing credibility and international confidence if the regional grouping continues to ignore the plight of the Rohingya,” wrote former Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan, a Thai Muslim, in a recent editorial. “The regional grouping needs to act urgently to prevent the Rakhine crisis from spiraling into regional tensions.”

The Rohingya issue’s emotional pull in Asean areas with significant Muslim populations has sparked concerns of communal strife with security implications that could escalate well beyond Myanmar’s borders. Asean’s inability to contain the Rakhine crisis opens prospects for deepening cultural and religious divisions in Southeast Asia, where rising identity politics present myriad potential dangers.




Muslim youth pray for the Marawi siege and the plight of Rohingyas in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines September 29, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Dondi Tawatao

Diplomats and observers believe Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya could become a magnet for international extremists, while government-sanctioned rallies condemning Myanmar can potentially backfire on political leaders, worsen ties between nations and fuel radicalization that risks inciting communal violence and instability in Asean’s mix of Buddhist, Christian and Muslim communities.

That appears to be happening already in spots. Mohamad Fuzi Harun, Malaysia’s police chief, recently disclosed intelligence that confirmed Malaysian citizens were present in Rakhine engaged in armed struggle against the Myanmar government, and that other Malaysian militants are quietly preparing to join the fight.

Malaysia’s anti-terror chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay made similar comments to local media claiming that Islamic State (IS) was actively using the Rohingya issue as a platform to recruit new members locally to carry out attacks, though he did not say whether the suspected Malaysian militants were fighting alongside ARSA in Rakhine.

IS-inspired militants from Malaysia, Indonesia and several Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries unexpectedly laid siege in May to the Philippine city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao. Fighting has continued with a pocket of militants holding a last position in the ruined city.




Filipino soldiers in Marawi City with Islamic State graffiti in the background, June 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco

Security analysts believe IS fighters are in the process of shifting their militant activities from the Middle East to Southeast Asia, as counterterrorism efforts in Syria and Iraq roll back the terror organization’s territorial gains and influence.

“There is a danger that the situation in Rakhine will make the territory a hotbed of international terrorist activity, both for the IS and Al Qaeda,” said Jasminder Singh of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

He warned of the potential for attacks in Myanmar and against its interests in the region, seen in a recent petrol bomb attack on Naypyidaw’s embassy in Jakarta.

As the Rohingya issue becomes a regional lightning rod for communal divisions, inaction and the absence of a collective response may fuel further radicalization, raising the risk of terrorist militants opening a second Asean front in Myanmar’s now burning Rakhine state.
http://www.atimes.com/article/rohingya-crisis-splits-asean-religious-lines/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis splits Asean on religious lines*
*Malaysia's open criticism of Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority speaks to the potential for wider regional communal conflict*
By NILE BOWIE SINGAPORE, OCTOBER 1, 2017 




A woman makes her way to the shore as hundreds of Rohingya refugees arrive under the cover of darkness by wooden boats from Myanmar to Shah Porir Dwip, in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, September 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

Clear divisions are emerging among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) over Myanmar’s military operations in Rakhine state, a diplomatic divide that threatens to split the regional grouping on religious lines.

Myanmar’s military-led “clearance operations” have led to civilian causalities, allegations of grotesque rights abuses and the displacement of over 500,000 ethnic Rohingya who have sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.

Malaysia took the rare step last week of disassociating itself from a joint statement issued by the Philippines, the grouping’s current chairman, because from Kuala Lumpur’s perspective it misrepresented the situation. Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, in an unusually sharp rebuke, maintained that the chairman’s remarks failed to reflect Asean’s founding principle of consensus.

The Asean statement expressed support for Myanmar in efforts “to bring peace, stability, rule of law and to promote harmony and reconciliation between various communities,” and omitted the term “Rohingya” in referring to the persecuted Muslim minority group – in accordance with Naypyidaw’s opposition to its use as an official ethnic group classification.




Rohingya refugees reach for food near Balukhali in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, September 4, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Malaysia’s dissenting remarks followed on Prime Minister Najib Razak’s own activist stance on the issue, demonstrated by his championing of the Rohingya cause in the international arena and at political rallies at home where he has characterized Myanmar’s treatment of the minority community as an “insult to Islam.”

“What’s the use of Aung San Suu Kyi having a Nobel prize?” asked the premier referring to Myanmar’s de facto leader as he addressed a massive protest rally alongside the leader of the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) last December at a stadium in Kuala Lumpur. In the same address, he urged the United Nations to take action in support of the Rohingya.

Najib also expressed hope that the United States would play a positive role in diffusing the crisis during his recent meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.

Malaysia has simultaneously called on China – which views the conflict as an “internal affair” and has welcomed Myanmar’s efforts to combat extremists – to help resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis. Najib has cultivated close economic and strategic ties with Beijing in recent years.

Muslim-majority Malaysia’s coast guard announced earlier this month that it would no longer turn away Rohingya fleeing Myanmar’s violence, promising to provide temporary shelter to refugees fleeing the Myanmar military’s scorched earth clearance operations.




Rohingyas living in Malaysia protest against the treatment of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims at the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur, September 8, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Lai Seng Sin
That assault was triggered by surprise lethal attacks on police and military posts staged on August 25 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an emergent Rohingya militant group whose leadership has alleged ties to extremist elements in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Although it is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Malaysia hosts an estimated 59,000 Rohingya refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), although unofficial numbers are believed to be nearly double that number.

While Najib has provided generous amounts of humanitarian aid to refugees in Bangladesh and displayed broad solidarity with the Rohingya, asylum seekers in Malaysia are still considered illegal immigrants under local immigration laws, barring refugees from legal employment, access to state schools and leaving them subject to arrest, detention or deportation.

Critics of Malaysia’s premier, who has been embroiled in money laundering controversies related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, claim his proactive stance on the Rohingya issue falls short on solutions and appears motivated by political considerations to consolidate domestic Malay Muslim support ahead of general elections that must be held at the latest by August 2018.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has accused Najib’s government of violating the Asean charter of non-interference and exploiting the crisis “to promote a certain political agenda.” Najib has also claimed that Myanmar’s de facto leader Suu Kyi has outright refused to meet Foreign Minister Anifah Aman to discuss the Rohingya issue.




Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak (C) speaks to supporters during the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) 71st anniversary celebration in Bukit Jalil stadium on May 11, 2017. Photo: Mohd Rasfan
The snub was part of a wider diplomatic spat. Last year, Naypyidaw barred its citizens from working in Malaysia, a top regional destination for migrant labor due to relatively higher wages, and suspended its policy of visas-on-arrival for Malaysians in January, making it the only Asean country whose citizens need to acquire a visa before visiting Myanmar.

Despite diplomatic tensions, bilateral trade has grown, up from around US$900 million in 2015 to US$1.15 billion in 2016, according to statistics from the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Martrade). Around 4.5% of Myanmar’s imports originate from Malaysia, while Myanmar was Malaysia’s sixth largest trading partner within Asean in 2015.

“Asean risks losing credibility and international confidence if the regional grouping continues to ignore the plight of the Rohingya,” wrote former Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan, a Thai Muslim, in a recent editorial. “The regional grouping needs to act urgently to prevent the Rakhine crisis from spiraling into regional tensions.”

The Rohingya issue’s emotional pull in Asean areas with significant Muslim populations has sparked concerns of communal strife with security implications that could escalate well beyond Myanmar’s borders. Asean’s inability to contain the Rakhine crisis opens prospects for deepening cultural and religious divisions in Southeast Asia, where rising identity politics present myriad potential dangers.




Muslim youth pray for the Marawi siege and the plight of Rohingyas in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines September 29, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Dondi Tawatao

Diplomats and observers believe Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya could become a magnet for international extremists, while government-sanctioned rallies condemning Myanmar can potentially backfire on political leaders, worsen ties between nations and fuel radicalization that risks inciting communal violence and instability in Asean’s mix of Buddhist, Christian and Muslim communities.

That appears to be happening already in spots. Mohamad Fuzi Harun, Malaysia’s police chief, recently disclosed intelligence that confirmed Malaysian citizens were present in Rakhine engaged in armed struggle against the Myanmar government, and that other Malaysian militants are quietly preparing to join the fight.

Malaysia’s anti-terror chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay made similar comments to local media claiming that Islamic State (IS) was actively using the Rohingya issue as a platform to recruit new members locally to carry out attacks, though he did not say whether the suspected Malaysian militants were fighting alongside ARSA in Rakhine.

IS-inspired militants from Malaysia, Indonesia and several Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries unexpectedly laid siege in May to the Philippine city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao. Fighting has continued with a pocket of militants holding a last position in the ruined city.




Filipino soldiers in Marawi City with Islamic State graffiti in the background, June 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco

Security analysts believe IS fighters are in the process of shifting their militant activities from the Middle East to Southeast Asia, as counterterrorism efforts in Syria and Iraq roll back the terror organization’s territorial gains and influence.

“There is a danger that the situation in Rakhine will make the territory a hotbed of international terrorist activity, both for the IS and Al Qaeda,” said Jasminder Singh of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

He warned of the potential for attacks in Myanmar and against its interests in the region, seen in a recent petrol bomb attack on Naypyidaw’s embassy in Jakarta.

As the Rohingya issue becomes a regional lightning rod for communal divisions, inaction and the absence of a collective response may fuel further radicalization, raising the risk of terrorist militants opening a second Asean front in Myanmar’s now burning Rakhine state.
SOUTHEAST ASIA DIPLOMACY MYANMAR
http://www.atimes.com/article/rohingya-crisis-splits-asean-religious-lines/


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## Banglar Bir

*The Nobel peace prize is a who’s who of hawks, hypocrites and war criminals*
Arwa Mahdawi
*Aung San Suu Kyi is the latest Nobel peace prize laureate to bring the award into disrepute. But people misunderstand what it stands for: absolutely nothing*




Indian Muslims hold placards and shout slogans during a protest against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims Photograph: Tsering Topgyal/AP
Sunday 1 October 2017 17.00 BST Last modified on Monday 2 October 2017 00.10 BST

It’s that time of year again! The days are growing shorter and the smell of Nordic niceties is in the air. Yes, Monday marks the start of Nobel season, the world’s most prestigious prize-giving ceremony and our annual reminder that Norway exists. Over the course of the week, Nobel prizes will be awarded in six categories – but the only ones most people pay attention to are literature (particularly if the prize goes to a rock star) and peace.

There’s been quite a kerfuffle about the prestigious peace prize recently, what with that whole Aung San Suu Kyi being complicit in a genocide thing. *Last month, Aung San Suu Kyi – who was awarded the 1991 Nobel peace prize “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights” – spent weeks struggling to mention anything about the human rights abuses being committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar*. When she finally broke her silence in late September, it was to give a Trump Esque “both sides” sort of speech, which Amnesty International denounced as a “mix of untruths and victim-blaming”.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s behaviour has led many to believe she no longer deserves to be a peace laureate and as of last week almost half a million people had signed a petition urging the Nobel committee to revoke her award. Now, I understand why so many people feel disappointed in Aung San Suu Kyi, I really do. But arguing she’s not worthy of her Nobel is nonsense. Sorry, but Aung San Suu Kyi absolutely deserves her peace prize. Asking the Nobel committee to revoke it is to misunderstand what the prize stands for. *Which, to put it bluntly, is absolutely nothing.

Let’s face it, the Nobel peace prize is a farce; it has been for a long time*. Really, it’s time we stopped pretending otherwise and put an end to the pomp and pretence altogether. Indeed, it’s amazing anyone can still say the words “Nobel peace prize” with a straight face considering its recipients constitute a who’s who of hawks, hypocrites and war criminals. I know, I know, #NotAll Nobel peace laureates! There have certainly been recipients, such as Desmond Tutu, who have greatly deserved to be recognised for their work in advancing peace. However, I’m afraid there have also been enough prize embarrassments to have rendered the award meaningless.

Chief among these is 1973 recipient Henry Kissinger, recognised for his efforts in negotiating a ceasefire in the Vietnam war. While negotiating that ceasefire, Kissinger was secretly carpet-bombing Cambodia. The worst of his bombing started in February 1973, a month after Washington, Hanoi and Saigon signed the Paris Peace accords. It’s little wonder that Le Duc Tho, the Vietnamese communist leader who was awarded the prize alongside Kissinger, rejected it in disgust.

Then you’ve got Shimon Peres, who was jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1994 with Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat. In the decades before getting the prize Peres systematically helped amp up Israel’s nuclear capabilities – which is completely at odds with the committee’s stipulation that the award should go to those who help demilitarise their country. What’s more, two years after the prize, Peres was responsible for a massacre that killed 106 people sheltering in a UN compound in the Lebanese town of Qana.

While Kissinger and Peres are two of the more egregious examples, there are numerous other peace laureates who have been extremely dubious choices, including Barack Obama, Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos and the EU – to name just a few.
*
Indeed, the Nobel peace prize has become so tainted that some peace activists refuse to be associated with it.* Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who spent 18 years in prison for leaking details of Israel’s nuclear programme, has repeatedly asked be removed from a list of Nobel peace prize nominees.* In a 2009 letter to the Nobel committee, he said he didn’t want “to belong to a list of laureates that also includes Shimon Peres, the man behind Israeli atomic policy”.*

Perhaps it’s only to be expected that the Nobel peace prize has descended into farce. It was, after all, born out of a mistake. As the story goes, in 1888 a French newspaper erroneously wrote that Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, had died. The paper marked the event of Alfred’s non-death with a bit of quality French snark: “Dr Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” Nobel was mortified that he was going to be remembered as a “merchant of death” and so set up the Nobel prize. It was a calculated rebranding effort; an exercise in PR.

You might think that the peace prize has got to a place where it is beyond parody – indeed, Tom Lehrer memorably quipped that “political satire became obsolete when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize”. 

However, the Noble prize has actually spawned a rather notable parody. Every autumn since 1991, the Ig Nobel prizes recognise a number of unusual achievements “that first make people laugh, and then make them think”. 

Fittingly, last year’s Ig Nobel peace award went to the authors of a study called On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit. The introduction to the paper begins by stating that: “In On Bullshit, the philosopher Frankfurt (2005) defines bullshit as something that is designed to impress but that was constructed absent direct concern for the truth.” I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty apt definition of the real Nobel peace prize to me.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...hypocrites-and-war-criminals?CMP=share_btn_fb


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## Banglar Bir

*A web of lies*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 06:34 PM October 02, 2017
Last updated at 07:39 AM October 03, 2017




Photo: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
*The real perpetrators, of course, are the Myanmar army, and they are the ones to be blamed for the persecution of all Rohingya, be they Hindu or Muslim*
Although the Rohingya refugees who have fled across the border to Bangladesh are overwhelmingly Muslim, there is a small minority of Hindus among them, and their accounts of the horrors encountered at the hands of the Myanmar army are similar to everyone else’s.

But shamefully, the Myanmar government is trying to twist the narrative to its own purposes, and has put the blame on the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the persecution encountered by Hindus.

The mass grave of Hindus containing 45 bodies found near Fakirabazar has been attributed to ARSA by the Myanmar government, a claim that is nonsense, and has been debunked.

A disgraceful web of lies has been spun, by the Myanmar government — and this lie has regrettably been spread further by many in the media — that tries to take the focus off the real killers, and puts the blame on an easy scapegoat: ARSA.

The real perpetrators, of course, are the Myanmar army, and they are the ones to be blamed for the persecution of all Rohingya, be they Hindu or Muslim.

There are enough statements from Hindu Rohingya to attest to the truth: Many said they were attacked by Rakhine Buddhists, and later on mysteriously changed their own statements saying they were attacked by Muslims.

Many Hindu refugees have affirmed that their families were slaughtered by the Myanmar army due to their refusal to take part in the killing of Muslims.

Myanmar’s calculated lies aim to foment discontent against ARSA and distract the world from the real crimes being committed by Myanmar against the helpless Rohingya population.

It is a shameful act of misdirection for political ends, and Myanmar cannot be allowed to get away with it.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/10/02/a-web-of-lies/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rakhine crisis covers inner conflict*
Larry Jagan, October 3, 2017




Myanmar Army Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Controlling the violence in Rakhine masks a battle for supremacy within government. The military and the civilian leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and Aung San Suu Kyi are at loggerheads over how to proceed, though publicly they are maintaining a dignified show of unity. The military wants to declare a state of emergency in Rakhine to increase their control of events there. This is something that the Lady – as she more commonly known – has resisted since the latest outbreak of violence in late August.

It still dominates the government agenda, behind the scenes. Aung San Suu Kyi cancelled her visit to the UN General Assembly because of it. At the time president Htin Kyaw was undergoing medical treatment and if she left the country, the first vice president Myint Swe – the military’s appointment to the executive — would be in control of the government, making it almost certain he would approve any move by the army to declare a state of emergency. So, the Lady remained in place in Naypyidaw to ensure this did not happen.

But this is only one aspect of the battle. Behind the scenes the pro-democracy leader fears the army chief, Senior Min Aung Hlaing is preparing his bid for the presidency, after the next elections in 2020. The army boss’s term of office is up in the next few months, according to government insiders, who say that Aung Sa Suu Kyi only agreed to extend his term for two years, when she was preparing to form the government in early 2016. As far as Min Aung Hlaing – and the military – is concerned, it was extended for five years to the end of until 2020 – coinciding with the next elections.

*But the unfortunate reality is that the continued international criticism of Myanmar over Rakhine, and the personal attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation, is playing right into the hands of the Myanmar military. It has severely weakened her position, and significantly increases the prospect of Min Aung Hlaing being the country’s next president.*

This apparent difference of opinion can only be resolved at a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC), something which Aung San Suu Kyi is also resisting. It has not met since she formed the government in early 2016. The military commander has been urging her to convene the Council – though it is actually chaired by the president – to discuss the situation in Rakhine, and agree a common approach.

Only the NDSC has the authority to declare a state of emergency, according to government insiders. While two top level meetings have been held on Rakhine – one last October after the initial “terrorist attacks” and another more recently – but the NDSC has yet to be convened. Even the former military supremo, Than Shwe, recently suggested that it was time for the Council to discuss the Rakhine situation. But Aung San Suu Kyi is likely to continue to resist calls for it to meet: largely because she will not control the agenda there – the military will.

The NDSC is made up of the president the two vice presidents – one of whom was appointed by the military – the military commander and his deputy, the speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament, the three cabinet ministers appointed by the military – defense, border and home affairs, and the foreign minister — Aung San Suu Kyi. This gives the military the edge in numbers, though decisions are usually made on a consensus basis, according to senior military sources, with intimate knowledge of its workings.

Strategically Aung San Suu Kyi is preparing her party — the National League for Democracy (NLD) — for the next elections. She is aware that there are two major hurdles looming – the activities of the nationalist Buddhist organization, Ma Ba Tha or the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, and the military. She has sent messages to the central committee and the rank and file to be both patient and vigilant, through the speaker Win Myint, who has also been given he role of party spokesman. She does not want to be further isolated in her tussle with Min Aung Hlaing – and further unrest and agitation elsewhere in Myanmar might hand the military chief the initiative.

The political battle is now about to hot up. The crucial concern is constitutional change. Though members of the NLD central committee insisted recently that constitutional change before 2020 was on the cards, Aung San Suu Kyi at least is resigned to the fact that it wont happen. This means a quarter of the MPs in all parliaments, national and regional, will still be appointed by the military. This will make it difficult for the NLD to form the next government – post-2020 – as they cannot expect a repeat of their overwhelming electoral victory in 2015. Already their popularity in the country’s ethnic areas is declining, as evidenced in the by-election results earlier this year.

So Min Aung Hlaing’s bid for the presidency has a head start – the 25% of MPs who are serving soldiers. He only needs to pick up another 25% to be a shoe in for president. He is already courting the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) – created by the former military leader, Than Shwe and formed the previous government. He talks regularly with the current head of the USDP, Than Htay – another former general – according to military sources. The USDP is already allied with the military perspective – as seen by their MPs in parliament. The recently joined he military MPs in calling for the convening of the NDSC to discuss Rakhine. So their support for Min Aung Hlaing’s political bid for residency is assured. The general would then hope to pick up some support from other political parties, and even ethnic representatives.

There is no doubting Min Aung Hlaing’s political ambitions, according to former military officers who know him well. And the Rakhine problems have helped to boost his profile, especially nationally. Social media is presenting him unashamedly as a “national hero” and he is no doubt basking in this “new found” glory. What is worse is that he is increasing stretching the international state as a statesman and leader.

His recent trips to Europe, India and Japan highlight his position as an accepted leader of Myanmar. In Europe – Austria, Belgium, Germany and Italy – earlier this year, he met the civilian leaders of all these countries, something that is generally unusual, and in stark contrast to a few ears ago when Myanmar’s military leaders were banned from entering these countries. Similarly in India and Japan, he met the prime ministers: Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe. In both cases, the civilian government leader seldom or ever meets a visiting military commander.

Privately Aung San Suu Kyi was irked by the reception he received in these countries, and feared he was being treated as “the leader” of Myanmar, according to government insiders. But the unfortunate reality is that the continued international criticism of Myanmar over Rakhine, and the personal attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation, is playing right into the hands of the Myanmar military. It has severely weakened her position, and significantly increases the prospect of Min Aung Hlaing being the country’s next president.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/03/rakhine-crisis-covers-inner-conflict/


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## Banglar Bir

*China-India rivalry warms up in South Asia*
Ashis Biswas
Published at 09:43 AM October 02, 2017
Last updated at 09:46 AM October 02, 2017




Naypyitaw wins valuable breathing space, thanks to China-India rivalry*Bigstock*
*Even as India and China jostle for greater political space in South Asia, both are competing to stand by Myanmar in its hour of crisis*
For all the bilateral co-operation and warmth within the BRICS and other institutions, the intense China versus India rivalry remains as competitive as ever in South Asia.

Being the stronger and more developed country, China generally takes the initiative in the race for regional supremacy and sets the pace. Its latest move, an offer for an investment of $7.3 billion into infrastructure projects in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state will certainly set alarm bells ringing in New Delhi.

This puts China in a directly confrontational course with India, because major Indian groups like Essar and others, are committed to investing over $3 billion in Rakhine – and in infrastructure projects too. These projects are a critical core of India’s much publicised ‘Act East’ policy. Their importance, not only to India’s expanding economy but also its strategic outreach, are among the reasons why India has not attacked Myanmar too strongly over the Rohingya crisis that threatens South Asia’s geo-political stability.

Critics of Indian policies and of Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggest that the major reason for the surprisingly bland joint statement issued at the end of Modi’s visit to Myanmar was Delhi’s keenness not to upset Naypyitaw too much. “Not to the extent where the Burmese authorities were irked to cancel or re-examine the terms of the projects lined up bilaterally,” says a Kolkata-based analyst.

Ironically, even as they jostle to win greater political space in the South Asia region, on one point India and China are united – both are competing to stand by Myanmar in its hour of crisis to the consternation of other countries.

For China, the timing of its proposed move into the Rakhine makes very good sense. Myanmar is almost completely isolated in the international community because of its hardline approach towards the Rohingya.

Naturally, Myanmar is not in a dominant bargaining position to discuss favourable trade and other terms. Naypyitaw is more likely to capitulate to ‘suggestions’ from bigger aid-giving neighbours on specific projects – unless it manages to play off one against the other. Naypyitaw wins valuable breathing space, thanks to Beijing and Delhi.

*This has clear and worrying implications for Bangladesh and other countries. China sees a major role for Bangladesh in its future geo-political strategy for the region. Only days ago, in the influential Global Times daily, it was proposed that China could set up major industrial production centres ‘around India’ to pressure Delhi into making more investments for regional development. The article mentioned Bangladesh as one of the areas where such centres could come up.
*
Such a move, it is argued, would pressure India to ‘co-operate more’ with its neighbours. ‘Not a bad thing,’ the write-up concluded on a smug note.

*Within days of the article, now China spells out a new development plan for the Rakhine, a clear signal that there would be no delays in the implementation of its projects. It also sends a clear message to Dhaka and Delhi that Beijing means business.*

These developments leave Indian policymakers and rulers deeply worried. They are well aware that they cannot compete with their bigger neighbour in terms of finance or other resources. *Bangladesh, like Myanmar, will also be able to play off one country against the other, which will not be relished by Delhi.*

However, this does not mean that China will have everything going its way either. Thanks to the cancellation of the massive dam building and other related projects at Myitsone, Myanmar is well aware of the nature and consequences of Chinese aided investment: a ruined environment, no sharing of technology or generation of attractive jobs, accepting Chinese labour on their own territory and having little control of project implementation matters or eventual market access.

Already in Pakistan, experts are questioning how their country would benefit in any way. There are over 250 textile mills closed in Pakistan because of a power shortage, falling production and failure to rev up exports, ousted by Chinese, Indian and Bangladeshi competition.

Now China is setting up textile units in its West, very close to the Chinese terminal of the CPEC economic corridor. “This should drive the last nail into the coffin of our home textile industry,” a Pakistani analyst said in a recent TV programme. “Far from boosting Pakistan’s economy and helping its production, these Chinese units will grab whatever remains of our domestic market,” he warned.

The expert mentioned the experience of Sri Lanka, which was forced by the fear of running up huge debts, to agree to Chinese proposals to the point where 90% of economic benefits from the Hambantota Port and related projects, would go China’s way. Others cited the example of how Venezuela is currently ruing the terms of its agreement with China, originally intended to help it tide over a difficult economic situation.

Delhi-based analysts think that given their experience of ‘doing business with China‘, Naypyitaw would be circumspect with Beijing when it comes to working out new deals. They remain equally confident that Bangladesh too will never become a ‘Chinese colony’ either. Dhaka had earlier turned down proposals from the World Bank and China as the terms were not favourable.

“At least the present Awami League government, headed by a strong nationalist leader like Shiekh Hasina, will never take dictations from foreign powers or be railroaded into disastrous economic deals,” says one analyst.

Also, India would remember that it cannot have everything its own way in Bangladesh – which, to echo the punchline of the Global Times article, would be ‘not a bad thing’.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/10/02/china-india-rivalry-warms-south-asia/

*Myanmar: The Invention of Rohingya Extremists*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/10/myanmar-the-invention-of-rohingya-extremists.html




Rohingya refugees walking to a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, October 2, 2017. Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
By Joseph Allchin, 
The New York Review of Books

It is not hard to get guns on the Chittagong littoral. Or at least, that’s what my interviewee was telling me underneath a canopy of trees outside his house in the fishing village of Shamlapur, in southern Bangladesh. His men stood round carrying his cigarettes and laughing obediently at his quips. 

Connections with both the police and underworld were what my acquaintance had, and what makes the world turn in this Wild West corner of Bangladesh, where smuggling is the primary source of income and power. He was reflecting on a new phenomenon in this region: the prospect that a tragically displaced people, the Rohingya, would produce an armed resistance movement to challenge their persecution by the military in their homeland, across the border in Myanmar.
*
On August 25, a rag-tag group of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, appeared out of the darkness armed mainly with sticks and machetes and stormed some thirty police posts, killing about a dozen Myanmar security personnel in Rakhine State (also known as Arakan State) in western Myanmar. *

The Myanmar military responded with overwhelming force and brutality, reportedly killing and raping civilians indiscriminately and burning villages. Within a few weeks, under the pretext of “clearance operations” against a population it accuses of having immigrated illegally from Bangladesh and harboring extremists and terrorists, the military forced more than half a million Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh, where they joined another half-million or so who have fled the apartheid-like conditions and periodic pogroms of recent years.

Myanmar’s government has faced numerous ethnic insurgent movements. For example, in the north of the country, the Kachin Independence Army is fighting a far better-equipped insurgency in the borderlands near China. Yet the Kachin people, who are often Christian, have faced no such comprehensive campaign of ethnic cleansing or accusations of being terrorists because of their faith. 
The difference is that the Rohingya people are mostly Sunni Muslim. Myanmar’s military rulers have long sought to portray the Rohingya as a fifth column of dangerous Islamist extremists with links to al-Qaeda.

The demonization of this Muslim minority as “extremists” or “terrorists” has proved effective for nationalist politicians with Myanmar’s Buddhist majority. But this othering of the Rohingya now risks dangerous secondary effects. 
Chiefly, that the government’s conjuring of the specter of a jihadist insurgency may prove self-fulfilling, with an embittered, radicalized Rohingya diaspora forced over the border at bayonet point into Bangladesh, where a coterie of Islamist groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir are using the Rohingya cause to whip up popular sentiment for their own political purposes.

The portrayal of the Rohingyas as an Islamist terrorist menace has deep roots. A full decade before Myanmar’s transition to democracy, the Myanmar intelligence community saw an opportunity in the “global war on terror.” On October 10, 2002, the same day that the US Senate approved George W. Bush’s ill-fated war on Iraq on the bogus grounds of Saddam Hussein’s purported connections to al-Qaeda and possession of weapons of mass destruction, the State Department received a cable from its mission in Yangon that relayed a rare example of intelligence-sharing from their Myanmar counterparts. 
This was a very unusual instance of cooperation since, at the time, Myanmar was under strict sanctions and the country at large was cut off from the international community.

The intelligence Myanmar provided claimed that two now-defunct groups, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization and the Arakan Rohingya National Organization, had met and received training from al-Qaeda operatives; the diplomatic cable also reported that these Rohingya groups were trying to establish connections with other Burmese ethnic insurgent groups based on the country’s border with Thailand. 

The US embassy believed that the Myanmar generals wanted “to bolster relations with the United States by getting credit for cooperation on the [counter terror] front,” and also to tarnish the reputation of other ethnic insurgent groups because of an association with groups seeking support from al-Qaeda. Most ethnic insurgent groups had an affinity with pro-democracy activists because of their shared struggle against the military. Historically, Myanmar’s armed forces have used divide-and-rule tactics to weaken their opponents and disenfranchised minorities.

But there was no evidence that any Rohingya group had successfully developed connections with al-Qaeda for operations in Myanmar. One of the purported Rohingya acquaintances of Osama Bin Laden, an activist named Salim Ullah, told me that when a Muslim picks up a gun in Myanmar, he is labeled a terrorist; when a Buddhist does so, he is making a cry for liberty. Prejudice against the Rohingya has become ingrained within a majority of the Buddhist population, including among many who have supported other ethnic armed groups. 
Even many former pro-democracy campaigners have adopted the military’s labeling of the entire Rohingya population as terrorists.

The tension between the majority population and the Muslim minority has been further whipped up by Myanmar’s ultra-nationalist monks. This hostility has elicited a growing online response from foreign Islamists. Groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and other jihadist movements are now using the plight of the Rohingya to promote their own narratives of Muslim persecution.

Until recently, most of this propaganda saw the “liberation” of Arakan State in Myanmar, where most Rohingya Muslims traditionally live, as a notional aim, something to be done once neighboring Bangladesh had been “conquered” and a caliphate installed there. But now, groups like al-Qaeda seem to have more directly taken up the cause of the Rohingya. In mid-September, an al-Qaeda communiqué called for “all mujahid brothers in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines to set out for Burma [Myanmar] to help their Muslim brothers.”

There is no sign yet that the Rohingya insurgent group has allied itself with outside jihadist groups. Indeed, ARSA’s decision in March to drop its Arabic name in favor of a more secular-sounding English one suggests that ARSA has not been subsumed by any transnational Islamist extremist organization. 

The group’s charismatic leader, Ata Ullah, does have connections in both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and was brought up in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, believed to be where the al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is being sheltered. But as is evident from ARSA’s modest capabilities and lack of weaponry, efforts by Ullah to solicit support from groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Taliban have so far not borne fruit.

However, with the huge swell of anger over the clearance operations and vast exodus of Rohingya civilians, this could change. Already, Egyptian militants have bombed Myanmar’s embassy in Cairo. 
In Bangladesh, the country’s counterterrorism chief, Monirul Islam, echoes what my contact in Shamlapur told me: “*Guns are available and [are] smuggled into Bangladesh from Myanmar or from India.” 
Islam claims that an AK-47 clone can be bought for a little over $1,000 on the black market; a pistol might cost just a few hundred dollars. Efforts to source weapons can open up militant groups to surveillance by local intelligence agencies; in Bangladesh, such movements generally rely on patronage from powerful quarters to avoid such attention.*

Bangladeshi Islamists have been working hard to exploit the Rohingya’s plight, portraying the crisis as a grand, prophesied conflict between the forces of belief and unbelief. ARSA itself has also sought to gain popular support in Bangladesh for its insurrection. Indeed, a broad consensus of support for the Rohingya has developed, where previously they were dismissed as exploitable interlopers. Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has won plaudits for the compassion she has expressed—although her move appears a political necessity given the loud voice with which Islamists have jumped on the cause.

One purported ARSA commander recently argued that the Myanmar military had “been torturing us day by day so we had no alternative. That’s why we acted [on August 25] … We knew this would happen.” That message of inevitable conflict and existential struggle chimes with many Rohingya people. 
Even the women I interviewed in southern Bangladesh said, without prompting, that they would fight if they could; they had nothing left. A month-long ceasefire declared by ARSA will expire on October 10; it is likely that the group will resume its low-intensity attacks. When that happens, any Rohingya villagers still left in Myanmar can expect further vicious reprisals from the military.

Just as the Bush administration’s misguided war on terror helped to foster Islamist extremism all over the world, the Myanmar generals’ intentional exaggeration of largely imagined relations between Rohingya insurgents and international jihadist groups may result in similar unwanted consequences. 

While the Myanmar military originally sought to divide Rohingya insurgents from potential allies among other anti-government, pro-democracy ethnic groups by playing on historic resentments, its policy may well end up driving Rohingya militants, whether in form of ARSA or still more frightening expressions of rage, into the arms of the real extremists.


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## Banglar Bir

*Gregory Stanton, Chowdhury Abrar and Maung Zarni give joint interview on Myanmar Genocide, U of Malaya Law Faculty, 20 Sept 2017*








__ https://www.facebook.com/









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Rohingya Man Hunted by Myanmar Poli...


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## Banglar Bir

*Europe puts off investment deal with Myanmar*




This aerial picture taken on September 27, 2017 shows burnt villages near Maungdaw in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State. Photo: AFP
Star Online Report
*The inking of the investment protection agreement (IPA) between the European Union and Myanmar has been put off until an unknown date.*
On September 14, the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament announced that it has postponed its visit to Myanmar, which was meant to finalise the EU-Myanmar investment agreement, according to a report published in the Myanmar Times.
*
The change was due to the recent developments in the country, the report says.*

The committee’s chair, Bernd Lange, said that the delegation is postponed until further notice.

“The EP's International Trade Committee decided to postpone the delegation to Myanmar to an unknown date as it was clear that the current political and human rights' situation in the country, as outlined in the EP's resolution adopted on Thursday 14 September, does not allow for a fruitful discussion on a potential EU-Myanmar investment agreement. It is clear that under these conditions, the ratification of an investment agreement with Myanmar is not possible,” he said.

On September 14, the legislature adopted the “European Parliament resolution on Myanmar, in particular the situation of Rohingyas”.

A well-placed source within the European business community in the country, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told The Myanmar Times that the delegation cancelled their trip because the position of Brussels is essentially that the signing of the IPA cannot be done “under these conditions”, in relation to the situation in Rakhine State.

The agreement would have been the first standalone investment protection agreement of the European Union with the country. In April, the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar stated that the negotiations “should be finished within a few months”. The IPA is expected to provide a level-playing field for European investors and promote corporate standards, hence boosting EU investments in Myanmar, says the report in the Myanmar Times.

In late April, then-European Union ambassador Roland Kobia told The Myanmar Times in an interview that the agreement is near completion.

“Myanmar has signed about 10 investment protection agreements [IPA] with different countries but not yet with the EU. It is not good for EU companies and for Myanmar as it reduces the incentive for companies to invest here. Our companies are not on a level playing field with companies that have investment protection agreements. We have been negotiating this agreement since 2014, and are very close to reaching an agreement, which would probably be the most comprehensive agreement that Myanmar has signed so far, with high international standards. This agreement would indeed bring by far the best economic, social rules to ensure fair trade and the protection of workers in Myanmar,” Mr Kobia said.

The committee has not provided any indication on when the visit would take place.

The delegation of the European Union to Myanmar based in Yangon and the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar could not be reached for comment by the Myanmar Times.
_Source: Myanmar Times_
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/europe-puts-investment-deal-myanmar-1470478


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## Banglar Bir

*‘Are we heading for a Bihari-like situation?’*
SAM Staff, September 27, 2017




Obsession with one nation, one religion and one language continues down till today in Myanmar, leading to its present predicament. The psyche of the country has been shaped by a fear of disintegration, xenophobia, military fears of uprisings and invasions and also by a strong sense of Burmese nationalism.

These observations were made by Brig Gen (retd) Shafaat Ahmad, PhD scholar on Myanmar Studies. He was speaking at a roundtable on ‘Understanding Myanmar: Managing the Rohingya Refugee Crisis.’ The roundtable was organised by Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies (BIPSS) at the think-tank’s office in the capital city on Tuesday.

At the outset of the programme, BIPSS president Maj Gen (retd) Muniruzzaman pointed out that, to understand the present crisis pertaining to the Rohingyas, it was necessary to go back in history to understand the mindset of the people, the events and geo-political developments that have created the present-day situation.

“Buddhism is a binding force in Myanmar,” said Shafaat Ahmad, referring to a common saying that ‘to be Burman is to be Buddhist.’ It has been a society guided by the monks, he observed.

*Pointing to the issues that boosted the extreme nationalism in Myanmar, he listed these as diarchy, education, political monks, the influx of Indian and the ultra-nationalist 969 movement.*

The 2008 constitution gave enormous power to the military and obviously, Shafaat Ahmad pointed out, Aung San Suu Kyi virtually has no power at all. The foreign policy was shaped by the military and the country’s geo-strategic stakes lay with Indian and China.

There was a change in the foreign policy of Myanmar after 2001, when it shed its isolation and opened up to the world. It even held ASEAN chairmanship in 2014. There was a lifting of sanctions by various countries and visitors flocked to Myanmar. There was a new government at the helm and the leaders visited all the neighbouring countries, except Bangladesh.

In managing the refugee crisis, Shafaat Ahmad presented a brief chronology of the changing scenario for Rohingyas. In 1961, two Rohingyas were elected as members of parliament. In 2010, four Rohingyas were elected to the parliament. In 1962 the military took over. Then coming up to 1982, the Citizenship Act was imposed, denying the Rohingyas of their fundamental rights as citizens of Myanmar.

The key presentation posed questions in conclusion: What is the Bangladesh plan concerning the Rohingya refugee crisis? Are we heading for a Palestine or Bihari-like situation? Can the refugees be confined to a particular area? And for how long? And what is the involvement of the local political elements?

Commenting on the present situation, former election commissioner Brig Gen (red) Sakhawat Hossain referred to the ASEAN stand that this was an ‘internal affair of Myanmar’. He said this was the longest-ever civil war and though it affected Bangladesh, the Bangladesh government never had any tangible Burma policy.

He said the two countries that could help mediate the problem were China and India. However, neither would be interested in doing so. India had interests in its Kaladan multimodal project which ran through Myanmar. And China also had an enormous investment there. Another powerful country, Russia, had two nuclear reactor projects in Myanmar and had trained 20 Myanmar students in nuclear science for the sake of these projects. So given their respective interests, none of these countries were likely to intervene in the situation.

Former civil and military bureaucrats, media persons, academics and members of the civil society also spoke at the roundtable.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/09/27/heading-bihari-like-situation/

*The frictions in the Rakhine state are less about Islamophobia than Rohingya-phobia’*
Eminent Arakan historian Jacques P. Leider talks about the historical context of the Rohingya conflict
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, October 1, 2017





Jacques P. Leider. Credit: YouTube
Photographs of terrified Muslim men, women and children fleeing the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last few weeks have made the global community take note of the Rohingya issue like never before.

A brutal crackdown by the Myanmar army on the Rohingya Muslim inhabited areas of Rakhine (formerly Arakan), in response to a reported attack in mid-August on the security posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an armed group fighting for the rights of the Rohingyas, led to the exodus of more than 400,000 Rohingyas to refugee camps in Bangladesh.

While the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has called it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, heads of states of countries have accused the Myanmar government of committing “genocide”. The long silence of Mynamar’s State Counsellor and Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has also been questioned widely.

Media reports have failed to focus on the historical context of the conflict that treads back to the British colonial period. Revisiting the conflict may help find a possible solution to the crisis.

Jacques P. Leider is a well-known Arakan historian who has studied and written extensively about the complex Rohingya issue.

Leider, head of the Bangkok-based Ecole Françaised’ Extrême-Orient (EFEO), makes a deeper and nuanced assessment of the conflict which has simmered for decades before snowballing into a worrisome humanitarian crisis of South East Asia. In course of the interview, Leider categorically states, “The Western media fails to make a clear distinction between anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar’s urban centres and the radically different context of the Rakhine State.”
*Below are excerpts from the interview:
You have been studying the socio-political history of the Arakan region of Myanmar for years. What led you to take a deep interest in it?*

I studied history as well as Burmese language and civilisation in Paris. When I looked for a convenient topic for my MA research, my teacher oriented me towards the Burmese manuscripts collection at the French National Library. Somewhat surprisingly, I found a significant body of manuscripts on palm leaves and paper that dealt with Arakan in the early colonial period. The Buddhist kingdom of Mrauk U (1430-1785) became the focus of my doctoral research. Thereafter, I did research on many other topics, but Arakan’s history remained a constant element in my research.

*This is a question you are often asked in media interviews which I will repeat here, simply because many people worldwide still do wonder who, after all, is a Rohingya; what is the origin of the term; is it an ethnic term; how old is this term; is it different from terms ‘Bengali’ and ‘Kalar’, also used to refer the Rohingyas in Myanmar?*

‘Rohingya’ means ‘Arakanese’ in the East Bengali dialect spoken by people in North Arakan, ‘Rohang’ being a local phonological variant of ‘Roshang’, the region’s name in Bengali literature. To clarify the conundrum around the contested name ‘Rohingya’, one must step back in time and embed the issue to the regional history of Muslim migrations. Throughout the early modern period, Muslims from all over the Indian Ocean came to live in port cities of continental Buddhist Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc.), but the migration of ‘Indians’ (including Muslims, Hindus and people of other religions) during the colonial period increased their number considerably. 

This is a well-known story that does not need to be elaborated. In Arakan, it was overwhelmingly Chittagonian labour, both seasonal and residential, that was attracted after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Until the Second World War, the much older pre-colonial Muslim community of Arakan that was socially integrated, on the one hand, and the more recent migrant community of ‘Chittagonians’, on the other hand, remained distinctive groups. It was the group with recent migrant roots that became most politically active.

In the 1950s, both Arakan Muslim parliamentarians and Muslim insurgents (the ‘Mujahids’) shared the idea of an autonomous Muslim zone adopting the Sharia law and Urdu as an official language. Then, under the push of a younger generation, there were discussions to adopt a name of their own. This issue was politically contested as there were already many group divisions that weakened political cohesion. Various spellings such as Roewhengyas, Ruhangyas and others were proposed, all linked to an old, but as it seems, mainly orally used term ‘Rwangya’. The current spelling, Rohingya, is traceable in print since 1963.

In British administrative records, none of these terms had ever been used. For decades, the Muslims in Arakan were classified according to religion (Muslim), language (such as Bengali) and place of origins (predominantly Chittagong). The self-perception of different groups was only considered in the 1921 and 1931 census reports.
*
Moreover, the British classified people of Indian origins in Burma as ‘foreigners’. The question of how long these people had been living in the country was not put on record*. ‘Foreigner’ is also the meaning of the very old word ‘Kalar’ that, in Burmese literature and usage, refers to people from the West, these being mainly Indians, but also more specifically Indian Muslims. A frequently noted pejorative connotation in the use of this term depends largely on the context. It is much too common to say that it is only depreciative, as the Western media have systematically put it.
*
The term ‘Bengali’ to designate officially Muslims of North Arakan was used by the Burmese administration relatively late, starting in the late 1970s and 1980s.* One should bear in mind that back in the 1950s, Pakistan recognised that a great number of Muslims in Burma had a claim on Pakistani citizenship and the term ‘Pakistanis’ was also used for people whom everybody identifies today as Rohingyas. Why were all these issues of belonging not clarified early on? In fact, a performing bureaucracy did only emerge very slowly. Burma’s Ministry of Immigration became functional ten years after independence. Today, these terms are politicised and contested. Each one has become a weapon in a media contest where a serene look at history would do away with some of the zealous energy that is driving the confrontation.

*The Muslim-Buddhist friction in the Rakhine state particularly goes back since the British time. Will you throw some light on the history behind this friction. How much of it can be traced to the Rakhine Muslims’ secessionist or autonomy movement in the 1940s to create a Muslim zone and align it to the then East Pakistan? What relevance does that movement have on the extreme friction that we now see between the Rohingyas and the Rakhine Buddhists and the general perception of the Rohingyas in Yangon?*

These are historically legitimate questions and they are politically relevant today. Yet, we lack in-depth studies to push for a necessary discussion. My answers are derived from a broad understanding of the context where I try to fit in the two ethno-religious communities. Unlike the mainstream media that singularise the case of the Rohingya Muslims in their relation to the state, I consider that, primarily, one cannot understand the politics of one group without observing the other. Both communities have always been internally divided about the choice of their political options (federalism or separatism/autonomy). They have only been united in their opposition to the unitary state and to each other.

The political dynamics of the Rohingya Muslim movement were driven by leaders from the north, mainly from the township of Maungdaw. In the 1950s, the Rohingyas were initially the movement of a social and economic elite (including Rakhine Muslim students in Rangoon) that did not include, and did not attempt, to represent all the Muslims of Arakan when it claimed an autonomous zone. North Arakan Muslim leaders had made clear to the British in 1947 and to the first Burmese government in 1948 that a political compromise with the Arakanese (or Rakhine) was not an option for them. Local Muslim leaders had greatly helped the British during the Second World War (by opposing the Japanese forward movement towards Bengal as against the Buddhists supporting the Japanese) and hoped, therefore, for their support to create a frontier zone with a specific status.

Putting afterwards their hope in Prime Minister U Nu’s government in the 1950s earned them a political reward in the early 1960s when the short-lived ‘Mayu Frontier Administration’ in North Arakan was created. In the 1970s, Rohingyas were mainly identified with Muslim rebel groups based on the (Myanmar) border with Bangladesh, desperate to obtain military support from Middle East countries. As Rohingya organisations in the diaspora failed to be accepted among the armed ethnic groups and the democratic anti-junta front during the 1980s and 1990s, their efforts to gain an international hearing became increasingly rooted in a human rights’ discourse. 

The descriptions of the dismal condition of Muslims in the Rakhine State, the misery of refugees driven into Bangladesh, the tragedy of boat people and what was described internationally as the systematic harassment of their community in Myanmar bore ample testimony to the discourse on the plight of the Rohingyas.

Today, with the backing of liberal democracies, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries, UN organisations and human rights organisations that lobby for them, Rohingyas have many allies abroad and none in the country many of them call home.

In Myanmar, they fail to get recognition because their ethnic claim cannot be negotiated politically. So why the quasi-obsession with ethnic recognition by the state? Unlike in other countries, it is ethnic recognition that provides primordial constitutional legitimacy for political representation and citizenship. It is not the only criterion, but for the first generation Rohingyas, it was adamantly clear that only ethnic recognition would give them the necessary leverage for political claims. It should be clear from these explanations that the motives to support the Rohingya cause today draw on a vast array of different historical and legal arguments that do not form a single, unified body. There has been a general reluctance by international actors to get involved in the historical narratives that have animated impassionate debates between the Rakhine and Rohingya writers.
*
U Kyaw Min, an Arakanese parliamentarian and nationalist leader, stated in 1956 that the Arakanese had no problem with the Muslims, suggesting that a deal with the divided Muslims was always at hand*. Yet over the decades, the communal frictions have increased because other, non-political issues impacted the Rakhine perspectives. 
*
For the Rohingyas, Muslim communal autonomy meant a fair deal that would see both communities get along politically and socially, but for the Rakhine, it meant the breaking apart of their motherland. *Later on, it was the unequal demographic growth of the Muslim community that produced a latent anxiety among the Buddhists. 

Despite a general understanding that a part of the Arakan Muslims had deep roots in the country and that Rakhine history cannot be understood without its social and religious complications with Bengal from the past down to the present, a pervasive Rakhine narrative about Muslims in Arakan has viewed them as ‘guests’ who have betrayed the trust of their hosts by claiming territorial ownership. The claim of a distinctive ethnicity made by Rohingyas is, therefore, considered by them as fake. The frictions are less about Islamophobia than Rohingyaphobia.

Against this complex background, it is not possible to establish a straightforward link of causality between the late 1940s and today. Yet, it is the verbatim quotes of relatively simplistic statements made by both sides that have enjoyed national and international resonance in 2012 and fed back into the cycle of frictions.

*There are other Muslims living in Myanmar even though much smaller in number than the Rohingyas. How much support do the Rohingyas have from these groups? Or, has the political term ‘Rohingya’ pushed these groups away from them?*

There are various Muslim communities in the Rakhine state and there are a number of different Muslim communities across Myanmar – some of them possibly even older than the pre-colonial Muslim community in Rakhine. As an academic, I would use expressions such as “historically multi-layered and ethnically diverse communities”. Many are of various Indian ethno-linguistic origins, others are of Malay or Chinese Yunnan origins (like the Panthay in Mandalay), one group of so-called Burmese Muslims has more recently adopted the name ‘Pathi’ (a term found in the royal chronicles to designate a Muslim community) to underscore its antiquity.

By emphasising a distinctive ethnicity, the Rohingya leadership cut off the complex family of Rakhine Muslims from a long continuity of historical roots in Bengal and specifically south-east Bengal identities. For that reason, I have been talking about an effort on their behalf to de-Indianise themselves. 

The ethnic claim also deprived the Rohingyas of political solidarity with the other Muslim communities of Burma (Myanmar) that did neither raise ‘ethnic’ claims nor made expressly claims for political autonomy. 

One may recall that in an unfavorable political context that emerged since the 1960s, Indians in Burma became victims of nationalist politics. On top of local economic prejudice against Indians, the explicit political nature of the Rohingya project was perceived by many urban Muslims as toxic. There are still no public enquiries about this topic in Myanmar today, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that there is no substantial level of Muslim solidarity with the Rohingyas. 
It does not mean and I will not argue that it does not exist, but it’s at least not articulated. More soberly, urban Muslims in contemporary Myanmar urban centres, whatever their private feelings are, would have nothing to win to stand up for the Rohingya cause. Is the Rohingya project, therefore, to be called an ambition that has backfired on itself? 

To be true from a social and anthropological perspective, one has to recognise that during the last 50 years there has indeed been an ongoing melting process that has brought Muslims in Rakhine state closely together, forging a shared identity under the impact of state oppression and civic exclusion. There were never as many Muslims who identified themselves as Rohingyas than after 2012.

*As you have always pointed out in your writings, the conflict in the Rakhine state has been traditionally triangular: the state vs the Rohingyas vs the Rakhine Buddhist. The narrative now, at least internationally, has become the state and Rakhine Buddhists vs the Rohingyas. Is it correct to include the voice of the Buddhist Rakhines in the extreme right wing 969 movement led by U. Wirathu or there is a separate voice that hasn’t found space in the international arena yet?*

It is important to recall that the Rakhine themselves have struggled to be recognised as an ethnic group after independence and their ethnically denominated Rakhine state was only created in 1974. They are keen to stress their separate historical and cultural identity despite the religion, language and cultural traits they share with the majority Burmese (or Bamar). 
*
The 969 movement has picked up the Rakhine crisis issues to feed its own anti-Muslim discourse, but it was not bred in the Rakhine state.* The Western media still fails to make a clear distinction between anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar’s urban centres and the radically different context of the Rakhine state. 
Even well-meaning academics tend to exemplify Islamophobia in Myanmar by pointing to the high number of Muslim IDPs (internally displaced people) in Rakhine state. At the same time, the political sentiments of Rakhine people are not integrated into international political analysis. 

On the other hand, the traditionally reclusive Rakhines have entirely failed to communicate a positive image of themselves to the rest of the world, to commit themselves publicly to tolerance and to invest in politically constructive ideas for the future. In a globalised world, it’s not enough to lay back and complain in confidential circles about the world that does not respect “us”.

*Even though there was a huge exodus of Rohingyas to Bangladesh in 1978 following the violence – many of whom were repatriated in 1979 – the internationalisation of the Rohingya issue happened only after the 2012 violence. What changed then?*

In terms of international media attention and support by the West and the Middle East, the aftermath of 2012 was an immense success for the Rohingya diaspora. One spin-off was the genocide narrative that severely impedes efforts of the current Myanmar administration to rebalance the discussion in their favour. 

For the Rohingyas in the country, it was a disaster. Rohingyas, despite their lack of full citizenship rights since 1982, had been granted voting rights and had participated in regional and national elections until 2010. But the suppression of their ‘white cards’ in 2015 by the national parliament cut them off from any form of political representation. 
This is ultimately not in the interest of the state. *Put in Machiavellian terms, the army controlled the Rakhine state by playing the prejudice and interests of one community against those of the other one. *This form of containing and at the same time, abusing the potential for communal frictions, also guaranteed state access to intelligence about the inner workings of these groups. The fast rise and the surprise of attacks of ARSA since October 2016 reflect an extraordinary intelligence failure on the side of the security forces.

*There is a strong Rohingya diaspora voice which has been able to establish the issue as a humanitarian and Muslim victimhood issue. But you have said in your writings that “internationalisation has not opened new ground in the domestic political arena where both Muslims and Buddhists have been longing for peace.” Instead, you said, “It confirms some of the fears already had by the Buddhists, namely, the alleged threat of an international Muslim alliance.” If you can elaborate it a bit…*

Your question relates to the arena of media fitness. When Myanmar opened up by the decision of the military elite in 2011, many people in the country regained hope about their political and economic future. But the hopes bear many contradictions, because the interests of the various ethnic and religious groups and the state are competing. 

The language, the terminologies, the mature thinking to address and negotiate publicly these contradictions and inherent conflicts had not yet been learnt. Public intellectuals and news editors were not present to orient the discussion and guide the public. Countrywide, educational infrastructure has been in a mess. 
What was “there” was the state of mind of the early 1960s and some of the memory of the 1950s as the country left a time-warp of several decades of isolation and party-line thinking. The international media that descended on Yangon after 2011 spoke a language that people were unable to assess rationally. 
Facebook became the foremost instrument of public discussion for the happy few with access to computers and 24-hour electricity, soon drunken with the newly-found freedom to criticise and wildly indulging in racist rampage when the conflict exploded in the Rakhine state. 
Trigger-happy rhetoric sustained a constant reiteration of “us the Buddhists” and the “rest of the world that does not understand Myanmar”. 
The Rohingya diaspora invested in sophisticated strategies of communication that neither the Myanmar state nor any of its ethnic constituencies have been able to cope with. Buddhist resentment was bound to increase.

*Some countries have termed the Rohingya issue as genocide. Though, it is not for the first time the term has been used to define the extreme odds faced by the Rohingya Muslims. Yours writings point out that the term was first used in the 1951 charter of the Arakan Muslim Conference. In 1978, it was used by some Rakhine Muslim groups when violence led Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh. However, post 2015, we are getting to hear it more often, and internationally. How do you see the use of this term, particularly by the international rights organisations and heads of states? In one of your articles on the issue, you said, “The accusation of the term hits hard on the credibility of the state.”*

Genocide accusations resound very strongly and have an immediate impact on global audiences; they are perceived as an urgent call for action and possible intervention. Indictments of genocide should, therefore, be made on grounds that leave no doubt for interpretation. The accusation of a Rohingya genocide is still very much open for further discussion. This is not the only accusation of genocide that has been made within the region. 
Rakhine nationalists have alleged that the Burmese conquest of 1785 marked the beginning of a long-term effort to exterminate the Rakhine ethnic group and in the British census of 1901, the compiler hinted at the perspective of a disappearance of the Rakhine “race” due to Chittagonian immigration. Accusations have also been made about the genocide of the Chittagong Hill Tracts people in Bangladesh, especially during the Chittagong Hill Tracts war (1977-97). 
The charges of a “slow genocide” of the Rohingyas has been mostly made by people who discovered the Rohingya issue only in 2012. Questioning the use of the term ‘genocide’ does not mean that one intends to belittle mass atrocities and serious violations of human rights. 

It’s a fact that the Muslim population in the Rakhine state has been steadily growing despite massive emigration. In Maungdaw township, it has grown from 34% after the war to 92% (according to UNHCR sources), despite the fact that there has been a steady flow of people out of the region. The picture gets blurred when ‘genocide’ is used both as a rhetoric tool to express indignation about indiscriminate state oppression and as a description for an alleged state-led plan to exterminate a whole population.

*You have spoken about the Myanmar government playing into the hands of the Rakhine nationalists by increasingly denying rights to the Muslims. Will you elaborate it a bit?*

I am not sure I have put my argument clearly and if I didn’t, I should elaborate indeed. I do not mean to say that more the Muslims are harassed and flee, more the Rakhine community will have a reason to rejoice. Such an impression would be entirely wrong. 

Since the colonial period, the Muslims have established a reputation as hard-working people despite the general poverty of the population as a whole. There are many problematic issues to be addressed, such as population growth and women’s rights, but there’s a right for people to live where their families have lived now for decades. 
Only an ethno-political consensus of the two groups will make sure that there is a future for the people of the Rakhine state. I am talking about the progress and welfare of rural people at a basic level and initiatives that will lift people out of poverty. I am not talking about showcase government-led projects such as the port of Sittway modernised by India and the gas pipeline built by China and serving China’s thirst for natural resources. The bad news about the events in the Rakhine state have been ruining the reputation of the region and clearly lessen chances for diversified foreign investment.
*
Besides the economic aspect, there’s the political aspect. After the elections of 2015, the situation in the regional parliament of the Rakhine state became soon blocked by the appointment of a chief minister who belongs to the government party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy. 
But it is the Arakan National Party that holds a majority in the regional parliament. The conclusion is this: pleasing or antagonising the Rakhine ethnics is not necessarily related to government policies towards the Muslims and vice-versa.*

*What is the way out? Aung San Syu Ki said that the state would soon begin verification process for the return of the Rohingyas. Do you think a fruitful political dialogue will possibly follow this?

There is not a single way out; there are rather many patient steps to be taken by the stakeholders and actors in the conflict sphere to improve the situation*. While the immediate prospect looks bleak, not least because no one really knows what role the new group, ARSA, is going to play, one should not be blind to the fact that there have been no revenge killings and no riots in the rest of the Rakhine state during the last weeks. 
*Most people in the country seem painfully aware that the current crisis may produce a dangerous international backlash.* On the other hand, since 2013, many other ethnic groups that are hoping for peace and development and for international support as well, have grown desperate as the Rohingya lobby groups have appropriated a lot of the attention of international donors.

The near prospects will be dictated by the international involvement in the crisis. A repatriation effort will likely be engaged on the basis of the earlier agreement with Bangladesh and under international auspices. 
*
The government should try to apply, as it had promised, the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Advisory Commission report that make a lot of sense in terms of improving general livelihood in the region*. True, none of those recommendations expressly address the issue of a political dialogue that you refer to. The international community does not seem to imagine anything like that either. 
It seems enthralled by the apparently unprecedented drama of another exodus that is still poorly understood. Sticking with their fascination for Aung San Suu Kyi, once a saint and de facto prisoner, a leader and a fallen angel today, the United States, the European Union and other interested parties fail to address and engage with some of the fundamental issues that we need to know more about, namely social and political drivers in the arch-conservative Muslim Rohingya society, transnational Rohingya dynamics, the relationship between the diaspora and Rohingyas in Myanmar as well as similarly structured issues relating to the social and political lives of the Rakhine community. 
*
What we know already is that the management of the Rakhine State and its people display a state failure that has extended over several decades. We also know that the state has failed to stand up for the protection and welfare of the people and has shown itself as a weak rather than as a potent force. Only a collective effort will pay off, the state alone will not be able to shoulder the entire burden. Dialogue is, no doubt, one among the important steps to be taken.*
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/01/frictions-rakhine-state-less-islamophobia-rohingya-phobia/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya refugees scoff at Myanmar’s assurances on going home*
Reuters
Published at 10:55 PM October 03, 2017





Newly arrived Rohingya refugees board a boat as they transfer to a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, October 2, 2017REUTERS
*Myanmar's government spokesman said under the 1993 pact, even a hospital record was enough to prove residency, but it was only Myanmar, not Bangladesh, that could verify citizenship*
Rohingya in Bangladesh were sceptical on Tuesday about their chances of ever going home to Myanmar, even though the government there has given an assurance it would accept people verified as refugees.

More than half a million Rohingya have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine State launched in late August that has been denounced by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing, saying it is fighting Rohingya terrorists who have claimed attacks on the security forces. The government has said anyone verified as a refugee will be allowed to return under a process set up with Bangladesh in 1993.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Monday to work on a repatriation plan, and a Myanmar government spokesman confirmed it would go along with it, provided people could verify their status with paperwork.

But many refugees in camps in Bangladesh are scornful.

“Everything was burned, even people were burned,” said a man who identified himself as Abdullah, dismissing the chances that people would have documents to prove a right to stay in Myanmar.

At the root of the problem is the refusal by Buddhist-majority Myanmar to grant citizenship to members of a Muslim minority seen by a mostly unsympathetic, if not hostile, society as interlopers from Bangladesh.

Though Myanmar has not granted Rohingya citizenship, under the 1993 procedure, it agreed to take back people who could prove they had been Myanmar residents.

But a day after Bangladesh and Myanmar announced apparent progress, a Bangladeshi foreign ministry official appeared resigned to a difficult process.

“This is still a long procedure,” said the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.

There were already nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the latest exodus, but Myanmar had said it would only accept, “subject to verification”, those who arrived after October 2016, when a military offensive in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi official said.

“We said that many Rohingya refugees have no documents, so this process should be flexible. Myanmar said they will decide who will get involved in the verification,” the official said, adding that Bangladesh wanted international agencies to be involved.

Myanmar’s government spokesman said under the 1993 pact, even a hospital record was enough to prove residency, but it was only Myanmar, not Bangladesh, that could verify citizenship.
*‘Break their promise’*
But even if refugees have documents, many are wary about returning without an assurance of full citizenship, which they fear could leave them vulnerable to the persecution and curbs they have endured for years.

Amina Katu, 60, laughed at the thought of returning.

“If we go there, we’ll just have to come back here,” she said. “If they give us our rights, we will go, but people did this before and they had to return.”

Last month, Anwar Begum said she had fled from Myanmar three times. The first time was to escape a 1978 crackdown, and she returned the following year. She fled again in 1991 and returned in 1994.

“I don’t want to go back,” the 55-year-old added. “I don’t believe the government. Every time the government agrees we can go back, then we’re there and they break their promise.”

Investigators appointed by government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan recommended in August that Myanmar review a 1982 law that links citizenship and ethnicity and leaves most Rohingya stateless.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a meeting in Geneva on Monday that the link between statelessness and displacement was nowhere more evident than with the Rohingya.

“Denial of citizenship is a key aspect of the discrimination and exclusion that have shaped their plight,” he said.

Grandi called for a two-track approach to tackle issues of citizenship and rights and inclusive development to stamp out poverty in Rakhine State.


Refugees are still crossing into Bangladesh, though at a slower rate, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration said.

Rights groups say more than half of more than 400 Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine State have been torched.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...efugees-scoff-myanmars-assurances-going-home/
*The road to repatriation*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 06:31 PM October 03, 2017
Last updated at 07:43 AM October 04, 2017
Photo: FOCUS BANGLA
*Myanmar’s willingness to enter into talks about repatriation is a welcome step but inundated with flaws*
Myanmar has tentatively agreed to take back the Rohingya under certain conditions. But this is nowhere near enough.

After driving out nearly half a million Rohingya from the Rakhine state and into neighbouring Bangladesh, after all the torture and deaths and burned down houses, does Myanmar expect it to be that simple?

For one thing, what are the implications of repatriation if Myanmar continues to deny citizenship to the Rohingya? Without solving the underlying problems of discrimination and oppression, we may even see another round of uprising, followed by military intervention, thus continuing the cycle.

On the other hand, the repatriated Rohingya will have to build their lives all over again — as their villages have been destroyed — but they do not have the resources to do so. The Myanmar government must, therefore, provide compensation and support to the victims, as well as ensure their safety and security.

What also needs to stop is the Myanmar government’s continuous dishonesty and doublespeak regarding the situation. They have lied about who the perpetrators were, they have lied about the so-called killings of the Rohingya, and they have lied about the very fact that they have, actively and without mercy, attempted to carry out what can only be called an ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar needs to own up to what it has done.

Inexplicably, the Myanmar delegate has also insisted on “verifying” the identities of refugees before repatriation. How exactly does he expect these people, who were forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs, to provide such verification?
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/2017/10/03/the-road-to-repatriation/
Myanmar’s willingness to enter into talks about repatriation is a welcome step but inundated with flaws.Unless they address these and other related issues, we won’t have a successful or sustainable road to repatriation.

12:00 AM, October 04, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:10 AM, October 04, 2017
*MYANMAR**-ROHINGYA-REFUGEE-CRISIS*
*Myanmar's Proposal: All that glitters is not gold*




Newly-arrived Rohingya refugees from Myanmar make their way to a relief centre in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Inam Ahmed and Shakhawat Liton
Myanmar's promise to take back the Rohingyas, who have taken refuge in Bangladesh, looks empty and seems to be a tactic to ease international pressure.

This is reflected in the contents of a hasty statement put on the official website of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi hours after Myanmar Union Minister U Kyaw Zeya concluded his Dhaka visit.

The statement released yesterday clearly mentioned that repatriation has to be done on the basis of verification of the refugees in line with the criteria agreed to by the two countries in a joint statement in 1992.

And here comes the catch. If the 1992 agreement is followed, only around 14,000 may get the chance of repatriation, if at all. The reality is that more than five lakh Rohingyas have already arrived in Bangladesh over the last five weeks.

The mention of the 1992 agreement is devious and crafty. It's a clear indication that Myanmar is most insincere and unfeeling about the brutal genocide that is going on there.

The 1992 agreement was signed after an influx of more than 2.5 lakh fear-stricken Rohingyas who fled their country following a crackdown. After prolonged discussions, Myanmar agreed that the Rohingyas having “Myanmar citizenship identity cards or national registration cards or other relevant documents” issued by the authorities concerned could return to Myanmar.

But since then, things have changed in Myanmar, making it impossible for Rohingyas to meet these criteria.

The Myanmar government began a citizenship verification process in 2014 under the draconian 1982 law which deprived Rohingyas of citizenship. It allowed temporary resident cardholders to apply for citizenship on condition that they are listed as Bangalees.

But in 2015, the temporary resident cards were also cancelled, denying Rohingyas voting rights in the 2015 elections that saw Suu Kyi's return to power. Later in June that year, Myanmar started issuing Identity Cards of National Verification.

As the Kofi Annan Commission set up by Suu Kyi this year reports that around 4,000 Rohingyas out of one million have been recognised as citizens or naturalised citizens. Around 10,000 more Rohingyas got national verification cards considered as a preparatory step towards citizenship. 

So Myanmar's proposal basically means it is not willing to take back more than these 14,000 registered Rohingyas. The rest will remain with us. Around one million Rohingyas have already taken shelter in Bangladesh -- five lakh entered this time and another five lakh in the previous years. They will remain a stateless people and multiply with stateless children.

The hollowness of the Myanmar union minister's proposal is also reflected in the simple fact that while he was holding talks with the Bangladesh foreign minister, more than 5,000 Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh.

Myanmar has done nothing to stop genocide. It has not restrained its military. It has not stopped the extremist Buddhists who are at the forefront of the ethnic violence.

Its only aim was to shift the international community's focus and make the issue a matter of bilateral action.

There has been no reconciliation process in Myanmar that would make the refugees feel safe to return. Rather, their vacated lands and burned houses have been acquired by the Myanmar government.

The sad fact is that when Suu Kyi, who now says only the “verified citizens” would be allowed to return, has forgotten that while she was in prison, her party in 2005 had sought UN Security Council action against Myanmar for human rights violation and violence against ethnic communities after a commission headed by Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu and Czech President Vaclav Havel prepared a report on Myanmar.

Today, the same Suu Kyi doesn't consider the persecuted Rohingyas as humans worthy of retur
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...anmars-proposal-all-glitters-not-gold-1471264

*"Everything Was Burned" Rohingya Remain Doubtful Of Myanmar's Promises*




*Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Monday to work on a repatriation plan for the Rohingya refugees*




Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh were sceptical on Tuesday about their chances of ever going home to Myanmar, even though the government there has given an assurance it would accept people verified as refugees.

More than half a million Rohingya have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine State launched in late August that has been denounced by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing and placed a huge burden on Bangladesh.

Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing, saying it is only fighting Rohingya terrorists who have claimed attacks on the security forces. The government has said anyone verified as a refugee from Myanmar will be allowed to return under a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Monday to work on a repatriation plan, and a Myanmar government spokesman confirmed it would go along with process, provided people could verify their status with paperwork.

But many refugees are scornful.




"Everything was burned, even people were burned," said a refugee who identified himself as Abdullah, dismissing the chances that people would have documents to prove a right to stay in Myanmar.

At the root of the problem is the refusal by Buddhist-majority Myanmar to grant citizenship to members of a Muslim minority seen by a mostly unsympathetic, if not hostile, society as interlopers from Bangladesh.

Though Myanmar has not granted Rohingya citizenship, under the 1993 procedure, it agreed to take back people who could prove they had been Myanmar residents.

But a day after Bangladesh and Myanmar announced apparent progress, a Bangladeshi foreign ministry official appeared resigned to a difficult process.

"This is still a long procedure," said the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.




There were already about 300,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the latest exodus, but Myanmar had said it would only take back those who arrived after October 2016 - when a military offensive in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh - "subject to verification", the official said.

"We said that many Rohingya refugees have no documents, so this process should be flexible. Myanmar said they will decide who will get involved in the verification," the official said, adding Bangladesh wanted international agencies to be involved.

Myanmar's government spokesman said under the 1993 pact, even a hospital record was enough to prove residency, but it was only Myanmar, and not Bangladesh, that could verify citizenship.

"We have a policy for the repatriation process and we will go along with that policy," the spokesman, Zaw Htay, told Reuters.
*'BREAK THEIR PROMISE'*
But even if refugees had documents, many are wary about returning without an assurance of full citizenship, which they fear could leave them vulnerable to the persecution and curbs they have endured for years.

Amina Katu, 60, laughed at the thought of returning.

"If we go there, we'll just have to come back here," she said. "If they give us our rights, we will go, but people did this before and they had to return."

Last month, Anwar Begum told Reuters she had now fled from Myanmar three times. The first time was to escape a 1978 crackdown, and she returned the following year. She fled again in 1991 and returned in 1994.




"I don't want to go back," the 55-year-old added. "I don't believe the government. Every time the government agrees we can go back, then we're there and they break their promise."

Investigators appointed by Suu Kyi and led by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan recommended in August that Myanmar review a 1982 law that links citizenship and ethnicity and leaves most Rohingya stateless.

Statelessness was at the root of the problem, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a meeting in Geneva on Monday.

"Nowhere is the link between statelessness and displacement more evident than with the Rohingya community of Myanmar, for whom denial of citizenship is a key aspect of the discrimination and exclusion that have shaped their plight," he said.

Grandi also called for a two-track approach to tackle issues of citizenship and rights and inclusive development to stamp out poverty in Rakhine State.
http://www.carbonated.tv/news/rohin...um=referral&utm_campaign=paidcontent-oct-03-1


----------



## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya Are the New Palestinians*
*The plight of the Rohingya is a rare moment of global unity for Muslim countries. But will that be enough to save them?*
CRAIG CONSIDINE
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017




The systematic persecution of Palestinians has long occupied a place in the consciousness of the _ummah_, the global community of Muslims. Muslims worldwide have watched for decades as Palestinians have been repeatedly displaced, subjected to disproportionate collective punishment, and denied statehood.

While the Israeli occupation continues to stir up feelings of anger and powerlessness, another ethnic group — the Rohingya — is now emerging as the symbol of global injustice for Muslims. As Rashmee Roshan Lall notes in _The Arab Weekly_, the Rohingya are acquiring a status so far only given to the Palestinians. And the ummah is not sitting idly by.

The images of devastated villages and terrified Rohingya streaming into Bangladesh with nothing but the clothes on their backs resonates powerfully with the traumatic collective memory of the Palestinian _Nakba_, the “catastrophe".

The images of devastated villages and terrified Rohingya streaming into Bangladesh with nothing but the clothes on their backs resonates powerfully with the traumatic collective memory of the Palestinian _Nakba_, the “catastrophe,” when in 1948 Israeli forces expelled over 750,000 people from the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. 
Muslims around the globe see the Palestinians and the Rohingya as having gone through similar experiences, being subject to flagrant abuses and pushed to the fringes of their respective societies. They are stateless, permanent refugees with few allies willing to officially stand up for their human rights.

Both groups became disenfranchised in the aftermath of colonial rule and imperial collapse, and both the Myanmar and Israeli governments have attempted to relocate them from their territory, portraying them as foreigners with no claim to the land. In both Israel and Myanmar, there have been attempts to rewrite the history of the two persecuted groups, claiming that neither constitute a “real” ethnic group and are thus interlopers and invaders.

Muslims also see a shared use of religious justifications for persecution. The Myanmar government empowers Buddhist nationalist factions promoting genocide against the defenseless Rohingya, while the Israeli government empowers Jewish nationalist factions promoting the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.

Ultranationalist Buddhists, such as Ashin Wirathu of the radical nationalist 969 movement, believe “Muslims are like the African carp. 

They breed quickly and they are very violent and they eat their own kind. Even though they are minorities [in Myanmar], we are suffering under the burden [the Rohingya] bring us.” That’s echoed by the use of language describing Palestinians as “snakes” by figures such as far-right Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked, who has also declared that “[Palestinians] are all our enemies, and their blood should be on our hands.” Such reckless and shameful comments remind us that Islamophobia knows no bounds.

The Rohingya crisis has inspired an outburst of online activism. Twitter users are deploying hashtags like #We Are All Rohingya Now to raise awareness of the ongoing human rights violations and draw attention to businesses with ties to the Myanmar government. 
Meanwhile, Arab media has been flooding the airwaves with reports of the atrocities. Oraib Rantawi, of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies, says the Rohingya are now taking priority over sectarian conflicts, whether Shiite vs. Sunni or Islamism vs. Secularism. As the Christian Science Monitor notes, the Rohingya have not been colored by the sectarian or political divides that afflict Muslims, making it a cause that transcends sectarian barriers.

Sectarian divides and deep-rooted animosities in the ummah are real enough, but the protests of a number of Muslim communities show that the Rohingya issue transcends the challenge of sectarianism. In solidarity with the Rohingya, tens of thousands of Muslims marched through the Russian region of Chechnya’s capital city, Grozny. 
In Jordan, two protests took place in the span of five days, including at the United Nations’ Amman headquarters. Dozens of Israeli Muslim Palestinians protested at the gates of the Myanmar Embassy in Tel Aviv, and hundreds of Muslim women demonstrated outside Myanmar’s embassy in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Hundreds of Shiite Muslims also staged a protest rally after Friday prayers in Tehran.

While Muslims worldwide have been moved by the ethnic cleansing and forced exodus of the Rohingya, the responses from Muslim leaders and heads of state have been inadequate, at best. Neither the Arab League nor the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest Muslim political body, has called for an emergency session.

There has been limited action and rather more talk: some Arab states have started sending aid and assistance to Rohingya refugees, while the Qatar Red Crescent Society has dispatched a team to set up mobile clinics and water tanks.

Seeking more action to defend the Rohingya, Iranian Second Deputy Parliament Speaker Ali Motahari called on Muslim-majority countries to raise a Muslim-led expeditionary force to go rescue the fleeing Rohingya. Iran’s chief rival — Saudi Arabia — tweeted its condemnation. “Acting upon [our] responsibility as leader of the Islamic Ummah, Saudi Arabia has called for a resolution to condemn the atrocities and human rights violations.”

But even these responses speak to division, as well as unity, among Islamic nations. But even these responses speak to division, as well as unity, among Islamic nations. Iran calls for aggressive direct action while Saudi Arabia calls for words of condemnation. Humanitarian action in Myanmar has become highly politicized as Islamic powers battle for supremacy over the ummah.


Turkish officials say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed the violence with Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the Myanmar government, and said the issue was causing deep concern globally and especially in the “Muslim world.” Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called for an end to the persecution of Rohingya Muslims and sent his foreign minister to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.

While the Saudi government did in fact reach out to the U.N. Security Council, critics have pointed to the kingdom’s deep financial and political ties in Myanmar as reasons why Saudi Arabia is not acting with more force to stop the plight of the Rohingya. The _Christian Science Monitor_ noted that “Saudi Arabia has invested millions in Myanmar’s oil infrastructure, and it set to use a recently-completed oil pipeline running through the country to continue to provide China, the Myanmar government’s largest backer, with more than 10 percent of its oil supplies.”

To be fair to the Saudi kingdom, it has stepped up to assist the Rohingya. In recent years, the Saudis have opened their doors to 250,000 Muslims from Myanmar, offering them free residency permits, access to free education, health care, and employment — but often then treating them with the same hostility that other migrants find in Saudi Arabia.

One reason why the Rohingya issue has become so powerfully emotive is that the ummah sees a systematic bias in the way the media covers the plight of persecuted Muslim populations. Some Muslims around the globe believe the “terrorism” label is only applied to cases where the perpetrator is Muslim.

Indeed, research from Erin Kearns and her colleagues at Georgia State University show that when the perpetrators of violence are Muslim, the media covers the attack about four and a half times more than if the perpetrator was not Muslim. Put another way, as Kearns notes, “a perpetrator who is not Muslim would have to kill on average about seven more people to receive the same amount of coverage as a perpetrator who’s Muslim.”

The portrayal of Palestinians as a collectively terrorist population is common; in the case of the Rohingya, there has been a concerted effort by the Myanmar government to portray the victims as persecutors and “Bengali terrorists.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others, has echoed this language.

Muslims around the world also see Muslim-majority countries and “the West” as being too silent, if not complicit, in the face of ethnic cleansing. But it is worth noting that similar developments for other groups have barely made a ping on the radar. The Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim ethnic group based largely in Xinjiang province in western China, are a socially and politically oppressed people. The “Muslim world” has looked the other way as Chinese security forces foment anti-Uighur violence. Some say that Muslim leaders are wary of damaging lucrative trade ties with Beijing or attracting attention to their own attitudes towards political dissent.

The Rohingya and Palestinians’ situations have become crises breaching sectarian divides. The persecution of both populations facilitates a rare outpouring of support and solidarity unseen in bitter sectarian conflicts in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. Here, the labels of Shiite and Sunni melt away as Muslims worldwide stand united in their desire for peace and humanity — in part, because they’re far away from the worst fault lines that divide the Islamic world.

We should also remember that this is not just a matter of religious fellow feeling for some Muslims, but also common humanity inspired by faith. The Islamic teachings of mercy, compassion, and justice call on followers of Islam to condemn the loss of innocent life, a point captured by the following verse of the Quran (5:32): “… Whoever kills a person unless for injustice in the land — it is as if he had slain the whole of mankind. And whoever saves a person — it is as if he had saved humanity.” Millions and millions of Muslims worldwide defend human life regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality.

But for Muslims around the world, the plight of the Rohingya also bears a special resonance. They fear that another Nakba looms — and they, if not their leaders, are striving to prevent it, even if it may already be too late.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/26/the-rohingya-are-the-new-palestinians/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*A Short History of Rohingya Muslims*


----------



## Banglar Bir

03:27 PM, October 04, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:36 PM, October 04, 2017
*Rohingya abuse may be crimes against humanity: UN rights experts*




Newly arrived Rohingya refugees board a boat as they transfer to a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, October 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Star Online Report
*The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) have called on Myanmar to immediately stop violence in the northern Rakhine State, and to promptly and effectively investigate and vigorously prosecute cases of violence against women and children.*
“We are particularly worried about the fate of Rohingya women and children subject to serious violations of their human rights, including killings, rape and forced displacement,” the experts said in a joint statement issued today.

“Such violations may amount to crimes against humanity and we are deeply concerned at the State’s failure to put an end to these shocking human rights violations being committed at the behest of the military and other security forces, and of which women and children continue to bear the brunt.”

The committees have urged the civil and military authorities of Myanmar to fully comply with their obligations under both the CEDAW and the CRC, and to exercise due diligence and prevent, investigate, punish and ensure redress for acts of private individuals or militias under its jurisdiction that violate women and children’s rights.

To ensure full accountability, the committees also call on the Government of Myanmar to grant access to and fully cooperate with the fact-finding mission established by the UN Human Rights Council, so it can conduct thorough and independent investigations.

The experts also highlighted that the statelessness of Rohingya women and children and their protracted displacement had exposed them to high levels of poverty and malnutrition, and limited their access to basic rights including education, employment and health care, as well as imposing restrictions on their freedom of movement.

“We urge the Myanmar authorities to address the needs of internally displaced Rohingya women and children, as well as of Rohingya refugee women and children living in camps in neighbouring countries, with the support of the international community,” the experts said.

“This should include the provision of necessary assistance and creating adequate conditions to ensure their prompt and durable return to their places of origin, if they so wish, in safety and dignity.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...rimes-against-humanity-united-nations-1471435

05:05 PM, October 04, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:18 PM, October 04, 2017
*Bangladesh seeks UN support for Rohingya repatriation*




Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali along with Under Secretary General of the UN Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) Mark Lowcock and Executive Director of Unicef Anthony Lake on October 4, 2017. Photo: Foreign Ministry
UNB, Dhaka
*Bangladesh today solicited support from the UN to ensure return of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals to their homeland in Myanmar.*
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali raised the issue when Under Secretary General of the UN Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) Mark Lowcock and Executive Director of Unicef Anthony Lake jointly met him at his office.

Both of them have just returned from Cox's Bazar after visiting the camps where the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals have taken shelter.

The OCHA and the Unicef heads thanked the government and the people of Bangladesh for giving shelter to the helpless Rohingyas and deeply appreciated Bangladesh's humanity and generosity.

They have also informed about the initiatives of UN to raise funds to cover the increasing humanitarian needs.

The Foreign Minister briefed them about the current situation regarding the influx of Rohingyas and apprised them that over 500,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh in just one month.

He also mentioned that the presence of over 900,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals is creating serious humanitarian challenge for Bangladesh.

Referring to the recent visit of Kyaw Tint Swe, union minister of the state counselor's office of Myanmar on October 2,the foreign minister informed them that Bangladesh has emphasised the importance of sustainable return of the Rohingyas to Myanmar.

He also informed that the Myanmar minister conveyed their willingness to take back the Myanmar nationals taking shelter in Bangladesh.

The foreign minister thanked the Unicef head and the USG of UNOCHA for the useful discussion.
w.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/bangladesh-foreign-minister-ah-mahmood-ali-seeks-united-nations-support-rohingya-repatriation-1471465?utm_source=dailystar_website&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Turkey vows continued support for Rohingya Muslims*
*Turkish foreign minister decries international community's indifference to plight of Rohingya Muslims*
14:51 October 04, 2017 Anadolu Agency




*Rohingya refugees are assisted to get of a wooden boat that brought them from Myanmar*
Turkey will continue to support Rohingya and all the oppressed communities across the world, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said.

Highlighting a camp that would be built in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims, who are fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Cavusoglu said Turkey would help the Muslim community even if nobody shows up for their support.

Even if nobody shows up for [support of] the Rohingya, we would help them, we have to..,quot; the foreign minister said in an interview with Anadolu Agency’s Editors’ Desk.Some 507,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since the outbreak of fresh violence on Aug. 25, according to the UN migration agency.

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 highlighted the issue at this year's UN General Assembly.
*- ‘Most persecuted people’*
Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency [TIKA], Turkish Red Crescent [Kizilay] and Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority [AFAD] are doing their best to deliver humanitarian aid to Rohingya staying in Bangladesh, Çavuşoğlu said.

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.

Last October, following attacks on border posts in Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

Çavuşoğlu also decried international community's indifference to the plight of Rohingya people. “Even the Muslim countries did not show interest,” he added.

Turkish Foreign Minister also mentioned that the Rakhine state is home to Rohingya people and they have been living there for a long time.

Nobody can say that Muslims in Arakan are not a part of Myanmar,Çavuşoğlu said using old name of the Rakhine state.
*- Relations with Russia*
When asked about the “technical work” planned during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey, Cavusoglu said teams have been constituted not only to work on bilateral relations, but also on Syrian issue.
quot;The purpose of the technical work was not only to resolve the remaining issues in bilateral relations. These teams were important to stop the attacks, cease the tensions completely in Syria’s Idlib and exchange healthy and timely information.

“In bilateral relations,” Cavusoglu stressed, “we are almost at the point where we can go back to the relations with Russia that we enjoyed before downing of the [Russian] jet.”

Cavusoglu said the teams were working on strengthening the cooperation on visa and energy issues.

After Turkey shot down a Russian military jet over an airspace violation in Nov. 2015, Moscow took several measures against Ankara, including banning imports of Turkish agricultural products and ending visa-free travel for Turks.

Since last summer, Russia has relaxed the measures and lifted bans on some products, particularly citrus fruits.

During a May 3 visit to Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed on the resumption of trade, including food and textiles, but with the exception of tomatoes.
Last month, two leaders met in Ankara and had a productive meeting and exchanged views on the areas of regional politics, trade and energy.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/dunya/t...glish&utm_campaign=facebook-yenisafak-english


----------



## idune

* Foreign envoys in Myanmar say villages burned to ground *
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha 
Published: 00:05, Oct 04,2017 | Updated: 23:35, Oct 03,2017

*Ambassadors of 20 mostly western countries based in Myanmar in a joint statement has said they saw Rohingya villages were burned to the ground with residents fleeing elsewhere while visiting the Rakhine state, the scene of the violent military crackdown. *

‘We saw villages which had been burned to the ground and emptied of inhabitants . . . The violence must be stopped,’ the envoys said in a statement after their visit to the region under a government-sponsored tour on Monday. 

The envoys said that they saw on their visit the dire humanitarian need. They called for unimpeded humanitarian access to northern Rakhine and resumption of life-saving services without discrimination throughout the state.
The foreign envoys tour and subsequent statement came five weeks after the army clampdown to flush out alleged terrorists from the region sparked one of the world’s worst exoduses with the ethnic minority people fleeing their homes to escape atrocities. 
‘The security forces have an obligation to protect all people in Rakhine without discrimination and to take measures to prevent acts of arson,’ the statement read. 

It added, ‘We have stressed to the Union and State Government of Myanmar and to local authorities in Rakhine that the people we saw during this visit must be protected from any reprisals such as physical attacks or arbitrary arrest.’

The statement said, ‘Investigation of allegations of human rights violations needs to be carried out by experts since the envoys visit was not an investigation mission.’ The diplomats urged them to allow the UN Fact-Finding Mission to visit Rakhine. The envoys, however, also reiterated their condemnation of the ARSA attacks of 25 August and deep concern about violence and mass displacement since. 
Myanmar authorities arranged the envoys tour to Northern Rakhine amid escalated global outrage over the treatment of Rohingyas forcing so far over 500,000 of them to cross into Bangladesh to take makeshift refuge. 

The envoys represented the United States, the European Union, Britain, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, Sweden and Finland. 
Indonesian ambassador was the lone non-western foreign envoy included in the delegation for the tour while the statement said the diplomats visited a number of villages in Maungdaw and Rathedaung districts and met a mixture of local communities in Northern Rakhine. 

In the statement, they welcomed the commitment of the state councilor to address human rights violations in accordance with strict norms of justice.
*
‘We call again on the Myanmar authorities to fully investigate allegations of human rights violations and bring prosecutions against those responsible,’ the statement said. *

*‘We encourage the Myanmar government to move quickly to enable the voluntary, dignified and safe return to their places of origin of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled to Bangladesh. As friends of Myanmar we remain ready to work with the Myanmar government to help Rakhine reach its potential,’ it said. *

It also said that the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State had set out recommendations for a stable, peaceful and prosperous future for all communities in the state, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or citizenship status. 

‘We support full implementation of the Kofi Anan report,’ the statement read.
The envoys expected that their visit would be ‘only the very first step in an urgently needed opening up of access for all, including to media, to all parts of Northern Rakhine.’ 

http://www.newagebd.net/article/25367/foreign-envoys-in-myanmar-say-villages-burned-to-ground


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## Indus Pakistan

idune said:


> 20 mostly western countries


I don't trust these Zionist controlled Westerners.


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 05, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:20 AM, October 05, 2017
*MAYANMAR-ROHINGYA-REFUGEE-CRISIS-*
*Stronger global solidarity needed*
*Mark Lowcock, head of UN OCHA, tells The Daily Star, says Bangladesh exceptionally generous to refugees*




Porimol Palma
The international communality's solidarity must match Bangladesh's efforts in dealing with the Rohingya refugee crisis, said the chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"We will be encouraging the donor countries to be generous in financing the response plan," said OCHA head Mark Lowcock in an interview with two newspapers at the UN office in the capital following his two-day visit to the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar.

In a meeting in Geneva tomorrow, the heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Migration Agency, and UN Refugee Agency, would formally ask member states for assistance, he said.

The UN has appealed for $434 million to scale up relief operations for the Rohingya refugees over the next six months.

Earlier in September, the UN appealed to the international community for $77m for immediate relief efforts, against which it received $44.8m until early this month.

Mark Lowcock said Bangladesh has been exceptionally generous and welcoming to the refugees, and hoped that everybody recognised the country as a role model in handling refugees despite not being rich.

They would present in the Friday's meeting the assessment of the situation in the Rohingya camps, the requirements and the measures Bangladesh has generously taken to help over 500,000 refugees.

"We will be saying that Bangladesh needs help [in handling the situation]," said the OCHA chief who is also the under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the UN.

He elaborated the situation in the Rohingya camps, the possible ways of successful Rohingya repatriation, and raised questions over Myanmar's unwillingness to engage the UN in Rohingya repatriation process as proposed by a Myanmar delegation in Dhaka on October 2.

He said the UN agencies act in consistent with the international humanitarian law and maintains the principles of humanity, independence, neutrality and impartiality.

"When countries don't want UN agencies to come, I think you have to ask serious questions why that is," Mark Lowcock said.
*SITUATION 'VERY DIFFICULT'*
Sharing his experience in the Rohingya camps, the UN official said, "The situation is very difficult."

The trauma of the Rohingyas, who fled violence, arson, shootings, killings and rape in Rakhine needs to be dealt with seriously. They need counselling and access to medical facilities, he said.

Mark Lowcock said the camps were very congested, and the major issues were road access, camp management, water, and sanitation.

"One of the things we are worried about is the danger of disease outbreak. We need to reduce the risks by improving sanitation facilities fast."

He noted of UN and other agencies' relief operations that were in progress. The relief effort at this stage was not keeping up with the requirements, he said.

Mark Lowcock also said they have incorporated in the response plan the support to the host communities and involvement of Bangladeshi institutions and civil society in the relief operations.

For a safe and dignified return of the Rohingya refugees, the situation in Rakhine must improve, he said.

"That has to start with cessation of hostility and military activities in Rakhine. Second step is allowing full access of humanitarian agencies across Rakhine," he said.

"The onus is on the authorities in Myanmar to put in place the arrangement … so that the people who fled feel that it is safe to return," he said.

The UN remains ready for humanitarian assistance in Rakhine and help Myanmar implement the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission in addressing the problems of the Rohingyas there, the UN official added.

There is widespread poverty and shortage of opportunities in Rakhine state, he said.

Mark Lowcock said when the Rohingya refugees were confident that they would not be terrorised, brutalised, killed, attacked and raped, they would go back.

Unless that situation was created, it was unlikely that the Rohingyas would return to Rakhine.

"We think that a significant number of people will come [to Bangladesh] and estimates may vary. Some say 200,000 more Rohingya may come and some others say it may be 300,000."
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...sis-stronger-global-solidarity-needed-1471702


----------



## Banglar Bir

*The Difficulty of Escaping Myanmar Alive: Rohingya Refugees’ Stories*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/10/the-difficulty-of-escaping-myanmar-alive-rohingya-refugees-stories.html



Rohi Mullah’s family stand dazed by the side of the road hours after arriving in Bangladesh in mid-September. Poppy McPherson
By Poppy McPherson, 
News Deeply
*The rapid mass exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar belies the extreme dangers – land mines, violence, drowning – on the routes out of violence-torn Rakhine state. Refugees describe their weeks-long flight to Bangladesh and fears for those still trapped.*
COX’S BAZAR, BANGLADESH – Three sacks of rice, a piece of black tarp for shelter, some firewood, a solar panel for charging cell phones and two bottles of water.

That was all Rohi Mullah, a Rohingya Muslim man in his mid-40s, and his large family carried with them during weeks of hiding in the mountains of Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state and trekking over the border into Bangladesh.

Over half a million Rohingya – members of a persecuted and stateless minority – have fled Rakhine state since late August, after a campaign of violence against the group that U.N. officials have called ethnic cleansing*.*

They endured a long and fearful journey – which Rohi Mullah said he undertook with a soldier’s bullet lodged in his foot. “They fired guns and the bullet hit me,” he recalled, pointing to his bandaged foot. The family stood dazed, by the side of the road, hours after arriving in Bangladesh in mid-September.

The refugees describe an exodus on a Biblical scale. Unknown numbers died on the way. Babies were born and died. Elderly people were carried in cotton slings. Some were maimed by land mines placed at the border, allegedly by the military.

After initially pushing back Rohingya at the border, Bangladesh has taken in at least 507,000 refugees in a few weeks. Refugees continue to take perilous routes out of Myanmar every day. Last week, at least 60 were feared drowned when their boat capsized trying to reach Bangladesh. Countless others are trapped inside Rakhine, waiting for a way out.

Many refugees recount alleged atrocities – mass rape, massacres and arson – by Myanmar soldiers and Rakhine Buddhists. The accusations cannot be independently verified as the army – which has blamed Rohingya militants for killing Buddhists and Hindus and burning homes – blocks access to the region. Human rights groups have documented the burning of a vast number of Muslim villages, while non-Muslim areas have been left largely untouched.

Rohi Mullah’s home, Koe Tan Kauk, was one of the first places to go. In the early hours of August 25, militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army stormed dozens of police posts across Northern Rakhine state.

By that afternoon, Koe Tan Tauk was in flames. “As soon as [soldiers] surrounded the village they just started firing guns and burning the houses,” said Rohi Mullah. Pictures published by Human Rights Watch show almost every structure in Koe Tan Tauk destroyed.

Rohi Mullah and his family grabbed what they could before running up into the nearby Mayu Mountain range. “It took less than 10 minutes,” he said. They stayed in the mountains for more than a week with thousands of other villagers, sheltering under a piece of tarp and slowly eating into their reserves of food and water.

While they hid, violence spread across Northern Rakhine. In the north, Rohingya in Maungdaw township were closer to Bangladesh and had an escape route in the Naf River, which runs between the two countries. In the south, many in Rathedaung township were encircled by mountains and trapped.

For Rohi Mullah, the only way out was to take a boat from the Bay of Bengal. But the military and hostile Rakhine Buddhists were waiting at the base of the mountains, blocking their access to the beach, he said.

One night, after weeks of waiting, when the soldiers closest to them were asleep, they seized an opportunity. At the coast, Bangladeshi boatmen were able to ferry them across the bay – for a fee of 2,000 taka (around $25) per person. They let the children ride for free. Women with the group were forced to hand over their jewelry.

Three days after setting off from the mountains, the family arrived on Bangladeshi shores, weak and disoriented. Like many people from Rathedaung, they knew nobody there, Rohi Mullah said.

The first night in Bangladesh, they slept in a hut a few dozen meters from the shore, with a local family who gave them shelter for the night, before preparing to walk on to a refugee camp they’d heard about.

Others barely made it over the border alive. A middle-aged Rohingya man who, in a pained whine, gave his name as Ismail, groaned as several men hoisted him into Bangladesh’s Kutapalong camp. He had flesh wounds on his legs and shoulders and a badly distended stomach.




A middle-aged Rohingya man at Bangladesh’s Kutapalong camp who gave his name as Ismail said the military took him into the jungle and tortured him. (Poppy McPherson)

“The military took me into the jungle and then every day they tortured me,” he wheezed. “Every part of my body. They tortured and tortured and tortured.”

He said soldiers scraped their boots down his legs, which were swollen and red – a sign of infection under the skin.

“It’s very painful,” he said. “Very painful. I cannot bear it… I need to stop the swelling. It’s raising from my leg to my whole body.”

It took him three days to cross the border from Buthidaung township, he said, before his companions helped him limp in the direction of a clinic run by Médecins Sans Frontières.

The U.N. says the surge of refugees has slowed in recent days. Thousands of Rohingya are still believed to be trapped in Northern Rakhine, according to activists documenting the crisis.

Some 11,000 are stuck in five isolated villages in Rathedaung where mobs of Buddhists are stopping them from leaving or traveling to buy food, Burma Human Rights Network said in a statement on Monday.

“The locals have said that when they pass Rakhine villages they are threatened and hear gunshots in the distance,” the statement said, referring to predominantly Buddhist local ethnic group. “As these villagers’ supplies are running out, they say they’ve requested to be moved but have had their request unanswered.”

As he stood in the relative safety of Bangladesh, Rohi Mullah voiced concerns for his stranded neighbors at home. “If they try to leave the village – to escape to the forest – they fire their guns,” he said.

Echoing the thoughts of many Rohingya, stateless and trapped between Bangladesh and Myanmar, neither of which wants them, Mullah now feels at the mercy of the international community.

“We will follow the rules that the outside world will make for us,” he said. “We are waiting for that plan.”
*Poppy McPherson*
*JOURNALIST BASED IN MYANMAR*
Poppy McPherson is a journalist based in Myanmar. She has spent the past five years mainly covering Southeast Asia, most recently focusing on Myanmar and Bangladesh, for the Guardian, Guardian Cities, Buzzfeed, Foreign Policy, Time and others. Follow her on Twitter: @poppymcp


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Delhi giving political colour to a human issue*
By Kuldip Nayar | Update: 08:29, Oct 05, 2017 




Communist leader Jyoti Basu ruled West Bengal for two and a half decades. He fought relentlessly against the communal forces. It is surprising how the RSS has penetrated and practically taken over the state. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is in power in the state at present but even her adherence admits that they are fighting a losing battle.

The RSS has moved into the interior of the state and its morning shakhas (branches) are being held in every park. How and why it has happened is a case study. Communism and ideology is what the Left pursued. In sharp contrast is the RSS preaching, completely archival and conservative. The rich Bengali culture is today sandwiched between the RSS and communists.

Mamata is accused of trying to appease the Muslims when she vainly banned the immersion of Durga idols beyond certain hours. The state government, according to news reports, apprehended that both immersion processions and the Muharram processions will be taken out deliberately to cross each other’s path, putting the contaminated administration to a stern test. However, the Culcutta High Court intervened to restore the status quo.

Perhaps, what prompted Mamata to order the ban was the steady string of communal riots that have been breaking out in the districts. Controversies over the routes of Muharram processions, too, had ignited the spark. In addition, the accusations by belligerent Hindu groups, comprising both Bengalis and non-Bengalis, had sprung up to resist ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ and ‘Islamic terrorists.’

All these added to the communal cauldron that was already boiling, thanks to a steady exodus of Hindus from Bangladesh in recent times.* The upper caste Hindus, who were a part of Bangladesh before the country was liberated from West Pakistan, had migrated to India and even today they maintain two houses, one in Bengal and the other in Bangladesh. Their children study in Indian schools and have even acquired identity and become citizens of India in some cases.*

However, the rising Islamic radicalism and the steady attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh have led to fresh exodus over a decade. Unable to find a living, the economically poor are mostly confined to the border districts, eking out a living through odd jobs. Understandably, the Bengalis harbour deep resentment of ‘the other’ Muslims. And these are the ones that RSS has targeted cleverly to pull on to its side.

*Against this backdrop, the Bangladeshis are going through a peculiar problem of exodus of Rohingyas, a minority Muslim community, from Myanmar. Dhaka has provided shelter to these refugees on humanitarian ground but beyond a point it cannot help much. The number of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since late August has reached 480,000, challenging efforts to care for them, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. *

"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that the number of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since late August has now topped 480,000," he said. "This brings the total number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to more than 700,000. The Rohingyas are denied citizenship under a 1982 Myanmar citizenship law. The Myanmar government recognises them as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

The exodus of Rohingyas has also posed a problem to New Delhi since some of them have infiltrated into India through the northeastern states which are sharing a long border with Myanmar. Even as the government is trying to prove to the court their association with Pakistani terrorist groups, BJP MP Varun Gandhi has advocated asylum for Rohingya Muslims who have escaped the violence in Myanmar. This is a view that is in contrast to what the government has advocated. In a recent editorial in The Navbharat Times, Varun has expressed that Rohingya refugees should not be deported but treated humanely.

No doubt, it has created a stir in political circles, particularly with minister of state for home affairs, Hansraj Ahir, saying that Varun Gandhi's view was against India’s interest. “Anyone who cares about national interest will never give such a statement," said Ahir.

The government recently told the Supreme Court that it will give evidence to the court. According to the government, some Rohingya militants are linked with Pakistan-based terrorist groups. The centre has said it will deport all 40,000 Rohingyas who are illegal immigrants. The move has been challenged in court by two Rohingya petitioners who said that their community is peace-loving and that most of them have no link to any terror activity.

New Delhi has to face the refugee problem stoically. There are Kashmiri pundits in Jammu and Bangladeshi Muslims in Kolkata and Guwahati. So is the case with Sri Lankan Tamils who have taken asylum in Tamil Nadu. Small skirmishes are already taking place and pose a serious problem. But the Rohingyas exodus has forced the government to revisit the issue of refugees, giving a political colour to a human issue.

*What is disconcerting is that the problem is slowly getting a communal colour - Hindu versus Muslim. West Bengal, which is already sitting on a volcano, has to retrieve the situation which may get out of control. In fact, the secular and democratic forces would have to join hands to fight against the onslaught of Hindutva elements.*

Sadly, one has to admit that the country is going towards a philosophy which has been fought by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Our heritage is pluralism and its essence has to be kept alive. This is not a one-party task. All like-minded and non-BJP forces have to come together to fight against the creeping communal forces.

With the Hindu extremists getting an upper hand in every sphere, it is an uphill task. But there is no option either. If we want communalism to be rolled back to restore the ethos of pluralism, the secular forces have to go to the grassroots. The communists are giving the impression as if they alone are putting up a fight. The Congress is also doing so relentlessly, however irrelevant it looks in the present scenario.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/161907/Delhi-giving-political-colour-to-a-human-issue


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Resting in peace*
by Parsa Sanjana Sajid | Published: 00:05, Oct 05,2017 | Updated: 23:52, Oct 04,2017




A red flag identifying a household with pregnant woman is visible here. The flags are put up by Gonoshasthaya Kendra medical team. September 22, Balukhali Camp 1, Ukhia. — Parsa Sanjana Sajid

IN BALUKHALI the tents had gone up in a blink. As Rohingya refugees continued to stream in from across the border in late August fleeing the murderous plunder of the Myanmar military, they took shelter where they could, on roadsides, in existing camps, sometimes even at the homes of locals who took on themselves to give refuge to a distressed population. Within days, the hills of Balukhali would become a sanctuary for a large number of newly arrived Rohingyas from Myanmar. I say sanctuary loosely because the plastic sheets held up with bamboo poles are a fire hazard, heat up in the sun, leak with rain, and a cyclone like Mora would blow them miles away. 

But without the constant threat of the Myanmar military these makeshift structures didn’t feel like death traps. As some residents explained, they were sanctuary enough, good enough for a good night’s sleep. 

Escaping death consigns new meaning to chance and luck and Nur Alam, a self-described small time businessman from Kanyin Chaung, whose father was shot to death by the military before this latest conflagration, clung to his hopes as tightly as he could. He knew what the military was capable of and as they approached Alam’s village just before Eid ul Azha, he and his remaining family members — wife, mother, his two children, sister and nephew — made for the surrounding hills. From there, a few hours into their escape, they watched the military slaughter women (the exact word he used was ‘qurbani’), children locked in a house that was then torched, their village moulavi tied, shot and when he didn’t die, hacked and then set on fire. 

By his admission, Nur Alam and his family were alive because he made a split second decision to escape once their local Rakhine chairman announced the military’s impending arrival. The chairman assured them of safety and asked not to worry but Alam knew better: ‘Those of us who didn’t trust the chairman are still alive, those who took his word at face value paid with their lives.’ Distrust of authorities and trust in their instincts gave them another day.

In Bangladesh they slept well. In his estimation, plastic tarps were a small convenience compared to a genocidal army bent on their annihilation. 

Life in Myanmar wasn’t only a series of small indignities, but a constant and unpredictable threat, a life lived as if they were ‘absconding criminals’ with a warrant. ‘If I think of what my life looked like and stood for in Myanmar, unsure of what the next moment would bring,’ Alam went on, ‘there’s no way I want to find myself back in that situation.’ 
He wasn’t sure if this was home or if there will ever be a home, but he was content with this shelter, sleeping in peace, protected from unceasing military terror in Myanmar. 

The rest could be left to luck and an unmitigated faith in supranational institutions; he referenced the UN several times and its responsibilities in feeding and housing them and schooling their children, taking care of them. Exhibiting an unflinching conviction in their good faith attempts to help the refugees, the distrust that had saved Alam’s life clearly didn’t extend to these institutions and was instead replaced with optimism. It would be unseemly to puncture or punctuate Nur Alam’s optimism with a list of these institutions’ failures and limitations.

Away from Balukhali, distant from Nur Alam’s restored faith, Sanowara spoke of a different kind of faith. Her faith in a proper burial in Bangladesh no matter how she died. She fled Myanmar more than ten years ago, with the violence and savagery forever seared in memory. 

Momtaz who also fled around the same time as Sanowara spoke of houses being set on fire by the military and local Rakhine officials, unexplained disappearances and arrests, indiscriminate pillage and looting, show trials, killings, and worst of all, no rest for the departed soul. 

Both recall charred Rohingya bodies and bludgeoned corpses in the aftermath of military operations in their village. Here on the other side of the border, there were hardships, yes, but none measured up to the ‘cruelties on the other side.’ Sanowara didn’t fear death in Bangladesh believing a ritual burial and a peaceful resting place awaited her, a sentiment echoed by Momtaz as well.

At the makeshift camps emergency medical response remains urgent, as is the need for basic services and infrastructure. But basic is still somewhere between barely enough and not nearly enough. 
At Balukhali camp number 1, the humidity was unbearable on a late September afternoon, and the sun blazed a sandy hot glow. But it hadn’t rained and that was a blessing. 

The Gonoshasthyo Kendra medical team had put up flags to identify households with expectant mothers (as they have done in all the camps they are operating in) and on that day there was news of a would-be mother in labour. Paramedics and midwives on duty gathered supplies to go deliver the baby. Excitedly some spoke of remembering to take photos of the newborn. 
A few days earlier another Rohingya baby born in Bangladesh got their five seconds of fame and made the requisite social media rounds. A spirit of generosity and public service in the throes of nationalist fervour and photo-op branding opportunities generates peculiar after-effects. A Bangladeshi journalist named that baby Joy Bangla; what would this one’s appellation be?

Just over an hour later the birth attendants returned. With them, not news of joy, but a grimmer tale. The mother had gone into labour the night before and her would-be firstborn came out stillborn — a baby girl. Nobody knew when and where to bury the child. The mother wanted to wait for the father’s return before burial preparations could begin.
_Parsa Sanjana Sajid is a writer, editor, and researcher._
http://www.newagebd.net/article/25444/resting-in-peace


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## Banglar Bir

*UK sends vital humanitarian aid for Rohingya*
BSS
Published at 02:09 PM October 05, 2017




Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive aid distributed by local organisations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017 *Reuters*
*The British government has already announced 30 million pounds of funding to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the Rohingya who have arrived in Bangladesh since 25 August*
The UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID) has sent vital humanitarian aid for Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar.

The relief supplies include 10,000 shelter kits, 10,500 sleeping mats and 20,000 blankets, said a British High Commission press release issued on Thursday.

It said distribution of these items began on Wednesday and would continue over the course of next week in collaboration with International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to help improve the lives of thousands of Rohingya, living in makeshift settlements around Kutupalong and Balukhali.

The British government has already announced 30 million pounds of funding to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the Rohingya who have arrived in Bangladesh since 25 August.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/10/05/uk-sends-vital-humanitarian-aid-rohingya/


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## Homo Sapiens

*All Rohingya to be shifted to mega refugee camp, says Bangladesh*
Thursday October 5, 2017
09:25 PM GMT+8






Rohingya refugees collect water at a refugee camp, in Palang Khali near Cox's 

Bazar,Bangladesh October 5, 2017. — Reuters picCOX’ BAZAR, Oct 5 — Bangladesh today announced it would build one of the world's biggest refugee camps to house all the 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims who have sought asylum from violence in Myanmar.
The arrival of more than half a million Rohingya Muslims from Buddhist-dominated Myanmar since August 25 has put an immense strain on camps in Bangladesh where there are growing fears of a disease epidemic.

A Bangladesh minister gave details of the mega camp as Myanmar’s army blamed Rohingya militants for setting fire to houses in troubled Rakhine state in recent days to intensify the exodus of the Muslim minority across the border.

Hard-pressed Bangladesh authorities plan to expand a refugee camp at Kutupalong near the border town of Cox's Bazar to accommodate all the Rohingya.
*

Two thousand acres (790 hectares) of land next to the existing Kutupalong camp were set aside last month for the new Rohingya arrivals. But as the number of newcomers has exceeded 500,000 — adding to 300,000 already in Bangladesh — another 1,000 acres has been set aside for the new camp.


Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, minister for disaster management and relief, said all the Rohingya would eventually be moved from 23 camps along the border and other makeshift camps around Cox's Bazar to the new zone.*

"All of those who are living in scattered places... would be brought into one place. That's why more land is needed. Slowly all of them will come," the minister told AFP, adding families were already moving to the new site known as the Kutupalong Extension.

The minister said two of the existing settlements have already been shut down.

This week Bangladesh reported 4,000-5,000 Rohingya were crossing the border daily after a brief lull in arrivals, with 10,000 more waiting at the frontier.

*'Extraordinary generosity'


The United Nations has praised Bangladesh's "extraordinary spirit of generosity" in opening up its borders.*

But UNICEF chief Anthony Lake and UN emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock said in an appeal for US$430 million to provide aid that "the needs (of the Rohingya) are growing at a faster pace than our ability to meet them".

"The human tragedy unfolding in southern Bangladesh is staggering in its scale, complexity and rapidity," they said in a statement calling the Rohingya crisis "the world's fastest developing refugee emergency".

Rohingya who have made it to Bangladesh allege the spurt in arrivals follows a new campaign of intimidation by Myanmar's army in parts of Rakhine which were still home to Muslim communities.

But the office of Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing said blazes at seven houses in a Rohingya village in Buthidaung township early yesterday were started by one "Einu", an alleged militant from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

"ARSA extremist terrorist" Einu had been "urging people to run" across the border to Bangladesh, said the statement published on the office's Facebook page.

The refugee crisis erupted after ARSA raids on Myanmar police posts on August 25 prompted a brutal military backlash.

The United Nations has said the Myanmar army campaign could be "ethnic cleansing" while military leaders have blamed the unrest on Rohingya.

While the worst of the violence appears to have abated, insecurity, food shortages and tensions with Buddhist neighbours are still driving thousands of Rohingya to make the arduous trek to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has made the journey even more difficult with a clampdown on boats running refugees across the Naf river that separates the two countries.

Authorities have destroyed at least 30 wooden fishing vessels whose captains are accused of smuggling Rohingya and illegal drugs into the country, officials said today.

The boatmen were caught in possession of about 100,000 "yaba" pills, an illegal stimulant popular in Bangladesh, said a border guard official. — AFP


Read more at http://www.themalaymailonline.com/w...ugee-camp-says-bangladesh#QL05tpDWl1LVX5bI.99


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:23 AM, October 06, 2017
*UN 'suppressed' Rakhine report*
*The document warned in May the global body was 'ill-prepared' to deal with impending Rohingya crisis, writes the Guardian*




A Rohingya woman walks with her baby on the shore of the Naf river in Teknaf after crossing the border yesterday. Photo: AFP
Star Report

The United Nations “suppressed” its own report that criticised its strategy in Myanmar and warned that the global body was ill-prepared to deal with the imminent Rohingya crisis, the Guardian reported yesterday.

The review, submitted by a consultant in May, offered a highly critical analysis of the UN's approach and said there should be “no silence on human rights”.

The report, which was commissioned by the UN itself, predicted a “serious deterioration” in the six months following its submission and called on the UN to come up with “serious contingency planning,” said the Guardian report headlined “Rohingya crisis: UN 'suppressed' report predicting its shortcomings in Myanmar”.

“It is recommended that, as a matter of urgency, UN headquarters identifies ways to improve overall coherence in the UN's system approach,” wrote Richard Horsey, an independent analyst who authored the report.

He also warned that the Myanmar security forces would be “heavy-handed and indiscriminate” in dealing with the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar.




The prediction proved true within three months, when Rohingya militants attacked dozens of security outposts on 25 August, prompting a massive military crackdown.

In the last one month, over half a million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh amid allegations of massacres by Myanmar's armed forces and Rohingya insurgents.

Ever since the refugee crisis began, the UN has been at the forefront of the response, delivering aid and making strong statements condemning the Myanmar authorities.

Worried by the scale of violence and the refugee influx, the UN secretary general in an unprecedented move penned a letter to the UN Security Council, expressing his concern.

“The international community must undertake concerted efforts to prevent any further escalation and to seek a holistic solution,” António Guterres said, a call he repeated several times since. 

The UNHCR denounced Myanmar's campaign against Rohingya, saying it was “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” while French President Emmanuel Macron went further to describe it as “genocide”. 

The UN report, titled The Role of the United Nations in Rakhine state, was commissioned by Renata Lok-Dessallien, the UN resident coordinator in Myanmar.

She held the same UN post in Bangladesh during 2007-2010.
*'DISAPPEARED OFF THE AGENDA'*
In the 28-page report, Horsey made 16 recommendations.

The UN was urged to ensure that the human rights up front initiative, a strategy introduced by former secretary general Ban Ki-moon to prevent mass atrocities, was fully implemented. Horsey said the initiative should “be at the core of how the UN operates”, adding that there should be “no silence on human rights and protection concerns”.
*
But sources within the UN and humanitarian community claimed the recommendations were ignored and the report was suppressed, according to the Guardian report.
One source told the British newspaper that the report was “spiked” and not circulated among UN and aid agencies “because Renata didn't like the analysis”.
“It was given to Renata and she didn't distribute it further because she wasn't happy with it,” said another well-placed source.
Sources in Myanmar said the report was “mentioned at meetings on two occasions” before it “disappeared off the agenda”. No one was able to access the document afterwards.*

A BBC report on September 28 also revealed how the UN leadership in Myanmar tried to stop the Rohingya rights issue being raised with the government.

Sources in Myanmar's aid community told the BBC that at high-level UN meetings in Myanmar any question of asking the Burmese authorities to respect the Rohingyas' human rights became almost impossible.
*
Renata, a Canadian, also isolated staff who tried to warn that ethnic cleansing might be on the way, according to the BBC report.*

Talking to the Guardian, Horsey, the author of the UN report, said, “The UN knew, or should have known, that the status quo in Rakhine was likely to evolve into a major crisis.”
But he added that the severity of the criticism directed at Renata Lok-Dessallien was unwarranted.

“It may be true that the resident coordinator could have done some things differently or better, [but] primary responsibility for any UN failings lies with its headquarters over the last several years.
“They did not have a coherent or well-coordinated approach to Myanmar, and especially Rakhine, and did not provide the required political support and guidance to their in-country team.”

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The UN is going to have to acknowledge their significant share of blame in letting this situation descend this far, this fast.”
*'CAN'T TAKE EVERYBODY'*
But even as human rights groups document an ethnic cleansing of Rohingya, the country's National Security Adviser Thaung Tun told a closed-door audience in New York that he did not see evidence of war crimes committed by its military, according to The Daily Beast. 

He indicated at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) that the Rohingya refugees who fled the country may not want to return to their homes anyway.

The government of Myanmar, “headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, has indicated that we know it's a problem, we're willing to resolve it, we're happy to receive back people who want to come into their homes,” Tun said on Tuesday afternoon.
But “we can't take just everybody,” Tun continued. “They must want to come back.”

On October 2, Myanmar formally proposed taking back the Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh but offered no specifics on the repatriation process or the timetable.

Tun was initially supposed to speak before an open audience at the Council. But on Monday, his hosts abruptly announced that the planned address would occur without press access.

But The Daily Beast still managed to obtain audio of Tun's talk.

Derek Mitchell of Albright Stonebridge Group, who advises American businesses on investing in Myanmar, moderated the discussion.
*'WILL TAKE ACTION'*
In his remarks, Thaung Tun suggested the most significant problem were the conditions in the Bangladeshi refugee camps that are now home to more than half a million Rohingyas fleeing the Burmese military.

“In the immediate time right now, we recognise that we need to alleviate the suffering of people in these camps,” he said. “It is not humane. We need to help them. So on our side, we have been using scarce funds to provide aid and assistance.”

After his opening remarks, Thaung Tun began fielding questions.
“We have your evidence,” Minky Worden, Human Rights Watch's director of global initiatives, said. “I'm here to actually share some of that with you.”

Over the past several weeks, the Amnesty International and the HRW have already released ample evidence showing that the Myanmar army deliberately burned Rohingya villages and shoot people at random. 

Worden then asked when human rights groups would have access to Rakhine State.
“I will be happy to see the allegations,” Thaung Tun replied.
“We will take action,” he added. “Give us the evidence, we will take action. And we are going to be very transparent.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...e-crisis-un-suppressed-rakhine-report-1472320


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## Banglar Bir

*I’m a Rohingya, am I not a human being?*
Dr. Khursheed Ahmad

I do not have a coffin to shroud my dead son, how can I wear a black flag of ISIS to terrorise your country?

With all the strength I am left with, I plead and advocate that I too am a human being. Do not ask me my creed, my colour, my religion, my caste and my decent and I do not know whether I will be able to finish this letter or not because death is after me, I can be killed any time. 

Ask me how am I able to speak with all my bones broken and bloodless heart, with fresh spectre my three month old son cut into pieces in front of my eyes. His pieces were alive and his eyes open while I feigned death lying beside him out of helplessness. My eyes saw women burned alive and I lost consciousness and when I regained my consciousness all I could see was burnt and inexplicable body parts lying all around and I later learned that those women were raped. Our mothers, sisters are being raped, maimed, killed and we can do nothing to protect them.

I write with all the strength that is left in me that I am that one who has survived among thousands fortunately or unfortunately. I can barely explain how our elders were locked inside our houses {tents they were}, and burnt and how the smell of burning human flesh that is still fresh in my nostrils feels. I carry nothing from my home while covering these distances to carry myself to a safer place. I even lost my tears and emotions in between.

And here again I am seen as an illegal immigrant, a security threat to your country. I am being seen just as a Muslim. Am I not a human being? I do not have a coffin to shroud my dead son, how can I wear a black flag of ISIS to terrorise your country? I was denied all basic human rights, from citizenship to health care. I am uneducated, I know nothing but I have heard about Article 21 of your constitution. I am brutalized human being, unclothed, empty stomach, dried up eyes; with haunting fears of death in my mind.

It is not a war in which I am being killed. It is an ethnic cleansing. I am being wiped off from the earth like an unwanted weed. If you ask me my creed, I will say I am an impure and filthy Rohingya. If you ask me my religion, well I will say I do not belong to any religion of the world. Had I been a Muslim, I would have been saved by Arab countries. Had I been a Christian I would have been taken up by the Europe. Had I been a Hindu, India would not have moved to their supreme court for our deportation. If you ask me my caste, I will say I am not a Buddhist. If you ask me my decent, I will say that the graveyards of my ancestors are in the land of Myanmar. If you ask me about my fate I would stay mute and while facing to the starless sky, holding my tearless eyes in disdain.

I do not need a citizenship from your mighty country. I do not ask you to fight against our perpetrators. We are caught in an abyss; we just need a ground on which we can patch our tethered selves and balm our wounds. We need a space where we can mourn and cry aloud for our lost ones. We just need a little space in which we can breathe without the fear of death continuously haunting us. 
We will go back to our burnt valley but we need shelter until the makers and shakers of world will wake from their sweet slumber and stop awarding noble prizes to the enemies of peace. We can survive on the disposed water and less haunting air, until the United Nations Human Rights Council decides to accept us as HUMANS. In fact we are just a creed, just a religion, just a colour, just a smell and just a name away from being human.

Every heartfelt prayer, every penny donated every mention of the word Rohingya is needed at this point of time. Otherwise you will be written a part of that power which is cleansing this dirt from the pious earth of HUMAN BEINGS.
Dr Khursheed Ahmad is working at CnC Physiotherapy sgr. The letter is written with active help of Yasir Amin (ijt)
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx


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## Banglar Bir

*Living the genocide: in the grip of trauma*
*With no psychosocial assistance, Rohingya refugees are vulnerable to life-long PTSD*
Md Shahnawaz Khan Chandan
October 06, 2017





Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo
It was around 10 pm and raining heavily. As we were returning from Teknaf, we saw hundreds of Rohingyas huddled together in their polythene shanties and under trees to get some shelter from the downpour. Under a large tree, we saw a mother feeding her baby, and not far from her lay two toddlers getting helplessly drenched in the rain. 

They were so weak and sick that they did not have the strength to move to seek shelter. We asked the mother, “Peace be upon you ma'am. Are they your children?” She replied, “No. We don't know where their parents are. They probably were killed by the [Myanmar] military. My relatives and I brought them with us as they had nowhere to go. If we had left them at their village, they would have been killed too.” 

Like those toddlers, there are thousands of Rohingya children who saw their loved ones getting killed in front of their eyes; there are many who lost their parents amidst the chaos and don't know whether they are alive or not. Without any food, water or shelter, these children traversed hundreds of miles with the refugees for the sake of their lives. 

In Kutupalong refugee camp at Ukhia, Cox's Bazar, we found an eight-year-old Rohingya boy sobbing relentlessly. We asked him why he was crying. He could not answer. When we asked again he only made a throat-slitting gesture with his fingers. Shocked by that gesture, we asked some Rohingyas what had happened to him. They told us a story that horrified us. 

When the boy's home was attacked by a Rakhine mob, he along with his mother and maternal uncle hid in a bamboo thicket, but his father was caught. Seeing her husband tortured brutally, his mother went to beg for mercy from the rioters. However, the cold-blooded killers slaughtered the boy's mother and father after torturing them for hours. Right in front of his eyes. Unable to bear the atrocities, the boy passed out, and later, he and his uncle were rescued by a column of passing refugees. 

“During the four-day journey through jungles and hills, he did not cry or utter a single word. He hardly ate any food or drank any water. After reaching the camp yesterday (September 6), he started weeping incessantly. He doesn't say anything and only makes the gesture of how his parents were killed,” says a Rohingya elderly, who along with his family members were looking after the boy at that time, as his only surviving relative, his maternal uncle, was hit by a bullet while crossing the border and taking treatment at a Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital.




Rohingya refugees have recurrent nightmares about their entire villages being destroyed by the Myanmar army in Maungdaw district. Photo: AFP
After visiting several Rohingya refugee camps at Teknaf and Cox's Bazar, we found hundreds of children who were severely traumatised and showed clear symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Starvation, unhealthy environment in the makeshift camps and diseases like diarrhoea and fever are further deteriorating their already vulnerable mental state. 

Most of these children hardly get any support from their family members who are also equally traumatised—especially Rohingya women, who were worst victims of the violence and the easy prey for the rioters and Myanmar army. Accounts of rape and sadistic sexual assaults were shared by many Rohingya refugees. An elderly Rohingya woman at Kutupalong refugee camp told the reporters, “Myanmar military used to pick Rohingya women up whenever they wished. Only the pregnant and elderly women were spared. After several days of continuous rape and torture, they sometimes left the half-dead victims in the village. Sometimes we found their dead bodies nearby.” 

Many young Rohingya girls hid their faces when they saw journalists and cameras and did not want to talk to us at all. An elderly Rohingya woman at a makeshift refugee camp in Thaengkhali says, “You will not find a single young Rohingya girl here who was not tortured by the Rakhines or the military.” Although we could not talk to them, anybody could read the expression of trauma and fear on their faces. 

Many Rohingya women saw their children die of starvation, disease and from accidents. At least 10 children died on September 29, 2017 when a boat carrying 30 Rohingya women and children capsized just yards off the coast of the Bay of Bengal due to rough seas worsened by torrential downpour and high winds. After the accident, a mother was seen holding the lifeless body of her child but nobody could make her believe that the child had already passed away. 

Many young Rohingya mothers lost their children and husbands amidst the chaos and were desperately searching for their loved ones in the densely populated refugee camps. In the camp at Thaengkhali, a Rohingya girl, hardly 18 years of age, asked us in a helpless manner, “Did you see Rafique, my son? He is of fair complexion and has a birthmark on his cheek. Could you please help me find him?” Many Rohingya mothers with newborn babies are also in a desperate state. 

After days of starvation, many of these mothers cannot breastfeed their children and thousands of Rohingya children are at high risk of dying due to disease and malnutrition. “I cannot sleep at night anymore. I haven't eaten anything for days and could not breastfeed my son today. Whenever I feel sleepy, I hear my one-year-old son crying for food in my dreams. In my nightmares, I often see the Rakhines coming to seize my son to slaughter him,” says Morijna Begum—a mother of a six-month-old baby boy—who was severely weakened by starvation and constant sleep deprivation.

For now, relief initiatives are focusing mostly on providing life-saving support, such as food and medicine. The government and donor organisations are still struggling to manage these relief items for around 500,000 refugees. Under these trying circumstances, there is little to no initiative to address the mental health conditions of the traumatised survivors. 

In fact, with an overzealous crowd of journalists, local aid workers, government and non-government officials interacting with and questioning these refugees without any heed, they are becoming more and more anxious and often breaking down into tears. 




UN doctors in Bangladesh found evidence of horrific sexual assaults on Rohingya women. Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo
It is now obvious that these refugees, especially the women and children, who have been suffering unbearable psychological turmoil for months, must be given psychosocial help, so that they can gradually cope with this tragic, disastrous situation. 

According to Professor Dr Muhammad Kamal Uddin, Department of Psychology, University of Dhaka, “With every relief initiative, we should also provide psychological first aid to every refugee. This psychological first aid is actually a counselling service which would include several components such as ensuring them of their safety and protection from further harm and support from the community and the country; giving them the opportunity to talk freely; listening to them with compassion; expressing sympathy and concern for their losses; and teaching them coping strategies. If this support is not given, there is a high chance that many of these women and children will suffer from life-long PTSD.”

Dr Kamal adds that women suffering from PTSD will not be able to take care of their children properly, which might cause malnutrition and even disability. He also argues that in the case of young children, PTSD severely affects brain development and its proper functioning. “Several studies highlight that child victims of PTSD show deviant behaviour when they grow up, including self-harm and aggressive tendencies; they are also more likely to get involved with criminal activities as adults if they are not treated early,” comments Dr Kamal. 




This Rohingya woman lost her only child when a boat full of Rohingya refugees sank off the coast of Teknaf but nobody could make her believe that her child had already passed away. Photo: Anisur Rahman
And yet, this huge number of Rohingya refugees, most of whom have had ghastly, traumatic experiences of violence and torture, are still beyond the purview of any psychological counselling services. Nishat Fatima Rahman, Assistant Professor at BRAC Institute for Educational Development (BIED) has been providing counselling training to BRAC workers who are working in Rohingya refugee camps. She says, “We train all our aid workers so that they can provide primary counselling services to the traumatised refugees. They learn the dos and don'ts of interaction with refugees. If all workers can be trained in basic counselling, they will be able to apply psychological first aid to help the refugees cope under stressful events.” 

She also stated that in every refugee camp, a specified place can be preserved for children to play with their friends. “Play therapy is a very efficient method to treat traumatised children. During playtime, they interact freely and receive counselling suggestions willingly. BRAC has already established a few play centres in and around the refugee camps. But the situation is still very chaotic and in this situation there is no doubt that the number of PTSD patients will increase every day,” states Nishat.




The boat carrying refugees broke into two pieces off the coast of Teknaf and around 60 Rohingyas lost their lives. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Beyond first aid, the refugees require therapy; however, given the severity of the disorders and the huge number of patients, this is far from realistic. Dr Kali Prasanna Das, a counsellor who provided psychological first aid to Rana Plaza survivors, thinks that group therapy can be an effective way to treat such a huge number of victims. “We have a shortage of psychiatrists and there are socio-cultural and linguistic barriers between the victims and the professionals. However, another characteristic of this crisis is that most of the victims share similar traumatic experiences and all of these victims want to survive and live. So, if we can divide the victims into several groups according to their age and gender and arrange sessions for them where they will be able to share their stories of sufferings freely, they will feel much more relieved,” says Dr Das. He also thinks that it will not be possible for a single organisation to conduct such an enormous task. He appeals to all the aid organisations to come forward to arrange group therapy sessions for the refugees.

Studies over the years have documented how survivors of the Holocaust, for instance, still show serious symptoms of PTSD even in their old age, having been deprived of any psychosocial assistance. Many of them recounted that their experiences during the Holocaust even led them to suffer serious physical and mental illnesses.

If we now fail to provide the Rohingya refugees with mental health services, there will be severe repercussions for them as individuals and as a community. As a result, national and international aid workers should also focus on giving these helpless refugees adequate mental health services so that they can cope with their current struggles and live with the hope of a better, peaceful future. 
_The writer can be contacted at shahnawaz.khan@thedailystar.net_
http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/spotlight/living-the-genocide-the-grip-trauma-1472017


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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya are enduring a hell on Earth*
‘Canada must urgently increase assistance to the many thousands of Rohingya who have already endured unimaginable suffering.’




Kyle Degraw (left, centre) at the Mainnerghona camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. (SUPPLIED PHOTO) 
By KYLE DEGRAW
Tues., Oct. 3, 2017
Words can’t describe the scene when I first enter the informal camps that have sprung up in Cox’s Bazar, along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Much like the 500,000 Rohingya who have Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state in the past month, I trudge through calf-deep mud in torrential rain through swampy, flooded streets. The stench is overwhelming, a pungent combination of feces and garbage that permeates the air. With a severe lack of latrines, it’s immediately clear that open defecation is the norm. These are the conditions in which we have to deliver life-saving aid.

There is not enough food, clean water or shelter. Thousands of Rohingya are acutely hungry, sick, and without protection from the elements as the rains pour down. Many children are visibly alone malnourished. This is hell on Earth.

And yet, the conditions are better than across the border. At least those I speak to are alive. Down the road in Myanmar, villages are visibly burning, corroborating accounts from terrified children and families sharing their stories with me. Stories of looting, burnings, shootings, machete wounds, beheadings, and rape are common. Nearly everyone I speak to has lost a spouse, a parent, or a child.

What strikes me most are the children. They are silent and suspicious. They are not children we see most commonly back in Canada – playful, hopeful, and quick to rebound. They are survivors of the worst atrocities imaginable, and their silence is their scar.

I spoke with one woman, Fatima, who tells me her house was set on fire as she witnessed two of her sons dragged to the street and shot. She jumped through a window to escape with her youngest son Mohamed, breaking her arm as they ran to the border. They walked for 13 days, carrying only the clothes on their backs. Her husband remains behind, unable to cross the border – the ones who try are shot, or blown up by landmines, she says. She asks me to tell the world her story, because Mohamed can’t. Like the others, he no longer speaks.

The suffering on both sides of the border is why we have to act, and act fast. Without urgent relief to the Rohingya, we risk not only a public health crisis in camps, but the loss of an entire generation of children to unimaginable desperation. Of the over 500,000 people who have fled across the border in the past month, 60 per cent are children, leaving up to 300,000 without shelter, food, water, or safe places to play or learn.

While my colleagues and I are working around the clock to respond to the huge needs, we can’t do this work alone. With more desperate people coming across the border daily, we are now tasked with the monumental effort of constructing and servicing the equivalent of a medium-sized city from scratch. While the Bangladeshi government must be commended for opening their borders and partnering with organizations on the ground, it is clear this must be an international effort. 

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi has called this the worst displacement crisis in the world, and recent reports indicate that more than $200 million is needed to respond. Canada’s recent $3.55-million contributions are welcome, as is the inclusion of dedicated funding to meet the needs of children.

But as desperation mounts for those living in extreme conditions, it is clear that Canada must do more. As a Canadian aid worker, I am deeply proud of our response to refugee crises, including the way Canada has stepped up to resettle Syrian refugees.

Canada now needs to step up for Rohingya as well. As a Canadian witnessing this crisis unfold in front of me, it was welcome to see the attention given to the issue by Parliamentarians of all political stripes last week in Ottawa during the emergency debate. Even more welcome was the focus on what next steps Canada can take.

In Myanmar, there are still thousands of Rohingya hiding in forests, mountains and in burnt remains of villages. Canada has rightly been calling for unhindered humanitarian access to northern Rakhine State so people like these can be reached with urgently needed aid. We also need access for the UN Fact Finding Mission so they can assess what has happened.

With the massive need confronting me daily on the Bangladesh side, one crucial next step must be acted on. If our government truly wants to be a leader in stepping up for those in need, the most impactful, immediate option is to increase humanitarian assistance. Like other donors who have significantly upped their contributions in recent weeks, Canada must urgently increase assistance to the many thousands who have already endured unimaginable suffering.

The lives and futures of children and families may depend on it.
_Kyle Degraw is a humanitarian manager with Save the Children. He is currently responding to the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh._
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/10/02/the-rohingya-are-enduring-a-hell-on-earth.html


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 PM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:37 PM, October 06, 2017
*Crackdown on Rohingyas in Myanmar could draw int'l terrorists: US*




Myanmar's military crackdown that has caused a half-million Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh could destabilize the region and invite international terrorists, the State Department says Thursday, October 5, 2017. Photo: Anisur Rahman
AP, Washington
*Myanmar's military crackdown that has caused a half-million Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh could destabilise the region and invite international terrorists, the US State Department said Thursday.*
But Patrick Murphy, a senior US official for Southeast Asia, would not say whether the Trump administration would impose targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military.

Addressing the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Murphy said security forces were to blame for a "disproportionate response" to Rohingya insurgent attacks six weeks ago. He equivocated on whether it amounted to ethnic cleansing, preferring instead to describe the situation as a "human tragedy."

That drew objections from lawmakers.
"We identify this as full-fledged ethnic cleansing," said Representative Ed Royce, the Republican committee chairman. Senior UN officials have used similar language.
READ MORE: Bangladesh to move ahead despite Rohingya influx
Murphy said that in addition to the half-million who have fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 200,000 people have been internally displaced in Myanmar's strife-hit Rakhine State. Despite government assurances that security operations halted a month ago, vigilantes are still reportedly committing arson attacks on Rohingya homes and blocking humanitarian assistance, he said.

"Burma's nascent democracy is at a turning point and a heavy-handed response invites international terrorists and challenges for other neighbors," Murphy said, referring to the alternative name for Myanmar, where long-standing sectarian tensions between majority Buddhists and the Rohingya have spiraled as the country has opened up.

He said the US has discussed the situation with other countries in Southeast Asia — where the Philippines, and Muslim-majority nations like Malaysia and Indonesia, have grappled with terrorist attacks and extremist violence.

Representative Eliot Engel, the committee's top-ranking Democrat, said the US should consider sanctions on Myanmar's military leadership and businesses that were lifted by the Obama administration to reward Myanmar's shift to democracy after five decades of direct military rule. A weak civilian government took power last year.

Murphy said the administration is "exploring all options available to us to effect change." The US already has substantial restrictions on the military and only very rarely grants US visas to members of the military and their families, he said.

He said the Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of Myanmar's armed forces, "has enormous responsibility to stop the violence" and address security threats in a "proper manner." But he added that there are other contributors to the violence, including Rohingya militants and vigilantes — a reference to Buddhist thugs who have also attacked Rohingya.

Engel said satellite imagery and witness accounts indicate that Myanmar's military and security forces "have been carrying out an intentional, systematic policy to drive Rohingya from their homes in Burma and to burn their villages to the ground."

He said hundreds of Rohingya have been treated for gunshot wounds inflicted by security forces as they fled.

While Murphy steered clear of describing that as "ethnic cleansing," he pointed to comments by US Cabinet members, such as UN ambassador Nikki Haley who last week described it as a "brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority."
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...rnational-terrorists-united-states-us-1472431


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 PM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:37 PM, October 06, 2017
*Crackdown on Rohingyas in Myanmar could draw int'l terrorists: US*




Myanmar's military crackdown that has caused a half-million Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh could destabilize the region and invite international terrorists, the State Department says Thursday, October 5, 2017. Photo: Anisur Rahman
AP, Washington
*Myanmar's military crackdown that has caused a half-million Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh could destabilise the region and invite international terrorists, the US State Department said Thursday.*
But Patrick Murphy, a senior US official for Southeast Asia, would not say whether the Trump administration would impose targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military.

Addressing the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Murphy said security forces were to blame for a "disproportionate response" to Rohingya insurgent attacks six weeks ago. He equivocated on whether it amounted to ethnic cleansing, preferring instead to describe the situation as a "human tragedy."

That drew objections from lawmakers.

"We identify this as full-fledged ethnic cleansing," said Representative Ed Royce, the Republican committee chairman. Senior UN officials have used similar language.
READ MORE: Bangladesh to move ahead despite Rohingya influx
Murphy said that in addition to the half-million who have fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 200,000 people have been internally displaced in Myanmar's strife-hit Rakhine State. Despite government assurances that security operations halted a month ago, vigilantes are still reportedly committing arson attacks on Rohingya homes and blocking humanitarian assistance, he said.




"Burma's nascent democracy is at a turning point and a heavy-handed response invites international terrorists and challenges for other neighbors," Murphy said, referring to the alternative name for Myanmar, where long-standing sectarian tensions between majority Buddhists and the Rohingya have spiraled as the country has opened up.

He said the US has discussed the situation with other countries in Southeast Asia — where the Philippines, and Muslim-majority nations like Malaysia and Indonesia, have grappled with terrorist attacks and extremist violence.

Representative Eliot Engel, the committee's top-ranking Democrat, said the US should consider sanctions on Myanmar's military leadership and businesses that were lifted by the Obama administration to reward Myanmar's shift to democracy after five decades of direct military rule. A weak civilian government took power last year.

Murphy said the administration is "exploring all options available to us to effect change." The US already has substantial restrictions on the military and only very rarely grants US visas to members of the military and their families, he said.

He said the Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of Myanmar's armed forces, "has enormous responsibility to stop the violence" and address security threats in a "proper manner." But he added that there are other contributors to the violence, including Rohingya militants and vigilantes — a reference to Buddhist thugs who have also attacked Rohingya.

Engel said satellite imagery and witness accounts indicate that Myanmar's military and security forces "have been carrying out an intentional, systematic policy to drive Rohingya from their homes in Burma and to burn their villages to the ground."

He said hundreds of Rohingya have been treated for gunshot wounds inflicted by security forces as they fled.

While Murphy steered clear of describing that as "ethnic cleansing," he pointed to comments by US Cabinet members, such as UN ambassador Nikki Haley who last week described it as a "brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority."
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...rnational-terrorists-united-states-us-1472431


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




Democracy Now!
*Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus: The persecution of the Rohingya in Burma "is a perfect example of ethnic cleansing," and it's "happening under the leadership of a Nobel Peace Prize winner." *
http://ow.ly/nKo930fw3qo


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## Indus Pakistan

Could Rohingya crisis be a* creation* of CIA/Mossad covert ops? Something similar to what they did in Syria? With the intended goal of destabilizing the region to prevent Chinese economic and infrastructure development in the region? Thoughts?

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## Banglar Bir

Kaptaan said:


> Could Rohingya crisis be a* creation* of CIA/Mossad covert ops? Something similar to what they did in Syria? With the intended goal of destabilizing the region to prevent Chinese economic and infrastructure development in the region? Thoughts?


Needs serious analytical in depth research work@MBI Munshi,any thoughts?. As, the first unplanned and literally unarmed so called attack on the Burmese Police outpost,manned by the Army troops along with the police, by ARSA,virtually a non existent,previously unknown group with bows & arrows,axes, crude handmade bombs, those failed to explode, is indeed intriguing. Moreover, the Burmese forces were informed well in advance of the impending threat, resulted in ARSA suffered numerous casualties, these novice acts, are thought provoking indeed. 
The barbaric crimes against humanity, horrific ethnic cleansing along with the genocide that followed subsequently, are perturbing, there are ample reasons to believe that these were pre planned,well ahead in time. A valid point raised here.


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## bluesky

October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:37 PM, October 06, 2017
*Crackdown on Rohingyas in Myanmar could draw int'l terrorists: US*




Myanmar's military crackdown that has caused a half-million Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh could destabilize the region and invite international terrorists, the State Department says Thursday, October 5, 2017. Photo: Anisur Rahman

AP, Washington

*Myanmar's military crackdown that has caused a half-million Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladeshcould destabilise the region and invite international terrorists, the US State Department said Thursday.*
But Patrick Murphy, a senior US official for Southeast Asia, would not say whether the Trump administration would impose targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military.

Addressing the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Murphy said security forces were to blame for a "disproportionate response" to Rohingya insurgent attacks six weeks ago. He equivocated on whether it amounted to ethnic cleansing, preferring instead to describe the situation as a "human tragedy."

That drew objections from lawmakers. "*We identify this as full-fledged ethnic cleansing*," said Representative Ed Royce, the Republican committee chairman. Senior UN officials have used similar language.

Murphy said that in addition to the half-million who have fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 200,000 people have been internally displaced in Myanmar's strife-hit Rakhine State. Despite government assurances that security operations halted a month ago, vigilantes are still reportedly committing arson attacks on Rohingya homes and blocking humanitarian assistance, he said.

"Burma's nascent democracy is at a turning point and a heavy-handed response invites international terrorists and challenges for other neighbors," Murphy said, referring to the alternative name for Myanmar, where long-standing sectarian tensions between majority Buddhists and the Rohingya have spiraled as the country has opened up.

He said the US has discussed the situation with other countries in Southeast Asia — where the Philippines, and Muslim-majority nations like Malaysia and Indonesia, have grappled with terrorist attacks and extremist violence.

Representative Eliot Engel, the committee's top-ranking Democrat, said the US should consider sanctions on Myanmar's military leadership and businesses that were lifted by the Obama administration to reward Myanmar's shift to democracy after five decades of direct military rule. A weak civilian government took power last year.

Murphy said the administration is "exploring all options available to us to effect change." The US already has substantial restrictions on the military and only very rarely grants US visas to members of the military and their families, he said.

He said the Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of Myanmar's armed forces, "has enormous responsibility to stop the violence" and address security threats in a "proper manner." But he added that there are other contributors to the violence, including Rohingya militants and vigilantes — a reference to Buddhist thugs who have also attacked Rohingya.

Engel said satellite imagery and witness accounts indicate that Myanmar's military and security forces "have been carrying out an intentional, systematic policy to drive Rohingya from their homes in Burma and to burn their villages to the ground."

He said hundreds of Rohingya have been treated for gunshot wounds inflicted by security forces as they fled.

While Murphy steered clear of describing that as "ethnic cleansing," he pointed to comments by US Cabinet members, such as UN ambassador Nikki Haley who last week described it as a "brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority."


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## Banglar Bir

*The photographs that tell the full story of the Rohingya refugee crisis*
Unidentified men carrying knives and slingshots walk past a burning village near Maungdaw in Rakhine state, on 7 September, 2017. Many Rohingya have died trying to flee the fighting, not making it to the refugee camps in Bangladesh CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Lucy Davies
5 OCTOBER 2017 •
They arrive ill and exhausted, having walked for days through jungle, rice paddies and mountains, or having braved dangerous sea and river voyages in ramshackle boats. Some of them are newborn, others in their 80s. Not everyone survives the journey. All that do are desperate.

Since 25 August, nearly 450,000 refugees have crossed from Burma (also known as Myanmar) into neighbouring Bangladesh, after long-running tensions between Rohingya Muslims and the predominantly Buddhist Burmese population erupted into violence in the remote western state of Rakhine.

By the time you read this, that already staggering figure will have increased.

The United Nations, which has described the violence driving the Rohingya from a territory they have lived in for centuries as ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’, estimates many thousands are still arriving each week.
‘Every day that I was there,’ says American photographer Greg Constantine, who has recently returned from a fortnight in the region, ‘I would look across the border into northern Rakhine and see smoke pouring into the sky. [Burmese government leader] Aung San Suu Kyi claims the clearance operations have stopped, but they haven’t. Every one of those refugees tells the same story: of mobs and the military torching their homes, killing, raping, terrorising. And the scale of it – I’ve been here more than a dozen times over the last decade, and every time I think, “It can’t get worse than this.” And it does.’

The three makeshift camps the refugees are headed for – Kutupalong, Nayapara and Balukhali – were established 25 years ago. Even before the most recent exodus they housed around 33,000 people, and many more Rohingya have settled in the wider area too. New arrivals sleep in the open until they can build shelters, which mostly consist of bamboo poles and tarpaulin.

‘It’s not even a specific place any more,’ explains Constantine. ‘You drive down the highway from Ukhiya to Teknaf, and it’s just mile upon mile upon mile of huts and people sitting on the side of the road.’




Refugees continue to stream into Bangladesh from Myanmar

Violence towards the Rohingya isn’t new – it goes back to 1784, when the Burman king Bodawpaya conquered Rakhine and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee to Bengal – but the current crisis is rooted in a belief among many Burmese that the Rohingya, who returned to Rakhine in large numbers during the British occupation of Burma between 1824 and 1948, want to turn Rakhine into a Muslim state.

Constantine, 47, who grew up in Indiana and taught himself photography in his 30s, first began documenting the Rohingya in 2006, as part of a series exploring the plight of the stateless. Nowhere People documents individuals and communities all over the world who have no official citizenship, no documentation and no rights.

Rohingya babies, for instance, are not given birth certificates. As adults, they can’t work or go to a doctor or obtain an education. They are regarded as illegal immigrants by the majority of Burma’s citizens and were excluded from the country’s most recent census (which did not allow people to register their identity as Rohingya).

‘The million-dollar question that everyone grapples with is why,’ says Constantine, who has been blacklisted by the Burmese government and banned from re-entering the country.

I would look across the border into northern Rakhine and see smoke pouring into the sky. Aung San Suu Kyi claims the clearance operations have stopped, but they haven’t
‘I’ve always believed that what is at the heart of it is a deep-rooted racism. Is there a solution? Not unless things change inside Myanmar, and not just at a political level. The international community can put all the pressure it wants on the government but change has to happen among the attitudes of the citizenry for things to even begin heading in the right direction.’

Until then, Constantine says, he will keep going back to the camps.

‘I realised, somewhere along the way over these last 10 years, that what I was doing had changed from reporting on specific events to creating a timeline of slow violence towards a community. I want to show that what is happening now is something that has a history behind it. That all of this should have been expected. That we knew.’
*The story behind the photographs*
*By photographer Greg Constantine*




CREDIT: GREG CONSTANTINE
_Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have flooded into southern Bangladesh over the past month after violence erupted in the Burmese state of Rakhine. The north-south highway between the Bangladeshi cities of Teknaf and Cox’s Bazar is a steady flow of refugees._







CREDIT: GREG CONSTANTINE
_A middle-class Bangladeshi tosses small notes of currency into the air for young Rohingya children. At certain moments I get so incredibly frustrated with human beings. This was one of those situations. I couldn’t help but photograph it. He might have had the best intentions, but what he was doing was degrading. He wasn’t approaching these people as human beings. You see it happening a lot in the camps: well-intentioned people who aren’t thinking clearly about the way they go about things._




CREDIT: GREG CONSTANTINE
_Rohingya women and children sit wherever they can find shelter along the road between Teknaf and Cox’s Bazar. They can be here for weeks before they are able to get a space on the back of a flatbed truck and move on to one of the refugee camps. The cramped journey takes about two hours, with only a tarpaulin for protection from the rain. The last time I made the journey with a group of them, it rained the whole way._




CREDIT: GREG CONSTANTINE
_These days there are stations in the camps from which humanitarian assistance can be distributed. At any time of day, you see lines of people waiting to get to rice or some other food ration. There are also a lot of intrepid well-wishers, whether Bangladeshi or foreign donors, who drive in in big trucks. It causes these surges of complete mayhem – that’s what you see here. There are maybe 2,000 people swarming around the truck here, and the people distributing the food have to keep order by beating some of them back with sticks. It’s very inhumane in that sense._




CREDIT: GREG CONSTANTINE
_There’s a huge business in bamboo in the camps – it comes in on trucks almost daily, and this is what people use to build their homes. When I first visited, very little was organised, but things are much more coordinated now. Even when the huts are in the middle of being built, so just skeletons really, people still sleep under them. They have no protection from the elements. When you see the size of the camps, you think, “How many people are actually left in Burma when there are so many people here?”_
Click on the link to view the pictures:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...hingya-refugee-crisis/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_fb_tmg


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## The Eagle

*Lack of access to Myanmar's Rakhine state 'unacceptable': UN*









Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, attends a news conference on his visit to Bangladesh for the Rohingya refugee crisis, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Oct 6, 2017. (Photo: Reuters/Denis Balibouse)




06 Oct 2017 05:11PM

GENEVA: The lack of humanitarian access granted by Myanmar's government to Rakhine state, where more than half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled violence, is "unacceptable", the UN said Friday (Oct 6).

"The access we have in northern Rakhine state is unacceptable", the head of the United Nations humanitarian office, Mark Lowcock, told reporters in Geneva.

A small UN team visited the crisis-wracked region in majority Buddhist Myanmar in recent days and described witnessing "unimaginable" suffering.

Myanmar has tightly controlled access to the state since last month when attacks by Rohingya militants prompted an army kickback that has sent 515,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.

Scores of Rohingya villages have been torched.

Lowcock said he believed a "a high level" UN team would be able to visit the area "in the next few days".


Advertisement

He repeated the UN's call for the government to allow "unhindered (and) unfettered" access.

"Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim," Lowcock added, stressing that the scale of the exodus was evidence of a severe crisis in northern Rakhine.

The UN has "substantial capacity" in Myanmar which can be quickly deployed to northern Rakhine once clearance is granted he added.

A Myanmar official tally says hundreds of people died as violence consumed remote communities, including Rohingya.

Hindus and ethnic Rakhine were also among the dead - allegedly killed by Rohingya militants.

Rights groups say the real death toll is likely to be much higher, especially among the Rohingya, while the UN has labelled army operations as "ethnic cleansing" against the Muslim group.

There may be up to 100,000 more people in northern Rakhine waiting to cross into Bangladesh, according to the International Organization for Migration.


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh set to relocate all Rohingya to mega refugee camp: Official*
Thu Oct 5, 2017 05:55PM

Bangladesh says it plans to expand a massive settlement under construction in its southernmost district to house nearly 900,000 persecuted Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar.

Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, minister for disaster management and relief, said on Thursday that the estimated 890,000 refugees would eventually be moved to the new site near the border town of Cox's Bazar.

"All of those who are living in scattered places... would be brought into one place. That's why more land is needed. Slowly all of them will come," media outlets quoted the minister as saying.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the minister said that families were already moving to the new site, known as the Kutupalong Extension.

There are currently nearly two dozen camps and other makeshift camps along the border. Two of the existing settlements have already been shut down.

Last month, two thousand acres of land next to the existing Kutupalong camp were set aside for the new Rohingya arrivals. Another 1,000 acres were later set aside for the new camp.

The number of newcomers has exceeded 500,000 -- adding to 300,000 already in Bangladesh.

The mega camp project has, however, caused concern among doctors and charities on the ground that fear a disease like cholera could spread quickly through such a congested, overpopulated site.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says the situation is "slowly spiraling into a catastrophe of biblical proportions."

According to Mark Lowcock, UN emergency relief coordinator, the world body would be seeking around $430 million to scale up the humanitarian operation for the destitute Rohingya.

In a fresh bout of violence in Myanmar, soldiers and Buddhist mobs have been attacking Rohingya Muslims and torching their villages since October 2016. The attacks have seen a sharp rise since August 25, following a number of purported armed attacks on police and military posts in the western state of Rakhine.

Many witnesses and rights groups have reported systematic attacks, including rape, murder and arson, at the hands of the army and Buddhist mobs against Rohingya Muslims, forcing them to leave their generations-old homes and flee to overcrowded and squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.

The UN has described the crackdown on Rohingya in Myanmar as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/...presstv01.htm?_m=3n.002a.2123.nz0ao0axfl.1ycp


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## bluesky

Instead of debating on codifying the present situation in Arakan, the US govt should come out with a permanent solution of the crisis.


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## mb444

BD needs to impress upon the US that the stability of one of the populous muslim states will not benefit anyone.

An immediate safezone within Burma needs to be created for the Rohingya.


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## Homo Sapiens

http://aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/turkey-to-send-54m-aid-to-help-rohingya-in-bangladesh/928754
*Turkey to send $54M aid to help Rohingya in Bangladesh*

By Yesim Sert Karaaslan

ANKARA

The Health Ministry will send aid material worth 196 million Turkish liras ($54 million) to Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims who have crossed over from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, according to a ministry source Friday.

The ministry will deliver the aid through the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

The aid will also be used for disinfection of wells, the source added.

Since Aug. 25, some 507,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

The refugees are fleeing a military 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 has raised the issue at 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.

Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

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## mb444

Bangladesh is muslim because of Khilji... Turkey is successor state to the ottomans and we are intricately linked. The golden thread of islamic fraternity between us has survived the British raj and the following decades intact. 

Erdogan is the only muslim leader who is worthy of respect in the ummah, may he continue.

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## UKBengali

BD can now see who it's true friends are.

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## idune

This is not a "coded" message, it is rather clear message directed towards specific actor in Myanmar and their principal backer China. US already aware Bangladesh current regime is puppet one and non consequential, It is Myanmar junta and their backers should read the message.


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## NoOne'sBoy

We need to have a population exchange in south asia just like balkans. all the muslims who want to live under sharia should go to muslim countries. secular muslims should stay and in return we should accept non-muslims from muslim countries. the privileged bleeding heart non-muslims should be depprted. the whole multicultural thing doesnt work with conservative people. we should have conservative religious zones and modern liberal multicultural zones


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## haidian

idune said:


> This is not a "coded" message, it is rather clear message directed towards specific actor in Myanmar and their principal backer China. US already aware Bangladesh current regime is puppet one and non consequential, It is Myanmar junta and their backers should read the message.


Why you hate China so much? Did China ask them to kill Rohingyas and Kokangs? Did China ask them to bomb Chinese town and send thousands of refugees to flee to China？ What puppet? China dosen't control any country , you are just unbelieveable


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## idune

haidian said:


> Why you hate China so much? Did China ask them to kill Rohingyas and Kokangs? Did China ask them to bomb Chinese town and send thousands of refugees to flee to China？ What puppet? China dosen't control any country , you are just unbelieveable



I have stated facts as understood by everyone in the world, despite Chinese effort to mask it. Don't blame me for stating the obvious. China is free to confront (or not) US, I have nothing to say about that - following "non intervention" theory.


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## idune

*UN slams Myanmar’s denial of access to Rakhine*
Fri Oct 6, 2017 11:01AM

*The United Nations (UN) has slammed Myanmar’s refusal to grant humanitarian access to Rakhine State as “unacceptable,” saying the flight of terror-hit Rohingya Muslims out of the region continues.*

“This flow out of Myanmar has not stopped yet, it’s into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya (who are) still in Myanmar, we want to be ready in case there is a further exodus,” said the UN’s under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Mark Lowcock, in a Friday press briefing in Geneva.

“Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim,” he said, reiterating the world body’s appeal for access to the widely-displaced population in Rakhine and saying the existing circumstances are “unacceptable.”






Rohingya Muslim refugees walk toward refugee camps after crossing the border from Myanmar on the Bangladeshi shores of the Naf River in Teknaf, on October 5, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
“The access we have in northern Rakhine State is unacceptable,” Lowcock added after a small team of UN staff visited the majority-Buddhist Myanmar in recent days and described witnessing “unimaginable” suffering.

Myanmarese authorities, led by de facto leader and Noble peace prize winner Aug San Suu Kyi, have been tightly controlling access to the state since last month when purported attacks by Rohingya militants prompted a brutal military response that has forced over 515,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.





Rohingya Muslim refugees walk toward refugee camps after crossing the border from Myanmar on the Bangladeshi shores of the Naf River in Teknaf, on October 5, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
The violence, backed by radical Buddhist monks, has left scores of Rohingya villages torched and completely destroyed.

Lowcock said that he believed “a high level” UN team would be able to visit the area “in the next few days,” without elaborating, repeating UN’s demands for Myanmar to allow “unhindered (and) unfettered” access to the state.

He further said the UN had “substantial capacity” in Myanmar, which can be swiftly deployed to northern Rakhine once clearance is granted by local authorities.

Rohingya-majority Rakhine has been emptied of half of its Muslim population over the past weeks and more people are on the move as unspeakable acts of violence continue against the Rohingya.

Many witnesses and rights groups have reported systematic attacks, including rape, murder and arson, at the hands of the army and Buddhist mobs against Rohingya Muslims.

The UN has described the government-sanctioned crackdown on Rohingya as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/10/06/537666/UN-Myanmar-Rakhine-Mark-Lowcock

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## Indus Pakistan

UN is just a American tool.


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## idune

Kaptaan said:


> UN is just a American tool.



WoW, did not know, thanks for sharing the "secret".

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## Indus Pakistan

idune said:


> WoW, did not know, thanks for sharing the "secret"


So why are you quoting a American tool [UN] which has zero credibility by a Shia mouthpiece [Press TV]? Seems to me this is all Jewish/Shia conspiracy against our ally China and intended to cause "Syria" like instability near the belly of the PRC.

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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya crisis through the eyes of a refugee*
*We asked Kamal Hossain, who runs a booth to locate lost children, to photograph the crisis from his perspective.*




Kamal Hossain started a booth to help reunite separated Rohingya families [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]
*Annette Ekin*



@evakillen
*Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh* - A recently-arrived Rohingya couple stood sobbing in the sudden afternoon downpour outside a booth on the main drag of the Kutupalong registered refugee camp. It was Wednesday, September 27, and that morning, their four-year-old son had disappeared while his mother was washing herself.

The child, who someone had dropped off at this lost and found booth for missing children, sat crying in the covered stall.

Kamal Hossain, who runs the booth that helps reunite Rohingya children with their families, didn't immediately hand the child over to the couple. He had first to ensure that they were his parents. So Kamal gently coaxed the boy to point out his mother in the crowd of onlookers.

"Tell me who is your mother? Is that your mother?" he asked, pointing at different women.

After an agonising wait for the couple, Kamal was satisfied that the boy had identified his mother with a nod of his head. The woman reached out to hold her son, crying with relief.

"Here you will find so many people and [you] cannot be sure who is good or bad," Kamal later explained. Part of his work involves cross-checking that children are being reunited with their families and not with "someone else who can sell them or abuse them".




On September 27, this couple was reunited with their son in Kutupalong registered refugee camp at a booth that helps locate missing family members [Annette Ekin/Al Jazeera]
In this thoroughfare, a dirt road congested with refugees on the move, edged with clinics and schools and a registration centre, Kamal and his simple microphone booth have become a constant presence - and a source of hope for people looking for lost family members in the ever-changing throng.

The most recent round of brutal repression by the Myanmar army - described as ethnic cleansing by the UN - has forced more than half a million ethnic Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Soon after the refugees began to arrive in the border area, Kamal found a woman crying outside his office gate in Kutupalong.

Kamal, who works as a security guard for the international aid organisation, Handicap International, learned that the woman's child had gone missing.

Kamal, himself a Rohingya refugee from Boli Bazar in Myanmar, whose family fled army violence and came to Bangladesh in the 1990s, pondered how he could help.

"I thought for the entire day, what to do, how can I find the child," recalled the wiry, soft-spoken man with a gentle smile. It had to be something that could penetrate the crowds, he concluded.

Kamal decided to hire a microphone for eight days, paying 3,000 Bangladeshi Taka (about $36) - his monthly salary - figuring that if he announced missing children's names "people can hear me and they can pass it from person to person".

Kamal helped to track down the woman's child. "So I continued it," he said. "I feel so good when one person is finding another person through [this]." The UNHCR now supports the initiative, and Kamal works at the booth full-time.
READ MORE: Who are the Rohingya?
He makes announcements about individuals whose families have reported them missing or about unaccompanied minors who have been brought to his booth.

"I announce five things: name of the village [in Myanmar], name of the child, name of mother, name of father and age of the child," said Kamal, adding that he usually includes a description of the child's clothing. He meticulously records everything in a workbook.

Kamal starts work at around 8:30am and finishes late at night. He says he makes around 40 to 50 announcements a day. He can usually be spotted inside the booth with other volunteers. Outlets for refugees to charge their mobile phones for free (charging stations usually have a fee of about 10 Bangladeshi Taka, around $0.12) were recently installed on the large wooden table the microphone sits on.

On Saturday, Kamal said that more than 1,200 people - mostly mothers - had registered missing family members, while he estimates that about 700 families have been reunited. According to Kamal, many reunited families don't report back, but those whose family members are still missing tend to return time and again to the booth asking for news.

Kamal, who has three children, the oldest a 12-year-old son, has sheltered three Rohingya girls, aged around 16, 12 and seven, in his family's home in the camp. People found the two younger girls by the road and the other in a market and brought them to the booth.

"They're not safe here as they are girls and there are so many men - anything can happen to them, that's why I took them along with me," he said.
READ MORE - 'I watched my son drown': Rohingya boat survivor
He would announce their names in his daily broadcasts; two have since been reunited with their families, one through the announcements.

In this refugee crisis, where more than half a million Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 and more continue to come, Kamal says the wealthy are able to help with money and aid. "I'm poor. I don't have this chance. I can do only this thing," he said, referring to the announcements.

Still, Kamal has made a tangible difference in many people's lives by reuniting families. As a refugee who has lived in Bangladesh for years, we wanted his unique, personal perspective on what his fellow Rohingya are enduring.

Al Jazeera provided Kamal with an instant camera and asked him to photograph what he believes people need to see. This is what he came back with:





Two days after he started the microphone announcements, Kamal said his friend found the girl pictured above and brought her to his booth.

The child, who is about seven years old, had become separated from her family two days after they arrived in Bangladesh.

Kamal sheltered her in his family home. He put her picture up on his Facebook page along with his mobile number and said the girl's uncle, who lives in Malaysia, found the post and contacted her father. On Saturday, the girl's father came to collect her.

When they were reunited "they started crying," he said. Kamal said he photographed them near the booth.




For Kamal, this is the most important picture that he took. It depicts, he said, the reality of what is happening in Myanmar and the nature of the violence being inflicted upon the Rohingya.

"[The] Myanmar army killed her husband and another child in front of her. They were four in the family. Her husband and son were killed," Kamal said, adding that the girl was stabbed and the woman was raped.

"While leaving, they burned the house down with mother and daughter inside," he said. The woman was severely burned.

"If people see this picture, they will know the real scenario here, and they will come and work for them. [They'll see] that they need support," Kamal reflected.

The mother and child in the picture are now staying with a family in the Kutupalong registered refugee camp.




This is Rohima, who Kamal said is about 16 years old and comes from a village in Maungdaw township in Myanmar.

"She was with her family. She was crossing the border and then she lost her parents and as she doesn't know anything about Bangladesh - where to go, what to do - she followed some refugees and just came here," he said.

Rohima turned up at his booth and asked him to make an announcement for her.

"I don't have any power to mic anywhere else. I can only mic here," he said. "It's almost around 20 days that this girl is at my house and I haven't found her parents."

Kamal said he announces her case every hour and wishes he could spread the news that she is looking for her parents so that she might find them.

He said she has become like a daughter and has bonded with his wife, but said it would be difficult to accommodate her indefinitely.




The man in the photograph was injured in a road accident while he was collecting aid soon after he arrived in Bangladesh, Kamal said.

Kamal is critical of those distributing aid by the side of the road.

"There are so many people from Myanmar, they came here, and they don't know anything about the country. They came here, and they encountered with accidents, so I captured this picture so that people give aid somewhere else - not just right beside the road - to our people," he said.

The man sustained a head injury from the accident and "is roaming around". Kamal said he found him in Balukhali camp and on Saturday he was in front of his booth.

"He can speak. If he says 10 sentences, maybe two are correct," he said.

This picture is important, he believes, "because the people [who] are providing aid beside the road, they need to know this, they need to go to some safer place to provide aid because people are in need of it and they will definitely go there."
*With reporting by Afrose Jahan Chaity*
Source: Al Jazeera News
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/10/rohingya-crisis-eyes-refugee-171006080133297.html


----------



## Banglar Bir

11:25 AM, October 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:34 AM, October 07, 2017
*Rohingya insurgents open to peace move*
*But Myanmar govt ceasefire ending*




Young Rohingya Muslim refugees walk under the rain at Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh's Ukhia district on October 6, 2017. Photo: FRED DUFOUR/AFP
Reuters, Yangon
*Rohingya insurgents said on Saturday they are ready to respond to any peace move by the Myanmar government but a one-month ceasefire they declared to enable the delivery of aid in violence-racked Rakhine State is about to end.*
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) did not say what action it would take after the ceasefire ends at midnight on Monday but it was “determined to stop the tyranny and oppression” waged against the Rohingya people.

“If at any stage, the Burmese government is inclined to peace, then ARSA will welcome that inclination and reciprocate,” the group said in a statement.

Government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

When the ARSA announced its one-month ceasefire from Sept. 10, a government spokesman said: “We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists.”

The rebels launched coordinated attacks on about 30 security posts and an army camp on Aug. 25 with the help of hundreds of disaffected Rohingya villagers, many wielding sticks or machetes, killing about a dozen people.

In response, the military unleashed a sweeping offensive across the north of Rakhine State, driving more than half a million Rohingya villagers into Bangladesh in what the United Nations branded a textbook example of “ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar rejects that. It says more than 500 people have been killed in the fighting, most of them “terrorists” who have been attacking civilians and torching villages.

The ability of the ARSA, which only surfaced in October last year, to mount any sort of challenge to the Myanmar army is not known but it does not appear to have been able to put up resistance to the military offensive unleashed in August.

Inevitably, there are doubts about how the insurgents can operate in areas where the military has driven out the civilian population, cutting the insurgents off from recruits, food, funds and information.

The ARSA accused the government of using murder, arson and rape as “tools of depopulation”.
*NATIVE*
The ARSA denies links to foreign Islamists.

In an interview with Reuters in March, ARSA leader Ata Ullah linked the creation of the group to communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine in 2012, when nearly 200 people were killed and 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced.

The group says it is fighting for the rights of the Rohingya, who have never been regarded as an indigenous minority in Myanmar and so have been denied citizenship under a law that links nationality to ethnicity.

The group repeated their demand that Rohingya be recognized as a “native indigenous” ethnic group, adding that all Rohingya people should be allowed “to return home safely with dignity ... to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.

The Rohingya have long faced discrimination and repression in Rakhine State where bad blood between them and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, stemming from violence by both sides, goes back generations.

The ARSA condemned the government for blocking humanitarian assistance in Rakhine and said it was willing to discuss ceasefires with international organizations so aid could be delivered.

Some 515,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh but thousands remain in Rakhine.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced scathing criticism for not doing more to stop the violence, although a military-drafted constitution gives her no power over the security forces.

Suu Kyi has condemned rights abuses and said Myanmar was ready to start a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993 by which anyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back.

Many refugees fear they will not have the paperwork they believe Myanmar will demand to allow them back.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/rohingya-insurgents-open-peace-move-1472851


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Disease fears grow as Bangladesh plans giant Rohingya refugee camp*
*Massive site is prone to floods and landslides, while overcrowding sharpens the risks of deadly diseases*




Mushfique Wadud/IRIN
Mushfique Wadud COX'S BAZAR, 4 October 2017
The temperatures soared and the sun seared as Shamsul Islam pieced together a few branches of bamboo and a tarpaulin sheet.

Days earlier, the 50-year-old father of five had fled through waterlogged hills from his home in Myanmar to reach the safety of southern Bangladesh.

More than 507,000 Rohingya refugees have pushed into Bangladesh over the last six weeks, fleeing a Myanmar military crackdown that followed a Rohingya armed group’s attacks on border posts in northern Rakhine State.

With refugees overflowing existing camps, newcomers have been forced to seek shelter wherever they can find the space. 

For Shamsul and his five children, this meant sleeping on a roadside when he arrived in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in late September.

Now, the Bangladeshi government is pushing forward with plans to build a massive camp it says will host the majority of the new Rohingya refugees. Newer arrivals like Shamsul and his family are being directed toward a 2,000-acre tract of land that stretches from one longstanding refugee camp to another — several kilometres apart.

It’s where Shamsul is setting up his new home, propped near a muddy slope and crammed beside similarly stopgap tents. 

“The humidity is high and staying in the sun is difficult,” Shamsul told IRIN as he struggled to erect his family’s new home in a muddy field.

But the priority is a roof over his children’s heads – to shield against the heat, but also the monsoon rains that have lashed the area. Building a latrine is the next step. “This is the biggest challenge now,” he said.

The challenge for the Bangladeshi government is bigger: constructing the equivalent of a small city from scratch in the middle of a humanitarian emergency.

Wrangles over coordination in the critical emergency phase can only distract from the efficacy of operations, and Bangladesh has selected the UN's migration agency, IOM, to coordinate international response, not the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. The unusual arrangement has ruffled feathers in the UN hierarchy and triggered concerns among donors, aid workers say. Bangladesh is however not a signatory to the refugee convention. Observers told IRIN the move may further weaken respect for refugee rights at a time when they are under pressure internationally.
*‘Not yet suitable for mass habitation’*
Families like Shamsul have already moved in, building homes on rain-soaked fields and slippery hillsides.

During a recent IRIN visit to the area, large parts of the camp were muddy and difficult to navigate after a heavy rainfall. Children bathed in dirty water in nearby ponds, while human faeces speckled the ground. 

Missing is the vital infrastructure to support a vulnerable and swelling refugee population: water, toilets, or even the access roads that would help build them.

This has raised concerns that overcrowding could trigger outbreaks of disease, from measles and diphtheria to dysentery and cholera, which is endemic in Bangladesh.




ISCG
A map by humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh shows the outlines of a planned new camp for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The dotted line shows the camp’s borders; areas marked red show the locations of some of the new arrivals after 25 August.

In a 28 September analysis of the public health situation in all camps in Cox’s Bazar, the World Health Organization warned that it is “very highly likely” that small clusters of cholera could emerge, while the risk of a large outbreak is “high”. 

“Newly created spontaneous sites are not yet suitable for mass habitation,” the analysis stated.

UNICEF says a sweeping cholera vaccination campaign for children will soon begin – the group says 900,000 doses of an oral vaccinewill arrive in Bangladesh by the weekend.

Aid groups say there’s not enough solid information about the extent of “acute watery diarrhoea”, which can include cholera, among new Rohingya refugees. But there is “an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases”, according to UNHCR.




*Internment fears as Myanmar plans new camps for scattered Rohingya*
“Cholera is endemic in Bangladesh and can easily spread any time hundreds of thousands of people live in close proximity without proper sanitation,” spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in a statement.
*Floods, landslides and elephants*
The government has promised to build toilets and tube wells throughout the new camp, enlisting the help of UN agencies and others to plan for 14,000 shelters and other vital infrastructure. 

On IRIN’s recent visit, several tube wells had been built in the new camp area, while soldiers laid bricks for pathways into the settlement.

But it could take two months to muster emergency shelter, water, and sanitation coverage in Cox’s Bazar’s sprawling refugee sites, according to the WHO analysis, and Rohingya continue to push into Bangladesh on a daily basis – weeks after the influx began.

And it’s unclear how much of the new camp’s 2,000 acres will ever be livable. The WHO estimates 70 percent of the land, set amid low-lying canals and sloping hills, may be unusable, which could entrench overcrowding if the majority of new refugees are clumped together on the 30 percent that is habitable.




Verena Hölzl/IRIN
Refugees walk across a flooded field to their homes in makeshift huts near Kutupalong, Bangladesh.
Local Bangladeshis say the land is prone to floods and landslides – and wild elephants.

Safayet Hossain, a fire services official in Cox’s Bazar, told IRIN that the makeshift tent cities sprouting up on hillsides could trigger landslides.

Main Uddin, a local government official who coordinates aid distributions in Ukhia sub-district, where the new camp is located, acknowledged concerns about the land, but stressed that authorities would try to make it livable.

“Our target now is to take all refugees to the new camp area so that refugees do not stay on the streets,” he said. 
*‘The fearful life’*
While there is an air of permanence to plans for the new camp – reinforced by longstanding refugee settlements that have remained in Cox’s Bazar since the 1990s – officials in Bangladesh are stressing that the site will be temporary.

They have again raised the possibility of sending Rohingya refugees to a remote, barren island. 

Officials have also said refugees would be barred from leaving the planned new camp, and suggested the settlement could be fenced in with barbed wire.
Rights groups say this would amount to creating a “locked detention camp”.

Related stories:
Killings spark fear, rumours in Rohingya refugee camps
Rohingya refugees overwhelm aid groups in Bangladesh

“It’s quite clear that it will be some time before the aid being provided to these refugees is sufficient to take care of their daily food and other basic needs,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “So these refugees need to be able to take care of themselves in some way, which they can only do if they are able to move around as needed.”

During IRIN’s visit in late September, Rohingya refugees were free to leave the new camp area, but a series of checkpoints had been set up to block refugees from leaving the sub-district.

But these are more distant concerns for recently arrived refugees. Din Mohammad, 35, told IRIN he fled Myanmar carrying his elderly father on his back in a bamboo basket. His new home is muddy, but safe.

“We should not complain. We are better now,” he said. “It is a much better life than the fearful life back in Myanmar.”
mw/il/ag
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/...m_medium=Social&utm_campaign=RohingyaMegaCamp


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Disease fears grow as Bangladesh plans giant Rohingya refugee camp*
*Massive site is prone to floods and landslides, while overcrowding sharpens the risks of deadly diseases*




Mushfique Wadud/IRIN
Mushfique Wadud COX'S BAZAR, 4 October 2017
The temperatures soared and the sun seared as Shamsul Islam pieced together a few branches of bamboo and a tarpaulin sheet.

Days earlier, the 50-year-old father of five had fled through waterlogged hills from his home in Myanmar to reach the safety of southern Bangladesh.

More than 507,000 Rohingya refugees have pushed into Bangladesh over the last six weeks, fleeing a Myanmar military crackdown that followed a Rohingya armed group’s attacks on border posts in northern Rakhine State.

With refugees overflowing existing camps, newcomers have been forced to seek shelter wherever they can find the space. 

For Shamsul and his five children, this meant sleeping on a roadside when he arrived in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in late September.

Now, the Bangladeshi government is pushing forward with plans to build a massive camp it says will host the majority of the new Rohingya refugees. Newer arrivals like Shamsul and his family are being directed toward a 2,000-acre tract of land that stretches from one longstanding refugee camp to another — several kilometres apart.

It’s where Shamsul is setting up his new home, propped near a muddy slope and crammed beside similarly stopgap tents. 

“The humidity is high and staying in the sun is difficult,” Shamsul told IRIN as he struggled to erect his family’s new home in a muddy field.

But the priority is a roof over his children’s heads – to shield against the heat, but also the monsoon rains that have lashed the area. Building a latrine is the next step. “This is the biggest challenge now,” he said.

The challenge for the Bangladeshi government is bigger: constructing the equivalent of a small city from scratch in the middle of a humanitarian emergency.

Wrangles over coordination in the critical emergency phase can only distract from the efficacy of operations, and Bangladesh has selected the UN's migration agency, IOM, to coordinate international response, not the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. The unusual arrangement has ruffled feathers in the UN hierarchy and triggered concerns among donors, aid workers say. Bangladesh is however not a signatory to the refugee convention. Observers told IRIN the move may further weaken respect for refugee rights at a time when they are under pressure internationally.
*‘Not yet suitable for mass habitation’*
Families like Shamsul have already moved in, building homes on rain-soaked fields and slippery hillsides.

During a recent IRIN visit to the area, large parts of the camp were muddy and difficult to navigate after a heavy rainfall. Children bathed in dirty water in nearby ponds, while human faeces speckled the ground. 

Missing is the vital infrastructure to support a vulnerable and swelling refugee population: water, toilets, or even the access roads that would help build them.

This has raised concerns that overcrowding could trigger outbreaks of disease, from measles and diphtheria to dysentery and cholera, which is endemic in Bangladesh.




ISCG
A map by humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh shows the outlines of a planned new camp for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The dotted line shows the camp’s borders; areas marked red show the locations of some of the new arrivals after 25 August.

In a 28 September analysis of the public health situation in all camps in Cox’s Bazar, the World Health Organization warned that it is “very highly likely” that small clusters of cholera could emerge, while the risk of a large outbreak is “high”. 

“Newly created spontaneous sites are not yet suitable for mass habitation,” the analysis stated.

UNICEF says a sweeping cholera vaccination campaign for children will soon begin – the group says 900,000 doses of an oral vaccinewill arrive in Bangladesh by the weekend.

Aid groups say there’s not enough solid information about the extent of “acute watery diarrhoea”, which can include cholera, among new Rohingya refugees. But there is “an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases”, according to UNHCR.




*Internment fears as Myanmar plans new camps for scattered Rohingya*
“Cholera is endemic in Bangladesh and can easily spread any time hundreds of thousands of people live in close proximity without proper sanitation,” spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in a statement.
*Floods, landslides and elephants*
The government has promised to build toilets and tube wells throughout the new camp, enlisting the help of UN agencies and others to plan for 14,000 shelters and other vital infrastructure. 

On IRIN’s recent visit, several tube wells had been built in the new camp area, while soldiers laid bricks for pathways into the settlement.

But it could take two months to muster emergency shelter, water, and sanitation coverage in Cox’s Bazar’s sprawling refugee sites, according to the WHO analysis, and Rohingya continue to push into Bangladesh on a daily basis – weeks after the influx began.

And it’s unclear how much of the new camp’s 2,000 acres will ever be livable. The WHO estimates 70 percent of the land, set amid low-lying canals and sloping hills, may be unusable, which could entrench overcrowding if the majority of new refugees are clumped together on the 30 percent that is habitable.




Verena Hölzl/IRIN
Refugees walk across a flooded field to their homes in makeshift huts near Kutupalong, Bangladesh.
Local Bangladeshis say the land is prone to floods and landslides – and wild elephants.

Safayet Hossain, a fire services official in Cox’s Bazar, told IRIN that the makeshift tent cities sprouting up on hillsides could trigger landslides.

Main Uddin, a local government official who coordinates aid distributions in Ukhia sub-district, where the new camp is located, acknowledged concerns about the land, but stressed that authorities would try to make it livable.

“Our target now is to take all refugees to the new camp area so that refugees do not stay on the streets,” he said. 
*‘The fearful life’*
While there is an air of permanence to plans for the new camp – reinforced by longstanding refugee settlements that have remained in Cox’s Bazar since the 1990s – officials in Bangladesh are stressing that the site will be temporary.

They have again raised the possibility of sending Rohingya refugees to a remote, barren island. 

Officials have also said refugees would be barred from leaving the planned new camp, and suggested the settlement could be fenced in with barbed wire.
Rights groups say this would amount to creating a “locked detention camp”.

Related stories:
Killings spark fear, rumours in Rohingya refugee camps
Rohingya refugees overwhelm aid groups in Bangladesh

“It’s quite clear that it will be some time before the aid being provided to these refugees is sufficient to take care of their daily food and other basic needs,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. “So these refugees need to be able to take care of themselves in some way, which they can only do if they are able to move around as needed.”

During IRIN’s visit in late September, Rohingya refugees were free to leave the new camp area, but a series of checkpoints had been set up to block refugees from leaving the sub-district.

But these are more distant concerns for recently arrived refugees. Din Mohammad, 35, told IRIN he fled Myanmar carrying his elderly father on his back in a bamboo basket. His new home is muddy, but safe.

“We should not complain. We are better now,” he said. “It is a much better life than the fearful life back in Myanmar.”
mw/il/ag
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/...m_medium=Social&utm_campaign=RohingyaMegaCamp


----------



## Banglar Bir

07:52 PM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 08:00 PM, October 06, 2017
*Dhaka warns S Asia of refugee consequence*
Star Online Report
*Bangladesh today said the presence of nearly one million Rohingya refugees, who escaped ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, in its territory has the potential to destabilise South Asia and favoured implementation of the Kofi Annan report in its entirety to solve the crisis.*
Addressing a media conference after wrapping up his two-day visit to India, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque, who met his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, said, while the presence of so many Rohingyas in Bangladesh *was a “huge burden” on the country’s small economy but also posed a security threat.
“It has the potential to destabilise not only Bangladesh but also the entire region. It has ingredients to become a security threat,” he asserted.*

Asked if Bangladesh shared India’s concern over the possibility of Rohingyas turning into a security threat, Haque said: “We also believe that the Rohingya issue has the potential to destabilise the region. We are speaking in the same language on this.” 

To a question as to how supportive India has been to Bangladesh on the Rohingya issue, Bangladesh’s top diplomat said “the people of Bangladesh are very appreciative of India’s role in coping with the situation arising out the influx of so many Rohingyas. In terms of sending relief materials, India tops the list. The people of Bangladesh and its government are happy about India’s role”.

He said India has always stood by Bangladesh on Rohingya issue “and I have no doubt about India’s support to Bangladesh to help stabilise the situation in Bangladesh arising out of the refugee crisis.”

Haque said ever since the present phase of Rohingya crisis erupted, he had met the Indian foreign secretary in Colombo and New York before the meeting in New Delhi.

“The impression I got is that India will always stand by Bangladesh especially in times of difficulty,” he remarked.

Asked about India’s decision to deport an estimated 40,000 Rohingyas, Haque said “I will not comment on India’s decision. But we hope consideration will be given to the human rights aspect of it.”

Haque said Bangladesh has already about 4.5 lakh Rohingyas since 1978-79 and added to it is another over five lakh who have poured in since August this year.

Replying to a question, Haque said there was no timeframe for Myanmar to get back with a response to Bangladesh’s proposal on repatriation of Rohingya refugees made during the visit of the minister in the State Counsellor’s office to Dhaka a few days ago but both sides are in the processing of firming up the composition of the joint working group to be set up for the purpose.

“No, there is no timeframe for Myanmar’s response but we want it as early as possible,” he added.

Asked to elaborate on Bangladesh’s proposal made to Myanmar last week for repatriation of Rohingyas, the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary said, “This is a part of the negotiations. So, I will not disclose the details. But we have proposed the involvement of international bodies in the repatriation process because the number of refugees is huge.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...tation-kofi-annan-report-solve-crisis-1472509


----------



## Banglar Bir

October 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:57 PM, October 07, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: India, EU ask Myanmar to work with Bangladesh*




Rohingya refugees walk along the Balukhali refugee camp after the rain in Cox's Bazar, October 6, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Star Online Report
*India and the European Union have asked Myanmar to implement the Kofi Annan Commission report over Rohingya issue and work with Bangladesh to enable them to return to the Rakhine province.*
A joint statement issued after talks in New Delhi yesterday among Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker did not mention the word ‘Rohingya’.

It said, “Both sides took note that this violence was triggered off by a series of attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militants which led to loss of lives amongst the security forces as well as the civilian population.”

India and the EU stressed the need for ending the violence and restoring normalcy in the Rakhine state without any delay.

They urged the Myanmar authorities to implement the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Advisory Commission’s recommendations and work with Bangladesh to enable the return of the displaced persons from all communities to northern Rakhine state."

The joint statement said India and the EU also recognised the role being played by Bangladesh in extending humanitarian assistance to the people in need.

The call by India and the EU to Myanmar to implement the Kofi Annan Commission report came on a day when Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said Dhaka wants the report to be implemented in its entirety and without any pre-condition.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...-india-eu-ask-myanmar-work-bangladesh-1472866


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:50 PM, October 06, 2017
*Dealing with a Chameleon*





Photo: AFP
Shah Husain Imam
The traditions of Myanmar's hermitage, of which the Burmese military remains a purveyor, sometimes come to the fore in awkward ways. 

One story exemplifies this. Shwe Eain Si (19), the Miss Grand Myanmar, lost her title because of commenting on the Rohingya issue in Rakhine State and posting it on Facebook. What she said, however, resonated with a prevailing view on the subject: “The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is responsible for the violence in the State.” As if that was not flattering enough to the regime, she went on to add, “ARSA by recourse to a deception was trying to draw the sympathy of the international community.” It went viral, clearly not to the liking of the organisers who balked at her reference to “violence in the state” presumably ruffling the feathers of the military. 

The nervous organisers preferred to err on the side of caution saying, “Since Shwe Eain didn't behave like a role model, she has to forgo the title, trophy and the award money.”

Even Suu Kyi as the de facto leader of the government, knowing how her country is riven by inherent ethnic divisiveness, shared with a Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Mark Field, the positive stories outside Rakhine State where “Flowers of democracy have begun to bloom in Burma”. If that indeed is the case, why must Rakhine be a cauldron of hell for a single ethnic minority? 

The Myanmar government insists on verification of more than half a million Rohingyas, mostly Muslim refugees, to be entitled to repatriation to their ancestral home on the other side of the border. Yet, what illustrates the basic irony is that despite repeated requests by the international community, it was denied access for well over a month to the troubled state to verify allegations of mass murder and arson against the authorities. The incidence and traces of barbaric cruelty were corroborated by satellite images. 

Nonetheless, the shutting out of the true picture on the ground and blocking aid to the victims have been the biggest obstacles in preventing a humanitarian disaster from snowballing as it has.

Finally, last Monday, coinciding with the ministerial level meeting between both sides in Dhaka, 20 diplomats from the west with one from Indonesia were given a conducted tour of the ravaged villages. They were appalled at the sight of the burned, scrawny habitats. 

Hawks in the military like to air the view that in accordance with an old Burmese law/custom, burned lands belong to the state. One wonders what the refugees might return to! 

The sequel to the meeting between the Myanmar Union Minister U Kyaw Tint Swe and the Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in Dhaka last Monday and the press statement of Myanmar's State Counsellor's Office has been marked by cautious optimism in Dhaka. Both sides have agreed to have the Rohingya refugees return to Myanmar and to this end, form a joint working group to start the process of repatriation. Yet, the two countries differ on the question of involving the UNHCR in the process entailing verification, voluntary return, resettlement of the refugees in Rakhine with full dignity, restored livelihoods and security.

Bangladesh wants to associate the appropriate UN agency with the multi-faceted task but the Myanmar government is against any UN involvement. The State Counsellor's Office alluded to the MoU of April 28, 1992 which was fully bilateral without any involvement of UN bodies. This deviates from Aung San Suu Kyi's September 19 speech which had clearly mentioned that the refugees would return in line with the 1993 Rohingya Repatriation Agreement between Myanmar, Bangladesh and the UNHCR.

Given Myanmar's track record on repatriation and the undoing of it, we can be bilateral as far as the formation of a joint task force goes but not anything beyond that. In terms of the verification of refugees made complicated by lack of papers and their sequential return to their ancestral homes, UN involvement is not just desirable but also essential. 
This should form part of the TOR (terms of reference) of the basic agreement itself. 
Even Kofi Annan's thrust on restoration of citizenship right to the Rohingyas should evoke a positive response to guarantee a sustainable solution to the retrograde problem of religious ethnicity. 

It cannot be lost on Myanmar that it was only when international pressure had stacked heavily against it that she took the initiative to engage Bangladesh. There is no going back on her part now. Those collective concerns and pressures on Myanmar to abide by the rule of law do not only remain but are likely to be bolstered by each incident of Myanmar's betrayal.

The voices that remained to be galvanised are repositioning themselves behind the cause. India at the UN Human Rights Council had wanted the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees and urged Myanmar to give citizenship in the Rakhine state for a sustainable solution to the crisis. Can China and Russia have a quarrel with that kind of a rational approach?

The terrorist card cannot be overplayed in Myanmar at the expense of tackling spill-overs into the wider region. That realisation is dawning.
_Shah Husain Imam is a commentator on current affairs and former Associate Editor, The Daily Star. 
Email: shahhusainimam@gmail.com _
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...ngya-refugee-crisis-dealing-chameleon-1472071


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:50 PM, October 06, 2017
*Dealing with a Chameleon*




Photo: AFP
Shah Husain Imam
The traditions of Myanmar's hermitage, of which the Burmese military remains a purveyor, sometimes come to the fore in awkward ways. 

One story exemplifies this. Shwe Eain Si (19), the Miss Grand Myanmar, lost her title because of commenting on the Rohingya issue in Rakhine State and posting it on Facebook. What she said, however, resonated with a prevailing view on the subject: “The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is responsible for the violence in the State.” As if that was not flattering enough to the regime, she went on to add, “ARSA by recourse to a deception was trying to draw the sympathy of the international community.” It went viral, clearly not to the liking of the organisers who balked at her reference to “violence in the state” presumably ruffling the feathers of the military. 

The nervous organisers preferred to err on the side of caution saying, “Since Shwe Eain didn't behave like a role model, she has to forgo the title, trophy and the award money.”

Even Suu Kyi as the de facto leader of the government, knowing how her country is riven by inherent ethnic divisiveness, shared with a Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Mark Field, the positive stories outside Rakhine State where “Flowers of democracy have begun to bloom in Burma”. If that indeed is the case, why must Rakhine be a cauldron of hell for a single ethnic minority? 

The Myanmar government insists on verification of more than half a million Rohingyas, mostly Muslim refugees, to be entitled to repatriation to their ancestral home on the other side of the border. Yet, what illustrates the basic irony is that despite repeated requests by the international community, it was denied access for well over a month to the troubled state to verify allegations of mass murder and arson against the authorities. The incidence and traces of barbaric cruelty were corroborated by satellite images. 

Nonetheless, the shutting out of the true picture on the ground and blocking aid to the victims have been the biggest obstacles in preventing a humanitarian disaster from snowballing as it has.

Finally, last Monday, coinciding with the ministerial level meeting between both sides in Dhaka, 20 diplomats from the west with one from Indonesia were given a conducted tour of the ravaged villages. They were appalled at the sight of the burned, scrawny habitats. 

Hawks in the military like to air the view that in accordance with an old Burmese law/custom, burned lands belong to the state. One wonders what the refugees might return to! 

The sequel to the meeting between the Myanmar Union Minister U Kyaw Tint Swe and the Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in Dhaka last Monday and the press statement of Myanmar's State Counsellor's Office has been marked by cautious optimism in Dhaka. Both sides have agreed to have the Rohingya refugees return to Myanmar and to this end, form a joint working group to start the process of repatriation. Yet, the two countries differ on the question of involving the UNHCR in the process entailing verification, voluntary return, resettlement of the refugees in Rakhine with full dignity, restored livelihoods and security.

Bangladesh wants to associate the appropriate UN agency with the multi-faceted task but the Myanmar government is against any UN involvement. The State Counsellor's Office alluded to the MoU of April 28, 1992 which was fully bilateral without any involvement of UN bodies. This deviates from Aung San Suu Kyi's September 19 speech which had clearly mentioned that the refugees would return in line with the 1993 Rohingya Repatriation Agreement between Myanmar, Bangladesh and the UNHCR.

Given Myanmar's track record on repatriation and the undoing of it, we can be bilateral as far as the formation of a joint task force goes but not anything beyond that. In terms of the verification of refugees made complicated by lack of papers and their sequential return to their ancestral homes, UN involvement is not just desirable but also essential. 
This should form part of the TOR (terms of reference) of the basic agreement itself. 
Even Kofi Annan's thrust on restoration of citizenship right to the Rohingyas should evoke a positive response to guarantee a sustainable solution to the retrograde problem of religious ethnicity. 

It cannot be lost on Myanmar that it was only when international pressure had stacked heavily against it that she took the initiative to engage Bangladesh. There is no going back on her part now. Those collective concerns and pressures on Myanmar to abide by the rule of law do not only remain but are likely to be bolstered by each incident of Myanmar's betrayal.

The voices that remained to be galvanised are repositioning themselves behind the cause. India at the UN Human Rights Council had wanted the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees and urged Myanmar to give citizenship in the Rakhine state for a sustainable solution to the crisis. Can China and Russia have a quarrel with that kind of a rational approach?

The terrorist card cannot be overplayed in Myanmar at the expense of tackling spill-overs into the wider region. That realisation is dawning.
_Shah Husain Imam is a commentator on current affairs and former Associate Editor, The Daily Star. 
Email: shahhusainimam@gmail.com _
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...ngya-refugee-crisis-dealing-chameleon-1472071


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## Banglar Bir

*UN, diplomats find unimaginable suffering in Rakhine on visit*
Agence France-Presse
Published at 06:54 PM October 03, 2017




Diplomats prepare to board a military helicopter at Sittwe Airport in Sittwe, Rakhine State on Monday EPA
*International aid groups fear tens of thousands of Rohingya who remain in northern parts of Rakhine are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter after over a month of military operations*
The scale of the suffering inside Myanmar’s Rakhine state is “unimaginable”, the United Nations said Monday, after three of its members joined a belated government-steered visit for aid agencies and diplomats to the conflict-battered region.

Myanmar has tightly controlled access to the state since last month when attacks by Rohingya militants prompted an army kickback that sent 507,000 of the Muslim minority fleeing to Bangladesh.

Scores of Rohingya villages have been torched.

A Myanmar official tally says hundreds of people died as violence consumed remote communities, including Rohingya.

Hindus and ethnic Rakhine were also among the dead – allegedly killed by Rohingya militants.

Rights groups say the real death toll is likely to be much higher, especially among the Rohingya, while the UN has labelled army operations as “ethnic cleansing” against the Muslim group.

Many inside Myanmar have accused the UN of having a pro-Rohingya bias, as hostility towards INGOs sky rockets, further limiting access.

Monday’s visit marks a thaw in the relationship, with the UN welcoming the trip as a “positive step” while reiterating “the need for greater humanitarian access”.

“The scale of the human suffering is unimaginable and the UN sends its deepest condolences to all those affected,” it said, calling for an end to the “cycle of violence”.

It also urged a “safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of refugees to their area of origin”.

Diplomats and other INGOs accompanied them on the trip, which was delayed from last week. But the limitations of the one-day visit were not immediately clear.

The EU delegation to Myanmar also joined the whistle-stop trip, which took in Maungdaw and Rathedaung areas, explaining in a statement “this was not an investigation mission and could not be in the circumstances”.

“We saw villages that had been burned to the ground and emptied of inhabitants. The violence must stop,” it said, calling for unimpeded humanitarian and media access.

International aid groups fear tens of thousands of Rohingya who remain in northern parts of Rakhine are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter after over a month of military operations.

In a sign of ongoing tensions and mistrust, a few thousand Rohingya have massed on a beach awaiting boats to Bangladesh after receiving death threats.

Myanmar had around 1.1 million Rohingya before August 25 attacks by militants from the minority group sparked a massive security crackdown.

The number has halved since then.

Rakhine has long been a cauldron of ethnic and religious tensions, but the last five years has seen communal relations plunge to their worst yet.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ts-find-unimaginable-suffering-rakhine-visit/


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## UKBengali

Kaptaan said:


> I don't trust these Zionist controlled Westerners.



All those thousands of refugees in BD are also lying?
They have of course fled for no reason.


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## Kedardel

Ok, This is the action that lead to running away of Rohingyas....

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## Indus Pakistan

UKBengali said:


> They have of course fled for no reason.


I fled Pakistan. You fled Bangla. Reason? Maybe they fled to get jobs or better economic opportunities in Bangla garment industry. Don't buy into Western Zionist propaganda. They are concerned about Chinese influence and this is their way to stop PRC building OBOR routes.


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## UKBengali

Kaptaan said:


> So why are you quoting a American tool [UN] which has zero credibility by a Shia mouthpiece [Press TV]? Seems to me this is all Jewish/Shia conspiracy against our ally China and intended to cause "Syria" like instability near the belly of the PRC.




Wish I had your level of insight!
So Myanmar has not terrorized 500,000
Rohingyas into BD then? This is all made up?
Myanmar needs to join the civilised world or else it will not last long.

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## Banglar Bir

*London Muslims*
This is very painful to read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/desperate-rohingya-muslims-fi…/
It's for this reason that our team will be flying out to the Burma borders in less than 2 weeks to help as many Rohingya as possible. 




Desperate Rohingya Muslims filmed swimming through river in attempts to flee Burma
More Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Burma streamed toward the border on Thursday and Friday, despite government assurances that it was stopping the…
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK


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## UKBengali

Kaptaan said:


> I fled Pakistan. You fled Bangla. Reason? Don't buy into Western Zionist propaganda. They are concerned about Chinese influence and this is their way to stop PRC building OBOR routes.



I have no idea what you are talking about.
Fact is half a million Rohingya have fled into
BD with accusations of mass murder and rape.
If Myanmar has nothing to hide, then why not allow the world media in?

PS - you are on my ignore list now as you are worse than Hindu turds.

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## Indus Pakistan

UKBengali said:


> Wish I had your level of insight!


It will remain a wish.



UKBengali said:


> Rohingyas into BD then? This is all made up?


Fled for same reason as me and you. Economics. Please don't buy into Western Zionist propaganda that wants to subvert OBOR and China. The Zionists are trying to make another "Syria" here.


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## Banglar Bir

05:26 PM, October 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:37 PM, October 06, 2017
*UN braces for further exodus*




A Rohingya woman with her baby walks on the shore of the Naf river in Teknaf after crossing the border on Thursday, October 5, 2017. Photo: AFP
Reuters, Geneva/Yangon
*Muslim Rohingya are still fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh and the United Nations is bracing for a possible "further exodus", the UN humanitarian aid chief said today.*
Some 515,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine in six weeks since the end of August, in what the United Nations has called the world's fastest-developing refugee emergency.

The refugee crisis began after Myanmar security forces responded to Rohingya militant attacks on August 25 by unleashing a brutal crackdown that the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar insists its forces must fight the "terrorists" who have killed civilians and burnt villages, and it rejects any suggestion of ethnic cleansing.

But rights groups say more than half of more than 400 Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine State have been torched in a campaign by the security forces and Buddhist vigilantes to drive out Muslims.

Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, reiterated an appeal for access to the population in northern Rakhine, saying the situation was "unacceptable".

Myanmar has blocked most access to the area, although some agencies have offices open in towns there and the International Committee of the Red Cross is helping the Myanmar Red Cross to deliver aid.

"This flow out of Myanmar has not stopped yet, it's into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya (who are) still in Myanmar, we want to be ready in case there is a further exodus," Lowcock told a news briefing in Geneva.

"Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim."

An estimated 2,000 Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh every day, Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told a separate briefing.

Myanmar officials have said they attempted to reassure groups trying to flee to Bangladesh but could not stop people who were not citizens from leaving.

The official Myanmar News Agency said "large numbers" of Muslims were preparing to cross the border. It cited their reasons as "livelihood difficulties", health problems and a "belief" of insecurity.

Aid agencies have warned of a malnutrition crisis with about 281,000 people in Bangladesh in urgent need of food, including 145,000 children under five and more than 50,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.
*RISK*
Cholera is a risk, amid fears of disease spreading in the rain-drenched camps where aid workers are trying to install sanitation systems, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation said.

About 900,000 doses of cholera vaccines are due to arrive this weekend and a vaccination campaign should start on Tuesday.

UN-led aid bodies have appealed for $434 million over six months to help up to 1.2 million people - including 300,000 Rohingya already in Bangladesh before the latest crisis and 300,000 Bangladeshi villagers in so-called host communities.

The Rohingya are regarded as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and most are stateless.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced criticism for not doing more to stop the violence, although a military-drafted constitution gives her no power over the security forces.

She has condemned rights abuses and said Myanmar was ready to start a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993 by which anyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back, but there is little hope for speedy repatriation.

Both the United States and Britain have warned Myanmar the crisis is putting at risk the progress it has made since the military began to loosen its grip on power.

China, which built close ties with Myanmar while it was under military rule and Western sanctions, has been supportive.

In Washington, US officials said sanctions and the withholding of aid were among the options available to press Myanmar to halt the violence but they had to be careful to avoid worsening the crisis.

"We don't want to take actions that exacerbate their suffering. There is that risk in this complicated environment," Patrick Murphy, a deputy assistant secretary of state, told a hearing of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
Murphy said efforts were underway to identify those responsible for rights violations.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...exodus-refugees-rakhine-state-myanmar-1472476


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## Banglar Bir

Kaptaan said:


> It will remain a wish.
> Fled for same reason as me and you. Economics. Please don't buy into Western Zionist propaganda that wants to subvert OBOR and China. The Zionists are trying to make another "Syria" here.


Why don't you blame the Mossad-RAW- 969 Buddhists trio instead, for unleashing the acts of Genocide,Ethnic cleansing,Crime against humanity and falsely accusing Iran,the UN instead?

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## BDforever

New Delhi, Oct 6 India and the European Union today expressed "deep concern" over the Rohingya refugee crisis during their 14th summit with the two sides urging Myanmar to work with Bangladesh for their return.

After the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tusk, the two sides underscored the need for early return of the displaced people of all communities to northern Rakhine state in Myanmar.

Addressing a joint press event, Tusk said the two sides wanted de-escalation of tensions and full adherence to international obligations in Myanmar and access of people to humanitarian aid.

"The Rohingya people must be able to return voluntarily with safety and dignity. We call for implementation of recommendations of the (Kofi Annan-led) International Rakhine Advisory Commission to tackle the root cause of this crisis. As a neighbour India stands first in the line to respond," Tusk said.

Responding to a PIL last month, the NDA government had told the Supreme Court that Rohingya Muslims are "illegal" immigrants in the country and their continued stay had "serious national security ramifications".

Millions of Rohingya Muslims have fled the conflict-hit Rakhine state to Bangladesh and India after the escalation of tensions following a military crackdown.

The joint statement said both sides took note that the violence was triggered by a series of attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militants which led to loss of lives amongst the security forces as well as the civilian population.

"India and the EU expressed deep concern at the recent spate of violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar that has resulted in the outflow of a large number of people from the state, many of whom have sought shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh," the joint statement said.

When asked at a media briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs, about the comments made by Tusk on the issue, Ruchi Ghanshyam, Secretary (West) said, "The EU has talked about their expectations and the agreed position is in the joint statement."

The joint statement said India and the EU also recognised the role being played by Bangladesh in extending humanitarian assistance to the people in need.

source:https://www.outlookindia.com/newssc...-concern-over-rohingya-refugee-crisis/1162289

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## Indus Pakistan

Banglar Bir said:


> Why don't you blame the Mossad-RAW


I do. Mossad are involved in causing religious war so that WOT can be continued in East Asia. Only Jew aplogists will ignore this fact. Are you a Jew apologist Bangla Bir, are you?


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## Banglar Bir

Kaptaan said:


> I do. Mossad are involved in causing religious war so that WOT can be continued in East Asia. Only Jew aplogists will ignore this fact. Are you a Jew apologist Bangla Bir, are you?


Jews,Christians & Muslims,are followers of the 4 Holy books/scripts sent by the Almighty,as such,yes I personally have nothing against them.We muslin men are also allowed to get married to the females of these 2 faiths. . You are probably getting confused between the differences of Jews and Zionists.
kindly study a little more on "969" movement also,I hope these facts will clear all of your doubts once and for all. For your kind information,Bangladesh on the other hand is a strong advocate of the BRI/OBAR Incincitive.


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Muslim crisis: 145,000 children fleeing Burma face malnutrition*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/10/rohingya-muslim-crisis-145000-children-fleeing-burma-face-malnutrition.html




Rohingya children wait for food handouts at Thangkhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, 5 October 2017. AP Photo/Zakir Hossain Chowdhury
By Mythili Sampath kumar, Independent 
*Over 500,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled to Bangladesh in the last six weeks *
Of the half a million Rohingya refugees that have poured into Bangladesh, approximately 145,000 are children under the age of five at risk of malnutrition.

According to the Disasters Emergency Committee charity, at least 14,000 Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh are already suffering from “severe acute malnutrition.”

More than 50,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are also in dire need of proper food rations.

The influx of Rohingya from the western Burmese state of Rakhine into Bangladesh since 25 August is “the world’s fastest developing refugee emergency,” according to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Evan Schuurman, spokesperson for Save the Children’s humanitarian response team in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, told _The Independent_the “sheer speed” at which the crisis has escalated which provides the biggest challenge for relief efforts and providing aid to children and families.

Responding from Bangladesh, Mr Schuurman said that amounts to an average of 10,000 people a day, every day, in the last six weeks. “It’s truly staggering.”

According to Mr Guterres’ spokesperson Farhan Haq, there were already approximately 200,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh before the latest deluge of people began.

Steve Taravella, WFP’s senior spokesperson told _The Independent _that though this crisis mimics others in terms of “desperation, violence, separated families, blocked access to aid, people too weak from hunger to walk on their own” the situation is exacerbated by Bangladesh’s own problems.

“The flow of people is constant and rapid and overwhelming a country that is struggling to manage its own development needs.”

Another issue in Bangladesh this time a year – monsoon season.

Mr Schuurman said the rains have hit the country “particularly hard” this season, causing flooding, transportation, and logistics issues for aid workers.

It “has put huge pressure on host communities and basic services,” he explained.

An inundation of illegal drugs over the Burmese border and smaller share of existing food and clean water resources are concerns for poorer villagers in the region.

Climate change has been a primary concern for the South Asian country, but in order to help the influx of newly arrived refugees Bangladesh has taken deforestation to make room for expanded tent communities.

“The government allocated 2,000 acres when the number of refugees was nearly 400,000,” the Secretary of Disaster Management and Relief Mohammad Shah Kamal told Reuters.

At least 1,000 acres more have been allocated to accommodate up to 150,000 makeshift tarpaulin shelters.

As more and more trees are cut down, the natural habitat of animals like elephants is increasingly encroached upon.

Wild elephants crushed two refugees to death in September and authorities fear it could happen again.

The Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination and persecution by the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship despite centuries-old roots in the country.

The current crisis erupted when an insurgent Rohingya group attacked police posts in Rakhine state, killing a dozen security personnel — an act that Mr Guterres condemned.

The attacks prompted Burma’s military to launch “clearance operations” against the rebels, setting off a wave of violence that has left hundreds dead, thousands of homes burned and began the mass exodus.

The UN has called on Burma and its controversial, once-hailed, prominent politician Aung San Suu Kyi to allow for the safe return of Rohingya to their homes.

Ms Suu Kyi’s position as state counsellor does not give her authority over the military, but the international criticism is for her failure to speak out against alleged human rights abuses – including mass killings, gang rapes, and the burning of villages.

The UN has made an appeal of $434 million to assist more than a million people for the coming six months.

The hope is that the political situation will be resolved by then in order to avoid an enduring crisis, for which Bangladesh and its already struggling economy will likely have to bear the financial brunt.

Further complicating the relief response to help these refugees is the growing refugee and famine crises in the rest of the world. Nearly 20 million are on the brink of famine in Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen.

Syrian refugees are still living in camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey.

The World Food Programme did receive a contribution from the US government to the tune of $1.18bn but Mr Taravella said that though this is “an enormous help at the global level” the agency cannot apply any of it to this particular crisis.

WFP is currently providing rice rations for about 580,000 people at the moment however in order to fully address food-based needs in Bangladesh for the next six months, WFP would need $73.2 million – that would ensure rations for one million people to include new arrivals, refugees who fled before August 2017, actual registered refugees, and people living within host communities who still need help.

The agency would also require around $7m for logistics and emergency telecommunications.

So far, about $20m of the total $80m has been secured through country contributions from Europe, US, UK, Australia, and Canada. But, Mr Taravella estimated that would only cover food rations up to middle of November of this year.
_Agencies contributed to this report._


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## Banglar Bir

*Nowhere To Go*


*www.thestateless.com*/2012/09/nowhere-to-go.html




Reviled in Myanmar and unwanted in Bangladesh, where does one of the world’s most persecuted minorities really belong?
Children in the Rohingya refugee camps have to battle malnutrition, diarrhoea, malaria and other diseases [Lianain Films]

The Rohingya are a stateless people described by the UN as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.
They are reviled in Myanmar, the country many Rohingya call home, and unwelcome in neighbouring Bangladesh, where tens of thousands live in refugee camps.
And now they could be facing their worst crisis yet.

Violent ethnic clashes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have led to calls for their expulsion from the country. Boatloads of Rohingya refugees have been denied entry into Bangladesh. Those already there live on the fringes of society, undocumented and at risk of exploitation.

Connect With 101 East

In late May, news broke of the brutal rape and murder of a Buddhist woman in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. It was, by all accounts, a horrific crime.
What made it worse for some was that the alleged perpetrators were men from the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Five days later a crowd attacked a bus and killed nine Muslims in what appeared to be a retaliatory attack. The clashes erupted suddenly, and ferociously.

Rakhine state has since become the scene of more violence. Entire villages have been burnt down and people driven from their homes. Both sides accuse each other of atrocities and the Myanmar government has declared a state of emergency in the region.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya people now live in refugee camps, with their movements being restricted.
In Myanmar they are not recognised as citizens and their access to opportunities are severely curtailed.

In the aftermath of the Rakhine riots, human rights observers fear they might become the target of more discrimination.
Myanmar does not want them. But neither does neighbouring Bangladesh, the country with the second-largest concentration of the Rohingya.

So where do the Rohingya really belong? 101 East looks at who should take responsibility for the community.


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## Banglar Bir

*MYANMAR MILITARY DEPLOYS ‘FOUR CUTS’ STRATEGY AGAINST ROHINGYA CIVILIANS*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/09/myanmar-military-deploys-four-cuts-strategy-against-rohingya-civilians.html




By ERC
*The scorched earth strategy was masterminded by Dictator General Ne Win in 1963, who was inspired by Japan’s ‘THREE ALLS’ (‘Kill all, Burn all and Loot all’) tactics.*
It was called ‘SWEEPING’ an area “suspected villagers and burning their villages”.

The Four Cuts is intended to cut off food, funds, intelligence and recruits to ethnic insurgencies. Often referred as “NO MAN’S LAND” policy in 1990s, it is directly commanded by the office of commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The War Office ordered to execute “anyone including children, women and elderly persons” after Rohingya insurgents clashed with Myanmar police on August 25, 2017.

Min Aung Hlaing’s army now deploys the Four Cuts policy, sweeping Rohingya-majority townships – Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung by burning, looting, killing and displacing countless of Rohingya.

It directly cuts off food, aid and communication, essential for Rohingya population in the region.

The strategy has already led to more than 3,500 Rohingya civilian deaths, particularly in the isolated Rathedaung, which is the farthest of three townships from the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, and whereabouts of tens of thousands of Rohingya civilians are yet to be known.

It also destroyed at least 5,000 Rohingya infrastructures including schools and religious buildings.

More than 76,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, and hundreds of thousands remain stranded at the border while many boats capsized killing women and children. An estimated 30% of Rohingya population in the three townships is being displaced as the Four Cuts Strategy speeds up.

The continued violations of human rights as its multitude of destructions of Rohingya civilians’ properties and lives, clearly amount to “crimes against humanity”.
*
The international silence must now be broken before it is too late.
The U.N. Fact-finding mission is needed more than ever now.*


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## Banglar Bir




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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:06 AM, October 07, 2017
*Women and Girls: The hardest hit Rohingya refugees*




A group of young Rohingya girls collect drinking water for their families from a local pump in Balhukali settlement, Bangladesh. Credit: Aurélie Marrier d'Unienville/Oxfam
Paolo Lubrano
Of the nearly half a million Rohingya refugees who've fled across the border and have sought refuge in Bangladesh, women and girls are the most at risk, sleeping under open skies, roadsides, and forest areas with little or no protection.

More than two-thirds have no shelter, half have no drinking water, and with the existing camps and host communities underequipped to deal with such a large influx, the ground situation is chaotic and volatile. We at Oxfam are seriously concerned about abuse and exploitation of women and children.

The majority of Rohingya refugees are women and children. Initial assessments suggest that 53 percent are female, 58 percent are under the age of 18, and 10 percent are either pregnant or lactating mothers. Many have lost their families, communities, and all their possessions, and after an emotionally and physically gruelling journey across the border, they are left with little hope.

They are greeted with overburdened camps and impoverished communities. The already appalling ground conditions have only been made worse by the recent torrential downpours which have also slowed delivery of aid and construction of facilities like wells, toilets, and shelter. There are reports of outbreaks of fevers, respiratory infections, dysentery, and diarrhoea.

The scale of the needs is enormous with a majority struggling for life-saving essentials like clean drinking water, food, medical supplies and essential facilities. In early September, the humanitarian partners estimated that 58 million litters of water is needed daily, 1.5 million kilos of rice is needed every month, and that 60,000 shelters, 20,000 toilets, and identifying land for more camps are among the most pressing needs. As the influx grows, so do the needs, and those of women, girls, and young children must be more carefully assessed and elaborated.

As of September 25, 2017, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), identified 180 cases of sexual violence against women and girls. Given the lack of safe spaces and reporting mechanisms, this figure can only be seen as the tip of the iceberg. Further, as William Lacy Swing, the Director General of the UN Migration Agency rightly puts it in his media statement, it is impossible to understand the scale of violence just by the number of reported cases.

The forms of violence include, and is not limited to, rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, and emotional abuse. A significant number of teenage girls are married, many are with children and pregnant, which makes the challenge of supporting them even more urgent.

Oxfam has so far supported nearly 140,000 people by providing clean drinking water and emergency food supplies, and by building facilities like tube wells and toilets in camps. Our dignity kits will include hygiene items for women, girls, and children.

We are also supporting local government and partners to design and build camps that are better equipped to meet the needs of the refugee population, especially women and girls. We advocate for adequate facilities to ensure that their safety and wellbeing are protected. For example, separate toilets, bathing areas, social spaces, and well-lit and safe access paths are essential to ensure protection of women and children. When there is a lack of child and women-friendly spaces, the risk of exploitation and violence is much higher.

Prevention of and support to the survivors of sexual and gender-based violence must be increased significantly. We underline the need for psycho-social support for all women, girls, and children, and especially those who've survived acts of violence.

We commend the efforts of the Bangladesh government, humanitarian partners, and local communities in providing life-saving assistance for the nearly half a million refugees. However, less than half the funding for the USD 77 million appeal launched by the humanitarian community a month ago has been committed so far.

Since then, the number of refugees has nearly doubled, the influx continues, and the needs of the more vulnerable populations such as women, girls, and children are yet to be fully responded to. Oxfam asks the governments, donors, and individuals to act now so that we can provide life-saving support immediately.
_Paolo Lubrano is Oxfam's Regional Humanitarian Manager for Asia.
Copyright: Inter Press Service_
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...hingya-refugee-crisis-women-and-girls-1472602


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:06 AM, October 07, 2017
*Women and girls: The hardest hit Rohingya refugees*




A group of young Rohingya girls collect drinking water for their families from a local pump in Balhukali settlement, Bangladesh. Credit: Aurélie Marrier d'Unienville/Oxfam
Paolo Lubrano
Of the nearly half a million Rohingya refugees who've fled across the border and have sought refuge in Bangladesh, women and girls are the most at risk, sleeping under open skies, roadsides, and forest areas with little or no protection.

More than two-thirds have no shelter, half have no drinking water, and with the existing camps and host communities underequipped to deal with such a large influx, the ground situation is chaotic and volatile. We at Oxfam are seriously concerned about abuse and exploitation of women and children.

The majority of Rohingya refugees are women and children. Initial assessments suggest that 53 percent are female, 58 percent are under the age of 18, and 10 percent are either pregnant or lactating mothers. Many have lost their families, communities, and all their possessions, and after an emotionally and physically gruelling journey across the border, they are left with little hope.

They are greeted with overburdened camps and impoverished communities. The already appalling ground conditions have only been made worse by the recent torrential downpours which have also slowed delivery of aid and construction of facilities like wells, toilets, and shelter. There are reports of outbreaks of fevers, respiratory infections, dysentery, and diarrhoea.

The scale of the needs is enormous with a majority struggling for life-saving essentials like clean drinking water, food, medical supplies and essential facilities. In early September, the humanitarian partners estimated that 58 million litters of water is needed daily, 1.5 million kilos of rice is needed every month, and that 60,000 shelters, 20,000 toilets, and identifying land for more camps are among the most pressing needs. As the influx grows, so do the needs, and those of women, girls, and young children must be more carefully assessed and elaborated.

As of September 25, 2017, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), identified 180 cases of sexual violence against women and girls. Given the lack of safe spaces and reporting mechanisms, this figure can only be seen as the tip of the iceberg. Further, as William Lacy Swing, the Director General of the UN Migration Agency rightly puts it in his media statement, it is impossible to understand the scale of violence just by the number of reported cases.

The forms of violence include, and is not limited to, rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, and emotional abuse. A significant number of teenage girls are married, many are with children and pregnant, which makes the challenge of supporting them even more urgent.

Oxfam has so far supported nearly 140,000 people by providing clean drinking water and emergency food supplies, and by building facilities like tube wells and toilets in camps. Our dignity kits will include hygiene items for women, girls, and children.

We are also supporting local government and partners to design and build camps that are better equipped to meet the needs of the refugee population, especially women and girls. We advocate for adequate facilities to ensure that their safety and wellbeing are protected. For example, separate toilets, bathing areas, social spaces, and well-lit and safe access paths are essential to ensure protection of women and children. When there is a lack of child and women-friendly spaces, the risk of exploitation and violence is much higher.

Prevention of and support to the survivors of sexual and gender-based violence must be increased significantly. We underline the need for psycho-social support for all women, girls, and children, and especially those who've survived acts of violence.

We commend the efforts of the Bangladesh government, humanitarian partners, and local communities in providing life-saving assistance for the nearly half a million refugees. However, less than half the funding for the USD 77 million appeal launched by the humanitarian community a month ago has been committed so far.

Since then, the number of refugees has nearly doubled, the influx continues, and the needs of the more vulnerable populations such as women, girls, and children are yet to be fully responded to. Oxfam asks the governments, donors, and individuals to act now so that we can provide life-saving support immediately.
_Paolo Lubrano is Oxfam's Regional Humanitarian Manager for Asia.
Copyright: Inter Press Service_
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...hingya-refugee-crisis-women-and-girls-1472602


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## Banglar Bir

05:54 PM, October 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:06 PM, October 07, 2017
*Bangladesh's mega refugee camp plan 'dangerous': UN official*




The arrival of more than half a million Rohingya refugees who have fled an army crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 25 has put an immense strain on already packed camps in Bangladesh. File photo
AFP, Cox’s Bazar
*A top UN official today said Bangladesh's plan to build the world's biggest refugee camp for 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims was dangerous because overcrowding could heighten the risks of deadly diseases spreading quickly.*
The arrival of more than half a million Rohingya refugees who have fled an army crackdown in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state since August 25 has put an immense strain on already packed camps in Bangladesh.

Hard-pressed Bangladesh authorities plan to expand a refugee camp at Kutupalong near the border town of Cox's Bazar to accommodate all the Rohingya.

But Robert Watkins, the UN resident coordinator in Dhaka, told AFP the country should instead look for new sites to build more camps.

"When you concentrate too many people into a very small area, particularly the people who are very vulnerable to diseases, it is dangerous," Watkins told AFP.

"There are stronger possibilities, if there are any infectious diseases that spread, that will spread very quickly," he said, also highlighting fire risks in the camps.

"It is much easier to manage people, manage the health situation and security situation if there are a number of different camps rather than one concentrated camp."

At the request of the Bangladesh government, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) has agreed to coordinate the work of aid agencies and help build shelters at the new camp site.

According to the IOM, the proposed camp will be the world's largest, dwarfing Bidi Bidi in Uganda and Dadaab in Kenya -- both housing around 300,000 refugees.

Three thousand acres (1,200 hectares) of land next to the existing Kutupalong camp have been set aside for the new Rohingya arrivals.

"700,000 is a big camp... we and our partners will have our work cut out for us", Joel Millman, an IOM spokesman, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

But he added that UN agencies "wouldn't be undertaking this if we didn't think it was feasible".

Bangladeshi officials say the new camp will help them better manage relief operations and ensure the safety of the Rohingya amid fears that dispersed camps could become recruiting grounds for militants.

This week Bangladesh reported 4,000-5,000 Rohingya were crossing the border daily, with 10,000 more waiting at the frontier.

Watkins said the continuing influx represented "a very big challenge" for aid agencies.

"Just when we start to think we are getting on top of the situation, the numbers go up. We are not where we need to be right now," he said.
"There is still a lot more needed to be done."
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Homo Sapiens

UKBengali said:


> I have no idea what you are talking about.
> Fact is half a million Rohingya have fled into
> BD with accusations of mass murder and rape.
> If Myanmar has nothing to hide, then why not allow the world media in?
> 
> PS - you are on my ignore list now as you are worse than Hindu turds.


Ignoring these vermin is the best response.There are several vermin here mostly Indian and Pakistani.These vermin harbor deep racial,ethnic or religious prejudice against Bangladeshi people and are jealous that we are not conforming to their stereotype. I have stopped engaging with these scumbags.Now I mostly focus on posting important news and engaging with Bangladeshi and open minded foreigners. Let these vermin spread their vitriol as much as they can,we will keep moving with our normal paces.If they spread too much sh!t,just report their post.

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## UKBengali

Homo Sapiens said:


> Ignoring these vermin is the best response.There are several vermin here mostly Indian and Pakistani.These vermin harbor deep racial,ethnic or religious prejudice against Bangladeshi people and are jealous that we are not conforming to their stereotype. I have stopped engaging with these scumbags.Now I mostly focus on posting important news and engaging with Bangladeshi and open minded foreigners. Let these vermin spread their vitriol as much as they can,we will keep moving with our normal paces.If they spread too much sh!t,just report their post.



Can you believe this one got made a "Think Tank"?

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## Homo Sapiens

UKBengali said:


> Can you believe this one got made a "Think Tank"?


If you had the misfortune to come across some of the post of this so called 'think tank' then would have seen, he is obsessed with some imaginary racial superiority of Pakistani people and consider people with darker skin then him are worthy of extinction.


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## Indus Pakistan

Is that why I place @Joe Shearer above all others in this forum - He is decidely Bengali. And I strongly warn that a Zionist conspiracy is afoot. You need to watch out for them. Don't become pawns in a global chess game. You have too much to loose. Instead focus on sewing those shirts. I always buy Bangla made shirts. The best !


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## Areesh

UKBengali said:


> I have no idea what you are talking about.



Because he makes no sense.


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh Institute of Peace & Security Studies - BIPSS*
A commentary titled 
*"Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh: Its Multi-Dimensional Implications" *
authored by President BIPSS, Maj Gen ANM Muniruzzaman (Retd) has been published by S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. 
The RSIS Commentary analyses the implications of the current #Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh.To read please visit BIPSS webpage https://bipss.org.bd or click here https://buff.ly/2xoBTQe.


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## livingdead

I hope India and EU gives more humanitarian help to bd so that they can cope with the refugee numbers..

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## livingdead

UK govt has promise to match the money raised by DEC... 
https://www.dec.org.uk

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## idune

Kaptaan said:


> So why are you quoting a American tool [UN] which has zero credibility by a Shia mouthpiece [Press TV]? Seems to me this is all Jewish/Shia conspiracy against our ally China and intended to cause "Syria" like instability near the belly of the PRC.



Good to know you are indoctrinated in wahabi extremism and see things through Shia Sunni prism. This was UN statement and news carried out by many media outlets including an Iranian one. But off course that extreme wahabi mind of yours has different read. Your too much intelligence just oozing out- how do you sleep at night; keeping excess intel under the pillow? Please do tell.

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## Indus Pakistan

idune said:


> Please do tell.


I drown in it like you are drowning in the Bay of Bengal

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## idune

Banglar Bir said:


>



If these people are found to be Myanmar agent, skin them alive. BD intel should be infiltrating inside Myanmar instead of acting defensive.



Kaptaan said:


> I drown in it like you are drowning in the Bay of Bengal


You and me live in different world; no relation. Bangladesh is not drowning as indian claims, Bangladesh gaining land thousands of sq km. I suppose your indian sidekick @Joe Shearer kept that from you. Well benefit of having indian help.

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## Indus Pakistan

idune said:


> You and me live in different world


I know. Yours is ever so ............... fisheee !


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## Joe Shearer

idune said:


> If these people are found to be Myanmar agent, skin them alive. BD intel should be infiltrating inside Myanmar instead of acting defensive
> 
> You and me live in different world; no relation. Bangladesh is not drowning as indian claims, Bangladesh gaining land thousands of sq km. I suppose your indian sidekick @Joe Shearer kept that from you. Well benefit of having indian help.



Whose help do you have? The answer should tell you why they say,"Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Blubber, and you blubber alone."


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: India identifies 140 vulnerable locations along Bangladesh border, deploys more security personnel*
India PTI Oct, 07 2017 09:23:40 IST
 New Delhi: India has identified 140 vulnerable locations, deployed more security personnel and surveillance gadgets, and launched a "campaign" against organised criminal gangs that help Rohingyas sneak across the India-Bangladesh border, the BSF chief on Friday said.

The Border Security Force (BSF) concluded its bi-annual four-day talks with their counterparts, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and chalked out plans to keep a vigil on the "spillover effect of the Rohingyas crossing over to India."





Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers walk across the open border with Bangladesh. Reuters

BSF Director General (DG) KK Sharma and the visiting BGB chief, Major General Abul Hossain, addressed the media at the end of their talks that began after the Bangladeshi delegation arrived here on 2 October.

The BGB DG said they have assured the BSF that the policy of the Bangladeshi government is very clear and "does not allow" their soil to be used for any kind of terrorist activity, neither in their country nor against its neighbour India.

Hossain said his country was also planning to have a fenced border with Myanmar.

Sharma said both the sides discussed the issue of Rohingyas.

"We are both aware that the issue is very very serious as large number of Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh. You are very right in apprehending that the spillover effect of the Rohingyas crossing over to India is also very genuine. Both of us (BSF-BGB) have taken steps.

"The BGB has ensured that their (Rohingyas) movement is being regulated and they have mounted some _nakas_ and check posts on various routes to ensure that they do not cross over to our side," the BSF DG said.

He added that "140 vulnerable border posts" along the 4,096-kilometre long India-Bangladesh border – that can be exploited for illegal crossing over of Rohingyas – have been identified by the BSF. These posts, Sharma said, are being "strengthened by us by deploying more manpower and by technological inputs and gadgets."

The surveillance equipments, the BSF chief said, have been "diverted" from other BSF posts and deployed all along the eastern frontier.

"We are also in touch with our sister agencies, the intelligence agencies, to identify and take action against the touts. Because, these people (Rohingyas) cannot come on their own. There are organised criminals on both the sides who assist in their crossing over to India. So, we are mounting the campaign against the touts," DG Sharma said.

He added that the border guarding force has "sensitised" the local population to inform them about people trespassing across the border.

The BSF DG said the force is constantly in touch with the BGB on a daily basis. "...our commanders on the border can speak to each other quickly and share intelligence on any movement of Rohingyas."

The BGB DG said his country has already begun the mandatory registration of all Rohingyas entering Bangladesh.

"This is a problem in Myanmar and this is not our problem. Five lakh people have already come to Bangladesh. But, this is a problem for our country also...they (Rohingyas) cannot spread all over the country.

"Our government has taken a decision and the Rohingyas have been put in the Cox's Bazar district," he said, adding they have identified the exit and entry points (of Rohingyas) which are being guarded properly.

"We have started the registration of these people...we have declared that anybody without registration will not be given any facilities. We have also informed our people in the country to inform about any such person to law enforcement agencies," Hossain said.

He added that Myanmar has told Bangladesh that they will "soon form a joint working committee to find out Rohingyas and take them back."
Published Date: Oct 07, 2017 09:19 am | Updated Date: Oct 07, 2017 09:23 am
http://www.firstpost.com/india/rohi...-deploys-more-security-personnel-4118085.html


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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya should be treated as our own*
Tanim Ahmed
Published at 07:29 PM September 16, 2017
Last updated at 11:12 PM September 16, 2017




Bangladeshi volunteers from the Chhagalnaiya village council distribute food donations to Rohingya Muslim refugees at Naikhongchhari in Chittagong on September 10, 2017*AFP*
*I would dread repatriation if I were a Rohingya*
What is another million when we already have 160 million ourselves?

The prime minister’s sentiment is actually true except that the 160 million she mentioned are Bangladeshis and mostly left to their own devices for a livelihood. Now that the prime minister’s comments will have triggered a predictable sycophantic frenzy of about face among the most voluble and violent critics of Rohingya, it is probably time to recognise that we will not be able to wish them away, however much we want to.

The well over million Rohingya who will have been sheltered in Bangladesh before the yearend, will probably be the highest concentration and one of the few unfortunate examples where an entire ethnic community has been uprooted, an instance of successful ethnic cleansing while the world watched. The Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in search of refuge for almost four decades now. And they are not going back.

To begin with, Myanmar is not going to turn around and say, “My bad. So sorry. Come along folks. Lets start over.” Not with China and India cajoling and coaxing the regime. But even if by a miracle Myanmar did say that, the Rohingyas would hardly return. A father who watched his five year old shot, a girl who saw her parents mutilated, people who saw their homes burnt will simply not accept the assurances of the very people who had turned on them. Indeed, if I were a Rohingya I would run and hide in the densest darkest patch of the Sundarbans. I would dread repatriation if I were a Rohingya.

What it basically comes down to is that Bangladesh will have become the new home of the Rohingya for all intents and purposes. But the government has to pretend that it is a ‘temporary problem’ perhaps because of all kinds of political considerations. Easy acceptance of the Rohingya as permanent residents might encourage India to push in a few hundred thousand unwanted Muslims too, for instance.

Be that as it may, there is simply no getting around the point that the Rohigya are here and they are not going anywhere. Bangladesh needs to realise it is a ‘permanent situation’ and change up how to go about it. There should be calls for other countries to pull their share of housing the Rohingya. The obvious candidates, playing the religion card, would be the oil rich gulf countries besides of course Turkey. Then there is Europe or even the North and South American countries.

The government realises that it will not be able to feed and care for so many people but it seems to be holding out for eventual repatriation, which won’t happen. As soon as this sinks in, however, the authorities will realise that there will never be enough funds to care for the refugees. Hence, they must earn their keep whether through food for work schemes of the government or proper paying jobs. 

As such the Rohingya must be allowed civic amenities and privileges — citizenship should only be a protracted inevitability — to make a living and stop being a burden. That the Rohingya engage in criminal activity is but natural given that they cannot get proper employment. It will be in everyone’s interest to make sure that Rohingya children receive proper education and health care so that they can take care of their parents and their children.

Sooner or later they will have adopted this country. Might as well treat them as our own.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/09/16/rohingya-repatriation-unlikely/


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## Banglar Bir

*‘The frictions in the Rakhine state are less about Islamophobia than Rohingya-phobia’*
Eminent Arakan historian Jacques P. Leider talks about the historical context of the Rohingya conflict
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, October 1, 2017




Jacques P. Leider. Credit: YouTube
Photographs of terrified Muslim men, women and children fleeing the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last few weeks have made the global community take note of the Rohingya issue like never before.

A brutal crackdown by the Myanmar army on the Rohingya Muslim inhabited areas of Rakhine (formerly Arakan), in response to a reported attack in mid-August on the security posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), an armed group fighting for the rights of the Rohingyas, led to the exodus of more than 400,000 Rohingyas to refugee camps in Bangladesh.

While the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has called it a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, heads of states of countries have accused the Myanmar government of committing “genocide”. The long silence of Mynamar’s State Counsellor and Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has also been questioned widely.

Media reports have failed to focus on the historical context of the conflict that treads back to the British colonial period. Revisiting the conflict may help find a possible solution to the crisis.

Jacques P. Leider is a well-known Arakan historian who has studied and written extensively about the complex Rohingya issue.

Leider, head of the Bangkok-based Ecole Françaised’ Extrême-Orient (EFEO), makes a deeper and nuanced assessment of the conflict which has simmered for decades before snowballing into a worrisome humanitarian crisis of South East Asia. In course of the interview, Leider categorically states, “The Western media fails to make a clear distinction between anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar’s urban centres and the radically different context of the Rakhine State.”
*Below are excerpts from the interview:*

*You have been studying the socio-political history of the Arakan region of Myanmar for years. What led you to take a deep interest in it?*
I studied history as well as Burmese language and civilisation in Paris. When I looked for a convenient topic for my MA research, my teacher oriented me towards the Burmese manuscripts collection at the French National Library. Somewhat surprisingly, I found a significant body of manuscripts on palm leaves and paper that dealt with Arakan in the early colonial period. The Buddhist kingdom of Mrauk U (1430-1785) became the focus of my doctoral research. Thereafter, I did research on many other topics, but Arakan’s history remained a constant element in my research.

*This is a question you are often asked in media interviews which I will repeat here, simply because many people worldwide still do wonder who, after all, is a Rohingya; what is the origin of the term; is it an ethnic term; how old is this term; is it different from terms ‘Bengali’ and ‘Kalar’, also used to refer the Rohingyas in Myanmar?*
‘Rohingya’ means ‘Arakanese’ in the East Bengali dialect spoken by people in North Arakan, ‘Rohang’ being a local phonological variant of ‘Roshang’, the region’s name in Bengali literature. To clarify the conundrum around the contested name ‘Rohingya’, one must step back in time and embed the issue to the regional history of Muslim migrations. Throughout the early modern period, Muslims from all over the Indian Ocean came to live in port cities of continental Buddhist Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc.), but the migration of ‘Indians’ (including Muslims, Hindus and people of other religions) during the colonial period increased their number considerably. This is a well-known story that does not need to be elaborated. In Arakan, it was overwhelmingly Chittagonianlabour, both seasonal and residential, that was attracted after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Until the Second World War, the much older pre-colonial Muslim community of Arakan that was socially integrated, on the one hand, and the more recent migrant community of ‘Chittagonians’, on the other hand, remained distinctive groups. It was the group with recent migrant roots that became most politically active.

In the 1950s, both Arakan Muslim parliamentarians and Muslim insurgents (the ‘Mujahids’) shared the idea of an autonomous Muslim zone adopting the Sharia law and Urdu as an official language. Then, under the push of a younger generation, there were discussions to adopt a name of their own. This issue was politically contested as there were already many group divisions that weakened political cohesion. Various spellings such as Roewhengyas, Ruhangyas and others were proposed, all linked to an old, but as it seems, mainly orally used term ‘Rwangya’. The current spelling, Rohingya, is traceable in print since 1963.

In British administrative records, none of these terms had ever been used. For decades, the Muslims in Arakan were classified according to religion (Muslim), language (such as Bengali) and place of origins (predominantly Chittagong). The self-perception of different groups was only considered in the 1921 and 1931 census reports.

Moreover, the British classified people of Indian origins in Burma as ‘foreigners’. The question of how long these people had been living in the country was not put on record. ‘Foreigner’ is also the meaning of the very old word ‘Kalar’ that, in

Burmese literature and usage, refers to people from the West, these being mainly Indians, but also more specifically Indian Muslims. A frequently noted pejorative connotation in the use of this term depends largely on the context. It is much too common to say that it is only depreciative, as the Western media have systematically put it.

The term ‘Bengali’ to designate officially Muslims of North Arakan was used by the Burmese administration relatively late, starting in the late 1970s and 1980s. One should bear in mind that back in the 1950s, Pakistan recognised that a great number of Muslims in Burma had a claim on Pakistani citizenship and the term ‘Pakistanis’ was also used for people whom everybody identifies today as Rohingyas. Why were all these issues of belonging not clarified early on? In fact, a performing bureaucracy did only emerge very slowly. Burma’s Ministry of Immigration became functional ten years after independence. Today, these terms are politicised and contested. Each one has become a weapon in a media contest where a serene look at history would do away with some of the zealous energy that is driving the confrontation.

*The Muslim-Buddhist friction in the Rakhine state particularly goes back since the British time. Will you throw some light on the history behind this friction. How much of it can be traced to the Rakhine Muslims’ secessionist or autonomy movement in the 1940s to create a Muslim zone and align it to the then East Pakistan? What relevance does that movement have on the extreme friction that we now see between the Rohingyas and the Rakhine Buddhists and the general perception of the Rohingyas in Yangon?*

These are historically legitimate questions and they are politically relevant today. Yet, we lack in-depth studies to push for a necessary discussion. My answers are derived from a broad understanding of the context where I try to fit in the two ethno-religious communities. Unlike the mainstream media that singularise the case of the Rohingya Muslims in their relation to the state, I consider that, primarily, one cannot understand the politics of one group without observing the other. Both communities have always been internally divided about the choice of their political options (federalism or separatism/autonomy). They have only been united in their opposition to the unitary state and to each other.

The political dynamics of the Rohingya Muslim movement were driven by leaders from the north, mainly from the township of Maungdaw. In the 1950s, the Rohingyas were initially the movement of a social and economic elite (including Rakhine Muslim students in Rangoon) that did not include, and did not attempt, to represent all the Muslims of Arakan when it claimed an autonomous zone. North Arakan Muslim leaders had made clear to the British in 1947 and to the first Burmese government in 1948 that a political compromise with the Arakanese (or Rakhine) was not an option for them. Local Muslim leaders had greatly helped the British during the Second World War (by opposing the Japanese forward movement towards Bengal as against the Buddhists supporting the Japanese) and hoped, therefore, for their support to create a frontier zone with a specific status.

Putting afterwards their hope in Prime Minister U Nu’s government in the 1950s earned them a political reward in the early 1960s when the short-lived ‘Mayu Frontier Administration’ in North Arakan was created. In the 1970s, Rohingyas were mainly identified with Muslim rebel groups based on the (Myanmar) border with Bangladesh, desperate to obtain military support from Middle East countries. As Rohingya organisations in the diaspora failed to be accepted among the armed ethnic groups and the democratic anti-junta front during the 1980s and 1990s, their efforts to gain an international hearing became increasingly rooted in a human rights’ discourse. The descriptions of the dismal condition of Muslims in the Rakhine State, the misery of refugees driven into Bangladesh, the tragedy of boat people and what was described internationally as the systematic harassment of their community in Myanmar bore ample testimony to the discourse on the plight of the Rohingyas.

Today, with the backing of liberal democracies, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries, UN organisations and human rights organisations that lobby for them, Rohingyas have many allies abroad and none in the country many of them call home.

In Myanmar, they fail to get recognition because their ethnic claim cannot be negotiated politically. So why the quasi-obsession with ethnic recognition by the state? Unlike in other countries, it is ethnic recognition that provides primordial constitutional legitimacy for political representation and citizenship. It is not the only criterion, but for the first generation Rohingyas, it was adamantly clear that only ethnic recognition would give them the necessary leverage for political claims. It should be clear from these explanations that the motives to support the Rohingya cause today draw on a vast array of different historical and legal arguments that do not form a single, unified body. There has been a general reluctance by international actors to get involved in the historical narratives that have animated impassionate debates between the Rakhine and Rohingya writers.

U Kyaw Min, an Arakanese parliamentarian and nationalist leader, stated in 1956 that the Arakanese had no problem with the Muslims, suggesting that a deal with the divided Muslims was always at hand. Yet over the decades, the communal frictions have increased because other, non-political issues impacted the Rakhine perspectives. For the Rohingyas, Muslim communal autonomy meant a fair deal that would see both communities get along politically and socially, but for the Rakhine, it meant the breaking apart of their motherland. Later on, it was the unequal demographic growth of the Muslim community that produced a latent anxiety among the Buddhists. Despite a general understanding that a part of the Arakan Muslims had deep roots in the country and that Rakhine history cannot be understood without its social and religious complications with Bengal from the past down to the present, a pervasive Rakhine narrative about Muslims in Arakan has viewed them as ‘guests’ who have betrayed the trust of their hosts by claiming territorial ownership. The claim of a distinctive ethnicity made by Rohingyas is, therefore, considered by them as fake. The frictions are less about Islamophobia than Rohingyaphobia.

Against this complex background, it is not possible to establish a straightforward link of causality between the late 1940s and today. Yet, it is the verbatim quotes of relatively simplistic statements made by both sides that have enjoyed national and international resonance in 2012 and fed back into the cycle of frictions.

*There are other Muslims living in Myanmar even though much smaller in number than the Rohingyas. How much support do the Rohingyas have from these groups? Or, has the political term ‘Rohingya’ pushed these groups away from them?*

There are various Muslim communities in the Rakhine state and there are a number of different Muslim communities across Myanmar – some of them possibly even older than the pre-colonial Muslim community in Rakhine. As an academic, I would use expressions such as “historically multi-layered and ethnically diverse communities”. Many are of various Indian ethno-linguistic origins, others are of Malay or Chinese Yunnan origins (like the Panthay in Mandalay), one group of so-called Burmese Muslims has more recently adopted the name ‘Pathi’ (a term found in the royal chronicles to designate a Muslim community) to underscore its antiquity.

By emphasising a distinctive ethnicity, the Rohingya leadership cut off the complex family of Rakhine Muslims from a long continuity of historical roots in Bengal and specifically south-east Bengal identities. For that reason, I have been talking about an effort on their behalf to de-Indianise themselves. The ethnic claim also deprived the Rohingyas of political solidarity with the other Muslim communities of Burma (Myanmar) that did neither raise ‘ethnic’ claims nor made expressly claims for political autonomy. One may recall that in an unfavorable political context that emerged since the 1960s, Indians in Burma became victims of nationalist politics. On top of local economic prejudice against Indians, the explicit political nature of the Rohingya project was perceived by many urban Muslims as toxic. There are still no public enquiries about this topic in Myanmar today, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that there is no substantial level of Muslim solidarity with the Rohingyas. It does not mean and I will not argue that it does not exist, but it’s at least not articulated. More soberly, urban Muslims in contemporary Myanmar urban centres, whatever their private feelings are, would have nothing to win to stand up for the Rohingya cause. Is the Rohingya project, therefore, to be called an ambition that has backfired on itself? To be true from a social and anthropological perspective, one has torecognise that during the last 50 years there has indeed been an ongoing melting process that has brought Muslims in Rakhine state closely together, forging a shared identity under the impact of state oppression and civic exclusion. There were never as many Muslims who identified themselves as Rohingyas than after 2012.

*As you have always pointed out in your writings, the conflict in the Rakhine state has been traditionally triangular: the state vs the Rohingyas vs the Rakhine Buddhist. The narrative now, at least internationally, has become the state and Rakhine Buddhists vs the Rohingyas. Is it correct to include the voice of the Buddhist Rakhines in the extreme right wing 969 movement led by U. Wirathu or there is a separate voice that hasn’t found space in the international arena yet?*

It is important to recall that the Rakhine themselves have struggled to be recognised as an ethnic group after independence and their ethnically denominated Rakhine state was only created in 1974. They are keen to stress their separate historical and cultural identity despite the religion, language and cultural traits they share with the majority Burmese (or Bamar). The 969 movement has picked up the Rakhine crisis issues to feed its own anti-Muslim discourse, but it was not bred in the Rakhine state. The Western media still fails to make a clear distinction between anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar’s urban centres and the radically different context of the Rakhine state. Even well-meaning academics tend to exemplify Islamophobia in Myanmar by pointing to the high number of Muslim IDPs (internally displaced people) in Rakhine state. At the same time, the political sentiments of Rakhine people are not integrated into international political analysis. On the other hand, the traditionally reclusive Rakhines have entirely failed to communicate a positive image of themselves to the rest of the world, to commit themselves publicly to tolerance and to invest in politically constructive ideas for the future. In a globalised world, it’s not enough to lay back and complain in confidential circles about the world that does not respect “us”.

*Even though there was a huge exodus of Rohingyas to Bangladesh in 1978 following the violence – many of whom were repatriated in 1979 – the internationalisation of the Rohingya issue happened only after the 2012 violence. What changed then?*

In terms of international media attention and support by the West and the Middle East, the aftermath of 2012 was an immense success for the Rohingya diaspora. One spin-off was the genocide narrative that severely impedes efforts of the current Myanmar administration to rebalance the discussion in their favour. For the Rohingyas in the country, it was a disaster. Rohingyas, despite their lack of full citizenship rights since 1982, had been granted voting rights and had participated in regional and national elections until 2010. But the suppression of their ‘white cards’ in 2015 by the national parliament cut them off from any form of political representation. This is ultimately not in the interest of the state. Put in Machiavellian terms, the army controlled the Rakhine state by playing the prejudice and interests of one community against those of the other one. This form of containing and at the same time, abusing the potential for communal frictions, also guaranteed state access to intelligence about the inner workings of these groups. The fast rise and the surprise of attacks of ARSA since October 2016 reflect an extraordinary intelligence failure on the side of the security forces.

*There is a strong Rohingya diaspora voice which has been able to establish the issue as a humanitarian and Muslim victimhood issue. But you have said in your writings that “internationalisation has not opened new ground in the domestic political arena where both Muslims and Buddhists have been longing for peace.” Instead, you said, “It confirms some of the fears already had by the Buddhists, namely, the alleged threat of an international Muslim alliance.” If you can elaborate it a bit…*

Your question relates to the arena of media fitness. When Myanmar opened up by the decision of the military elite in 2011, many people in the country regained hope about their political and economic future. But the hopes bear many contradictions, because the interests of the various ethnic and religious groups and the state are competing. The language, the terminologies, the mature thinking to address and negotiate publicly these contradictions and inherent conflicts had not yet been learnt. Public intellectuals and news editors were not present to orient the discussion and guide the public. Countrywide, educational infrastructure has been in a mess. What was “there” was the state of mind of the early 1960s and some of the memory of the 1950s as the country left a time-warp of several decades of isolation and party-line thinking. The international media that descended on Yangon after 2011 spoke a language that people were unable to assess rationally. Facebook became the foremost instrument of public discussion for the happy few with access to computers and 24-hour electricity, soon drunken with the newly-found freedom to criticise and wildly indulging in racist rampage when the conflict exploded in the Rakhine state. Trigger-happy rhetoric sustained a constant reiteration of “us the Buddhists” and the “rest of the world that does not understand Myanmar”. The Rohingya diaspora invested in sophisticated strategies of communication that neither the Myanmar state nor any of its ethnic constituencies have been able to cope with. Buddhist resentment was bound to increase.

*Some countries have termed the Rohingya issue as genocide. Though, it is not for the first time the term has been used to define the extreme odds faced by the Rohingya Muslims. Yours writings point out that the term was first used in the 1951 charter of the Arakan Muslim Conference. In 1978, it was used by some Rakhine Muslim groups when violence led Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh. However, post 2015, we are getting to hear it more often, and internationally. How do you see the use of this term, particularly by the international rights organisations and heads of states? In one of your articles on the issue, you said, “The accusation of the term hits hard on the credibility of the state.”*

Genocide accusations resound very strongly and have an immediate impact on global audiences; they are perceived as an urgent call for action and possible intervention. Indictments of genocide should, therefore, be made on grounds that leave no doubt for interpretation. The accusation of a Rohingya genocide is still very much open for further discussion. This is not the only accusation of genocide that has been made within the region. Rakhine nationalists have alleged that the Burmese conquest of 1785 marked the beginning of a long-term effort to exterminate the Rakhine ethnic group and in the British census of 1901, the compiler hinted at the perspective of a disappearance of the Rakhine “race” due to Chittagonian immigration. Accusations have also been made about the genocide of the Chittagong Hill Tracts people in Bangladesh, especially during the Chittagong Hill Tracts war (1977-97). The charges of a “slow genocide” of the Rohingyas has been mostly made by people who discovered the Rohingya issue only in 2012. Questioning the use of the term ‘genocide’ does not mean that one intends to belittle mass atrocities and serious violations of human rights. It’s a fact that the Muslim population in the Rakhine state has been steadily growing despite massive emigration. In Maungdaw township, it has grown from 34% after the war to 92% (according to UNHCR sources), despite the fact that there has been a steady flow of people out of the region. The picture gets blurred when ‘genocide’ is used both as a rhetoric tool to express indignation about indiscriminate state oppression and as a description for an alleged state-led plan to exterminate a whole population.

*You have spoken about the Myanmar government playing into the hands of the Rakhine nationalists by increasingly denying rights to the Muslims. Will you elaborate it a bit?*

I am not sure I have put my argument clearly and if I didn’t, I should elaborate indeed. I do not mean to say that more the Muslims are harassed and flee, more the Rakhine community will have a reason to rejoice. Such an impression would be entirely wrong. Since the colonial period, the Muslims have established a reputation as hard-working people despite the general poverty of the population as a whole. There are many problematic issues to be addressed, such as population growth and women’s rights, but there’s a right for people to live where their families have lived now for decades. Only an ethno-political consensus of the two groups will make sure that there is a future for the people of the Rakhine state. I am talking about the progress and welfare of rural people at a basic level and initiatives that will lift people out of poverty. I am not talking about showcase government-led projects such as the port of Sittwaymodernised by India and the gas pipeline built by China and serving China’s thirst for natural resources. The bad news about the events in the Rakhine state have been ruining the reputation of the region and clearly lessen chances for diversified foreign investment.

Besides the economic aspect, there’s the political aspect. After the elections of 2015, the situation in the regional parliament of the Rakhine state became soon blocked by the appointment of a chief minister who belongs to the government party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy. But it is the Arakan National Party that holds a majority in the regional parliament. The conclusion is this: pleasing or antagonising the Rakhine ethnics is not necessarily related to government policies towards the Muslims and vice-versa.

*What is the way out? Aung San Syu Ki said that the state would soon begin verification process for the return of the Rohingyas. Do you think a fruitful political dialogue will possibly follow this?*

There is not a single way out; there are rather many patient steps to be taken by the stakeholders and actors in the conflict sphere to improve the situation. While the immediate prospect looks bleak, not least because no one really knows what role the new group, ARSA, is going to play, one should not be blind to the fact that there have been no revenge killings and no riots in the rest of the Rakhine state during the last weeks. Most people in the country seem painfully aware that the current crisis may produce a dangerous international backlash. On the other hand, since 2013, many other ethnic groups that are hoping for peace and development and for international support as well, have grown desperate as the Rohingya lobby groups have appropriated a lot of the attention of international donors.

The near prospects will be dictated by the international involvement in the crisis. A repatriation effort will likely be engaged on the basis of the earlier agreement with Bangladesh and under international auspices. The government should try to apply, as it had promised, the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Advisory Commission report that make a lot of sense in terms of improving general livelihood in the region. True, none of those recommendations expressly address the issue of a political dialogue that you refer to. The international community does not seem to imagine anything like that either. It seems enthralled by the apparently unprecedented drama of another exodus that is still poorly understood. Sticking with their fascination for Aung San Suu Kyi, once a saint and de facto prisoner, a leader and a fallen angel today, the United States, the European Union and other interested parties fail to address and engage with some of the fundamental issues that we need to know more about, namely social and political drivers in the arch-conservative Muslim Rohingya society, transnational Rohingya dynamics, the relationship between the diaspora and Rohingyas in Myanmar as well as similarly structured issues relating to the social and political lives of the Rakhine community. What we know already is that the management of the Rakhine State and its people display a state failure that has extended over several decades. We also know that the state has failed to stand up for the protection and welfare of the people and has shown itself as a weak rather than as a potent force. Only a collective effort will pay off, the state alone will not be able to shoulder the entire burden. Dialogue is, no doubt, one among the important steps to be taken.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/01/frictions-rakhine-state-less-islamophobia-rohingya-phobia/


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## Banglar Bir

*Living the genocide: in the grip of trauma*
*With no psychosocial assistance, Rohingya refugees are vulnerable to life-long PTSD*
Md Shahnawaz Khan Chandan October 06, 2017




Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo
It was around 10 pm and raining heavily. As we were returning from Teknaf, we saw hundreds of Rohingyas huddled together in their polythene shanties and under trees to get some shelter from the downpour. Under a large tree, we saw a mother feeding her baby, and not far from her lay two toddlers getting helplessly drenched in the rain. They were so weak and sick that they did not have the strength to move to seek shelter. We asked the mother, “Peace be upon you ma'am. Are they your children?” She replied, “No. We don't know where their parents are. They probably were killed by the [Myanmar] military. My relatives and I brought them with us as they had nowhere to go. If we had left them at their village, they would have been killed too.” Like those toddlers, there are thousands of Rohingya children who saw their loved ones getting killed in front of their eyes; there are many who lost their parents amidst the chaos and don't know whether they are alive or not. Without any food, water or shelter, these children traversed hundreds of miles with the refugees for the sake of their lives. 

In Kutupalong refugee camp at Ukhia, Cox's Bazar, we found an eight-year-old Rohingya boy sobbing relentlessly. We asked him why he was crying. He could not answer. When we asked again he only made a throat-slitting gesture with his fingers. Shocked by that gesture, we asked some Rohingyas what had happened to him. They told us a story that horrified us. When the boy's home was attacked by a Rakhine mob, he along with his mother and maternal uncle hid in a bamboo thicket, but his father was caught. Seeing her husband tortured brutally, his mother went to beg for mercy from the rioters. However, the cold-blooded killers slaughtered the boy's mother and father after torturing them for hours. Right in front of his eyes. Unable to bear the atrocities, the boy passed out, and later, he and his uncle were rescued by a column of passing refugees. 

“During the four-day journey through jungles and hills, he did not cry or utter a single word. He hardly ate any food or drank any water. After reaching the camp yesterday (September 6), he started weeping incessantly. He doesn't say anything and only makes the gesture of how his parents were killed,” says a Rohingya elderly, who along with his family members were looking after the boy at that time, as his only surviving relative, his maternal uncle, was hit by a bullet while crossing the border and taking treatment at a Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital. 




Rohingya refugees have recurrent nightmares about their entire villages being destroyed by the Myanmar army in Maungdaw district. Photo: AFP
After visiting several Rohingya refugee camps at Teknaf and Cox's Bazar, we found hundreds of children who were severely traumatised and showed clear symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Starvation, unhealthy environment in the makeshift camps and diseases like diarrhoea and fever are further deteriorating their already vulnerable mental state. 

Most of these children hardly get any support from their family members who are also equally traumatised—especially Rohingya women, who were worst victims of the violence and the easy prey for the rioters and Myanmar army. Accounts of rape and sadistic sexual assaults were shared by many Rohingya refugees. An elderly Rohingya woman at Kutupalong refugee camp told the reporters, “Myanmar military used to pick Rohingya women up whenever they wished. Only the pregnant and elderly women were spared. After several days of continuous rape and torture, they sometimes left the half-dead victims in the village. Sometimes we found their dead bodies nearby.” 


Many young Rohingya girls hid their faces when they saw journalists and cameras and did not want to talk to us at all. An elderly Rohingya woman at a makeshift refugee camp in Thaengkhali says, “You will not find a single young Rohingya girl here who was not tortured by the Rakhines or the military.” Although we could not talk to them, anybody could read the expression of trauma and fear on their faces. 

Many Rohingya women saw their children die of starvation, disease and from accidents. At least 10 children died on September 29, 2017 when a boat carrying 30 Rohingya women and children capsized just yards off the coast of the Bay of Bengal due to rough seas worsened by torrential downpour and high winds. After the accident, a mother was seen holding the lifeless body of her child but nobody could make her believe that the child had already passed away. 

Many young Rohingya mothers lost their children and husbands amidst the chaos and were desperately searching for their loved ones in the densely populated refugee camps. In the camp at Thaengkhali, a Rohingya girl, hardly 18 years of age, asked us in a helpless manner, “Did you see Rafique, my son? He is of fair complexion and has a birthmark on his cheek. Could you please help me find him?” Many Rohingya mothers with newborn babies are also in a desperate state. After days of starvation, many of these mothers cannot breastfeed their children and thousands of Rohingya children are at high risk of dying due to disease and malnutrition. “I cannot sleep at night anymore. I haven't eaten anything for days and could not breastfeed my son today. Whenever I feel sleepy, I hear my one-year-old son crying for food in my dreams. In my nightmares, I often see the Rakhines coming to seize my son to slaughter him,” says Morijna Begum—a mother of a six-month-old baby boy—who was severely weakened by starvation and constant sleep deprivation.

For now, relief initiatives are focusing mostly on providing life-saving support, such as food and medicine. The government and donor organisations are still struggling to manage these relief items for around 500,000 refugees. Under these trying circumstances, there is little to no initiative to address the mental health conditions of the traumatised survivors. In fact, with an overzealous crowd of journalists, local aid workers, government and non-government officials interacting with and questioning these refugees without any heed, they are becoming more and more anxious and often breaking down into tears. 




UN doctors in Bangladesh found evidence of horrific sexual assaults on Rohingya women. Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo
It is now obvious that these refugees, especially the women and children, who have been suffering unbearable psychological turmoil for months, must be given psychosocial help, so that they can gradually cope with this tragic, disastrous situation. 

According to Professor Dr Muhammad Kamal Uddin, Department of Psychology, University of Dhaka, “With every relief initiative, we should also provide psychological first aid to every refugee. This psychological first aid is actually a counselling service which would include several components such as ensuring them of their safety and protection from further harm and support from the community and the country; giving them the opportunity to talk freely; listening to them with compassion; expressing sympathy and concern for their losses; and teaching them coping strategies. If this support is not given, there is a high chance that many of these women and children will suffer from life-long PTSD.”

Dr Kamal adds that women suffering from PTSD will not be able to take care of their children properly, which might cause malnutrition and even disability. He also argues that in the case of young children, PTSD severely affects brain development and its proper functioning. “Several studies highlight that child victims of PTSD show deviant behaviour when they grow up, including self-harm and aggressive tendencies; they are also more likely to get involved with criminal activities as adults if they are not treated early,” comments Dr Kamal. 




This Rohingya woman lost her only child when a boat full of Rohingya refugees sank off the coast of Teknaf but nobody could make her believe that her child had already passed away. Photo: Anisur Rahman
And yet, this huge number of Rohingya refugees, most of whom have had ghastly, traumatic experiences of violence and torture, are still beyond the purview of any psychological counselling services. Nishat Fatima Rahman, Assistant Professor at BRAC Institute for Educational Development (BIED) has been providing counselling training to BRAC workers who are working in Rohingya refugee camps. She says, “We train all our aid workers so that they can provide primary counselling services to the traumatised refugees. They learn the dos and don'ts of interaction with refugees. If all workers can be trained in basic counselling, they will be able to apply psychological first aid to help the refugees cope under stressful events.” 

She also stated that in every refugee camp, a specified place can be preserved for children to play with their friends. “Play therapy is a very efficient method to treat traumatised children. During playtime, they interact freely and receive counselling suggestions willingly. BRAC has already established a few play centres in and around the refugee camps. But the situation is still very chaotic and in this situation there is no doubt that the number of PTSD patients will increase every day,” states Nishat.




The boat carrying refugees broke into two pieces off the coast of Teknaf and around 60 Rohingyas lost their lives. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Beyond first aid, the refugees require therapy; however, given the severity of the disorders and the huge number of patients, this is far from realistic. Dr Kali Prasanna Das, a counsellor who provided psychological first aid to Rana Plaza survivors, thinks that group therapy can be an effective way to treat such a huge number of victims. “We have a shortage of psychiatrists and there are socio-cultural and linguistic barriers between the victims and the professionals. However, another characteristic of this crisis is that most of the victims share similar traumatic experiences and all of these victims want to survive and live. So, if we can divide the victims into several groups according to their age and gender and arrange sessions for them where they will be able to share their stories of sufferings freely, they will feel much more relieved,” says Dr Das. He also thinks that it will not be possible for a single organisation to conduct such an enormous task. He appeals to all the aid organisations to come forward to arrange group therapy sessions for the refugees.

Studies over the years have documented how survivors of the Holocaust, for instance, still show serious symptoms of PTSD even in their old age, having been deprived of any psychosocial assistance. Many of them recounted that their experiences during the Holocaust even led them to suffer serious physical and mental illnesses.

If we now fail to provide the Rohingya refugees with mental health services, there will be severe repercussions for them as individuals and as a community. As a result, national and international aid workers should also focus on giving these helpless refugees adequate mental health services so that they can cope with their current struggles and live with the hope of a better, peaceful future. 
_The writer can be contacted at shahnawaz.khan@thedailystar.net_
http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/spotlight/living-the-genocide-the-grip-trauma-1472017


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*MYANMAR’S ROHINGYA PERSECUTION*
*Existentially naked*
Published: 00:05, Oct 11,2017 | Updated: 22:44, Oct 10,2017 




_The campaign of ethnic cleansing now being carried out against Myanmar’s Rohingya confronts the world with one of those moments that seem to arrive unannounced. Surely, by now, we should be able to recognise in such episodes the accelerating pulse of genocide?_ Bernard Henri-Lévy writes 

AS IS so often the case, it was an artist who sounded the warning. His name is Barbet Schroeder and the alert that he issued came in the form of his fine, sober film ‘The Venerable W’, a portrait of Myanmar’s Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu. Known as ‘W’, Wirathu is the other face of a religion that is widely perceived as the archetype of peace, love and harmony. And behind his racist visage lies a broader embrace of violence that takes one’s breath away.

Shown at the 2017 Cannes Festival, Schroeder’s film attracted an impressive amount of media attention. And, in a subsequent television appearance, Schroeder warned that the Rohingya, the Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, lay in the sights of Wirathu’s bloodthirsty ‘969 Movement’.

That should come as no surprise. The Rohingyas are a million men and women rendered stateless in their own country. Deprived of the right to vote, of political representation and of access to hospitals and schools, they have faced pogroms whenever the military that has tyrannised Myanmar for a half-century has tired of starving them.

The Rohingya’s unique status is stunning in its calculated cruelty. They are simultaneously rootless (officially unrecognised in a country so obsessed with race that it counts 135 other ‘national ethnicities’, making them literally one race too many) and root-bound (legally barred from moving, working, or marrying outside their village of origin and subject to restrictions on family size).
*From sub-human to hunted animal*
SO HERE we are, confronted with one of those moments that seem to arrive unannounced but that, by now, we should be able to recognise as the accelerating pulse of genocide.

Nearly 4,00,000 people have now been transferred from the realm of subhumans to that of hunted animals, smoked out of the villages to which they had previously been confined, driven out on the roads, shot at, tortured for fun and subjected to mass rape. Those who survive are arriving at makeshift camps just across the border in neighbouring Bangladesh, which, as one of the world’s poorest countries, lacks the resources, though not the will, to offer proper shelter to the swelling ranks of refugees.

The United Nations, overcoming its customary pusillanimity, has drawn on what remains of its moral capital to condemn these crimes, declaring the Rohingyas the world’s most persecuted minority. For those inclined to see and remember, the situation in Rakhine State recalls the ethnic cleansing that occurred in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the even worse massacres in Rwanda in the same decade.

But many are not inclined to see. Because the Rohingyas’ persecutors, by restricting access to journalists and photographers, have denied their victims a face and because the Rohingya are Muslims at a bad time to be Muslim, nearly the entire world is turning a blind eye.
*‘Unused knowledge and a passion for ignorance’*
CONFRONTED with this tragedy foretold, the world should meditate on what my late friend, the philosopher Jean-Francois Revel, called unused knowledge and the passion for ignorance.
We should curse the naivete that led many, including me, to sanctify the ‘Lady of Rangoon’, Aung San Suu Kyi, herself the subject of a film, this one intended to be hagiographic but, in hindsight, appalling. Since becoming Myanmar’s de facto leader last year, Suu Kyi has abandoned the Rohingyas to their fate.

Suu Kyi seemed to deserve the Nobel peace prize that she won in 1991, when she appeared to be the reincarnation in one body of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. But from the moment when she solemnly assured the world that she had seen nothing in Sittwe, that nothing had happened in the rest of Rakhine State and that the string of alarming reports to the contrary was just the ‘tip of an iceberg of disinformation’, her Nobel prize became an alibi.

The Rohingyas are the latest cohort of the existentially naked: people dispossessed of everything (including their own death), shut out of the human community and thus stripped of rights. They are the people Hannah Arendt predicted would become fixtures of humanity’s future, living (or living dead) reproaches to hollow declarations of human rights.
_Qantara.de, October 6. Bernard-Henri Lévy is one of the founders of the movement of ‘Nouveaux Philosophes’ (New Philosophers). His books include Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism, American Vertigo: In Search of the Soul of America. His latest work is entitled The Genius of Judaism._
http://www.newagebd.net/article/25881/existentially-naked


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 12, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:30 AM, October 12, 2017
*UN's Bosnia promise forgotten in Myanmar*




A Rohingya child uses a bowl to shelter himself from the scorching sun at the Palangkhali refugee camp in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: AFP
Inam Ahmed and Shakhawat Liton
*After the shame of Bosnia, there should not have been a Myanmar.*
Yet, Myanmar happened because the big nations on both sides of the East-West divide have rendered the UN an ineffective organisation, a platform to talk and not to take actions.

When in July 1995, the Christian Serbs raided the Bosnian Muslim “safe zone” in Srebrenica and killed thousands of men and boys, the world remained a spectator with voices to speak but no will to act.

They were vocal even before when the Bosnian tragedy unfolded. The UN Security Council, between April 1992 and October 1993, adopted a record 47 resolutions and issued 42 statements. Yet two years later, the Srebrenica massacre was unleashed as the nations in the UN could not decide what actions to take to stop the atrocities thrust upon the Muslims.

Those nations who had their troops in Bosnia with Blue Helmets did not want any military offensive against the Serbs. Nations which did not commit any troops wanted military intervention. In the end, no action was taken and Srebrenica happened.

The events in the heart of Europe shook many a conscience. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in a report concluded “the tragedy of Srebrenica will haunt our history forever”.

And at the opening session of 1999 General Assembly, he showed his resolve when he said that national borders would no longer protect leaders who abuse people under their control.

Eight years down the line and six years after the butcher of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic was arrested by the Yugoslav authorities for genocide, the International Court of Justice issued an important judgement in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Serbia and Montenegro.

The court echoed what Kofi Annan had said and announced that the obligation to prevent genocide cannot be limited by territories. 

It said every state with a “capacity to influence effectively the action of persons likely to commit, or already committing genocide”, even if outside its own borders, was under an obligation “to employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible”.

The world thought there would not be another Bosnia. The world thought there would not be another Srebrenica. Myanmar was a rude awakening for the world.

And the world forgot their obligation as Kofi Annan and the International Court of Justice had lain out. None of the nations that had any power to stop the Myanmar genocide raised a finger.

The UN under Antonio Guterres, a socialist, a committed reformer, the former prime minister of Portugal, was expected to change the UN from its bureaucratic straps that made it a talking platform. He was after all the prime minister who resigned and went to the city slums to teach children math before being appointed the UN chief for the first time in the history through an open debate. He was a man to operate with “heart and reason”.

But even he proved too helpless this time in Myanmar as all that the UN have done so far was to issue a Security Council statement and to hold an open discussion to be snubbed by vetoes by China and Russia after the greatest modern time exodus after the persecution began. Meantime, the streams of Rohingyas fleeing killings and rape continue.

This has exposed the inherent weakness of the UN system and the greater need for reforms to prevent and intervene in future genocides.

The call for restraining the veto power in cases of genocide has been growing louder in recent years. In 2013, France, one of the five permanent members in the Security Council, presented a proposal to the General Assembly to limit the use of the veto power in cases of genocides.

Two years after France's initiative, 107 countries jointly placed a proposal in the General Assembly for enacting a code of conduct to limit the exercise of the veto power. France and UK supported this move.

This reform should immediately be carried out to have a strong UN to deliver on its core goal-- prevention of genocide.

The genocide in Myanmar must be stopped forthwith and after Myanmar there must not be another one.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*South Asian Monitor
The “ethnic cleansing” of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, explained*




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*BSF Pushing Rohingyas into Bangladesh from India.
সাতক্ষীরায় ভারত থেকে আসা ১৯ রোহিঙ্গা আটক, কঠোর অবস্থানে দিল্লি........২০১৭-১০-১১ 
বাংলাদেশের সাতক্ষীরা সীমান্ত দিয়ে ভারত থেকে অবৈধভাবে আসা ১৯ রোহিঙ্গাকে আটক করেছে বিজিবি। আটকদের মধ্যে ১০ শিশু, ছয় নারী ও তিন পুরুষ রয়েছে। 

আজ (বুধবার) ভোরে সাতক্ষীরা সদর উপজেলার পদ্মশাকরা সীমান্তে পৌঁছামাত্র ওই তাদেরকে আটক করা হয়।বিজিবির পদ্মশাকরা তল্লাশিচৌকির (বিওপি) কমান্ডার সুবেদার মোশাররফ হোসেন জানান, ওই রোহিঙ্গারা ভারত থেকে দেশটির সীমান্তরক্ষাকারী বাহিনী বিএসএফের সহায়তায় বাংলাদেশে আসে। 

এর আগে ২০১২ ও ২০১৪ সালে দুই দফায় তারা মিয়ানমার থেকে ভারতের দিল্লিতে গিয়েছিল। এর পর থেকে সেখানেই বসবাস করে আসছিল। কিন্তু সম্প্রতি বাংলাদেশ সরকার রোহিঙ্গাদের আশ্রয় এবং খাদ্য, বস্ত্র ও চিকিৎসা দিচ্ছে বলে খবর পেয়ে তারা দিল্লি থেকে বাংলাদেশে চলে এসেছেন। তাদেরকে সাতক্ষীরা সদর থানায় সোপার্দ করাহয় বলে জানান বিজিবির ওই কর্মকর্তা। সাতক্ষীরা সদর থানার উপপরিদর্শক (এসআই) শরিফ এনামুল হক জানান, আটকরা বেশ ক্লান্ত। তাঁদের খাদ্য ও চিকিৎসা সহায়তা দেওয়া হচ্ছে।এর আগে গত ২২ সেপ্টেম্বর সাতক্ষীরার কলারোয়া বাসস্ট্যান্ড থেকে ১৩ জন এবং ৩ অক্টোবর কলারোয়ার হিজলদী সীমান্ত থেকে আরো সাত রোহিঙ্গাকে আটক করেন আইনশৃঙ্খলা বাহিনীর সদস্যরা।*


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## Banglar Bir




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## Banglar Bir

*Army in systematic bid to drive Rohingya from Myanmar: UN*
SAM Staff, October 12, 2017





Rohingya refugees, who arrived from Myanmar, walk in a rice field after crossing the border in Palang Khali near Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh Oct 9, 2017. (Photo: Reuters/Jorge Silva)

Myanmar’s “systematic” crackdown on the Rohingya has been designed to permanently eliminate the minority Muslim community from their home in Rakhine state, the United Nations said Wednesday (Oct 11).

“Brutal attacks against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning to their homes,” a UN investigation found.

The probe is based on interviews with people who fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since attacks by militants on Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine on Aug 25, which sparked a major military backlash.

More than half a million people have fled in the latest exodus, according to the UN.

The UN probe found that the latest wave of military “clearance operations” in Rakhine in fact began before August 25, possibly in early August, contradicting claims by Myanmar that the crackdown was a response to militant strikes.

The investigation broadly outlines an army-led campaign to erase the Rohingya’s connection to their homeland in the majority Buddhist nation, where they have suffered persecution for decades.

“In some cases, before and during the attacks, megaphones were used to announce: ‘You do not belong here – go to Bangladesh. If you do not leave, we will torch your houses and kill you’,” the UN said.

Teachers as well as cultural, religious and community leaders have also been targeted in the latest crackdown “in an effort to diminish Rohingya history, culture and knowledge”, the report said.

“Efforts were taken to effectively erase signs of memorable landmarks in the geography of the Rohingya landscape and memory in such a way that a return to their lands would yield nothing but a desolate and unrecognisable terrain,” it added.
*Also Read: **Rohingya crisis reveals reality of India’s relations with Bangladesh*
The findings were based on interviews with Rohingya who arrived in Bangladesh between September 14 and 24.

The UN team said it spoke to hundreds of people in 65 interviews, some with individuals and some with groups as large as 40.

UN human rights chief ZeidRa’ad Al Hussein, has previously described the crackdown as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
SOURCE AFP/ GENEVA
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/12/army-systematic-bid-drive-rohingya-myanmar-un/


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## Banglar Bir

*WHAT’S TATMADAW’S PLAN FOR ROHINGYA*
*Myanmar’s military spent decades engineering a genocide*
*Austin Bodetti*
The Diplomat
Despite taking years to plan, history’s worst crimes against humanity appeared to the world as clumsy, hasty, and reactive. The Ottoman Empire organized the Armenian Genocide amid fears of Russian spies during World War I. Nazi Germany raced to implement the Final Solution, the bloodiest phase of the Holocaust, as the Soviet Union and the Western Allies punched through its defenses during World War II.

Newcomers to genocide studies might see historic recurrence in Myanmar, whose military, the Tatmadaw, claims that it only started battling the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, after insurgents fighting under the banner of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) conducted operations against security forces in October 2016 and August 2017. 
*However, the Tatmadaw has spent decades engineering the genocide of the Rohingya, a conspiracy that is now coming to fruition and that, in the face of the Western world’s growing complacence and Islamophobia, will likely succeed.
Brutality with patience*
When the British Empire granted independence to Burma, Myanmar’s predecessor, in 1948, some Rohingya pushed for their own Islamic state separate from the Buddhist-dominated sovereign state in which they found themselves. 
They referred to the territory that would become Rakhine State — named after the Rakhine, the Buddhist people who live there alongside the Rohingya — as “Arakan.” The Tatmadaw had other plans though, expelling thousands of those secessionists to Bangladesh.

Unlike the Ottomans or the Nazis, who tried to crush minority religions in just a few years, the Tatmadaw exercised not only brutality but also patience and restraint. In the early 1990s, soon after the military government had renamed the country “Myanmar” to promote its nationalist agenda, 250,000 Rohingya fled rape, religious persecution, and slavery to Bangladesh. 

The Tatmadaw nevertheless allowed many to return, likely appreciating how cruel the instantaneous erasure of a minority could look to the international community. The Tatmadaw understood what the Hutus and Serbs failed to. 
Most often, Rohingya refugees would return from Bangladesh after the Tatmadaw decided that it had wrought enough destruction, adding to a growing Rohingya population. 
The Rakhine feared that the Rohingya might soon outnumber them, so Burma’s then-military government legislated a solution: the 1982 Citizenship Law, which required Burmese to prove their ancestry prior to 1823, when Britain colonized Burma and permitted Muslims from the British Raj to immigrate there. 

The Tatmadaw thus rendered the Rohingya stateless, classifying them as illegal “Bengali” immigrants.
The War on Terror presented Myanmar the opportunity to build its anti-Rohingya narrative: the Tatmadaw was fighting Islamist terrorism, not pursuing an Islamophobic genocide. 

When sectarian riots erupted in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, in summer 2012, the Tatmadaw imprisoned tens of thousands of Rohingya in concentration camps for what it described as their own safety. According to the Myanmar government, the camps protected the Rohingya from Rakhine rioters while the Tatmadaw pursued the alleged terrorists of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), a defunct resistance movement.
*Passive to active genocide*
Choosing to confine the Rohingya, instead of killing them, allowed the Tatmadaw to define the story. Even if Human Rights Watch and the United Nations protested, what happened in 2012 proved ambiguous enough that most observers refrained from labeling the detentions genocide. The Tatmadaw was pressuring the Rohingya to leave through oppression rather than making them leave through violence.

In 2016 and 2017, the Tatmadaw has found the opportunity to finish what it started in 1948. The existence of ARSA, the Rohingya reaction to decades of passive genocide, gave the Tatmadaw the excuse to switch to active genocide. 

It combated the insurgents, whom it described as “terrorists” even though they killed no civilians, by arresting, burning, displacing, executing, raping, and torturing Rohingya civilians. These war crimes fell under the labels of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism so popular with Western militaries. The Tatmadaw reproduced what it saw at work in the Western world.

Nothing from 1948 to now suggests that the Tatmadaw is reviving the War on Terror with sincerity. Instead, the military that governs Myanmar to this day while hiding behind Aung San Suu Kyi, as a figurehead, has likewise used the War on Terror as cover for the War against Islam. The last two historical attempts at genocide against Muslims, in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, had to contend with American humanitarian intervention. Today, however, Americans sound reluctant to intervene (more) even in Afghanistan and Iraq, the countries that they proved so eager to invade in the early 2000s.

The Tatmadaw has gone further than its counterparts in the Philippines and Thailand, the other two countries in Southeast Asia confronting Islamist insurgencies. The Filipinos and the Thais, on the one hand, have at least spoken of conflict resolution and peace building. The Tatmadaw, on the other, refuses to negotiate with ARSA, a revolutionary movement far worse armed and organized than the Malays in Patani and the Moros in Mindanao. The Tatmadaw wants to destroy an ethnicity, not end an insurgency. ARSA and the RSO, resistance movements capable of little real resistance, seem the perfect excuse.
*UN troops only answer*
“The only resolution to the Rohingya crisis is to send UN troops to Arakan and create a safe space for our people,” Sham Shu Anwar, one of the few Rohingya to stay in Myanmar after half a million have escaped, told The Diplomat. “All other efforts to rescue our people will be in vain.” He recounted the Tatmadaw’s attempts at ethnic cleansing as “adamant and inhuman.”

The Rohingya once hoped that Myanmar’s democratization would return to them the rights that the Tatmadaw had stolen. They praised the National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi’s political party, for its potential to bring peace to Myanmar. Now, neither the NLD nor the international community have met the Rohingya’s already-wavering expectations of protection and salvation. “The international community just provides us food,” Anwar observed. “We need protection, not food.”

One of the world’s most persecuted minorities has convinced itself of the need for warfare, whether in the form of humanitarian intervention or rebellion. “There are two ways to save the Rohingya: one is intervention by the UN Security Council and the other is arming Rohingya fighters,” Anwar argued, noting that his compatriots saw few options against the Tatmadaw. 
“Every moment, we are scared of the Burmese. Everyone here is scared of them. Yesterday, they set fire to a village near us.”

ARSA might have miscalculated in attacking the Tatmadaw, which can now claim to be acting in self-defense. 
The longer ARSA resists, the longer soldiers can slaughter the Rohingya who remain in Myanmar. Anwar told The Diplomat that he nevertheless refuses to leave Myanmar, his homeland, for Bangladesh: “We worry about living in refugee camps. If the Burmese kill us, we will die here.”

Austin Bodetti is a freelance journalist focusing on conflict in the Muslim world. His writing has appeared in AskMen, The Daily Beast, The Daily Dot, Vox, and Wired UK.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:23 AM, October 13, 2017
*Top UN official in Myanmar recalled*
*Suu Kyi says her govt in talks with Dhaka for return of those 'now in Bangladesh'; no mention of Rohingya*




*Renata Lok-Dessallien*
Star Report
The UN has announced that its top official in Myanmar is being recalled to headquarters in New York amid allegations that she commissioned and then suppressed a report that was highly critical of UN's approach in Myanmar.

The development comes as UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman begins a five-day visit to Myanmar today.

Separately, the UN Security Council meets to hear from former UN chief Kofi Annan his experience on the plight of Rohingya today.

More than 5,20,000 Rohingya people have crossed into Bangladesh over the last one and a half months, fleeing a security crackdown that allegedly killed 3,000 Rohingyas and burned 284 villages of the Muslim minority. 

Myanmar says its "clearance operations" began on August 25 in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts, but the UN says it started in early August.

A UN report on Wednesday said, “The brutal attacks against the Rohingyas in northern Rakhine state have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning to their homes.”

Meanwhile, Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday called for national unity and said she created a committee that would coordinate all international and local assistance in Rakhine State, reports AP.




A child cries as its mother fell asleep while waiting for relief at Balukhali in Cox's Bazar's Ukhia yesterday. Photo: Amran Hossain
She acknowledged in a speech on state-run television that the country was facing widespread criticism over the refugee crisis, and called for unity in tackling the problem.

She said her government was holding talks with Bangladesh on the return of “those who are now in Bangladesh.”

Suu Kyi did not use the word “Rohingya” in her speech, although she referred to several other ethnic minorities by name.

She said those who return from Bangladesh would need to be resettled, without providing details, and said development must be brought to Rakhine to achieve a durable peace.

The Myanmar state counsellor said she would head the new committee, the "Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine," and that it would coordinate all efforts to create a "peaceful and developed Rakhine state."

Suu Kyi said the government has invited UN agencies, financial institutions such as the World Bank, and others to help develop Rakhine, one of Myanmar's poorest areas.
*CONTROVERSY OVER RENATA*
Quoting the UN, the BBC yesterday reported UN Resident Coordinator Renata Lok-Dessallien in Myanmar would leave by the end of October.

It said in June that she would be rotated from her position but stressed then the decision had nothing to do with her performance.

Diplomatic and aid community sources in Yangon, however, told the BBC's Jonah Fisher the decision was linked to her failure to prioritise human rights. Since then Dessallien has remained in post with the government of Myanmar, rejecting her proposed successor.

Two weeks ago the UN secretary-general said he had full confidence in Dessallien but the BBC said that now appears to be in doubt.

Renata was the focus of a BBC investigation last month in which she was accused of suppressing internal discussion on Rohingya Muslims. A statement from the UN in Myanmar, in response to a BBC inquiry, however, defended Dessallien's handling of the Rohingya issue.

The Guardian newspaper on October 5 reported the UN-commissioned report that criticised its strategy in Myanmar and warned it was ill-prepared to deal with the impending Rohingya crisis was suppressed.

The review, written by a consultant and submitted in May, offered a highly critical analysis of the UN's approach and said there should be “no silence on human rights”.

The report accurately predicted a “serious deterioration” in the six months following its submission and urged the UN to undertake “serious contingency planning”.

“It is recommended that, as a matter of urgency, UN headquarters identifies ways to improve overall coherence in the UN's system approach,” wrote Richard Horsey, the report's author.

Security forces would be “heavy-handed and indiscriminate” in dealing with the Rohingya, said Horsey in the report.

However, a source close to events, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian that the report was “spiked” and not circulated among UN and aid agencies “because Renata didn't like the analysis”.
*UN UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL TO VISIT MYANMAR*
UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who is visiting Myanmar during October 13-17 October, will focus on building a constructive partnership between Myanmar and the UN to tackle the underlying issues impacting all communities in the affected areas of Rakhine, said a UN statement yesterday. 

The visit follows UN's repeated calls for an end to the military operations and violence in Rakhine and unfettered access for humanitarian support and the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of refugees to their areas of origin.

UN Security Council, which met late September but failed to adopt a resolution against Myanmar because of opposition from China and Russia, will hear former UN chief Kofi Annan.

Annan in late August presented the final report of an advisory commission on Rakhine that he chaired at the request of Aung San Suu Kyi, reports AFP.

France and Britain requested the meeting with Annan as the council weighs its next steps to confront the refugee crisis.

Britain has been working on a draft Security Council resolution that would call for the return of the Rohingyas, but negotiations with China, a supporter of Myanmar's former ruling junta, have been slow, diplomats said.
*WORLD BANK READY TO SUPPORT*
World Bank said it is ready to support Bangladesh addressing the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh.

“While we hope the refugees can safely return home soon, it is important that the international community support them and the host communities in the near term with basic services,” said Annette Dixon, vice president at the World Bank for the South Asia Region in a statement after a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in Washington.

The amount of the support has yet to be decided, but it could include expanding access to health, education, water, sanitation, and roads.

After the meeting on the sidelines of World Bank-IMF annual conference, Muhith told reporters that Bangladesh would seek assistance formally from the World Bank for about 10 lakh forcibly displaced Rohingyas.

He did not talk of any amount, but said half of the amount was likely to be grant. Muhith also said Bangladesh needed about $2 billion for the Rohingya refugees.
*HOME MINISTER TO FOCUS ON REPATRIATION*
Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal will go to Myanmar on a four-day visit on October 23 to discuss the repatriation of the Rohingyas, reports UNB. 

The Bangladesh delegation will include two secretaries of the home ministry, high officials of Border Guard Bangladesh, Coast Guard, Department of Narcotics Control, the police boss and foreign ministry officials.

"The objective of the visit is to repatriate the Rohingyas who were forced to flee into Bangladesh," the minister told reporters at the secretariat yesterday.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...isis-top-un-official-myanmar-recalled-1475680


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:52 AM, October 13, 2017
*ENCOUNTERING THE REAL AND THE IMAGINED*
*The nation and the citizen*




Photo: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Amena Mohsin
As I remain glued, like many of us, to the news of the Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh for survival, my mind goes back to my days in the camps of Pakistan, where I had spent three years of my life along with my family, and many of the Bengali army personnel and their families. 

These were the Bengali military personnel who, in 1971, after the liberation of Bangladesh, had opted to come back to Bangladesh, a land which was, and is, their own. The fenced life in the camp was both “real” and “imagined”.

It was real because the constant surveillance of the Pakistani soldiers along the fenced wire—which had electricity passing through it round the clock lest any of the interns or prisoners flee—reminded the interns of the presence of the state and its power to kill or keep one fenced; the intern was the “other”, not a citizen of that state. But within the fenced community, there was also life. 

We listened to Bangladesh Betar most intently. My very first emotional encounter with my Bangladesh, a land I had created in my imagination within those fences, was through patriotic Bangla songs as they flowed through the programmes of Bangladesh Betar. 
We celebrated Nazrul and Rabindra jayanti with songs and dramas. It was our encounter with the state of Pakistan where we sang Bangla songs and performed dramas despite their guns and barbed wire. 
It was also the building of a realm where we survived through our dreams and imaginations of returning to our land one day. It was indeed a land of freedom for me. I wonder if a Rohingya teenager imagines a land for herself or himself, a land of freedom, with no soldiers marking her or him the “other”.

"The big challenge for us, as the Rohingya question unfolds and also as we face the challenges of rightlessness in our everyday lives, is: how do we translate the imagined into a reality, and whose dream and reality it is going to be?

The ideas of nation and citizenship thus got engraved in my mind through those days in the camp. 
Very early I, along with my generation, saw the “power” of the state, the “power” and “privileges” of citizenship, and also, to some extent, the plight of statelessness through refugeehood or being imprisoned in camps. 

The power that is embedded in these categories, I would suggest, we need to encounter as humans, not as nations or citizens. In independent Bangladesh, it was Manabendra Narayan Larma, the sole representative from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in the national parliament, who exposed the hegemony and limits of nation and nationalism. He protested the imposition of Bengali nationalism and Bengali citizenship upon the entire population of Bangladesh through its first constitution in 1972. Larma made it explicit that he was a Chakma, not a Bengali, so his nationality could not be Bengali, but indeed he was a Bangladeshi citizen.

The shift later into Bangladeshi nationalism, with its incorporation of religion as its tool, did not reflect the dream of the minority communities either. With Bangladeshi nationalism, the state took a turn towards majoritarian religion, i.e. Islam; in Bengali nationalism, the majoritarian Bengali culture was embedded. These state-sponsored models of nationalism created cultural, linguistic, ethnic and then religious minorities. One needs serious pondering here. Within these frames, where and how do the non-Bengalis and non-Muslims locate themselves as part of the nation and citizenry?




There are cycles of "otherness" and "exclusions" in the basic premises of state formation.
The question of women also looms large within these discourses and frames. 
Women are considered to be the emblem of cultural and biological continuity and authenticity of a nation. 
The “purity” of the nation is important for nation and state construction, which, in most post-colonial states, have become interchangeable. 
It is no surprise, then, that rape has been and continues to be used as a strategy during war-time, ethnic-cleansing and genocide. 
It took Bangladesh more than four decades to recognise birangona or war heroines as freedom fighters. This indeed is the outcome of the women's movement and the trial of the war criminals of 1971. The demand had been a part of the women's movement; in other words, it was a movement which confronted the state and the nation to create space within their frames that would interrogate the notions of shame, honour, and purity. This emblem of the nation, i.e. the woman, however, does not enjoy the same rights as her male counterpart. 

Through the insertion of personal laws, the state has constitutionally limited her rights. As the women's movement carries on its struggle for the rape survivors of 1971, it is questionable if a minority woman feels part of the same movement. Kalpana Chakma's abduction allegedly by a military officer in 1996 from the CHT remains unresolved. But then there have been many other instances of sexual violations and rapes in the CHT, where silence or silencing has become the rule of the game. Here again one needs serious introspection into the minority within the minority and the supposed wholeness of the nation and the premise of equality of citizens.




The fenced life in the camp is both "real" and "imagined". Photo: Amirul Rajiv
The state also arrogates to itself the right of disenfranchising its citizens. The Rohingya community in Myanmar is a case in point here. 
It is an ongoing process since 1962, to the point that Myanmar today labels them as Bengali Muslims. The creation of this “otherness” and the genocide taking place in Myanmar is part of the nation- and state-crafting project of the Burman nation, where the hegemony of Buddhist fundamentalism is increasingly coming to the foreground. 
It is also about the control of resources. 
In Sri Lanka, we also observed the disenfranchisement of the Tamils through citizenship laws and the supremacy of Sinhala nationalism. 
Tracking the path of nation and state formation in postcolonial societies, one observes cycles of repression in the name of nation and nationalism, while the biases and hierarchies of citizenship remain quite uncontested. 

It is assumed citizenship gives one full entry and equal privileges, which indeed is not the case. There are cycles of “otherness” and “exclusions” in the basic premises of state formation. 
The big challenge for us, as the Rohingya question unfolds and also as we face the challenges of rightlessness in our everyday lives, is: how do we translate the imagined into a reality, and whose dream and reality it is going to be? Indeed, in the backdrop of the challenges, hopes, aspirations and, above all, humaneness, there has to be multiplicity of dreams, imaginations, and realities, within a state. 
There is no escape from this reality and imagination.
_Amena Mohsin is Professor of Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka._
http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/the-shadow-violence/the-nation-and-the-citizen-1474909


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## Banglar Bir

2:00 AM, October 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:21 AM, October 13, 2017
*The tale of a persecuted people*
Shaer Reaz
Their mass exodus into Bangladesh and attempted entry into Thailand, Malaysia and other nations to escape a brutal ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Myanmar military junta has been termed the "the world's fastest growing refugee crisis." 

They have been termed the "most persecuted minority in history" by the United Nations. Their history is one filled with sectarian violence and a struggle with identity that is unique in the modern worlds. This is the story of a systematically oppressed people—the Rohingya.
_Click below to see the full timeline:_
*In the shadow of violence *


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## Banglar Bir

*Do the right thing*
Zahin Hasan
Published at 06:14 PM October 09, 2017
Last updated at 11:58 PM October 09, 2017




They should be made more employable *SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN*
*The only thing to do in good conscience is to make the Rohingya feel welcome here*
Just over one month ago, Myanmar began an intensive campaign to slaughter and expel the Rohingya. Since then, Bangladesh has received over half a million Rohingya refugees.

Our government has asked the international community to pressure Myanmar to take back the refugees, and to create safe zones for them in Myanmar. 
Unfortunately, Myanmar enjoys the protection of China; China is likely to use its veto to block any UN resolution aimed at creating safe zones.

Even if safe zones can be created, it is far from certain that the Rohingya refugees will be willing to return to Myanmar. They watched as their young men were lined up and shot; they watched as their teenage girls were gang raped, then shot.

The Rohingya are not going to trust any promises made by Myanmar; many of them returned to Myanmar after being driven out in the 1990’s, only to be driven out again.

It should be pointed out that during the Bosnian war, the “safe areas” created by the UN around towns like Srebrenica were attacked by Serb forces; 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were massacred in the Srebrenica “safe area.”

UN resolutions created safe areas, but UN member states were not willing to deploy their armed forces in numbers sufficient to protect those areas. The international community is not likely to repeat the mistake of creating imaginary “safe areas;” the only safe area is a state which is protected by its own army.
*
Insurgents like ARSA will not be able to liberate Arakan from Myanmar. Bangladesh won independence in just nine months because we are disconnected from Pakistan; Pakistan could not easily reinforce or supply its troops in Bangladesh. 
*
Arakan is connected to Myanmar, making it easy for Myanmar to overwhelm ARSA with tanks and warplanes. ARSA will not win a free Arakan; the Rohingya will only be willing to return if Myanmar grants them full citizenship. Myanmar stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship, and Myanmar must be forced to restore it.

Under pressure, Myanmar has recently said it will allow refugees to return after it verifies that they were once residents; however, it has not offered to restore their citizenship. 
Myanmar is not negotiating in good faith; it knows that as long as it does not extend citizenship to the Rohingya, they can be driven out again.

Unless safe zones can be created and protected, it is not likely that the Rohingya refugees will be willing to return

The only possible solution lies in tough diplomacy. Bangladesh should impose a trade embargo on Myanmar, and should announce that this embargo will only be lifted if Myanmar repatriates the Rohingya and restores their citizenship. Bangladesh should also try to convince sympathetic countries (including the US, EU, Japan, and powerful Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Malaysia) to impose trade sanctions on Myanmar until it agrees to allow Rohingya refugees to return as citizens.

Trade sanctions were instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa; they offer the best hope of ending apartheid against the Rohingya in Myanmar.

Even if we are able to convince like-minded countries to impose trade sanctions on Myanmar, it will probably take a decade (or two) to persuade Myanmar to abandon apartheid; until then, the Rohingya refugees will not be able to return to their homes as citizens. In the meantime, we should do what is right; we should welcome these unfortunate people, who have nowhere else to go.

We should firstly register all the Rohingya refugees, and ask richer countries in Europe and North America to host as many as they can; it’s not fair to expect Bangladesh to host all of them. We should ask the international community to provide food, education and health services to the refugees who are minors.

We should give the adult refugees the right to live and work anywhere in Bangladesh so that they can support themselves. We should ask the international community for funds to train them to make them more employable. Rohingya children born in Bangladesh should be allowed to become citizens of Bangladesh.

Equally important is what we should not do. We should not prevent them from buying sim cards; they need cellphones to contact their surviving family members. We should not confine them to a camps on a remote island where it will be impossible for them to find employment and integrate with our society.

A generation ago, India hosted millions of Bangladeshi refugees who had fled the violence of the Pakistani army; the refugees returned after Bangladesh won independence.

The Rohingya have fled Arakan, but there is no chance that the ARSA insurgents will be able to win a free Arakan state; they have no home to which they can return. *The only thing we can do in good conscience is to make them feel welcome in our country.*
_Kazi Zahin Hasan is a businessman, and a member of the board of directors of the Dhaka Tribune._
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/10/09/do-the-right-thing/

*Speech of the Century : Justice For Rohingya by Soborno Isaac




*
12:00 AM, October 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:34 AM, October 13, 2017
*When religion is used by the military to justify their aims*




Photo: AFP
Saskia Sassen
Religious persecution is the overwhelming fact in the violence that the Rohingya have experienced on and off in Myanmar across the centuries.

But this does not preclude that the military, long in charge of what they call “economic development”, can today push those persecutions to a whole new level. And this is what they did in the current phase of a long history of Rohingya persecution.

By burning Rohingya villages to the ground and eliminating all traces of those villages, the military contributed to transform persecution into radical expulsions of whole villages. And, as one Myanmar minister put it: "According to the law, burnt land becomes government-managed land" (Minister for Social Development, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye, at a meeting in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe as reported by the Global New Light of Myanmar).

In my reading, this also contributes to explain the extraordinary (literally) effort the military deployed to eliminate traces of Rohingya villages and reduce it all to “burnt land.” No returning Rohingya can easily make a claim that it was their land: now it is just burnt land.

And indeed, the national government announced a few days ago that it was taking over the “development of the Rakhine state”, and specifically the burnt land in Rohingya land. That seals the deal.
But there is more to the current situation.
*China's projects in rakhine state*
There is a parallel history developing in the Rakhine state that has not been mentioned—except most recently. It is the fact that China has entered contractual agreements with the government of Myanmar to develop a massive port in the Rakhine state and a large industrial zone. These are not in the area where the current burning of villages happened. But clearly such massive developments will have an enormous shadow effect over a very large part of Rakhine, going well beyond the area of the port and the industrial zone.

China's Beijing based CITIC investment group will be building a deep-sea port and economic zone in Kyaukpyu worth USD 7.3 billion. A three billion dollar economic development zone is also in the works.

"The escalating displacement of millions of smallholders (mostly Buddhists) from the land was a major change as to who was to manage the land. Smallholders became refugees of a new economic ordering. Myanmar is not unique in this.

China has already invested significantly in the Rakhine state with a USD 2.45 billion pipeline from Rakhine to China's Yunnan province. The planned port will give China access to the Indian Ocean and to the Middle East—and to Middle Eastern crude oil. Most of China's investments in Myanmar have been outside the Rakhine state—thus the current investments are new. China had invested USD 15 billion mostly in mining, dams, and timber in other parts of Myanmar—in fact, one third of the vast forest in Myanmar is now barren land due to the timber extraction.

A question I have been pursuing is how this might impact the Rakhine state area where the Rohingya villages were burnt down. I have a hard time not thinking that religion was used by the military to make burnt land and thereby take possession.
*What does religion have to do with it?*
It is worth noting that the international media has almost exclusively focused on the religion aspect. Human Rights Watch described the anti-Rohingya violence as amounting to [crimes against humanity] carried out as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Malaysia's foreign minister described the Myanmar government's actions as ethnic cleansing and called on them to stop the practice, leading in turn to a strong response from Myanmar's government. John McKissick, head of the UN refugee agency, said the Myanmar government was carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people.

All of this is true, and a horrible part of the story.

But my research leads me to argue that religion and ethnicity might be only part of what explains this forced displacement, larger than many earlier expulsions of the Rohingya. The past two decades have seen a massive worldwide rise of corporate acquisitions of land for mining, timber, agriculture, and water. 

In the case of Myanmar, the military have been grabbing vast stretches of land from small holders since the 1990s—without compensation, but with threats if they should fight back. This land grabbing has continued across the decades. At the time of the 2012 attacks, the land allocated to large projects had increased by 170 percent between 2010 and 2013. By 2012 the law governing land was changed to favour large corporate acquisitions.

The escalating displacement of millions of smallholders (mostly Buddhists) from the land was a major change as to who was to manage the land. Smallholders became refugees of a new economic ordering. Myanmar is not unique in this. Similar brutal expulsions of smallholders have been happening across the world as large corporations take over because they “establish” that the smallholders have no contracts showing the land is theirs, no matter how long they and their ancestors worked that land. What is different in Myanmar is the almost absolute control the military have long had over much of the country's land, and hence their key role in the expulsion of smallholders (pdf).




Burmese small holders protesting land grabbing. Photo: AFP
Today there are whole new economies—mining, timber, geothermal projects—where before there were smallholders. Economic development may require this: but it should also work for the millions of displaced and never compensated smallholders. Foreign direct investment is now concentrated in extractive sectors and power generation. Not much of the new investment has gone to sectors such as manufacturing that can generate a strong working class and a modest middle class. For example, Myanmar's Yadana pipeline project, “required investment of over $1bn (£0.8bn), yet employs only 800 workers”.

Furthermore, the 2012 law empowered foreign investors. It offered government loans—but no help for the smallholders who lost their land. Land properties can range from 2,000 hectares up to 20,000 hectares (5,000 acres to 50,000 acres) for an initial period of 30 years. The extent of land grabs is such that Myanmar is losing more than a million acres of forest a year (pdf).

These facts are never invoked in the discussion about the persecution of the Rohingyas. And Aung San Suu Kyi has been similarly silent on the matter.

(Generally. see my earlier piece in the _Guardian _on these developments: “Is Rohingya persecution caused by business interests rather than religion?” published on January 4, 2017).

In short, expelling Rohingyas from their land might well be good for future business. Indeed, quite recently the government allocated millions of hectares in Rakhine for corporate development. To some extent the international focus on the religion of the Rohingya has overshadowed the vast land grabs that have affected millions, including the Rohingya.
_Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University.
Her latest book is _Expulsions: Complexity and Brutality in the Global Economy_(Harvard University Press).
www.saskiasassen.com_
http://www.thedailystar.net/star-we...-used-the-military-justify-their-aims-1475209


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## Banglar Bir

*Hands Tied by Old Hope, Diplomats in Myanmar Stay Silent*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/10/hands-tied-by-old-hope-diplomats-in-myanmar-stay-silent.html




Rohingya in a camp in Sittwe, Rakhine, this month. The Myanmar government has prevented international aid agencies from delivering relief supplies or even assessing need in the area. ADAM DEAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Hannah Beech, The New York Times

YANGON, Myanmar — It is unfolding again: Troops have unleashed fire and rape and indiscriminate slaughter on a vulnerable minority, driving hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee and creating a humanitarian emergency that crosses borders.

A crisis in Myanmar that many saw coming has brought a host of uncomfortable questions along with it: Why did the world — which promised “never again” after Rwanda and Bosnia, then Sudan and Syria — seemingly do so little to forestall an ethnic cleansing campaign by Myanmar’s military? And what can be done now to address the urgent humanitarian calamity caused when more than half of Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya Muslims fled the country over just a few weeks?

Outside Myanmar, criticism of its military has mounted. The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has urged “unfettered access” for international agencies and called the Rohingya crisis “the world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency and a humanitarian and human rights nightmare.”

President Emmanuel Macron of France has called it genocide. And there is talk, although still tentative, of the European Union’s renewing targeted sanctions on people culpable in the violence that has driven the Rohingya from Rakhine, a state in western Myanmar.

But in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital, where the diplomatic corps is based, there is still reluctance to call to task publicly either the military or the civilian administration led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Some diplomats say they are trying to preserve whatever influence they may have left, in order to avert an even worse catastrophe.

More than half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August, when a Rohingya militant attack on Myanmar security posts catalyzed a brutal counteroffensive. Hundreds of thousands more remaining in Myanmar may still be trying to cross the border. Those who cannot flee are trapped and hungry in northern Rakhine, according to anecdotal evidence collected by international aid agencies, which the government has largely prevented from delivering relief supplies or even assessing need in the region.




Aung San Suu Kyi supporters at an ‘Interreligious Gathering of Prayers for Peace’ organized by her party in Yangon on Tuesday.
*ADAM DEAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES*
“There are few places on Earth where we are denied access to this extent,” said Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “We have an office in northern Rakhine, we have staff there, we have supplies there, we could go tomorrow with our trucks — but we are being stopped. This is illegal, this is intolerable.”

I spoke to half a dozen ambassadors and senior aid agency staff members in Yangon about what the problem was. All asked to speak off the record.

There are many reasons for their reticence, but a major one is this: Myanmar has been presented as a success story, despite a host of economic and ethnic problems.

Elections in 2015 elevated Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose name was once a byword for acts of conscience, and seemed to usher in a chance for democracy to take hold.

But whatever authority she has, as the nation’s state counselor, is dwarfed by that of a military that ruled for nearly half a century and continues to monopolize power.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is not the one ordering Rohingya villages to be burned down or civilians to be massacred. That firepower lies with the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, led by Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

In a Facebook post on Thursday recounting his meeting with the United States ambassador, Scot Marciel, the military chief called reports of a large exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh an “exaggeration.” He reiterated that Rohingya were “not the natives” of Myanmar.




Monks praying in Bengala Monastery in Yangon, this month. Over the past year or so, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has played to hatred of Rohingya Muslims among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority.
ADAM DEAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Diplomats say Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi used to express sympathy for the Rohingya in private, explaining that she could not speak out because of widespread hatred for them among the Buddhist majority. But over the past year or so, she has played to that prejudice, referring instead to the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

In a televised address on Thursday, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi pushed back against international criticism and promised to personally oversee efforts to bring peace to Rakhine and repatriate those who have fled to Bangladesh.

In the speech, as in an address delivered to foreign envoys last month, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi declined to tackle accusations that the military has unleashed arson, murder and rape on the Rohingya.

Despite Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s obfuscations, diplomats in Yangon have tended to avoid increasing public pressure. Veteran observers of Myanmar’s military, which has long faced condemnation for its brutality toward civilians and ethnic minorities, have warned that an international shaming of a disgraced Nobel laureate is just what the generals want.

“She gets all the criticism, and then the Tatmadaw gets to quietly do what it wants and what it has done for decades, which is to burn villages and terrorize ethnic areas,” said David Scott Mathieson, a longtime human-rights researcher in Myanmar.

Foreign envoys here are mindful of the complex politics. A nation does not emerge from 50 years of military dictatorship without political wounds, they say, asserting that pushing Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose famous resolve can tend toward obduracy, could be counterproductive.

One senior Western envoy said that with no real coordination between military and civilian officials, weeks of flying back and forth to talk with them had come to nothing. The diplomat called it “by far the most frustrating issue I’ve ever worked on.”




Rohingya refugees outside Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, last month. More than half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August, and hundreds of thousands more still in Myanmar may still be trying to cross the border.
*SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES*
Mr. Egeland, who once served as the United Nations’ under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, has grown impatient.

“I would like to issue a terse message to the diplomats,” he said. “I would like to disagree that it is a complicated situation. It is very simple: When humanitarians are not allowed to help civilians, people die.”

For its part, the United Nations in Myanmar commissioned an internal report, submitted in April, that warned against soft-pedaling on human rights to placate the military or the civilian authority.

“Trade-offs between advocacy and access,” the report said, “have in practice deprioritized human rights and humanitarian action, which are seen as complicating and undermining relations with government.”

The report’s author, Richard Horsey, noted how quickly the honeymoon period after the 2015 elections had subsided.

“We shouldn’t be surprised that the landing spot for Myanmar’s transition may be as one more Southeast Asian nation with authoritarian tendencies, rising nationalism and ethnic tensions,” he said. “But Myanmar should aspire to be so much better than that.”

Certainly, few countries enjoyed as much international good will as Myanmar did, at a time when the world was desperate for a positive narrative.




A burned house in Gawdu Zara village, in Rakhine state, last month. International aid workers with years of experience in Rakhine say that they have never seen the situation so grave.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Western donors and the U.N. have not always been helpful,” said Charles Petrie, a former United Nations resident coordinator in Myanmar, noting “the refusal for a long time to let go of the fairy-tale view of Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi coming to power and the corresponding refusal to push back on some of her dogmatic positions.”

Mr. Petrie drew comparisons with South Sudan, where the world was “so taken by the narrative of a new country emerging from northern enslavement that the signs of the emerging violence were ignored.”

International aid workers with years of experience in Rakhine say they have never seen the situation so grave.

Brad Hazlett of Partners Relief and Development, a Christian charity that has provided food aid to the Rohingya, said he had been prevented from visiting internment camps this month in the state capital, Sittwe, that he had visited dozens of times before.

“I think their strategy is to starve them out,” he said.

Abul Hashim, a Rohingya from the northern Rakhine village of Anauk Pyin, described by cellphone how a team of ambassadors and United Nations officials had gone to the community on Oct. 2 as part of a stage-managed government trip. The crowds of officials who had helicoptered in promised food aid to the village.

But for nearly 10 days, Mr. Hashim said, his community had received nothing. For three months, none of the Rohingya have been allowed to step outside the village, he said. They have had no access to doctors or schools. Until some aid arrived on Wednesday evening, all he, his wife, their three daughters and three sons had eaten that day was less than a pound of rice and some water.
*“Our sorrows,” he said, “know no bounds.”*


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar army opens probe amid reports of killings, abuse of Rohingya Muslims*
Reuters
Published: 2017-10-13 18:53:37.0 BdST Updated: 2017-10-13 18:53:37.0 BdST




*Myanmar's military has launched an internal probe into the conduct of soldiers during a counteroffensive that has sent more than half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, many saying they witnessed killings, rape and arson by troops.*
Coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on 30 security posts on Aug 25 sparked a ferocious military response in the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine state that the United Nations has said was ethnic cleansing.

A committee led by military Lieutenant-General Aye Win has begun an investigation into the behaviour of military personnel, the office of the commander in chief said on Friday, insisting the operation was justified under Buddhist-majority Myanmar's constitution.

According to a statement posted on Senior General Min Aung Hlaing's Facebook page, the panel will ask, "Did they follow the military code of conduct? Did they exactly follow the command during the operation? After that (the committee) will release full information."

Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

But domestic investigations - including a previous internal military probe - have largely dismissed refugees' claims of abuses committed during security forces' so-called "clearance operations".

Thousands of refugees have continued to arrived cross the Naf river separating Myanmar's Rakhine state and Bangladesh in recent days, even though Myanmar insists military operations ceased on Sept 5.

Aid agencies now estimate that 536,000 people have now arrived in Cox's Bazar district, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities.

About 200,000 Rohingya were already in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship and faced restrictions on their movements and access to basic services.

Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for human rights abuses and says Myanmar will accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar.

The powerful army chief has taken a harder stance, however, telling the US ambassador in Myanmar earlier this week that the exodus of Rohingya - who he said were non-native "Bengalis" - was exaggerated.

In comments to Japan's ambassador carried in state media on Friday, Min Aung Hlaing denied ethnic cleansing was taking place on the grounds that photos showed Muslims "departing calmly rather than fleeing in terror".
https://bdnews24.com/world/2017/10/...reports-of-killings-abuse-of-rohingya-muslims


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## Banglar Bir

*‘Don’t be swayed by Suu Kyi’s poisonous snakes’*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/10/dont-be-swayed-by-suu-kyis-poisonous-snakes.html




By Mizanur Rahman Khan | Prothom Alo
_Dr Maung Zarni flew in from London to Kuala Lumpur to testify as an expert witness before the International Peoples Court Tribunal on the genocide committed by his native country Myanmars military forces against the Rohingya._

_He spoke to Prothom Alo’s joint editor* Mizanur Rahman Khan* on 21 September 2017. They subsequently also communicated by e-mail for the following interview._

_Dr. Maung Zarni was born in 1963 into a Burmese Buddhist family in Mandalay, a year after General Ne Win came to power in a military coup.He has been a human rights activist for nearly 30 years and has written extensively on democratisation, Islamophobia and Rohingya genocide. He was educated at the universities of Mandalay, California, Washington and Wisconsin from which he earned his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction in 1998._

_He has had wide academic involvement at the London School of Economics, Oxford, Harvard, UCL-Institute of Education and other prestigious institutions. The Parliament of the Worlds Religions honoured him with the ‘Cultivation of Harmony Award’ in 2015 for his interfaith human rights activism worldwide. The Myanmar government and media outlets have denounced him as ‘national traitor’ and ‘enemy of the State’ for his opposition to the Myanmar genocide._

*Prothom Alo: How do you see the Myanmars latest quest to resolve the Rohingya crises?*

*Maung Zarni* : Aung San Suu Kyi has assigned three civil diplomats to handle the issue abroad. Thaung Tun, her national security adviser, just about 10 days ago went to New York and delivered his North Korean-esque unbelievable official remarks at the recent Security Council, denying everything factual and documented about the genocidal killings and expulsion of Rohingya. He was a former interpreter for the retired dictator Senior General Than Shwe and ambassador to the Philippines.

Then Kyaw Tint Swe, a key civilian career diplomat who has spent entire career serving the military regimes since Ne Wins time, is now Suu Kyis minister for the state counsellors office. He helped take the wind out of the sails in May 2008 when the regime came under enormous pressure to allow access to the cyclone victims stranded without emergency relief or drinking water. He came to Dhaka to deceive Hasinas government about the Suu Kyi government’s intention to take Rohingyas back, in order to diffuse international pressure and divert the attention away from the genocidal persecution in his country.

Then Win Mra, a Rakhine careerist in the foreign affairs ministry, like the other two, has climbed the ladder by defending the militarys human rights records at the international meetings in New York, Geneva, etc. He now heads the so-called National Human Rights Commission, which does not respect the rights of Rohingyas to self-identify.

The generals themselves are incapable of mounting self-defence credibly in any international forums because of their poor education and limited command over English.

Suu Kyi is surrounded by these men whom I would not hesitate to call poisonous snakes.




Dr Maung Zarni is seen (extreme right) with officials at the Dagon hall at Ministry of Defense at Yangon. The present Burmese Joints Chief of Staff General Mya Tun Oo (in uniform on the left) and Vice President Lt-General (retd) Myint Swe (in plainclothes on his right). The photo was taken in 2005.

*Prothom Alo: Are you optimistic about the resumption of repatriation?*

*Maung Zarni:* The repatriation proposal is a tactical move by the regime, whose ultimate strategic scheme is to destroy the Rohingyas existence, history, identity and legality. If in doubt, read the 25-year collection of UN documents, human rights documentations and press clippings going back to 1978. And Rohingyas do not want to go home. Would you, were you a Rohingya?

*Prothom Alo : You joined in a discussion with Suu Kyi at a London School of Economics (LSE) roundtable. Did she utter the word ‘Rohingya’ in the meeting?*

*Maung Zarni:* The LSE roundtable was held on 18 June, a week after the first bout of violence in Rakhine in 2012. No, she did not utter the word ‘Rohingya’ nor did she weigh in on the issue of persecution. Precisely because she was unprepared to handle this emerging global concern, I was pre-assigned to address the question that was pre-submitted in writing as the attendees sent in their questions that they wanted put to her.

Only a few days ago in Oslo, Norway, the US National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent Anthony Kuhn confronted her with the question, Do you know if Rohingyas are Myanmar citizens? Her response was I dont know.

*Prothom Alo: Can you give us any instance where she had mentioned the rights of the Rohingya?*

*Maung Zarni :* A fellow Burmese dissident Ko Aung, who met with her after the LSE meeting, was one of the organisers of her first ever visit back to UK since 1988. According to Ko Aung, she agreed with my stance that Rohingyas deserved full citizenship of our country, but she did not agree that they should be recognised as an ethnic group of Burma.

That was the view I also had back in June 2012 as my knowledge about the international law granting the minorities of different countries the right to self-identify was not adequate or accurate. Furthermore, my understanding of the genocide as an identity-based attack on an ethnic or religious group was also inadequate and inaccurate.

*Prothom Alo : Did you ever talk to Suu Kyi?*

*Maung Zarni:* I did talk to Suu Kyi, by nothing substantive.

*Prothom Alo: Is it possible to recall the exact words that she used in the LSE meeting on the Rohingya problem?*

*Maung Zarni:* She did not say a single word about Rohingya to me, directly. So it was a second hand account I heard first hand from my colleague Ko Aung.

*Prothom Alo: Is it not significant that at least she had demonstrated her willingness, although not publicly, to give citizenship to the Rohingyas?*

*Maung Zarni*: Yes.

*Prothom Alo : Did not she utter anything in the days of her pro-democracy and human rights movement about the rights of Rohingya , Kachin and Muslims other than Rohingya?*

*Maung Zarni:* No, she did not say anything specific about Rohingyas rights during her human rights movement days. But Rohingyas supported her overwhelmingly. She travelled to North Rakhine, met with Rohingya activists and communities when she was campaigning for her National League for Democracy party for the first time in 1989. Rohingyas in fact joined the NLD and founded a local NLD office to support her.

*Prothom Alo : What was her policy to woo Muslims voters?*

*Maung Zarni:* She made the unilateral decision not to field a single Muslim candidate on her NLD ticket in 2015. The early human rights movement of Burma was not infested with this level of vile anti-Muslim racism. Many of her key advisers and supporters were Muslims in the early formative years of the opposition following 1988 nation-wide uprisings. Some of them such as the writer and ex-Naval commander Captain Ba Thaw (aka Maung Thaw Ka, penname), were tortured to death for their support of Aung San Suu Kyi.

*Prothom Alo: Was the captain Ba Thaw Muslim?*

*Maung Zarni:* Yes, naval commander Ba Thaw was a Burmese Muslim from upper Burma town called Shwe Bo, but made his career in the Burma Armed Forces and lived in Rangoon.

*Prothom Alo: Is it true that Rohingyas opted for the Japanese side during the World War II and for Pakistan during the Indian partition in 1947?*

*Maung Zarni:* No, Rohingyas stayed loyal to the British. Rakhine Buddhist nationalists sided with the fascist Japanese occupiers during World War II.

Yes, a faction of the Rohingyas, led by a Rohingya Muslim officer in the British Army, did seek to join East Pakistan on the eve of Burmas independence. But the overwhelming majority of Rohingyas were peaceful and collaborated with the Burmese Army to put down this Rohingya secessionist movement. That was one of the reasons the Burmese Army embraced Rohingyas as a peaceful ethnic community and supported their call for ethnic minority recognition as Rohingya, distinct from 16 other Muslim communities scattered across the country.

*Prothom Alo : What about ARSA? How do you see the alleged secessionist movement by the Rohingya people?*

*Maung Zarni:* I don’t know about the ARSA, but the Rohingya secessionist movement is not exceptional or unusual for ethnic minorities. Rakhine Buddhists were fighting for their sovereignty which they lost to the Burmese feudal state on 1 Jan 1785. Other ethnic minorities such as Karen Christians also sought independence, and so have the Kachin, Shan, Karenni, etc. at various points in the countrys post-independence history. It is racist and unfair to keep portraying the Rohingyas as seeking a separate territory for themselves.

*Prothom Alo: There is a perception in some quarters among the Bangladeshi people that Rohingyas are keen to get autonomy and that could irritate the Burmese authorities.*

*Maung Zarni:* Indeed, no Rohingya leader, inside or among the diaspora, is demanding anything special for Rohingyas. They only want to live in peace, with basic human rights and legal citizenship, which they enjoyed fully in the 1950s and 1960s in western Burma where their roots have been put down for generations. It is patently false to say – as a former Bangladeshi ambassador to Burma claimed in his Dhaka Tribune interview recently – that once Rohingyas are recognised as an ethnic group they would be entitled to an autonomous status.

There are many ethnic groups that are officially considered ethnic groups of Burma, but only a handful are granted distinctly ethnic region status.

*Prothom Alo : What about the response of Burmese monks to the crisis? Do not you see anything positive happening to embrace the Rohingyas within the territory of Myanmar?*

*Maung Zarni:* Absolutely nothing positive is arising out of the predominantly Buddhist civil society. The societal response to the genocide of Rohingyas makes me think Myanmar society today is far more thoroughly brainwashed and genocidal towards Rohingyas than Nazi Germany at the height of Hitlers power, for there was serious resistance from the conservative elements and German communists towards the Nazi genocide. But there is no such resistance in Burma today. There is, however, a parallel between the collaborating role the Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic, played in the Nazi genocide and the cheer-leading role the Buddhist Order, by and large, has been playing.

It is chilling that the men and women who call themselves monks and nuns help popularise the genocidal view towards Rohingyas. The main problem is the Burmese public, including monks, have been subjected to this extremely effective state propaganda which portrays falsely Rohingyas as illegal Bengalis, who are land-grabbing, extremist Islamists hell-bent on setting up an Islamic nation in North Arakan or Rakhine with help from Bangladesh and the Middle East. The public and the monks are completely delusional and fear-stricken, and they do not know the realities of Rohingyas and what the countrys military is doing to this Muslim community for nearly 40 years.

*Prothom Alo : Were the Rohingyas given the status of indigenous ethnic minority in 1948 amended citizenship law as Kula or Kala not as Rohingyas?*

*Maung Zarni:* In the amended Citizenship Law all inhabitants of Arakan were mentioned under the single ‘indigenous’ category, Arakanese, which included both Buddhist Rakhines and Rohingya Muslims, as well as other smaller ethnic communities.

*Prothom Alo: Certain information and photographs indicate that you have had good relations with the Burmese junta. Will you explain?*

*Maung Zarni:* Three generations of my extended family have served in the Burmese Armed Forces since its founding under WWII Japans patronage in 1942. My late great uncle Zeya Kyaw Htin, Lt. Col. Ant Kywe (recipient of Maw Gun Wun or National Chronicle 1st Class), was deputy chief of the predominantly Rohingya administrative district called Mayu in 1961, at a time when Rohingyas were recognised as an ethnic group of the Union of Burma, with full political citizenship, by both the civilian government of Prime Minister U Nu and General Ne Win.

I initiated the Track II (diplomacy without a license) between Myanmar military and international entities including several Western governments and the International Labour Organisation, between 2005 and 2008. I returned only briefly to Burma where I had three meetings with Lt Gen Myint Swe in 2005 and 2006. But my Track II was carried out in UK where I returned to hold the visiting fellowship at Oxford 2006-2008. I stopped the initiative for engagement with the military when the regime blocked emergency aid to the Cyclone Nargis victims in May 2008.

*Prothom Alo : We are curious to know about your photograph with the present Burmese Militarys General Chief of Staff Gen. Mya Tun Oo.*

*Maung Zarni:* The photo was taken at Dagon Hall, Ministry of Defence in Yangon on 29 Oct 2005. Gen. Mya Tun Oo was the liaison officer between Myint Swe and me. He was a Lt Col at the time. I had a meeting with the then Lt Gen Myint Swe, who was my host, when I returned to Burma ending 17-years of my exile in USA, in order to work with the government to push for re-normalisation of Burmas foreign relations with the West.

*Prothom Alo: Do you have any comments on the top brasss view on the crises?*

*Maung Zarni:* The Burmese generals approach the Rohingya issue from their institutionalised perspective: Rohingyas do not belong in Burma as they falsely think that the Western Burma never had Muslim presence and that the pocket of Rohingyas is a threat to Burmas national security.

*Prothom Alo : Do you recall anything from your past engagement with the top brass that has some relevance in present situation?*

*Maung Zarni:* No, during my four years of engagement with the Burmese top brass (2004-2008), Rohingyas were not a concern to them. In fact, I was as ignorant as an average Burmese. So the issue was never discussed. I didnt even know the extent of the persecution or Rohingya history or identity back then.

*Prothom Alo: What about Myanmar’s attitude towards Bangladesh?*

*Maung Zarni:* I suspect there was a negative attitude towards a new independent state of Bangladesh for two reasons: One, the close ties between Pakistan and Burma armies. Pakistan continues to train hundreds of Burmese military intelligence officers. The Burmese military has built strong ties with Pakistan since the two countries independence in 1947 and 1948 respectively. Two, the generals are absolutist statists, who oppose secession of regions both in principle and reality.

Bangladesh and Burma have never had any genuinely positive ties since 1971.

*Prothom Alo*: Thank you.

*Maung Zarni:* Thank you.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Lady and her generals *
Subir Bhaumik, October 14, 2017




“Aung San Suu Kyi and her generals” ran a headline in _The New York Times_, as if she controlled them. The fact is she does not but has to take all the blame for what they do.

Two months after the Rakhine imbroglio boiled into a major regional crisis after the Aug24-25 jihadi attacks on 30 police station and one military base, the Lady has been fighting a silent battle to control her generals, at whose orders troops of the Tatmadaw went berserk in Rakhine, torching Rohingya villages, killing civilians, raping women and even throwing children in fire.

Against the wishes of the all-powerful Tatmadaw (Burmese army), she instituted the 9-member commission headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, six of whom were foreigners and only three Burmese. Again, against the wishes of the men in uniform who have ruled Myanmar since 1962, Suu Kyi accepted Annan commission’s recommendations and promised to set up an inter-ministerial committee on August 24 to implement those.

But when the ARSA fighters attacked 30 police stations and the military base in northern Rakhine within hours of Kofi Annan meeting Suu Kyi and President Htin Kyaw, the game slipped out of Suu Kyi’s hands.

Authoritative sources in Myanmar government say the generals, three of them hoiding the crucial portfolios of defence, home and border affairs in her cabinet, put their foot down and told the Lady (as they refer to her) to let them handle a national security situation.

For a while, the Lady lost her script, weighed down by not only the generals but an inflamed public opinion manipulated skilfully by Buddhist hardline nationalists.

Here lies the paradox — the Lady could have told the generals the attacks happened because they failed, because their intelligence network in Rakhine came a cropper — or else how could a relatively poorly trained jihadi group like the ARSA pulled off coordinated attacks on 30 police stations and a military base killing 12-13 security men!

Such an operation would have been planned for months, not weeks and would have involved considerable mobilisation of fighters and armed villagers specially between 22-24th August.

So, if that is missed, one can safely surmise the Burmese military as well as civilian intelligence totally failed.

But if one were to understand the dynamics of Burmese government and the way the army and the NLD is involved in a tussle for control, they would stay away from taking un-nuanced positions like making demands for stripping Suu Kyi of her Nobel Prize.

But though the furious global criticism may have somewhat dented Suu Kyi’s global image, it has helped her in her desperate bid to control the army.

Top government sources say a recent high-level meeting in Naypyidaw found the civilian ministers of NLD and the generals in charge of the three crucial ministries taking on each other over possible implications of the global criticism.

Some ministers raised the scare of fresh sanctions, others spoke of possible cutdown in development aid and a few raised the issue of the impact of the Rakhine crisis on the ceasefire process that involves negotiations with much stronger rebel groups but has been cold storaged after late August.

Suu Kyi has been able, through her loyal NLD ministers, get it across to the army that they have to exercise restraint in counter-insurgency operations and the government has to start the process of taking back Rohingyas, even if it began as trickle.

That, she reasoned, would deflect some criticism from the global community including the UN and the West which once treated Suu Kyi as a darling and a pro-democracy icon but have been scathing in their criticism belatedly.

A top secretary told this writer that Suu Kyi was somewhat rattled when Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina returned home and alleged that Myanmar has been trying to provoke a war.

Avoiding a conflict with Bangladesh is important for Suu Kyi because a war would mean playing into the army’s hand.

The longer the crisis lingers in Rakhine and surely if there is a military confrontation with Bangladesh, the better the chance for the army to create grounds for a regional emergency that is prelude to a quasi-military rule that NLD pro-democracy hardliners feel may provide opportunity for a return to power for the Tatmadaw by the backdoor.

A top NLD leader, on condition of anonymity, made it clear that Suu Kyi and her party, though mindful of the threat of a regional jihad, were keen to use negotiations and peaceful means to end the crisis before it spun out of control.

He said the military has been told of the dangers of sanctions and the adverse economic impact of the Rakhine crisis that may drive up unemployment and create unrest across the country.

The corridors of power in Naypyidaw is abuzz with the silent wrestling for influence between Myanmar’s ruling party and its embattled leader on the one hand and the still-powerful military on the other.

During a forum on Myanmar’s democratic transition in August, military participants made it clear the army was reconciled to working under a civilian government.

That may be true, but the tussle for supremacy is a fact of life — something that most observers in the West and elsewhere are missing out on.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/14/lady-and-her-generals/


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## Banglar Bir

*How west is trying to recreate Myanmar’s crisis in Thailand*
by Tony Cartalucci | Published: 00:05, Oct 14,2017 | Updated: 22:25, Oct 13,2017 






MEDIA platforms either directly funded by the United States government or by their political proxies in Thailand, including US-funded Prachatai and Khao Sod English, have begun investing increasing amounts of energy into fuelling a currently non-existent sectarian divide in Thai society.

They are concentrating their efforts in promoting the activities of a small anti-Muslim movement in Thailand’s northeast region often referred to as Issan. Issan — it is no coincidence — is also the epicentre of previous US efforts to divide and overthrow the political order of Thailand via their proxy Thaksin Shinawatra, his Pheu Thai Party, and his ultra-violent street front, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD or ‘red shirts’). Shinawatra and his political proxies were ousted from power in 2014 by a swift and peaceful military coup.

Today, temples affiliated with Shinawatra’s political network are turning from a tried and tired, primarily class-based narrative, to one targeting Thailand’s second largest religion — Islam, in hopes of dividing and destroying Thai society along sectarian lines.

From northern cities like Chiang Mai to the northeast in provinces like Khon Kaen, suspiciously identical movements, with identical tactics, organised across social media platforms like Facebook are protesting Mosques, calling for specific acts of violence against Muslims, and using the same sort of factual and intellectually dishonest rhetoric peddled by veteran Western Islamophobes used to fuel the West’s global campaign of divide, destroy, and conquer everywhere from the US and Europe itself, to Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and more recently, Myanmar and the Philippines in Southeast Asia.
*Tools of empire: divide and conquer *
MYANMAR, which borders Thailand, currently finds itself at the apex of nationalist and racist-driven violence targeting its primarily Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority. Groups of supposed ‘Buddhists’ who form a more deeply rooted version of what the US and its proxies are trying to create in Thailand, were used to both create a deep sectarian divide where once there was coexistence, and to help put the US and European-funded political network of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party into power.

The humanitarian crisis created in Myanmar serves several functions for the US and its European partners who have meticulously cultivated it over the course of several decades.

First, it allows the West to continuously hold significant leverage over the current government — one who at any moment may be tempted to break away from its decades-long Western sponsors and collaborate with a more local, sustainable, and constructive partner like China.

Second, because the Rohingya crisis is highly localised to Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, it also presents a highly controlled conflict the US can use to introduce foreign-funded terrorism, and in turn, create a pretext for Western ‘counter-terrorism’ assistance in the form of US and European troops, military assets, and even bases on the ground.

A small contingent of Saudi-funded and directed militants has already been introduced into Myanmar’s ongoing crisis and will likely be expanded until US military ‘assistance’ and thus the first stage in establishing a permanent military presence in Myanmar can be justified.

This would fulfil a long-term goal the United States has sought to achieve in Southeast Asia — the permanent positioning of US military assets in a nation directly bordering China.

A similar scenario is unfolding in the Philippines — a nation that was decisively shifting away from Washington — a one time colonial power over the Philippines — in favour of closer and more constructive ties with Beijing. The nation is now faced with a sudden surge in foreign-funded terrorists — a surge so significant, militants managed to take over the southern city of Marawi resulting in full-scale military operations including airstrikes in order to retake it.

Amid the manufactured crisis featuring terrorists sponsored by the United States’ closest Persian Gulf allies — specifically Saudi Arabia — the US found itself with the perfect pretext to reassert itself militarily and geopolitically over an increasingly independent Philippines.

The Daily Beast in its article, ‘The Philippines Is Destroying the City of Marawi to Save It From ISIS,’ would attempt to portray the US-Saudi engineered crisis and subsequent pretext for the US military’s expanded role in the Philippines as more ironic and coincidental than part of a cynical plan, claiming:
‘The Mautes have pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State, and use many of the tactics that the terror group honed in years of conflict in Iraq and Syria. 

‘Despite vehement antagonism toward the US and its military expressed by Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte back in December, after the Mautes moved on Marawi in May, The New York Times reported US Special Operations Forces were here as advisers supporting Philippine operations in June.’
The Philippines represents the future of Myanmar once the crisis there reaches critical mass. For Thailand, the downward spiral of both the Philippines and Myanmar represents its own future should it allow the sociopolitical rot of sectarian divide take root at home.

For the US — it has sought for decades to encircle and contain China along multiple fronts. This includes across Southeast Asia where US policymakers envision a united front composed of US-backed client states used to box China in — or a series of failed and dysfunctional states that prevent China from developing any beneficial ties with its neighbours to the south.

Considering the success the US is having in the Philippines and Myanmar regarding its use of terrorism and reactionary sectarian division, it is logical that signs of US efforts in Thailand to do likewise are now appearing.
*How the US and its proxies seek a sectarian divide in Thailand*
MUSLIMS and Buddhists have coexisted in Thailand for centuries, with Thai Muslims an integral component of Thailand’s history and cultural fabric. Halal restaurants stand side-by-side Thai and Thai-Chinese cuisine, including those serving pork, in markets across the country. Mosques stand side-by-side with Buddhist temples. Buddhists and Muslims work side-by-side in businesses big and small nationwide.

While Thailand has a violent insurgency raging in its southernmost Muslim-majority provinces, of Thailand’s 7.5 million Muslims, only 1.4 reside in the deep south. The conflict is also seen as being primarily political, with militants targeting both Buddhists and Muslims in pursuit of their separatist goals. The rest live scattered across the country, and with significant communities coexisting in the capital of Bangkok itself.

For most Thais, the notion of Islamophobia is another facet of intolerance associated with a corrosive and declining Western culture — not Thai. Yet there are still fertile grounds of profound ignorance, gullibility, poor education and lacking economic prospects that make a fraction of the population still vulnerable to otherwise childish, crass propaganda seeking to divide and destroy Thai tolerance, unity, and culture — primarily among the dwindling support base of US proxy Thaksin Shinawatra.
Khao Sod — an unabashedly pro-US, pro-Shinawatra newspaper — recently published an article titled, ‘Rising Islamophobia in Thailand Irrational and Dangerous Scholars,’ written by veteran pro-West commentator Pravit Rojanaphruk, which would claim:

‘After Muslims in Khon Kaen registered a converted home as their place of worship — the northeast province’s seventh such venue — a local Buddhist group cited terrorism in its petition asking the governor to deny it.’

The article continues by stating:
‘Last week, a Thai monk who has called for mosques to be destroyed in revenge for Buddhist deaths in the Deep South was seized by the military and flown to Bangkok to be forcibly expelled from the order. 

‘Pages such as No Mosques in Bueng Kan mix stories of violence in the Deep South with anodyne news stories involving Thai Muslims and toxic internet conspiracy theories about Muslims plotting to displace non-Muslim populations worldwide. The comments are filled with Muslim-bashing messages in Thai.’
And while the article appears at first to be laying the ground work to unequivocally condemn calls for specific acts of violence, bigotry, and hate speech, it adds an essential caveat — one used by the United States and its front of faux-rights advocates worldwide to shield both terrorists it sponsors, and reactionary fronts it encourages to divide and destroy nations.

The article states — in regards to the ‘monk’ who called for the destruction of mosques, who was detained and defrocked by the current Thai government — that:

‘Ekkarin said the junta’s detention and defrocking of radical anti-Islam monk Apichat Punnajanatho last week was wrong despite the hate preached by the monk because it resorted to using special power of the junta by detaining the monk at military camps first instead of going through the proper channel of having the Sangha Order investigates the matter. This, Ekkarin added, could lead to resentment by some Buddhists, particularly his supporters, and backfire.’

The article, along with US-funded media front, Prachatai, appear to condemn the Thai government for its zero-tolerance stance on terroristic speech, bigotry, and hate.

As the US and its network of media fronts around the world have done elsewhere, it is expected that attempts by the Thai government to stifle manufactured sectarian division will be systematically condemned by Western-funded fronts as violations of ‘human rights’ and in particular, violations of ‘free speech.’

Prachatai — a supposed ‘independent media platform’ entirely funded by the US government — published its own article regarding Punnajanatho and his calls to burn down mosques titled, ‘Buddhist authorities to defrock monks with ‘inappropriate’ online behaviour.’

In it, systematic complaints about the Thai government’s interference with Buddhism are made, in an apparent attempt to call government intervention inappropriate and unwarranted. For the US-funded scribes at Prachatai, Thailand’s best course of action appears to be to let the rot of sectarian division spread under the auspices of Western-style ‘free speech,’ just as it has in neighbouring Myanmar.

Yelling fire in a crowded theatre is not free speech

IN EVEN the most liberal nations on Earth, threats of specific harm against others or their property is considered a crime. Threats of death can be punished under US law with up to 20 years or more in prison. Likewise, deceiving people — particularly in a manner that causes physical harm — is also illegal and not protected under free speech. The classic ‘yelling fire in a crowded theatre’ example illustrates the very real harm intentionally deceitful words have and why it is not protected by free speech.

Similarly, networks suspiciously overlaying US-proxy Thaksin Shinawatra’s political networks, buried deep within his former political strongholds making specific threats of violence toward Thailand’s Muslim communities is not ‘free speech.’ It is a crime and it must be punished swiftly and severely.
Likewise, these networks propagating elementary lies about Islam in general, and about Thai Muslims more specifically, are designed to create social division and discord that will inevitably and intentionally lead to violence — as similar lies have done everywhere from across the West itself to neighbouring Myanmar. 

It is the equivalent of ‘yelling fire in a crowded theatre’ with the specific goal of provoking dangerous and unwarranted hysteria, chaos, division, and bodily harm to those subjected to these lies.

US-funded media fronts attempting to frame this reality in any other way — particularly in a manner meant to hinder the government from addressing it before it spirals out of control — is merely another example of how the US and its proxies hide their self-serving political agendas behind the principles of human rights advocacy rather than genuinely upholding them. They position themselves as accessories to criminals using threats and lies to divide and destroy peace and stability in Thailand, and should likewise be held accountable.
*The other side of the divide*
WHILE US-funded organisations and political networks run by their proxies in Thailand attempt to work one side of this engineered sectarian divide, the Thai government must be quick to spot and address US-Saudi attempts to spur similar lies, deceptions, and provocations from the other side — among Muslim groups or those posing as Muslims provided with foreign cash and directives to help fulfil the lies being used to divide Thai society.

Just as is done in the US and Europe — where Western governments fund and perpetuate both terrorists and anti-Islam movements to create a sustainable strategy of tension between both, they seek to likewise create a self-feeding crisis in Thailand where eventually staged provocations on both sides transform into real violence fuelled by reprisals and growing distrust among previously coexisting communities.

Thailand and other nations facing foreign-funded attempts to divide their society must take a proactive stance on exposing these efforts through intelligence operations and national media that serve national interests, fostering national unity, and creating clear and effective laws to unambiguously define and punish threats and hate speech — especially speech specifically designed to divide society and create violence.

Failing to stop this sectarian divide from swallowing Southeast Asia may make the difference between a prosperous and peaceful future for the region, or perpetual violence and division as the West has successfully maintained in the Middle East since the end of World War 1.

New Eastern Outlook, October 12. Tony Cartalucci, a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher, writes especially for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/26078/how-west-is-trying-to-recreate-myanmars-crisis-in-thailand

12:00 AM, October 14, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:47 AM, October 14, 2017
*Another eyewash?*
*Myanmar military opens internal probe into conduct of soldiers*
Star Report




*Myanmar's military has launched an internal probe into the conduct of soldiers during an offensive that has sent more than half a million Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh, many saying they witnessed killings, rape and arson by troops.*
A committee led by Lieutenant-General Aye Win has begun an investigation into the behaviour of military personnel, the office of the commander in chief said yesterday, insisting the operation was justified under Buddhist-majority Myanmar's constitution.

According to a statement posted on Senior General Min Aung Hlaing's Facebook page, the panel will ask, "Did they follow the military code of conduct? Did they exactly follow the command during the operation? After that [the committee] will release full information."

Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller offensive was launched in October 2016, reports Reuters.

But domestic investigations, including a previous internal military probe, have largely dismissed refugees' claims of abuses committed during the so-called "clearance operations".

Refugees continue to arrive in Bangladesh fleeing the military crackdown in Rakhine, even though Myanmar insists the operation ceased on September 5. Aid agencies estimate that 5,36,000 Rohingyas have crossed over into Cox's Bazar.

According to Myanmar, the crackdown began on August 25 in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts.

But a UN report on Wednesday said, “The brutal attacks against the Rohingyas in northern Rakhine State have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar but preventing them from returning to their homes.”

Rohingya survivors have told the UN the security forces began attacking Rohingya townships and villages weeks earlier, in early August.

Meanwhile, the European Union is reportedly set to cut ties with Myanmar over the alleged ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas. The bloc is also considering the use of sanctions if there is no improvement in the crisis. 




Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar a day before walk to a relief centre in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
An agreement, which has been approved by EU ambassadors, has called for the violence to come to an end. However, it still needs to be signed off by the foreign ministers of the member countries, reports the UK-based The Independent.

“In the light of the disproportionate use of force carried out by the security forces, the EU and its member states will suspend invitations to the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and senior military officers and review all practical defence cooperation,” according to a draft agreement prepared for a meeting of foreign ministers on Monday.

“The Council will adopt conclusions on Myanmar, in the light of the humanitarian and human rights situation in Rakhine State,” reads the agenda.

The EU presently does not allow the export of arms and equipment that will be used for "internal repression" and warned it would consider “additional measures" if the crisis continued.

Apart from the EU, the United States is also considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar military leaders over the offensive against the Rohingya populations.

*MUSLIMS DEPARTING CALMLY!*
The report on the Myanmar army launching probe comes at a time when its military chief Min Aung Hlaing told US Ambassador Scot Marciel that Rohingyas are not native to that country.

Instead of addressing the accusations of abuses by his army men, he rather said media was complicit in exaggerating the number of refugees fleeing.

Aung Hlaing, referring to Rohingya by the term "Bengali", which they regard as derogatory, said British colonialists were responsible for the problem.

"The Bengalis were not taken into the country by Myanmar, but by the colonialists," he told Marciel, according to the account of the meeting posted on Thursday.

"They are not the natives."

In comments to Japan's ambassador carried in state media yesterday, Aung Hlaing denied ethnic cleansing was taking place on the grounds that photos showed Muslims “departing calmly rather than fleeing in terror”.

While Bangladesh and UN agencies were tackling to cope with the influx, a Myanmar minister, at a meeting in Dhaka on October 2, offered to take back Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh.

Senior officials at Bangladesh foreign ministry and former diplomats saw it as a positive development but said there is no reason to trust Myanmar as the country may have an intention to defuse the global outcry over the persecution of Rohingyas.

“The Myanmar's move is absolutely eyewash and they have taken this initiative amid international pressure and condemnation,” said a high official of the government. “Bangladesh should not fall into the trap laid by Myanmar.”

On Tuesday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said Myanmar has been unresponsive to Bangladesh's efforts to improve bilateral ties over the last two years.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a televised address on Thursday said her government was holding talks with Bangladesh on the return of “those who are now in Bangladesh.”

But she did not use the word “Rohingya” in her speech, although she referred to several other ethnic minorities by name.

*UNHCR COLLECTING DATA*
UNHCR has been working with the government in Bangladesh in the first stage of a new “family counting” exercise to collect data on the refugees and their needs.

Led by Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC), the exercise has so far counted 17,855 families -- more than 70,000 individuals. At this initial stage, it is being carried out in the Balukhali extension and Kutupalong extension camps, he said.

On new arrivals from Bangladesh, the UNHCR spokesperson said some several hundred people are reported to have arrived overnight Thursday night and so far yesterday by boat.

Tomorrow, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will arrive in Bangladesh on a two-day visit to assess the situation of forcible displaced Myanmar nationals.

Zahid is expected to call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and travel to Cox's Bazar.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/another-eyewash-1476166


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## Banglar Bir

*Press briefing by Mr. Kofi Annan, Chair of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State on the situation in Myanmar.*




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

TRT World



*Aung San Suu Kyi is widely criticised for not speaking out on behalf of the Rohingya. 
But Asian powers like India and China support her. 
So what does Myanmar have that these countries don't?*




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*It's a great lies to say that "Suu Kyi has NO power to stop Genocide!"*




Wynston Lawrence
RB Opinion
October 12, 2017
*Today so many people are giving reasons to mislead international communities that Suu has no power to stop Genocide or Ethnic Cleansing against Rohingya ethnic in Burma. *

Their excuses were the Army who have had control defence forces of Burma. It's true that the Army has rights to propose three Ministers but the President has the rights to reject anyone and order the Army to propose another candidate. Well known fact is that Army took forcibly 25% of MPs in legislative power but Suu has more than enough MPs to propose any bill and enact any law, except the Constitution, without partnership with any political parties or the Army's MPs. All of following facts are what she can do according to the current Burmese laws and regulations.

1) She has an authority to recognise Rohingya as one of the indigenous ethnic groups of Burma according to the 1982 Burmese Citizenship Law and reinstate their rights. She no need to change the Law. She can do within weeks like her MPs had enacted the law to create her state counsellor position in 2016 within weeks. 
Please note that Rohingya have been recognised as an indigenous ethnic group in the period of Democratic civilian U Nu government. Prime Minister U Nu also recognised Mayu District as autonomic region for Rohingya. 
This Mayu district was directly administered by Central Government. Unfortunately, Dictator General Ne Win became in power 1962. 
He later abolished Rohingya ethnic rights and autonomic District in his authoritarian rule.

2) She can form a large Emergency Immigration Team to process million of citizenship applications made by Rohingya ethnic. 
Please note that if they have been recognised as indigenous ethnic group according to above-mentioned Act, Rohingya people will become native citizens of Burma if they can prove that they belong to Rohingya ethnic. 
This may take some times but she can do within one year because of the previous dictatorship governments have already collected paramount datas for so many years, especially from 1974-2015. It's worthy to mention here that the previous President, ex-General Thein Sein admitted as "After we make ground investigation, there are nothing new comers from Bangladesh (after Burmese independent)." This interview was with VOA Burmese News. 

And his immigration minister, ex-General Khin Yee also challenged the public who has doubts that there are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, they should come and check anytime. He told in interview with RFA Burmese News. He also pointed out that in Rakhine state, most of immigration officers and employees are Rakhine Buddhist ethnic." 

He was right in this issue as there's no single ethnic Rohingya Muslim officer in immigration department. Rakhine authorities, they even have detail lists for animals that were owned by Rohingya ethnic. Suu can mobilise all available officers from every part of Burma to implement this mission. She can request technical and financial assistances from UN and INGO agencies.

3) She has more than enough MPs in Burmese Parliament to propose a bill of Racial Discrimination Act and vote to become a law of Burma. If this Act becomes active Law within one month, she can defeat any racists, religious bigots and trouble makers legally. 

All of the Judges and lawyers of Burma are within her authority. It's true that she has no direct power over police forces and the Army but she can defeat them, if they create any minor problems, with the supports of lawyers, judges, political activists, NGO, INGO, international governments, UN and most importantly her largest supporters, the People.

4) She has power to make new an agreement with Bangladesh government to bring back all of the Rohingya refugees who have fled from ancestral home lands, Mayu District to Bangladesh because of Ethnic Cleansing. She announced that she will use an old agreement that was made by her enemies, previous dictator General Than Shwe government. She can do this within three months.

5) She has power to grant visas to the members of UN Facts Finding Mission to investigate human rights violations in Burma. They will investigate whether these violations are amounted to Ethnic Cleansing or NOT. This can be done within days.

6) She has power to give permission to National and International medias to go Rakhine state. She should respect freedom of press and allow them freely. But journalists need to agree any risks they may face from insurgents are totally depending on their own choices. She can give order to Minister of Home Affairs to provide security to journalists. If Minister is not agree, she has power to replace him via her puppet President. 

7) She also has absolute power to allow any INGOs and NGOs to do their humanitarian works in Rakhine state and allow them to go freely within state. She need to lift any rules that were giving troubles to these agencies such as they need to apply repeated permissions to help who are in needs. She may face some troubles from Buddhist Rakhine who are very hostile to INGO and NGO although they have received more than fair shares from those organisations. But she can get supports from Police forces and media to enforce Rules of Laws. She can also do this within days.

8) She may face some protests for these implementations but she can persuade most of the people with short speech. Today there are a lot of rallies to express their standing with Suu. These will help her a lot. Some people need to be taken as seriously along with Police forces, local administrations, her MPs and part's members, democratic Saffron monks, medias and so on.

9) As she has no power to control the Army, she should agree to talk with ARSA insurgents for peace agreement. ARSA recently released a statement on Twitter, they are ready talk with Suu Kyist Administration for ceasefire. 
She should not give full authority to Zaw Htay to speak on the behalf of her administration regarding with this issue. Zaw Htay is ex-militant and political critics have suspects regarding with his integrity, attitudes and background. He should be immediately replaced with someone who has reputation, skills and post democratic activist.

10) She should also conclude some portions of Rohingya ethnic leaders as Rakhine ethnic leaders in the Implementation Committee for the recommendations of Kofi Annan commission.
*In conclusion, she can do most of the above-mentioned facts in short period of times if she is honest and free from racism as well as religious bigotry*.
_Wynston Lawrence is Political Analyst and Human Rights Activist based in Western Australia. _
Follow on twitter @LawrenceWynston
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/its-great-lies-to-say-that-suu-kyi-has.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Effort Underway in Bangladesh to Reunite Rohingya Families*
October 10, 2017 10:27 AM
Steve Sandford
*Effort Underway in Bangladesh to Reunite Rohingya Families*
▶
Direct link 
COX’S BAZAR, BANGLADESH — 
As the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh slows, the focus has turned to reuniting families affected by the crisis. VOA spoke to relief workers and traumatized family members in Cox's Bazar, a fishing port in Bangladesh, about the future prospects for the refugee families.

Injured victims of the ongoing military crackdown in Myanmar outnumber the beds here at the main hospital in Cox’s Bazar.

Few families have been spared by what many observers are calling “textbook ethnic cleansing” perpetrated by Myanmar’s military in Rakhine state.

Six-year-old Fatima broke her leg jumping off the second floor of her burning home to flee a Burmese army attack. Now she barely talks, says her father Muhib Bullah.

"I’m feeling sad not only for my child but also for other children who have been killed by the military. The fathers of such children might feel sad for their children like me. The army raped many girls, beat and killed many people," Bulla said.





FILE - A boy is pulled to safety as Rohingya refugees scuffle while queueing for aid at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 26, 2017.
Many families were torn apart during the perilous journey across the border, leaving many youngsters without guidance and care.

Registering the children and tracing their families is the first priority for aid groups. But with more than 500,000 arrivals, the task is daunting, says Myriem el Khatib of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"It’s difficult in terms of restoring family links to follow up on a person because they move a lot and they’re scattered around the different camps from Ookea to Teknaf, so locating them first and maintaining contact with them is complicated," Khatib said.

As injuries get treated, there are also plans for a mental health clinic for families suffering from severe trauma. For Dr. Shaheen Chowdhury of Sadar Hospital the challenge is unprecedented.

“We are doctors and we are human beings also and this is totally unbearable the pain they are suffering through. The situation they are going through is totally devastating. I haven’t seen this type of thing before,” Chowdhury said.

While Bangladesh prepares to build up existing camps for more than half a million new arrivals, many remain concerned that the unseen damages will not be looked after.
https://www.voanews.com/a/bangladesh-rohingya-refugees/4064092.html


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## Banglar Bir

11:50 AM, October 14, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:16 PM, October 14, 2017
*IOM DG due Sunday; he'll visit Rohingya camps*




William Lacy Swing. Photo taken from Facebook/ IOM - UN Migration Agency
UNB, Dhaka
International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General William Lacy Swing arrives in Dhaka on Sunday on a four-day visit to see current Rohingya situation on the ground.

"Yes, he is coming on Sunday and will leave Dhaka on Wednesday," a senior official told UNB.
The IOM chief will visit Cox's Bazar from Monday.
*READ more: Get Myanmar refugees home, not to camps, says Ex-UN chief Kofi Annan*
He is expected to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, among others, during the visit.

Rohingyas from Myanmar's Rakhine State continue to crossing border to seek safety in Bangladesh putting the number of new arrivals at 536,000, according to latest data.


According to IOM Needs and Population Monitoring, UNHCR and other field reports, cross border movement of over 14,000 newly arrived refugees has been verified in the last two days.
*Also READ: UN ramps up aid delivery amid surge of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh*
This report is produced by ISCG in collaboration with humanitarian partners and covered October 10-11 while the next report will be issued on October 17.

Their arduous journeys from Rakhine villages to the border with Bangladesh took from 2-16 days, and that most Rohingya people were forced to pay between Tk 5,000 and 10,000 each to cross the Naf River by boat, according to a UN report.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...ng-due-visit-bangladesh-refugee-camps-1476271


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




*More than half a million Muslim Rohingyas have fled Burma’s Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh since a crackdown by security forces began on August 25. For those who remain behind, life is extremely difficult, with aid and food scarce.
Video Credit to France 24*

12:00 AM, September 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:01 PM, September 13, 2017
*Stop genocide, in the name of Buddha*




Star file photo of Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh.
Nizamuddin Ahmed
Buddhism is a religion of peace; all religions are. Although we are born into a religion, many, mostly Westerners, influenced by the philosophical teachings of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, have embraced Buddhism as a lifestyle; so powerful has been its all-inclusive ideology.

Following his _dhyan_ under the Bodh Tree, an enlightened Gautama Buddha's Sermon at Benares marks the birth of Buddhism through the proclamation of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Since Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters could not abandon desires (to unlawfully free their land from Rohingya Muslims), their sufferings will not end, and they will not attain Nirvana. They shall be endlessly reincarnated, whereby their _karma_ of murder, rape, torture and ethnic cleansing will hardly merit a noble rebirth. They have strayed from Siddhartha's _“madhyampratipad”_ (Middle Path). 
This is not me talking, it is Buddhism.

The noble ascetic taught us to believe in the Truth. Buddha would be greatly disappointed, as is the rest of the world, in Suu Kyi, who would rather learn from Donald Trump the art of hiding behind the veil of “fake news”. The truth is the rape of many Salmas, the bullet-riddled bodies of many Rafiqs, and the unidentified corpses floating on river Naf in their dozens.

Nearly 313,000 Rohingya refugees, a stateless Muslim minority group, have fled to Bangladesh since August 25; hundreds have been killed, following a brutal Myanmar army crackdown triggered by attacks by Rohingya insurgents in Buddhist-majority Rakhine State. That influx is additional to the over 500,000 Rohingyas already sheltered in Bangladesh for decades as Myanmar denies them citizenship. Are they unreal? 
Are they a figment of the misinformed media's imagination?

Some Buddhist monks and local vigilantes in west Myanmar have not expressed Buddha's “right intent” of good, as opposed to evil, and have been involved in immoral and criminal acts of raping, looting, torturing, setting alight villages and killing. 
This for them is an unbelievable turnaround from the existence pursued by Buddhist reverends worldwide. Far detached from the teaching of the great religion, as practised around the world, including Bangladesh, those Buddhists in Myanmar are unable to “avoid untruth, slander and swearing”; Right Speech is the third path from which they have sadly deviated. 

They could not stay away from blameworthy behaviour, as world leaders and Noble Laureates are urging them to stop the killing in Arakan. They have failed to channel their efforts towards the good and thereby contemplate the truth. Since the eighth path will result from following the noble Eightfold Path, many of them are perhaps only following that of Right Livelihood. Interestingly, killing of animals is despised in Buddhism.

It requires no convincing to understand that no one leaves home unless persecuted to the extreme. Muslim and even Hindu refugees have been crossing the 271km-long border with Myanmar with bullet and hacking injuries. Despite the recent atrocities across our south-eastern border, and the ethnic flushing by terrorism over several decades being perpetuated by Rakhine Buddhists and the Myanmar Army, not a finger has ever been raised in revenge against the Buddhist community in the Hill Tracts or elsewhere.

Buddhists in Bangladesh, a minority by far, have been living in peace for centuries. Bangladesh and its people have the best of relations with Buddhist-majority countries of Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea, and Japan. 
The Bangladeshi Buddhist community here has publicly and vehemently protested the Myanmar misdeeds. We are only that much more brotherly and humane.

In March this year, the Dalai Lama (the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists) joined Pope Francis in calling for Myanmar Buddhists to end violence against Rohingya Muslims in what the United Nations says amounts to ethnic cleansing and possibly crimes against humanity (_Sydney Morning Herald_). The Tibetan Buddhist leader revealed he has privately communicated with Suu Kyi “to use her influence to bring about a peaceful resolution to this problem.” But, alas!

_The Washington Post_-AP reported last month that Pope Francis is decrying persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and praying they receive “full rights”. The pontiff said there was “sad news about the persecution of the religious minority of our Rohingya brothers.”

As far back as November 2013, the United States Congress had urged “the Government of Burma (Myanmar) to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recognised human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.” Around the same time, the UN General Assembly's human rights committee resolution also called on Myanmar to curb an increase in violence against Muslims since military rule ended in March 2011.

Counter to the well-recorded genocide in Rakhine, a sliver of public opinion is attempting to propagate that the Rohingya Muslims are also killing Buddhists and the so-called “local community”. “It's not Buddhists killing Muslims in Myanmar, it's Rohingya Muslims killing Buddhists from 1947,” wrote Ahinamo Kurasawa on October 30, 2016. We, including Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan, however do not see or hear of any refugees from the local Buddhist community escaping to Naypyidaw or Yangon.

Our stance should be to adopt extreme opposition to the Myanmar government and army, and those Arakanese responsible for the ruthless genocide, while at the same time offer people of all faiths an environment to continue to live in peace and communal harmony within our boundary. Depending on the escalation (or otherwise) of Myanmar's atrocities against its civilian population, we should chronologically undertake political and diplomatic lobbying, sever socio-cultural ties, cut off economic and trade relations, and keep our border guards and armed forces on highest alert to respond to any military contravention at the border.

The Myanmar Nobel Laureate's position has exposed the irony that not all non-violent movements, if we can call her silence against the army during her house arrest that, have the footprint of a Gandhiji-like integrity, wisdom and determination. Some children are catapulted as leaders, if at all we can label her so, because of parental lineage. They remain silent because they fear the gun.

It is befitting here to quote Suu Kyi: “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” And she again said, “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” She remains quiet because of fear. She remains a prisoner.
Dr Nizamuddin Ahmed is a practising architect at BashaBari Ltd., a Commonwealth Scholar and a Fellow, a Baden-Powell Fellow Scout Leader, and a Major Donor Rotarian.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/chintito-1995/stop-genocide-the-name-buddha-1461271


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## Banglar Bir

*UK PM: Myanmar must stop violence*
Tribune Desk
Published at 11:16 AM October 13, 2017
Last updated at 12:21 PM October 13, 2017




A screenshot taken from the video which shows British Prime Minister Theresa May addressing the Q&A session in Parliament on October 11, 2017
*Theresa May says the Rohingya exodus is a major humanitarian crisis*
The international community has delivered a clear message to Myanmar that it must stop the violence, British Prime Minister Theresa May has said during a Q&A session in Parliament.

She was replying to Will Quince, the Conservative MP for Colchester, on Wednesday. Quince, who recently visited Bangladesh, asked May what pressure the UK could put on Myanmar to end the persecution, so that the Rohingya can go back home.

Prime Minister May said the UK remained “deeply concerned” by what was happening to the Rohingya.

“We now know that there are over 500,000 refugees in Bangladesh,” she said. “It’s a major humanitarian crisis.”
*Also Read- *_*UN: Army in systematic bid to drive Rohingya from Myanmar*_
Myanmar said it launched a “security operation” after insurgents attacked police posts and an army base on August 25. However, a UN investigation found that the military operations had begun earlier, possibly in early August.

The crackdown targeting the Rohingya forced more than half a million members of the mainly-Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh since August 25.

May said: “We have raised this [Rohingya issue] three times at the UN Security Council. There’s been a clear message delivered from the international community that the Burmese (Myanmar) authorities must stop the violence, allow safe return of refugees and allow full humanitarian access.”




The Rohingya are the largest stateless community and often described as the most persecuted minority in the world. Naypyitaw denies them citizenship and claims they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

But the latest chapter in violence is unprecedented, which the UN described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and said the military campaign aimed at permanently driving away the Rohingya from Rakhine state.

British Prime Minister May said her country had suspended “any practical defence engagement that we had with Burma because of our concerns”.

In the last UN General Assembly, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed creating a “safe zone” in Myanmar for the Rohingya under UN supervision.
*Also Read- Bangladesh PM: If necessary, we will eat one meal a day to feed the Rohingya*
Will Quince told parliament that what he had seen during his visit to the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh “was truly harrowing”. “It can only be described as a humanitarian disaster,” he said.

Bangladesh already had been hosting an estimated 400,000 Rohingya before the latest influx. Hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced persons are believed to be waiting along the Myanmar border, waiting for a chance to sneak into Bangladesh.

May said the UK had been providing support through its international development and aid. “We provided money to the Red Cross in Burma and have been providing bilateral donations to deal with the refugees, to support the refugees who have crossed into Bangladesh,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina has said that her government would continue to provide support to the Rohingya until they returned to their homeland.

“If necessary, we will eat one meal a day and share another meal with these distressed people,” she said. “After all, we are human beings and we stand for mankind.”
*Click here to read more stories on Rohingya Crisis 2017*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/10/13/uk-pm-myanmar-must-stop-violence/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/





*Japan donates US$750,000 for Rohingyas*
Online Desk | Update: 12:05, Oct 15, 2017 
The government of Japan has provided emergency grant aid of US$750,000 for six months through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for the Rohingya people living in Bangladesh camps, reports UNB.

The emergency grant aid will complement the ongoing UNICEF response in these areas.

Since 25 August, over 536,000 Rohingyas have arrived in Cox's Bazaar district, up to 60 per cent of them are estimated to be children. Most are living in harsh and insanitary conditions in makeshift camps and new spontaneous settlements in the district of Cox's Bazar.

"Water, sanitation and hygiene condition are dire in the Rohingya camps and makeshift settlements and condition is getting desperate with the growing number of influx every day. This poses high risk of possible outbreak of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases especially among children," said Edouard Beigbeder, representative, UNICEF Bangladesh.

"Moreover, children are traumatised due to the violence they faced in Myanmar and need immediate psychosocial and recreational support."

The emergency grant aid will address the severe humanitarian condition of the Rohingyas by providing WASH facilities reaching out to 24,800 Rohingya children and their families directly and 60,000 indirectly, the UNICEF said on Sunday.

They will be provided with provision of safe drinking water, gender segregated and disability friendly latrines and bathing cubicles, handwashing facilities, hygiene promotion session and WASH emergency supplies.

The emergency aid will also provide child protection support reaching out to 5,000 children directly and 200,000 indirectly through provision of protective services, referral mechanism, case management, and support to families of vulnerable children.

The emergency grant aid will be used to support the dire need of the Rohingya children and their families ensuring strong coordination amongst all humanitarian actors to ensure effective response.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/163141/Japan-donates-US-750-000-for-Rohingyas


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## Banglar Bir

*Kofi Annan, where are the Rohingyas going to return? 
Myanmar military has long institutionalised its genocide*
Saturday, October 14, 2017




*Suu Kyi's "50% Muslim villages still intact" speech and 
Kofi Annan's "let the Rohingyas return home in dignified manner" discourse.
What's wrong with them? Everything.
Here is what is fundamentally wrong with Kofi Annan's stance and report:

1) In the case where even UN is compelled to use Milosevic's euphemism "ethnic cleansing" - but what most of us in the genocide studies KNOW to be a textbook example of a genocide, Mr Annan blatantly disregards the existence of the R2P, a principle he himself championed out of his personal guilt for his well-documented failure in raising his voice as head of the UN Peacekeeping Operations on the eve of Rwanda Genocide in 1994.

2) the Burmese military had a strategy to completely derail and demolish the Kofi Annan's involvement since the establishment of his commission in 2016. 
The military leaders had made it absolutely clear from the get-go that they did NOT welcome his involvement nor accept the thrust of the recommendations.*

For the recommendations go against the military's institutionalized genocidal scheme and worldview, which rests on the three ideological (racist, anti-history) pillars: that Rohingyas do NOT belong in Burma; that Rakhine never had any significant Muslim influence or presence; and that Rohingyas pose a national security threat as potential proxy for any future Muslim take-over of Western Burma.

3) the very "civilian-led" committee Suu Kyi formed is headed by the Social Welfare Minister who just declared that the State (gov) is reclaiming all burned land - yes, belonging to the Rohingyas (in a zone stretching 100 Kilometer).
So, where are the Rohingyas going to go?
Even the 120,000+ Rohingya IDPs inside Burma in camps since Oct 2012 are NOT allowed to return homes and neighbourhoods. Some have been marked as the sites of Special Economic Zone.

Here is Kofi Annan's "let the refugees go home" press conference - 11 minutes.




I think he meant Rohingyas whose name and right to self-identify he is not sanctioned by Suu Kyi to respect.

That's followed by French and UK Reps' Q and A with the press.




Here is the reality check:

Myanmar Troops to Rohingyas before slaughtering them, burning their villages down (over 250 in total) and expelling over 530,000 in 6 weeks (while many thousands still wish to flee, but are trapped inside Burma, with no food and no freedom to seek food):
“You do not belong here – go to Bangladesh." 

Here is the UN OHCHR's report - 12 page and most damning in its assessment.
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/CXBMissionSummaryFindingsOctober2017.pdf
After the arrival of half-a-million refugees in Bangladesh 60% of whom are women and children , with unknown thousands of Rohingya males presumed slaughtered, the world's body shows it is in coma, from which it is unlikely to recover in the foreseeable future. 

Not even a non-binding statement is forthcoming from this body - after 7 weeks of this largest humanitarian catastrophe, resulting from a textbook example of a genocide in Burma. 
When UN Sec-Gen talked about "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" he was not only being politically pragmatic but intellectually off: Ethnic cleansing was Milosevic's euphemism designed to evade the international conventions such as the genocide and the crimes against humanity. 

When the media, human rights charities and UN adopt the language of the supposedly suiciced genocidal killer then the oppressed have no recourse to the global justice or governance system.

Annan in my view is a moral coward, a career bureaucrat, who has always saved his own ***, in the face of others' monumental sufferings. Remember Rwanda? Just the only most obvious example.

The problem is UN: it is SYSTEMIC. It is the collection of STATES, ruled by States' interests, while paying to the lip service to "We the People".
I can't think of a bigger System failure in recorded human history.
http://www.maungzarni.net/2017/10/kofi-annan-where-are-rohingyas-going-to.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Iran plans to provide Rohingya Muslims with warm food*




_By_ Tehran Times
October 15, 2017
*TEHRAN* – Iran plans to supply warm food to Rohingya Muslims living in displacement camps in Bangladesh.
The Iranian deputy health minister Mohammad Reza Ayyazi, heading a delegation, paid a visit to a refugee zone near Cox’s Bazar close to Myanmar border in Bangladesh on Friday.
“Now a group of sikhs from Punjab supplies some 5,000 dishes of warm food to the region on the daily basis,” he said, adding, Iran has the capacity and potential to provide the Rohingya refugees with much more meals.

Iranian benefactors can provide funds for supplying warm food and preparing cooking facilities in Bangladesh, he proposed.

“In this line, the expenses for consignment of relief through airway is decreased as well and Myanmar Muslims enjoy food with their favorite taste,” he said.
“During our visit to the refugee camps, we decided to organize Iranian aid for Rohingya Muslims,” Tasnim quoted him as saying.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society chief Ali Asghar Peyvandi and Iran’s Ambassador to Dhaka Abbas Vaezi accompanied Ayyazi during his visit.

The arrival of Rohingya Muslims from Buddhist-dominated Myanmar since August 25 has put an immense strain on camps in Bangladesh where there are growing fears of a disease epidemic. 
*Bangladesh health minister hails Iranian aids*
The Bangladeshi Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mohammed Nasim has expressed his thanks over the dispatching of aid consignments by Iranians for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Nasim net with the Iranian Red Crescent Society chief Ali Asghar Peyvandi in Dhaka on Thursday.
During the visit, Nasim said that the displaced people of Myanmar in Bangladesh need physical and mental supports.

Several volunteer physicians are offering free medical services to refugees in the region, he explained.
On Thursday, Iran sent its third humanitarian aid shipment for Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh.
The 30 tons of relief supplies included humanitarian aid and food supplies.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/iran-plans-to-provide-rohingya-muslims.html

INSIDE DEVELOPMENT
*WORLD BANK ANNUAL MEETINGS*
*World Bank withholds Myanmar funding, but some call for sanctions*
_By Michael Igoe _@AlterIgoe13 October 2017




Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar in Bangladesh in 2013. Photo by: Pierre Prakash / ECHO / CC BY-NC-ND
WASHINGTON — The World Bank announced Wednesday that in response to the “violence, destruction and forced displacement of the Rohingya,”* it will delay the release of a $200 million loan planned for Myanmar.*

The money was part of a credit deal reached with the fledgling democracy in August and represented the first instance of direct financial support from the World Bank to Myanmar’s government.

The World Bank is still delivering support to Myanmar and has “strengthened” its engagement in “education, health services, electricity, rural roads and inclusion of all ethnic groups and religions, particularly in Rakhine state,” the statement reads. This loan, specifically designed to support the government on issues of financial and public administration, however, will be withheld for an unspecified period of time.
*See more stories on the Rohingya crisis:
► *A city-sized refugee camp with even bigger child protection challenges
► Opinion: Here's how the international community should respond to the Rohingya refugee crisis
► EU official warns of threats against aid workers amid Rohingya crisis
► Access greatest barrier to US response to Rohingya crisis
► As the Rohingya crisis rages on, international actors ramp up pressure
► In Bangladesh, WHO hurries to thwart possible Rohingya refugee disease outbreak
_*Sign up for our daily morning briefings and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for everything you need to know from the annual meetings.*_

“We … assessed the conditions of our recently approved development policy loan and concluded that further progress is needed for the loan to be made effective,” the statement reads. It does not specify what “further progress” would entail, or how much of it the government will have to demonstrate for the money to be released.

The bank and its shareholders have seen some criticism in recent weeks for not using the institution more proactively as leverage against the Myanmar government’s persecution of the Rohingya ethnic minority. After Rohingya militants attacked security posts in late August, the military responded with a brutal campaign against the civilian population. Since then, a humanitarian crisis has unfolded with more than half a million Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.

“Given the scale of the humanitarian crisis there, the culpability of the government, it meets the test, in my mind, of a case where the owners of the World Bank ought to be looking at the World Bank as a potential sanctions tool,” Scott Morris, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, told Devex prior to the bank’s announcement Thursday.

One month ago the World Bank issued a statement on the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where the military has perpetrated its violent repression of the Rohingya. “Along with the international community, we call on the authorities to ensure the protection of all people residing in Myanmar, and work with all actors to mount an immediate humanitarian response to the crisis in Rakhine State,” it read.

In Morris’s view, the World Bank’s assurances at that time that it would support humanitarian relief operations for people displaced by the conflict ignored the culpability of the government in committing violence against an ethnic minority, treating the situation, “as if it were a natural disaster.”

Even with its decision to withhold the $200 million loan until conditions improve, the bank’s shareholders are not doing enough to put pressure on Myanmar’s government, Morris said.

“The bank continues to pull its punches on a direct sanction of the government,” he wrote to Devex in response to the bank’s statement on Thursday. “The language on the development policy loan is ambiguous in the extreme.”
_*Read more international development news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive the latest from the world’s leading donors and decision-makers — emailed to you free every business day.*_
https://www.devex.com/news/world-bank-withholds-myanmar-funding-but-some-call-for-sanctions-91278


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## Banglar Bir

*Open letter from a Rohingya to Aung San Suu Kyi*




Ro Mayyu Ali's book collection was destroyed when his home in Maungdaw was burned down [Ro Mayyu Ali/Al Jazeera
_By_ Ro Mayyu Ali
Al Jazeera
October 14, 2017
*Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh* - I was born in the same year you were awarded your coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

It was one of the greatest honours to be bestowed upon someone from our country.
Everyone in Maungdaw, the area in Rakhine State where I am from, was filled with joy, and rejoiced your award as if it were their own.

For the first time since independence, we - the Rohingya - felt as though we were a part of this country. We were proud to call ourselves Myanmarese.
After suffering years of abuse at the hands of the military junta, your peace prize inspired us, a people who have suffered decades of oppression.

Growing up, my grandfather always spoke highly of you. He would choose the biggest goats and cows to slaughter when members of your party, the National League for Democracy, would visit. He would graciously welcome them.

My father and my beloved grandpa wanted me to follow the path you had chosen, and my mother was drawn to you by your powerful voice and activism.

In 2010, when you were finally released by the military from house arrest, we rejoiced. But seven years on, we, the Rohingya, remain victims of a brutal and genocidal state. This time, at your hands.
Since your general election victory in 2015, you pushed out Muslim representatives from your party. It was the first sign of your political cowardice.

A few months later, your administration launched "clearance operations" in northern Rakhine State. During those months, countless civilians were killed and women were gang-raped.
Despite widespread international condemnation, you denied the crimes.

You even refused to refer to us as "Rohingya", an accurate term that represents the ethnicity of my people - a people who have been living in Rakhine for centuries.
Since the start of the violence on August 25, more than 500,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Over 1,000 Rohingya villagers have been killed, 15,000 homes have been burned down, and those that have remained are trapped in fear and desperation.



Ro Mayyu Ali used to sit at this table and read his small collection of books [Ro Mayyu Ali/Al Jazeera]
On September 1, my parents and I were forced to leave our home.

After three days and two nights, we reached Bangladesh after crossing the Naf river on a small rowing boat. We later found shelter at the Kutupalong refugee camp.

I just received information that my home was burned to the ground. While many will say it was the army or vigilantes that burned it down, I feel as if it is you - Aung San Suu Kyi - that is to blame.
Not only did you burn down my home, you also burned my books.

I had always dreamed of becoming an author, studying English at Sittwe University, but as you know, the Rohingya are banned from enrolling or studying there, so I sought inspiration from books and articles.

You burned Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. You burned Mahatma Gandhi's Autobiography. You burned Leymah Gbowee's Mighty Be Our Power. And you burned your own book, Freedom from Fear.

You are the one who is responsible for setting my hopes and dreams on fire.
And now, as we stand here in Bangladesh as refugees, my father has a question for you: "Why have you never visited the Rohingya, whether in Rakhine State or those forced to Cox's Bazar after everything that has happened?"

Do you even care about our situation?
What hurts most is not that we, the Rohingya, are the world's most persecuted community. What breaks my heart is knowing that we're the most persecuted community in your - Aung San Suu Kyi's - Myanmar.

You've chosen your path, that's clear for everyone to see. Now your name will be synonymous for the millions of Rohingya displaced around the world with the countless tyrants and dictators that have come before you.
_Ro Mayyu Ali spoke to Al Jazeera's Faisal Edroos who can be followed on Twitter at @FaisalEdroos_
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/open-letter-from-rohingya-to-aung-san.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya 'driven out' before attack on Aug 25*




(Photo: AP)
_By_ Reuters
October 12, 2017
*GENEVA* -- Myanmar security forces have brutally driven out half a million Rohingya from Rakhine state, torching their homes, crops and villages to prevent them from returning, the United Nations Human Rights Office said yesterday.

*In a report based on 65 interviews with Rohingya who have arrived in Bangladesh in the past month, it said that "clearance operations" had begun before insurgent attacks on police posts on Aug 25 and included killings, torture and rape of children.*

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein - who has described the government operations as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" - said that the actions appeared to be "a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return".
The latest report by his Geneva office said: "Credible information indicates that the Myanmar security forces purposely destroyed the property of the Rohingya, scorched their dwellings and entire villages in Rakhine state, not only to drive the population out in droves but also to prevent the fleeing Rohingya victims from returning to their homes."

The destruction by security forces, often joined by "mobs" of armed Rakhine Buddhists, make the possibility of Rohingya returning to normal lives in Rakhine "almost impossible".

Myanmar security forces are believed to have planted landmines along the border in an attempt to prevent Rohingya from returning, it said, adding: "There are indications that violence is still ongoing."

Meanwhile, Myanmar on Tuesday held inter-faith prayers in Yangon in a bid to improve relations between Buddhists and Muslims since the eruption of deadly violence triggered an exodus of some 520,000 Muslims to Bangladesh.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/rohingya-driven-out-before-attack-on.html


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## Banglar Bir

*OIC calls for imposing sanctions on Myanmar*
SAM Staff, October 16, 2017




The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on the international community to reconsider its economic and diplomatic relations with Myanmar.

In a statement on Sunday (Oct 15), OIC expressed deep concern over reports presented by UN Human Rights Council’s Myanmar Mission in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh, which proved that Rohingya Muslims faced ethnic cleansing.

*Read OIC statement here: OIC Expresses Alarm at Findings of UN Report, Calls for Economic and Diplomatic Measures Against Myanmar*
The organization called for imposing trade sanctions on Myanmar if it keeps refusing to end violence against the Rohingya and resolve the situation. The Rohingya are facing one of the most horrible human tragedies in modern history, said the statement, adding that over 500,000 Muslims had fled to Bangladesh since August.

The UN’s report showed that Myanmar’s government had launched organized attacks on Rohingya Muslims to push them out of the country and prevent them from returning. It also showed that Muslims faced executions, rape and torture, while their houses were burnt and mosques attacked, said OIC.
SOURCE KUWAIT NEWS AGENCY
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/16/oic-calls-imposing-sanctions-myanmar/

12:00 AM, October 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:08 AM, October 16, 2017
*Rohingya Orphans: 14,740 and counting*
Our Correspondent, Cox's Bazar

A total of 14,740 orphan Rohingya children have been identified since September 20 when the process started in the settlements in Ukhia and Teknaf.

The Department of Social Service has been identifying and registering of orphans. Rohingya children who have lost one or both parents are being listed.

Pritom Kumar Chowdhury , assistant director of social service department in Cox's Bazar, who is coordinating the process, said the number of orphan Rohingya children could be almost 20,000.

The orphans will be provided with identity cards and given additional support and assistance.

The social service department also sought 200 acres of land within the 3,000 acres proposed for Rohingyas settlements to build an orphanage. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpag...s-rohingya-orphans-14740-and-counting-1476958

*Rohingyas not to be deported till next hearing:Supreme Court*
*পরবর্তী শুনানি না হওয়া পর্যন্ত ভারত থেকে রোহিঙ্গাদের মিয়ানমারে পাঠানো যাবে না: সুপ্রিম কোর্ট*
অক্টোবর ১৩, ২০১৭




*আগামী ২১ নভেম্বর পরবর্তী শুনানি না হওয়া পর্যন্ত ভারত থেকে রোহিঙ্গাদের মিয়ানমার পাঠানো যাবে না বলে শুক্রবার মন্তব্য করেছে সুপ্রিম কোর্ট। 
এ দিকে, সব রোহিঙ্গাদের মায়ানমারে ফেরত দেওয়ার যে নির্দেশ জারি করেছে ভারত সরকার, তাতে আপত্তি তুলে সুপ্রিম কোর্টে আবেদন জানাল পশ্চিমবঙ্গ শিশু অধিকার কমিশন। 
তারা স্মরণ করিয়ে দিয়েছে, এ দেশে রোহিঙ্গাদের মধ্যে অন্তত ৪৪টি শিশু রয়েছে। তাদের ফেরত পাঠানোর নির্দেশ তো অমানবিক। 
এর মধ্যে ২০ রোহিঙ্গা শিশু রয়েছে তাদের মায়েদের সঙ্গে বিভিন্ন সংশোধনাগারে। তাছাড়া ২৪ জন অন্যান্য সরকারি আশ্রয়স্থলে রয়েছে। 
পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় নিজেও রোহিঙ্গাদের ফেরত পাঠানোর বিরোধী। কমিশন এ-ও বলেছে, জাতিসঙ্ঘের কনভেনশন অন দ্য রাইটস অফ চাইল্ড বা according to the UN Convention n the Rights of Child,India must abide by the rules ইউএনসিআরসি-র নিয়ম ভারতকেও মেনে চলতে হবে। 
তা অনুসারে শিশুদের এমন করে ফেরত পাঠানো যায় না।*
https://www.voabangla.com/a/india_rohingyas_gg-10-13-17/4069285.html

*Myanmar troops struck first in Rakhine*
Syed Zain Al-Mahmood
Published at 01:27 AM October 16, 2017




According to the UNHCR, at least 536,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Rakhine, Myanmar as of October 13, 2017Syed Zakir Hossain
*Army operations against Rohingya started well before ARSA attack on August 25*
When a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state triggered a humanitarian crisis that sent more than 500,000 Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was quick to blame Rohingya insurgents.

The army was carrying out ‘clearance operations’ in response to an attack by militants of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army or ARSA on police outposts and an army base in the early hours of August 25, officials in Naypyidaw said.

Rohingya men, women and children who have fled Rakhine to escape the army crackdown, however, tell a different story.

Interviews with dozens of Rohingya families that have arrived in makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar indicate that the army’s ‘clearance operation’ started well before August 25. Up to three weeks before the ARSA attack, soldiers and army-backed Rakhine militias started going from village to village rounding up Rohingya men, especially teachers, businessmen, and religious leaders. Many Rohingya villages were emptied with residents taking shelter in other villages.

“The soldiers came to our village fifteen days before Eid,” said Salma, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman from Buthidaung district in Rakhine. “They told everyone to squat on the ground with heads between our knees. They grabbed men by the hair and asked, ‘are you a moulvi?’”

She said moulvis, or religious leaders, and other people of influence were targeted and taken away by the troops. “The soldiers shouted that we were Bengali and would be killed if we didn’t leave the village,” she said. “We fled to a village where we thought we would be safe.”
*‘They wanted to force us out’*
Salma and other Rohingyas said the first army operations took place up to several weeks before Eid ul-Adha, which was observed on September 1 this year. They said troops and militias looted cattle and other property, set fire to homes and beat villagers who went to fish in the river or to work in the fields.

“They wanted to force us out,” said Nasiruddin, a Rohingya man from Maungdaw district.

Up to three weeks before the ARSA attack, soldiers and army-backed Rakhine militias started going from village to village rounding up Rohingya men, especially teachers, businessmen, and religious leaders. Many Rohingya villages were emptied with residents taking shelter in other villages

Such accounts are consistent with a new report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) which says the Myanmar army’s “clearance operations started before August 25, and as early as the beginning of August.”

There was a coordinated plan “to drive out Rohingya villagers en masse through incitement to hatred, violence and killings, including by declaring the Rohingyas as Bengalis and illegal settlers in Myanmar,” the OHCHR report said.

The pressure applied on the Rohingya villages appears to have prompted ARSA insurgents to plan a desperate attack on security forces, security analysts say.

“They told us that we must fight back since the Myanmar government was starving us, denying our rights and killing us slowly,” a 23-year-old Rohingya man from the Maungdaw area said.

Formerly known as Harakah al-Yaqin or Faith Movement, the group came out of nowhere to stage attacks on Myanmar police posts, killing nine policemen in October 2016. That attack sparked a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar army and military-backed Buddhist militias. Even though the army’s tactics, which drew accusations of a scorched earth policy from human rights groups, forced nearly 80,000 Rohingya men women and children into neighboring Bangladesh, the alleged atrocities perpetrated by security forces served to solidify support for ARSA.

The decision to strike back came on August 24, hours after a government-appointed Advisory Commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan submitted its final report, recommending that the government act quickly to improve socioeconomic development in Rakhine state and take steps to resolve violence between Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslim minority. The report, however, did not mention the Rohingya by name, or criticize the army, something that angered many in the Rohingya community.

Suu Kyi’s government said that ARSA’s attacks were intended to coincide with the release of the Commission’s report.

ARSA also referred to the report, but blamed the military, claiming that army units in previous weeks had stepped up activity in order to derail any attempt to implement Mr. Annan’s recommendations, forcing the group’s hand.

For several nights before the attack, ARSA supporters took stock of the situation around the army post, noting troop strength, weapons and duty shifts.

Refugees said the group had received little actual military training. They had trained with sticks and knives but no firearms, they said.

The description was consistent with information gleaned from interviews with other refugees arriving in camps in Bangladesh which portrayed ARSA as a ragtag band of villagers armed with farm tools, axes and knives.
*Suicidal mission*
Myanmar experts say the group’s actions more closely resembled a loose peasant rebellion than an armed, well-commanded insurgency. Villagers carrying agricultural tools were motivated to go up against trained soldiers armed with guns and mortars.

“ARSA’s strategy appeared to be an attempt to spark a popular uprising,” said Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst in Myanmar. “The group managed to motivate the villagers to embark on an almost suicidal mission, made up of men who were willing to take enormous risks because they felt they had no other options left.”

The response by the Myanmar army was to launch a brutal “clearance operation” the next day, modeled on its infamous “Four Cuts” strategy of targeting civilian areas to deny insurgent groups food, funds, recruits and information.

Pioneered by former military dictator General Ne Win, the “Four Cuts” policy was used in the 1970s against rebel groups such as the banned Communist Party of Burma and the Karen National Liberation Army in eastern Myanmar, often with devastating consequences for civilian populations.

“The group’s leaders must have known that the attack would spark a scorched earth response by the army,” Mr. Horsey said. “It was a cynical calculation.”

The blow fell hardest on villages like Tulatoli in northern Rakhine. Rafiqa, a 20-year-old Rohingya woman who goes by one name, said she was feeding her baby on the morning of August 30 when the army swept in.

“They shot people, kicking them to see if they moved and then plunged long knives into their chest,” she said at a makeshift camp in southeast Bangladesh.

Rafiqa said soldiers dragged young women into huts to be raped and then set fire to the huts. She doesn’t know how many villagers were killed that day but says only a handful made it out alive. Her husband was among the dead.

“They seized him by the beard and cut his throat,” she said.

Rafiqa said she crawled into the bushes with her child and after the soldiers left, joined other villagers on a three-day trek to Bangladesh.

Tulatoli is among nearly 200 villages that have been targeted by the army, forcing more than 400,000 Rohingyas into neighboring Bangladesh. An estimated 3,000 people have died at the hands of the military and army-backed militias.

From a military perspective, ARSA’s decision to counterattack the army appears to have backfired. But analysts like Mr. Horsey believe they have gained from a political and propaganda standpoint and would be able to recruit from embittered Rohingyas in the refugee camps.

“They group will find many willing recruits now,” he said. “Unless there is a political process that gives the Rohingya some hope, we will see a long-drawn out conflict.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/10/16/myanmar-troops-struck-first-rakhine/

*Rohingya: The descendants of ancient Arakan*
Nurul Islam
Published at 06:49 PM October 12, 2017
Last updated at 07:54 PM October 14, 2017




*Myanmar wasn't always such a horrible place for Muslims, far from it*
Thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh to escape genocide. Hundreds have died on the journey, and thousands did not even get the opportunity for escape. The exodus of the Rohingya population has captured headlines across the world, but in Burma itself, there is still widespread disbelief and denial of the persecution faced by this population.

Of the many excuses put forward by the Burmese authorities, one common one is to deny the existence of the Rohingya community themselves, painting them as Bangladeshi migrants who have crossed the borders and laid claim to Burmese land. This piece is my research on the falseness of this statement, and an introduction to the history of the Arakan region and the multiculturalism that once infused it.




*Multicultural from the start*
From long before the 8th century, the area now known as North Arakan was the seat of Hindu dynasties until 788 AD, when a new dynasty, known as the Chandras, founded the city of Vaishali. This city went on to become a noted trade port, with as many as a thousand ships coming to it annually. In fact, its territory extended as far north as Chittagong, although the empire itself was ruled from modern day Munshiganj. Research suggests that the inhabitants of this city were “Indian” or descended from Aryans geneologically, with followers of Hinduism as well as a Mahayanist form of Buddhism.

A History of South East Asia by Hall details how the Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century AD. Pamela Gutman’s research also delves into the Rakhines, the last significant group to come to Arakan, and who appear to have been an advance guard of Burmans who began to cross the Arakan Yoma (mountain) in the ninth century. Genealogically, this population was not similar to the people of Danyawaddy or the Wethali dynasties of Arakan.

In old Burmese, the name Rakhine first appeared in inscriptions from the 12th century, and was found from the 12th to 15th centuries on stone inscriptions of Tuparon, Sagaing. However, the scripture of those early days in Arakan were similar to early Bengali script and not the language that is spoken in present day Rakhine, indicating the existence of a culture that was more similar to the one of ancient Bengal under the earlier Hindu dynasties.

However in medieval times, there was a reorientation eastward; the area fell under Burman dominance, and Arakanese people began to speak a dialect of Burmese, something that continues to this day. With Burmese influence came ties to Ceylon and the gradual prominence of Theravada Buddhism.

How the Burmese do not seem to have settled in Arakan until possibly as late as the tenth century AD
*The influence of Islam*
Arabs were the earliest people to travel to the east by sea, and they were in contact with Arakan even during pre-Islamic days. The Arakanese first received the message of Islam from ship wrecked Arabs in 788 AD.




This Arab presence, with the message of Islam, made up the beginnings of Muslim society in Arakan. Thus, historical research indicates that the Arakanese inhabitants of Wesali practised Hinduism, a Mahayanist form of Buddhism as well as Islam. This is even confirmed by the Burmese military regime in its official book Sasana Ronwas Htunzepho, published in 1997 – “Islam spread and was deeply rooted in Arakan since 8th century from where it further spread into interior Burma.”

In fact, the Arab influence increased to such a large extent that in Chittagong during the mid 10th century, a small Muslim kingdom was established, possibly from the east bank of the Meghna River to the Naf, ruled over by a Sultan. After the advent of Muslim rule in Bengal in 1203, the Muslim population of Arakan increased, especially during the Mrauk-U dynasty. There were large scale conversions of Buddhists to Islam from the 15th to 18th centuries.

Later, when Dutch industrialists were ordered by the king to quit Arakan, they were afraid of leaving behind the children they had had with local women – the pious Dutch Calvinists were horrified at the idea of them being brought up as Muslims.
*Blurred boundaries and communal harmony*
The relations between Arakan and Chittagong were based on historical, geo-political and ethnological considerations. The Chittagong region was under the Vesali kingdom of Arakan during the 6th to 8th centuries, and under the Mrauk U kingdom of Arakan in the 16th and 17th centuries, meaning these close political, cultural and commercial links have existed between these two territories for centuries.




The 15th century is a turning point in the history of Arakan; during this time, a large contingent of Muslims entered Arakan from Bengal by invitation of the ruling princes. The cause was political. Here, the history of Arakan intersects with the history of the Indian subcontinent, especially with Bengal. While Bengal and Arakan had had the same rulers as far back as the 6th century, this was the time when Muslims became an integral part of the political system in Arakan, becoming rulers, administrators and kingmakers for over 350 years.

In 1430, after nearly three decades in exile in the Bengali Royal city of Gaur, the Rakhine king Narameikhla, also known as Min Saw Mun (1404-1434), returned to Arakan at the head of a formidable force largely made up of Afghan adventurers, who swiftly overcame local oppositions and drove off the Burmans and Mons. In fact, it was the Bengal King Sultan Jalal Uddin (1415-1433 AD) of Gaur, a Muslim convert from Hinduism, who helped king Narameikhla. According to Dr Maung in The Price of Silence, “He (Narameikhla) spoke Persian, Hindi, and Bengali on the top of his mother tongue Rakhaing.”

This was the start of a new golden age for the country – a period of power and prosperity – and creation of a remarkably hybrid Buddhist-Islamic court, fusing tradition from Persia and India as well as the Buddhist worlds to the east. This cosmopolitan court became great patrons of Bengali as well as Arakanese literature. Poet Dulat Qazi, author of the first Bengali romance, and Shah Alaol, who was considered the greatest of seventeenth-century Bengali poets, were among the eminent courtiers of Arakan. Mrauk-U kings adopted Muslim titles like “Shah” alongside Buddhist names and titles, appeared in Persian-inspired dress and the conical hats of Isfahan and Mughal Delhi, minted coins and medallions inscribing kalima (Islamic declaration of faith) in Persian and Arabic scripts, and spoke several languages. Persian and Bengali languages were patronised and used as the official and court languages of Arakan.

According to Dr Ko Ko Gyi, “This was because they (Arakanese kings) not only wished to be thought of as sultans in their own rights, but also because there were Muslims in ever larger number among their subjects.”

Arakan was virtually ruled by Muslim from 1430 to 1531

This period in history is filled with examples of close relations between different communities and religions in the region, and a time when art and literature flourished. For example, the 17th century king Narapadigyi trusted and loved Magan Thakur, a noted poet of medieval Bengali literature, so much that at the hour of his death, he left his only daughter under Magan’s custody. When this princess became the principal queen of Tado Mintar, she entrusted the Chief Ministership to Magan Thakur, realising the guardianship she enjoyed in childhood.
*From ministers to refugees*
In those days, it was not uncommon for Muslims to occupy chief administrative posts in government. Burhanuddin, Ashraf Khan, Sri Bara Thakur were distinguished Lashkar Wazirs (Defence or War Ministers); Magan Thakur, Syyid Musa, Nabaraj Majlis were efficient Prime Ministers; and Syyid Muhammad Khan and Srimanta Sulaiman were capable ministers in Arakan. There were lots of other Muslim ministers, high civil and military officers who contributed to the growth of Islamic culture in Arakan. In fact, Arakan was depicted as an Islamic state in the map of The Times Complete History of the World, showing cultural division of Southeast Asia (distribution of major religions) in 1500.




Noted Burmese historian Col. Ba Shin, ex-chairman of the Burma Historical Commission, wrote in a research paper that “Arakan was virtually ruled by Muslim from 1430 to 1531.” From 1430 to 1645, for a period of more than two hundred years, the kingdom of Arakan followed an imperial, administrative order similar to the ones in Gaur and Delhi, with the head of officials known as Qazis. Some of them were prominent in the history of Arakan, such as Daulat Qazi, Sala Qazi, Gawa Qazi, Shuza Qazi, Abdul Karim, Muhammad Hussain, Osman, Abdul Jabbar, Abdul Gafur, Mohammed Yousuf, Rawsan Ali and Nur Mohammed etc. Gradually, a mixed Muslim society and culture developed and flourished around the capital.

By the 17th century, Muslims had entered Arakan in a big way on four different occasions; the Arab traders; two big contingents of the Muslim army in the course of restoring King Saw Mun to the Arakanese throne; the captive Muslims carried by pirates in the 16th-17th centuries, and the family retinue of Shah Shuja in 1660 A.D. Of them, the army contingents entering Arakan were numerically very great and influenced Arakanese society and culture greatly.

According to court poet Shah Aloal, “The Muslim population of Arakan consisted roughly of four categories, namely, the Bengalee, other Indian ethnicities, Afro-Asians and an indigenous population. Among these four categories, the Bengalee Muslims formed the largest part of the total Muslim population of Arakan.”

Thus, the Rohingya, with bona fide historical roots in the region, have evolved with distinct ethnic characteristics in Arakan from peoples of different ethnical backgrounds over the past several centuries. Genealogically, Rohingya are Indo-Aryan descendants. Genetically, they are an ethnic mix of Bengalis, Indians, Moghuls, Pathans, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Moors and central Asians, and have developed a separate culture and a mixed language, which is absolutely unique to the region.
_*The author is Chairman of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO). He can be reached at nuromor@yahoo.com
http://www.dhakatribune.com/magazine/weekend-tribune/2017/10/12/rohingya-descendants-ancient-arakan/*_


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## Banglar Bir

*Malaysia to open field hospital in Teknaf for the Rohingya*
Syed Zainul Abedin
Published at 01:28 AM October 16, 2017
Last updated at 09:22 AM October 16, 2017




Visiting Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and other Bangladesh government officials in the state guesthouse Padma in Dhaka on October 15, 2017 *Dhaka Tribune*
*The visiting Malaysian deputy prime minister says they will seek support from the ASEAN countries to resolve the Rohingya crisis*
Malaysia will build a field hospital in Teknaf to provide treatment to 300,000 Rohingya who have fled brutal persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and taken refuge in Bangladesh.

Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the Malaysian deputy prime minister who is currently visiting Dhaka, disclosed this while briefing the media after a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in the state guesthouse Padma on Sunday.

Hamidi said: “We will build up a hospital within two to three months for 300,000 Rohingya refugees who took shelter in Bangladesh.”

He added that Malaysia will also seek support from the ASEAN countries to resolve the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam, and Malaysian Minister for Human Resources Dr Richard Riot Anak Jaem were also present at the meeting.

Mahmood Ali had briefed Hamidi about the difficulties faced by Bangladesh due to mass exodus of more than half a million Rohingya since late August.

He mentioned that Bangladesh was now hosting over 900,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals. Of them, around 540,000 took shelter in Bangladesh after August 25, when the Myanmar security forces launched a crackdown in response to a militant attack on police outposts and an army base in Rakhine.

The foreign minister pointed out that the Myanmar army with the support of ethnic Rakhine armed vigilantes were carrying out an organised and systematic violence, arson and atrocities against the Rohingya civilians to depopulate the northern Rahine State and prevent their possible return.

Mahmood Ali also added that Bangladesh has given shelter to the Rohingya temporarily on humanitarian grounds and they will have to go back to their homes in Rakhine at the soonest.

He said the root of the problem was in Myanmar and the solution also lies there.

Referring to the discussion on the refugees’ return with Myanmar Union Minister at the State Counsellor’s Office U Kyaw Tint Swe during his recent Dhaka visit, Mahmood Ali mentioned that the major issues were yet to be addressed.

“The agreed principles and criteria of 1992 need to be revised to address the current challenge. The international community and UN agencies should be allowed to support the repatriation process,” said the foreign minister.

He appreciated Malaysia’s initiative in providing humanitarian assistance to the persecuted Rohingya refugees.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi applauded the Bangladesh government for sheltering the Rohingya and its efforts to provide them with humanitarian aid.

Hamidi mentioned that Malaysia was deeply concerned at the disturbing developments in Myanmar and took strong position on the Rohingya issue in the UN and other regional forums.

Malaysia also supported involvement of the international community and UN in the repatriation process, he said, adding that Malaysia and Bangladesh could be leading partners in resolving the problem.

Hamidi is scheduled to visit the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar on Monday.
*Bangladeshi expatriate workers issue*
Employment of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia had also featured prominently during Sunday’s meeting.

Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam thanked Malaysia for allowing irregular Bangladeshi workers to regularise themselves through the re-hiring programme.

Expressing gratitude for including Bangladesh as an official source country for recruiting foreign workforce, he also conveyed the government’s readiness to provide trained security guards to Malaysia.

In the meeting, both sides also discussed present status of implementation of the Government to Government Plus (G2G+) scheme for recruiting Bangladeshi workers and agreed to speed up the whole process.
Earlier, Malaysia had showed interest to recruit security guards from Bangladesh.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...alaysia-build-field-hospital-teknaf-rohingya/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya survivor: The army threw my baby into a fire*
14 Oct 2017
*MORE ON MYANMAR*
Myanmar journalists harassed over reporting Rohingya crisis 
Bangladesh: Wild elephants attack Rohingya camp, kill 4
Rohingya crisis explained in maps
Open letter from a Rohingya to Aung San Suu KyiyCox's Bazar, Bangladesh - Sitting on the dusty floor of a ramshackle tent in Kutupalong - one of Bangladesh's largest Rohingya refugee camps - Rajuma struggles to contain her grief as she describes the night her baby son was brutally murdered.

With pain etched on her face, she recounts in detail the day Myanmar's army attacked Tula Tuli, her isolated village in northern Rakhine state.

"My baby was in my lap when the soldiers hit me," she tells Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, her voice cracking with emotion.

"He fell out of my arms. Then they pulled me closer to the wall, and I could hear that he was crying. Then after a few minutes, I could hear that they were hitting him too."
WATCH: Rohingya testimonies of Myanmar atrocities mount (02:51)
Sadiq was a happy, playful one-and-a-half-year-old baby boy - a child Rajuma still cannot believe is gone.

After ripping him out of her arms, Rajuma says Myanmar soldiers hurled Sadiq into a fire.

She was then gang raped.

"I feel like I'm burning on the inside," Rajuma says, before breaking down and crying out for her dead mother.

Her parents, two of her sisters and her younger brother were also killed. Her husband, Mohammed Rafiq, was able to escape and survived the attack.

Several Rohingya have shared similar accounts, describing how women and girls were raped, tortured and forced to endure acts of humiliation at the hands of Myanmar soldiers.

Myanmar has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing, saying the military offensive was a "clearance operation" to flush out Rohingya fighters who had staged attacks on border posts in August. It has also refused to allow international observers to investigate.
READ MORE: The Rohingya crisis through the eyes of a refugee
Since August 25, the Myanmar army has waged a brutal military campaign in northern Rakhine state against the Rohingya - a Muslim-majority ethnic group to whom the Myanmar government has denied citizenship and basic rights.

More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar, most arriving in Bangladesh by foot or by boat, with aid agencies struggling to cope with the influx.

Support for mental health and psychological care is in short supply, raising fears that the Rohingya could be left with life-long mental - and even physical - damage.

"Sometimes [Rajuma] says her head feels like it's twisting and that she can't tolerate it," Rafiq tells Al Jazeera. "Sometimes she looks at the photos of our baby, and she screams and cries.
"Every single day she cries."
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/rohingya-survivor-army-threw-baby-fire-171013083525896.html


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## The Eagle

*EU to suspend contact with Myanmar military leaders*


European Council points to 'disproportionate' use of force by Myanmar's army in Rohingya crisis

home > world, europe 16.10.2017 





FILE PHOTO

ISTANBUL

The European Council on Monday suspended contact with Myanmar’s military over its “disproportionate” use of force against Rohingya militants.

The resolution backs up earlier EU moves to restrict certain arms and equipment sales to the country’s military which has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

In a statement on Monday, the European Council said: “In the light of the disproportionate use of force carried out by the security forces, the EU and its Member States will suspend invitations to the Commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and other senior military officers and review all practical defense cooperation.”

The body also said it “may consider additional measures if the situation does not improve”.

Since Aug. 25, some 536,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

On Friday a UN human rights spokesman told Anadolu Agency Rohingya Muslim refugees wanted to see a peacekeeping force protecting them.

Rupert Colville said there was "an obvious need for the international community, whether it is the UN Security Council, an individual state or so on, to absolutely find a way out of this situation, and the only possible solution is that the Rohingya are allowed to go back home.”

He also said there should be a political and security response to violence in Myanmar: "In order to be safe, Rohingya refugees would like to see peacekeeping operation."

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## Banglar Bir

*Suu Kyi: We are holding talks on the return of those who are in Bangladesh*
Tribune Desk
Published at 01:41 AM October 13, 2017




*'Those who return from Bangladesh would need to be resettled and development must be brought to Rakhine to achieve durable peace'*
Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that her government is holding talks with Bangladesh on the return of “those who are now in Bangladesh.”
*
She gave no details, but officials suggested that these refugees would need to provide residency documents, which few have, reports New York Times*.

In a televised address on Thursday, she also called for national unity, saying she has created a committee that will oversee all international and local assistance in violence-struck Rakhine State, said the New York Times report.

More than 520,000 Rohingya have fled from the state to neighbouring Bangladesh since August 25, when security forces responded to attacks by insurgents with a broad crackdown on the long-persecuted minority, which the UN has called a “textbook ethnic cleansing.”
*
New York Times reports that Suu Kyi acknowledged in her speech that Myanmar was facing widespread criticism over the refugee crisis, and called for unity in tackling the problem.*

Myanmar’s Buddhist majority denies that the Rohingya, mostly Muslims, are a separate ethnic group and regards them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, although many families have lived in Myanmar for generations.

Suu Kyi did not use the word “Rohingya” in her speech on Thursday, but referred to several other ethnic minorities by name. She also stayed away from mentioning the brutal persecution of the Rohingya carried out by the Myanmar security forces.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former political prisoner has been widely criticised for not speaking out on behalf of the Rohingya while Myanmar officials deny the “ethnic cleansing.”

She said in her speech that those who return from Bangladesh would need to be resettled, without providing details, and that development must be brought to Rakhine to achieve durable peace, reports New York Times.

It quoted Suu Kyi as saying that she would head the new committee, the “Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine,” and that it would coordinate all efforts to create a “peaceful and developed Rakhine state.”

The Myanmar government has tightly restricted access to Rakhine for international aid groups and journalists.

Suu Kyi also said her government has invited UN agencies, financial institutions such as the World Bank, and others to help develop Rakhine.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/10/13/suu-kyi-holding-talks-return-bangladesh/


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## Banglar Bir

06:49 PM, October 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:20 PM, October 16, 2017
*EU to review all defence cooperation with Myanmar*
*Suspends invitations to Myanmar army chief, senior military officers*




Star Online Report
*In a major foreign policy decision, the European Union today decided to review all practical defence cooperation with Myanmar.*
The EU also decided to suspend invitations to the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces and other senior military officers, according to a press statement of the European Council after its meeting in Luxembourg today.

The Council of the European Union Foreign Affairs, which comprises of the foreign ministers of 28 member countries, adopted the conclusions on Myanmar in light of the disproportionate use of force carried out by the security forces and the present humanitarian and human rights situation in Rakhine state that has so far driven more than 536,000 Rohingya people out of the country since August 25.

*The EU confirmed the relevance of the current EU restrictive measures which consist of an embargo on arms and on equipment that can be used for internal repression.*

The European Council may consider “additional measures” if the situation does not improve, but also stands ready to respond accordingly to positive developments, the council said in the statement.

The council has also adopted the following conclusions on Myanmar in light of the situation over Rohingya crisis:

"1. The humanitarian and human rights situation in Rakhine State is extremely serious. 
There are deeply worrying reports of continuing arson and violence against people and serious human rights violations, including indiscriminate firing of weapons, the presence of landmines and sexual and gender based violence. 
This is not acceptable and must end immediately. 
More than 500 000 people, mostly Rohingya, have fled their homes and sought refuge in Bangladesh, as a result of violence and fear. 
When so many people are displaced so quickly this strongly indicates a deliberate action to expel a minority. 
Therefore it is of utmost importance that refugees can return in safety and dignity. Access for humanitarian assistance and the media is severely restricted in Rakhine State. Needs can therefore not be fully assessed nor addressed.

2. The EU has called on all sides to bring an immediate end to all violence. 
It urges the Myanmar/Burma military to end its operations and to ensure the protection of all civilians without discrimination and to fully observe international human rights law. 
The EU also reiterates its call on the Myanmar/Burma government to take all measures to defuse tensions between communities; grant full, safe and unconditional humanitarian access without delay, including for UN, ICRC, and international NGOs; and establish a credible and practical process to enable the safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return of all those who fled their homes to their places of origin. 
The EU has stepped up its humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and stands ready to extend its activities in Rakhine State in favour of all people in need once access is granted.

3. The EU and its Member States reconfirm their strong engagement underlined in its Strategy on Myanmar (June 2016) to support the country's democratic transition, peace, national reconciliation and socio-economic development. 
In this context, the EU stands ready to support the government of Myanmar/Burma in order to ensure the swift and full implementation of the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, including the crucial issue of citizenship for the stateless Rohingya population. 
The EU welcomes that the government has set-up an Inter-Ministerial Committee for the implementation of these recommendations.

4. The EU welcomes the State Counsellor's commitment to bringing all the perpetrators of human rights violations and other criminal acts to justice, in accordance with the rule of law to avoid all impunity, and her statement on 19 September that Myanmar/Burma does not fear international scrutiny. 
Credible allegations of serious human rights violations and abuses, including brutal attacks on children, must be thoroughly investigated. 
In this context the EU urges Myanmar/Burma to cooperate fully with the Human Rights Council's independent international Fact-Finding Mission and to allow it full, safe and unhindered access to the country without delay. 
The EU welcomes that the UN Human Rights Council recently extended the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission.

5. Furthermore, the EU encourages Myanmar/Burma to enter into a dialogue with its neighbouring countries, in particular Bangladesh, on finding solutions to common concerns, notably the repatriation of refugees to their place of origin, in the spirit of good neighbourly relations. 
The EU appreciates the constructive role played by Bangladesh under difficult circumstances.

6. In the light of the disproportionate use of force carried out by the security forces, the EU and its Member States will suspend invitations to the Commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and other senior military officers and review all practical defence cooperation. 
The EU confirms the relevance of the current EU restrictive measures which consist of an embargo on arms and on equipment that can be used for internal repression. 
The council may consider additional measures if the situation does not improve, but also stands ready to respond accordingly to positive developments.

7. The humanitarian situation of populations affected by conflict in Kachin and Shan States, including 100,000 internally displaced people, is also of great concern. 
Humanitarian assistance has also been severely curtailed there and the EU calls on the government of Myanmar/Burma to restore humanitarian access to all communities affected in these areas.

8. The EU will continue to address these vital issues and all challenges linked to the process of democratic transition in the framework of its continuing engagement with the government of Myanmar/Burma and in all relevant international fora, notably the UN. 
The EU also intends to seize the opportunity of the forthcoming ASEM Foreign Ministerial Meeting (Nay Pyi Taw, 20/21 November 2017) to engage, in the margins thereof, in a constructive dialogue with the government and will also continue to liaise with all Asian partners in this regard. 
The EU also encourages its partners in ASEAN and the region to engage in this process."
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...eview-all-defence-cooperation-myanmar-1477222

06:39 PM, October 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:07 PM, October 16, 2017
*IPU assembly includes Rohingya issue as ‘emergency item’*
BSS, Dhaka
*The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) overnight included as the top "emergency item" the Rohingya issue as proposed by Bangladesh while its 137th assembly is underway in Russia's St. Petersburg, officials said today.*
"The IPU adopted three resolutions as 'emergency items' for discussions in the assembly and of them the Bangladesh proposal on Rohingya issue was accepted receiving the highest 1027 votes," a Bangladesh embassy official in Moscow told BSS by phone.

He said Bangladesh's delegation leader and parliamentary deputy speaker Fazle Rabbi tabled the resolution titled *"Stop atrocities and forced displacement of Rohingyas and ensure their return to their homeland in the Rakhine State of Myanmar immediately and unconditionally".*

Myanmar, he said, on the other hand, brought on its own a resolution for discussing rights situation in its Rakhine state visibly in an effort to negate the global condemnation about the atrocities there and it was accepted with only 47 votes.

The third resolution was brought by Japan on North Korea's nuclear programme to be accepted with 427 votes.

The IPU, meanwhile, in a separate development denounced Myanmar expressing "grave" concern about the continuing violence, intimidation and forced displacement of the Rohingya Muslim minority from its Rakhine State.

"Reports of documented widespread cruelty against Rohingya children, women and men and the ensuing massive exodus into neighbouring Bangladesh are very disconcerting," the IPU said quoting a joint statement by its President Saber Chowdhury and Secretary General Martin Chungong.

It said the IPU "condemn these human rights violations and stress the Myanmar State authorities' responsibility to protect all the people living in the country".

The statement asked being an IPU member the Myanmar parliament to make every effort to help bring this crisis to an end.

Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the IPU assembly on October 14 as it drew 2,000 parliamentary delegates from across the globe for focus discussions on overcoming intolerance, xenophobia and extremism.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...myanmar-rohingya-issue-emergency-item-1477219


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## Banglar Bir

*Thousands of new Rohingya refugees flee violence, hunger in Myanmar to Bangladesh*
13:24 October 16, 2017
*Reuters Agency*





*Rohingya Muslims fled from oppression
Hungry, destitute and scared, thousands of new Rohingya refugees crossed the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar early on Monday, Reuters witnesses said, fleeing hunger and attacks by Buddhist mobs that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

Wading through waist-deep water with children strapped to their sides, the refugees told Reuters they had walked through bushes and forded monsoon-swollen streams for days.

A seemingly never-ending flow entered Bangladesh near the village of Palongkhali. Many were injured, with the elderly carried on makeshift stretchers, while women balanced household items, such as pots, rice sacks and clothing, on their heads.

"We couldn't step out of the house for the last month because the military were looting people," said Mohammad Shoaib, 29, who wore a yellow vest and balanced jute bags of food and aluminium pots on a bamboo pole. "They started firing on the village. So we escaped into another.

"Day by day, things kept getting worse, so we started moving towards Bangladesh. Before we left, I went back near my village to see my house, and the entire village was burnt down," Shoaib added



*
00:58 dk10 Ekim 2017Yeni Şafak
*Bangladesh camps teeming with thousands of unaccompanied Rohingya children
Since Aug. 25, more than a half million Rohingya Muslims have crossed from the Rakhine State of Myanmar into Bangladesh due to the ongoing violence of the Myanmar army.

Rohingya children also had to take shelter in the country, thousands of them without their families. The refugees in the camps try to take care of them.

They joined about 536,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with the fleeing people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape.

Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing and has labelled the militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army who launched the attacks as terrorists, who have killed civilians and burnt villages.

Not everyone made it to Bangladesh alive on Monday.

Several kilometres (miles) to the south of Palongkhali, a boat carrying scores of refugees sank at dawn, killing at least 12 and leaving 35 missing. There were 21 survivors, Bangladesh authorities said.

"So far 12 bodies, including six children and four women, have been recovered," said police official Moinuddin Khan.

Bangladesh border guards told Reuters the boat sank because it was overloaded with refugees, who pay exorbitant fees to cross the Naf River, which forms a natural border with Myanmar in the Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh.

The sinking came about a week after another boat capsized in the estuary on the river, which has become a graveyard for dozens of Muslim refugees.*




*'Rohingya want to see peacekeepers' says UN source
A UN human rights spokesman on Friday told Anadolu Agency Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar wanted to see a peacekeeping force protecting them.
Rupert Colville said there was "an obvious need for the international community, whether it is the UN Security Council, an individual state or so on, to absolutely find a way out of this situation, and the only possible solution is that the Rohingya are allowed to go back home.”
He also said there should be a political and security response to violence Myanmar: "In order to be safe, Rohingya refugees would like to see peacekeeping operation.""The international community needs to deal with that. 
This is a very, very serious situation. 
You cannot let an entire population be ethnically cleansed into neighboring countries," Colville added."Clearly, there should be international action. 

Interestingly, some of the refugees do highlight they would like to have full citizenship and safety to return to Rakhine state [in Myanmar]," he said.
So far, the UN has not considered sending a peacekeeping force to Myanmar to end the violence, despite numerous reports saying attacks on Rohingya Muslims have been a concerted, well-organized campaign explicitly meant to push them out of the country into Bangladesh and block their return.

The humanitarian operations of some of UN agencies, including UNICEF, have been halted in northern Rakhine state because of the violence and security concerns.The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel.

According to UN, landmines were planted after Aug. 25 on the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh in order to prevent the Rohingya population from returning.
The refugees are fleeing a military operation in Myanmar which has seen security forces and Buddhist mobs killing men, women and children, looting homes, and torching Rohingya villages.
Since Aug. 25, when the military launched a crackdown against Rohingya, 536,000 people crossed from Rakhine state into Bangladesh, according to the UN.It is "the largest and speediest" movement of a civilian population in Asia since the 1970s, the UN said.
FOOD, AID RESTRICTED
Refugees who survived the perilous journey said they were driven out by hunger because food markets in Myanmar's western Rakhine State have been shut and aid deliveries restricted. They also reported attacks by the military and Rakhine Buddhist mobs.

The influx will worsen the unprecedented humanitarian emergency unfolding in Cox's Bazar, where aid workers are battling to provide refugees with food, clean water and shelter.

On Monday, the Red Cross opened a field hospital as big as two football fields, with 60 beds, three wards, an operating theatre, a delivery suite with maternity ward and a psychosocial support unit.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya had already been in Bangladesh after fleeing previous spasms of violence in Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship and faced curbs on their movements and access to basic services.*




*The United States and the European Union are considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military leaders, officials have told Reuters.

EU foreign ministers will discuss Myanmar on Monday, and their draft joint statement said the bloc "will suspend invitations to the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and other senior military officers".

The powerful army chief, Min Aung Hlaing, told the United States ambassador in Myanmar last week that the exodus of Rohingya, whom he called non-native "Bengalis", was exaggerated.

But despite Myanmar's denials and assurances that aid was on its way to the north of violence-torn Rakhine State, thousands more starving people were desperate to leave.

"We fled from our home because we had nothing to eat in my village," said Jarhni Ahlong, a 28-year-old Rohingya man from the southern region of Buthidaung, who had been stranded on the Myanmar side of the Naf for a week, waiting to cross.

From the thousands gathered there awaiting an opportunity to escape, about 400 paid roughly $50 each to flee on nine or 10 boats on Monday morning, he added.
"I think if we go to Bangladesh we can get food," he said.*
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/dunya/t...lence-hunger-in-myanmar-to-bangladesh-2795976


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## Banglar Bir

*‘Rohingya want to see peacekeepers’ says UN source*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/10/rohingya-want-to-see-peacekeepers-says-un-source.html




*UN human rights spokesman says refugees from violence in Myanmar demand protection*
By Fatih Erel / AA
*GENEVA: *A UN human rights spokesman on Friday told Anadolu Agency Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar wanted to see a peacekeeping force protecting them.

Rupert Colville said there was “an obvious need for the international community, whether it is the UN Security Council, an individual state or so on, to absolutely find a way out of this situation, and the only possible solution is that the Rohingya are allowed to go back home.”

He also said there should be a political and security response to violence Myanmar: “In order to be safe, Rohingya refugees would like to see peacekeeping operation.”

“The international community needs to deal with that. This is a very, very serious situation. You cannot let an entire population be ethnically cleansed into neighboring countries,” Colville added.

“Clearly, there should be international action. Interestingly, some of the refugees do highlight they would like to have full citizenship and safety to return to Rakhine state [in Myanmar],” he said.

*So far, the UN has not considered sending a peacekeeping force to Myanmar to end the violence, despite numerous reports saying attacks on Rohingya Muslims have been a concerted, well-organized campaign explicitly meant to push them out of the country into Bangladesh and block their return.*

The humanitarian operations of some of UN agencies, including UNICEF, have been halted in northern Rakhine state because of the violence and security concerns.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel.

According to UN, landmines were planted after Aug. 25 on the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh in order to prevent the Rohingya population from returning.

The refugees are fleeing a military operation in Myanmar which has seen security forces and Buddhist mobs killing men, women and children, looting homes, and torching Rohingya villages.

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## tarpitz

RIP Bengalis.
Your text books are telling the truth.






http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...-appears-endorse-myanmar-propaganda-rohingya/
@Aung Zaya @Kutuzov


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## Banglar Bir

11:48 AM, October 17, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:58 AM, October 17, 2017
*‘New satellite images confirm mass destruction in Myanmar’*
*288 villages, tens of thousands of structures torched, says Human Rights Watch*




Complete destruction of Rohingya villages in close proximity to intact Rakhine village, Maungdaw township, recorded on 21 September 2017. Photo courtesy: 2017 Human Rights Watch
Star Online Report
*At least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine State of Myanmar since August 25, 2017, according to new satellite images released by Human Rights Watch.*
Read More: New satellite imagery shows 214 villages of Rohingyas almost totally destroyed in Rakhine
The destruction encompassed tens of thousands of structures, primarily homes inhabited by ethnic Rohingya Muslims, the rights body said in a press release issued today.

Analysis of the satellite imagery indicates both that the burnings focused on Rohingya villages and took place after Myanmar officials claimed security force “clearance operations” had ceased, Human Rights Watch said.

“These latest satellite images show why over half a million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in just four weeks,” Human Rights Watch reports quoting its Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson.

“The Burmese military destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages while committing killings, rapes, and other crimes against humanity that forced Rohingya to flee for their lives,” Robertson adds.

The imagery pinpoints multiple areas where destroyed Rohingya villages sat adjacent to intact ethnic Rakhine villages. It also shows that at least 66 villages were burned after September 5, when security force operations supposedly ended, according to a September 18 speech by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Myanmar military responded to attacks on August 25 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) with a campaign of ethnic cleansing, prompting more than 530,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

A total of 866 villages in Maungdaw, Rathedaung, and Buthidaung townships in Rakhine State were monitored and analyzed by Human Rights Watch. The most damage occurred in Maungdaw Township, accounting for approximately 90 percent of the areas where destruction happened from August 25 to September 25. Approximately 62 percent of all villages in the township were either partially or completely destroyed, and southern areas of the township were particularly hard hit, with approximately 90 percent of the villages devastated. 
In many places, satellite imagery showed multiple areas on fire, burning simultaneously over wide areas for extended periods.

Human Rights Watch found that the damage patterns are consistent with fire. Comparing recent imagery with those taken prior to the date of the attacks, analysis showed that most of the damaged villages were 90 to 100 percent destroyed.

Many villages which had both Rohingya and Rakhine residing in segregated communities, such as Inn Din and Ywet Hnyo Taung, suffered heavy arson damage from arson attacks, with known Rohingya areas burned to the ground while known Rakhine areas were left intact.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

tarpitz said:


> http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...-appears-endorse-myanmar-propaganda-rohingya/
> @Aung Zaya @Kutuzov


Yes,as most of our School text books were edited and printed in india by the RAWami BAL Government,hence these intentional gross errors were incorporated. Now the real truth,as per Western media:
*Fight the lie with the truth*
Forrest Cookson, October 10, 2017




Nothing short of crimes against humanity. Photo: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
*The truth about Myanmar must be told, 10,000 times*

10 years, the government of Myanmar has committed genocide against the Rohingya people. This is not a complicated issue, it is a straightforward instance of one religion, Buddhism, abusing and killing members of another, Islam.

It is a remarkable act of bravado; Buddhism is the one major religion that, the Pew survey is reporting, is declining in number of members, whereas Islam, already with many more members, is gaining conversions faster than any other religious faith. The Muslim world is far more powerful than the Buddhist.

The nation that bears the immediate cost of Myanmar’s actions is Bangladesh. In a previous article “The great lie,” I estimated that with another 600,000 Rohingya likely to cross the border in 2017, there will be a total of more than one million refugees here in Bangladesh.
*The great lie*
To maintain these refugees at a minimum level of economic welfare is going to cost $200 million per year.

Myanmar is waging war against Bangladesh. Exporting a tremendous economic and security burden.

The previous article argued that Bangladesh should bring a legal case against the leaders of Myanmar, accusing and proving them guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. The objective should be to see them jailed for life.

This will take a long time, as the strength of the international judicial system is still weak. This legal approach is important but it is not enough. The great lie must be fought with truth telling.

The resources of China and Russia are lined up against Bangladesh on this to say nothing of Thailand and India.

But this is still not enough. The presence of a large number of desperate refugees is also a threat to national security. If the refugees do turn in their frustration to an extreme view of Islam, it will be dangerous for Bangladesh.
*No turning back*
The first task is to settle these people in refugee camps, to insure that there is a secular school system put in place and to find ways to put the refugees to work.

The school system should be built on the best teachers one can find among the refugees [who should receive a salary for their work].

Text books in the Rohingya language can be prepared and used. The refugees should contribute to their upkeep. 
It is very unlikely that the Myanmar government will ever accept them back.

The leaders are cruel, desperate individuals who have failed their nation. Planning for the refugees must be realistic and should assume that there is no returning them.

What is a sensible program? First, to tackle all the major countries of the world and get them to accept some of these refugees. Perhaps in a period of five years it might be possible to get half of them resettled.

But to do so several things are going to be necessary. During the interim period, the children must be schooled, careful security rules must be in place to ensure that the authorities have blocked infiltration by Muslim fundamentalists preaching violence, and the population must contribute to their own upkeep.

These are difficult objectives but it is likely that there will be support from Islamic countries and perhaps the Western nations.

It is the North American and European states that have to be persuaded to accept some of the refugees, so it is important to prepare along the lines that they want. Some Islamic states will probably also agree to take some of the refugees.

Such actions will be opposed by China, India, and Russia. But this will ultimately be achieved to their disadvantage. Bangladesh should stand for its own interests and openly tout the fact that these nations are supporting genocide.
*Myanmar cannot be trusted*
Another tricky area is relations with Myanmar. There is no doubt that the actions of the Myanmar government are equivalent to an act of war. Sending one million persons across the border is a clear attempt to harm and destabilise Bangladesh. It cannot go unanswered.

Myanmar cannot be trusted. The Bangladesh army should be deployed along the border, the readiness level of the divisions upgraded with additional manpower, equipment, war fighting ammunition stocks, and a clear policy to push back against any violation of the border.

This should include shooting down any Myanmar helicopter that comes into Bangladesh airspace, shooting back at any Myanmar security force-shooting into Bangladesh, and actively helping refugees being abused within one mile of the border on the Myanmar side.

The prime minister has worked to build up the armed forces; these can now be used to protect the country against this aggression.

The Bangladesh Border Guard does not have the weapons to present a plausible deterrent to Myanmar army.

The development of genocide and crimes against humanity must be systematically argued and presented. With the UN General Assembly just past us,this is the time to put forth the strong case against Myanmar.

This is the time to fight the spreading of the great lie. This is the time to force the rest of the world to recognise what has been done here and to demand that they stand with Bangladesh.

We can expect the Russians and the Chinese to stand strongly with Myanmar and to propagate the great lie. But most nations will see this for what it is and support Bangladesh.

To fight the great lie, the truth must be told 10,000 times. An active public relations policy should be followed to achieve this.

It is particularly urgent for the Bangladesh government to take control of the support for the refugees and do a superior job.
*In the hand of the government*
At present, most of the work is being done by Islamic organisations. Bangladesh is a secular state where Islam is the dominant, important religion. Hence the management of the Rohingya welfare, education, and financing must be in the hands of the government.

Assistance from NGOs or religious groups should be allowed only with well defined rules.

No time should be wasted in gaining control of the refugee situation.

Left unattended, the refugee crisis is going to become increasingly difficult as it will be the target for recruitment by violent Islamic groups.

The western countries will refuse to take any refugees and there will be continuing trouble from criminal activities.

The nation may be stuck with all of these refugees indefinitely.

One issue that is very difficult is the question of the ARSA, the Arakan Salvation Army. Should covert support to this group be provided in return for guidance and partial control? I do not know the answer to this, but it needs to be considered by the Bangladesh security leaders.

Bangladesh’s security, economic stability, and religious equilibrium depend on the government playing a strong hand, gaining control of the management of the refugees, defending the border, and publicly arguing the case for crimes against humanity and genocide.

It is no surprise that China and Russia are supporting Myanmar and trumpeting the great lie. These nations have never had a moral particle in their political stances, both have killed millions of their own citizens to further maintaining power.

But it is shameful that India is taking the side of Myanmar and putting forth the great lie. India will try to manipulate the PM to agree with their side. But India will never succeed in this.

Her strong upholding of the secular state while understanding the central importance of Islam will protect Bangladesh from those proclaiming the great lie.
_Forrest Cookson is an American economist.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/10/fight-lie-truth/_

*SINGAPORE-affiliated former Myanmar Cabinet member spreading FAKE NEWS.*




_By_ Dr Maung Zarni
October 16, 2017
*Visiting Fellow at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies & Ex-Cabinet Member from Thein Sein Gov, spread fakes news about Rohingyas, possibly coordinating with Irrawaddy Burmese Editors. 
Ye Htut, ex-Colonel and a son of the late Myanmar Police Chief, is caught spreading Fake News, which typically frames Rohingyas as "terrorist" issue. *

Ye Htut's Burmese language caption reads: 
"In Bangladesh the (Muslim) fundamentalists and extremists held demonstrations demanding that Rohingyas be armed. 

Now the (Bangladesh) border guards unit at a refugee camp lost their weapons to the looters."
This is based on Irrawaddy Burmese Language News (see the two additional JPEG along with the first item by Ye Htut). 

Irrawaddy has emerged as a major platform for spreading genocidal racism and hatred against the Rohingyas. 

Its editors - Aung Zaw, Kyaw Zwa Moe, and Ye Ni - have been mis-characterizing, Rohingyas as an Islamic threat to Burma's "national security" based on dubious intelligence sources.

Irrawaddy's stance is influenced by both their anti-Rohingya racism and Bertil Linter's anti-Rohingya racist writings in Asia Times, blowing the security concerns out of proportions.

Just yesterday a Thai-American academic named Thitanan Pongsudhirak from Chula University in Bangkok peddles the same racist lie in Singapore's mouthpiece The Straits Times. 
See my scathing rebuttal to this academic whore's despicable racism, falsely accusing the wretched of my country as "terror" threat. 
http://www.maungzarni.net/2017/10/zarnis-open-letter-to-thitinan.html
Framing of Rohingyas as "Islamic terrorism" has been proven non-credible by Bangladeshi senior officials including the Foreign Secretary, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific Affairs Eric Schwartz and most recently in Facetime Live by Human Rights Watch Myanmar researcher. 
Here is Eric Schwartz in his own words:

"... the idea that insurgency is the route of the problem in Rakhine State is nonsense.
This is not insurgency. There are parts of Burma where there are insurgent issues. This is not an insurgency-driven conflict. This is a pretext that the military has given us, by all evidence."
the idea that insurgency is the route of the problem in Rakhine State is nonsense.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/can-stop-extreme-violence-rohingya-muslims/
*Myanmar: The Invention of Rohingya Extremists*
Joseph Allchin, The New York Review of Books, 2 October 2017
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/10/02/myanmar-the-invention-of-rohingya-extremists/
Bangladesh foreign secretary: No sign of radicalisation among the Rohingya, 8 October 2017 
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/foreign-affairs/2017/10/08/no-sign-radicalisation-rohingya/














http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/singapore-

*Starved out of Myanmar: hunger drives thousands more Rohingya to flee*
In Bangladesh, new arrivals from Myanmar said closure of food markets across Rakhine state and restrictions on aid had driven them over the border




Rohingya people arrive on the Bangladeshi side of the Naf river after crossing the border from Myanmar, in Palang Khali. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters
Global development is supported by



Reuters
Monday 16 October 2017 11.57 BST Last modified on Monday 16 October 2017 13.33 BST

Hungry, destitute and scared, thousands of new Rohingya refugees crossed the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar early on Monday, fleeing violence and hunger that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

The new arrivals said they were driven out by hunger because food markets in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state had been shut down and aid deliveries restricted. They also reported attacks by the military and Rakhine Buddhist mobs. Wading through waste-deep water with children strapped to their sides, the Rohingya said they had walked for days through bushes and monsoon-swollen streams from Myanmar’s Buthidaung region before reaching the border.

A seemingly never-ending line of people entered Bangladesh near the village of Palang Khali. Many were injured, with the elderly lying on makeshift stretchers, and women balancing family belongings – pots, rice sacks, clothing – on their heads.

“We couldn’t step out of the house for the last month because the military were looting people. They started firing on the village. So we escaped into another village,” said Mohammad Shoaib, 29, who was balancing his jute bags, filled with some food and aluminium pots, on a bamboo pole.

“Day by day things kept getting worse, so we started moving towards Bangladesh. Before we left, I went back near my village to see my house, and the entire village was burned down,” Shoaib said.

They walked to join an estimated 536,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar since 25 August, when coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with fleeing people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape. 

Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing and has labelled the militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, who launched the initial attacks, as terrorists who have killed civilians and burned down villages.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were already in Bangladesh after fleeing previous episodes of violence in Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship and faced restrictions on their movements and access to basic services. 

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for human rights abuses and says the country will accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar.

The US and the EU have been considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s military leaders, diplomats and officials said, although they are wary of action that could destabilise the country’s transition to democracy. 

EU foreign ministers were due to discuss Myanmar on Monday, and their draft joint statement said the bloc would “suspend invitations to the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar/Burma armed forces and other senior military officers”.

The powerful army chief, Min Aung Hlaing, told the US ambassador in Myanmar last week that the exodus of Rohingya, who he said were non-native “Bengalis”, was exaggerated.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-...ousands-more-rohingya-into-bangladesh-myanmar


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## tarpitz

Banglar Bir said:


> Yes,as most of our School text books were edited and printed in india by the RAWami BAL Government,hence these intentional gross errors were incorporated.


[emoji23] [emoji23] 
Text books are printed in India? Again pointing to India?You have already ruined the Bangladesh Defence Forum by posting groundless propaganda dream shopping list.
But you cannot ruin the history.
Your school children know the history better than the adult monkeys.
So instead of ruining the forum you better go to school and learn the history from your text books.
[emoji1] [emoji23] [emoji1] [emoji23] [emoji1] [emoji23]


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

http://www.yenisafak.com/en/photo-g...ed-from-oppression-in-myanmar-2024465/?page=2
*Rohingya Muslims fled from oppression in Myanmar*
*Hundreds of Rohingyas cross land and sea borders daily to reach Bangladesh, paying 36 USD each to hire a boat to cross the borders. As the number of boats ferrying Rohingyas from Myanmar increase in the day and night hours, Bangladeshi forces try to bring the boats into order on the shore.*


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## Banglar Bir

*Russia promises Bangladesh that the Rohingya issue will be seen in new light*
Tribune Desk
Published at 05:41 PM October 17, 2017




Rohingya refugees walk by night after crossing the border from Myanmar, on the Bangladeshi shores of the Naf river in Teknaf on September 29, 2017. More than half a million Rohingya Muslims have poured into Bangladesh in the last month, fleeing a vicious Myanmar military crackdown on Rohingya rebels that has gutted villages across northern Rakhine state. Scores have drowned while trying to cross waters separating the two countries, while those who survive face new dangers as they cram into squalid refugee settlements where food and clean water are in short supply *AFP*
*The Rohingya issue came to the fore in the discussion, on the backdrop of the overnight inclusion of Rohingya crisis as the “sole emergency item” in the agenda of the assembly on Monday*
Russia is likely to give higher importance to the Rohngya issue in its foreign policy in the coming days.

Senator Konstantin Kusachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russian Upper House, made the assurance while exchanging views with a Bangladesh delegation during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 137th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which is now being held at Russia’s St Petersburg, according to a press release from the Foreign Affairs Ministry Tuesday.

The Rohingya issue came to the fore in the discussion, on the backdrop of the overnight inclusion of Rohingya crisis as the “sole emergency item” in the agenda of the assembly on Monday. The proposal was placed at the assembly by the Bangladesh delegation.

Deputy Speaker of Bangladesh Parliament Md Fazle Rabbi Miah and the Chief Whip ASM Feroze represented the Bangladesh side while Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russian Upper House Senator Konstantin Kosachev and Deputy Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of State Duma Andrei Klimov were on the Russian side during the meeting, held at 12 on Monday.

In the meeting, the Chief Whip invited Kosachev to visit Bangladesh to see the situation in person to overcome their misconceptions as a result of the false propaganda carried out by the Myanmar Government.

Kosachev ensured that this issue will get higher importance in Russian foreign affairs agenda in the coming days.

The Chief Whip cleared out the misconception of the Russian side that the Rohingya people illegally crossed border from Bangladesh to Myanmar to stay in the Rakhine state in the past, and that religious rivalry was the root cause of the crisis in Rakhine.

He explained in detail the history of the attachment of the Rohingya people to the land of Rakhine state since the Mughal empire.

He chronicled the development of multi-ethnicity in the Burmese land since it was harnessed to the British empire in 1828.

The delegation was accompanied by the Bangladesh Ambassador to the Russian Federation Dr Saiful Hoque and Counsellor (Political) of the Embassy Dr Shah Mohammad Tanvir Monsur.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...angladesh-rohingya-issue-will-seen-new-light/


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## Banglar Bir

*EURO-BURMA OFFICE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR*
HARN YAWNGHWE:
*SUU KYI IS NOT POWERLESS
Why did you criticize Aung San Suu Kyi through an open letter?*
I became increasingly concerned about her autocratic style of government but still tried to facilitate the peace process with the ethnic armies.

When my visa was denied, it became clear that she does not appreciate my work and does not want me to continue to be involved. That was ﬁne. But when the Rohingya issue exploded, I had to speak out.
*What did you expect from Suu Kyi following your open letter?*
I did not really expect her to read the letter or respond positively. She is not known for her humility. She will be very angry that I have dared to criticize her in public. But she needs to know that there are limits to what can be tolerated. I did not support her to become a dictator or a queen.
*Why made you stand up for the Rohingya?*
You cannot allow innocent people to be killed just because they happen to belong to a certain ethnicity or religion.That is totally wrong. There can be no justiﬁcation.
I also do not agree with the decades of discrimination against the Rohingya people practiced by past military regimes.

Some people view Suu Kyi as not having a ﬁrm stance in addressing the Rohingya situation.
She is deﬁnitely not powerless. That is a myth. She knew the legal limitations before she took power. Knowing the limitations situations, she took the job because she believed she could make a diﬀerence. She is not doing anything regarding the Rohingya, because she does not want to.
*How should Suu Kyi position herself?*
The people of Myanmar are overwhelmingly Buddhists. Buddha taught compassion and tolerance. She could have used Buddhist values to control racial hatred and religious bigotry. Most people would have listened to her and moderated their positions. Even the military would not go against that because they too want to be popular and loved by the people.
*Will the military truly relinquish its power?*
As mentioned earlier, nobody expect-ed the military to give up power easily. But from holding 100 percent of the power, they retained 25 percent and was willing to experiment with democracy.The military does not think highly of civilian politicians. They think they are corrupt and self-serving. But (Suu Kyi) being who she is, the military decided to give her a chance. The military want-ed to prove that even without their intervention, Suu Kyi and a civilian government are not capable of governing the country. Their calculation seems to becoming true.
*Are you planning to return to Myanmar and help solve the Rohingya crisis?*
The Myanmar government does not want me to be involved in the Rohingya crisis. They say the Rohingya do not exist. I say they have existed for centuries.I have also seen old National ID cards identifying the holder as Rohingya. Government school textbooks also describe the Rohingya people as one of the peoples of Myanmar.
The 1947 Constitution says that all people (except those who opt to leave) within (the country’s boundaries) at independence in 1948 are citizens. General Ne Win changed the citizenship laws in 1982 to strip the Ro-hinya of their citizenship
OCTOBER 15, 2017




*Recommended Documents*
*Documents About Myanmar*


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 18, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:49 AM, October 18, 2017
*The realities of Rohingya refugees - What do we do next?*




In the last few days I had the opportunity to visit the Rohingya camps in Ukhia near the Myanmar border to observe the conditions of the refugees as well as the environment of the area. I will share some very preliminary observations on the situation. Photo: Reuters
Saleemul Huq
In the last few days I had the opportunity to visit the Rohingya camps in Ukhia near the Myanmar border to observe the conditions of the refugees as well as the environment of the area. I will share some very preliminary observations on the situation. 

The first is of course the overwhelming destitution of the refugees who have been forced to cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh with nothing but the clothes on their backs (and sometimes not even that). 

Although the initial influx into Bangladesh of hundreds of thousands of these refugees caught everyone unawares and there was an element of chaos on our side of the border, since then the army has been deployed and there is now a semblance of order, with a number of camps being set up to house, feed and provide medical assistance to them. The circumstances are still dire, but at least there is some order. 

It is certainly to the credit of the government and the people of Bangladesh that we have responded to this humanitarian crisis with humanity and a sense of solidarity with the incoming refugees. The support of the various UN agencies and other international allies and NGOs should also be acknowledged as a crisis of such magnitude cannot be shouldered by the government alone. 

My second observation was the demographic make-up of the refugee population, somewhat unprecedented in that they consist overwhelmingly of small children, sometimes with their mothers but many being orphans. The number of pregnant young women was large and there were relatively few young men. 

This fact presents a particular challenge for us: To cater to both the medical and educational needs of these babies, children and young women. 

The third observation is the effect that the refugees and their camps are having on the environment of the area. Already, the forest department has allocated several thousand acres of forest land to set up the many camps (which are still being set up). The trees in that area have been totally decimated and even some wildlife has been affected as there are elephant trails in the vicinity (several refugees have been trampled by elephants). 

While the immediate humanitarian assistance is paramount, some attention needs to be given to the environmental impact as the demand for dwellings and firewood for cooking will put a lot of pressure on the surrounding forest area. 

Hence, we need to start thinking about how to deal with the problem in the longer term. 

The immediate political and diplomatic efforts should, quite rightly, focus on persuading Myanmar to repatriate the refugees. However, any realistic assessment will tell us that we may not succeed in sending all of them back even with the most optimistic diplomatic scenario. 

Therefore, we need to think of some long-term solutions to deal with this additional population in our country. This is indeed a highly complex problem with humanitarian, political, law and order, security, development and environmental concerns, all of which need to be taken into account. Nor do these problems have simple solutions. 

I do not claim to have any solutions to this mega-problem for Bangladesh, but would like to share a few thoughts. 

The first conundrum to tackle is regarding where to house the refugees. In other words, should they be kept in confinement in camps or should they be allowed to disperse in the country? At the moment, the policy of the government seems to favour the former and locations are being made ready to transfer them from the camps they are in now. 

However, confining refugees into camps for long periods of time has in the past (all over the world) proved to cause many more problems over time than they are supposed to solve in the short-term. Even though it is politically a very difficult choice for the government, it would be wise to think about allowing them to be resettled in different parts of Bangladesh. 

The second aspect that I feel must be a basis for prioritising our support to them is the fact that so many of them are babies and young children. This means that we need to accept responsibility for their upbringing and make sure that they are educated. 

There is genuine fear that they will resort to criminal behaviour and this situation is more likely to come true if they are neglected rather than educated. 

Finally, as the prime minister has quite rightly said, if we can feed 160 million Bangladeshis then we can share our food with another million Rohingyas. But we need to extend this pledge beyond simply feeding them to helping them develop over time. It will certainly be a burden for a poor country like Bangladesh, but it would be the right thing for us to do. 

Saleemul Huq is Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh. 
Email: Saleem.icccad@iub.edu.bd
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...-rohingya-refugees-what-do-we-do-next-1477822

12:00 AM, October 18, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:52 AM, October 18, 2017
*Urgent need for fund, aid*
*UN seeks world response to meet Rohingyas' life-saving needs; new satellite images show 288 Rakhine villages destroyed*




A sick Rohingya refugee woman is carried by two men after crossing the Naf River near the no man's land on the Bangladesh side of the border with Myanmar. Border guards told them they were not allowed to leave the area and reach the refugee camps near Ukhia of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Over half a million Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since late August, the UN said, warning that thousands more were still stranded at the border. Photo: AFP
Diplomatic Correspondent

Amid fresh waves of Rohingya influx, the UN has urged the international community to come together to support the October 23 pledging conference to meet the life-saving needs of the displaced Myanmar nationals and to promote their safe return home.

Three UN-led aid bodies have appealed for $434 million over six months (Sept 2017 to Feb 2018) to help up to 1.2 million people, including some 400,000 Rohingyas already in Bangladesh before the latest crisis began in late August.

But to date, available funding and uncommitted pledges amount to roughly $100 million, according to a document of the pledging conference.

Two neighbouring countries -- India and China who are among Myanmar's closest allies -- are not in the list of financial contribution.

Diplomatic sources in Dhaka told The Daily Star yesterday the UN needed to prepare a “massive” funding request to manage the Rohingya refugees sheltered in Bangladesh as the number was rising every day and there was no sign of any repatriation in near future.

The UN yesterday reported that an estimated 582,000 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state on August 25. 

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency yesterday called on Bangladesh to speed up vetting of up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees “stranded” near the border after crossing into the country from Myanmar and move them further inland to safer and better conditions, reports Reuters.

Reports of the fresh influx comes as latest satellite images of the HRW show at least 288 villages have been partially or fully destroyed by fire in Rakhine since August 25. At least 66 villages were burned after September 5, when security force operations supposedly ended.

The pledging conference would be held in Geneva on Monday to “send a strong message to Rohingya refugees and their generous hosts in Bangladesh that the world is there for them in their greatest time of need,” said a statement by the heads of three UN aid bodies -- UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi, Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) Mark Lowcock and Director-General of the International Organisation for Migration (OIM) William Lacy Swing.

The ministerial-level pledging conference will be co-hosted by the European Union and the government of Kuwait, and co-organised by the UNHCR, IOM and OCHA.

The four objectives of the conference is to mobilise urgent resources to provide life-saving humanitarian aid; demonstrate solidarity with Bangladesh; promote all international and humanitarian laws for the refugees; and to promote safe, voluntary and sustainable return of the refugees to the place of origin, the statement said. 

“We call on the international community to intensify efforts to bring a peaceful solution to the plight of the Rohingya, to end the desperate exodus, to support host communities and ensure the conditions that will allow for refugees' eventual voluntary return in safety and dignity,” it added. 

The speed and the scale of the influx made it "the world's fastest growing refugee crisis and a major humanitarian emergency," the joint statement noted. “The origins and, thus, the solutions to this crisis lie in Myanmar.”

According to UN and government officials, the flow is the largest refugee movement in the region in decades and brings the total number of Rohingya living in Cox's Bazar to over one million with the numbers still growing.

“We have been moved by the welcome and generosity shown by the local communities towards the refugees,” the joint statement said, while noting their respective agencies have been working in overdrive with the Bangladesh government, local charities, volunteers and nongovernment organisations to provide assistance.

"The efforts must be scaled up and expanded to receive and protect refugees and ensure they are provided with basic shelter and acceptable living conditions," the statement said adding, “Every day more vulnerable people arrive with very little, if anything, and settle either in overcrowded existing camps or extremely congested makeshift sites."

*'EVERY MINUTE COUNTS'*
The UN refugee agency is concerned about the humanitarian condition of thousands of new arrivals who are stranded near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

UNHCR Spokesperson Andrej Mahecic yesterday told reporters in Geneva that an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh through the Anjuman Para border crossing point in Ukhia since Sunday night.

As of yesterday morning, they were still squatting in the paddy fields of Anjuman Para village in Bangladesh.

They are waiting for permission from Bangladesh authorities to move away from the border, where the sound of gunfire continues to be heard every night from the Myanmar side.

The UNHCR has urged the Bangladesh authorities to urgently admit these refugees fleeing violence and increasingly-difficult conditions back home.

“Every minute counts given the fragile condition they're arriving in,” Reuters quoted the spokesperson as saying.

The delay was due to screening by Bangladesh border guards, he said, emphasising this was the right of any government.

He said the UNHCR and its partners, Bangladesh Red Crescent and Action against Hunger, are delivering food and water to the stranded refugees, among them children, women and the elderly who are dehydrated and hungry from the long journey. 

“Many say they had initially chosen to remain in their homes in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state despite repeated threats to leave or be killed. They finally fled when their villages were set on fire,” Andrej Mahecic said.

*MASS DESTRUCTION*
Releasing the latest satellite images, the Human Rights Watch yesterday said its analysis indicated that the burnings focused on Rohingya villages and many of those took place after Burmese officials claimed that their “clearance operations” had ceased.

The imagery pinpoints multiple areas where destroyed Rohingya villages sat adjacent to intact ethnic Rakhine villages.

“These latest satellite images show why over half a million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in just four weeks,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director.

“The Burmese military destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages while committing killings, rapes, and other crimes against humanity that forced Rohingya to flee for their lives.”

A total of 866 villages in Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung in Rakhine were monitored and analysed by the HRW.

Most of the damage occurred in Maungdaw Township, accounting for about 90 percent of the areas where destruction happened between August 25 and September 25.

Comparing recent imagery with those taken prior to the date of the attacks, analysis showed that most of the damaged villages were 90 to 100 percent destroyed.

Many villages which had both Rohingya and Rakhine residing in segregated communities, such as Inn Din and Ywet Hnyo Taung, suffered heavy arson damage from arson attacks, with known Rohingya areas burned to the ground while known Rakhine areas 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-urgent-need-fund-aid-1477909


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## Banglar Bir

*




The world takes notice*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 07:42 PM October 17, 2017
REUTERS
*World governments and international bodies need to impose tougher sanctions on Myanmar to stop its operations immediately
Finally.*
The World Bank and the European Union have, at last, stepped up and taken measures to try and compel Myanmar to stop its clearance operations in the Rakhine state.

Although the decision comes more than three weeks after Myanmar’s military began its onslaught against the Rohingya in full-force — other measures of aggression and persecution had started even earlier — it is still good to see that influential bodies are finally taking notice.

Up until now, the Myanmar army had been perpetrating crimes against humanity without any tangible repercussions or intervention by the international community, thus giving them a sense of impunity.
But by halting its $200 million development loan to Myanmar, the World Bank is finally playing an active role in bringing an end to the crisis, and thus living up to its own values of non-discrimination and social inclusion.

The EU also announced that it is suspending invitations to Myanmar’s military leaders and reviewing all practical military cooperation with the country.

This is the kind of global action that we have been calling for since the atrocities came to light, but it is not enough; world governments and international bodies need to impose tougher sanctions on Myanmar to stop its operations immediately.

Nevertheless, we commend the World Bank and the EU for taking the lead and, hopefully, showing others the way.

This is how the global community should work in times of crisis, especially when the crisis is an attack on the universal principles of human rights.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/2017/10/17/world-takes-notice/

10:24 AM, October 18, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 10:42 AM, October 18, 2017
*Myanmar army killed hundreds of Rohingyas: Amnesty*




Myanmar security forces killed hundreds of men, women and children during a systematic campaign to expel Rohingya Muslims, Amnesty International said in a new report yesterday that calls for an arms embargo on the country and criminal prosecution of the perpetrators. Newly arrived Rohingya Muslims, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, rest on embankments after spending a night in the open as they have been prevented from moving ahead towards refugee camps by Bangladesh border guard soldiers at Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Tuesday, October 17, 2017. Photo: AP
*AP, Bangkok*
Myanmar security forces killed hundreds of men, women and children during a systematic campaign to expel Rohingya Muslims, Amnesty International said in a new report yesterday that calls for an arms embargo on the country and criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.

More than 580,000 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25, when Myanmar security forces began a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Myanmar’s government has said it was responding to attacks by Muslim insurgents, but the United Nations and others have said the response was disproportionate.
*READ more: Urgent need for fund, aid*
The continuing exodus of Rohingya Muslims has become a major humanitarian crisis and sparked international condemnation of Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which still denies atrocities are taking place.

Based on interviews with more than 120 fleeing Rohingya, Amnesty International said at least hundreds of people were killed by security forces who surrounded villages, shot fleeing inhabitants and then set buildings alight, burning to death the elderly, sick and disabled who were unable to flee.

In some villages, women and girls were raped or subjected to other sexual violence, according to the report.
*Also READ: UN shelved hunger report on Rohingyas*
The witnesses repeatedly described an insignia on their attackers’ uniforms that matched one worn by troops from Myanmar’s Western Command, Amnesty International said.

When shown various insignia used by Myanmar’s army, witnesses consistently picked out the Western Command patch, it said.




The 33rd Light Infantry Division and border police, who wear a distinctive blue camouflage uniform, were also frequently involved in attacks on villages, along with Buddhist vigilante mobs, witnesses said.

Matthew Wells, an Amnesty crisis researcher who spent several weeks at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, said the rights group plans to issue another report in the coming months examining individual criminal responsibility, including specific commanders and others that may be involved in abuses.
*READ more; In the shadow of violence*
He said hundreds of Rohingya have been treated for gunshot wounds and doctors say that the injuries are consistent with people being shot from behind as they fled.

There were credible indications that a total of several hundred people had been killed in just five villages that were the focus of Amnesty’s reporting. Wells said that given that dozens of villages across northern Rakhine State have been targeted in a similar fashion, the death toll could be much higher.

He said satellite imagery, corroborated by witness accounts, show that Rohingya homes and mosques have been burned entirely in villages, while non-Rohingya areas just one or two hundred yards (meters) away were untouched.




“It speaks to how organized, how seemingly well-planned this scorched-earth campaign has been by the Myanmar military and how determined the effort has been to drive the Rohingya population out of the country,” Wells said.

Among almost two dozen recommendations, the human rights group called for the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar and financial sanctions against senior officials responsible for violations that Amnesty says meet the criteria for crimes against humanity.

It said the council should explore options for bringing the perpetrators to justice under international law if Myanmar authorities do not act swiftly.

“It is time for the international community to move beyond public outcry and take action to end the campaign of violence that has driven more than half the Rohingya population out of Myanmar,” Amnesty said.

Witnesses and a drone video shot Monday by the UN refugee agency show that Rohingya are continuing to flee persecution in Myanmar and crossing into Bangladesh.

The video showed thousands upon thousands of Rohingya trudging along a narrow strip of land alongside what appears to a rain-swollen creek in the Palong Khali area in southern Bangladesh. The line of refugees stretches for a few kilometers (miles).

The new wave of refugees started crossing the border over the weekend, witnesses said. An Associated Press photographer saw thousands of newcomers near one border crossing Tuesday. Several said that they were stopped by Bangladeshi border guards and spent the night in muddy rice fields.

Nearly 60 percent of the refugees are children. The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, warned Tuesday that without immediate additional funding, it will not be able to continue providing life-saving aid and protection to Rohingya children. UNICEF said it has received just 7 percent of the $76 million it needs.

On August 25, a Rohingya insurgent group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked at least 30 security posts causing dozens of casualties, according to Myanmar authorities. The brutal attacks against Rohingya that followed have been described by the UN as “textbook ethnic cleansing.”

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has denied citizenship for the Rohingya since 1982 and excludes them from the 135 ethnic groups officially recognized, which effectively renders them stateless. They have long faced discrimination and persecution with many Buddhists in Myanmar calling them “Bengalis” and saying they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, even though they have lived in the country for generations.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: Bangladesh seeks greater Indian role, warns ‘fire may engulf entire region’*
SAM Report, October 18, 2017




Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali Collected
Bangladesh today pitched for a greater Indian role in containing the influx of Rohingya Muslims escaping violence in Myanmar, saying the issue may not be directly affecting India now, but it may have an impact in future.

Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali said the “fire in the neighbourhood” has the potential to engulf the entire region and it would be prudent for India to act in “mutual interest”.

“It is a fire in our neighbourhood and before it engulfs in the entire region it needs to be put out. They (the refugees) are vulnerable to all sorts of radicalisation and it is in our mutual advantage to work together,” Mr Ali told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Indian capital.

Responding to a question, he said New Delhi and Dhaka may not appear on the same page on the issue as Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the epicentre of the refugee exodus, does not have a common border with India.

“You are safe for now but how long will that be? It is in our common interest to act together. It may burn my house today, but it may surely have an impact in your house tomorrow,” he said, while applauding India’s role in sending relief for the refugees housed in a number of camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar area.

He refused to comment on India’s proposal to deport around 40,000 Rohingya refugees who are settled in camps across the country, saying it was a “matter of your country”.

However, he reminded that “60 per cent” of the refugees who have crossed over to Bangladesh were women, children and elderly and living in “unacceptable conditions”.

He called the Rakhine State a breeding ground of radicalisation owing to alleged atrocities on the Rohingya community and their festering anger.

He suggested that reports of bodies of Hindu Rohingya people found in mass graves were an attempt by the Myanmar administration to “intentionally” drive a wedge between communities.

“It is the inability of the Myanmarese authorities to recognise them (the Rohingya) as their own which is creating issues. The problem originated in Myanmar and needs to be resolved there,” he said.

Referring to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s upcoming visit to Dhaka, Mr Ali said water sharing is one of the very few areas of common interest between the two countries which remains contentious.

“The sooner we resolve the issue the better,” he said.

In an oblique reference to West Bengal’s position on the issue that during the lean season water availability in Teesta river was not enough to share, he said: “It is like a person calling himself orphan after killing his own parents.”
SOURCE PTI
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/1...ian-role-warns-fire-may-engulf-entire-region/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis may emerge as security issue, warns Bangladesh*
SAM Staff, October 15, 2017




*Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque on Saturday said the Rohingya crisis might become a security issue in the region and Bangladesh is now in offensive mood diplomatically engaging internationally to find a peaceful solution to the problem as early as possible.*

“We will continue to build pressure (on Myanmar). We are going everywhere. We are going to all countries (you mentioned),” he told a dialogue on Rohingya issue at a city hotel mentioning that Bangladesh is no way in defensive mood diplomatically.

*Cosmos Foundation arranged the dialogue on “Domestic, Regional and International Dimensions of the Rohingya Issue: Dealing with a Man-made Crisis” to highlight the issue and offer some solutions to the crisis.*

The Foreign Secretary said Bangladesh is doing whatever is possible to find a solution to the crisis which lies within Myanmar.

“We have a very articulated policy,” Foreign Secretary Haque said adding that they are intensifying diplomatic efforts through multilateral and international forums and international bodies.

*The Foreign Secretary said the Rohingya issue is a multidimensional and multilayered one having over five dimensions.*

Explaining how Rohingya issue might become a security issue, Haque said, “It was basically a humanitarian movement. Subsequently, it became a border issue and it might become a security issue.”

“We are not denying that there is no potential to become a security issue,” he emphasised.

The Foreign Secretary said Bangladesh is looking into all the options to find the solution.

Earlier, other speakers laid emphasis on intensifying diplomatic efforts through multilateral and international forums to end the crisis.

They sought steps to set up a seperate desk at the Foreign Ministry to deal with Russia, China and India on Rohingya issue.

A foreign ministry official said Bangladesh is soon sending a special envoy to China and Russia to further discuss the Rohingya issue.

A panel of experts, including CR Abrar of Dhaka University, Major General (retd.) ANM Muniruzzaman of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies, Shahedul Anam Khan of The Daily Star and former IOM official Asif Munier took part in the dialogue.

The workshop was chaired by Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, a former foreign affairs adviser to the caretaker government and principal research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) in Singapore.

Cosmos Foundation chairman Enayetullah Khan delivered welcome speech.
*Smarter Dealing Needed*
CR Abrar said, “We have to be really smart in dealing with it (Rohingya issue).”

Talking about international community’s role, he said the world has come a long way and “If we fail to act, it’s a shame on us. It’s a collective shame. Not for Bangladesh alone but a shame for entire world.”

The international affairs expert laid emphasis on thinking well about relocation plan of Rohingyas to an Island.

He laid emphasis on evaluating whether the island is habitable at all.

Munirurz zaman said Bangladesh has to be extremely smart to deal with matter and play better game as other players are smarter than us and better players.

He also highlighted security concerns that might emerge over the Rohingya issue, including regional and domestic concerns.
SOURCE UNB
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/1...ay-emerge-as-security-issue-warns-bangladesh/


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## Banglar Bir

*The Irrawaddy’s fake story fuels anti-Rohingya feelings*





_By_ Jacob Goldberg
Coconuts Yangon
October 17, 2017*
A story published by The Irrawaddy spent less than a day online yesterday when it was discovered that what the story’s authors presented as current news actually took place over a year ago.*

In the Myanmar-language story, titled “Weapons plundered from Bangladeshi refugee camp guards,” _The Irrawaddy_ reformulated a report by AFP and published by the Daily Mail about armed attackers raiding a security post at a Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh.
The attackers killed one Bangladeshi guard before they made off with 11 rifles and 570 rounds of ammunition. Police told AFP that Rohingya refugees themselves were being considered as suspects in the attack.

“The miscreants could be hiding inside the camp,” a police inspector said.

The report fits neatly into the Myanmar government’s narrative about the refugee crisis. It raises suspicions about Rohingya refugees and their alleged links to militant groups, whose activities the Myanmar government uses to justify its continued displacement of the Rohingya from their homes.
Rarely does this narrative go unquestioned in Myanmar publications, but in this case, serious doubts were raised for one simple reason – the report was false. The attack was not carried out on October 13, 2017, as _The Irrawaddy _claimed, but on May 13, 2016.

The inaccuracy was caught by Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin, who called attention to it on Twitter. The story was removed from _The Irrawaddy_’s website less than an hour later.
[URL='https://twitter.com/nslwin']Ro Nay San Lwin 
✔@nslwin[/URL]
Fake and fabricated news posted by @IrrawaddyNews was caught by me. @MailOnline posted a news on May 13, 2016. Here's the link -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3588551/Attackers-kill-guard-Bangladesh-Rohingya-refugee-camp.html … - 
The incident happened on May 13, 2016. Today Irrawaddy Burmese posted the translation of Daily Mail's news 

When asked about the story, _The Irrawaddy_’s Myanmar-language editor Ye Ni said: “It was a mistake. The regional desk translated it as they thought it was in October 2017. When we realized that was an old story, we took it down.”

Whether it was an honest mistake or not, the false report fueled anti-Rohingya sentiments among The Irrawaddy’s readers. Before it was deleted, one Mandalay-based Facebook news page with over a million followers shared the story, inviting commenters to warn of the rising threat of “Bengali terrorists.”




It was also shared by former information minister Ye Htut, who has thousands of followers on Facebook and now works as a visiting senior fellow at Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. (He eventually deleted the article from his timeline.)

The confluence in the messaging of The Irrawaddy and the military-affiliated former information minister would be surprising to those who recall that The Irrawaddy has its roots in Myanmar’s pro-democracy struggle and was once considered the most professional and trusted news source in the country.

However, in the weeks since the Myanmar army’s mass displacement of Rohingya Muslims from the country began, the independent outlet has quickly adopted the government’s script.
A few days after the ARSA attacks on August 25, the online publication introduced a policy of using the word “Rohingya” in its English-language reporting and “Bengali” – a term that implies they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh – in Burmese.

Several of the publication’s employees have resigned since the policy was introduced.
Nay San Lwin, the Rohingya activist, said he has written to _The Irrawaddy_’s chief editor Aung Zaw to correct this inconsistency.

“He never responded to me and keeps using ‘Bengali’ in the Burmese version and ‘Rohingya’ in English to please their funders…Some of the news they post in Burmese is complete propaganda,” he said.
In September, editor Aung Zaw told CNN that “Rohingya is not an ethnic minority that belongs to Burma.”




Yesterday’s fabrication, Nay San Lwin said, was “the worst in _The Irrawaddy_’s history,” but it was also the culmination of a process that has been changing the entire media landscape in Myanmar since 2012, when communal violence between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists ignited a Buddhist-nationalist fervor that has become a major force in the country’s politics.

He said: “All the [local media outlets] have changed since 2012. BBC Burmese, VOA, and RFA are biased. They have tried many times to use the term ‘Bengali,’ but as I keep complaining to them through media directors, they use ‘Rohingya’ sometimes and mostly refer [to us] as ‘Muslims.’”
A report published by the Myanmar Institute for Democracy last week found that _The Irrawaddy_’s coverage of the first two weeks of the Rakhine crisis “mainly relied on the news released by the Information Committee, the Sate Counsellor Office, the President Office, and the Chief of Defense Office.”




“The problem with all Burmese media is racism,” said Nay San Lwin. “If the Rohingya were Buddhist, I’m sure they wouldn’t take the military’s side.”
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/the-irrawaddys-fake-story-fuels-anti.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Thousands of stranded Rohingya refugees in Anujumanpara (Zero line between Myanmar and Bangladesh border )Cox Bazar Bangladesh. 
Most of the refugees escaped from Myanmar into the zero line area on late night Sunday 16 October and early morning Monday 17 October.*
*




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*




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## Banglar Bir

*Aung San Suu Kyi reveals the strategic plans for Rakhine*
Larry Jagan, October 19, 2017




At long last Aung San Suu Kyi has finally revealed the government’s new strategic plans for the trouble state of Rakhine. This is essentially the long-promised roadmap constructed around the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Advisory Commission on Rakhine,* but without any timetable. Instead a new overarching committee, with Aung San Suu Kyi at its head, has been establish to oversee the implementation of these recommendations.*

Since Kofi Annan submitted his report more than six weeks ago, the government has been working on a blue print to tackle the underlying causes of communal violence and mistrust in the strife -torn region of western Myanmar, as well as provide immediate humanitarian assistance to more than half a million Rohingya Muslims, who have fled across the border to Bangladesh over the past eight weeks.

A civilian-led agency – with foreign assistance — has been created, the National Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine State, which will deliver aid to the refugees, oversee their return and help resettle them. Aung San Suu Kyi made the announcement last Thursday in a televised address to the nation.

All along Aung San Suu Kyi’s plan was to implement Kofi Annan’s recommendations, according to government insiders, but the fresh violence that erupted the day after Kofi Annan made the commission’s recommendations public — and led to the exodus of thousands of Muslims to Bangladesh – threw a major spanner in the government’s intentions, creating perhaps the greatest humanitarian crises in the country’s history.

Law and order needed to be restored, before dealing with the return and resettlement of the refugees. The provision of humanitarian assistance to the refugees – in Bangladesh and Rakhine – was also the government’s immediate priority, before tackling the broader issues.

Aung San Suu Kyi has wrestled with what to do in Rakhine ever since the insurgent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army [ARSA] in late August. “She always appreciated the desperate plight of the Muslims, and is appalled at the seriousness of the situation in Rakhine, but was at a loss to know how to fix the problems [till now],” a senior advisor to Aung San Suu Kyi involved in the government’s plans told SAM on condition of anonymity.

This dilemma was also compounded by an ongoing tussle between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military over the strategy for dealing with the situation in Rakhine. The army has continued to insist that the government declare a ‘state of emergency’ in Rakhine, which would give them added powers to control the situation on the ground. This has been something the civilian leader has continuously resisted — even cancelling her planned trip to the UN in New York last month to ensure the military did not get their way.

Now Aung San Suu Kyi and her government have come up with concrete plans, with the civilian administration firmly in control. She made it clear in her speech, that this is a Myanmar-led initiative — though there will some international participation, including from ASEAN, Japan, the UK and parts of the UN – and that it is a national project. The World Bank has also been asked to participate, as well as the private sector, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and both local and international Non-government Organisations (NGOs).
*
Aung San Suu Kyi is taking personal responsibility, by chairing the newly created committee.* This is also meant to underline the government’s total commitment to delivering on its promises ad resolving the situation in Rakhine. 
*The plans centre around three phases: humanitarian relief, rebuilding the destroyed villages and reconstruction.* This includes creating schools for all ethnic and religious groups in Arakan; there will be a mixture of Buddhist and Muslim teachers, and both the Myanmar language and the local languages will be taught. The plan also involves providing high standard hospitals and clinics as recommended by Kofi Annan’s Commission.

The penultimate stage will be resettlement. The repatriation of the refugees from Bangladesh will follow the terms agreed with the UN and Bangladesh in 1990, when Muslim refugees who fled the military crackdown at the time, were allowed to return. Of course also involves a process of verification, which has already begun. The longer-term objective is to bring development to the region and establishing a durable peace, she said in her speech.The military will have a role, a government insider told SAM: they will be invited to participate, but mainly to provide security. Aung San Suu Kyi is adamant that this is to be a civilian led process of reconciliation.

The humanitarian response is already in full swing, according to senior government officials. A new government-led mechanism, established in cooperation with the Red Cross Movement, has also already started distributing humanitarian assistance, according to these officials. It is a regional ministerial committee, led by the national Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Dr Win Myat Aye. He is also the vice chairman of the new committee under Aung San Suu Kyi. This is to ensure decisions are streamlined and there is strong coordination between all those involved in looking after the welfare of the refugees and their resettlement in Rakhine.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been stung my recent international criticism of her and her government’s perceived failure to deal with the terrible situation in Rakhine – even before this latest outbreak of violence. Over the past year or so, the Nobel laureate has been heavily criticized for failing to denounce the army’s brutal crack down in Rakhine state, which has contributed significantly to the exodus of Muslim refugees. She has been disappointed and angered by the international community’s response.

This was also reflected in her speech last Thursday. “There has been a lot of criticisms against our country. We need to understand international opinion,” she said. “However, just as no one can fully understand the situation of our country the way we do, no one can desire peace and development for our country more than us.”

While this new initiative is intended to address the whole problem of Rakhine, the government’s hope that it will also deflect the virulent criticism of the Myanmar authorities, and help the country avoid any moves to re-introduce sanctions as result of the situation in Rakhine — in particular at the Security Council later this month. She studiously avoided criticizing, or even mentioning the allegation against the military in her speech.

Contrary to popular opinion, especially abroad, this does not indicate that she has sided with the military. Or as some activist, analysts and diplomats suggest, that she is in their pocket. “It is part of a detailed strategy, on her part,” according to a close confidante of Aung San Suu Kyi. “But rather wants to concentrate on the future. “Rather than rebutting criticisms and allegations with words, we will show the world by our actions and our deeds. In the Rakhine state, there are so many things to be done,” she said in her speech.

“She wants to move away from inflammatory and divisive remarks. She wants to take the steam out of the argument and language, which dominates the narrative,” he said. Her message – to the whole nation — emphasized Buddhist values. “I have no doubt that all of them [the people of Myanmar here and abroad] will come forth to help us with Metta (loving kindness) and Thitsa (Truth).”

The aim is to mobilize the nation behind the Buddhist tenets of love and kindness, and to wrestle Buddhism out of the hands of extremists, according to an advisor involved in the preparing the speech. “Our people are well known for their generosity and philanthropy and have even been ranked as number one in the world,” she said in her speech. “We will put to good use this generous nature of our people, systematically.”

So what Aung San Suu Kyi envisages is a coherent civilian-led national solution. But, as she stressed in her speech, this new initiative is to be judge “by our actions and our deeds” not words. She also appealed to the nation to recognize that this enterprise was not for Rakhine alone, but the whole nation. She understands that the future of the country and its democratic transition may depend on it, according to government sources close to Aung San Suu Kyi.

“I believe that we will be able to utilize the strength of will, determination, and knowledge; bravely and energetically,” she told the nation. “We will use the power of truth and purity, so that this Enterprise will be worthy of being called a ‘milestone’ in our history.”
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/19/aung-san-suu-kyi-reveals-strategic-plans-rakhine/


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## Banglar Bir

*ROHINGYA TARGETED BY ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ARAKAN/RAKHINE STATE*
BN 2017 / 2016: 12 October 2017 
Updated 13 October 2017

On 25 August 2016, violence dramatically escalated in northern Arakan/Rakhine State, after insurgents staged a major coordinated attack against security forces outposts. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for the offensive, in order to “liberate our people from dehumanized oppression perpetrated by all successive Burmese regimes”




The ensuing military clearance operations killed hundreds of people and forced over 507,000 civilians from all communities to flee their homes. Independent reports documented that "operations" mostly involved the Tatmadaw indiscriminately burning Rohingya villages and opening fire on their residents, with some instances of villagers joining the militants to fight the security forces. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein declared “[t]his turn of events is deplorable. 

It was predicted and could have been prevented”. 
He noted that “decades of persistent and systematic human rights violations, including the very violent security responses to the attacks since October 2016 [see Escalation of violence], have almost certainly contributed to the nurturing of violent extremism, with everyone ultimately losing”. 

*The latest wave of deadly violence in Arakan State did not happen overnight. 
Independent accounts, including a flash report issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) on 3 February 2017, showed that, since 9 October 2016, the Tatmadaw has targeted Rohingya with “unprecedented” violence. 
Burmese authorities, including military Commander-in-Chief Sr Gen Min Aung Hlaing and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, have repeatedly denied the accusations of human rights violations [see Government “terrorist” narrative].*

The outbreak of violence took place just hours after the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State – also known as Annan Commission – released its final report, jeopardizing the implementation of its recommendations. The Annan Commission – inaugurated on 5 September 2016 at the behest of Aung San Suu Kyi and chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan – was mandated with providing recommendations to secure peace and prosperity in Arakan State. Its final report, which did not name the Rohingya at Aung San Suu Kyi’s request, urged Burma to eliminate all restrictions on the people’s ability to gain citizenship, move freely and participate in politics.
*Refugee and humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh*




The military “clearance operations” prompted a new exodus of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. On 31 August, UN sources estimated that more than 27,000 people had crossed the border, while 20,000 more remained stuck in an unoccupied area between the two countries. 
On 3 September, the estimated number of new arrivals was 73,000, while on 8 September it was over 270,000. The most recent report on 3 October put the figure at 507,000, but high mobility has been making it impossible for aid agencies to verify these numbers.

This added to the pre-existing displaced population, estimated at around 164,000 by the ISCG – chaired by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 
Among these, nearly 34,000 long-term displaced Rohingya were officially registered as refugees at Kutupalong and Leda camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and approximately 87,000 arrived as a result of the clearance operations that followed the 9 October 2016 attacks in Maungdaw Township.

About 100 Rohingya, including women and children, were known to have drowned between 25 August and 14 September in boat disasters that occurred as refugees tried to cross the border during the monsoon period. On 28 September, another boat capsized in rough waters. The bodies of 23 people were retrieved, but 40 others were missing and presumed drowned. Many were likely to be children too weak for the strong currents. The latest incident occurred on 8 October, when a boat sank in the Naf River with nearly 100 people on board. At least 12 died, including 10 children.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that vast majority of refugees were women and families with children, in poor condition, exhausted, hungry and desperate for shelter. The surge of refugees, many sick or wounded, strained the resources of aid agencies and communities. More than half of the refugees now live in squalid conditions, crammed into makeshift sites composed of plastic sheets, lacking clean drinking water and sanitation. The hazardous conditions were intensified by some of the worst monsoon floods in recent years. Emergency Coordinator at Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) Robert Onus said the scale of the crisis was “...impossible to describe unless you see it with your own eyes”.

The Bangladesh government sought help to deal with the influx. PM Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh wanted refugees to return home and called for Burma to allow their safe repatriation. She offered to create “safe zones” for Rohingya in Arakan State, but rights groups warned that safety could not be ensured and segregation could only worsen the conflict. On 2 October, Bangladesh and Burma announced that a joint working group would discuss the repatriation of refugees. On 4 October, Amnesty International (AI) said that it is the responsibility of the international community to ensure that refugees are not forced back to Burma as long as they remain at risk of human rights violations.
*Full Briefing Note...*
http://www.altsean.org/Reports/BN 2017 2016 Rohingya Briefer.php


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## Banglar Bir

*'No pictures, no words can explain Rohingya plight'*
*How two Al Jazeera journalists experienced the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh.*
16 Oct 2017 21:26 GMT
@msaifkhalid @showkatshafi and @jasminbauomy.
*Read more:*
They look at us with hope, but we can only document their despair 
Cox's Bazar: Chaos all around at Rohingya camps
*How to subscribe to the Debrief
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Source: Al Jazeera News
http://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2...plain-rohingya-suffering-171016124920701.html


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## Banglar Bir

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## Banglar Bir

*UN rights chief threatens to push for intervention over Myanmar's Rohingya crisis*
Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, The UN human rights chief, is threatening to seek the Security Council's intervention if the perpetrators of the Rohingya crisis are not punished. Al-Hussein spoke with Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna.




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## Banglar Bir

*‘Rohingya numbers will probably reach a million before the flow of people stops’*
Afrose Jahan Chaity
Published at 06:09 PM October 19, 2017
Last updated at 11:54 PM October 19, 2017




Director general of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), William Lacy Swing, during his visit to refugee settlements in Cox's Bazar on October 16, 2017 |*Abdul Aziz/Dhaka Tribune*
*More than 582,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Rakhine state since late August*
William Lacy Swing, director general of International Organization for Migration (IOM), arrived in Dhaka on October 15 on a four-day official visit. He travelled to Cox’s Bazar refugee camps to see for himself the Rohingya crisis unfolding in South Asia, which has been dubbed the fastest-growing humanitarian emergency by the UN.

More than 582,000 Rohingya have fled their homes in Rakhine state after Myanmar military launched a violent “clearance operation” targeting the mainly-Muslim ethnic minority. The UN has described the violence as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and said the “systematic crackdown” aimed at driving the Rohingya away from their homes permanently.

The UN investigation also found that the “clearance operations” had in fact begun earlier, possibly in early August, contradicting the military’s claim that it launched the crackdown in response to insurgent attacks on police posts and an army base on August 25.

Bangladesh had already been hosting an estimated 400,000 Rohingya refugees, who crossed the border over the years to escape targeted violence in the Buddhist-majority country, which does not recognise them and calls them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

_IOM’s Director General Swing speaks to the Dhaka Tribune’s Afrose Jahan Chaity about the current situation and what his organisation is doing to tackle the issue._
*How would you describe the scale and magnitude of the Rohingya crisis at the moment, both for the refugees and host country?*
It is the fastest-growing refugee displaced persons crisis in this part of the world right now. It’s been the speed, scope and size of the arrivals that have overwhelmed all of us trying to provide assistance. But I think under these circumstances, the response of the Bangladesh government, the prime minister and people of Bangladesh, has been quite extraordinary. We are grateful for that.
*What role is IOM playing in all this?*
We have been doing this (providing assistance to refugees) since September 2013. Now many more partners are coming in. We are concentrating primarily on shelter, medical and logistical services and providing non-food items, basic things like pots and pans, and blankets, to help them (Rohingya), and doing whatever we can with our partners to support them.
*How IOM is coordinating the relocation process of the Rohingya people?*
We would suggest the government to shift them to manageable sized camps, not to some large mega camp or some offshore facility, where we can provide the support they require. That would allow us more control over gender based violence and providing health services.
*What should be the official status of the Rohingya people? Are they displaced migrants or refugees?*
Well, we are part of the UN which considers them to be refugees. So we call them refugees. But the [Bangladeshi] government I think calls them “forcefully displaced persons from Myanmar”. I don’t think it’s the designation that counts, [rather] it’s the response that matters. [But] we are all working together to try to help them.
*Is the amount of relief sufficient?*
At present, no, not enough. Because we have been overwhelmed by the numbers. And this why the donors are holding a pledging conference on October 23. It will be co-sponsored by the European Union and Kuwait, and the three agencies – IOM, UNHCR, and OCHA – will be responsible to raise fund.
*For how long will the relief distribution continue?*
We do not know. Because, the number [of refugees] is still growing. We already have 850,000 of them, approaching 900,000 and will probably reach a million before the flow of people stops.

A large number of Rohingya refugees are in dire need of aid. How is IOM prioritising needs to provide relief?

We are doing it in partnership with the government, UN agencies, and some of the large non-government organisations. We are all partners, we are doing it together, trying to strengthen our coordination so that everybody can be part of the action to assist the people.
*What is the biggest risk at this moment?*
The biggest need and risk right now is the shelter. Because they (Rohingya refugees) have taken a long trip here, walking through a very difficult trail. When they get here, they really need to have shelter right away. That’s a major challenge when you have nearly 900,000 people. That means you have to build 200,000 shelters.

The government has made 3,000 acre of forest reserves available for the refugees. They have said they can increase the area if needed. We are very grateful for that and are working together with the government to build shelters. We have already built more than 40,000 shelters, enough for 250,000 to 260,000 people. We need more money now.

The good news is that the WHO has already vaccinated nearly 800,000 people to prevent outbreak of diseases.

The other thing we have to worry about is gender-based violence because the majority of the refugees are women and children. The big concern is ensuring that they stay healthy and they are not in any way sexually exploited, or abused. That’s very important.
*How should IOM prepare to tackle the situation if Rohingya refugees end up staying here for an indefinite period?*
There is no humanitarian solution to political problems. The answer really lies in Myanmar. They are from Myanmar and they need to be able to go back voluntarily under safe conditions. The emphasis initially should be on assistance to keep them safe and sound here and also on [their] return [to their homeland], as soon as that can be done.

They (the refugees) won’t go back if we cannot have them (Myanmar) create the conditions that guarantee that they (the Rohingya) can come back safely. They have been living there for a long time. They have lost their homes and livelihood. They have to reconstruct villages that have been burnt down. How do people who own the land can get their land back should be part of the issues to be discussed during negotiations [with Myanmar].
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ill-probably-reach-million-flow-people-stops/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:49 PM, October 19, 2017
*The tale of a persecuted people*
Shaer Reaz
Their mass exodus into Bangladesh and attempted entry into Thailand, Malaysia and other nations to escape a brutal ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Myanmar military junta has been termed the "the world's fastest growing refugee crisis." 

They have been termed the "most persecuted minority in history" by the United Nations. Their history is one filled with sectarian violence and a struggle with identity that is unique in the modern worlds. This is the story of a systematically oppressed people—the Rohingya.
_Click below to see the full timeline:_
*See In the shadow of violence for the full list of articles on this special issue of Star Weekend.
http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/the-shadow-violence/the-tale-persecuted-people-1475383*


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## Banglar Bir

*



'Unimaginable pain': Inside the Rohingya crisis - The Stream*




Al Jazeera English
A woman raped and her baby thrown into a fire. 
A teen shot and his neck slashed. 
A 9 month-old baby burned and fighting for her life after the Myanmar army set her village on fire. 

These are just a handful of the atrocities that Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Jamjoom and photographer Fadi El Binni reported on while covering the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya people. 

More than 500,000 Rohingya have poured across the border from Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh since August, fleeing what the military calls a "clearance operation" against a small Rohingya armed group but what the United Nations has called a "well-organised, coordinated and systematic" campaign of killing, torture and rape directed at the Muslim minority. 

Jamjoom, El Binni and fixer Rahat Azim Shaon have spent the last two weeks shuttling between refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the epicenter of the humanitarian crisis. "It is suffering and pain and trauma on a scale that’s so massive that it’s almost unfathomable," says Jamjoom. "I want everyone to see what I saw, even family and friends, just to understand the situation, how difficult it is for these people. 

I covered the refugee stories before in Greece and Turkey, but I didn’t see something like this in my life," adds El Binni. 

So what are the human stories behind the headlines and what is it like to be in the middle of one of the world’s biggest humanitarian emergencies? We’ll ask Jamjoom, El Binni and Shaon when they join The Stream to update us on the crisis and share the stories they uncovered.


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## Banglar Bir

*Debate in the House of Commons on the persecution of the Rohingya
17th Oct 2017*




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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh Registers Thousands of Orphans in Rohingya Refugee camps*




A Rohingya refugee boy sits on the ground at Tang Khali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, 
_By_ Joe Freeman, Muktadir Rashid
Voice of America
October 19, 2017
*YANGON* — The Bangladeshi government has registered thousands of orphans in Rohingya refugee camps as officials and aid groups attempt to figure out a plan to deal with large numbers of unaccompanied minors.

Nearly 600,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have left Myanmar since attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on August 25, sparking a military response that rights groups and the United Nations have described as ethnic cleansing.

A majority of those who have fled are children, and many may have lost their parents in Myanmar or along the way. Children in UNICEF's child-friendly centers have drawn gruesome pictures of military raids and violent attacks on villagers, though Myanmar vigorously denies targeting civilians.
WATCH: UNHCR Drone Footage of Rohingya Refugees
*Difficult task*
Pritam Kumar Chowdhury, the deputy director of the Social Welfare Department in Cox’s Bazar district, said there may be more than 15,000 orphans, though he says verifying individual claims is difficult with scant additional information.

“In Bangladesh, when we identify any orphan, our officials visit their house to confirm it. But here it is not possible to go to Myanmar to verify the claims. So whatever they are saying we are collecting that information,” he told VOA, adding that the government is also talking to neighbors and people whom the children may have traveled with from Myanmar.

“But there is no evidence, rather we are depending on the verbal statement. We are maintaining our strategy to complete the formalities. 
We are not claiming it is 100 percent correct but it is not all a wrong list.”




Rohingya Muslim children, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, stretch out their arms out to collect chocolates and milk distributed by Bangladeshi men at Taiy Khali refugee camp, Bangladesh, Sept. 21, 2017.

Jean-Jacques Simon, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said in an email that out of the 14,740 children registered as "orphans" with the government, half of the cases have been reviewed and entered into the Ministry of Social Welfare database.

There were only 15 known cases of children actually living completely alone in the camps. UNICEF says it is in contact with the government at the local level "to know where these 15 children are right now and to ensure their protection."
*Chaotic situation*
The dusty roads of the camps and makeshift settlements in southern Bangladesh are teeming with children, some attended by adults and others not, and the chaotic situation makes them vulnerable to abuse and other risks.

“We really need to have a space for the children,” said Dr. Erum Mariam, the director of the BRAC Institute of Educational Development.

BRAC, an NGO based in Bangladesh, has helped organize clothing donations for children, build child-friendly spaces, and provide on-site counsellors.




Rohingya children walk to their tents after fetching drinking water at a makeshift camp near Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Oct. 3, 2017.

“We are really working on many different levels now,” she said.
The government has also floated the idea of building orphanages, and discussed the idea with aid groups this week, Mariam said.

If the idea does move forward, it’s important to have the capacity to make it work, she added.
“There has to be so much engagement with the children, and understanding, understanding the trauma,” she said.

Pritam, with the Social Welfare Department, said more concrete options will be considered once officials have a clearer idea of the scope of the problem.
“Their fate will be decided by the government. 
But until then, we are concentrating on registration. Whatever the decision will be will come afterwards,” he said.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/bangladesh-registers-thousands-of.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Muslim crisis: What people in Burma are saying about it*
Despite widespread international condemnation, the country's leaders appear to maintain support in their home country

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith 
Tuesday 10 October 2017 10:51 BST
The Independent Online
*No one in Burma is talking about the Rohingya Muslim crisis*
Burma’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims has lead to widespread condemnation from the international community, with the United Nations (UN) calling their treatment “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

But although over 500,000 have fled violence in the south east Asian nation's Rakhine state to seek refuge in Bangladesh in recent months, inside the country, the government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, appears to maintain widespread support. 

In its largest city Yangon, the term Rohingya is reportedly not used and they are instead called “Bengali Muslims,” a term which is also used by local media. 




*Bangladesh vows to support one million Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma*
While the Rohingya have lived as one of the ethnic minorities in the country for generations but are not recognised as Burmese citizens in the Buddhist majority country.

“The problem is the political motive behind the term [Rohingya],” U Aung Hla Tun, vice chairman of the Myanmar Press Council, told the BBC. “I used to have a number of Bengali friends when I was young. They never claimed they were Rohingya. They first coined the term decades ago.
“They do not belong to the ethnic minorities [of this country]. 
This is a fact.”

Another university student told the broadcaster that the international community is getting the “wrong” information about the situation in Rakhine state. They claimed that “the violence is an act of terrorism”.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees are now living in camps in Bangladesh. 
They started to flee after an attack carried out by Rohingya insurgents in August on police posts and security personnel in Rakhine state saw the military retaliate with violence that left thousands of homes burned to the ground and hundreds dead.

The UN’s human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, has said Burma’s actions against the Rohingya people “seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Ms Suu Kyi’s first public address on the Rohingya crisis last month saw hundreds of supporters gather in Yangon to hear the speech which saw her claim that more than half of Rohingya villages had not been affected by the violence. She also invited diplomats to visit the areas and see “why they are not at each other’s throats in these particular areas”. 

Rights group Amnesty International subsequently accused Ms Suu Kyi and her government of “burying their heads in the sand” and of telling “uthruths” following the leader’s response to the crisis. 
But she was nonetheless widely supported by those in the crowd. 

One woman in the crowd called May Nyi Oo, who wore stickers depicting Ms Suu Kyi’s image on her cheeks, told _The Guardian _that “worldwide, a lot of fake news and rumours are spreading”.
She also referred to the Rohingya as illegal immigrants who “are not our people”. 
*READ MORE*
UN blasts 'unacceptable' Burma for blocking Rohingya Muslim access
145,000 Rohingya Muslim children are facing malnutrition as refugees
UN 'scrapped report that predicted Rohingya Muslim crisis'
Suu Kyi to be stripped of Freedom of Oxford over Rohingya crisis
Many people in Burma have appeared reluctant to talk about the Rohingya crisis, but continue to support Ms Suu Kyi’s decisions about the issue.

Thet Mhoo Ko Ko, who works in his family’s business, told _Al Jazeera_ last month that he believes Ms Suu Kyi needs more time “and then she will be able to make things much better”. 
“The Rakhine [situation] is a problem and it is very worrying,” he added.

A survey carried out in September by the Myanmar Survey Research company also found that 75 per cent of people believed the country is heading in the right direction, _Al Jazeera_ reported. 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...state-buddhists-mayanmar-latest-a7992256.html


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: Opt for multilateral negotiation*
Interminable influx into Bangladesh of thousands of Rohingya Muslims—-whose number is approaching 600,000—-seems not to stop as Myanmar’s trigger-happy military in tandem with 87.9 per cent Therav?da Buddhist slaughterers are hell-bent on exterminating and hounding out the entire minority Muslims. 

*The UN, the EU, the OIC, Malaysia are ardently active to combine forces with Dhaka; but our Government and Foreign Ministry appear to be inconspicuous and diffident and are acting rather slowly, sporadically and in fits and starts.*

Common sense dictates that our diplomatic machinery needs a shot in the arm and stimulus to mobilise world opinion for which PM Hasina should personally meet heads of governments of Russia, China, the US, UK, France i.e. all the UNSC permanent members so that they take steps with due seriousness and urgency.

Home Minister is leaving for Yangon on October 23, but it is hard to say if it would be useful. 
*If our Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali thinks the crisis can be solved bilaterally then it may perhaps be a pipe dream. We do not think he will cut any ice in dealing with a neighbour where the rulers are bloodthirsty hook, line, and sinker regarding Muslims. 
We see no wisdom in pursuing bilateral approach to such a colossal behemoth of a crisis, so we wish to reiterate that involvement of the UN, Mr. Kofi Annan, the EU and the OIC is a must.*

Suu Kyi has opened the way for people like Wirathu to act with absolute impunity. 
Ashin Wirathu, the monk who dubs himself the “Burmese bin Laden” and leads the viciously anti-Muslim 1969 Movement. 
Wirathu had recently visited Rakhine State, giving hate-filled anti-Muslim speeches to crowds of thousands in which he calls for expelling the Muslims from the country. [Vide The Rohingya and Myanmar’s ‘Buddhist Bin Laden’ by Alex Preston, 12 February 2015 gq-magazine.co.uk/ article/myanmar-rohingya-muslim-burma]

Although the rulers of Myanmar misrepresent the history, to set the record straight, the Rohingyas have had a well established presence in Burma since the twelfth century. 

The Rohingya were once counted as a part of the Mrauk-U (Mrohaung) kingdom in Arakan which stood independent of both the Burman kingdoms in the Irrawaddy delta and central Burma as well as Bengal and the Moguls to the west. Muslim traders came to the area in the eighth century when the local dynasty was seated at Wesali, not far from contemporary Mrauk-U and some of the traders settled along the shores. More Muslim sailors made their way to the Arakan region during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

In the 1400s, when Mrauk-U was invaded by forces of the Burman kingdom at Ava, King Narmeikhla sought help from Bengaland expelled the invaders with the help of a Muslim army. The link between Bengal and Mrauk-U from this point solidified, to the extent that the Mrauk-U king began to use Muslim court titles along with traditional ones. 
Buddhist kings ruled Mrauk-U but Muslim officials often played a significant role in the court. Indeed, the inclusion of a variety of ethnic minority and religious officers in courts was a common practice throughout the mainland Southeast Asian sub-region. [Vide hrw.org/reports/2000/burma/burm005-01.htm]

Meanwhile, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs has viewed dozens of burned and destroyed villages in northern Rakhine during his recent tour by air, and called on Myanmar to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by security forces.

The final report of the Advisory Commission chaired by Kofi Annan dated 23 August puts forward recommendations to surmount the political, socio-economic and humanitarian challenges that currently face Rakhine State. It builds on the Commission’s interim report released in March of this year. [Vide rakhinecommission.org/the-final-report/]

The Commission members have travelled extensively throughout Rakhine State, and held meetings in Yangon and Naypyitaw, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Geneva. 

The final report—-the outcome of over 150 consultations and meetings held by the Advisory Commission since its launch in September 2016—- addresses in depth a broad range of structural issues that are impediments to the peace and prosperity of Rakhine State. 
Several recommendations focus specifically on citizenship verification, rights and equality before the law, documentation, the situation of the internally displaced and freedom of movement, which affect the Muslim population disproportionately. 

Kofi Annan believes the recommendations, along with the interim report, can trace a path to lasting peace and respect for the rule of law in Rakhine State.

Whether or not a coincidence, a twist of fate or an adverse turn of events, Rohingya crisis intensified as Indian PM Modi arrived in Burma for talks. [Vide Max Bearak’s report, 2017 September 5, washington post .com /…/wp/ rohingya-crisis -intensifies- as-indias-modi-arrives -in-burma-for-talks]. 

*Again, in Susma Swaraj’s “very short meeting” with Sheikh Hasina in New York “the Rohingya crisis did not come up for discussion”. Why on earth the best friend and closest neighbour looks the other way while Dhaka is literally in dire straits?*

What is more, India is pushing Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh. “Our directions are very clear, and that is to push all Rohingyas into Bangladesh”, said an Indian border guard in West Bengal [Vide dailymail.co.uk/ indiahome/ India news/ article -4981898/ Bangladesh-steps- security-India-border-Rohingya-fears.html, dated 15 October 2017].

Given that two of the five permanent members in the UN Security Council refused to adopt any motion to take decisive action against Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas, the world community is yet to reach a consensus. 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s five-point plan deserves to be mulled over with due seriousness by the UN. 
Besides, the Kofi Annan Commission’s recommendations made earlier have to be implemented in letter and spirit.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=4&date=0#Tid=14935

*Can India protect Rohingya women and children, SC asks govt*
SAM Staff, October 4, 2017




Rohingya refugees who just arrived by wooden boats from Myanmar wait for some aid to be distributed at a relief centre
The government, meanwhile, claimed that the crisis over its move to deport 40,000 Rohingya was outside the domain of the judiciary.

*Can India live up to its international commitments and protect a large section of humanity comprising Rohingya women, children, the sick and the old who are “really suffering”?*

This is the question the Supreme Court wants the government to answer.

The government, meanwhile, claimed that the crisis over its move to deport 40,000 Rohingya was not “justiciable”, that is, outside the domain of the judiciary.
*
But the court rejected this stand outright.*

“I, for one, believe, from my past experience of 40 years, that when a petition like this comes to us under Article 32 of the Constitution, the court should be very slow in abdicating its jurisdiction,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who leads the three-judge Bench, said.

The government said its August 8, 2017 communication to all the States to identify Rohingya and aid in their deportation was based on certain “executive parameters” like diplomatic concerns, on whether the county can sustain such an influx of refugees and geographically whether there would be tensions and threat to national security.

It denied saying all Rohingya were terrorists, but only “some of them”.

Faced with stiff resistance from the Bench, the government climbed down and explained saying whether an issue was justiciable or not had to be decided on a case to case basis.
*“Obligation to grant asylum is universal”*
Senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for the Rohingya community, said the government “has gone out of sync” with its August 8 directive for deportation of Rohingya.

He submitted that the government’s affidavit claiming the question of deportation of Rohingya was exclusively “within its subjective domain and not justiciable” makes “big inroads into what we thought our Constitution was”.

He rubbished the government’s claims that the Rohingya refugees will eat into the resources meant for citizens. “Our Constitution is not made up of group rights but individual rights,” he said.

Mr. Nariman, who introduced himself as a refugee from British Burma, submitted that the fundamental right to life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution protected all “persons”, including refugees who fled persecution in their native countries.

He said the obligation to grant assylum was universal. “The Government of India has constantly made efforts to substantiate, enhance the rights of refugees. The August 8 communication is totally contradictory to Article 14. It sticks out like a sore thumb in our nation’s policy towards protecting refugees.”

Mr. Nariman referred to the December 29, 2011 directive, which laid out the standard operating procedure and internal guidelines for Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO), and if necessary take steps to provide the foreign national with a long-term visa. This had to be done irrespective of religion, gender, etc.

He said India had been “supportive of burden-sharing, of providing humanitarian assistance”, citing the Nepal earthquake as an instance.

The court asked the government to address Mr. Nariman’s submissions that humanitarian concerns of children, women, the sick and the old outweigh justiciability and cannot be viewed in the same light as “everyone”.

The next date of hearing is October 13.
*No blanket claims of terrorism*
The Rohingya had said anyone among them found to be a militant can be proceeded against in accordance with law and he or she can be stripped off the status of a refugee under the exclusion clause of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

They were replying to the Centre’s claims that the Rohingya community was a threat to national security, easy prey for radicalisation. Their affidavit in the Supreme Court had referred to India’s strong track record of hosting refugees of different profiles from those from Tibet to ethnic Chakmas and Hajongs.

The Rohingya community, represented by Mohammad Salimullah, the main petitioner who moved the Supreme Court, said the government cannot make a “blanket claim that all Rohingya refugees have terror links”.

The Rohingya countered the government’s claims that India was not bound by the Convention Relating to Status of Refugees, 1951 and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967. They said though India was not a signatory, it was a member of several international instruments/declarations which provide for right to asylum and against forcible repatriation.

India had a legal obligation to protect the human rights of refugees under Article 51(c) of the Constitution, the Rohingya said.
SOURCE THE HINDU
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/04/can-india-protect-rohingya-women-children-sc-asks-govt/
*Will India protect most persecuted ethnic minority–the Rohingya?*
*Prashant Bhushan *and *Cheryl D’souza*
*As India aggressively positions itself in a new global order, expecting a seat at the table in places of influence, like permanent membership of the UN Security Council, it must be cautioned that this prominence brings with it, increased international moral and political obligations.* 

India has recently gained spotlight, in the midst of an international outcry on the brutal crackdown by the Myanmar armed forces, on the Rohingya, a largely Muslim ethnic minority group, in Western Rakhine province of Myanmar.

The Indian government issued a circular in early August, directing all state governments to identify and take steps to expeditiously deport illegal immigrants such as the Rohingya. 
The announcement came at a time when the violence in Myanmar was only deepening, with tragic stories of widespread human suffering.
*India faces litmus test*
This decision reflected a deeper malaise, pointing towards a governmental aversion in receiving these suffering Rohingya refugees –a striking contrast to India’s benevolent tradition of being a host state for centuries, to persecuted refugee populations from war torn neighbouring countries and beyond. 
With the Rohingya refugee influx, India faces a litmus test on its commitment to International law in its domestic refugee policy implementation.

The Rohingya have fled the neighbouring countries in waves over the past many years, escaping what has been described as “ethnic cleansing” at the hands of the armed forces. 
Successive special rapporteurs have reported patterns of serious human rights violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of the Rohingya, by the state security forces and other officials. 

Denied citizenship, Rohingya are stateless and excluded from positions of authority, facing restrictions in movement, education, marriage, occupation and religious freedoms, at the mercy of an ultra nationalist Buddhist government. 

The systematic human rights violations and lack of opportunities have triggered irregular migration flows of Rohingya from Rakhine state to neighbouring countries, including India, where an estimated 40,000 refugees currently reside, in make shift refugee camps.

Two Rohingya refugees in India moved the Indian Supreme Court seeking refugee protection for the Rohingyas settled in India. 
They replied on several landmark cases where the courts have upheld the rights of refugees against deportation in like circumstances, holding that, “the state is bound to protect the life and liberty of every human being, be he a citizen or otherwise”. 
In reply to this petition, the government says that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants and enjoy no fundamental rights under the constitution and that the court has no authority to entertain a petition on their behalf.
*Constitution guarantees protection*
However, the Indian constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights to all persons residing in the country irrespective of nationality. 
These rights to equality and the right to life, protect the Rohingya refugees in India from arbitrary deportation, since they have fled their home country due to untold violence and bloodshed. 
Further the constitution of India under Article 51©, a Directive Principle of State Policy also requires fostering respect for international law and treaty obligations.

Though India has not signed the Refugee Convention it has ratified and is a signatory to various international declarations and conventions that recognise the principle of non refoulement, that prohibits the deportation of refugees to a country where they face a fear of persecution. 
Recognised as a principle of customary international law its application protects life and liberty of a human being irrespective of nationality. 

The prohibition of refoulement to a danger of persecution under international refugee law is applicable to any form of forcible removal, including deportation and would hence apply squarely to the deportation that is being proposed by the Indian government. 
Despite these constitutional and international obligations, the government’s threat to identify and deport the Rohingya refugees is untenable and deeply disconcerting.

India’s refugee protection guidelines from 2011 stipulates the standard operating procedure for issuing long term visas to those refugees who are fleeing persecution on account of race, religion, sex, nationality, ethnic identity, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. 
The government in response to questions on refugee policy has reiterated this stand in statements made in the house of parliament, as the procedure for dealing with refugees fleeing persecution. 
This has been India’s stand in granting special status to refugees as distinct from its treatment of illegal immigrants. 
India has a strong track record of hosting refugees of different profiles and has the experience in extending humanitarian protection while balancing national security interests and the concerns of its citizens.
*Trumped up partisan charges*
In 2014 however, the BJP government led by Narendra Modi came to power in India. 
Since then the BJP and various organisations associated with it loosely called the Sangh Parivar, started asserting that India must be a Hindu state and began a strident campaign against Muslims in particular. 

In keeping with its anti-Muslim stance, the present government issued a notification in 2015, providing an exemption to minority communities without valid travel documents, from neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, from the provision of the Passport (entry into India) Rules 1950 and the Foreigners Order 1948. 
The absence of the Muslim community from the list of those communities exempted by this notification is conspicuous. 
Such a biased and discriminatory stand would close the door to the Rohingya who are largely a Muslim minority community even though they may be regarded as the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority.

Instead of choosing to fulfil its international humanitarian obligations, the Hindu fundamentalist political establishment has chosen to play to its base by vilifying this persecuted community, reinforcing their Muslim identity and with a broad stroke and little evidence paining them all terrorists and a threat to national security? 

Can they be ejected arbitrarily from the country, for being Muslim, with total disregard for the life threatening persecution they have fled, undertaking arduous journeys, losing family members on the way, malnourished, widowed, orphaned and destitute? 
Yet the government stresses a potential threat from this community when there is no evidence to show any sign of radicalisation or terror links. 

An orchestrated social media campaign led by the right wing organisations is creating a communally charged rhetoric to exclude the Rohingya from refugee protection measures in India. Simultaneously the government is translating this false narrative into incoherent arguments and seeks to expel the Rohingya refugees on trumped up charges of terrorism.
*Striking dichotomy*
In all this, it is interesting to note the striking dichotomy in India’s stand vis a vis refugee protection at international platforms especially at the United Nations and India’s domestic policy implementation. 
As a member of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR since 1995, India has reiterated its commitment to work with the UNHCR and the international community to address the international protection challenges of refugees. 

Indian ambassadors have made forceful submissions at general debates of the UNHCR Executive Committee, on “India’s assimilative civilisational heritage and inherent capabilities as a state with a good record of non refoulement, hosting and assimilating refugees”.
India has a tradition of welcoming refugees and migrants from conflict countries, by extending a cooperative engagement. 
Indian representatives have even stressed India’s commitment to host refugees entirely using existing resources.

The Rohingya refugees being largely Muslim, fleeing a genocide like situation at the hands of a Buddhist majoritarian regime, taking refuge in India since 2011-2012, receive no acceptance from a right wing fundamentalist government. 
The present government’s policy towards these refugees has been to whip up a communal frenzy by branding the Rohingya as Muslim refugees who pose a threat to law and order and national security. 

Whether the government’s stated policy aims at refoulement of the Rohingya refugees in actual practice, is still uncertain. 
What is certain is the government’s domestic political agenda of communal polarisation for political gains. 
*A sad retreat for a country with a golden tradition of refugee and migrant protection, blown away for political vantage.*
Prashant Bhushan is senior public interest advocate at the Supreme Court of India. Cheryl D’souza is an advocate and they are the Counsels for the petitioners in the case against the government of India’s proposed deportation of Rohingya Refugees. [The Wire]
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=24&date=0#Tid=14963


----------



## Banglar Bir

*In Grim Camps, Rohingya Suffer on ‘Scale That We Couldn’t Imagine’*
BEN C. SOLOMON 
BALUKHALI, Bangladesh — Up to their ankles in mud, hundreds of Rohingya refugees fought to the front of the crowd outside of their makeshift camp. An open-bed truck full of Bangladeshi volunteers was passing by, tossing out donated goods at random: small bags of rice, a faded SpongeBob SquarePants T-shirt, a cluster of dirty forks.

Entire families sloshed through the rain hoping to grab whatever they could. One boy, no older than 6, squeezed his way to an opening where a pair of oversize men’s jeans came hurtling off a truck. He had to fight off an older boy before he could run off with the prize.

There were already more than 200,000 ethnic Rohingya migrants stuck in camps like this one, Balukhali, in southern Bangladesh. But over the past month, at least 500,000 more — more than half of the Rohingya population thought to have been living in Myanmar — are reported to have fled over the border to take refuge, surpassing even the worst month of the Syrian war’s refugee tide.

As international leaders squabble over whether to punish Myanmar for the military’s methodical killing and uprooting of Rohingya civilians, the recent arrivals are living in abjectly desperate conditions.

This is not so much a defined camp as a dense collection of bamboo and tarp stacks. When I visited, children were wandering in the mud looking for food and clothes. There are worries about cholera and tuberculosis. With no toilets, what’s left of the forest has become a vast, improvised bathroom.
While the flow of refugees has greatly slowed in the past week, aid organizations are still overwhelmed.

“It’s on a scale that we couldn’t imagine,” said Kate White, the Doctors Without Borders medical emergency manager in Bangladesh. “This is a small piece of land, and everyone is condensed into it. We just can’t scale up fast enough.”

For decades, the Muslim Rohingya of Myanmar, a minority concentrated in the western state of Rakhine, have faced systemic repression by the country’s Buddhist majority, and particularly by the military. But what happened in August, when the military and allied mobs began burning whole Rohingya villages, was so much worse that the United Nations is calling it ethnic cleansing.

Across the camps, the escaped all have accounts of fire and cruelty.

Anwar Begum, 73, sat on the ground, her arm limp below the elbow. She was in constant pain and could hardly focus her eyes. The army, she told me, set fire to her village in Myanmar and cleared the people out. As the civilians fled, one soldier singled her out, saying, “You’re not welcome in Myanmar,” and smashing her elbow with the butt of his rifle. As her family dragged her away, the soldier had one last thing to say: “Bring that to Bangladesh.”

What was once a loose network of camps has become a sprawl. Acres upon acres of forest have been razed to make way for small cities of huts, made from cheap black tarps covered in mud. Across the camp, men are building them as fast as they can.With existing camps beyond capacity, the Bangladeshi government is racing to convert land into settlements for new arrivals. 
Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times

Every medical treatment post here has a line that snakes nearly around the camp. Local doctors and foreign aid organizations like Doctors Without Borders are scrambling to set up more clinics but can hardly keep pace.

With just one main road connecting most of the district, aid groups are struggling to reach the most remote camps. In Taink Khali, a nearly 30-minute hike off the main road, an Australian aid agency called Disaster Response Group was setting up a mobile clinic in a tiny shack. Dozens of women and children were waiting quietly in the hot sun.

“We’re the first aid these people have seen,” said Brad Stewart, operations manager for the aid group, a small medical assistance organization that most often serves backpackers in Nepal. His team of four ex-military Australians were taping a bottle of hand sanitizer to a tree.

“The immediate attention is going to the more established camps,” he said. “Out here, we’re just a drop in a very large bucket.”

For the hundreds still coming, they face a dangerous boat ride across the river border into Bangladesh. On Thursday, dozens of Rohingya, many of them children, were killed as a trawler carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal.

Their bodies washed up on the bay alongside some survivors.

“The women and children couldn’t swim,” said Nuru Salam, 22. He had tried to cross with his entire family when the boat tipped in the sea. His son had died and he was waiting to find his wife’s body. “There are still many more bodies to come.”
*Helping the Rohingya*



A partial list of aid groups working to ease the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The physical challenges here are steep enough. But the Rohingya crisis has shaken the entire region, exacerbating already severe sectarian and political strains and worsening the relationship between Bangladesh and Myanmar, in particular.

This is not the first wave of Rohingya that Bangladesh has had to absorb. In 1978, around 200,000 Rohingya fled into the country. Most returned to Myanmar after the two governments hammered out a repatriation deal. Another influx came in the early 1990s, as well as in 2012 and in October of last year.

Even before this latest exodus from Myanmar, the stresses being placed on this already poor country were considerable. Yet some of the locals have shown remarkable kindness.

*The Interpreter Newsletter*
Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

“I see that the host community here has been incredibly positive,” said Karim Elguindi, head of the World Food Program’s office in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. “I’m still surprised by the humanitarian response of the government and the community.”

Mr. Elguindi has worked in Darfur, the strife-torn region of western Sudan, and he noted that while the sheer concentration of arriving Rohingya was unprecedented and the terrain challenging for aid distribution, the Rohingya could at least count on basic security once they made it to Bangladesh.

“Compared with Darfur, here they speak the same language,” he said. “The refugees in Darfur were in I.D.P. camps,” referring to internally displaced persons. “They were still among enemies. Here, they are relatively safe.”

With existing camps beyond their capacity, the Bangladeshi government is racing to convert an additional 2,000 acres of land into settlements for the new arrivals. But a report from a network of United Nations agencies warned that Rohingya refugees had already arrived at the site before adequate infrastructure and services had been set up. The local authorities have begun limiting Rohingya refugees to the camps, setting up police checkpoints to prevent them from leaving.
The Rohingya crisis has exacerbated sectarian and political strains in the region.
Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times

On Sunday, a Bangladeshi cabinet minister said that the government did not plan to give refugee status to the newly arrived Rohingya — a stance that is complicating efforts to get them more aid. The Bangladeshi government has said it hopes that Myanmar will eventually take back the Rohingya.

The Myanmar government, however, has said that it will only repatriate those with the correct documentation to prove they are from Rakhine. It is unlikely that most of the Rohingya who recently fled to Bangladesh brought such papers with them, if they ever possessed them at all.

So far, the bulk of the aid effort has fallen to groups of Bangladeshi volunteers. Touched by the stories they have seen on local television, many across the nation have started donation campaigns and driven long distances to give what they can to struggling refugees.

“We couldn’t just sit at home,” said Abul Hossain, a volunteer who lives six hours north of the camps. “Last week we asked everyone in our village to donate. We drove all night to bring it here.”

Mr. Hossain and his neighbors had hoped to hand the goods over to government workers or foreign aid organizations like the United Nations, but they say they have not been able to find any.

“We’ve been driving around since the morning looking for anyone to take this,” he said. “So now, we’re just handing it out ourselves.”

This has proved a dangerous method. Last week, CNN reported that a woman and two children were killed in a stampede as a group of Bangladeshis threw food from a truck.

Since then, assistance has improved significantly. Food distribution points have been set up by the Bangladeshi government to try to lessen the need for the volunteer truck visits. But it is still a challenge.

“There are no roads. We’ve been carrying our equipment in the heavy rain,” said Ms. White, from Doctors Without Borders.

Near his truck at the entrance to the camp, Mr. Hossain unloaded some of his goods as the lines grew around him.

“We expect these people will return home one day. For now we will help them — they are our brothers and sisters.” Then his index finger went up. “But maybe not forever.”

Hannah Beech contributed reporting from Bangkok, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
_Follow Ben C. Solomon on Twitter: __@bcsolomon__.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/...id=facebook&mccr=edit&ad-keywords=GlobalTruth_


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:45 PM, October 21, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:51 PM, October 21, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: ‘Foreign interference doesn’t work’*
*





Experience shows that foreign interference in crises does not work and China supports the Myanmar government's efforts to protect stability, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday, amid ongoing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state*. 
Rohingya refugees line up at a registration center in Kutupalong refugees camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, October 20, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Reuters, Beijing
Experience shows that foreign interference in crises does not work and China supports the Myanmar government's efforts to protect stability, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday, amid ongoing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

More than 500,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled across the border to Bangladesh following a counter-insurgency offensive by Myanmar's army in the wake of militant attacks on security forces.
*READ more: Kids in dire need of food, healthcare*
UN officials have described Myanmar's strategy as "ethnic cleansing". US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday the United States held Myanmar's military leadership responsible for its harsh crackdown.

*Guo Yezhou, a deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party's international department, told reporters on the sidelines of a party congress that China condemned the attacks in Rakhine and understands and supports Myanmar's efforts to protect peace and stability there.*

China and Myanmar have a deep, long-standing friendship, and China believes Myanmar can handle its problems on its own, he added.
*Also READ: Rape being used as a weapon of war*
Asked why China's approach to the Rohingya crisis was different from Western nations, Guo said that China's principle was not to interfere in the internal affairs of another country.

"Based on experience, you can see recently the consequences when one country interferes in another. We won't do it," he said, *without offering any examples of when interventions go wrong.*

China does not want instability in Myanmar as it inevitably will be affected as they share a long land border, Guo said.

"We condemn violent and terrorist acts," he added.

Guo's department has been at the forefront of building relations with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who visited China in 2015 at the Communist Party's invitation, rather than the Chinese government's.

Department head Song Tao also visited Myanmar in August and met Suu Kyi.

Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in large numbers since late August when Rohingya insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with the fleeing people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape.

*The European Union and the United States have been considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military leadership.*

Punitive measures aimed specifically at top generals are among a range of options that have been discussed, but they are wary of action that could hurt the wider economy or destabilize already tense ties between Suu Kyi and the army.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...rence-doesnt-work-says-china-official-1479703


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Inheriting the Rohingya crisis*
Afrose Jahan Chaity
Published at 10:17 AM October 22, 2017
Last updated at 11:42 AM October 22, 2017




Rohingya children struggling to collect food at a camp in Cox's Bazar
*Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune*
*The children are at risk of trafficking and abuse, Helle Thorning-Schmidt says stating that the Rohingya crisis resulted in an emergency situation for the children*
Save the Children International Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Helle Thorning-Schmidt has said the Rohingya crisis led to an emergency situation for the children who have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence in Myanmar.

She made the statement while briefing the media on Saturday about her visit to the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

She said: “There are a lot of child protection concerns in the camps. Desperate, hungry children are running around alone and anything could happen to them in this chaotic situation.”

Save the Children CEO also said the overcrowding, lack of schooling and widespread desperation among the Rohingya living in the makeshift settlements are putting the children at an alarming risk of exploitation and abuse.

“It’s a child protection disaster waiting to happen. This kind of situations leaves children at the risk trafficking, sexual abuse and child labour,” she said mentioning the Rohingya issues as a man-made crisis.

Emphasising on the access to education for refugee children, Thorning-Schmidt said: “One of the best ways we can protect children in this situation is to get them into classrooms. A safe space where they can learn and benefit from things like psychosocial support and hygiene promotion.

“In a crisis like this, education is incredibly important for children.”
*Also Read- Amid the exodus, lone Rohingya children face dangers in camps*
According to a report of International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) Needs and Population Monitoring (NPM), non-formal education facility can be accessed within a distance of 30 minutes from 56% sites of the makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar while maktab or madrasa education can be accessed from 61% of the sites within the same time.

However, the report said 53% of sites have barriers for adolescent boys to access education and 66% for adolescent girls.

Thorning-Schmidt also expressed grave concern about the number of separated and unaccompanied Rohingya children in Bangladesh.

Mark Pierce, Country Director of Save the Children in Bangladesh, said by next year the international organisation will provide support of $90m to address Rohingya crisis, especially to protect and improve the lives of Rohingya children.

He also emphasised on the need of more support to fight health risk like pneumonia during the winter.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), some 588,800 Rohingya have entered Bangladesh since the violence erupted in Myanmar on August 25.

Of them at least 300,000 are children which comprises of 60% of the refugees. The United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, has so far identified 1,312 unaccompanied or separated Rohingya children among the latest arrivals in Bangladesh.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/10/22/save-children-rohingya-crisis-children-emergency/


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:47 AM, October 22, 2017
*Rohingya kids exposed to abuse, trafficking risk*
*Warns Save the Children*




Save the Children CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt during a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka on Saturday, October 21, 2017. Photo: Collected
Staff Correspondent
*Rohingya children are exposed to alarming risks of trafficking, sexual abuse and child labour due to lack of schooling and widespread desperation of people in the overcrowded makeshift settlements in Cox's Bazar, international aid group Save the Children has warned.*

“There are huge child protection concerns in the camps. A lot of desperate, hungry children are running around alone in crowded, chaotic settings where anything could happen,” said Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt. 

“It's a child protection disaster waiting to happen. This kind of situation leaves children, who've already seen and experienced things that no child should ever see, at a hugely increased risk of exploitation like trafficking, sexual abuse and child labour," she said at a press conference in a city hotel yesterday.

Helle, also former prime minister of Denmark, who came to Bangladesh on October 19 on a three-day visit, observed the situation of the displaced Rohingyas living in Cox's Bazar makeshift camps the next day. 

She met the press yesterday to share her experience from this visit, Rohingya response plan, and how Save the Children was working here to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn, and protection from any harm.


The visit of Schmidt, who oversees humanitarian and development programmes reaching 55 million children in around 120 countries, reinforced mobilisation of the urgently needed resources to provide life-saving humanitarian support to the displaced people, especially the protection of children in Cox's Bazar and host communities, the aid organisation said in a statement.

More than 450,000 school-age Rohingya children are currently out of school in Bangladesh, including 270,000 who have arrived here since August, according to Save the Children.

“One of the best ways we can protect children in this situation is to get them into classrooms; a safe space where they can learn, and can also benefit from things like psychosocial support and hygiene promotion. In a crisis like this, education is incredibly important for children.”

Thorning-Schmidt expressed grave concern over the number of separated and unaccompanied children.

Mark Pierce, country director of Save the Children, Bangladesh, said more support would be needed for children in winter due to high risk of pneumonia.

By next year, Save the Children will provide support of $90 million to address many issues involving Rohingya refugees, especially aiming to protect and improve the children's lives, he added. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingya-kids-prone-abuse-trafficking-risk-1479943


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Waves of Myanmar Genocidal Killings and Exodus Since 1978*


----------



## Banglar Bir

*12:00 AM, October 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:35 PM, October 22, 2017
Rohingya crisis a great test for UN
UN resident coordinator tells





Robert D Watkins*
Porimol Palma
*The ever-growing Rohingya influx is a crisis not only for Bangladesh but also for the region as well as the entire world, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert D Watkins has said.*
Referring to the scale of the crisis, he said even the UN was facing a great test in helping Bangladesh to tackle the emergency.

“So far we are meeting the challenges, but we have no complete control of the situation for many reasons -- the sheer number, the speed with which they continue to cross the border and the challenges of trying to assist them in this very narrow piece of land, which is hilly,” he told The Daily Star in an interview last week.

He lamented the lack of consensus at the UN Security Council to find a solution, and emphasised that those responsible for the crimes against the Rohingya population must be held accountable. 

“The Security Council has met more last month to talk about Myanmar than in the last 10 years. It is quite remarkable. In spite of that, we are still having problem to get consensus from the Security Council on steps that need to be taken to try to solve this problem,” said the UN head in Bangladesh.
*A Security Council meeting in late September failed to make any decision on Myanmar because of opposition from China and Russia.*

However, despite the lack of consensus at political level, there is absolute consensus that the UN has to intervene at humanitarian level. “We are doing everything within our power to ensure that needs of these people are met,” he said. 

But the lingering of the refugee crisis will adversely affect Bangladesh's economy, which is a big concern, he added.

"It will definitely have an impact. There is no question about that. And that's why we not only have to find a solution to the problem quickly, but also to minimise the impact on the economy."

The solution lies in the repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar given that peace and security is ensured there, said Watkins, adding that he did not think any solution would come in the next few months.

His comments come when some 589,000 Rohingya people -- about 60 percent of them children -- have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25 to join nearly 400,000 of their fellow countrymen who fled violence in Myanmar in phases over the years. 

The UN and other aid groups are struggling to mobilise fund for the emergency reliefs. 

Early this month, UN agencies appealed for $434 million for emergency assistance for six months, but received commitment of only $105 million or 24 percent so far.

The $434, for which the UN is going to have a pledging conference in Geneva tomorrow, is for food, shelter, water, sanitation and medicine, and will not cover the cost of Bangladesh government that is "pretty large", said Watkins.

Therefore, it is important to seek funds from financial institutions like the World Bank, IMF, ADB, and possibly OIC, he added. "We know that we won't have the resources and Bangladesh won't have resources so we are going to find extra resources from both sides."

Bangladesh is playing host to such a huge number of refugees when it is facing its own development challenges. Despite various measures, the yearly poverty reduction rate has dropped from 1.7 percent between 2005 and 2010 to 1.2 percent between 2010 and 2016.

According the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics latest report, 24 percent people in Bangladesh are still poor (those unable to ensure daily food intake of 1,800-2,100 kilocalorie), and 13 percent of them are ultra poor (those unable to ensure daily food intake of 1,800 kilocalorie).

Slower growth in agriculture, drop in remittance inflow, lack of job opportunities, wealth inequality and challenges of reaching the hard-to-reach poor people were blamed for the slowing trend that goes against the UN's Sustainable Development Goals for 2015-2030 that speak of inclusive development.

Watkins said implementing the SDGs, which already faces financial challenges, would suffer further blows despite the fact that Bangladesh integrated the SDGs in its policies quite well.

“We hope the pledging conference in Geneva on October 23 will be an opportunity for other member countries of the UN to express solidarity with Bangladesh and the refugees and come up with financial contributions.”

Asked about media reports that the UN office in Myanmar shelved its own report that was critical of the UN's approach there, he said the UN leadership in Myanmar was criticised for not advocating human rights issues more openly.

But in a country like Myanmar it is not always the best policy to criticise the government publicly, he observed. 

“Sometimes you have to speak quietly to the right people to raise these issues,” he said, adding that his UN colleagues in Myanmar followed that policy of dialogue with the government.

In spite of that, the UN was unable to prevent the violence. This, however, does not underline that the UN has not done enough, but the fact that Myanmar government or military already had decided to do what it did in response to the August 25 attack by Rohingya insurgents, he noted.

Asked if the UN needs reforms to make it more effective, Watkins said the discussions were very much there -- about expanding the number of permanent members and having representatives from developing countries. 

He said the other aspect of discussion is if there can be some mechanism where decisions can be moved up to the UN general assembly from the Security Council in case of a deadlock like in the case of Myanmar.

The UN secretary-general is now focusing on administrative reforms whereby different UN agencies can work in a more coordinated way. Antonio Guterres will unveil some reforms in December.

“He has come up with some radical ideas of change. By next year, those will be enforced,” Watkins added. 
*GOVERNANCE IS BIG CHALLENGE *
Asked about the development challenges in Bangladesh's domestic front, the UN official, who has been posted in Dhaka for three years, said there were systematic corruption at all levels -- both low and high. 

Comparing corruption in Bangladesh with traffic chaos in the capital, he said, "People just don't care about other people. They are just concentrating on themselves."

As there is a sense of impunity that there will be no consequences for corruption, corruption is going to continue. "It is really a lot more about changing attitude, the mindset.

"People have to take example that nobody is above law. Ministers, for instance, are to be held accountable for their actions. If there are cases of corruption, there has to be consequences.

"If people see that is happening, rules are happening for everyone, not just for the rickshaw pullers, but for the ministers or any others, then they will start abiding the rules. That's how you start changing the mindset of people… People at the top have to set the example.

"People now say why should I do it? This rich man gets away with it, the minister gets away with it, why should I follow the rules? And, that's where it starts -- people at the top have to set the example."
*PARTICIPATION OF ALL
PARTIES IN POLLS IS KEY*
But the real challenge that Bangladesh faces today in democracy is the issue of full participation of all the political parties in elections.

He said the problem in last election was that the main opposition party chose not to participate, and thus the democracy in Bangladesh is not fully reflective of all of the political parties in the country.

"That's why we have been working tirelessly with political parties and urging them to participate in next national elections. We will be working with the Election Commission to ensure that the elections take place in the most professional environment."

This way, parliament will reflect the whole spectrum of political opinions. "That's what we want more than anything else," said the top UN official. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingya-crisis-great-test-un-1479961


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## Banglar Bir

02:45 PM, October 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:18 PM, October 22, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: EU co-hosts ‘pledging conference’ in Geneva tomorrow*




The European Union will co-host a "Pledging Conference" on the Rohingya refugee crisis, with Kuwait, in Geneva tomorrow. In the Reuters photo taken yesterday, October 21, 2017, Rohingya refugees line up to get food from Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) near Balukhali refugees camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Star Online Report
*The European Union will co-host a "Pledging Conference" on the Rohingya refugee crisis, with Kuwait, in Geneva tomorrow.*
The conference will be held in partnership with the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). 

The conference will be an important moment for the international community to respond to and address this major refugee crisis, according to EU Dhaka office.
*READ more: Suu Kyi should resign, says Yunus*
"As co-host of this high-level event, the EU is actively encouraging all donors to contribute to a successful conference. It is an important moment to demonstrate solidarity, common approaches and a strong humanitarian face of the international community to meet the needs of the many people that have fled their homes," said Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides.

The European Union continues, as a matter of priority, to address the situation in Myanmar directly with the Myanmar authorities. 

The EU has reiterated the need for an end to violence, including for the Myanmar authorities to cease military operations; on full humanitarian access to all humanitarian aid workers, including for the UN and international NGOs; and for the government to establish a credible and practical process for the voluntary return of all those who fled their homes to their places of origin. 

Some 589,000 Rohingya people -- about 60 percent of them children -- have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25 to join nearly 400,000 of their fellow countrymen who fled violence in Myanmar in phases over the years. 

Thousands more reportedly remain stranded and in peril in Myanmar without the means to cross the border into Bangladesh. Refugees arriving in Bangladesh are traumatised, and some have arrived with injuries caused by gunshots, shrapnel, fire and landmines. 

The UN and other aid groups are struggling to mobilise fund for the emergency reliefs.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

1:27 PM, October 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:03 PM, October 22, 2017
*Aung San Suu Kyi should resign: Muhammad Yunus*
Star Online Report





If the Myanmar military is rendering the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi powerless, then she should step down, Nobel Peace laureate and economist Muhammad Yunus said in an interview with Al jazeera recently.

“I’ll put 100% of the blame on her because she is the leader…” Muhammad Yunus told Aljazeera while reacting to a query about allegation that Suu Kyi is powerless and her country's military is in charge behind the ongoing persecution on Rohingyas in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
*READ more: Rohingya crisis a great test for UN*
Yunus said Suu kyi is verbally defending the atrocity and violence taking place against the Rohingya population of her country. 

“She takes all the blame herself, so there is no way you can part it with the military or anybody else.” He said adding that Suu Kyi has to fix the Rohingya crisis by herself.

“If she cannot say what she should say then she is no leader… leader is supposed to stand by their own people,” Yunus said at the interview.
*Also READ: In the shadow of violence*
Pointing Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate said, “You have to stand up, you have to protect your image that you built over years as a defender of human rights, defender of democracy… what happened to all those values you have promoted?”

Asked whether Suu Kyi deserves the Nobel Prize, Yunus said that he is sure that the committee would never give her the prize if she had all these stories in front of it.

Some 589,000 Rohingya people -- about 60 percent of them children -- have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25 to join nearly 400,000 of their fellow countrymen who fled violence in Myanmar in phases over the years. 

The UN and other aid groups are struggling to mobilise fund for the emergency reliefs.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...ry-muhammad-yunus-nobel-prize-refugee-1480141

Reactions: Like Like:
1


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## Banglar Bir

*Outcast: Adrift with Burma's Rohingya - REWIND*


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## maravan91

*Rohingya crisis: China says foreign interference doesn’t work
*
https://www.dawn.com/news/1365464/rohingya-crisis-china-says-foreign-interference-doesnt-work


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## UKBengali

China can say whatever it wants but Myanmar will be dealt with to permanently stop it's savage nature.


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## livingdead

UKBengali said:


> China can say whatever it wants but Myanmar *will be dealt* with to permanently stop it's savage nature.


by the time bd implements secret mission 2030(?)... rohiyngyas will be dead... @BDforever @Banglar Bir


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## Banglar Bir

06:10 PM, October 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:34 PM, October 22, 2017
*India wants safe return of displaced Rohingyas*




Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, on October 22, 2017 says her country wants safe return of Rohingya people. Star file photo
Star Online Report
*Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said her country wants safe return of Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh following persecution in Rakhine of Myanmar.*
She came up with the India’s stance while addressing a joint press conference at Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka this evening after a meeting with her Bangladeshi counterpart AH Mahmood Ali.

She also said her court also supports the recommendations of Rakhine Advisory Commission, headed by former UNSG Kofi Annan.

The commission formed by the Myanmar government has suggested several measures for a “peaceful, fair and prosperous future for the people of Rakhine.

More to follow…
http://www.thedailystar.net/country...-rohingyas-bangladesh-rakhine-myanmar-1480186


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## UKBengali

livingdead said:


> by the time bd implements secret mission 2030(?)... rohiyngyas will be dead... @BDforever @Banglar Bir




BD is hosting nearly 1 million Rohingyas and thousands more are coming in every week.

There homeland is Arakan and they will return to it since they have more right to it than the Barmans who arrived later. If anyone should leave the land, it is Barman.

2030? BD will be ready way, way before then to cut Myanmar down to size.

Try to understand what I am infering first before posting.


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## livingdead

UKBengali said:


> BD is hosting nearly 1 million Rohingyas and thousands more are coming in every week.
> 
> There homeland is Arakan and they will return to it since they have more right to it than the Barmans who arrived later. If anyone should leave the land, it is Barman.
> 
> 2030? BD will be ready way, way before then to cut Myanmar down to size.
> 
> Try to understand what I am infering first before posting.


you can be direct .. are you inferring that bd will arm rohingyas?... but without directly military action from bd, they will be cannon fodder for myanmar military... of course myanmar will suffer casualties.
the question is, is bd even contemplating of doing a 71? we all can argue about 3.576 times military superiority over myanmar, without direct war, its of no use.


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## UKBengali

livingdead said:


> you can be direct .. are you inferring that bd will arm rohingyas?... but without directly military action from bd, they will be cannon fodder for myanmar military... of course myanmar will suffer casualties.
> the question is, is bd even contemplating of doing a 71? we all can argue about 3.576 times military superiority over myanmar, without direct war, its of no use.



Really?
Myanmar cannot beat the many other ethnic groups that are fighting it.
Arakan is mainly jungles and mountains and ideal guerilla country.
Well trained and well armed Rohingyas will turn Arakan into hell for Myanmar, both economically and militarily.
Rohingya activities in Arakan will bleed Myanmar dry. It is relying on Arakan to boost it's tiny 70 US billion dollar economy.
If anyone thinks that BD will allow Myanmar to get away with this, they need to think again.


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## livingdead

UKBengali said:


> Really?
> Myanmar cannot beat the many other ethnic groups that are fighting it.
> Arakan is mainly jungles and mountains and ideal guerilla country.
> Well trained and well armed Rohingyas will turn Arakan into hell for Myanmar, both economically and militarily.
> Rohingya activities in Arakan will bleed Myanmar dry. It is relying on Arakan to boost it's tiny 70 US billion dollar economy.
> If anyone thinks that BD will allow Myanmar to get away with this, they need to think again.


the crisis started in 2015... all i see is more misery and more rohingyas on bd shore... 
anyway I was merely replying to your 'will be dealt with' post, who is going to fight myanmar, and when? the time is ticking... pretty sure @Banglar Bir will agree


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## maravan91

UKBengali said:


> Really?
> Myanmar cannot beat the many other ethnic groups that are fighting it.
> Arakan is mainly jungles and mountains and ideal guerilla country.
> Well trained and well armed Rohingyas will turn Arakan into hell for Myanmar, both economically and militarily.
> Rohingya activities in Arakan will bleed Myanmar dry. It is relying on Arakan to boost it's tiny 70 US billion dollar economy.
> If anyone thinks that BD will allow Myanmar to get away with this, they need to think again.



Lol China will never allow separatist movement in arakan. If you arm rohingyas they will massacre remaining rohingyas. China will back Myanmar in UNSC. Best option for Bangladesh is deport rohingyas back to Myanmar via UN sponsored dialogue


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## UKBengali

maravan91 said:


> Lol China will never allow separatist movement in arakan. If you arm rohingyas they will massacre remaining rohingyas. China will back Myanmar in UNSC. Best option for Bangladesh is deport rohingyas back to Myanmar via UN sponsored dialogue



What will China do? Send their army in?
If UN process does not work, then alternative methods will be used.


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## maravan91

UKBengali said:


> What will China do? Send their army in?
> If UN process does not work, then alternative methods will be used.



This is not 1970s. you can't directly support armed insurgency in your neighbour country


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## UKBengali

maravan91 said:


> This is not 1970s. you can't directly support armed insurgency in your neighbour country



BD has every right to send Rohingya back.
Myanmar has no real support bar China and so
BD will be free to deal with them as it sees fit.

Russia and India cannot support their economy and so do not count.


----------



## maravan91

UKBengali said:


> BD has every right to send Rohingya back.
> Myanmar has no real support bar China and so
> BD will be free to deal with them as it sees fit.
> 
> Russia and India cannot support their economy and so do not count.



This is what i said. Send them back to Myanmar via dialogue. If u support armed insurgency the ultimate sufferers will be rohingyas


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## Banglar Bir

*Return of Rohingyas to restore normalcy, says Indian FM*
*Dhaka wants Delhi to exert sustained pressure on Myanmar *
SAM Report, October 23, 2017





*Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday (Oct 22) said it is clear that normalcy over the Rohingya issue will be restored only with the return of the displaced people to Rakhine state.*

“India is deeply concerned at the spate of violence in Rakhine State of Myanmar. We’ve urged that the situation be handled with restraint, keeping in mind the welfare of the population,” she said.

Sushma said they have also supported the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Kofi Annan led Special Advisory Commission report on Rakhine State.

The Indian External Affairs Minister came up with India’s position over Rohingya issue at a joint briefing after the fourth Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting between Bangladesh and India held at Sonargaon Hotel in the city.

She also laid emphasis on creating economic opportunities in Rakhaine. “In our view, the only long-term solution to the situation in Rakhine State is rapid socio-economic and infrastructure development that would have a positive impact on all the communities living in the State.”

India, she said, for its part, has committed to providing financial and technical assistance for identified projects to be taken in Rakhine in conjunction with the local authorities.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said Bangladesh urged India to contribute towards “exerting sustained pressure” on Myanmar to find a peaceful solution to Rohingya crisis including sustainable return off all Rohingyas to their homeland.

“We’re happy to be reassured that India would continue to support the humanitarian cause related to Rohingyas in Bangladesh,” he said.

Minister Ali thanked the Indian side for humanitarian assistance provided for Roihingyas.

Around 6 lakh Rohingyas entered Bangladesh since August 25 and the aid agencies struggling to meet their growing need with limited resources.

India launched ‘Operation Insaniyat’ in September to support the government of Bangladesh in its commendable efforts to provide shelter in Cox’s Bazar to lakhs of displaced people who have fled Rakhine.

“Through this operation, we’ve supplied essential requirements by way of parboiled rice, dal, salt, sugar, cooking oil, tea, milk powder, mosquito nets and soap to about 300,000 displaced persons,” said the Indian minister.

The materials have been distributed to the intended recipients through the district administration in Cox’s Bazar.

Earlier, both the ministers reviewed the whole gamut of bilateral relations and the decisions taken so far.

Sushma Swaraj arrived here on Sunday on a two-day official visit to discuss bilateral issues aiming to take forward the ties to the next level.

Mahmood Ali received her at Bangabandhu Air Force base on her arrival at 1:41 pm.

Earlier, Indian Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley paid a three-day official visit to Dhaka from October 3 at the invitation of Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

The two ministers reviewed the status of economic cooperation and development partnership initiatives taken during the visit of Prime Minster of India Narendra Modi to Bangladesh in June 2015 and Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina to India in April 2017.

India and Bangladesh have witnessed a deepening of bilateral economic cooperation in recent years, particularly in terms of increasing volumes of trade and investment flows, said the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
SOURCE UNB NEWS
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/23/return-rohingyas-restore-normalcy-says-indian-fm/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:43 AM, October 23, 2017
*No real progress yet*
*Efforts to solve Rohingya crisis fall short; UN pledging conference on aid today*




Rokiya, a Rohingya woman, holds her 10-month-old malnourished son, as a nurse checks him at the Action Against Hunger centre in Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar yesterday.
Shakhawat Liton
*Rohingyas have been telling the world numerous stories of horror, loss, murder, rape and villages burned to the ground over the last two months. The world's media have been flooded with their harrowing tales.*
The atrocities being carried out by the Myanmar military since August 25 have been termed "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" by the UN and "genocide" by different human rights bodies.

Yet, there has been no real progress in resolving the world's fastest growing humanitarian crisis.

As the global outcry fails to force Myanmar to end the atrocities, their flight continues, increasing the number of refugees in Bangladesh.

The crisis has been crying out for strong global action for a solution. But the actions remain inadequate.

In fact, the role of UN Security Council has been appalling. It was able to issue only a statement in mid-September, expressing concern over "excessive violence" by Myanmar security forces in Rakhine State, home to the majority of Rohingyas.
*
At the end of September, the UNSC discussed the crisis in an open meeting, but failed to take any decision due to China and Russia's opposition. That was all.*

No further action was seen in the last three weeks while the atrocities continued unabated. UN Chief Antonio Guterres and other top UN officials' repeated calls for suspension of military action against the Rohingyas fell flat as UNSC did nothing.

Unless China and Russia--two permanent members of the UNSC with veto power--change their minds and refrain from supporting Myanmar, it is almost impossible for the council to do something to stop the exodus and pave the way fortheir voluntary return to their homeland.

Amid this situation, a ministerial-level conference on the crisis will be held in Geneva today to collect funds for humanitarian aid.

The conference, co-hosted by the European Union and the government of Kuwait, and co-organised by three UN agencies--UNHCR, IOM and OCHA, is being held to raise $434 million. But commitments so far have been made only of $116 million.

The UN agencies have plans to provide humanitarian aid till next February.

Humanitarian aid alone is not a solution to the crisis. It will help Rohingyas survive the next six months. What happens after February is still uncertain. But that Bangladesh will have to bear the brunt in the coming days is certain.

Everybody knows the root causes of this crisis are in Myanmar. But the lack of collective effort, particularly the failure of the UNSC to take decisive action, keeps allowing Myanmar to continue its ethnic cleansing before the eyes of world leaders, who have repeatedly promised in the past to take action on genocide.

After failing to stop genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s, the UN renewed its commitments and developed new mechanisms, including an office of the UN special advisor on prevention of genocides.

World leaders at the United Nations World Summit in 2005 agreed that the international community has a responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other means to protect populations from genocide and crimes against humanity.

The leaders also promised to be prepared to take collective action in accordance with the UN charter when a state manifestly fails to protect its population.

That the efforts bore no fruit was exposed by the UN and international communities' failure to protect Rohingyas. They are being treated by the Myanmar military in the same way as the Hutus treated the Tutsis like insects during the Rwanda genocide.

For their failure in Rwanda, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan, both chiefs of the UN, and several world leaders apologised a few years after the genocide.

"The United Nations and its member states failed Rwanda and its people during the 100-day genocide and expressed 'deep remorse' that more wasn't done to stop it," Annan said in a statement in 1999.

On a 1998 state visit to Rwanda, former US president Bill Clinton apologised for inaction to prevent the genocide in 1994.

“It may seem strange to you here, especially the many of you who lost members of your family, but all over the world there were people like me sitting in offices, day after day after day, who did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror,” Clinton said.

Annan's successor Ban Ki-moon in 2014 said, "The UN is still ashamed over its failure to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda."

With the memories of Rwanda and Bosnia still there, the genocide should not have taken place in Myanmar. The world leaders should have taken prompt action to stop Myanmar military.

But the harrowing tales of Rohingyas show how the world leaders failed to deliver on their promises.

Will they apologise in future for their failure? It would seem like they prefer apologising or saying sorry over taking actions. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-no-real-progress-yet-1480279


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## Banglar Bir

*The Forgotten Past
1942 #Rohingya Massacre of #Arakan in Rohingya Language (with English Subtitle)*




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## Banglar Bir

*National Verification Card (NVC): A Hidden Trap for Myanmar’s Rohingya*




Mohammed Ayub (TU), UAE
RB Article
October 22, 2017
*Myanmar Military was never sincere in handling ethnics’ affairs, especially, in Rohingyas’ whose permanent home is northern Arakan. *

Throughout the history, military uses the Muslims population of the country for political diversion and benefits. 

After 9/11, 2001 attack in US, the perception of non-Muslims world towards the Muslims has changed in unbelievable way. 
This opportunity, though hidden anti-Muslims campaign has long been rooted in Myanmar, was best used by the power monger groups like Myanmar Military to de-attach the Muslims from mass public, and divert the attention of all-problems-bundle of the country towards Muslims by exposing post 2001 sentiments of Islam. 
As a result, majority Buddhists public of Myanmar, who has been caged more than five decades,turned away from the actual democratic movement of the country to join anti-Muslim movement and hence emerging a strong legal public anti-Muslim forces within Myanmar. 

Publically motivated anti-Muslim operations have gained momentum after the alleged murder of Rakhine woman by Muslim in mid-2012. The campaign has got fierce intensity throughout the years as groups like MaBaTha, 969 has been publically propagating anti-Muslim hate speeches with the Military sponsorship. 
ARSA’s attack on security posts of Arakan on 25th of august, 2017 met the Rohingyas with deadliest clearance operations that almost 600 thousands of Rohingya Muslims has poured into Bangladesh to escape historic brutalities of Myanmar Military and local Buddhists mobs.

Fortunately, Burmese Military has succeeded in filtering out Muslims from the anti-Military dictatorship forces with the injection of racially motivated propagandas to themajority xenophobic Buddhists public. The resultant achievement is both the Buddhist public, Military and government, have come under the same roof of de-rooting Rohingya Muslims from Arakan. Recent years have been the years of rigorous anti-Muslims campaign through different means; social media, mass public religious gatherings, that being a Muslim in Myanmar has become the greatest crime. And majority Buddhist perceives Muslims as a menace to their religion, race, culture and the country, so much so that they want Rohingya constitutionally disable if not completely eradicated from the soil of Arakan.

Actually, Rohingyas problem is based on well-founded fear created from the psychological disorder, dementia and xenophobe of Myanmar Buddhists. Logically speaking, the Myanmar have no problem with the word ‘Rohingya’ nor with the Muslim inhabitants that have long been residing in Arakan side by side. 

The problem with them is the religion, which Rohingyas believe in. 
Keep aside the volumes of history of pre-independent Burma; in post-independent Burma, there are mountains of historical evidences of Rohingya starting from the office of the then military war-fair to Myanmar’s Broadcasting Program, from Myanmar’s school, university textbooks to encyclopedia, from village chairman to MPs and Ministers. 

Xenophobic Buddhists are blatantly denying the Rohingya just because of superstitious belief that, if Muslims were given equal rights, whole Burma will be Islamized, were made conceived in the hearts of Buddhists in the successive military regimes. 

As said earlier, the Buddhists want Rohingya Muslims of Arakan to constitutionally disable by forcing them to accept National Verification Card (NVC) that in turn will make them foreigners.
From the legal perspective, NVC is not the product of any law or constitution of Myanmar, which is in force now. Even according to the clause 65 of notorious 1982 citizenship law, no NVC is required to issue citizenship card. It is a product of mere cowardice nationalist propagandists' imaginary islamophobic assumptions.

It is point-out-worthy that all the citizenship cards holder of Myanmar need not have to have NVC prior to citizenship cards. If the government of Myanmar sincerely wants to help solve the Rohingya crisis, there are many post-independent era’s records and evidences that it can depend on without imposing unconstitutional NVC card. 
The Government’s ulterior motive behind this NVC is making believe the world that the Rohingyas are foreigners who are recent immigrants to Arakan from Bangladesh.

The following points are some of many historical evidences that Rohingyas are not British era settler and hence no required to go for NVC cards. 

1. Rohingya holds the same citizenship NRC cards with 6 digits (where as foreigners hold FRC with 5 digits), which were issued after 1952-53 Mayu operations, as other ethnics of Myanmar and, were provoked in 1989 at the promise of issuing pink color citizenship cards. 
Unfortunately, 1990-91 exodus took place and what Rohingyas in return were gifted was White cards in 1995. 
If Myanmar sincerely wants to solve Rohingya crisis, it can base on those records and details collected in 1989. In 1993, NaSaKa aliases Border Immigrations Head Quarters (BIHQ) were deployed in Arakan with special decree and power solely aimed at Rohingyas. 
And every year onwards were scrutiny and records of Rohingyas with group family photo but found none of illegal entry.

2. After Burma independence, all ethnics groups including Rohingyas took rebellion against Burmese government for autonomy. And the Rohingya Mujahids were the first to surrender to the central government for the sake of peace, tranquility and betterment of the sate and, were recognized as Rohingya indigenous ethnic as Rakhine.

3. In 1872, per square mile population of Arakan was 33 and that of Bengal was about 450. Even at that time, having unrestricted movement within British India, and greener pastures in British-Burma, dense-populatedly living Bengali had not seen flooding into British Arakan for good. Whoever, came was for seasonal work and went back after pocketful of money. And still Myanmar Buddhists say over populated Bangladesh pours Bengali to Arakan, a modern day killing field for Muslims.

4. On many occasions, Government imported Bengali Buddhists from Bangladesh with A to Z support. They could not survive in the golden Arakan having seen no future and returned Bangladesh. And still Myanmarsays Muslims are entering Myanmar while their fellow Bengali Buddhists did not survive because of zero opportunity and dead future.

5. No Muslim's "official family list" is left intact, except for dead or any other reasons, that member entry is stroked with red pen with remark that reads, " fled to Bangladesh". And still Myanmar accuses Rohingya of illegally coming in to Arakan.

6. In 2012, ex-president U Thein Sein and ex-immigration Minister U Khin Yee confessed in a VOA interview that there were no illegal Muslims residing in Arakan. And still Myanmar label Rohingya as "Khoewin" (ခိုးဝင္) meaning illegal immigrants.

7. And also under different rules of British, Arakan was under British-Burma, British-India and British-Bengal, where in all cases British censured the indigenous Muslim populations of Arakan as either Mahomadensor Mussulmans or Arakanese Mahomadens or Arakanese Mussulmans.

8. What Myanmar propagandist portrayed the Rohingya history is that there were no Muslim (Rohingya) inhabitants in the soil of Arakan before 1823 and they came into existence in Arakan only after British annexation when the Britishers brought many Muslimsfrom Bengal as laborers, ignoring piles of historical evidences as early as 1000 years before British conquest.

9. It was recorded in 1872 British-Burma census that there were 100,000 souls (of whom 30,000 were Muslims Rohingya) in Arakan when British annexed Arakan in 1826 and, many Muslims who escaped the brutal Burmese killings in 1784 returned to their original home Arakan when situation became peaceful in Arakan. And still there were uncertainty in Arakan and some Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in 1874 prefer to work as “seasonal laborers” in Arakan than settling back there in Arakan.
10. 1942 Muslim-Buddhist riot forced refuge the Buddhist populations of Northern to the southern part of Arakan and Muslim population of Southern into Northern part of Arakan and that is the reason why Muslims are densely populated in Northern Arakan. 

From the above points one can comprehend and ponder that the Rohingyas are the core people of the soil of Arakan and requires no NVC process, as they have been under tight surveillance and scrutiny in the successive governments.
What Myanmar’s perception about Rohingya was that Myanmar is sandwiched between two overpopulated countries; Bangladesh and China, and it needs verification process in place to deter illegal entry from Bangladesh and China. 
When China is concerned, Myanmar ignores even national sovereignty concerns, at the same time welcoming the Chinese with all its race, religion, culture and scarce resources. The Chinese from the eastern gate penetrated into Myanmar and gradually has absorbed and distorted Myanmar’s race, culture and resources and passed through the western gate (Arakan). 

Astonishingly, whole Myanmar remains silent on the matter and unwise, foolish discriminatory agendas are put in practice against Rohingya Muslims. 

Through out the Military regimes to date, no single illegal entry residing in Arakan can be brought forward by Myanmar to International surface, and contrary to that, the international bodies are witnessing Rohingyas fleeing due to the heinous crimes committed to them by the Military and local mobs. 

Annan Commission left dubious state regarding citizenship status of Rohingya in his final report enforcing NVC process even to be allowed with uncles’ or aunts’ documents when one’s own documents are not available. On the other hand, the report also emphasizes to amendment of the 1982 citizenship law. So, no clear cut strategy was advised in the report for the citizenship of Rohingya, whose the same was stripped off by the enforcement of 1982 citizenship law after 1978 refugees take-back.

In the most years of tyrant rule of Military, Rohingya Muslims were suffered from all aspects of life and also Arakan has never been a safe place for Rohingya Muslims, which 1784, 1978,1991 and 2017 exoduses testified. Rohingyas are dying to live in Arakan because it is their ancestral land. 

Economically, Bangladesh is in relatively better position than Myanmar and it is a nasty ideology to accuse of Rohingyas of recent immigrants from Bangladesh and enforcing them for NVCs. 
In conclusion, It would be wise choice for Myanmar to restrain using the word “Bengali” when referring Muslim minority Rohingya and, to stop enforcing NVC cards to Rohingyas. 
And last but not the least, all Rohingyas should be called back with assurance of recognition, safety, security, and many other civil rights.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/national-verification-card-nvc-hidden.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Press TV is live now.*
1 min · 
*UN’s Pledging Conference for Rohingya Refugee Crisis underway in Geneva*




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## Banglar Bir

*OFID supports UNHCR relief operations in Bangladesh*
20.10.2017




_Photo: UNHCR_
*Vienna, Austria, October 20, 2017.* *The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) *has approved an emergency assistance grant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help fund ongoing humanitarian operations in Bangladesh, where an estimated 20,000 Rohingyas per day are seeking refuge after outbreaks of violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar.

These outbreaks have triggered one of the most massive and swiftest refugee crises in the world today, with nearly one half million people fleeing to safety, primarily in Cox’s Bazar District in Bangladesh. There, they have joined 33,000 Rohingyas registered as refugees in the camps in Kutupalong and Nayapar, as well as over 274,000 others, mainly in so-called makeshift camps.

A large number of the refugees comprise women and children, many of whom have become separated from their families. UNHCR has declared this a refugee crisis and has launched an appeal, coordinating and working closely with the government of Bangladesh and agency partners to help meet refugees’ most basic needs, including supplementary feeding program, shelter, water, sanitation and healthcare, as well as camp and site preparation and management, among other activities.

OFID’s US$400,000 grant will help fund the top priorities as identified by the UNHCR; especially those concerning food security and nutrition; safe water supplies and sanitation facilities, as well as medical care and preventive health measures. Cooperation between OFID and UNHCR dates back to 1984. Since then, 13 grants have been extended in support of UNHCR’s relief operations in Asia and Africa.
http://www.ofid.org/NewsEvents/ArticleId/3393/OFID-supports-UNHCR-relief-operations-in-Bangladesh


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh says Rohingya arrivals ‘untenable’, seeks ‘durable solution’*
*‘Biggest exodus since the Rwandan genocide in 1994’*
Reuters | Published: 17:57, Oct 23,2017 
*Nearly one million Rohingya refugees have fled violence in Myanmar, an ‘untenable situation’ for neighbour Bangladesh, the country’s UN envoy said on Monday, calling on Myanmar to let them return.*

Some 600,000 people have crossed the border since August 25, when insurgent attacks on security posts were met by a ferocious counter-offensive by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state which the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

‘This is the biggest exodus from a single country since the Rwandan genocide in 1994,’ Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a UN pledging conference.

‘Despite claims to the contrary, violence in Rakhine state has not stopped. Thousands still enter on a daily basis,’ he said.

Bangladesh’s interior minister was in Yangon on Monday for talks to find a ‘durable solution’, Ahsan said.

But Myanmar continued to issue ‘propaganda projecting Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh’, Ahsan said, adding: ‘This blatant denial of the ethnic identity of Rohingyas remains a stumbling bloc’.

Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be stateless, despite tracing their families’ presence in the country for generations.

The United Nations has appealed for $434 million to provide life-saving aid to 1.2 million people for six months.

‘We need more money to keep pace with intensifying needs. This is not an isolated crisis, it is the latest round in a decades-long cycle of persecution, violence and displacement,’ U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the talks.

‘Children, women and men fleeing Myanmar are streaming into Bangladesh traumatised and destitute,’ he added.

‘We assess we have pledges of around $340 million,’ Lowcock said before the mid-day break in the meeting.

New pledges included 30 million euros announced by the European Union, $15 million by Kuwait, 10 million Australian dollars by Australia and 12 million pounds from Britain.

He reiterated the UN call on Myanmar to allow ‘full humanitarian access across Rakhine’ where aid agencies have been denied entry.

Myanmar must ‘guarantee the right to safe, voluntary and dignified return so that the Rohingya can live in peace with their human rights upheld in Rakhine’, Lowcock said.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/267...gya-arrivals-untenable-seeks-durable-solution


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## Banglar Bir

*Reuters Exclusive: Returning Rohingya may lose land, crops under Myanmar plans*




Rohingya refugees, who crossed the border from Myanmar two days before, walk after they received permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue on to the refugee camps, in Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, 
Bangladesh October 19, 2017. 
REUTERS/Jorge Silva
_By_ Simon Lewis, Thu Thu Aung, Kyaw Soe Oo
Reuters
October 22, 2017
*SITTWE, Myanmar* -- Rohingya Muslims who return to Myanmar after fleeing to Bangladesh are unlikely to be able to reclaim their land, and may find their crops have been harvested and sold by the government, according to officials and plans seen by Reuters.

Nearly 600,000 Rohingya have crossed the border since Aug. 25, when coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts sparked a ferocious counter offensive by the Myanmar army. 

The United Nations says killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs since late August amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. 
Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has no control over the military, has pledged that anyone sheltering in Bangladesh who can prove they were Myanmar residents can return. 

Reuters has interviewed six Myanmar officials involved with repatriation and resettlement plans. While the plans are not yet finalised, their comments reflect the government’s thinking on how Suu Kyi’s repatriation pledge will be implemented. 

Jamil Ahmed, who spoke to Reuters at a refugee camp in Bangladesh, is one of many Rohingya who hope to go back. 

Describing how he fled his home in northern Rakhine state in late August, Ahmed said one of the few things he grabbed was a stack of papers - land contracts and receipts - that might prove ownership of the fields and crops he was leaving behind. 

“I didn’t carry any ornaments or jewels,” said the 35-year-old. “I’ve only got these documents. In Myanmar, you need to present documents to prove everything.” 

The stack of papers, browning and torn at the edges, may not be enough, however, to regain the land in Kyauk Pan Du village, where he grew potatoes, chilli plants, almonds and rice. 

“It depends on them. There is no land ownership for those who don’t have citizenship,” said Kyaw Lwin, agriculture minister in Rakhine state, when asked in an interview whether refugees who returned to Myanmar could reclaim land and crops. 

Despite his land holdings, Myanmar does not recognize Ahmed as a citizen. Nearly all the more than 1 million Rohingya who lived in Myanmar before the recent exodus are stateless, despite many tracing their families in the country for generations. 

Officials have made plans to harvest, and possibly sell, thousands of acres of crops left behind by the fleeing Rohingya, according to state government documents reviewed by Reuters. 

Myanmar also intends to settle most refugees who return to Rakhine state in new “model villages”, rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach criticized in the past by the United Nations as effectively creating permanent camps. 

The government has not asked for help from any international agencies, who are calling for any repatriation to be voluntary and to the refugees’ place of origin. 
*“OWNERLESS” CROPS *
The exodus of 589,000 Rohingya - and about 30,000 non-Muslims - from the conflict zone in northern Rakhine has left some 71,500 acres of planted rice paddy abandoned and in need of harvesting by January, according to plans drawn up by state officials.

Tables in the documents, reviewed by Reuters, divide the land into paddy sown by “national races” - meaning Myanmar citizens - or “Bengalis,” a term widely used in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya, but which they reject as implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. 

Kyaw Lwin, the state minister, confirmed the plans, and said there was a total of 45,000 acres of “ownerless Bengali land”. 

Two dozen combine harvesters operated by officials from the agriculture ministry will begin cutting stalks this month in areas under military control. 

The machines will be able to harvest about 14,400 acres according to official calculations contained in the plans. It is unclear what will become of the remaining crop, but officials told Reuters they would try to harvest all the paddy, recruiting additional labor to harvest manually if necessary.




Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 16, 2017. REUTERS/ Zohra Bensemra
An acre of paddy in Myanmar typically makes more than $300 at market, meaning the state will gain millions of dollars worth of rice. 

The harvested rice will be transported to government stores, where it would either be donated to those displaced by the conflict or sold, Rakhine state secretary Tin Maung Swe told Reuters by phone. 
“The land was abandoned. There is no one to reap that, so the government ordered to harvest it,” he said. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Asia director Phil Robertson, said the government should at least guarantee that the rice would be used for humanitarian support and not for profit. 
“You can’t call a rice crop ‘ownerless’ just because you used violence and arson to drive the owners out of the country,” he said. 
*‘MODEL VILLAGES’* 
Many refugees are fearful to return and are skeptical of Myanmar’s guarantees. Those who do decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centers, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters, before mostly being relocated to model villages. 

International donors, who have fed and cared for more than 120,000 mostly Rohingya “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) in supposedly temporary camps in Rakhine since violence in 2012, have told Myanmar that they will not support more camps, according to aid workers and diplomats. 
“The establishment of new temporary camps or camp-like settlements carries many risks, including that the returnees and IDPs could end up being confined to these camps for a long time,” said U.N. spokesman Stanislav Saling in an emailed response. 

Satellite imagery shows 288 villages, mostly Rohingya settlements, have been fully or partially razed by fires since Aug. 25, according to HRW. 

Refugees say the army and Buddhist mobs were responsible for most of the arson. The government says Rohingya militants and even residents themselves burned the homes for propaganda.

The hamlets where Rohingya farmers lived were “not systematic”, and so should be rebuilt in smaller settlements of 1,000 households set out in straight rows to enable development, said Soe Aung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. 

“In some villages there are three houses here, four houses over there. For example, there’s no road for fire engines when fire burns the villages,” Soe Aung said. 
*IDENTITY CHECKS* 
Those who decide to cross back into Myanmar will first be received at one of two centers, according to government plans reviewed by Reuters. 

At the centers, officials said, the returnees will fill out a 16-point form that will be cross-checked with local authorities’ records. Immigration officials have for years visited Rohingya households at least annually for checks, photographing family members. 

For refugees who lost all their documents, the government would compare their photos to those that immigration authorities have on file, said Myint Kyaing, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population. 

Officials will accept as evidence “national verification” cards handed out in an ongoing government effort to register Rohingya that falls short of offering them citizenship. The card has been widely rejected by Rohingya community leaders, who say they treat life-long residents like new immigrants. 
“We are not going to go back like this,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, 57, a farmer from Myin Hlut village now living in the Tenkhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, where Jamil Ahmed is also staying. 

“If I can go back to my house, and get my land back, only then I will go. We invested all our money into those paddy fields. They are killing so many of us with swords and bullets, and killing the rest of us like this.” 
_Additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh and Shoon Naing and Antoni Slodkowski in Yangon; Editing by Alex Richardson
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/reuters-exclusive-returning-rohingya.html_


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## Banglar Bir

*Jordan’s Queen Rania denounces ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya*
UNB
Published at 02:32 PM October 23, 2017
Last updated at 08:43 PM October 23, 2017




Jordan's Queen Rania meets with Rohingya refugees during her visit to Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia on October 23, 2017 AFP
*The queen also condemned the torture on the Rohingya people in Myanmar*
Jordanian Queen Rania Al Abdullah on Monday called on the international community to respond “effectively, quickly, and generously” to alleviate the suffering of the Rohingya, decrying global inaction in the face of “what many are acknowledging now as an ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims.”

“With no respect or regard for the principles of humanitarian and international law, the discrimination against and the persecution of the Rohingya minority has continued unabated, in full view of the world,” she said.

Queen Rania made the remarks to the press during a visit to the Kutupalong Refugee Camp and its surrounding in Cox’s Bazar district.

She reached Cox’s Bazar directly in the morning to see the Rohingya situation on the ground. State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam received her. State Minister of Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki was also present.



The Queen spoke of the “shocking escalation of violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar,” which has caused over 600,000 Muslim Rohingya to flee from Myanmar’s Rakhine State since August.

“One has to ask, why is the plight of this Muslim minority group being ignored? Why has this systematic persecution been allowed to play out for so long?” she added.

In her capacity as a board member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and as an advocate of the work of UN humanitarian agencies, she toured the Kutupalong Refugee Camp, meeting with several Rohingya women and children, who recently crossed into Bangladesh from Rakhine State in Myanmar.

Describing their stories of “unimaginable acts of violence,” Queen Rania mentioned’ accounts of Rohingya children orphaned, women brutalised, family members butchered, and villages burned.

“Before coming here, I had braced myself to witness some desperate conditions, but the stories I heard today were heartbreaking and harrowing,” she said.

She has heard of systematic rape of young girls, who were trapped in schools and raped by soldiers. “I’ve heard of babies being kicked around like footballs and stomped on. I’ve heard family members telling me how they’ve seen their own parents killed, right before their eyes.”

“This is something that is unacceptable,” Queen Rania said.



The Queen said it is unforgivable that this crisis is unfolding on the world stage to a largely indifferent audience. “The world seems to be silent to what many are acknowledging now as an ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims.”

Queen Rania visited emergency services offered by humanitarian agencies at the camp, stopping at a UNHCR-run healthcare center as well as a school that has been converted into a shelter to host hundreds of new arrivals, including unaccompanied children.

She then proceeded to the surrounding makeshift settlements, which were recently haphazardly set up to provide additional shelter to incoming refugees.

The Queen, who is also the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (Unicef) first Eminent Advocate for Children, stopped by a child learning center run by the agency, as well as a primary healthcare center run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Queen Rania stated that 95% of Muslim Rohingya do not have access to safe water and more than three quarters lack food.

Queen Rania’s visit to Bangladesh coincides with a high level pledging conference taking place in Geneva on Monday, aiming to mobilise international resources for the Rohingya Crisis Response Plan.

The plan, which calls for $434 million to help 1.2 million people through February 2018, is currently only 26% funded.

“This visit helps draw attention to the incredible generosity of the government and people of Bangladesh, and helps maintain support to the fastest-growing refugee emergency today,” said Louise Aubin, UNHCR’s Senior Emergency Coordinator in Cox’s Bazar.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/foreign-affairs/2017/10/23/223345/

12:00 AM, October 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:55 AM, October 24, 2017
*Act quickly, effectively*
*Jordan's queen urges int'l community over Rohingya crisis*




Queen Rania of Jordan shakes hands with Rohingya children during her visit to the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia yesterday. She went to Cox's Bazar to see the refugee situation there. Photo: AFP
Unb, Dhaka
*Jordanian Queen Rania Al Abdullah yesterday called upon the international community to respond "effectively, quickly, and generously" to alleviate the suffering of Rohingyas.*

She said it was unforgivable that the crisis was unfolding on the world stage to a largely indifferent audience.

“The world seems to be silent to what many are acknowledging now as an ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims,” she told journalists during a visit to the Kutupalong refugee camp and its nearby areas in Cox's Bazar.

“With no respect or regard for the principles of humanitarian and international law, the discrimination against and the persecution of the Rohingya minority has continued unabated, in full view of the world,” the Queen said.

She reached Cox's Bazar in the morning to see the Rohingya situation on the ground. State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam received her. State Minister of Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki was also present.

The Jordanian queen spoke of the shocking escalation of violence against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.

“One has to ask, why is the plight of this Muslim minority group being ignored? Why has this systematic persecution been allowed to play out for so long?”

In her capacity as a board member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and as an advocate of the work of UN humanitarian agencies, she toured the Kutupalong refugee camp. She met several Rohingya women and children, who recently crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar's Rakhine.

Describing their stories, Queen Rania mentioned Rohingyas' accounts of children orphaned, women brutalized, family members butchered, and villages burned.

“Before coming here, I had braced myself to witness some desperate conditions, but the stories I heard today [yesterday] were heartbreaking and harrowing,” she said.

She heard of systematic rape of young girls, who were trapped in schools and raped by soldiers. “I've heard of babies being kicked around like footballs and stomped on. I've heard family members telling me how they've seen their parents killed, right before their eyes.”

“This is something that is unacceptable,” Queen Rania said.

She visited emergency services offered by humanitarian agencies at the camp, stopping at a UNHCR-run healthcare centre as well as at a school that has been turned into a shelter to host hundreds of new arrivals, including unaccompanied children.

She then proceeded towards the surrounding makeshift settlements, which were recently set up to provide shelter to incoming refugees.

The Queen, also the first Eminent Advocate for Children of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), stopped by a child learning centre run by the agency, as well as a primary healthcare centre run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

She stated that 95 percent of Rohingyas did not have access to safe water and more than three-quarters of them lacked food.

Queen Rania's visit to Bangladesh coincides with a high level pledging conference taking place in Geneva on Monday, aiming to mobilise international resources for the Rohingya Crisis Response Plan.

The plan, which calls for $434 million to help 1.2 million people through February 2018, is currently only 26 percent funded.

“This visit helps draw attention to the incredible generosity of the government and people of Bangladesh, and helps maintain support to the fastest-growing refugee emergency today,” said Louise Aubin, UNHCR's senior emergency coordinator in Cox's Bazar.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/act-quickly-effectively-1480861


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## Banglar Bir

12:10 AM, October 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:04 AM, October 24, 2017
*Tall task in hand*
*Public healthcare faces long-term challenges with the influx of Rohingyas prone to infectious diseases*





Porimol Palma
*The threat of infectious diseases looms large in Cox's Bazar Rohingya refugee camps as well as the local communities and beyond with hardly any sign of the Myanmar nationals going back anytime soon.*

Experts fear that the bordering district, where more than six lakh refugees are sheltered in overcrowded camps lacking pure water and sanitation facilities, is faced with a long-term public health challenge.

The persecuted minority group is very much vulnerable to diseases like TB, measles, AIDS, cholera and hepatitis as most of them barely got proper healthcare and vaccination back in their homeland.

The refugees here can easily mix with locals and visit marketplaces, hospitals and mosques and it is likely that the infectious diseases carried by a section of them will affect others as well.

Dodging law enforcers, Rohingyas are also going to Cox's Bazar town, Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and other districts to join their relatives who had come to Bangladesh in previous years. 

"A large number of these people are malnourished and have a weak immune system. Besides, the highly congested camps are perfect sites for fast transmission of diseases," said physician of an international NGO working in the Rohingya shelters.

Of those who crossed over from Myanmar fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine State since August 25, about 3.87 lakh suffer from malnutrition, according to Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), which coordinates the operation of different agencies in the refugee shelters.

Cox's Bazar Civil Surgeon Dr Abdus Salam on Sunday said a total of 3.47 lakh Rohingyas so far received treatment at different health centres.

Of them, 65 were diagnosed with TB, 12 with malaria, 44 with measles, 300 with jaundice, 1,000 with Hepatitis B and C, 29 with HIV/AIDS, 70,000 with respiratory tract infection, 40,000 with diarrhoea, 30,000 with skin disease and 9,000 with injuries.

The rest got treatment for other diseases.

They were diagnosed based on suspicion and any systematic screening will surely find many more cases, he noted. 




A total of 50 medical teams of the government, UN or NGOs are working in and around the camps. Patients are also seeking services from local government facilities.

"Every day, around 2,000 patients with respiratory tract infection and 1,700 with diarrhoea are thronging the healthcare centres," Dr Mohiuddin Hussain Khan, health sector coordinator of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said on October 17.

IOM says only 27 percent of the sites are accessible by a vehicle of any kind, making delivery of aid and health services difficult.

Experts recommend systematic health screening, immunisation coverage, pure water and sanitation for all. There should be isolated units at health centres to prevent the spread of the diseases, they say.
*THE RISK FACTORS*
There are around nine lakh Rohingyas, including the new arrivals, in Ukhia, Teknaf and Ramu upazilas of Cox's Bazar and Naikhyangchhari upazila of Bandarban.

Many fell sick, became weak or got hurt during their long walk from different parts of Rakhine. They had minimal or no food and they drank from open water sources on the way to border.

In the initial weeks of the latest influx, the refugees faced severe shortage of food, water, sanitation and medicine on this side of the border while many lived under the open sky amid heavy rains.

The government and aid agencies are still struggling to provide services in a systematic way as the new refugees remain scattered in Ukhia and other areas of the district.

Some 19,300 emergency latrines and 4,071 tube wells have been installed for them. However, 50 percent of the latrines are about to be filled up and they will be unusable very soon, says a report of ISCG led by IOM on Sunday. 

Dr Azharul Islam, chief physician and head (hospitals) at ICDDR,B, said a recent field assessment found that many of the tube wells are close to latrines. "So there is a high possibility of faecal contamination of water."

The number of latrines is also inadequate and some people still go for open defecation, Azharul Islam said, suggesting that distances should be maintained between latrines and tube wells.

He also recommended disinfecting the faecal waste, a source for diarrhoeal diseases including cholera.

Cholera can kill people very fast if untreated. In severe cases, it can lead to extreme dehydration and even death within hours.

Though no cholera patient has been yet found among the new refugees, IOM says, there are records of cholera outbreaks in Rohingya refugee camps in the past.

The good thing is, said Dr Azharul, the government with the help of World Health Organisation and other agencies have vaccinated refugees.

According to ISCG, over 7 lakh people, including Rohingyas and locals in the areas hosting refugees, were vaccinated for cholera earlier this month.

Dr Md Toufiq Rahman, an adviser of USAID-funded Challenge TB Project, said tuberculosis that remained dormant might become active now because of malnutrition of Rohingyas and their stay in cramped camps. 

TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air, says WHO.

Dr Toufiq added that Hepatitis B and E also pose a high risk as the viruses are spread mostly by faecally contaminated drinking water.

Another challenge is jaundice.

A physician working in the Rohingya camp said the fact that over 300 have already been diagnosed with jaundice means it is quite prevalent in the Rohingya camps.

Dr Mohiuddin Hussain Khan of IOM said there are Rohingya women who were raped in Myanmar and this heightens the possibility that there could be more HIV/AIDS patients.

He said there have not yet been any reports of “risky behaviours” of Rohingyas women or girls with local communities. What is a matter of concern is the rate of using condoms among the refugees is low.

Dr Mohiuddin suggested massive awareness campaigns and systematic service deliveries to check the disease. All those vulnerable to HIV/AIDS need to be screened and treated, he said.

Cox's Bazar Civil Surgeon Abdus Salam added, "There is a plan for rotavirus vaccination for diarrhoea and scaled up anti-HIV/AIDS programme. We are waiting for funds."

Physicians are also worried about measles, an airborne disease that easily spread through coughs, sneezes, saliva or nasal secretion of those infected.

The finding of 44 with measles through random screening suggests there could be many more cases among the Rohingya children, said a physician of an international NGO in Cox's Bazar.

The authorities vaccinated some 1.35 lakh children for measles and rubella, 72,000 children for polio, and 72,000 children received Vitamin A supplementation, but many could be left out amid continuous influx and high mobility of people.

The ISCG report said finding places for setting up more health centres remains a challenge to cater to the need of unreached population in some of the large shelters in Balukhali, Unchiprang and Kutupalong.

Experts say the health risks will continue to be high until the Rohingyas are accommodated in specific areas where healthcare and other services can be provided in a systematic manner.

Graham Eastmond, shelter sector coordinator of the ISCG, said the authorities have started developing the 3,000-acre land allocated in Balukhali to bring all the Rohingya refugees under one camp.

"Accommodating so many people in one camp again is dangerous for health. If there is a disease outbreak, it will spread fast, making it difficult for the authorities to address," he said.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/tall-task-hand-1480819


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar’s Rakhine plan runs into trouble*
Larry Jagan, October 24, 2017




*Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian initiative for Rakhine state in western Myanmar is already running into trouble. *
The country’s fervent Buddhist nationalists, a movement led by the extremist monk, Ashin Wirathu, are vehemently opposed to the return of the country’s Muslim refugees who have fled across the border over the last two months. It has created a situation that the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

On Sunday a few hundred protestors marched through Rakhine’s capital, Sittwe demanding that the Muslim Rohingya refugees not be allowed to return, unless they were citizens. Meanwhile in the country’s capital Naypyidaw several thousand – many wearing or carrying images of the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi – rallied to support the government’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.

Most of the Rohingya, as they call themselves, in Rakhine are stateless, even though some have lived there for several generations. The government and Myanmar’s overwhelming majority ethnic population the Bamar, reject the term and instead call them Bengalis, to denote they are interlopers from Bangladesh. They are not listed among the government’s official list of ethic races.

*There is a growing belief within the army that they are under siege. This is an ominous development, for if they feel that Aung San Suu Kyi cannot protect them from international condemnation and sanctions, they may feel they have no other option but launch an administrative coup, which is possible under the military-written constitution of 2008.*

The immediate crisis erupted some two months ago when Rohingya insurgents – calling themselves members of the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) – attacked several border security posts killing scores of police. The military immediately launched a counter offensive, as they tried to track down the attackers.

More than half-a-million Rohingyas have sought safety since in Bangladesh, accusing the Myanmar military of forcing them to leave, razing their homes to the ground and being responsible for hundreds of deaths during the recent security operations. Many Muslim women also allege that Myanmar soldiers raped them. The UN has continually raised concerns about the human rights abuses being committed against the Rohingya and labeled it “ethnic cleansing”.

Both the Myanmar government and the military commander have strenuously denied all allegations leveled against the military operations in Rakhine. More recently the authorities have accused supporters of the insurgents of murdering and abducting dozens of villagers, who they say are perceived as government collaborators. They also accuse the Rohingya attackers of killing hundreds of Hindus and ethnic Myo in the past few weeks.

Over a week ago Aung San Suu Kyi announced the formation of a new national level committee to oversee the government’s comprehensive plans to deliver aid to the refugees, oversee their return and help resettle them. It is a civilian-centered enterprise, government insiders told _South Asian Monitor _(SAM). She appealed to the country to support the initiative. Myanmar’s business community — including many of the country’s infamous tycoons — has rallied to her side.

Under the umbrella of the independent business association – the Union of Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) – the businessmen pledged more than US$13 million for economic projects in the violence-prone Rakhine state. Nine working groups have been formed to carry out the government’s plans as part of the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, announced ten days ago.

*She cancelled her planned trip to the UN at the last moment because she feared that in her absence the Vice President, Myint Swe – the military’s appointment – would sign the state of emergency for Rakhine as he would be in charge of the government in her absence. At the time the President Htin Kyaw was incapacitated and undergoing medical treatment.*

The working groups will focus on nine key areas – infrastructure, livestock and fisheries livelihood programs, implementation of the planned economic zones, information and public relations, the creation of job opportunities, providing vocational trainings healthcare, micro loans, and boosting the tourism sector. The businessmen announced their plans last weekend after meeting with the State Counselor in Naypyidaw.

This falls into line with Aung San Suu Kyi’s strategy to tackle the underlying causes of communal conflict and mistrust in Rakhine a civilian-led initiative, and involve the nation as a whole. The army though will provide security. Aung San Suu Kyi’s concern has been to ensure that the civilian government plays the major role in solving the problems in Rakhine and not the military commander.

*“The mistrust of Aung San Suu Kyi is growing within the military, not just between her and Min Aung Hlaing but the army as a whole” a senior retired military officer, who is also close to the army commander, told SAM.*

Ever since the first recent outbreak of violence in Rakhine last October, when the previously unknown ARSA attacked a number of border guard posts killed nine policemen, the State Counselor has resisted the military’s attempts to militarize the conflict. The army commander has continued to urge the civilian government to declare a “state of emergency” in Rakhine that would allow the military a completely freehand to deal with the security in the state. Aung San Suu Kyi has continuously resisted this demand, according to sources close to her.

She cancelled her planned trip to the UN at the last moment because she feared that in her absence the Vice President, Myint Swe – the military’s appointment – would sign the state of emergency for Rakhine as he would be in charge of the government in her absence. At the time the President Htin Kyaw was incapacitated and undergoing medical treatment.

At the same time she has resisted attempts by human rights groups, the UN and the international community to condemn the military’s actions. This, she has done, in an effort to keep the military on side. “She feels inflammatory responses would make things worse and could harm the whole peace process and democracy,” one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s close confidants told _SAM_. The UN wants Myanmar to abrogate sovereignty, he added. They have actually delayed the solution.

But this strategy has also been to no avail, as she has increasingly alienated the commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. “The mistrust of Aung San Suu Kyi is growing within the military, not just between her and Min Aung Hlaing but the army as a whole” a senior retired military officer, who is also close to the army commander, told _SAM_.

The international community’s recent consideration of imposing renewed sanctions – at least against the military – because of the Rakhine situation, has exacerbated the situation. “They [the army] now believe she [Aung San Suu Kyi] is a sabotage agent,” said the retired army officer. The international criticism of their [military] operations in Rakhine and the growing pressure for sanctions is viewed as a “UK-US conspiracy”, orchestrated behind the scenes by Aung San Suu Kyi.

There is a growing belief within the army that they are under siege. This is an ominous development, for if they feel that Aung San Suu Kyi cannot protect them from international condemnation and sanctions, they may feel they have no other option but launch an administrative coup, which is possible under the military-written constitution of 2008.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/24/myanmars-rakhine-plan-runs-trouble/

*Buddhists protest to urge Myanmar not to repatriate Rohingya*
SAM Staff, October 23, 2017




Protesters march in Sittwe in Myanmar’s Rakhine State on Oct 22, 2017, Photo: AP
*Hundreds of hard-line Buddhists protested Sunday (Oct 22) to urge Myanmar’s government not to repatriate the nearly 600,000 minority Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh since late August to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.*

The protest took place in Sittwe, the state capital, where many Rohingya lived before an outbreak of inter-communal violence in 2012 forced them to flee their homes.

Aung Htay, a protest organizer, said any citizens would be welcome in the state. “But if these people don’t have the right to be citizens … the government’s plan for a conflict-free zone will never be implemented,” he said.

Myanmar doesn’t recognize Rohingya as an ethnic group, instead insisting they are Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country. Rohingya are excluded from the official 135 ethnic groups in the country and denied citizenship.

More than 580,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when Myanmar security forces began a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Myanmar’s government has said it was responding to attacks by Muslim insurgents, but the United Nations and others have said the response was disproportionate.

Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government said earlier this month that it was willing to take back Rohingya refugees who fled to southeastern Bangladesh. The government has agreed to form a joint working group to start the repatriation process.

On Sunday, protesters, including some Buddhist monks, demanded that the government not take back the refugees.

“The organizers of the protest applied to get permission for a thousand people to participate in the protest, but only a few hundred showed up,” said Soe Tint Swe, a local official.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered Sunday in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, to show support for Suu Kyi and the government’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.

Colorful crowds of people, some wearing T-shirts with Suu Kyi’s photo and some holding photo frames of Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party flag, took part in the rally.

The global image of Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, has been damaged by the violence in Rakhine, which has sparked Asia’s largest refugee crisis in decades.
SOURCE AP, MYANMAR
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/23/buddhists-protest-urge-myanmar-not-repatriate-rohingya/


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## Banglar Bir

*Al Jazeera English
The world's fastest growing refugee crisis, explained in numbers.*




__ https://www.facebook.com/





*589,000 Rohingyas Have Fled to Bangladesh Since August 25*
Last Updated: October 20, 2017 8:26 PM
Margaret Besheer




FILE - Rohingya refugees, who crossed the border from Myanmar two days earlier, walk after they received permission from the Bangladesh army to continue their way to Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh,
Oct. 19, 2017.
*The United Nations said Friday that 589,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25.*

Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that just over half of them are staying at a large site known as the Kutupalong Expansion, where aid partners are working to improve basic services, infrastructure and road access.

The president of aid group Refugees International, Eric Paul Schwartz, visited Bangladesh last month. He said that by early September, it was already clear from conversations with refugees that the situation had become ethnic cleansing and that crimes against humanity were taking place.

"What was so chilling was the consistency of the conversations we had with people about what had happened," Schwartz told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He said the Myanmar military would fire bomb villages, often unannounced or without warning, and as civilians fled they would systematically shoot them.




FILE - Houses are on fire in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar, Sept. 7, 2017.
"Person after person after person told us the same story," he said. "If you want to push 580,000 people out of a country in six weeks, that's what you have to do. You have to terrorize them in ways that are sort of breathtaking," he added.
*Humanitarian crisis*
The U.N. and international partners are struggling to meet the needs of the constantly increasing refugee population. An international pledging conference is set for Monday in Geneva. It aims to raise $434 million to assist 1.2 million refugees through February 2018.

Almost 60 percent of the refugees are children, and the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, says children are particularly threatened by desperate living conditions and waterborne diseases.

"Of course, many of them have been walking for days — thirsty, hungry, on foot — bare feet, exhausted," spokeswoman Duniya Aslam Khan told VOA in an interview Friday. "So, the children were sick and malnourished. They were stranded at the border for a few days and it was only Tuesday and Wednesday this week that we received a post that finally they were allowed to come in."




FILE - A Rohingya Muslim man, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, builds a shelter for his family in Taiy Khali refugee camp, Bangladesh, Sept. 20, 2017.
Khan said the priority among aid groups now is "decongesting the existing settlements" in Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated nations in the world, "providing decent living conditions, and providing better health and sanitation and hygiene assistance to the refugees."

Hygiene is a particular concern, Khan said, to stave off the spread of disease.

The agency has also called for access to Rohingya children who are still in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state — the agency has no access there.

Bangladesh's government also is trying to help the surging refugee population. It has designated a new 3,000-acre site to build shelters, but experts say that will take time to be inhabitable because access roads and provisions for water, sanitation and other basic services need to be made.

In the meantime, Bangladesh's military has moved refugees stranded near the border to several makeshift settlements, where they are being given food, water, medical checks and temporary shelter.
VOA's Marissa Melton contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/half-million-rohingyas-fled-bangladesh-since-late-august/4079559.html

*U.S. Threatens to Punish Myanmar Over Treatment of Rohingya*
PETER BAKER and NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
OCT. 23, 2017
Myanmar unless it pulls back from its violent military campaign against Rohingya Muslims, expressing what it called “our gravest concern” over a crisis that has killed or displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The State Department said it has already cut off travel waivers allowing current and former senior military leaders into the country and was considering further actions to impose economic measures against those responsible for atrocities against Myanmar’s ethnic minority. The department said that all military units involved in operations against the Rohingya were ineligible for American aid.

“The government of Burma, including its armed forces, must take immediate action to ensure peace and security; implement commitments to ensure humanitarian access to communities in desperate need; facilitate the safe and voluntary return of those who have fled or been displaced in Rakhine State; and address the root causes of systematic discrimination against the Rohingya,” the department said in a statement issued Monday night, using the former name for Myanmar.

The American warning came as the United Nations said the Rohingya Muslims who have fled deadly persecution in Myanmar to Bangladesh would soon exceed one million.
Photo




Children carrying jugs of water across a Naf River stream to the refugee camp outside Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, last month.
Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
That prediction loomed over an emergency donors conference in Geneva to raise money for aid groups struggling to help Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, deal with the crisis.
*In Grim Camps, Rohingya Suffer on ‘Scale That We Couldn’t Imagine’ SEPT. 29, 2017*
*Desperate Rohingya Flee Myanmar on Trail of Suffering: ‘It Is All Gone’ SEPT. 2, 2017
Rohingya Recount Atrocities: ‘They Threw My Baby Into a Fire’OCT. 11, 2017
Rohingya Refugees Fleeing Myanmar Await Entrance to Squalid Camps OCT. 18, 2017
Opinion Op-Ed Contributor
How the Rohingya Crisis Is Changing Bangladesh OCT. 6, 2017*
Doctors Without Borders, the medical charity, called the health conditions of the refugee encampments a “time bomb.”

More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have battled terror, exhaustion and hunger to reach safety in Bangladesh since Myanmar’s army began a campaign of what the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing in late August. The new arrivals joined more than 300,000 Rohingya who had escaped in recent years.

The number of people crossing the Naf River that divides the two countries has slowed to about 1,000 to 3,000 a day, down from a peak of 12,000 to 18,000 a day earlier in the crisis, said William Lacy Swing, the director of the International Organization for Migration, a part of the United Nations.

Still, he said, “even at that rate the numbers are expected to exceed a million shortly.”

More than 300,000 children are among the Rohingya refugees. Mark Lowcock, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, told reporters that many were acutely malnourished.
*Helping the Rohingya*




A partial list of aid groups working to ease the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
States had previously committed around $116 million toward the $430 million sought by the United Nations for humanitarian aid over the next six months. Pledges received from governments on Monday raised the total to about $340 million, Mr. Lowcock said, expressing confidence that additional contributions would flow in coming days.

Even so, humanitarian agencies face enormous challenges delivering relief. Hundreds of thousands of refugees were crammed on a strip of land that lacked roads or infrastructure to support the delivery of aid.

With 210 hospital beds available to support more than 900,000 people living with little access to clean water, sanitation or medical care, the refugees’ situation is a “time bomb ticking toward a full-blown health crisis,” Joanne Liu, the international president of Doctors Without Borders told the meeting.

The United Nations food aid agency said that it had distributed food to 580,000 people since the crisis erupted, but that it had so far received less than one-third of the $77 million it needs to aid a million people over six months.

Queen Rania of Jordan, who visited some of the camps on Monday, expressed shock at the conditions. “It is unforgivable that this crisis is unfolding, largely ignored by the international community,” she said in a statement.

Peter Baker reported from Washington and Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva. Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/...contentCollection=Asia Pacific&pgtype=article

*Across Myanmar, Denial of Ethnic Cleansing and Loathing of Rohingya*
HANNAH BEECH
OCT. 24, 2017
Myanmar Army’s campaign of killing, rape and arson in Rakhine, which has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the country since late August, in what the United Nations says is the fastest displacement of a people since the Rwanda genocide.

But in Myanmar, and even in Rakhine itself, there is stark denial that any ethnic cleansing is taking place.

The divergence between how Myanmar and much of the outside world see the Rohingya is not limited to one segment of local society. Nor can hatred in Myanmar of the largely stateless Muslim group be dismissed as a fringe attitude.



*THE INTERPRETER*
*Myanmar, Once a Hope for Democracy, Is Now a Study in How It Fails OCT. 19, 2017*



*NEWS ANALYSIS
Hands Tied by Old Hope, Diplomats in Myanmar Stay SilentOCT. 12, 2017*



*Rohingya Recount Atrocities: ‘They Threw My Baby Into a Fire’OCT. 11, 2017*



*New Surge of Rohingya Puts Aid Workers Back on ‘Full Alert’OCT. 10, 2017*



*In Grim Camps, Rohingya Suffer on ‘Scale That We Couldn’t Imagine’ SEPT. 29, 2017*
Government officials, opposition politicians, religious leaders and even local human-rights activists have become unified behind this narrative: The Rohingya are not rightful citizens of Buddhist-majority Myanmar, and now, through the power of a globally resurgent Islam, the minority is falsely trying to hijack the world’s sympathy.

Social media postings have amplified the message, claiming that international aid workers are openly siding with the Rohingya. Accordingly, the Myanmar government has blocked aid agencies’ access to Rohingya still trapped in Myanmar — about 120,000 confined to camps in central Rakhine and tens of thousands more in desperate conditions in the north.
Photo




People gathering in the village of Sin Ma Kaw, which has banned Muslims from staying there. Credit
Adam Dean for The New York Times
The official answer to United Nations accounts of the military’s mass burning of villages and targeting of civilians has been to insist that the Rohingya have been doing it to themselves.

“There is no case of the military killing Muslim civilians,” said Dr. Win Myat Aye, the country’s social welfare minister and the governing National League for Democracy party’s point person on Rakhine. “Muslim people killed their own Muslim people.”

When asked in an interview about the evidence against the military, the minister noted that the Myanmar government had not sent any investigators to Bangladesh to vet the testimony of fleeing Rohingya, but that he would raise the possibility of doing so in a future meeting.

“Thank you for advising us on this idea,” he said.

The Rohingya, who speak a Bengali dialect and tend to look distinct from most of Myanmar’s other ethnic groups, have had roots in Rakhine for generations. Communal tensions between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists exploded in World War II, when the Rakhine aligned themselves with the Japanese, while the Rohingya chose the British.

Although many Rohingya were considered citizens when Burma became independent in 1948, the military junta that wrested power in 1962 began stripping them of their rights. After a restrictive citizenship law was introduced in 1982, most Rohingya became stateless.

Even the name Rohingya, which the ethnic group has identified with more vocally in recent years, has been taken from them. The Myanmar government usually refers to the Rohingya as Bengalis, implying they belong in Bangladesh. The public tends to call them an epithet used for all Muslims in Myanmar: kalar.

The nomenclature is so sensitive that in a speech this month, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and de facto leader of the government, referred only to “those who have crossed over to Bangladesh.”

Some ethnic Rakhine politicians are hailing the Rohingya exodus as a good thing.

“All the Bengalis learn in their religious schools is to brutally kill and attack,” said Daw Khin Saw Wai, a Rakhine member of Parliament from Rathedaung Township. “It is impossible to live together in the future.”
Photo




Daw Soe Chay, an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist from Myebon Township, was beaten and publicly shamed after her husband delivered aid to Rohingya Muslims in their camp in Sittwe. CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times
Buddhist monks, moral arbiters in a pious land, have been at the forefront of a campaign to dehumanize the Rohingya. In popular videos, extremist monks refer to the Rohingya as “snakes” or “worse than dogs.”

Outside Mr. Thu Min Gala’s monastery in Sittwe, a pair of signs reflected an alternate sense of reality. One said that the monastery, which is sheltering ethnic Rakhine who fled the conflict zone, would not accept any donations from international agencies. The other warned that multifaith groups were not welcome.

The abbot claimed that the authorities in Rakhine had stopped a car owned by the International Committee of the Red Cross that was filled with weaponry destined for Rohingya militants who carried out attacks against the security forces in August. Mr. Thu Min Gala claimed that sticks of dynamite had been wrapped in paper with the Red Cross logo. The Red Cross denied these accusations.

“We don’t trust the international society,” the abbot said. “They are only on the side of the terrorists.”

At another monastery in Sittwe, an elderly abbot, U Baddanta Thaw Ma, halted my conversation with a young monk by slapping the air in front of my face. “Go! Go! Go!” he yelled in English, before switching to the local Rakhine dialect. “Go away, you foreigner! Go away, you kalar lover.”

Public sentiment against Muslims — who are about 4 percent of Myanmar’s population, encompassing several ethnic groups, including the Rohingya — has spread beyond Rakhine. In 2015 elections, no major political party fielded a Muslim candidate. Today no Muslims serve in Parliament, the first time since the country’s independence.

A couple hours outside Yangon, the country’s largest city, U Aye Swe, an administrator for Sin Ma Kaw village, said he was proud to oversee one of Myanmar’s “Muslim-free” villages, which bar Muslims from spending the night, among other restrictions.

“Kalar are not welcome here because they are violent and they multiply like crazy, with so many wives and children,” he said.
Photo




A Buddhist woman and her son were staying at the Damarama Monastery, in Sittwe, after being displaced by violence in northern Rakhine. 
Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
Mr. Aye Swe admitted he had never met a Muslim before, adding, “I have to thank Facebook because it is giving me the true information in Myanmar.”

Social media messaging has driven much of the rage in Myanmar. Though widespread access to cellphones only started a few years ago, mobile penetration is now about 90 percent. For many people, Facebook is their only source of news, and they have little experience in sifting fake news from credible reporting.

One widely shared message on Facebook, from a spokesman for Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s office, emphasized that biscuits from the World Food Program, a United Nations agency, had been found at a Rohingya militant training camp. The United Nations called the post “irresponsible.”
*The Interpreter Newsletter*
Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

The Myanmar government, however, insists the public needs to be guided.

“We do something that we call educating the people,” said U Pe Myint, the nation’s information minister. He acknowledged, “It looks rather like indoctrination, like in an authoritarian or totalitarian state.”

In Yangon, Mr. Pe Myint this month gathered local journalists to discuss what he called “fabricated news” by foreign reporters and a “political war” in which international aid groups favored the Rohingya.

Last month, a mob in Sittwe attacked Red Cross workers, who were loading a boat with supplies that locals believed would only go to the Rohingya.

Even among officials who might otherwise champion human rights, frustration has been directed at foreign critics. Quietly, some defend Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure to call out the military and protect the Rohingya by saying it would be political suicide in a country where hatred of the Rohingya is so widespread. They see the recent international pressure, at best, as ignorant of domestic complexities and, at worst, as intent on hindering Myanmar’s development.

“We ask the international community to acknowledge that these Muslims are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and that this crisis is an infringement of our sovereignty,” said U Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy, which shares power with Myanmar’s military. “This is the most important thing with the Rakhine issue.”
Photo




Sin Ma Kaw, where an official said he was proud to oversee one of Myanmar’s “Muslim-free” villages. 
Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
U Ko Ko Gyi, a democracy advocate who was jailed for 17 years by the military when it ruled Myanmar, also evoked national interest.

“We have been human-rights defenders for many years and suffered for a long time but we are standing together on this issue because we need to support our national security,” he said.

“We are a small country that lies between India and China, and the DNA of our ancestors is to try to struggle for our survival,” Mr. Ko Ko Gyi said. “If you in the West criticize us too much, then you will push us into the arms of China and Russia.”

Last month, those two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council shielded Myanmar from an attempt by other nations to condemn the Myanmar military for its offensive in Rakhine.

The humanitarian situation has grown desperate within Rakhine while the official block on aid largely continues.

Throughout the state, ethnic Rakhine have been warned by community leaders not to break the blockade. Last month in Myebon Township, in central Rakhine, women’s activists prevented international aid groups from delivering assistance to an internment camp where thousands of Rohingya have been sequestered since the 2012 sectarian violence, according to foreign staff.

But U Tun Tin, a Rakhine trishaw driver, needed the money and delivered food to the Rohingya camp. Shortly after, his wife, Daw Soe Chay, said she was accosted by a crowd that forced her to a nearby monastery.

Inside the religious compound, they beat her and sheared her hair. Then the mob marched her through Myebon, wearing a sign calling her a “national traitor.”

Despite his wife’s ordeal, Mr. Tun Tin said he did not regret having sent supplies to the camp, where Rohingya say their rations are running lo*w.
“They are human,” he said. “They need to eat, just like us.”*
Saw Nang contributed reporting from Yangon, Myanmar.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news


----------



## Banglar Bir

*There's only one conclusion on the Rohingya in Myanmar: It's genocide*




_By _Azeem Ibrahim
CNN
October 23, 2017
The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar is now widely described as ethnic cleansing. 

But the situation has been evolving. And now, it seems, we can no longer avoid the conclusion we have all been dreading. This is a genocide. And we, in the international community, must recognize it as such.

Article II of United Nation's 1948 Genocide Convention describes genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Though the Rohingya situation has met most of the above criteria for being described as a genocide under international law for a number of years now, the label has been resisted until now because we think of genocide as one huge act of frenzied violence, like the machete insanity in Rwanda or the gas chambers of Nazi Germany. 

But the final peak of violence is in all historical cases merely the visible tip of the iceberg. And the final outburst only occurs once it has already been rendered unavoidable by the political context.

In Rwanda, Hutu tribal propaganda ran for years on the radio and in magazines referring to the Tutsis as cockroaches and a mortal threat to the Hutus that needed to be eliminated lest the Hutus themselves would die. Kill or be killed. The frenzied killing was not something that just occurred to the Hutus one day in April 1994. It was the logical conclusion of a campaign of dehumanization and paranoia which lasted for years.

The same is true of the Holocaust. The Nazi genocide began slowly and had few distinctive outbursts of violence to delineate where one degree of crime against humanity ended and where another began.
All in all, that genocide developed and unfolded over a period of more than 10 years. Most of that period was not taken up with the killing of Jews, Gypsies and all the other "sub-humans." Rather, it was taken up with manufacturing of the category of "sub-humans" by state propaganda. Only once the problem was manufactured and sold to the wider population did the "final solution" become viable.
*Pattern of genocide*
In Myanmar, extremist Buddhist monks have been preaching that the Rohingya are reincarnated from snakes and insects. Killing them would not be a crime against humanity, they say -- it would be more like pest control. 

And necessary "pest control" too. Just like the Tutsi conspiracy to kill all the Hutus, or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Rohingya are supposed to be agents of a global Islamist conspiracy to take over the world and forcibly instate a global caliphate. The duty of any good Buddhist who wants to maintain the national and religious character of Myanmar is to prevent the Islamist takeover, and thus to help remove the threat posed by the "vermin."

Every modern genocide has followed this pattern. Years of concerted dehumanization campaigns are the absolutely necessary pre-condition for the mass murder at the end. Usually these campaigns are led by a repressive government, but other political forces also come into play. Such was the case in Bosnia, Darfur and Rwanda. And so it is with Myanmar. 

The campaign of dehumanization against the Rohingya has been going on for decades, and events certainly took an unmistakeable turn towards genocide since at least the outbursts of communal violence in 2012. Those clashes, and the ones in the subsequent years, drove 200,000 to 300,000 Rohingya out of Myanmar. 

But somehow, at that rate of attrition, and against the backdrop of Myanmar's supposed move towards democracy with the election of Aung San Suu Kyi to power in late 2015, world leaders have allowed themselves to hope that the situation could still be turned around.

Now, the reality of an exodus of a further 600,000 people in the space of just six weeks; the incontrovertible evidence of large scale burning of villages by the Myanmar military -- which the military is calling clearance operations of terrorists -- and the reports of widespread extra-judicial killings against fleeing civilians by the country's federal security forces have made it much more difficult to avoid the conclusion: this is genocide. We no longer have just the slow-burning genocidal environment which whittles down a people until their ultimate extinction. 

Now we are also confronting the loud bang at the end. More than half of an entire population has been removed from their ancestral lands in just eight weeks!

The tragedy is that the international community will abet the situation. The UN Security Council will decline to respond to the situation with the seriousness it deserves. If a situation is defined by the Council as a "genocide," then the UN becomes legally bound to intervene, with peace-keeping missions and so on. That is why Western countries will be reluctant initiate such a move, and China, who is building one branch of its New Silk Road infrastructure right through Rakhine State to access the port of Sittwe, will likely veto any such proposal.

Just like we did in Rwanda, just like we did in the Balkans, we are once again seeing a genocide happen before our very eyes. And we will do nothing about it. We will bury our heads in the sand, and when our children will ask us why we let this happen we will plead ignorance. Once the final act of killing starts, it is usually too late. For the Rohingya, the final act is in full swing. And still we are in denial about what is happening.
_Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Policy and author of "The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide" (Hurst & Oxford University Press)_
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/theres-only-one-conclusion-on-rohingya.html

*Why and how the US must confront Burma's Rohingya genocide*
*The United States should sanction Burma for its genocide against the Muslim Rohingya people, and lead an international effort to assist impoverished Bangladesh in supporting Rohingya refugees.*

That's my conclusion based on the testimony coming out of southeast Bangladesh, where over 500,000 Rohingya civilians have taken refuge to avoid slaughter in Burma. My concern greatly increased after I spoke, Wednesday, with my aid worker aunt, Pat Kerr, who has taken a team to southeast Bangladesh.

Kerr described the situation at the Shah Porir Diip boat station, which sits between Burma and Bangladesh:

"Most of the refugees who arrive in Bangladesh take a boat to this station, and then barter (for example, giving jewelry for the fare) or borrow money to get to the mainland. 

It is tragic to see families with many young children and all their belongings in a few rice sacks. 
One young girl was so traumatized she couldn't speak or communicate in any way. Some refugees don't even have a full set of clothes, many don't have sandals. 

There are more women and children than men, as the Burmese army is killing many of the men. The tales they all told were consistent: many men being killed and all villages burnt. 
The pattern seems to be that this started in the north of Burma's Rakhine state and is spreading across the whole state to the south. There were 20,000 new refugees yesterday and we saw many boatloads today so the violence has definitely not stopped."

Still, Kerr says, the Bangladeshi Army is doing exceptional work in providing for those in need. She references one officer, Major Tanim, who has established an efficient supply of aid and provision of security for the thousands of refugees in his area.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also playing a critical role, she says, describing one camp where, "Every day, 12,000 children are given a meal of meat and rice. This is one of four sites giving a hot meal of meat and rice in the middle of the day. A total of 84,000 meals are served to women and children. This is not including the sacks of dry food (rice and lentils) that are also distributed to thousands, or the medical clinic with free basic medicine."

*Unfortunately, it's not enough. The current global strategy towards the Rohingya crisis is the equivalent of bandaging an arterial bleed. More must be done.*

*First*, the U.S. should lead a global diplomatic effort to sanction Burma. 
At present, the only serious reprisal Burma's government has faced for its genocide is the announcement that Aung San Suu Kyi will be stripped of the freedom of Oxford. 
*That's a very unfunny joke. *
Considering the scale of this crisis, the Trump administration should immediately call for wide spectrum economic sanctions on the Burmese government and its financial industries. 
*The need for this leadership is even more urgent in the context of reporting by The Guardian, Thursday, that the United Nations has suppressed evidence of its failure to plan and respond to Rohingya refugee needs.*

Here, it won't be enough to simply sanction a few random Burmese officials, the U.S. must bring the diplomatic heat. 
If tough sanctions push Burma into the hands of the Chinese government, so be it. 
America should seek good relations and strong economic ties with all nations that share our values or support a realist U.S. foreign policy. 
But at present, Burma offers neither of those things. 
Incidentally, it says much about the nature of Xi Jinping's foreign policy vision that he is willing to align himself with a genocidal regime.

*Second*, the U.S. should strengthen its aid to Bangladesh as that nation saves those civilians the Burmese Army has failed to kill. 
To do so, Secretaries Mattis and Tillerson should send the head of Pacific Command, Admiral Harris, and the State Department's relevant Assistant Secretary, Alice Wells, to visit Dhaka and meet with top Bangladeshi officials. 
This would consolidate Bangladesh in the knowledge that its humanitarian efforts have not gone unnoticed in Washington. 
Bangladesh is often low-down in the U.S. foreign policy priority list, but that must now change.

More broadly, President Trump should prioritize the Rohingya in the same way that he has pushed Venezuela's situation up the international agenda. 

Utilizing his good will with the Sunni-Arab monarchies and recognizing Saudi Arabia's evolving interest in humanitarian issues, Trump should push those governments to increase their aid to the Rohingya (many of whom are Muslim). Additional funds are specifically needed in order to provide the Rohingya with longer-term shelter in Bangladesh. Kerr notes that one need in the camps is a "nighttime service for pregnant women and those in labor, because at the moment, the NGOs only offer treatment during the day."

Ultimately, this isn't that complicated a foreign policy issue. America doesn't need to keep the Burmese government happy, but we must confront this human suffering.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/w...ront-burmas-rohingya-genocide/article/2636643


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## Banglar Bir

October 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:29 PM, October 23, 2017
*Jordan stands beside Rohingyas, says Queen Rania*




State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki receives Jordan's Queen Rania at Cox's Bazar airport on Monday, October 23, 2017. Photo: Facebook/Mohammed Shahriar Alam
Star Online Report
*Jordan’s queen Rania Al-Abdullah today called upon the international community to stand beside Rohingya people so that the victims get justice and can go back to their country, Myanmar. *
“Jordan always will stand beside Rohingyas,” the queen told reporters after she visited the camps at Kutupalang in Ukhia upazila of Cox’s Bazar.




Rania Al Abdullah 
✔@QueenRania
The suffering I have seen and the stories I have heard from #Rohingya #refugees at Kutupalong Camp are harrowing and heartbreaking

On her arrival, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam received the Jordan queen at Cox’s Bazar airport around 11:00am, reports our Cox’s Bazar staff correspondent.

Later, she visited two Rohingya camps and talked to the people, who fled to Bangladesh following persecution in Rakhine state of Myanmar.




State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki along with Jordan’s queen Rania Al-Abdullah at a Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar on October 23, 2017. Photo: Star
More than 600,000 Rohingyas people have so far taken shelter to Bangladesh since August 25

01:32 PM, October 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:48 PM, October 24, 2017
*US exploring scope for Myanmar sanctions*




Urging Myanmar government to facilitate the safe and voluntary return of all Rohingyas from Bangladesh, the US on Monday, October 23, 2017, says that it is exploring scopes to impose sanctions against the country. Reuters file photo
UNB, Dhaka
*Urging Myanmar government to facilitate the safe and voluntary return of all Rohingyas from Bangladesh, the US has said that it is exploring scopes to impose sanctions against the country. *
"We are exploring accountability mechanisms available under US law, including Global Magnitsky targeted sanctions," said US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert in a statement on Monday.
*READ more: World leaders must engage in political process*
US also urged Myanmar to address the root causes of systematic discrimination against the Rohingya by implementing the Rakhine Advisory Commission's recommendations, which includes providing a credible path to citizenship.

"We are ready to support these efforts," Nauert said.

The government of Myanmar, including its armed forces, must take immediate action to ensure peace and security; implement commitments to ensure humanitarian access to communities in desperate need, Nauert said.
*Also READ: Next report will be more detailed, says UN envoy*
"We will continue to support Burma's transition to democracy, as well as efforts to resolve the current crisis in Rakhine State," said the Spokesperson.

The US said Myanmar in recent years has emerged from a half-century of authoritarian rule and undertaken a significant transition to an open, democratic society.

The US administration supports this transition and the elected civilian government as important means to achieve peace, stability, and prosperity in the interests of all peoples of Burma and the US-Burma partnership.

"At the same time, we express our gravest concern with recent events in Rakhine State and the violent, traumatic abuses Rohingya and other communities have endured," said the Spokesperson.

*It is imperative that any individuals or entities responsible for atrocities, including non-state actors and vigilantes, be held accountable, said the US official.*

"Accordingly, in addition to existing restrictions on our already-limited engagement with Burma's armed forces and our long-standing embargo on all military sales, the United States is taking the following actions in pursuit of accountability and an end to violence:

*Since August 25, the US has ceased consideration of JADE Act travel waivers for current and former senior leadership of the Burmese military.
"We are assessing authorities under the JADE Act to consider economic options available to target individuals associated with atrocities," said the Spokesperson.*

Pursuant to the Leahy Law, they find all units and officers involved in operations in northern Rakhine State to be ineligible to receive or participate in any US assistance programmes.

"We have rescinded invitations for senior Burmese security forces to attend US-sponsored events. We are working with international partners to urge that Burma enables unhindered access to relevant areas for the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission, international humanitarian organisations, and media," said the Spokesperson.
*
The US is consulting with allies and partners on accountability options at the UN, the UN Human Rights Council, and other appropriate venues*
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

2:38 PM, October 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:44 PM, October 24, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: Next report will be more detailed, with importance, says UN envoy*




United Nations Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee (2nd right) tells Dr Dipu Moni, president of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh, (2nd left) that she will convey the ongoing Rohingya crisis issue in her next report with more details and importance. The duo met at the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN in New York on Monday, October 23, 2017. Photo courtesy: Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN
Star Online Report
*United Nations Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee has said she will convey the ongoing Rohingya crisis issue in her next report with more details and importance.*

Lee, the UN human rights expert, told this when she met with Dr Dipu Moni, president of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, at the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN in New York yesterday afternoon (US time).

So far, over 603,000 Rohingyas fled violence in Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25 following Myanmar's security forces operations against them in response to insurgent attacks.

The crisis created a global outcry, but the UN Security Council has failed to take any decisive action against Myanmar, where the Rohingyas are denied citizenship and have been persecuted for decades.
Press Release-74 on Dipu Moni MP's Meetings and Statement on Palestine Issue by Daily Star on Scribd
Meanwhile in New York, Dipu Moni, while meeting Lee and several UN high ups, conveyed the message on behalf of Bangladesh that the international community including the UN must make Myanmar understand that it (Myanmar) must take back over a million citizens of Rakhine State who were forced to leave their land with security and dignity, reads a press statement issued by the Bangladesh mission.

There is no alternative to it, Dipu Moni added.

She also met with Jeffrey David Feltman, American diplomat and UN under-secretary-general for Political Affairs, and Pramila Patten, under-secretary-general and Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict on the same day.

Dipu Moni urged all international quarters to play a strong role in resolving Rohingya refugee crisis, the press release said.

In another meeting, Pramila Patten told Dipu Moni that she is fully aware of the sexual violence conducted against Rohingya women.

She will speak directly to the victims of sexual violence during her visit to Bangladesh in the first week on November, Patten said.

Jeffrey David Feltman brought the attention of the Bangladesh lawmaker about his recent visit to Myanmar and stated that he had spoke with Myanmar leadership on UN’s considerations what Myanmar should do to resolve the Rohingya crisis.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...yanghee-lee-dipu-moni-sexual-violence-1481101

Channel Islam International
Who are the key figures responsible for the genocide in Myanmar?




__ https://www.facebook.com/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*US Revokes Aid To Myanmar Military, Eyeing Sanctions Over Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing*




*US Revokes Aid To Myanmar Military, Eyeing Sanctions Over Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing*
The United States has announced new restrictions concerning engagement with the Myanmar military over the violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State.
Washington is also weighing economic measures against those involved in the reported atrocities.

“We express our gravest concern over recent events in Rakhine State and the violent, traumatic abuses Rohingya and other communities have endured. It is imperative that any individuals or entities responsible for atrocities, including non-state actors and vigilantes, be held accountable,” State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement on Monday.

In the statement, she also outlined the measures that Washington is going to take “in pursuit of accountability and an end to violence.”

In particular, the US is withdrawing military assistance programs for Myanmar units and officers “involved in operations in northern Rakhine State.” The measure will add to Washington’s already limited engagement with the Myanmar military and its long-standing embargo on all military sales.

In addition, the State Department said it has ceased its consideration of travel waivers for senior Myanmar military officials and is weighing economic sanctions against individuals “associated with atrocities.”

According to Bloomberg, this statement is one of the first signals that the US could re-impose the sanctions on Myanmar that were lifted last year as the country shifted toward democracy after the National League for Democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi won the country’s first openly contested election for decades in 2015.
*ALSO READ: *Burma Troops Setting Bodies Of Rohingya Muslims On Fire To Conceal Evidence
“The Government of Burma, including its armed forces, must take immediate action to ensure peace and security; implement commitments to ensure humanitarian access to communities in desperate need; facilitate the safe and voluntary return of those who have fled or been displaced in Rakhine State; and address the root causes of systematic discrimination against the Rohingya,” Nauert said.

The Rohingya crisis, which actually originated in a conflict from the 19th century, intensified on August 25, 2017, when Muslim insurgents of Rohingya origin attacked security posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Myanmar’s subsequent brutal crackdown led to a spate of clashes and the death of hundreds of Rohingya people. More than half a million Rohingya Muslims have already fled Myanmar, crossing into neighboring Bangladesh. 
_Source: Sputnik_
http://wikileaksnews.co/us-revokes-aid-myanmar-military-eyeing-sanctions-rohingya-ethnic-cleansing/


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## Banglar Bir

*JUSTIN TRUDEAU, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA*
FRANÇAIS




*Prime Minister appoints the Honourable Bob Rae as Special Envoy to Myanmar*
Prime Minister appoints the Honourable Bob Rae as Special Envoy to Myanmar
Ottawa, Ontario
October 23, 2017
*The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today named the Honourable Bob Rae as his Special Envoy to Myanmar. Mr. Rae will begin his work immediately, engaging in diplomatic efforts to address the crisis regarding the country’s Rakhine State.*
As Special Envoy, Mr. Rae will reinforce the urgent need to resolve the humanitarian and security crisis in Myanmar and to address the situation affecting vulnerable populations, including the Rohingya Muslim community, other religious and ethnic minorities, and women and girls. He will also advise the Prime Minister on how Canada can best support efforts to respond to the needs of those affected and displaced by the recent violence.

Canada’s efforts in the region will continue to address both the immediate and long-term political, socio-economic and humanitarian challenges facing the people in Rakhine State and Myanmar. 
To help address these challenges, Prime Minister Trudeau also announced that Canada will provide an additional $12 million in humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of those affected by this crisis. 
*Quote*
“Canada is deeply concerned about the urgent humanitarian and security crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, particularly the brutal persecution of the Rohingya Muslim people. I am confident that Bob Rae’s vast experience as a lawyer, advisor, negotiator, arbitrator and public servant will help Canada work more effectively with Myanmar and other international partners to chart a path towards lasting peace and reconciliation.”
— The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
*Quick Facts*
Canada and Myanmar established diplomatic relations when the Southeast Asian country became independent in 1948.
To date in 2017, Canada has provided more than $25 million in humanitarian assistance funding to partners in Myanmar and Bangladesh to meet the needs of crisis-affected people, including the Rohingya. This amount includes the additional $12 million announced today.
In June 2017, the Prime Minister met with Her Excellency Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. During the meeting, the Prime Minister highlighted the need for Myanmar to accelerate efforts to uphold human rights and protect ethnic and religious minorities, and reiterated Canada’s support for ongoing reforms in the country.
In September 2017, the Prime Minister spoke and wrote to Her Excellency Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to convey his deep concerns over the situation in Rakhine State for Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities.
*Associated Links*
Canada gravely concerned with deteriorating situation in Myanmar
*Canada gravely concerned with deteriorating situation in Myanma*
*From Global Affairs Canada*
October 7, 2017 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, today issued the following statement on the critical situation in Myanmar:

“Canada is deeply concerned by the plight of the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar. The killings and other gross violations of human rights are part of a widespread attack against the Rohingya. These are crimes against humanity—and the responsibility for ending this ethnic cleansing falls squarely on Myanmar’s military leadership and its civilian government.

“Once again, we urge authorities to set the conditions for the safe and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees and other ethnic minorities to their rightful homes, in dignity, where they should live free from persecution and enjoy full equality under the law.

“Over the last month, Minister Freeland has spoken to her counterparts from numerous countries regarding the need to work together to exert pressure on the regime to end the violence in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state.

“A week ago, the Minister also spoke with Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, to emphasize Canadians’ concern for human rights violations against the Rohingya population and to encourage an end to the violence.

“On October 2, Canada’s Ambassador to Myanmar participated in a visit to northern Rakhine for diplomats and representatives of UN agencies. This must be the first step in granting urgently needed access to all parts of northern Rakhine for foreign officials, humanitarian and UN agencies, as well as the international press.

“Minister Bibeau has approved $12.25 million in humanitarian assistance funding to trusted partners in Myanmar and Bangladesh to date in 2017 to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including the Rohingya women and youth. But the international community, including Canada, must do more.

“Canada implores the military and civilian authorities in Myanmar to end the violence, to allow the full, safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance, and to implement the recommendations of the Kofi Annan-chaired Advisory Commission on Rakhine State. We continue to stand ready to support all efforts to build a democratic, inclusive, diverse and stable society in Myanmar.”

*Associated links*

Canada and the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state


Canada calls for action on critical situation in Myanmar
Canada and the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Prime Minister announces support for peace process and humanitarian assistance in Myanmar
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar
https://www.canada.ca/en/global-aff...ernedwithdeterioratingsituationinmyanmar.html


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## Banglar Bir

07:57 PM, October 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 08:02 PM, October 24, 2017
*‘Joint working group by Nov 30 to repatriate Rohingyas’*




Star file photo
Star Online Report
*Bangladesh and Myanmar today decided to constitute a joint working group by November 30 to repatriate the Rohingya people, who fled persecution in Rakhine state.*
The decision was taken at a home ministry level bilateral meeting between Bangladesh and Myanmar at Naypyidaw, the capital of the Myanmar, said a press statement of the home ministry.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal led the Bangladesh delegation while his counterpart Lt Gen Kyaw Swe led Myanmar.

Myanmar also agreed to implement the Kofi Annan Commission recommendations in accelerating the repatriation work of the Rohingya people, it said.

Two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between the two countries to ensure security on bordering areas, the release said.

Kamal is scheduled to meet Myanmar state councilor Aung San Suu Kyi around 10:00am tomorrow.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

*UN praises Turkey's effort for Rohingya refugees*
*Turkey continues to be generous humanitarian donor, besides largest refugee-hosting country in the world, says UN official*
October 24, 2017 Anadolu Agency




*United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi*
The UN high commissioner for refugees on Monday hailed Turkey as "a generous humanitarian donor" after it pledged to spend $50 million on supporting Rohingya refugees.

"l would like to say that Turkey continues to be a generous humanitarian donor globally besides the largest refugee-hosting country in the world," Filippo Grandi told Anadolu Agency in Geneva on Monday after an international donor-pledging conference for Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar ended with Turkey saying it would provide $50 million for the refugees.

"We have to continue to improve the response to the very massive crisis, the biggest and the fastest we have seen in many years," Grandi said.

"More than 800,000 stateless Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh aspire to a life that meets their immediate needs for food, medicine, water, and shelter. But beyond that, a life that has hope for the future where their identity is recognized, they are free from discrimination, and are able to return safely to their homes in Myanmar. As we come together in solidarity, I want to thank Bangladesh and its refugee-hosting communities and the donors for supporting them," Grandi said.

The conference on Rohingya Muslims began on Monday.

Turkey had "one of the highest, if not the highest," pledge at the donor conference, William Lacy Swing, head of the UN’s International Organization for Migration, told Anadolu Agency following the conference.

Turkey's ambassador to the UN office in Geneva, Naci Koru, told the conference: "Within the humanitarian assistance program, we plan to build medium-term shelter units for 100,000 people on a land of 3 million square meters, provide two field hospitals, 10 health and family health centers, deliver drinking water wells and water sanitation [plus] fresh food aid to the municipalities."

"Together with planned projects and deliveries, the total amount of humanitarian aid provided by Turkey will exceed $50 million," Koru added.

Saying that the Rohingya crisis needs immediate and coordinated action, Koru said: "We are committed to continue our support to Rohingya Muslims in close coordination with the authorities in Bangladesh."




*Turkey raises over $21 million donation for Rohingya*
Turkey has raised a donation of more than 80 million liras ($21 million) since 2012 to help Rohingya being persecuted in Myanmar’s Rakine state, head of the country’s emergency management authority said.“More than 60 million Turkish ($16.2 million) liras have been collected to date. 

Turkish Red Crescent also raised over 20 million Turkish liras ($5.4 million),” Mehmet Gulluoglu, head of Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), told Anadolu Agency.He said Turkey is still waiting for the allocation of the land in Bangladesh to set up a camp for Rohingya Muslims.

UNICEF Since Aug. 25, more than 603,000 Rohingya have crossed from western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN's migration agency’s latest report on Monday.The refugees are fleeing a military operation in which Myanmar’s armed 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.Launched on Sept. 11, “Rakhine Weeps, Turkey Lends Hand”, a campaign by AFAD, Turkish Red Crescent and Turkish Religious Foundation (TDV) has been raising donations for Rohingya Muslims.

Güllüoğlu said that Turkish people, alongside the government, become participants of aid campaigns.People can donate 10 Turkish liras ($3) by typing "ARAKAN" (old name of Rakhine) in an SMS and send it to 2868 or else through bank transfers, Gulluoglu reminded.Turkey brings hope to Rohingya, says WFP director.

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.Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
Aid by Turkish NGOs

Also on Monday, it was revealed that the Turkish Red Crescent had raised more than $5.4 million for the Rohingya, Mehmet Güllüoğlu, the head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), told Anadolu Agency.

AFAD itself has collected $16.2 million since 2012. Other Turkish aid groups, like the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), have also been active in helping Rohingya refugees.

Meanwhile, at the Geneva conference, IHH representative Taha Keskin said: "We gladly announce that we are going to allocate $10 million for suffering Rohingya people through 2017 and 2018. We will continue to implement our projects from varied clusters through local organizations in Bangladesh and Myanmar."

The conference at the UN in Geneva raised $344 million in pledges for humanitarian aid to the Rohingya refugees, according to the UN.

That amount falls $90 million short of the estimated $434 million required to meet their needs until February 2018, but more than half of that amount will be made up by an estimated $50 million worth of in-kind contributions, the UN said in a statement following the conference.

Separately, the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD) has donated 3 million Turkish liras ($810,000) of aid for the Rohingya Muslims via the Turkish Red Crescent.

At a ceremony in Istanbul marking the donation on Monday, Turkish Red Crescent head Kerem Kınık said the group donated the money to help bind the wounds of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.

UETD head Zafer Sirakaya said each individual in the European Turkish community gave support, even children from their pocket money and piggy banks, giving them hope for the future.

He added that this is probably the greatest-ever donation made from a European NGO to the Turkish Red Crescent.
*Over 600,00 fled violence*
Since Aug. 25, over 600,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

The refugees are fleeing a military 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 has raised the issue at 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.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.




00:59 dk06 Ekim 2017 Yeni Şafa
*Miserable Rohingya Muslims' struggle for survival at Bangladesh camps*
The suffering of the Rohingya Muslims, fleeing the Myanmar army's massacre, is far from over after reaching the relative safety of Bangladesh refugee camps where they face many adversities. Since Aug. 25, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled their homes in majority Buddhist Myanmar, overwhelming aid agencies in Bangladesh.
*Rohingya Muslims fled from oppression in Myanmar*




Hundreds of Rohingyas cross land and sea borders daily to reach Bangladesh, paying 36 USD each to hire a boat to cross the borders. As the number of boats ferrying Rohingyas from Myanmar increase in the day and night hours, Bangladeshi forces try to bring the boats into order on the shore.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/dunya/u...glish&utm_campaign=facebook-yenisafak-english


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:26 AM, October 25, 2017
*Case for a UN Interim Administration in Rakhine*




Photo: Reuters/ Mohammad Ponir Hossain
Farhaan Uddin Ahmed
*The Myanmar military's latest campaign against the Rohingyas began after the attack on multiple police posts in Rakhine on August 25, 2017. The country's military leadership, with the support of radical Buddhist elements, is perpetrating an “ethnic cleansing” campaign killing, raping, maiming, and setting ablaze one Rohingya village after another. *
Nearly 600,000 Rohingya refugees have crossed into Bangladesh within a span of two months. The world has not witnessed such a large exodus of people in such a short period since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. 
As a result of this brutal campaign, the majority of Rohingyas are now residing in Bangladesh. 

The situation has been further aggravated by the fact that host Bangladesh is itself a poor country, with a high population density, and that the country's southeast region is not the most geographically accessible area, with hilly terrains and lack of proper infrastructure. 
All these factors have culminated in a crisis that has potentially high political, economic, and social costs for Bangladesh. 
Despite that, it has continued to keep its borders open for the Rohingyas and has been doing as much as possible to meet their basic needs. 

*Of late, the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar have been negotiating the repatriation of the Rohingyas, although it is not clear yet whether the negotiations will bear any fruit. However, mere repatriation, without addressing the causes that led to the persecution in the first place, will not guarantee the rights and safety of the returnees. After repatriation, it is quite likely that the Rohingyas will continue to suffer because of the deep-seated hatred and hostility that has been sown into the Burmese society by the radical Buddhist elements. *

Additionally, most of their homes have been decimated; hence, for the Rohingyas, repatriation at this stage would mean being transferred from one camp (in Bangladesh) to another (in Myanmar). *Therefore, the best possible way to ensure a lasting peace and reconciliation would be to establish a UN Interim Administration in the Rakhine. *

A UN Interim Administration supported by a UN Peacekeeping Force could be established with a specific mandate to: 
a) maintain peace and security, 
b) support humanitarian efforts, and 
c) oversee the implementation of the recommendations made by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State in its Final Report (Kofi Annan Report). 

Implementation of the Kofi Annan Report is vital to ensure that there is a possibility of lasting peace in Rakhine. The Report's recommendations deal with issues of citizenship, freedom of movement, humanitarian access, access to media, health, education, security, and justice for the Rohingyas. 
*In time, a permanent UN Observer Mission could be established to monitor the maintenance of peace and security in the long run.*

Such a mechanism is not without precedent in history. 

UN peacekeeping missions and interim administrations are established through UN Security Council Resolutions by the exercise of powers enunciated in Chapter VII of the UN Charter. 
There are numerous instances of the establishment of UN Interim Administrations to maintain security and oversee the transition to peace. 
UN Interim Administrations in East Timor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo are some well-known examples. 
Such interventions are generally supported by a Peacekeeping Force and the Interim Administration is headed by a Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), who is endowed with legislative and executive authority, including the administration of justice so as to be able to implement the mandate. 

Of course, Myanmar could unilaterally set up “safe zones” which could be monitored by the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations or some other international bodies. *But such a move by the Myanmar government seems quite improbable, meaning the onus now is on the UN to exercise its Chapter VII powers.*

That said, there are concerns that Russia and/or China may veto such a motion in the Security Council. This is where international politics and diplomacy come into play. 

Bangladesh and the supporters of such measures must allay the geopolitical concerns of Russia and China. 
Russia would most likely not veto such a measure as long as China does not, since Russian geopolitical interests in the region are quite different from that of China. However, China is quite unlikely to support the measure since it fears losing its foothold in Myanmar to its geopolitical rival India. 

India has been supporting the Myanmar government from the beginning and has steered away from condemning the military's actions in Rakhine, hoping that it would be able to counter China's influence in Myanmar. 

But India is also facing increasing pressure from its northeastern states over the influx of refugees; its civil society and the general public have been also quite critical of its position. 

Now, if both India and China publicly take the same stance on the issue of UN intervention, then neither would risk losing much ground in regional geopolitics to the other.

*In the Security Council, it is not necessary for China and/or Russia to actively support the measure. 
A Security Council resolution to intervene would be passed even if they abstain or do not participate in the voting, which has been the case on numerous occasions in the past. *

This would, in turn, maintain the current geopolitical balance while providing the Rohingyas a much-needed respite from the persecution. 
*The world stood by and allowed such atrocities to take place in the past—in Bosnia and Rwanda. It cannot allow the same thing to happen again. *
_Farhaan Uddin Ahmed is a researcher of international law and legal theory, and lecturer at the School of Law, BRAC University. 
Email: farhaan17@gmail.com_
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/case-un-interim-administration-rakhine-1481185

12:00 AM, October 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:06 AM, October 25, 2017
*Solving Rohingya Crisis: After India, it's China's turn*




This photo taken on Sunday shows Myanmar refugee Halima with her eight-month-old son Hares as he is treated at a Red Cross field hospital in Cox's Bazar. The baby was suffering from severe pneumonia and high fever at a squalid camp after his family fled violence in Myanmar. By the time the family rushed him to the newly established 60-bed hospital, the tiny boy was barely breathing as infection almost crippled his lungs. "Had he come even an hour later, he would have no chance to survive," said Peter Meyer, team leader of the tent hospital built over several acres of rubber garden. Photo: AFP
Inam Ahmed and Shakhawat Liton
*When Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said during her Dhaka visit that Bangladesh-India relation “goes far beyond a strategic partnership”, that certainly created a ripple across many fronts – from global politics, to the Myanmar generals to the hapless Rohingyas.*

Her following words were even more decisive, clearer and a turning point in India's stance on the Rohingya issue, removing the cloud that gathered after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Myanmar. 

*While Modi remained silent on the plight of the Rohingya, Sushma has maintained that India is “deeply concerned at the spate of violence in Rakhine State” and normalcy will only be restored with the return of the displaced persons to Rakhine state.*

Her mentioning that “lakhs of displaced persons who have fled from Rakhine State of Myanmar” also makes it obvious under which situation such a large number of people could flee their own country. After all, 1971 is still vivid in Indian memory.

Sushma's words should go a long way to bolster the world's efforts to stop the violence against the Rohingyas and to help return of the displaced people to their homeland.

For Bangladesh it was also a diplomatic breakthrough. 

However, a difficult task still remains. India, one of the two biggest neighbours of Myanmar, can now exert a lot of influence on Myanmar in stopping the horror being unleashed on the most persecuted people of modern times, the Rohingyas. Myanmar has created such a precarious situation that it may affect the whole South Asian and Southeast Asian region if the incidents trigger terrorism. India is rightly alarmed at the prospect and should do its best to mobilise world powers and remedy the situation.

On this point, Sushma has rightly pointed out that the only long term solution to the situation is rapid socio-economic development that would have a “positive impact on all the communities living in the State”. India has taken the first step and now it should move to permanently resolve the issue.

Sushma showed her mettle when she put a clever spin to her opening remark that India-Bangladesh relation goes “far beyond a strategic partnership”.

It was the Chinese President Xi Jinping, who during his visit last year to Dhaka, used the term of endearment for Bangladesh as a “strategic partner”. But that partnership came to nada when the Rohingya crisis unfolded. China, instead of honouring that “strategic partnership”, sided with Myanmar. Not only did it not raise any voice against the violence against the Rohingyas, it placed two vetoes at the UN Security Council on a Myanmar resolution. Because of its opposition in September, the Security Council failed to take any resolution on Myanmar. And then this week, China spoke out against any foreign interference in Myanmar.

*China, whose investment in Myanmar reached $18.53 billion up to January 2017 and considers Myanmar an important tool in its One Belt, One Road initiative, ignored the fact that its “strategic partner” is suffering because of the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. 

But China should not forget the strategic importance of Bangladesh. China and Bangladesh signed three dozen deals worth around $25 billion for infrastructure development during Xi's visit, not to mention Bangladesh's importance in the implementation of One Belt, One Road project.*

A peaceful region is needed for such an ambitious scheme to go through. 
China, that champions many globally crucial areas including climate change, should not ignore the ongoing humanitarian crisis and should come forward like India to resolve the situation. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...ya-crisis-after-india-its-chinas-turn-1481344

12:00 AM, October 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:52 AM, October 25, 2017
*The fastest growing refugee crisis*




_*On August 25 this year, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas started fleeing military operations in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and crossing the border to take shelter in Bangladesh. And the exodus continues. So far, there is no visible progress in the repatriation process.*_

With the Rohingyas streaming into Bangladesh fleeing a brutal crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State, the UN rights body chief denounced the atrocities as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. There have been multiple reports of security forces and local vigilantes burning Rohingya villages, shooting unarmed civilians and raping women. 

Myanmar's de facto leader Suu Kyi and the military keep facing the condemnation of the global community amid calls for an end to the violence against one of the most persecuted minority groups in the world. The Bangladesh government and the local community in Cox's Bazar bordering Rakhine State have been widely praised for the response to the unprecedented influx, especially for keeping the border open. However, a lot of challenges lie ahead as the repatriation of the refugees doesn't look like something that's going to happen anytime soon.




“Bangladesh is not a rich country ... but if we can feed 160 million people, another 500 or 700,000 people, we can do it."
*PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HASINA *

“As we witness the unfolding horror we pray for you [Suu Kyi] to be courageous and resilient again... for you to speak out for justice, human rights and the unity of your people." 
*ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU* 

“The situation has spiralled into the world's fastest developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare."
*UN SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES *


----------



## Banglar Bir

*‘Suu Kyi government played into the hands of the military’*
Syed Zainul Abedin
Published at 09:00 PM October 24, 2017
Last updated at 11:36 PM October 24, 2017




Director of Euro-Burma Office Harn Yawnghwe *Courtesy*
*Harn Yawnghwe, director of Euro-Burma Office (European Office for the Development of Democracy in Myanmar), Brussels, recently spoke to the Dhaka Tribune’s Syed Zainul Abedin on the Rohingya issue and Myanmar leader Suu Kyi. He shed light on the political instability in Myanmar against the backdrop of recent developments in Rakhine.*
Harn is the youngest son of Sao Shwe Thaike, the first president of the Republic of the Union of Burma. Sao was the president of the union from 1948 to 1952. He was arrested in a military coup led by General Ne Win and died in prison in November, 1962. Sao Shwe Thaike and General Aung San were the architects of the 1947 Panglong Agreement, which formed the basis for the modern nation of Burma (the colonial name for Myanmar).
*Also Read- ‘The generals and Suu Kyi sing from the same Buddhist nationalist hymn book’*
Harn has been in exile in Canada since he was 15 years old. He was forced to leave Myanmar along with his family following the coup on March 2, 1962.

Harn also served as Advisor to Dr Sein Win, prime minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), which claims to be Burma’s government in exile.
*What is happening in the Rakhine state of Myanmar?*
What is happening in Rakhine State is genocide. Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1951) defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole, or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. All these conditions apply to the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted as much when he said on September 13, 2017 that ethnic cleansing is taking place in Myanmar. Genocide includes ethnic cleansing. He did not use the word genocide because if he did, the UN would be legally obliged under the Genocide Convention to take action. For the UN to take action, the Security Council would have to authorise it. But Guterres knows that if he took it to the Security Council, Russia and China would veto it. That is the dilemma.




*Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive aid distributed by local organisations at Balukhali makeshift camp in Cox’s Bazar on September 14, 2017 | Reuters
You have been working on the peace process in Myanmar/Burma for a long time. What are the hurdles in the way of the peace process?*
First, the Myanmar military still believes that might is right. They entered into negotiations as a delaying tactic when the then President Thein Sein, a former military general himself, called for peace talks. He defined the peace talks as a political matter which under the 2008 Constitution falls under the mandate of the civilian government. Under the Suu Kyi government, the military has managed to define the peace talks as a security matter which under the constitution falls under the mandate of the military. This means the military will exert force on those who will not agree to peace on the government’s terms. If they continue to resist, they will be labeled ‘terrorists’ and the military can use full force against them – as they are doing now with the Rohingya. The Suu Kyi government does not have a plan or strategy on how to bring the peace talks back to the political arena. It also does not have experienced advisors and negotiators.
*Also Read- Canada’s Trudeau tasks special envoy to press Myanmar on refugees*
In the short-term, the future of the peace talks is bleak. The best that can be done is to keep the talks going in the hope that the government will change its position. Nobody wants to go back to war.
*Why are the Rohingya people, from among 135 ethnic groups, being specifically targeted by the government/army of Myanmar?*
Myanmar Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing said on September 1, 2017, that the ongoing clearing operations in northern Rakhine is ‘unfinished business’ from World War 2. After the war, during the division of India, some Rohingya wanted to become part of East Pakistan. There was a Mujahid insurgency which the Myanmar military put down. His ‘unfinished business’, though, means that the Myanmar military does not accept the outcome of the political settlement in the early 1960’s that recognised the Rohingya as citizens of Myanmar.

The military also does not recognise the 1947 Constitution, which states that all people who live within the boundaries of Myanmar at independence (1948) are citizens. That is why after seizing power, General Ne Win launched an operation to drive out the Rohingya in 1978. Not satisfied with that, he also changed the Citizenship Law in 1982, making the Rohingya stateless. Another attempt was made in 1998 to drive out the Rohingya.

This third and current exodus is part of the same plan to make Myanmar a homogeneous and ‘pure’ nation. It is racist. The Rohingya being Muslim makes it easier for the military to garner support from the Buddhist majority who believe that it is their duty to protect Buddhism from all external influences.




*FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali on October 16, 2017 | Reuters*
The future of democracy in Myanmar is precarious. Everybody wrongly believed that Aung San Suu Kyi would strengthen the democratic transition and make it impossible to return to a military dictatorship.

It is somewhat similar to the situation in Iran when the Shah was overthrown and the Ayatollah Khomeni came to power. He consolidated his power and imposed his own brand of authoritarian rule. The same is true in Myanmar. Democracy is not practiced within the ruling National League for Democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi makes all the decisions. Younger generation leaders are not being groomed. Internal dissent is not tolerated and opposition parties are not encouraged. The active civil society networks are shunned by the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi. Other than the military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party, there are no viable nationwide political parties to choose from as an alternative to the NLD. Media freedom is also at risk.
*Is there any geopolitical issue behind the ongoing situation in Myanmar, triggering this Rohingya crisis?*
As mentioned before, geopolitics do play a part. Myanmar is considered to be in China’s backyard. Neither Russia nor China want Myanmar to move into the orbit of western powers. They have long seen human rights as a western tool to infiltrate into the region. But the main trigger is domestic. The Myanmar military does not want a democratically-elected government to succeed. It wants to prove that a civilian government does not have the capacity to govern Myanmar.
*Also Read- Pope Francis deplores plight of Rohingya children*
The Rohingya crisis was re-ignited in 2012 when the Thein Sein government started making headway with its peace talks with the other ethnic minorities. The crisis became full-fledged in 2016 after the Suu Kyi government took power. When it became clear that the Suu Kyi government did not have the capacity to deal with the peace talks, the military took advantage of that weakness to carry out its plan to finally expel the Rohingya as terrorists under the cover of a democratic government. The government’s denial of any human rights abuse by the military and the refusal of Suu Kyi to allow a UN Fact-Finding Mission have all played into the hands of the military.
*How do you describe the communal harmony in Myanmar?*
Myanmar is and has always been a multi-ethnic and a multi-religious society. Different communities used to exist harmoniously in the past. Things changed after Ne Win took over. He expelled all foreigners, especially Chinese and Indians, confiscating their businesses. His agenda, like the Shah’s, was to create a modern homogeneous nation and this created problems. Each ethnic group began to look after its own interests for survival. Today people look on each other with mistrust. Fake news and rumours can trigger inter-communal violence as it did in 2012. Many people today are preaching hatred and religious bigotry. People who disagree do not dare to speak out. Fear is beginning to take hold again.




*A view of the the Rohingya refugee camp in Tang Khali near Cox’s Bazar, on October 18, 2017 | Reuters
How are the rest of the people in Myanmar responding to this crisis?*
Most would not react unless it affected them personally. This is especially true of the ethnic minorities. They do not want to draw attention to themselves by speaking out about the Rohingya. But for the majority, they believe what the government is saying – that the Rohingya are foreigners who bought their way into Myanmar; they have four wives and their population is growing rapidly; their plan is to Islamise Myanmar.
*Please describe the role of the state-run media in Myanmar.*
The state-run media has been managed by the military for over 5 decades. They are putting out the same propaganda as when the country was still under military rule. The sad part is that the private media that used to fight for human rights have also started to toe the government line – that the Rohingya are terrorists and have to be defeated to protect Myanmar’s sovereignty.
*Also Read- Suu Kyi donates $4000 to Rakhine peace and development*
You wrote an open letter criticising Suu Kyi. Could you please elaborate on that?
I am concerned that she is not nurturing democracy for the time after she steps down. If we want democracy to flourish, we have to start practising it. Authoritarianism, no matter how well-intentioned, will not bring democracy. Democracy is messy and people make mistakes but without starting to practice it, we cannot expect democracy in Myanmar in the future.
*Where does the solution to this crisis lie?
The crisis is two-fold*. *One is the crisis of democracy *– how do we ensure that the military does not come back in the future? How can we entrench democracy in the nation? The solution lies with the people of Myanmar.
They need to wake up to the crisis and start practicing democracy.
It is not too late. We have until 2020, 3 years, to promote democracy.
*
The other crisis is the Rohingya people. We do not have time.* People are dying and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. The clearing operations are continuing in spite of government denials.
*
The UN, Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries need to exercise their Responsibility to Protect.*
If they do nothing now, the Rohingya will be driven out of Myanmar. But in the longer-term, the solution lies in treating the Rohingya as human beings created in the image of God, equal with all Myanmar citizens.

This will take moral courage on the part of the Myanmar government and determined and well-thought out long-term programmes to eliminate racism, and religious bigotry from Myanmar – something like the civil rights movement in the US.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/10/24/suu-kyi-government-harn/

*US Declaration of 'Ethnic Cleansing' in Myanmar on Way*




In this Oct. 18, 2017, file photo, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. U.S. officials are preparing a recommendation for Tillerson to declare that ethnic cleansing is occurring against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
*US officials preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to declare "ethnic cleansing" is occurring against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims.*
_By_ Matthew Pennington 
Associated Press
October 24, 2017
*WASHINGTON* -- The Trump administration moved toward a condemnation of "ethnic cleansing" against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims, as officials were preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to unequivocally use the term for the first time. Angry lawmakers on Tuesday demanded an immediate denunciation as they explored a new, tougher U.S. policy.

"My bosses have said it appears to be ethnic cleansing. I'm of that view as well," said Patrick Murphy, a senior U.S. diplomat for Southeast Asia, while adding that the final call wasn't his to make.

Tillerson could receive the recommendation to adopt such terminology as a matter of policy as early as this week, officials familiar with the process told The Associated Press. He would then decide whether to follow the advice of his agency's policy experts and lawyers, which would raise pressure on the U.S. government to consider new sanctions on a country that had been lauded for its democratic transition.

At a Senate hearing Tuesday, lawmakers pressed Murphy and other administration officials to hastily clarify their view of the brutal crackdown on Muslims in Rakhine State that has caused more than 600,000 refugees to flee to Bangladesh. 
But U.S. officials have been weighing several factors for their policy toward the country also known as Burma, including concerns about undermining the civilian government led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for the last 18 months.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine was among those calling for a clear determination "with dispatch." Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, emphasized it "may be time for a policy readjustment." Other lawmakers in both houses of Congress have proposed new U.S. penalties on the military, which retains significant power in Myanmar and is blamed for the violence.

The U.S. officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the internal process and requested anonymity, told the AP the State Department won't make a call yet on whether crimes against humanity have occurred in Myanmar. Such a determination would be even more detrimental to Myanmar's military, as it could force the U.S. to push harder for legal accountability.

According to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention, "ethnic cleansing" isn't recognized as an independent crime under international law, unlike crimes against humanity and genocide. 
It surfaced in the context of the 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia, when a U.N. commission defined it as "rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area."

Nevertheless, Murphy stressed that "a determination of ethnic cleansing will not change our pursuit of full accountability." The issue also is sensitive because President Donald Trump will make his first official trip to Asia next month and hasn't spoken about the crisis.

Human rights groups accuse security forces of launching a scorched-earth campaign in late August as they responded to Rohingya insurgent attacks. Amnesty International alleges that hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children have been systematically killed.

Senators of both parties expressed outrage over the atrocities — and frustration at Washington's inability to stop them. They questioned whether former President Barack Obama prematurely lifted sanctions against the armed forces as a reward for an end to decades of direct military rule.
"The military control Burma today," Sen. Ben Cardin, the panel's top Democrat, said. "That's unacceptable, that's why we imposed sanctions, because of military control. 
Sanction relief was given for what? So people can be ethnically cleansed?"

Murphy said the U.S. has limited leverage with Myanmar's military. He described broad sanctions and more targeted measures as under consideration, but worried about hurting Myanmar's vulnerable citizens. *Administration officials also fret that punishing Myanmar too forcefully could undermine Suu Kyi's government and push her country away from the United States and toward China.*

Before the latest refugee exodus, roughly 1 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. The Buddhist majority believes they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, although many Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations. They were stripped of their citizenship in 1982.

*Calls for a U.S. determination of "ethnic cleansing" have intensified, as the United Nations and leading Western governments have used the term. Six weeks ago, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said it "seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing." French President Emmanuel Macron echoed that opinion, as have leaders of many in the Muslim world.*

U.S. officials have been more reticent. Tillerson, who last week said that perpetrators will be held to account for atrocities, has referred to the violence as "characterized by many as ethnic cleansing." U.N. envoy Nikki Haley told the Security Council last month it was "a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority."
*
"We are not shying from the use of any appropriate terminology," Murphy told reporters later Tuesday, without revealing what the formal review would conclude.*

The recent violence already has prompted Washington to curtail already restricted ties with Myanmar's military. Two months ago, the U.S. stopped waiving visa restrictions to allow members of Myanmar's military to visit — a policy that Murphy said would also apply to commander in chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. 
The State Department announced Monday that units and officers involved in Rakhine operations are ineligible for U.S. assistance, and rescinded invitations for senior security forces to attend U.S.-sponsored events.

Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers want tougher action, such as financial sanctions against military officials complicit in rights abuses. Restrictions on military-owned businesses that hold large stakes in Myanmar's economy are also a possibility.

"Here we have this horrific instance, and we have virtually no voice, no pressure," said Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, who is set to travel to Myanmar soon.
_Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/us-declaration-of-ethnic-cleansing-in.html_


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




*Kofi Annan: ‘Rohingya are not going to rush home’ 
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has been charged with trying to resolve the Rohingya crisis, discusses what needs to be done.*
https://www.channel4.com/…/kofi-annan-rohingya-are-not-goin…


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## Banglar Bir

*India’s firm policy pushes more Rohingyas to Bangladesh*
SAM Staff, October 25, 2017




India’s firm anti-Rohingya policy is triggering reverse migration with several Rohingyas, who worked as domestic help, construction labours and small-time shop-keepers, slowly moving back to Bangladesh.

According to BSF officials, at least 50 such Rohingya immigrants, who had been living in India for years, crossed over to Bangladesh over the past few weeks.

At least three big teams from Sharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and Ambala in Punjab tried to cross over to Bangladesh through the border points in North 24 Paragana district.

The Border Security Forces apprehended some of these groups and handed them over to the local police for further legal action. According to a rough estimate, at least 40,000 Rohingya Muslims have been living in India for years now.

Central agencies monitoring the movement of Rohingyas have observed that reverse migration has started, albeit in small groups. Incidentally, this comes at a time when Indian Foreign Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, is having a meeting with Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka.
SOURCE ECONOMIC TIMES
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/25/indias-firm-policy-pushes-rohingyas-bangladesh/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




*DW News*
1 hr · 
*The Rohingya crisis is being called the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world. 
Is there a solution?*


----------



## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




#Rohingya  
*Victim of Genocide -Story 02*


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Assessing the “ethno-political” conflict: Rohingyas statelessness and their vulnerability in Myanmar 
October 23, 2017
Anant Mishra
Introduction 
Civil wars dipped in “ethnic” colors pose a serious threat to international peace and security. The rise in such “ethno-political conflicts” has to make headlines and “topics” of numerous discussions on global arena ever since the world was divided into “blocs” and it dramatically escalated in the early 80s and late 90s. 

By the end of the 20th century, many nations including Bosnia, Rwanda, Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Haiti, and Colombia were “rigged” with “civil wars” dipped in the colours of “ethnicity” while global leaders and masses witnessed the “horrors” of war. 

International communities, local, regional and national governments were facing rampant “civil wars” which pose a serious threat to the international peace and security.

However, today, such crisis presents in a much “complex” form, challenging the safety and security of the global order. The UN, to effectively understand the crisis, published numerous policy reports and invited global experts to participate in “intense” discussions which resulted in numerous “draft resolutions” highlighting the much-needed response to de-escalate the crisis. 

Prof. James Hughes of the London School of Economics (LSE), an expert on genocides and ethnic conflicts, aggressively argued that the “the sudden rise of ethno-conflict and civil wars” that was spreading like “wildfire” engulfing major percentage of the world after the end of Cold War, is showing “significant” signs of reduction. 

Policymakers must note that the ethnic conflicts which “immensely” spread in regional areas during the late 90s through “aggressive negotiation from the international communities,” de-escalated without affecting “significant” regions; but, today, the conflict continues to “engulfs” major regions of Africa and South-East Asia. 

Today, the ethnic conflicts which the international community’s witness, are “remnants” of an escalated conflict which majorly occurred in the previous century, leaving no trace of new “actors” or “instigators” at play.

It is important to note that, the ethnic conflicts in South Asia are sheer “remnants” of the crisis which share significant links to the “colonial era.” Today, the national or regional disintegration coupled with “violent state and non-state actors” have become the new “instigators” of the ethno-political wars in many regions.
Familiarizing with the terminology
One understands by the term “ethnic conflicts” as the scenario of “tension” induced by “violence” or collision between two or more ethnic groups.

This term first “coined” during the post Second World War years which was “frequently” and “aggressively” used in the subsequent years of Cold War particularly in scenarios which resulted in large-scale “genocides.” 

Theoretically, it can be further divided into three types: 

1. Constructivist 

2. Primordialist 

3. Instrumentalists 
The “ethnic conflict” in Myanmar falls under the category of Primordialist theory.

Experts in ethnic conflicts and genocides along with experts with particular knowledge and exposure to Primordialist scenarios of ethno-conflict, significantly argue that communities with multiple ethnicities exist because of “indifference” in traditions, majorly religions and behaviors high lighting the major impact of “primordial” features such as “biological and geographic” features. 

A significant amount of ethnic-politico-conflict experts argue that the “cause” of the ethnic-conflict does not principally depend on “ethnicity” but largely depends upon political and socio-economic factors, regarding the traditional blame to “ethnicity” as a sheer myth. 

Factually, the crisis of Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar is largely political. 

The political leadership is aggressively “instigating” Buddhists Rohingyas against their “counter-parts” Muslims which resulted in scenarios of “systematic government induced violence”- which has resulted in large scale casualties and deaths forcing Muslim Rohingyas to flee.
Understanding the causes
The principle reasons for an ethnic conflict in South–East Asia largely revolves around “pre-historic” tensions and continuing aggressions between two communities, which is an event of an “aggression” re-appear to become a grave threat to international communities.

Ethnic conflict wears the “insignia” of violence induced crisis from the past which reappears in times of “fragile domestic politics” and hence carries such importance for global and national communities. 

It is quite easy for policymakers to identify the “instigator” and “intensity” of the conflict by simply analyzing the previous “entanglements” of different ethnic communities. 

The causes of ethnic conflicts are largely the “principal factors of instigation” the factors which became the sole “reasons of instigation” for the conflict, followed by understanding the “reactionary measures” taken by the political leadership. 

Furthermore, the “skeletal” of the ethnic conflict in Myanmar is “primordial.” 

Academicians in support to “Primordialist” argue that individuals “religion and ethnicity” share an intense relationship with socio-economic lifestyle, their past and topography which then results in the creation of a different psychology, different culture and their values which are then overlapped with indifferent ethnicity. 

Experts argue that essential factors such as security, basic yet necessary needs and the ability to survive in harsh circumstances come from such forces. 

Moreover, experts also argue that the “urge for violence” in response to “denial of sheer existence,” insecurity and results in low participation of such minorities. 

This further results in “organized crime” which then paves the way for their “right to exist” instigating “nationalism” particularly when they are dominated by “oppressive forces.” 

These minorities then seek international support and are frequently supported by countries aligning with their thoughts. 

By gaining the support from international communities, they would fulfill the demand, largely the “right to exists.” 

Using the assistance received from international communities, they can then aggressively mobilize their groups and severely compromise the state’s resources. 

Scenarios such as this, on the larger scale, give birth to anarchism that is most likely to take over the groups “leadership” while posing a grave threat to other minorities. 

Hence it is imperative for policymakers at the international level to pay necessary attention to domestic security. The betrayal of trust or repeated “unsuccessful” attempts to trust other minor communities also triggers minor conflicts which may soon result into a full-blown conflict. 

The minority groups view each other with sheer “suspicion” and portray a behavior of conflict, this results in strong minority groups suppressing the minors.

Particularly in weak political culture strong ethnic community with certain influence support the state authorities. At the global arena, international community’s tend to create “committees and forums” for the weaker minority groups, giving them a platform to speak “fearlessly” speak against the systematic oppression, but at the ground level, the government tends to ignore their plight. 

Hence, in countries with migratory weak minorities, a new “type” of conflict appears. Although in such times, the government under pressure from global communities tends to activate institutional reforms which remain hardly in place. 

This saga of “betrayal/distrusts” gives “one-time” opportunity for minority groups to pursue an “aggressive” stance against the oppression forces and declare rebellion against the state to create a region/country of their own. 

This scenario coupled with the poor socio-economic condition and “vulnerable” government results in a “political vacuum” which then attracts ethnic businessmen, mercenary groups to extend their services while playing an active part in this epic. 

If politico-economic resources are in favor of one ethnic minority whereas depriving other minority groups, especially the strong minority, ethnic conflict emerges rapidly. 

In case of such scenario when the government takes sides of most privileged minorities in conflict, the disadvantaged and weaker minority groups losses their hope in the social structure and during this scenario, the weaker minority looks for a third party which could offer services and protection to the group. 

This results in the rise of a “War of Independence” when the weaker minority fails to find a third party and declare all available assets in the war.

In the absence of a mediator or a third party, the resolution to this ethnic conflict becomes “extremely difficult” since most of the times scenarios such as these are supported by non-state actors which further increase the complexity of this problem. 

There are many academicians who view the ethnicity as a “principle” cause before even considering the nature of different behaviors of weaker minorities, the liquidity of their behavior, rapidly declining concerns of oppression forces towards ethnic values and presence of large-scale violent non-state actors into account. 

However, the ethno-conflict that aroused in Myanmar is very different than other ethnic based conflicts in South East Asia. 

Myanmar has always been a nation of “militaristic importance/preferences” and portrays values of “traditions.” In the light of statement as mentioned earlier, there is a presence of different sections of society which continues to induce ethnic violence between Muslim and Buddhists Rohingyas.
Years under severe oppression by Military Junta
Burma has been under the rule of military Juntas for more than half centuries, coupled with strong nationalism and heavily influenced by Theravada Buddhism, many weaker minorities such as Rohingya, Kokang and Panthay became victims of systematic discrimination for years.

Furthermore, many elements from pro-democracy groups particularly those belonging to the Burman ethnic majority never considered Muslim Rohingyas as “equals.” 

In the similar context, Burmese governments were frequently hammered by international communities for systematically provoking and inducing violence against the ethnic minority groups particularly the Muslim Rohingyas and Panthay. 

As stated before, Muslim Rohingyas are considered to be the most “brutally and systematically suppressed” and “deprived” of all minorities. 

After losing their citizenship in 1982, they were banned from traveling. Their property was confiscated, looted, right to marriage was “forbidden” and reproductive rights were strictly restricted. 

According to a report published by Amnesty International, the Muslim Rohingyas continue to suffer from excessive human rights violations under the military Junta since it first came to power in 1978 and since then many have fled to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia out of fear of persecution, for Muslim Rohingyas, their movement is strictly “monitored and restricted” and a large percentage of them have been denied Burmese citizenship.

Today, they continue to face torture, sexual exploitation, and unnecessary taxation, confiscation of property, forced disappearances, and restrictions on marriage. 

Rohingyas were forced to work on manual labor particularly on the construction of roads, railways, although it significantly decreased in the northern region of Rakhine state. 

More than 200,000 Muslim Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh during Operation Dragon King which was carried by the military in 1978. 

The official Modus Operandi was to target individuals living in the country with an illegal citizen status along with illegal foreigners.

However, the targets of these military operations were Muslim men, women, and children. 

The operation resulted in large-scale killings, rape, and other “heinous crimes.” Between 1991 and 1992, a fresh influx of over quarter million refugees reached Bangladesh. 

They narrated scenarios of forced labor, disappearances, large-scale executions and rape which “shocked” the global communities. Since 2005, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has been the principal United Nations agency tasked to “repatriate” Muslim Rohingyas from Bangladesh, but accusations of human rights abuses in certain refugee camps have temporarily halted their efforts. 

Despite active participation by United Nations agency, a large percentage of refugees continue to remain in camps hosted by Bangladesh and other humanitarian agencies.

Their inability to return to their state out of sheer fear from the “oppressing” government further complexing an already complex humanitarian issue. 

In the previous years, thousands of Muslim Refugees have crossed dangerous oceans to reach Thailand whereas over 111,000 refugees have been staying in camps along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. 

Many have been forced to sail out in the dangerous open waters. In one incident, the Thailand army rescued over 190 Muslim Rohingyas from the open seas. 

In another incident, the group of Rohingyas rescued by the Indonesian military narrated the “stories of crimes against humanity” conducted by the Thai military. 

A report published by UNHCR stated that in the year 2016 over five boats were rescued through military efforts whereas four boats sank in the seas. 

In the year 2015 numerous “graveyards” of Muslim Rohingyas were located in and around the borders of Thailand and Malaysia. 

Furthermore, in the current year, thousands of Rohingyas refugees headed towards the shores of Malaysia. Many of Rohingya refugees getting caught in the “prostitution and slavery” do not make the headlines. 

Large-scale violence, mass killing, systematic torture, and rape continues to encourage Rohingyas to undertake the “risky” routes through seas.
The riots of 2012
The riots of 2012 in Rakhine state are series of “systematically induced discrimination” instigated by the military Junta against the Muslim Rohingyas in the northern regions of Rakhine State in Myanmar.

The riots “erupted” after weeks of ethnic tensions between the Muslim Rohingyas and ethnic Rakhine and received sharp criticism from the international communities. However, the reason behind the conflict remains unclear even after rigorous efforts by international communities; but according to many humanitarian experts, Muslim Rohingyas were repeatedly “systematically” killed by the ethnic Rakhine after a Rakhine woman was raped and killed.

According to the experts, this “might” be the cause. The entire houses of Muslim Rohingyas were burnt, and a significant number of government buildings were attacked. 

In a press release, the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK) stated that over 650 Rohingyas were killed with over 1,200 missing, while over 80,000 were displaced. 

According to the government records, the violence which erupted between the Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims resulted in the death of over 78 people, whereas over 87 injured. 

The governments then imposed curfews and deploy armed units on the ground. Subsequently, an emergency was declared in the Rakhine state, which allowed the military to assist local administration in maintaining law and order. 

The Myanmar agencies have frequently been accused of instigating violence especially targeting the Muslim Rohingyas. 

A significant number of Buddhist organizations tried to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching the Muslims. 

The then Myanmar responded by excluding Rohingyas from the list of minority groups subsequently preventing them from obtaining citizenship. 

More than 130 ethnic groups have been debarred from receiving Burmese citizenship. Today, they have no right to vote and do not hold Myanmar citizenship.
Conclusion 

AS stated before, Muslim Rohingyas are the most persecuted people in the world today. 

After careful study, the Muslim Rohingyas continue to receive inadequate assistance and support from international aid organizations of the world. 

Their humanitarian rights no longer exist, neither their social rights nor any right to citizenship. 

Many agencies particular of the UN and other international community’s continue to show concern towards their immediate humanitarian needs, which remains inadequate. 

The global community intends to argue on security other member countries failing to adequately address the security and the rights of Rohingyas to exist. 

Hence, it is imperative for policymakers to address the issue immediately by inviting key actors in the discussion, particularly the principle instigator Myanmar. 

Through “aggressive” diplomacy, many international and regional organizations can effectively force Myanmar to initiate new legislative measures ensuring their “right to return.” Muslim Rohingyas continues to become a burden on neighboring countries such as India and Bangladesh since they both are densely populated countries. 

Although, any efforts could only prove vital, if it comes from Myanmar within. 

It is imperative for global nations, regional organizations to ensure that Myanmar takes the responsibility and actively participate in de-escalating the situation and take a progressive step in securing the future of Rohingyas. *
See more at: http://southasiajournal.net/assessi...elessness-and-their-vulnerability-in-myanmar/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




#Rohingya 
*Victim of Genocide -Story 01*

*U.S. weighs calling Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis ‘ethnic cleansing’*
SAM Staff, October 25, 2017





Rohingya refugees wait to receive humanitarian aid at Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh 24October 2017, Photo: Reuters
*The State Department is considering formally declaring the crackdown on Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims to be ethnic cleansing, U.S. officials said on Tuesday (Oct 24), as lawmakers called for sanctions against the Southeast Asian country’s military.*

Pressure has mounted for a tougher U.S. response to the Rohingya crisis ahead of President Donald Trump’s maiden visit to Asia next month when he will attend a summit of Southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, in Manila.

U.S. officials are preparing a recommendation for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that would define the military-led campaign against the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing, which could spur new sanctions, the U.S. government sources said.

The proposal – part of an overall review of Myanmar policy – could be sent to Tillerson as early as this week, and he would then decide whether to adopt it, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine state in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, since security forces responded to Rohingya militants’ attacks on Aug. 25 by launching a crackdown. The United Nations has already denounced it as a classic example of ethnic cleansing.

Three U.S. officials testifying at a Senate hearing on Tuesday declined to say whether the treatment of the Rohingya was ethnic cleansing, but listed new measures including targeted sanctions that Washington is considering.

Those steps, however, stopped short of the most drastic tools at Washington’s disposal such as reimposing broader economic sanctions suspended under the Obama administration.
*Also Read: Myanmar to take back Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh*
“I‘m not in a position … to characterize it today, but to me this very closely resembles some of the worst kind of atrocities that I’ve seen during a long career,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mark Storella said when pressed to say whether he viewed the situation as ethnic cleansing.

Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he considered the treatment of the Rohingya “genocide” and is working on bipartisan legislation that could spell out whether additional sanctions are needed.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, insists that action was needed to combat “terrorists.”

The recommendation to Tillerson – first reported by the Associated Press – is not expected to include a determination on whether “crimes against humanity” have been committed, as this would require further legal deliberations, one U.S. official said.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
*Also Read: ‘Suu Kyi government played into the hands of the military’*
Some U.S. lawmakers criticized Aung San Suu Kyi, head of Myanmar’s civilian-led government and a Nobel peace laureate once hugely popular in Washington, for failing to do more.

Senator Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the committee, chided Suu Kyi for what he called “dismissiveness” toward the plight of the Rohingya and said it might be time for a “policy adjustment” toward Myanmar.

At the hearing, Patrick Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian And Pacific Affairs, said additional sanctions were being considered, but cautioned that doing so could lessen Washington’s ability to influence Myanmar.
SOURCE REUTERS
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...ng-myanmars-rohingya-crisis-ethnic-cleansing/


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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya Crisis in Numbers*



_By_ UNITED NATIONS OCHA
OCTOBER 23RD, 2017
*1982*
The year a law was passed by Myanmar’s Government identifying 135 recognized 'national ethnic groups' that could claim citizenship. The Muslim Rohingya were not one of these groups, effectively rendering them stateless. They are now the largest stateless population in the world. In Rakhine State, their freedom of movement is severely restricted and they have been denied access to local schools, hospitals and markets.




*25 August 2017*
Attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on border posts prompt a violent response by Myanmar security forces, leading 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh as of 20 October 2017.




*809,000*
The number of Rohingya refugees who have fled violence and persecution in Myanmar to seek refuge in Bangladesh, including 603,000 who have arrived since 25 August. They report horrific stories of mass killings, arson, rape and abuse.




*288*
The number of Rohingya villages that Human Rights Watch estimates have been destroyed since 25 August, according to satellite data. The UN’s Human Rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has described the Government’s operations in northern Rakhine State as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”




*$434 million*
Humanitarian agencies are calling for $434 million in the Rohingya refugee crisis response plan to assist 1.2 million people - mainly Rohingya refugees but also host communities in Bangladesh – with emergency relief and protection. Priorities are clean water and sanitation, shelter, food, and counselling services to help heal deeply traumatized children, women and men.




*29%*
As of 24 October, the Rohingya humanitarian response plan had received $130 million, or 29 per cent of requirements. Donors have pledged 76 per cent of the $434 million appeal at a 23rd October pledging event. This money now urgently needs to be turned into commitments.




*10,333*
The average number of Rohingya refugees who have crossed into Bangladesh daily since 25 August. Most are taking refuge in Kutupalong, and Kutupalong Expansion - makeshift camps that have been set up in Cox’s Bazar district on land made available by the Government of Bangladesh.




*700,487*
In Cox’s Bazar, the World Health Organization and the Government of Bangladesh have administered oral cholera vaccinations to more than 700,000 people as of 29 October, making this the second largest oral cholera vaccination campaign ever.




*536,000*
The total number of people reached by aid agencies with food assistance, though funding shortages have meant that one third of these people received only partial rations. Agencies are also providing clean water, sanitation services, healthcare, shelter materials, essentials like cooking equipment and jerry cans, and counselling services for the traumatized.




https://unocha.exposure.co/the-rohi...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer


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## Banglar Bir

*ROHINGYA CRISIS*
*Influx on amid diplomatic move*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:05, Oct 26,2017 | 
Updated: 00:25, Oct 26,2017 



Rohingya refugees walk through water after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at a port in Teknaf on Wednesday. — Reuters photo
*Bangladesh continued diplomatic move for ensuring return of Rohingyas to their homeland Rakhine State of Myanmar while Rohingya influx into the country continued on Wednesday with thousands of the ethnic minority people fleeing ethnic cleansing in Rakhine. *

While a Chinese special envoy was shuttling between Dhaka and Nay Pyi Taw for conveying commitment of the Myanmar government for taking back its nationals, the Bangladesh authorities were yet to trust the Myanmar authorities on the realisation of its commitments soon, officials said. 
Bangladesh on Wednesday requested China for her constructive all-round engagement for expediting return of the Myanmar nationals to their home.

The Chinese envoy conveyed that commitment of the Myanmar government ‘is much stronger this time,’ foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque said at his office after a meeting with a Chinese special envoy.

‘We said that we would find it true when they [Myanmar] would implement this commitment,’ he said.
Shahidul Haque said that he told the envoy that there were about 4,00,000 Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh when the envoy came six months ago and now the number of Myanmar nationals was over one million as violence continued in Rakhine State. 

Chinese foreign ministry special envoy on Asian affairs Sun Guoxiang arrived Dhaka from Yangon Tuesday night for discussing the resurgence of crisis created with the recent Rohingya influx into Bangladesh.

The Chinese envoy would return to Myanmar again and might convey Bangladesh’s position about the situation, the foreign secretary said. 

*Sun was told that Bangladesh had no conflict with Myanmar other than one point, repatriation of Myanmar nationals. *

Presence of over a million Rohingyas is a huge burden on Bangladesh, which has allowed them only on humanitarian grounds, Shahiduyl Haque said, ‘It cannot linger for unlimited period.’ 
Asked if China was mediating between Bangladesh and Myanmar, he said that the question of mediation had not come as such as China said that it wanted a peaceful solution to the crisis through bilateral negotiations.

China wants to settle the situation working with both Bangladesh and Myanmar, the foreign secretary said. 

Asked if Chinese envoy communicated any new message, he said China was very eager to see a peaceful solution as existing situation was unfavourable for Asia in general and the region in particular. 
The Chinese envoy would have not been shuttling between the two countries if the situation was good for the region, he said
.
Another diplomat said that Bangladesh officials said China should help to resolve the crisis although China had its own dynamics in engaging with Myanmar. 

Earlier in the morning on Wednesday, the foreign secretary and senior foreign ministry officials were engaged in an interactive session on Rohingya issues with mission chiefs of the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the BRICS. 
Shahidul also held a meeting with Saudi ambassador Abdullah HM Al-Mutairi on Rohingya issues, the officials said. 

*The Bangladesh side sought support of the OECD and BRICS member countries and the Arab kingdom in international moves for holding a special session of the UN Human Rights Council at the earliest to exclusively discuss Rohingya issues. *

*Support of at least 16 of the 45 member-countries is required for holding a special session of the UNHRC. *

Bangladesh also insisted that the UNHRC member countries should consider adopting resolutions in this regard.

Mission chiefs of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, India, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Vatican, among others, were present in the meeting. 

After the meeting with mission chiefs and the OECD and BRICS member countries, Chinese ambassador to Dhaka Ma Mingqiang said at the foreign ministry that the way China engaged herself in diplomacy was different from many other countries. 

*‘We don’t make noise like many other countries,’ he said. 
Both Bangladesh and Myanmar ‘are friends of China and we want the two countries engage for a peaceful solution of the problem through bilateral negotiations,’ Ma said.*

The Rohingya new arrivals on Wednesday alleged that the Myanmar military forces set fire to their villages at Buthidaung three days before amidst international outcry against the Myanmar regime for stopping ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State. 

Over 6,04,000 minority Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and October 24.

Then new ongoing influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,23,000 till Tuesday, according to estimates of UN agencies.
During his last visit in Dhaka in the last week of April, Sun Guoxiang insisted in line with the Myanmar government’s position that Bangladesh and Myanmar should bilaterally resolve the matter of return of all Myanmar nationals. 

Sun Guoxiang is also actively involved in the Chinese government’s efforts to promote peace process involving minority groups in Myanmar. 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/26958/influx-on-amid-diplomatic-move

12:00 AM, October 26, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:31 AM, October 26, 2017
*Dhaka pushing for special UN session*
*Foreign minister briefs envoys from different countries; China for a peaceful solution*
Diplomatic Correspondent
*Dhaka has intensified diplomatic efforts for the UN Human Rights Council to hold a special session and adopt a resolution on the Rohingya crisis.*
Such efforts, however, need support of at least 16 of the 45 member-countries for an exclusive session of the UNHRC on any issue, diplomatic sources said.

As part of the government effort, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque briefed diplomats from the US, UK, China, Russia, India, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Vatican yesterday morning.

Senior foreign ministry officials were also present during the briefing.

The foreign secretary also held an exclusive meeting with Saudi Ambassador Abdullah HM Al-Mutairi on the Rohingya issue.

During the briefing, foreign diplomats sought to know Dhaka's short, mid and long-term plans for the crisis.

In reply, officials said Bangladesh was focusing on immediate solution and wanted to see the Rohingyas taken back to their homeland as soon as possible, foreign ministry sources said.

More than 600,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh since August 25. They are mostly children, women and elderly people.
*CHINA FOR PEACEFUL SOLUTION*
China wants to see a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis, foreign ministry officials said yesterday.

“Their intention and commitment for sending them [Rohingyas] back is now stronger,” the foreign secretary told reporters quoting Chinese special envoy of Asian Affairs, Sun Guoxiang, after their meeting.

He said Dhaka informed the Chinese envoy when he came here six months ago, that the number of Rohingyas was four lakh and now it stood at one million.

The foreign secretary said China was very worried about the crisis as it was not good for the region.

However, the question of China's mediation to resolve the crisis did not come up for discussion, he added.

“We sought support in the areas where we need. We're always optimistic and this time, too [regarding repatriation],” said the foreign secretary.

He said the only issue discussed at the meeting was the Rohingya issue and Bangladesh's position is to send them back safely.

“Our stance is that their nationals will have to be taken back. It's our one-point agenda. It's an unbearable burden. The prime minister allowed them to stay here on humanitarian ground. But it cannot be for long,” he said.

Replying to a query about China's position on the issue, the foreign secretary said both Myanmar and Bangladesh were China's friends. “They want to bring a peaceful resolution working with the two friends.”

Sun Guoxiang, who arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday, will head for Beijing this morning.
*AID WORKERS BARRED*
Aid workers were barred from visiting a camp for displaced Muslims in the central part of Rakhine State yesterday.

A group of about 10 Myanmar nationals, working for US and Britain- based charity Relief International (RI), were forced to turn back when residents of the mostly Buddhist ethnic Rakhine community staged a protest in the town of Myebon, a regional administrator and an activist told Reuters.

In early September, Myanmar blocked all UN aid agencies from delivering vital supplies of food, water and medicine to thousands of Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority in Rakhine.

The Rohingyas, who recently entered Bangladesh, complained of food crisis in parts of Rakhine, while UN and other aid agencies and rights bodies have been demanding that they be allowed to provide emergency supplies to Rakhine.

“The RI group was trying to go to the camp and the locals blocked the way,” Tin Shwe, Myebon's administrator, told Reuters, adding that the aid workers returned to their office.

Khin Thein, a leader of a regional branch of the Arakan Women's Network, said her group joined the protest after authorities told the community the NGO would provide education about gender-based violence, hygiene and sanitation to Muslims.

”They have food, they have shelter to live,“ she told Reuters. ”We can't accept these kinds of excessive things for them.

"We will not allow them to pass through our township. We already protested several times in the past. We have suspicions about them. We don't trust foreigners, international people.”

Yesterday's incident was the latest example of the numerous obstacles that humanitarian organisations face in Rakhine State, said Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
*US MOUNTS PRESSURE ON TRUMP*
US lawmakers have mounted pressure on the Trump administration to declare that ethnic cleansing is taking place against the Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar.

Hundreds of women, children and men belonging to the Rohingya minority have been "systematically killed" and driven from their homes, their villages burned to the ground by Myanmar's military, lawmakers charged the State Department officials during a hearing. 

They angrily said the US made no major change to its ties to Myanmar, and its officials have shied away from legal terms such as "ethnic cleansing" or "crimes against humanity" despite what many say is strong evidence.

"This is ethnic cleansing, it's pretty clear," said Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat. "Yes, I think it's genocide."

Three US officials testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday declined to refer to violence against the Rohingya as "ethnic cleansing", before a complete review is announced, according to US media reports.

Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the committee, presided over the hearing. The members of the committee, including Senator Cardin, took part in the hearings on “Assessing US Policy towards Burma: Geopolitical, Economic and Humanitarian Considerations.”

The officials told the lawmakers that the State Department has identified and announced new and ongoing actions to punish those who have committed atrocities.

Meanwhile, US Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma (Myanmar) W Patrick Murphy said the US is working with the international community to hold accountable those responsible for atrocities in Rakhine, says a statement from the US state department.

"What I can say as a matter of policy, we've assessed that atrocities have been committed and we must pursue accountability," he said in a special briefing in Washington yesterday.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...risis-aid-workers-turned-away-rakhine-1481911


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## Banglar Bir

*Desperate for news, Rohingya refugees tune in to ‘WhatsApp radio’*
Reuters
Published at 08:23 AM October 26, 2017




Rohingya refugees who were stranded walk near the no man's land area between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Palongkhali area next to Ukhiya on October 19, 2017 *AFP*
*Dozens of WhatsApp groups have sprung up to fill the information gap*
Sat in his hillside grocery shop in a Bangladesh refugee camp, Rohingya Muslim Momtaz-ul-Hoque takes a break to listen to an audio recording on his mobile phone, while children and passers-by gather round to hear the latest news from Myanmar.

“I listen because I get some information on my motherland,” said Hoque, 30, as he plays a message on WhatsApp explaining the Myanmar government’s proposals for repatriating refugees.

Hoque has been in Bangladesh since an earlier bout of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 1992, but the number of refugees in the camps has swelled dramatically to more than 800,000 in recent weeks, after a massive Myanmar military operation sent around 600,000 people fleeing across the border.

Tens of thousands of exhausted refugees have arrived with little more than a sack of rice, a few pots and pans and a mobile phone powered by a cheap solar battery, and many are desperate for news of what is going on back home.

With few news sources in their own language and low levels of literacy, audio and video messages distributed on apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube have become a community radio of sorts for the Muslim minority.

Dozens of WhatsApp groups have sprung up to fill the information gap. Their offerings range from grainy footage of violence, to listings of the names and numbers of people missing in the chaos of the exodus, or even an explainer from educated Rohingya on how to adjust to life in the camps.
*100% trust*
At a shop selling cold drinks in the Leda refugee camp, two men played “WhatsApp news” through a loudspeaker.

Out of breath, a man narrated a scene purportedly from a village in Myanmar’s Buthidaung region, according to Mohammed Zubair, a refugee who translated the broadcasts for Reuters.

“They are surrounding the village. We are under attack from the military and the mogs…some people are seriously injured,” Zubair translates the speaker as saying, using a derogatory term common in Bangladesh to refer to ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.

“I trust it 100%,” Zubair said of the information.

Reuters was not able to verify the account.

The WhatsApp groups tend to have hundreds of members, meaning that the spread of information depends on people passing on the news.

Many of the listeners do not know who is sending the message or the trustworthiness of the broadcaster. Some said outdated or inaccurate reports were common.

“In some cases, we got audio messages of villages burning in Myanmar, and when we contact people in those villages, there’s nothing,” said one refugee inside a tea shop in Bangladesh‘s Kutupalong camp.

Other refugees said videos of violence claimed to have been filmed in villages in Myanmar turned out to be footage from other countries.
*Listening in the dark*
Many also worry that the unregulated nature of WhatsApp groups increases opportunities for voices keen to push an agenda rather than share facts.

Rohingya rebel group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – whose August 25 attacks on security forces triggered the latest crisis – and its followers have been among the most active adopters of WhatsApp to spread their message.

Audio messages urging support, updates on the latest military movements and official press releases dominate some groups.

Several refugees in Bangladesh said they had no idea if the messages, often posted by people with phone numbers registered in the Middle East or other parts of Asia, were actually from ARSA members.

Refugees also worry that Bangladeshi security forces want to monitor the broadcasts, and are looking in the camps for ARSA supporters.

At the tea shop in Kutupalong camp, refugees have stopped listening to the broadcasts on loudspeakers during daylight hours, preferring to gather clandestinely at night instead.

Still, many Rohingyas say social media platforms play a crucial role in keeping spirits up among the community.

“The Rohingya people are not organised,” said Hoque, the grocer. “They cannot take out their frustration any other way, so this is a way of protesting.”
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...e-news-rohingya-refugees-tune-whatsapp-radio/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*With the Rohingya refugees' relentless influx, Bangladesh is experiencing yet another height in the already troubled deeper political crises within the country. 
Bangladesh's foreign relations are once again proving to be one sided and lacks potential diplomatic bearing, making the situation even more uncertain, at the face of other conspiracies to let down the whole nation. what do we expect next .....*
*




 https://www.facebook.com/




*


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## Banglar Bir

*Channel 4 News*
21 mins · 
*Shocking testimony from Rohinghya women about rape and assault by soldiers in the Myanmar military.*
Jonathan Miller reports from a refugee camp in south eastern Bangladesh where women who have fled across the border.
*Myanmar's military has denied claims that they raped women.
This report contains distressing testimony about sexual violence.




 https://www.facebook.com/




*
*Born refugee*
Photos and text: Turjoy Chowdhury
*Conceived in the wombs of women crossing the border and delivered at refugee camps, Rohingya babies are born refugees. *
Their future is called into question as they are stateless under Bangladesh's Citizenship Law and are not recognised as children of citizens by Myanmar. Without birth certificates they cannot enroll in schools. 
Without proper healthcare, they face severe starvation. 

Nestled in colourful blankets given as aid, these babies are between a day and three months old. What life awaits these children born in an alien place where they have no rights and no statehood?












































*See In the shadow of violence for the full list of articles on this special issue of Star Weekend.*
*http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/the-shadow-violence/born-refugee-1474945*


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis calls for new initiatives in regional politics*
*Faruque Ahmed*




*With India and China supporting Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in the region Bangladesh has become the unwilling victim of the exodus of refugees to shelter the homeless. 
People had expected that Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj during her visit to Dhaka would recognize the concern of Bangladesh and call upon Myanmar to stop the genocide.*

Myanmar can’t destroy its ethnic Muslim minority and push them into Bangladesh. The entire world is denouncing the brutality of Myanmar military and as a regional power and Bangladesh’s best friend India was expected to play its due role to resolve the crisis.
*Sushma’s guarded statement*
But surprisingly her statements at all levels during the visit remained carefully limited to talk about the ‘displaced persons’ without naming Rohingyas by name. This is what the Myanmar government also does to refer to Rohingyas as the use of word Rohingya is banned in Myanmar.
*Her suggestion that Bangladesh is India’s best neighbor therefore, appears hollow.*

Sushma has voiced concern over the violence in the Rakhine state and hoped normalcy will return to the state with the return of the displaced persons. For this the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission need to be implemented. She said long term solution to the situation in Rakhine state is rapid socio-economic and infrastructure development.

*India is helping Myanmar with financial and technical assistance for such development and all communities will benefit from it. But many fear that linking the return of the Rohingyas with such economic and infrastructural development risks slowly abandoning their cause.

Critics say if India wants to see the Rohingyas as beneficiaries of its development assistance, it should ask Myanmar to stop killing them and torching their villages. 
The community must not be uprooted. 
But she refrained from even condemning Myanmar for the killing. *

It was evidently disappointing despite Bangladesh government’s call to put sustained pressure on Myanmar to end the crisis.

No wonder, the Indian FM’s statement has to match her prime minister’s open support for the Myanmar government. Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi expressed his country’s open support to Myanmar over Rohingya issues last month during his visit there saying India understands the country’s position on it.

Sushma Swaraj reiterated it again here further deepening the people’s frustration who were upbeat that she may take the plight of Rohingyas seriously and agree to use India’s power and influence as a friend to protect the Rohingyas.
*India can’t annoy Myanmar*
The Indian help was rightly expected when the political relations of Bangladesh with India are at all time high and Bangladesh is facing a kind of aggression from its (India’s) another friend on the border. It was expected that India should try to be even handed and help resolve the crisis.
*Shushma did not go anywhere near that and only announced providing some aid to the refugees.*

As things appear, India has been working on a long-term plan with Myanmar at political and diplomatic level over the past several years and at times at the cost of Bangladesh.
Its Myanmar policy aims at containing China’s influence in that country along its Northeast border where China has finalized a deal with Myanmar to build a deep-sea port at Sithwei in the Rakhine coast.

China is also setting up an industrial state in the region as part of its one belt one road policy initiative prompting India to put all its efforts to woo the Myanmar government and provide matching financial assistance. The Rohingya issue, therefore is not its priority.
*
Incidentally, India is also working to reduce China’s influence in Bangladesh. *
It torpedoed China’s bid to set up a deep-sea port at Sonadia Island in the Bay of Bengal in 2014. China is now going to build that port at Sithwei while the Bangladesh government’s plan to build the deep-sea port at Sonadia has been shifted to Paira closer to Kolkata port.

The Japanese government plans to set up an energy hub at Matarbari Island in the Bay of Bengal including an LNG terminal and coal depots to set up several large coal-based power plants is also going slow while the giant Rampal power plant – with two 1320 MW power production facilities at western border has become a priority project.
*Indian diplomats tell the truth*
In fact the ‘Look East’ policy of Bangladesh with road and railway link from Chittagong to Thailand and China’s Kunming through Myanmar is no more a priority on the map in the volatile situation.
China is now going to the Bay of Bengal using deep sea port at Sithwei like the ones it has built in Sri Lanka and Gwador in Pakistan to link China with Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea.
*Indian diplomats made made no secret of Indian strategy. 
Former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal said in a recent article in an Indian daily that India should give priority to Myanmar over Bangladesh. 
He suggested that Myanmar is India’s gateway to the East and it should work with Myanmar to build a highway from India to Vietnam through Myanmar and Thailand. 
So India should not see Rohingya issue on bilateral perspective with Bangladesh.*

In an interview with BBC former Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakrovarti has bluntly announced that India has no reason to stand by Bangladesh on the Rohingya issue. He said Delhi has closer relations with Myanmar like that of Bangladesh’s special friendship with China.
So Bangladesh should now tell China to do something on Rohingya issue.

He said Bangladesh rushes to the Chinese court whenever it feels like.
So it may now ask China to take some Rohingyas. It is not India’s problem and China must do something if it so believes.
*
But the fact is that like India, China also has not been helpful to Bangladesh when it comes to the Rohingya crisis. It has been left alone.
They are both supporting Myanmar to protect their interest.

Bangladesh has some strategic value to be the gateway to Bay of Bengal and beyond but its importance has apparently been outmaneuvered. *
This is a critical time for Bangladesh and experts believe new initiative is needed now to rework the country’s policies to cope with the changing political landscape.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=2&date=0


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## Banglar Bir

*The real reason so many Rohingya girls are pregnant*
Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
Published at 12:22 AM October 27, 2017
Last updated at 02:33 AM October 27, 2017




A medical officer providing vaccine to a Rohingya childFile Photo
*The scenario revealed itself as thousands of minor Rohingya girls started to visit medical centres *
Unable to do anything else to protect their daughters from the jaw of brutal sexual assault by Myanmar’s military forces and Mogh extremists, helpless parents in the country’s strife-torn Rakhine state are marrying off their underage daughters in a bid to save them from the assaulters.

The scenario revealed itself as thousands of minor Rohingya girls started to visit medical centres at refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar for pregnancy-related diseases.

Soon after giving birth to a baby, the girls in Rakhine expect another, because they think that remaining conceived is the only means to protect themselves from the brutalities of the army and Mogh (Rakhine Buddhists), narrated expectant women who frequently visit the medical centres.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Dr AZM Zajid, coordinator of a medical centre near Panbazar at Balukhali of Ukhiya upazila, said: “Every day, some 3,000 to 5,000 Rohingya people visit this centre with numerous diseases. Of them, 400 to 500 are expectant mothers who come to receive treatment for pregnancy-related complications.

“Many of them are suffering from various risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth. We have to struggle to provide treatment to this many patients at a time.”

Quoting victims, Zahid said: “In Rakhine, girls are married off at a very young age as their parents hold the belief that army men and Mogh would not target their married daughters.

“And the girls expect baby soon after their marriage. As a result, they each have five to 12 children. Even, we have treated expectant mothers as young as 12/14.”

Marrying off underage girls has apparently become a social convention, he added.

In the same vein, male counterparts of the Rohingya women said they too prefer the women to conceive at a young age.

“This has already become a custom in our society. The earlier a girl is married off, the better. Nobody wants his mother, wife and sisters to be violated [at the hands of army men], said an elderly Rohingya refugee, Abdul Zabber.

Fearing stigma, many such girls initially declined to talk to the Dhaka Tribune when the correspondent approached them for their accounts. Later, some of them admitted that they had to agree to wedding proposals as per their families’ will, as they were at a constant risk of losing their virginity to the soldiers and Buddhist extremists.

Moreover, the problems of child marriage and early pregnancy are getting even worse due to illiteracy among the girls and lack of family planning campaigns in Rakhine.

On Wednesday, when taking treatment at the Panbazar medical centre, Rohingya refugees Mubina Begum, Sapura Khatun and Ramija Begum described why girls in the state prefer being conceived all the year round.

According to the trio, army men, assisted by local Buddhists, rape Rohingya girls for hours at a stretch after picking them up from their homes, an organised campaign of sexual assault against the Rohingya Muslims that has been continuing for decades.

They burst into tears as they described their terrible ordeal to the correspondent.

Ramija wiped away her tears remembering her 14-year-old daughter Shahena, who never returned home after the Mogh had kidnapped her one year ago.

According to Dr Pintu Kanti Bhattacharya, deputy director of the Directorate General of Family Planning, Cox’s Bazar, there are over 30,000 expectant women among 603,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar since August 24, after ethnic conflicts in Rakhine sparked the most rapid human exodus since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Since then, 700 to 1,000 babies have been born in Bangladesh, while over 10,000 women will be delivered of their babies soon, he said, adding that every day seven to eight babies are born at different medical centres in the camps.

Dr Pintu stressed the need for bringing the Rohingya women, who have taken shelter in Bangladesh, under the directorate’s family planning campaigns.

“Apart from treating the women infected with various diseases including malnutrition, seven medical teams comprised of 200 health workers are counselling them on birth control. The teams are also carrying out awareness building campaigns to this end,” the official continued.

According to reports released by the UNHCR, International Organization for Migration and other stakeholders, 120,000 pregnant and lactating women are in dire need of nutrition support in the refugee camps.

Dr Mejbah Uddin Ahmed, health and family planning officer in Ukhiya upazila, said: “Most girls who fled Rakhine are rape survivors. We have yet to identify all of them.”

Stigmatised and therefore reticent, the victims are too shy to share their ordeal with the physicians. As a result, listing and treating them have become a cumbersome task, he added.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/10/27/mysteries-surrounding-pregnancy-rohingya-girls/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:42 AM, October 27, 2017
*Same old trick*
*Myanmar still rigid on its strategy over Rohingyas' return*
Shakhawat Liton
*Myanmar's promise to take back the Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh to escape a brutal military crackdown, looks hollow, as it is still showing an unbending attitude towards them.*

*Following a Myanmar union minister's Dhaka visit early this month, Naypyidaw announced that repatriation of the Rohingyas must be done on the basis of verification of the refugees in line with the criteria agreed to by the two countries in a joint statement in 1992.*

Yesterday, it came up with a similar statement hours after Bangladesh's home minister concluded his Myanmar visit.

*Naypyidaw made it clear that it doesn't want to take back all 600,000 Rohingyas, who have taken refuge in Bangladesh over the last two months.*

“I am not sure how many people would be repatriated," said U Tin Myint, permanent secretary of Myanmar's Ministry of Home Affairs.

"But that would be carried out based on the national verification process of the immigration and population ministry,” he said in the statement available on the official website of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

If the 1992 agreement is followed, only around 14,000 Rohingyas may get the chance of repatriation, if at all. The reality is that more than six lakh Rohingyas have already arrived in Bangladesh since August 25.
*
The mention of the 1992 agreement is a tactic to buy time and avert international pressure.*

The agreement was signed after an influx of more than 2.5 lakh fear-stricken Rohingyas who fled their country following a crackdown.

After prolonged discussions, Naypyidaw agreed that the Rohingyas having “Myanmar citizenship identity cards or national registration cards or other relevant documents” issued by the authorities concerned could return to Myanmar.

*But since then, things have changed in Myanmar, making it impossible for Rohingyas to meet these criteria.*

The Myanmar government began a citizenship verification process in 2014 under the draconian 1982 law which deprived Rohingyas of citizenship. It allowed temporary resident cardholders to apply for citizenship on condition that they are listed as Bangalees.

But in 2015, the temporary resident cards were also cancelled, denying Rohingyas voting rights in the 2015 elections that saw Suu Kyi's return to power. Later in June that year, Myanmar started issuing Identity Cards of National Verification.

As the Kofi Annan Commission set up by Suu Kyi this year reported that around 4,000 Rohingyas out of one million have been recognised as citizens or naturalised citizens. Around 10,000 more Rohingyas got national verification cards considered as a preparatory step towards citizenship. 

Myanmar's proposal means it is unwilling to take back more than the 14,000 registered Rohingyas. And its intent not to take back all Rohingyas has been exposed through its home secretary's remark that “I am not sure how many people would be repatriated".

Naypyidaw's attitude also indicates that its strategy is designed to buy time as its home secretary said "Bangladesh wants to repatriate as soon as possible. But we will go step by step and form a joint working group for repatriation."
*
Myanmar is in no hurry even to form a joint working group.* When its minister visited Dhaka, both sides agreed to form the joint working group. In yesterday's statement, Myanmar said the working group would be formed in November.

And this time, it came up with another devious tactic as it is now speaking about resettlement of Rohingyas whom they will take back. 
*This indicates that Myanmar will not allow Rohingyas to return to their homeland in Rakhine State. *

According to a report by Myanmar newspaper Irrawaddy, Myanmar home secretary said on Tuesday, "We are yet to rebuild infrastructure and draw up resettlement plans to accept them back."

When the Myanmar minister visited Dhaka early this month, there were around five lakh newly arrived Rohingyas in Bangladesh. But that number has now crossed six lakh.

Naypyidaw also doesn't believe in the UN statistics on Rohingyas crossing border into Bangladesh.

"There is a huge gap regarding the numbers of people who fled to Bangladesh between the ground survey of Rakhine State government and UN statistics," said the Irrawaddy report quoting the Myanmar president's office.

In yesterday's statement, Suu Kyi, de facto leader of Myanmar, was quoted that she expressed her firm conviction to resolve bilaterally all issues including repatriation of the Rohingyas in an amicable manner.

But the tactics of her government portrays the opposite.

In the statement, the Myanmar government, however, acknowledged a historic truth by saying the Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations.

It further admitted that Rohingyas are denied citizenship and access to basic civil rights such as freedom of movement, decent education and healthcare.

These acknowledgements clearly show that the Myanmar state machinery has made things extremely difficult for the Rohingyas to live there as human beings.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-same-old-trick-1482355


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## Banglar Bir

*India loses the plot on the Rohingya issue: Hands the game to China*
P K Balachandran, October 27, 2017




Suu Kyi with Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan
*India appears to have lost the plot on the Rohingya issue. Despite having a measure of clout both in Bangladesh and Myanmar, and appeals by Dhaka to mediate, New Delhi has been found wanting in terms of ideas and action, with the result, China has stolen the initiative.*

It is undoubtedly due to Beijing’s behind-the-scenes efforts that Bangladesh and Myanmar have begun to talk, and talk constructively to determine the fate of an estimated one million displaced Rohingyas, now living in gigantic camps spread over 2000 acres in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

Confusion over its relative interests in the two countries; what it should do to contain China; and systemic deficiencies in the decision making process; appear to have resulted in India’s losing the initiative to China.

As a result, China could gain ground in both Bangladesh and Myanmar at India’s expense. China and India both have vital economic and strategic interests in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

*It is undoubtedly due to Beijing’s behind-the-scenes efforts that Bangladesh and Myanmar have begun to talk, and talk constructively to determine the fate of an estimated one million displaced Rohingyas.*

India sent a fair amount of relief material to the Rohingya refugees. But it did little else to solve the basic issue which had led to the exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh. New Delhi did not even suggest a way out of the crisis. It was more concerned about preventing the Rohingyas from entering India and throwing out the 40, 000 already in the country.

It was only very recently that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Dhaka that the only way out is to help Myanmar develop Rakhine State economically.
But her solution was way off the mark.
She had missed the point entirely.

The central issue is not economic backwardness, as she believes, but is religious-cum-ethnic. The Myanmarese do not accept the Rohingyas as indigenous nationals but as illegal Bengali Muslim immigrants, who stand in sharp contrast to the majority community in Myanmar –the Myanmarese Buddhists.

The Rohingyas have been denied citizenship though they have a history of settlement in Rakhine State going back to the 12th. Century. They have not only been denied citizenship but have been subjected to movement restrictions. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid has described the exodus from Rakhine into Bangladesh as being the result of “textbook ethnic cleansing. ”

Dhaka called for mediation by India and China. But while China responded, India did not, for fear of annoying its new-found friends in Myanmar.

China sent its Special Envoy on Asian Affairs, Sun Guoxiang, to Dhaka. India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was also in Dhaka for two days but she was more interested in the January 2019 parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, keen as India was in seeing that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) contests the elections and not boycott it as it did in 2014. India wants to be able to play one Bangladeshi party against the other to promote its interests within the framework of parliamentary politics.




Sun Guoxiang, China’s Special Envoy
*Dhaka called for mediation by India and China. But while China responded, India did not, for fear of annoying its new-found friends in Myanmar.*

Significantly, Swaraj did not speak about the Rohingyas until she was asked to.

On the other hand, China has always had a clear cut and consistent policy on the Rohingyas. It has disapproved the practice of pointing fingers at one of the parties to the conflict. It has argued that international intervention will only complicate matters and has called for bilateral talks between Myanmar and Bangladesh to solve the issue between themselves.

*China has had no suggestions to give to the two countries, but has only wanted them to thrash out the issues untrammeled by fears of international intervention.*

International intervention by the West and the UN is anathema to the Myanmar military which actually rules the country.
And this view is shared by Suu Kyi also, because she looks at the Rohingyas in the same way as the military does.

The threat of international intervention in the form of economic sanctions also worried Myanmar, which is just about coming out of isolation to exploit its immense natural resources for its own growth and prosperity in a highly globalized world.

The US is toughening its stand on the Rohingya issue and is contemplating targeted sanctions.
The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) is going to meet the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly which deals with human rights issues.
The UN Human Rights Council is to take up the issue in November.

In a way, Bangladesh too is wary of a broad spectrum international intervention under the aegis of the UN as it could vitiate bilateral relations with India and China. It also does not want anybody and everybody to come with relief fearing infiltration by intelligence agencies, saboteurs and Islamic radicals.

It is said that a leading Muslim organization from the UK had made a very attractive offer and was given permission to provide relief in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps. But it was sent packing in a week because its staff were radicalizing the refugees in night classes held in the camps.
*10-Point Program*
It was apparently due to China’s efforts that Kyaw Tint Swe, Minister for the Office of the State Counselor, visited Dhaka earlier in October. Following that, this week, the Bangladesh Home Minister, Mohammad Asaduzzaman Khan visited Myanmar as the head of a 10-member delegation and had an hour’s talks with Suu Kyi.
*
As a result, a 10-point program to take back the one million Rohingyas who had fled Myanmar has been adopted*.

According to the Myanmar news portal _Mizzima _the bilateral agreement envisages “stopping immediately entry by Myanmar nationals into Bangladesh and repatriation of refugees at the earliest date and restoring normalcy in Rakhine Region for their resettlement.”

Both sides also agreed to finish by November, the formation of the Joint Working Committee, which was announced in Dhaka early in October.

This is exactly what Dhaka has been wanting. It has achieved a breakthrough, as it were. On Wednesday Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque met Chinese Special Envoy Sun Guoxiang. He told the media later: “China is concerned. They believe this is not good for this region. They want the issue to be settled peacefully. They want it to be settled bilaterally. ”

The Foreign Secretary said that he updated the Chinese official, who had last visited Bangladesh in April this year. He told Sun that the total number of Rohingyas in Bangladesh has now gone up to one million.

Asked if Myanmar has agreed to take back the Rohingyas any time soon, Haque said: “We are optimistic.”
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...n-the-rohingya-issue-hands-the-game-to-china/

*UN rejects Myanmar’s claim of nod for houses for refugees*
SAM Staff, October 27, 2017




In this September 30, 2017 photo, Rohingya survivors of a boat capsize, Sona Mia (center) and Lalo Mia (right), sit in a room to meet administration officers at Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh, Photo: AP
Points to killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs

*A United Nations settlement programme, UN-Habitat in Myanmar, on Thursday rejected a state media report that it had agreed to help build housing for people fleeing violence in the northern Myanmar state of Rakhine, where an army operation has displaced hundreds of thousands.*

The development underscores tension between Myanmar and the United Nations, which in April criticised the government’s previous plan to resettle Rohingya Muslims displaced by last year’s violence in “camp-like” villages.

More than 6,00,000 have crossed to Bangladesh since August 25 attacks by Rohingya militants sparked an army crackdown. 
*The UN has said killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs since then amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.*

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on 26 October that UN-Habitat had agreed to provide technical assistance in housing displaced people in Rakhine and the agency would work closely with the authorities to “implement the projects to be favourable to Myanmar’s social culture and administrative system.”

But Stanislav Saling, spokesman for the office of the U.N. resident coordinator in Myanmar, told Reuters in an email that “no agreements were reached so far” after the agency’s representatives attended a series of meetings with Myanmar officials this week in its capital Naypyitaw.

“The UN-Habitat mission emphasized that resettlement should be conducted in accordance with the principles of housing and property restitution for refugees and displaced persons to support their safe and dignified return to their places of origin,” he said, responding on behalf of UN-Habitat.

UN-Habitat welcomed the interest of the Myanmar government in international norms and standards, he added.

The UN principles state that all refugees or displaced persons have the right to return to property or land from which they were arbitrarily or unlawfully removed.
SOURCE REUTERS
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/27/un-rejects-myanmars-claim-nod-houses-refugees/


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## Banglar Bir

*Statement by Ms. Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar at the 72nd session of the General Assembly*




Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Yanghee Lee. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré
*Statement by Ms. Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar at the 72nd session of the General Assembly
Third Committee, Agenda Item 72 (c), *
25 October 2017
New York

Mr. Chair,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A lot has happened between now and from the time I had finalized my report in late August following my visit to Myanmar in July. A lot has been reported on the situation in Rakhine State in the last two months and many allegations have been made of terrible inhuman violent acts.

While much that has happened is still uncertain, some undeniable facts have come out. What is undeniable is that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from northern Rakhine and that hundreds of their villages have been torched and burnt down since the alleged attacks by Rohingya militants on 25 August.

Yet Myanmar's State Counsellor asked us to consider the 50 per cent of Muslim villages that have not been destroyed. The Commander-in-Chief then supposedly suggested the number of those who have fled has been exaggerated and that they must have fled because they felt safer in Bangladesh. And the Minister responsible for the safe return of those who have fled reportedly speculated that the hundreds of thousands of people who fled did so as a ploy to give an appearance of ethnic cleansing.

Mr. Chair,
Before I speak further on the crisis that has unfolded dramatically these last weeks, please allow me to present the main highlights from my latest report as well as some developments since July which cover a range of issues from across the country.

Excellencies,
Earlier this month, Myanmar ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights albeit with a declaration in relation to the right of self-determination. I look forward to the government taking steps towards achievement of the full realization of the rights in the Covenant.
I remain of the view that constitutional reform must proceed to allow for proper operation of therule of law in Myanmar. I take the opportunity to again draw the attention of Myanmar officials and lawmakers to the non-exhaustive list of laws which I have identified to be in contravention of international human rights standards and consider their repeal or amendment.
If those laws are not prioritized for review, the legislative reform necessary for Myanmar to transition to democracy will certainly be incomplete.
I have in the past commended Myanmar's flourishing, widening democratic space; however, I find that the protection of reputation in Myanmar's national legislation appears to go beyond what is permissible under international law, effectively resulting in the criminalization of legitimate expression under which people, including journalists, continue to be prosecuted.

Distinguished Delegates,
During my July visit, I met representatives from civil society and communities affected by all threespecial economic zones currently in progress in Myanmar, specifically in Yangon, Dawei and Kyaukphyu. For all three zones, communities reported that initial phases or preparatory work had had a largely negative impact on their lives, with many of those affected still suffering negative consequences. There is a need for these projects to be carried out transparently, with communities receiving continuous information, being genuinely consulted and given the opportunity to suggest alternative options.
Land confiscation remains a major concern for not only communities affected by special economic zones but also thousands of others across the country. Though the government has established bodies to tackle the issue of land compensation, with over 9,000 cases pending, fully addressing all cases remains a big challenge, and communities are frustrated when their attempts to seek redress are unanswered.
Just over a week ago, the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement was commemorated. Yet it is unclear whether the peace process has actually advanced since that time. Additionally, reports of violent clashes between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed groups continue, including against a group who is party to the ceasefire. I am extremely concerned at not only the ongoing escalation of conflict in Kachin and Shan States, but also continuing and increasing reports of allegations of serious rights violations as well as decreasing humanitarian access.
There appears to be an increasing number of cases of civilians being killed or injured by mortars or artillery shells, including an incident in July in which a two-year old child was killed. The regularity of incidents raises concerns that parties to the conflict, including the Tatmadaw, are either not distinguishing between military and civilian targets or not systematically taking precautions to protect the civilian population. In addition, people continue to be displaced by conflict, and the large numbers of long-term displaced people in Kachin and northern Shan States, and Kayin State remain unchanged. I encourage efforts to address factors preventing returns, including the continued presence of the military in areas of origin, concerns about housing, land and property rights and difficulties in accessing civil and identification documents.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
It has been said that dangerous and dehumanizing speech tends to precede incidents of mass atrocities. And the reports that I have received certainly point to widespread use of hate speechdirected against the Rohingya population amounting to incitement to hostility and even violence. Unfortunately, there seems to be little sympathy, let alone empathy, for the Rohingya people in Myanmar. For decades, it has been cultivated in the minds of the Myanmar people that the Rohingya are not indigenous to the country and therefore have no rights whatsoever to which they can apparently claim.
I have also been receiving consistent reports of incidents against Christians and Muslims from across the country. There are reports of villages with signage either to keep Muslims out or to announce that they are Muslim-free. Mosques that have been standing for generations and other religious structures are being shut down ostensibly for administrative reasons though affected communities are rarely informed ahead nor provided with alternative places to practice their religious beliefs in congregation. Christian worshippers participating peacefully in a service commemorating six years since renewed conflict in Kachin were deemed unlawful protestors. Christian converts are threatened to revert back to Buddhism and subject to state sanctioned violence. Local Rakhines are threatened and punished for interacting and trading with Muslims. In one instance, a Rakhine woman was publicly humiliated, had her hair shaved, made to wear a sign saying she is a traitor and walk around her village for allegedly selling food to the Muslim camp community that had been blockaded and running out of food.
In the wake of the exodus of over half a million Rohingya individuals and others from northern Rakhine, much debate and analysis have come out regarding who exactly is responsible and can be made responsible for the violence that has caused this massive number of people to flee in just matter of weeks. It has been highlighted over and again how the Constitution is such that the military remains very much in control over the issue of national security and state law and order, with little oversight possible by the so-called civilian part of the Government.
Yet I believe that there is much that can be done by the civilian government. Starting with public messaging that embraces the entire make-up of the Myanmar population, of so many ethnic groups, and of various faiths. Use the show of the inter-faith alliance and solidarity from a few weeks back to combat prejudice and bigotry. Take advantage of the majority in Parliament to strike down laws that are discriminatory to show that all groups in Myanmar have equal rights.

Mr. Chair,
I have found events of past weeks devastating. The reports of villages in northern Rakhine that have been torched and destroyed are of villages that I had personally visited. The people reported to have fled must have included those I have met in my past trips, people who had appealed to me to be given the opportunity to live in peace, to be given the opportunity to work, to move freely to visit friends and family, to have access to doctors and medicine, and to help their children get an education or even simply feed them a proper meal regularly.
Already two weeks before 25 August, an army battalion was flown into Rakhine State to help augment the security there. I then issued a statement expressing concerns of a repetition of the alleged violations which followed the 9 October 2016 attacks. About 87,000 people reportedly fled between last October and August. After the 25 August attacks, almost seven times that number have fled in under two months.

Excellencies,
I will not go into the details of the alleged violations which led to the exodus but would strongly appeal for there to be an honest and impartial accounting of what has happened and for those responsible to answer for their action. Giving access to the Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission would be a good start.
My main concern is the current situation of the Rohingya community and what will happen to them next. Genuine implementation of the Kofi Annan Commission's all-encompassing set of recommendations would have gone far in addressing not only the root causes to the cycles of violence in Rakhine State that affect all communities there but also the protracted statelessness of the Rohingya population and decades-long persecution of them.
However with there likely being more of the Rohingya population located in Bangladesh now as compared to Myanmar, I am concerned that only a fraction of them will be allowed back, though all have the right to return. I am also concerned as to how long it might take for the government to ensure that the conditions for their return would be safe and dignified, as well as their being able to rebuild their lives when so much has been destroyed.
I am informed that the Myanmar government has insisted that UNHCR and IOM – expert entities on the issues of statelessness, refugees and voluntary returns – should be excluded from the bilateral discussions regarding the repatriation process. I find this unreasonable and unacceptable.

Distinguished Delegates,
The Rohingya population in Cox's Bazar – who have had their food supply blocked and been starving, been shot at while fleeing, walked for weeks to reach safety, lost family members on the way to refuge, and are now living in plastic sheets – should not be made to meet with stringent requirements if they so wish to return to Myanmar. Citizenship verification should be a different process for them to undergo, voluntarily after consultation once they are home, and not be part of repatriation. Once they return, they must be permitted to return to their place of origin, and not made to live in temporary camps as these camps may not turn out to be temporary as those who were displaced in 2012 have learnt.
Most importantly, the Myanmar government must take steps to let the Rohingya population know that they are welcomed back and that necessary steps will be taken to ensure their safety and protection. Their welfare and well-being and that of the other communities in Rakhine State – including the Rakhine, the Kaman, the Mro, the Hindu, and the Daignet – should be assured equally ahead of efforts to reconcile them and advance on economic development of the region.
Given the critical situation of the Rohingya population and its unlikely resolution in the near future, I ask the General Assembly to remain seized of the situation not just in Rakhine State but for the whole of Myanmar. The duality in Myanmar's government structure to which Mr. Kofi Annan has spoken of does not only have impact in Rakhine State but also in the rest of the country.
I also recommend that the Security Council includes Myanmar as an agenda item, and I hope it passes a strong resolution in due recognition that the crisis in Rakhine State had not only been decades in the making – but has been spilling over, and continues to spill over, beyond Myanmar's borders. For a very long time now this issue has not been simply a domestic affair.

Friends and Colleagues,
I can say without a moment of hesitation that no one would like to see the democratic process of Myanmar derail. At the same time, I cannot erase from my mind the large bright eyes of a young toddler whom I met in Cox's Bazar. He was rescued by his mother after he was thrown into a fire. His eyes were sparkling with hope and eagerness to meet what life has in store for him.
Shouldn't this little boy be given the opportunity to join with others who are part of Myanmar's democratic transition and be able to enjoy his inherent rights?
Time is of the essence ever more so in Myanmar now!
Thank you for your attention.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/statement-by-ms-yanghee-lee-special.html


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## Banglar Bir

10:16 AM, October 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 10:28 AM, October 27, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calls Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing*




US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Myanmar's army chief Thursday, October 27, 2017, to help end the violence in Rakhine state that has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee. This Reuters photo taken on October 26, 2017 shows Rohingya refugees line up to receive humanitarian aid in Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
AFP, Washington
*US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Myanmar's army chief Thursday to help end the violence in Rakhine state that has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee.*
In a phone call with Min Aung Hlaing, Tillerson expressed "concern about the continuing humanitarian crisis and reported atrocities in Rakhine", according to a statement by State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
*Also READ: Same old trick*
"The Secretary urged Burma's security forces to support the government in ending the violence in Rakhine state and allowing the safe return home of those displaced during this crisis, especially the large numbers of ethnic Rohingya," she added, using Myanmar's former name.

More than 600,000 members of the minority Muslim group have fled across the border into Bangladesh in an intensifying crisis that began in late August.

Militant attacks on Myanmar security forces in Rakhine sparked a major army crackdown on the group, who are labelled illegal Bengali immigrants by most Burmese.

Tillerson, who paid a visit to Myanmar's giant neighbor India earlier this week, urged the military in his phone call to facilitate humanitarian aid for those who have been displaced.

He also told the army to "cooperate with the United Nations to ensure a thorough, independent investigation into all allegations of human rights abuses and violations and to ensure accountability", said the statement.

Washington announced on Monday it was pushing for targeted sanctions against officers from the Mynanmar army involved in violence while withdrawing invitations to senior members of the security forces to visit the US, and ending travel waivers.

The move came after Tillerson had said the US holds Myanmar's military leadership "accountable" for the refugee crisis, drawing a distinction with Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government.

Tillerson warned last week the world won't stand and "be witness to the atrocities that have been reported," adding that the military must be disciplined and "restrained."

Min Aung Hlaing has consistently defended his forces against accusations of having committed atrocities.

"One-sided statements and accusations against Myanmar and security members over the terror attacks of extremist Bengalis in the west of Rakhine State are totally untrue," he said in a post on his Facebook page Tuesday.

Supporters say Rohingyas have been systematically deprived of basic rights over decades in majority Buddhist Myanmar.

In the latest crackdown, Myanmar's security forces have fired indiscriminately on unarmed civilians, including children, and committed widespread sexual violence, according to UN investigators
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

*'Rohingya crisis spinning out of control'*
Reuters . London | Update: 00:12, Oct 27, 2017 




*A combination of escalating violence, worsening health and poor access to conflict zones in Myanmar's Rakhine state is fueling a humanitarian crisis that is "spinning out of control", senior aid officials said on Thursday.*

"We've seen a massive increase in violence not just between armed actors but also civilians, which is tearing families apart and leaving people to feel completely abandoned and disenfranchised," Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed the border to neighbouring Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts sparked a ferocious counter-offensive by the Myanmar army.

*The United Nations says killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs amount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.*

"I worry that this continued context of fear and violence is spinning out of control and will only lead to displacement of more people," Maurer said.

Myanmar has blocked humanitarian agencies apart from Red Cross organisations from accessing the northern part of Rakhine state in western Myanmar, where the conflict worsened at the end of August.

"Being one of the only actors able to operate in Myanmar presents a considerable challenge in terms of accessing villages and knowing where displaced people are," Maurer said.

"Some of my colleagues have had to walk for six-seven hours to a village, only to find it's been deserted," he said, although he added the Myanmar authorities had recently authorised Red Cross staff to use two helicopters to better track displaced people.

Maurer said high levels of inter-communal violence meant that aid workers were sometimes met with a "mixed reception" by communities and had to take "extreme care to convince people that we are not here to take anyone's side".
*'NO END IN SIGHT'*
The humanitarian crisis is compounded by a worsening health situation, experts say.

Nipin Gangadharan, Bangladesh country director at aid organisation Action Against Hunger, said refugees arriving in Bangladesh were "taking a longer time to get here because of the constant violence, so their health is deteriorating significantly."

"We're seeing rising levels of malnutrition, particularly among children, and people who survive on one meal a day," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that his organisation was treating malnourished children and providing mental health support to refugees suffering from trauma.

"There's no end in sight to the conflict, so us humanitarian actors are in it for the long run," Gangadharan said.

Maurer shared his view, saying that "we're still in emergency response mode, handing out survival kits, two months after the conflict escalated."
"I fear that's still going to be the case for the next few weeks." 
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/164471/Rohingya-crisis-spinning-out-of-control-Aid


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




CNN Connect the World
14 September · 
*This is the heartbreaking reality facing the Rohingya on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. 
More than 380,000 of them have fled to Bangladesh since late August because of on-going violence in Myanmar.*

*The Rohingya crisis: UN official ‘very disappointed’ in Suu Kyi*
Tribune Desk
Published at 10:08 AM October 27, 2017
Last updated at 10:33 AM October 27, 2017




A woman carries her ill child in a refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 26, 2017 *Reuters*
*According to UNHCR, at least 604,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence that erupted in Myanmar on August 25*
Yanghee Lee, the United Nations investigator of human rights abuses in Myanmar, has expressed deep disappointment in Aung San Suu Kyi for her indifferent response to the Rohingya crisis.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations on Thursday, the investigator underscored international frustrations over the behaviour of the state counsellor of Myanmar regarding the persecution of the Rohingya.

Child rights expert Yanghee Lee of South Korea was appointed to her United Nations human rights post in 2014, reports the New York Times.

“Well-documented accounts of killings, rapes, burned villages and forced displacement gets no coverage in Myanmar’s news media,” Lee said while talking about the hatred and hostility against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.

She said: “It has really baffled everyone, and has really baffled me, about Daw Aung’s non-position on this issue.

“She [Suu Kyi] has not ever recognised that there is such a people called Rohingya — that’s a starting point. I’m very disappointed.”

The UN investigator added: “If the Myanmar leader [Suu Kyi] were to reach out to the people and say, ‘Hey, let’s show some humanity,’ I think people will follow her — she’s adored by the public.”

“Unfortunately, there seems to be little sympathy, let alone empathy, for the Rohingya people in Myanmar,” Lee said. “For decades, it has been cultivated in the minds of the Myanmar people that the Rohingya are not indigenous to the country and therefore have no rights whatsoever to which they can apparently claim.”

Suu Kyi skipped the annual United Nations General Assembly in September what was widely viewed as a way to avoid hard questions and confrontations over the Rohingya crisis.

She was criticised by other leaders, including some fellow Nobel laureates, for her response towards the torture on the Rohingyas in her country.
*Also Read- Suu Kyi claims military operation stopped two weeks back*
According to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR), at least 604,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence that erupted in Myanmar on August 25.

Myanmar’s de-facto leader last month publicly addressed concerns over the deadly conflict in Rakhine State, highlighting her government’s commitment to restore peace, stability and rule of law in the region scarred by armed conflict between insurgents – the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – and security forces.

Without mentioning the word Rohingya, she said carefully-worded lines of condemnation, saying that Myanmar has “never been soft on human rights”.

Earlier, on August 29, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that satellite data accessed by the rights body had revealed widespread fires burning in at least 10 areas in Rakhine State, where local residents and activists have accused soldiers of shooting indiscriminately at unarmed Rohingya men, women, and children, and carrying out arson attacks.

Myanmar authorities, on the other hand, claim that Rohingya “extremist terrorists” have been setting these fires during fights with government troops. Human Rights Watch reports they could not obtain any comments on this issue from any government spokesperson.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/10/27/rohingya-crisis-un-official-disappointed-suu-kyi/


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## Banglar Bir

*An alternative to 'refugee camp, then repatriation' strategy for Rohingya crisis?*





Rohingya refugees stand on a hill overlooking dwellings in the Kutupalong makeshift refugee camp, in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh. 
Photo by: © UNICEF / Brown
_By_ Kelli Rogers
Devex
October 26, 2017
*BANGKOK* — During Monday’s Rohingya pledging conference, government representatives expressed gratitude for Bangladesh’s open borders, support for a strong humanitarian response, and hope that the Rohingya people are eventually able to return to their homes in Myanmar — from which they’ve fled brutal violence since August 25, following decades of statelessness.

But Kilian Kleinschmidt, whose humanitarian career spans 25 years and who previously managed Jordan’s Zaatari Refugee Camp, would propose a strategy for this complex crisis that doesn’t involve the construction of a refugee camp in Bangladesh while waiting for mass repatriation to Myanmar.

It’s time to disrupt the “temporary” mindset automatically adopted in refugee situations, he told Devex, and to instead harness demographic changes as a trigger for positive growth. 
For Kleinschmidt, a leader in a growing movement to rethink the refugee camp concept, this should come in the form of a “special development zone” in Bangladesh — a take on special economic zones he’s been researching through the Innovation & Planning Agency, an organization he founded after leaving UNHCR in 2014 to explore new solutions to humanitarian crises.

The Bangladesh government has openly stated that the country will not grant refugee status to Rohingya and wants to work instead toward the “safe, dignified, voluntary return of its nationals back to their homes in Myanmar,” said Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, at the U.N. pledging conference.

*In reality, humanitarian actors still face restricted access in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state — where the military has targeted violent attacks toward the population — and Myanmar officials have denied the international outcry of ethnic cleansing. *

There appears “very little hope that [Rohingya] will be going back for the next couple of decades or so,” Kleinschmidt said. “So the question now is, ‘Who should be developing what?’”

Humanitarian actors in Cox’s Bazar in the meantime are building what will be the world’s largest refugee camp on 3,000 acres of land allotted by the Bangladesh government, though at the same time lobbying for smaller, dispersed camps. 
The acreage has been billed as short-term — a space “to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya newcomers,” according to a Facebook post by Mohammed Shahriar Alam, a junior minister for foreign affairs in Bangladesh.

This focus on “temporary” is the first mistake, according to Kleinschmidt, who is largely credited with transforming Jordan’s now five-year-old “temporary'” Zaatari camp into the country’s fourth largest city. There, about 80,000 people have settled in prefabricated container homes. While the camp faces its own challenges, the community has created a functioning marketplace within its limits.

Instead, the focus on long-term investment in the form of a “special development zone” would suit the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, Kleinschmidt said — and humanitarian agencies are not the ones who should be building it.

“I think a real bold step forward would be to come up with a proposal to the Bangladeshi government, to say ‘Look, you have potentially 1 million people, they will be a burden as they are if you let humanitarian agencies continue for the next 20, 30, 50, 100 years to take care of them,” he said. 
“Let’s flip the whole thing, let the humanitarian agencies respond now, but let’s work on a plan to build up a new special development zone, which will combine these settlements with opportunities for your own people who have to move.”

Many existing special economic zones — areas where business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country — “are driven by political, short-sighted decisions, so there has to be due diligence on what the location is and what the potential is,” Kleinschmidt said. 

The zone would require a multi-stakeholder partnership and likely a group of professional developers to build up infrastructure and build in advanced technologies, financial systems, and land tenure mechanisms — basically an entire economy — “where people from different parts of the world can live and thrive together,” he said.

The idea may appeal to Bangladesh especially, he added, considering the country is facing its own crisis with rapidly growing climate change displacement and resulting urbanization challenges.

Humanitarian actors are very much needed at this time in the response, he said, and would continue to have a place supporting protection and other issues. But professional developers would be in the driver’s seat. 

“You attract investment, you’re creating jobs, you’re building up real infrastructure, you’re moving that completely out of humanitarian logic,” Kleinschmidt said.

The idea also potentially addresses the issue of stretched humanitarian funding to address the health and safety of more than 800,000 refugees in the long run. 

“U.N. agencies will need to continue to update and adapt our appeal to support beyond what we have put out and we are discussing today,” said Mark Lowcock, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, during Monday’s pledging conference. “Let me be clear — funding is a major constraint. We need more money to keep pace with intensifying needs.”

A total of about 35 countries and organizations have now pledged $344 million for both Bangladesh and Myanmar responses since the crisis began on August 25. 
As of Wednesday, the U.N.’s response plan appeal is about 30 percent funded, with $132.6 million received, according to OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service. 

As for the number of refugees, “we say it’s huge, but it’s huge for the humanitarian sector because the humanitarian sector is only a $25 billion [industry] a year,” Kleinschmidt said. “It’s a joke the money which is available.” 

Instead, Asian investors, potentially together with the EU, should put together a $50 billion package to invest in proper infrastructure, technology, factories, and service delivery, he said. 

“If it is not driven by the humanitarians, then the Bangladesh government will for sure react to this positively,” he added. “The politics of ‘Oh my God, now we’re settling the Rohingya’ will be overdriven by ‘Now we are getting a real investment package, now we use that as a positive trigger for development.’”

*In the meantime, Kleinschmidt advocates against viewing repatriation as the only positive solution. The UNHCR promotes three durable solutions for refugees as part of its core mandate, the most preferred being voluntary return, then local integration, followed by resettlement.* 

“I think that sort of classification with these three options, with voluntary return as the preferred, leads to the public opinion in Europe, in Jordan, in Bangladesh that a good refugee is a returning refugee,” Kleinschmidt said. “It blocks all of us in actually saying, ‘Well guys, now you’re here, now let’s check you in. 
Later, if you want to go back, you go back.’”
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/an-alternative-to-refugee-camp-then.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingyas must go home but to safety, Bangladesh says*




Words like haunted, slaughtered, raped, disappeared are highlighted on the speech of Joanne Liu, president of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), during the Pledging Conference for Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
_By_ Stephanie Nebehay
Reuters
October 23, 2017
*GENEVA* --* Bangladesh called on Myanmar on Monday to allow nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees to return home under safe conditions, saying that the burden had become “untenable” on its territory.*
About 600,000 people have crossed the border since Aug. 25 when Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts were met by a counter-offensive by the Myanmar army in Rakhine state which the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

“This is an untenable situation,” Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a U.N. pledging conference. “Despite claims to the contrary, violence in Rakhine state has not stopped. Thousands still enter on a daily basis.”

Vital humanitarian aid must continue, Ahsan said, adding: “It is of paramount importance that Myanmar delivers on its recent promises and works towards safe, dignified, voluntary return of its nationals back to their homes in Myanmar.”

Bangladesh’s interior minister was in Yangon on Monday for talks to find a “durable solution”, he said.
But Myanmar continued to issue “propaganda projecting Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh”, Ahsan said, adding:* “This blatant denial of the ethnic identity of Rohingyas remains a stumbling block.” *

Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be stateless, although they trace their presence in the country back generations.

Filippo Grandi, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, later told journalists that the two countries had begun talks on “repatriation”.

Conducive conditions have to be “recreated” in Rakhine, he said. “This must include a solution to the question of citizenship, or rather lack thereof for the Rohingya community,” Grandi said.




Mark Lowcock (R), Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA), talks with Shameem Ahsan, Representative of Bangladesh at the U.N. before the Pledging Conference for Rohingya Refugee Crisis at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Khaled al-Jarallah, deputy foreign minister of Kuwait, called on Myanmar authorities to “cease the practice of stripping the Rohingya minority of their right of citizenship, which as a result deprives them of the right to property and employment”.
*“THE WALKING DEAD”* 
Jordan’s Queen Rania visited Rohingya refugee camps on Monday and called for a stronger response from the international community to the plight of the Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape “systematic persecution” in Myanmar.

“One has to ask, why is the plight of this Muslim minority group being ignored? Why has the systematic prosecution been allowed to play out for so long?” she asked after touring the camps.
The United Nations has appealed for $434 million to provide life-saving aid to 1.2 million people for six months. A total of $344 million has been raised so far, a final U.N. statement said.

“We need more money to keep pace with intensifying needs. This is not an isolated crisis, it is the latest round in a decades-long cycle of persecution, violence and displacement,” U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the talks.

An estimated 1,000-3,000 Rohingya still enter Bangladesh daily, William Lacy Swing, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. He called them: “these most rejected and vulnerable people in the world.”
*
Joanne Liu, president of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, described them as “the walking dead”. *

There are only 210 hospital beds for 1 million refugees, malnutrition is on the rise and latrines are lacking to prevent contamination, she said. “The camp is a time-bomb, ticking towards a full-blown health crisis.”
_Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Rafiqur Rahman in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/rohingyas-must-go-home-but-to-safety.html_


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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingyas: Chronicle of a genocide foretold, one policy at a time*
*The Myanmar government embarked on a calculated strategy that could only have led to the current situation, as this book explained last year.*




An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal. | Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Azeem Ibrahim
*Myanmar the preconditions for genocide are now firmly in place. *
Racism has been normalised among the ethnically Burman population and the Rohingyas have already been subject to communal violence, state oppression and have been forced into both internal and external exile.
Anti-Rohingya sentiment has been deliberately stoked up by a series of regimes since Burma gained independence. And most of the waves of anti-Rohingya violence have either been orchestrated by the state or have seen the officials of the state acting in close cooperation with other ethnic or religious groups.

A powerless minority is the victim of effective ethnic cleansing, in an environment where they are hated by their neighbours and actively discriminated against by state authorities. The situation is stark. Rohingya human rights activist Tun Khin has said, “We fear we will be wiped out.” Given the importance of preparing the ground for genocide, in terms of creating a particular set of social attitudes, his conclusion should be a warning to the world: “In the case of inhumanity and injustice, no one should be silent. What’s happening to us requires a serious kind of humanity – this is a very important moment for Rohingya.”

*There has been no improvement since 2004 when Barbara Harff argued that Myanmar was the state in the world most at risk of genocide.*
Indeed, with the recent waves of violence, the situation has palpably worsened. According to United to End Genocide, “nowhere in the world are there more known precursors to genocide than in Burma today”. The Early Warning Project identified Myanmar in 2015 as the state in the world most at risk, above countries such as Sudan, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which all receive more international attention.

The attitude of the Myanmar state towards its Rohingya minority has already crossed many of the lines from ethnic conflict towards genocide. The way the state thinks about this minority is also fundamentally racist, and more than that, the Rohingyas are now seen to be an existential threat to the chosen religious identity of the state.
The events since 2012 can be seen as testing the limits of what is deemed acceptable both by Myanmar’s society and the wider international community, and are comparable to the build-up to genocide we have seen in the other examples discussed. As such, it seems the only thing missing is a trigger for outright genocide.

…Each electoral cycle in Myanmar since 1990 has seen a further reduction in the rights of the Rohingyas. They were able to participate in the elections between independence and military rule, with some limits, and ethnic Rohingyas were elected to parliament (and continued to serve in parliament even after the imposition of military rule in 1962).
In 1990, despite the loss of many rights in the intervening period, a number of Rohingyas were still allowed to vote and stand for elections, and even won seats.

Disgracefully, the NLD and its Rakhine allies then cooperated with the military to have these victories annulled. Even in 2010, some Rohingyas had the right to vote and three were elected from Rakhine. One of these, Shwe Maung, stood for the USDP.

To properly understand the risks of the 2015 electoral cycle we need first to look at how the lead-up was used to complete the exclusion of the Rohingyas from civic life in Myanmar, then consider the wider political dynamics in Myanmar as a whole, and then move on to consider the very specific dynamics within Rakhine.
*
There is a risk that tensions at either national or regional level could be the final trigger; however, the complete exclusion of the Rohingyas in effect means that either the authorities reverse their recent decisions or the situation will escalate into forced deportation and/or mass murder. In effect, this has created a situation in which anything can be the final trigger, since any safety nets or alternative power structures have been destroyed.

The lead-up to the 2015 elections was marked by an escalation of the exclusion of the Rohingyas. *
As a group, they have been left with no place in civic Myanmar, many have been forced into internal camps, their last vestige of official documentation has been stripped away and there were, for the first time ever, almost no Muslim candidates from any ethnic group, including those outside Rakhine, standing for parliament in 2015.

A key step in bringing this situation about was the census conducted in 2014, when the Rohingya ethnic group was not included, and was expected to self-identify as foreigners. David Mathieson of Human Rights Watch has expressed severe concerns not just about the conduct of the census but also the complicity of the UN and other donors:

“The exclusion of the Rohingya from the census was a betrayal of the very principles and purpose of conducting the census, and the international donors and UN agencies who were involved are complicit in this exclusion. The Rohingya have the right to self-identify and should be accorded the rights of citizens. The census [in] refusing to do so doesn’t solve the problem of stateless Rohingya, it exacerbates it and the government shouldn’t be caving to extremists and their racist agendas.”

The 2014 census saw the deliberate exclusion of the Rohingyas, as they were forced to choose to register either as “Bengalis” or be excluded. Even the official version of the census report shows the reality in Rakhine. One third of the population was declared as “not enumerated” and nowhere in the glossy state publications can the casual reader find an explanation for this remarkable outcome. The relatively small numbers excluded in Kachin and Kayin States reflects ongoing armed conflict in those areas, something that clearly is not the case in Rakhine.

*The Rohingyas were removed from the electoral register whether they accepted the state-imposed designation of “Bengali” or refused to answer.*
Accepting the state designation as “Bengali” was tantamount to accepting the loss of any right to live in the country of their birth. Refusing to accept this designation meant the regime confiscated any remaining identity cards and tried to force all those who now lack identification into the internal refugee camps. A recent report has noted that this has “led many Rohingya to believe that there is little hope for their future in Myanmar”. An ASEAN report believes that this complete exclusion from the civic life of their own country has led many Rohingyas to conclude they are being forced out of Myanmar.

Naturally, a government spokesman managed to justify this exclusion: “They are holding household cards stating that they are Bengali even though they self-identified themselves to be Rohingya, which is not allowed, so we did not accept that and instead classified them as ‘unidentified’”.

However, the destruction of the last vestiges of their participation in civil life has not just been a product of the census. The persecution of the Rohingyas continues to be a factor in the interaction between the USDP, the NLD and the extremist Buddhist organisations. For example, in late 2013 the USDP had supported the idea that the holders of so-called “white cards” (that is, Rohingyas who lack normal citizenship) would be able to vote on constitutional reforms, but Buddhist nationalists immediately protested the move and the USDP was forced to back down.

Thein Sein later declared that all white cards would expire in March 2015 and armed groups of security personnel carried out the removal of the last official documents from the possession of the Rohingyas. The loss of the last identity documents is critical as it means the Rohingyas are no longer entitled to travel or work outside the designated refugee camps.

In addition, Muslims in general have been removed from the electoral process by a re-interpretation of electoral law. In particular, the MaBaTha and 969 Movement have forced the regime to pass further discriminatory laws about citizenship and civil rights, for example restricting marriage between Buddhists and other religious groups. Not only do the new laws add to the wider repression of the Rohingyas but, under pressure, the government has removed more than 100 possible Muslim candidates from the electoral list.

Among them was Shwe Maung, on the grounds that his parents were not citizens. This effectively eliminated the last Rohingya voice in parliament. Tun Min Soe, who was planning to run for the NLD, has also been rejected, a decision that provoked a mild rebuke from the NLD, with their spokesman Nyan Win stating, “the rejection of candidates based on the citizenship of their parents is in my opinion an infringement upon the equal rights of citizens”.

However, the electoral commission has cited two related laws in justifica-tion of its decisions: one barring people from running for office if their parents were not Myanmar citizens at the time of their birth; and another requiring candidates to have lived in the country for the past ten consecutive years.

*The forced displacement of the Rohingyas into internal camps, and the removal of their last vestige of democratic rights has led some observers to call Myanmar an “apartheid state”.*
In consequence, the Rohingyas are now excluded both as electors and in terms of representation and they are an easy (and shared) target for all the represented political camps. The implication is clear: failure to gain any political voice to speak for their interests in the 2015 elections means that, as a Rohingya activist put it, “the whole Rohingya will be a sort of degraded or persecuted community, and that cannot continue for long”. The inevitable result is that “the Rohingyas will disappear from Rakhine State. It is sure Rohingya will disappear”.




_Excerpted with permission from _The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide_, Azeem Ibrahim, Speaking Tiger.
We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in._
https://scroll.in/article/855265/the-rohingyas-chronicle-of-a-genocide-foretold-one-policy-at-a-time


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh, Myanmar Journalists Face Obstacles Reporting Rohingya Story*
October 25, 2017 10:37 AM
Joe Freeman
Muktadir Rashid




Rohingya refugees, who crossed the border from Myanmar two days before, walk after they received permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue on to the refugee camps, in Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Oct.19, 2017.
YANGON, MYANMAR — 
For journalists from Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya crisis is a big news story that demands both aggressive reporting and a sensitive approach.

Even for the most experienced reporters in both countries are having difficulty to report from the other side.

Though diplomatic ties are intact, relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar are strained over the crisis, which has seen more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims flee from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Cox’s Bazar just across the border. Though Myanmar has agreed to take back refugees, doubts remain over the prospect of repatriation.

The exodus followed attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on August 25, the second operation by the group in under a year.

In this tense climate, journalists from the two neighboring countries are even more restrained than usual.

For Myanmar reporters, the problem was highlighted in September when two prominent photographers were arrested in Cox’s Bazar and initially suspected of espionage.

Charges were later downgraded to immigration offenses and they were let go after several weeks. Like many in the international media, they had traveled to Bangladesh on tourist visas – the case was also something of a cautionary tale.

Myanmar journalist Mratt Kyaw Thu, a senior reporter for Yangon- based _Frontier_ magazine, said in an email he had planned to go to Bangladesh to report, but the experiences of the two detained journalists meant two foreign staff members went instead.




Myanmar photojournalists Minzayar Oo and Hkun Lat, who were arrested in Bangladesh, are seen with their lawyer in a photo posted on Twitter, Oct. 17, 2017.
Still, even foreign journalists based in Myanmar can sometimes face suspicion by association.

Mratt Kyaw Thu said traveling to Bangladesh even from Myanmar can be expensive, and local budgets are small.

"One thing is that security is not only the one reason for Burmese journalists but costs and expenses and some publishing houses' policy," he said.

Bangladeshi journalists, who also have travel budget concerns, do have more ability to interview Rohingya refugees who have crossed over, but they run up against their own hurdles.




If they travel to Myanmar, it is usually in short, clandestine trips across the border to Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township, and they cannot go very far into the territory.

They also may find it difficult to verify accounts they hear originating in other parts of the state, as Myanmar has only allowed local and some foreign journalists to travel on trips into northern Rakhine.

There are also, of course, safety concerns.

Hasan al-Javed, an award-winning reporter with the Dhaka-based _Daily Amadersomoy_, has crossed into Maungdaw from Bangladesh twice, including after August 25. He was terrified of the army, local mobs, and even landmines, and could not go very far because of the associated risks.

“Every time I felt, if I could talk to people freely and move around the locality without any fear, I could give better descriptions for my readers and could find out the truth,” he said.

“Look, in Bangladesh, our government allowed foreign journalists to cover the events so that people can know the facts, said al-Javad. "Since Myanmar is led by a democratic government, it should allow journalists to visit Rakhine State for the sake of truth. Neither any U.N. bodies nor any international pressure groups can do it, rather democratic Myanmar should do it for the sake of humanity.”

Religion -- Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country, while Myanmar is largely Buddhist -- and nationality provide another potential obstacle.

Even if allowed to travel freely in other parts of Rakhine, Bangladeshi journalists would almost certainly face issues reporting, especially in the state capital, Sittwe, where suspicion of foreign journalists – let alone foreign Muslim journalists – runs high. Myanmar believes the Rohingya are from Bangladesh originally, and the government calls them Bengali.




Rohingya Muslim women along with their children, who have crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, wait for the arrival of Queen Rania of Jordan, at Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, Oct. 23, 2017.

The restrictions faced by journalists from Myanmar come in two forms - lack of ability to see the story from the Bangladesh side, and a similar lack of access to Rakhine State itself, which has only allowed them in on guided tours.

The Yangon-based Myanmar Institute for Democracy (MID) released an interim report this month showing that many Burmese-language news organizations have almost no stories on the humanitarian situation in Bangladesh, though sometimes they use articles from wire agencies.

The report also said sourcing is one of the main problems.

“A big chunk of the coverage comes from the government organization, like the state counselor [Aung San Suu Kyi’s office], president, and then the armed forces,” said Maw Zin, the institute’s director.

MID recommends the government remove barriers to accessing parts of northern Rakhine State, which would help journalists in Myanmar get information from a variety of sources.
https://www.voanews.com/a/bangladesh-myanmar-journalists-and-rohingya-crisis/4085406.html


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## Banglar Bir

3:52 PM, October 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:05 PM, October 27, 2017
*Myanmar gives green light to resume UN aid to Rakhine*




Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine state, Myanmar
September 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Reuters, Geneva
*Myanmar authorities have agreed to allow the United Nations to resume distribution of food in northern Rakhine state which was suspended for two months, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.*
The WFP was previously distributing food rations to 110,000 people in northern Rakhine state - to both Buddhist and Rohingya communities.

Rohingya insurgent attacks on police stations triggered an army crackdown, that the United Nations has called "ethnic cleansing", and UN humanitarian agencies have not been able to access northern Rakhine to deliver aid since then.

"WFP has been given the green light to resume food assistance operations in northern part of Rakhine. We are working with the government to coordinate the details," WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told journalists in Geneva.

She had no timeline or details on the proposed distribution of rations to members of the Muslim Rohingya minority still living in northern Rakhine, and said it was still being discussed with the authorities in Myanmar.

"We just have to see what the situation on the ground is. 
It's very hard to say these things if you can't get in," Luescher said.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

07:09 PM, October 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:21 PM, October 27, 2017
*"Consistent" pattern of crimes against Myanmar's Rohingya, UN experts say*




Rohingya refugees who crossed the border from Myanmar this week cry as they take shelter at the Seagull Primary School in Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, October 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Reuters, Geneva
*Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar have testified that a "consistent, methodical pattern" of killings, torture, rape and arson is taking place, United Nations human rights investigators said on Friday after a first mission to Bangladesh.*
The fact-finding team, led by former Indonesian attorney general Marzuki Darusman, said the death toll from the Myanmar army's crackdown following Rohingya insurgent attacks on August 25 was unknown, but "may turn out to be extremely high".

"We have heard many accounts from people from many different villages across northern Rakhine state. They point to a consistent, methodical pattern of actions resulting in gross human rights violations affecting hundreds of thousands of people," Darusman said in a statement.

The team of three independent experts spent six days interviewing some of the 600,000 Rohingya from Myanmar's northern Rakhine state who are in refugee camps near Cox's Bazar. An advance team of UN rights officers have been conducting comprehensive interviews for weeks, it said.

"We are deeply disturbed at the end of this visit," Darusman said.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, another member and veteran UN human rights investigator, said she was left "shaken and angry" by the testimonies.

"The accounts of sexual violence that I heard from victims are some of the most horrendous I have heard in my long experience in dealing with this issue in many crisis situations," she said. "One could see the trauma in the eyes of the women I interviewed. When proven, this kind of abuse must never be allowed to go unpunished."

The UN team, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in March, renewed its appeal for access to Rakhine state and for talks with the Myanmar government and military to "establish the facts".

The third member, Christopher Sidoti, said that Rohingyas must be allowed to return to Rakhine if they wish, but only after mechanisms are put in place to ensure their safety.
"That may require the placement of international human rights monitors in Rakhine State," he said.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...mar-rohingya-refugee-un-unhrc-experts-1482613


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## Banglar Bir

*A War of Words Puts Facebook at the Center of Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis*
MEGAN SPECIA and PAUL MOZU
OCT. 27, 2017
*So he has turned to an even more powerful and ubiquitous platform to get his message out — Facebook.*
Every day he posts updates, often containing false information, that spread a narrative of the Rohingya as aggressive outsiders. And posts like these have put Facebook at the center of a fierce information war that is contributing to the crisis involving the minority group. International human rights groups say Facebook should be doing more to prevent the hateful speech, focusing as much on global human rights as on its business.

*“Facebook is quick on taking down swastikas, but then they don’t get to Wirathu’s hate speech where he’s saying Muslims are dogs,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division.*

Across the world, Facebook and other social platforms are being questioned about their expanding role and responsibilities as publishers of information. In Britain, investigations have begun into the spread of misinformation on social media about the European Union membership referendum. In the United States, lawmakers are looking into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election on social media platforms.




*Across Myanmar, Denial of Ethnic Cleansing and Loathing of Rohingya OCT. 24, 2017*



*THE INTERPRETER*
*Myanmar, Once a Hope for Democracy, Is Now a Study in How It Fails OCT. 19, 2017*



*U.S. Threatens to Punish Myanmar Over Treatment of Rohingya OCT. 23, 2017*



*What Does Facebook Consider Hate Speech? Take Our QuizOCT. 13, 2017*
In Myanmar, Facebook is so dominant that to many people it is the internet itself. And the stakes of what appears on the site are exceptionally high because misinformation, as well as explicitly hostile language, is widening longstanding ethnic divides and stoking the violence against the Rohingya ethnic group.Photo




Monks in Yangon, Myanmar, studying at the Ywama Monastery, which supports the Buddhist nationalist Ma Ba Tha movement. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
For example, since the government crackdown against the Rohingya began, Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the country’s de facto leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has shared dozens of posts on his Facebook page and Twitter account that include images said to show Rohingya burning their own homes. Many of these images have been debunked, yet they still stand.

First-person accounts from Rakhine State establish a coordinated crackdown against the Rohingya minority by the military and by ultranationalist groups, driving more than 600,000 refugees across the border into Bangladesh.

Facebook does not police the billions of posts and status updates that flow through the site worldwide each day, relying instead on an oftentimes confusing set of “community standards” and reports by users of direct threats that are then manually assessed and, in some cases, removed.

After the 2016 United States elections, Facebook rolled out a set of guidelines to help users identify fake news and misinformation. The company does not regularly remove misinformation itself.

Facebook has no office in Myanmar, but the company has worked with local partners to introduce a Burmese-language illustrated copy of its platform standards and will “continue to refine” its practices, said a spokeswoman, Clare Wareing, in an emailed statement.

Human rights groups say the company’s approach has allowed opinion, facts and misinformation to mingle on Facebook, clouding perceptions of truth and propaganda in a country where mobile technology has been widely adopted only in the past three years.

Under the rule of the military junta, strict censorship regulations deliberately made SIM cards for cellphones unaffordable to control the free flow of information. In 2014, restrictions loosened and the use of mobile technology exploded as SIM cards became affordable. Facebook users ballooned from about two million in 2014 to more than 30 million today. But most users do not know how to navigate the wider internet.Photo




Followers of Ashin Wirathu watching him deliver a sermon on a projector screen in an overflow area of the Thein Taung Monastery in Myanmar in 2013.Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
“Facebook has become sort of the de facto internet for Myanmar,” said Jes Kaliebe Petersen, chief executive of Phandeeyar, Myanmar’s leading technology hub that helped Facebook create its Burmese-language community standards page. “When people buy their first smartphone, it just comes preinstalled.”

Mr. Petersen said local media and news outlets should help combat misinformation in a technology sector still in its infancy.

“There are still some challenges here, and there are of course very big differences between big cities and rural communities,” he said. “I think it’s really important that people focus on educating this new generation of digital users.”
*The Interpreter Newsletter*
Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

*In the meantime, Facebook has become a breeding ground for hate speech and virulent posts about the Rohingya. And because of Facebook’s design, posts that are shared and liked more frequently get more prominent placement in feeds, favoring highly partisan content in timelines.*

Ashin Wirathu, the monk, has hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook accounts in Burmese and English. His posts include graphic photos and videos of decaying bodies that Ashin Wirathu says are Buddhist victims of Rohingya attacks, or posts denouncing the minority ethnic group or updates that identify them falsely as “Bengali” foreigners.

Facebook has removed some of his posts and restricted his page for stretches, but it is currently active. In an interview, Ashin Wirathu said that if Facebook did remove his account, he would simply create a new one. He added that if anyone did not like his Facebook posts, “they can sue me.”

Posts from verified government and military Facebook accounts also carry misinformation. Some, for example, refuse to acknowledge the Rohingya as an ethnic group deserving of citizenship rights, despite the fact many have lived in Rakhine State for generations.
*What Does Facebook Consider Hate Speech? Take Our Quiz*
The company’s rules help to show how it distinguishes between free speech and hate speech. Judge for yourself.


Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of Myanmar’s armed forces who has carried out the crackdown on the Rohingya, has more than 1.3 million users on his verified account. A post from Sept. 15 describes the operation as a response to an “attempt of extremist Bengalis in Rakhine State to build a stronghold,” after an Aug. 25 attack on remote border posts by a Rohingya militant group.

Rohingya activists also use Facebook, documenting human rights abuses, often with graphic images and videos as evidence. Sometimes the company has taken these down.

Ms. Wareing, the Facebook spokeswoman, said the company removed graphic content “when it is shared to celebrate the violence.” She said the company would allow graphic content if it was newsworthy, significant or important to the public interest, even if it might otherwise go against the platform’s standards.

Richard Weir, an Asia analyst with Human Rights Watch, said the situation was complicated.

“It’s a really delicate balance here between things that are violent and posted by people who would seek to inflame tensions and those that are trying to disseminate information,” Mr. Weir said. “It’s difficult to know where exactly to draw the line.”

Some of the social media conversation is happening privately. For instance, chain messages on Facebook Messenger before Sept. 11 this year falsely warned of a planned Rohingya attack against Buddhists. Written like a chain letter, the message called for people to share it, and many people were put on edge as it spread.

“I was nervous about it,” said U Tin Win, a teacher from Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, who received the letter. “I don’t know who started the message, but I ordered my family not to go outside that day.”

Mr. Weir said that people in Myanmar relied on social media for their news.

“The government can sort of trot out its own views and spread them very rapidly, in addition to a bunch of other nonstate entities,” he said. “Views about people in Rakhine State, about the origins of population and about things that may or may not have happened fly around Facebook extremely quickly and can create unstable situations.”
Megan Specia reported from New York, and Paul Mozur from Shanghai. Mike Isaac contributed reporting from San Francisco, and Saw Nang from Mandalay, Myanmar.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/...id=facebook&mccr=edit&ad-keywords=GlobalTruth

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## Banglar Bir

2:00 AM, October 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:15 AM, October 28, 2017
*Rohingya Repatriation: Is Bangladesh falling for Myanmar's ploy?*




Without grasping the full extension of Myanmar's ploy of only taking “legitimate citizens” back, Bangladesh will always keep struggling with any sort of decision on Rohingya issue. PHOTO: STAR
Amir Khasru
*While for Bangladesh the Rohingya problem started back in 1978, for the Rohingyas,it started as early as the 17th and 18th centuries and became worse after 1940*. 
For decades Myanmar have kept this problem alive,and Bangladesh, being geographically closest to Myanmar and Rohingya people, is constantly facing the aftermath.Yet it has never had a proper strategy to handle this issue. And the lack of speedy and precise decision has become more evident with every passing day. Myanmar, on the other hand, has been very consistent in moving its agenda, a scheme that is gaining momentum along the way, and they have an action plan for their final goal.

In 1978, two hundred and fifty thousand Rohingyas were forced to take shelter in Bangladesh due to government backed dispersion and eviction from their homeland. Bangladeshi authorities at the time initially sought to solve the problem by taking bilateral diplomatic initiatives, butMyanmardid not heed any diplomatic call. However, after China's mediation and a “special counter-measure” by Bangladesh government, they could not but negotiate. 

An agreement was signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar on the July 9, 1978, for the repatriation of Rohingyas. One of the key points in this agreement was that the Myanmargovernment had referred to the Rohingya as a legally valid citizen. Under this agreement, Myanmargovernment was forced to take back almost allRohingyas. 

Soon after this, with this in mind, Myanmar changed the citizenship law for Rohingyas (especially Muslims) in Rakhine State in 1982, introducing a strange law which identified Rohingyas as foreign citizens, i.e. Bengali people. All the relevant documents and identity cards from before 1982, were seized from the Rakhine Rohingyas. Then three types of citizenship were introduced represented by pink, blue and green ID cards. Only people who had lived in Rakhine for at least five generations received full citizenship. The year 1823 was set as the benchmark, which favoured the Rakhine Buddhists. People who started living in the region after 1823, received associate citizenship. And those who did not receive full or associate citizenship before 1948 were dubbed as naturalised citizens. This last group of people are Rohingya Muslims who have been facing discrimination for generations. Thenew citizenship law was an obvious scheme by the Myanmargovernment to push out all the Rohingyas from their homeland where they have been living for several centuries.

In 1991-92 another round of violence and torture were inflicted on Rohingyas and this time two hundred thousand of them fled to Bangladesh. Following the exodus, Bangladesh again called for diplomatic action and Myanmar's foreign minister at that time reluctantly participated in a bilateral meeting organised by Dhaka in April, 1992. A joint statement was signed at that meeting which was later considered as an agreement. This agreement had several differences withthe 1978 agreement. Firstly, Myanmar addedtwo key words in this agreement, one was “Myanmareselawful citizens” and other was “Myanmaresesociety members”. Today it is very evident why these two termswere used. 

The second key difference was that, in the 1992 joint statement Myanmar clearly stated that they would not take back anyone without proper documents. Third, those who were not willing couldn't be forced to return to Myanmar.With these three key differences lie the shortcomings in our farsighted planning. Policy makers at that time failed to realise the reason why Myanmar changed their citizenship law in 1982 and introduced new terms and conditions in the 1992 joint statement. All these are relevant to today's problem.

Myanmar is still referencing to the 1992 agreement. Bangladesh must realise why they keep impressing on 1992 and what the significance of 1982 citizenship law in the matter is. Without grasping the full extension of Myanmar's ploy of only taking “legitimate citizens” back, Bangladesh will always keep struggling with any sort of decision on Rohingya issue.

Since the latest influx of Rohingya from August 25 of this year, the 1992 Agreement keep coming back and at one-point Bangladesh even stated that Myanmar must take back Rohingyas according to the 1992 agreement. One has to wonder whether our policy makers comprehended exactly the implications of what they were saying.They ultimately did, but it is now too late. 

Recently, one of the union minister of MyanmareseState Councillor's Office completed a three-day visit to Dhaka.After a joint meeting with the Myanmar representative, the Bangladeshforeign minister said that they were ready to oblige to the 1992 treaty for Rohingya repatriation. On the very next day (October4), the office of the Myanmar State Councillor said that according to the joint statement of 1992, legitimate citizens can return to Myanmar and they will gladly rehabilitate them. 

Here is the catch, if this process starts, only 14 to 18 thousand Rohingyas out of 9 lakh can be repatriated. Finally realising the mistake, Bangladesh arranged a briefing with foreign diplomats on October 9.Even with the realisation one can still doubt whether Bangladeshi policy makers are able to see through Myanmar's intention or their 1982 citizenship law. 

In the October 9 briefing, Bangladesh foreign minister stated that repatriation based on valid citizenship credentials will not work and it is Myanmar's trick of not taking back Rohingyas and not implementing the Kofi Annan Commission's resolution. This realisation should have come much earlier. 

It is important to mention two things here. First, when the problem arrived barging at the doors, Bangladesh was caught unaware. Secondly, Dhaka was hoping for leverage on Myanmar from common friends forgetting the basic rule of foreign policy—every nation prioritises themselves first. 

Another important thing to note is that the joint working group (JWG) which Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed upon might be completely powerless as no one knows how they will work, when will they work and what will they work for. Moreover, many believe, JWG itself is a Myanmaresetacticto buy time ultimately aiming at befoolingthe international community. The Bangladesh home ministervisited Myanmar with a draft outline, hoping to sign a suitable agreement. However,both sides agreed to form a joint working group within November 30. The Myanmar Times on October25 in a report said, “It's too early to accept ['Bengalis' back from Bangladesh],” Colonel Aung HtayMyint head of the Transnational Crime Division, told reporters at a news conference after the ministerial meeting. Myanmar officials have also said they will accept the terms and conditions of the agreement that was signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh in 1992.Aung San Suu Kyi' and her office have been repeatedly saying that the joint statement of 1992 will be the basis of all negotiations.

Interestingly, right after the announcement of the formation of the joint working group, the State Councillor's Office of Myanmar made it public that the arrangement would be based on 1992 joint statement but no one from Bangladesh has opposed that. Not to mention, UN wasn't made aware of the joint working group nor will they have an observer status. Myanmar also has a long history of ignoring UN and itsother organisations. So many are speculating that the joint working group is nothing but smoke and mirrors to waste time. 

What happens now is the question. Should we accept that we are trapped by Myanmar's long weaved scheme. Will the Rohingyas end up being stateless forever? One can only hope that this is not the case.
Amir Khasru is a senior journalist.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/rohingya-repatriation-1482733

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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar crisis: Will Sk. Hasina seek new allies? *
Afsan Chowdhury, October 28, 2017




An albino Rohingya child at the camp on the border with Myanmar that is now home to thousands of refugees. Photo: Reuters/Cathal McNaughton
*The Myanmar refugee crisis may cause several contingent problems at local, national and international levels. Old relationships are already under stress and the potential for unexpected new relations with erstwhile foes are emerging too. 
Bangladesh has become the new playground of volatility in the region.*

China and India though foes in South Asia are competing friends in Myanmar and have added their strength to its position on the Rohingyas.

The wholesale pushing out was a product of a long-term policy that first became public in 1978 and still continues. Myanmar has with some accuracy thinks that Bangladesh on its own is not able to be a robust gatekeeper of its borders and have used this situation analysis to develop a staggered ethnic cleansing policy.
*Also Read: India loses the plot on the Rohingya issue: Hands the game to China*
In 1978, it happened at a small scale, grew in 1992 and in the last phase has peaked. In executing this policy, Myanmar assessed not just the capacity of Bangladesh’s defense options but the strength of the guarantees provided by its international supporters — China, India and Russia — who see little strategic benefit in supporting Bangladesh at the moment.
*
The recent visit by Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to Myanmar has not been very positive, sources say*. While on paper it is polite, the trickling out suggests that Bangladesh will not see a quick return of refugees if any return barring a token few thousand. 

Meanwhile, _bdnews24.com_, the leading online newspaper has published an item on 27th October, which states that Suu Kyi has said that Rohingyas are not keen to return. 
She is also facing huge opposition by militant Buddhists of Myanmar on this plan. 
*Bangladesh is becoming more aware that not much is about to happen soon making a rethink of its existing strategic options.*

Although Ms. Sushma Swaraj, India’s External Affairs Minister visited Bangladesh recently, it didn’t trigger much interest. The message and the reading is that India has no reason to choose between Myanmar and Bangladesh including competing with China in Myanmar. However, *India will seek from Dhaka some sort of guarantee of transit passage through Bangladesh to the Indian NE and promises that North East rebels will be denied sanctuary which Sheikh Hasina has done so far.*

While, what Bangladesh will do in such a changed scenario is not certain anymore there is only so much that Bangladesh can afford to do when it comes to mighty India. 
Bangladesh will operate on a limited leash unless a big friend arrives which at this point can only be the US.
*ARSA, ISI and the US *
Indian media’s nervousness with Bangladesh since its Myanmar tilt is obvious reflecting official unease with it as well. Several stories have appeared since August 25 in Indian media linking attempts from within the Bangladesh army to topple Sk. Hasina, which were denied by Bangladesh officials. 
The last one appeared in Kolkata Telegraph – 26th October – which said that a meeting of senior serving and retired army officers was held on October 21st to discuss a ‘sensitive issue “but the “plan was nipped in the bud.”
*Also Read: China wants peaceful solution to Rohingya crisis*
The report goes on to add the ARSA factor like the previous stories and that ISI is behind it all but adding that Awami League is very anti-ISI. 
This statement probably reflects India’s anxiety about a possible robust presence of Pakistan influence in Bangladesh due to the gap created by India’s tilt. It’s also a possible message that the army, very pro-Hasina is not fully reliable and she may need other friends, possibly India. Sheikh Hasina appears fairly impregnable right now even the stories assert. ISPR has also issued a denial to media.
*
However, Pakistan’s unpopularity has been diminishing in Bangladesh since India’s Myanmar tilt and India knows that.* 
If the situation worsens, Bangladesh will consider who can help its cause, which could include historical foe Pakistan and other so called ‘Islamic states’ including Turkey. That something is on, is no secret and Bangladesh has banned three ‘islamic’ NGOs for working ultra vires in the Rohingya camps but the Islamic card remains.
*Also Read: India’s firm policy pushes more Rohingyas to Bangladesh*
But unlike Bangladesh’s own Jihadi outfits, which are extremely unpopular, ARSA is seen as a militant force created to protect the Rohingyas from the genocidal Myanmar army which has not been criticized by India, China or Russia. *Thus, public sympathy is with the Rohingyas and thus ARSA is seen by many as an insurgency outfit not a Jihadi terrorist one. 
This fine line of public perception is working for ARSA and its promoters.
New friends and foes?*
Meanwhile, patience with international diplomacy is beginning to wear thin and of Rohingyas as well. Stray clashes have been noted between Rohingyas and locals and anxiety about the impact of long term stay now appears lot more in media than in earlier months.

*The issue of international refugees is now beginning to become internal political issue and that may force Sk. Hasina to look for new allies more aggressively.*

The only big power which has shown interest of being on Bangladesh’s side is the US. 
Though generally not popular with the intelligentsia, the options for choosing an ally may be limited for Bangladesh right now. With an election scheduled in 2018 end, Sk. Hasina will want to appear as being in charge. And her need to have allies may be influenced by her political priorities as well. 
*If that scenario emerges, the US and Pakistan playing some form of role in the wake of the Myanmar crisis is possible no matter how contradictory it sounds.*

*Uncertain days are clearly ahead but a sea change in internal and external alliance building seems inevitable as the refugees pour into Bangladesh.*
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/10/28/myanmar-crisis-will-sk-hasina-seek-new-allies/

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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh eyes sterilisation to curb Rohingya population in refugee camps
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh.*
WORLD Updated: Oct 28, 2017 10:08 IST
Agence France-Presse, Palongkhali




In this photograph taken on October 24, 2017, Rohingya Muslim refugees wait inside a government-run family planning centre in the Bangladeshi town of Palongkhali. (AFP)
Papa, papa, help me: Rohingya man recalls son’s last words before he drowned fleeing Myanmar
District family planning authorities have launched a drive to provide contraception, but say they have so far managed to distribute just 549 packets of condoms among the refugees, who are reluctant to use them.

They have asked the government to approve a plan to launch vasectomies for Rohingya men and tubectomies for women, Bhattacharjee told AFP.

But they are likely to face an uphill struggle.

Many of the refugees told AFP they believed a large family would help them survive in the camps, where access to food and water remains a daily battle and children are often sent out to fetch and carry supplies.

Others had been told contraception was against the tenets of Islam.

Farhana Sultana, a family planning volunteer who works with Rohingya refugees in the camps, said many of the women she spoke to believed birth control was a sin.

“In Rakhine they did not go to family planning clinics, fearing the Myanmar authorities would give medicine that harms them or their children,” Sultana said.

Volunteers said they struggled to sell the benefits of birth control to Rohingya women, most of whom came to them for advice on pregnancy complications or help with newborns.

Sabura, a mother of seven, said her husband believed the couple could support a large family.

“I spoke to my husband about birth control measures. But he is not convinced. He was given two condoms but he did not use them,” she told AFP.

“My husband said we need more children as we have land and property (in Rakhine). We don’t have to worry to feed them,” she said.
Read more




Bangladesh, Myanmar agree to halt the outflow of Rohingyas




Bangladesh looks to India to take the lead on the Rohingya refugees issue
*Population control*
Bangladesh has for years run a successful domestic sterilisation programme, offering 2,300 taka ($28) and a traditional lungi garment to each man who agrees to undergo the procedure.

Every month 250 people undergo sterilisation in the border town of Cox’s Bazar.

But performing the permanent procedure on non-Bangladeshi nationals requires final approval from a committee headed by the health minister.

The idea is particularly contentious given the sensitivity of the issue in Myanmar. The widespread perception that the Rohingya population is mushrooming is a key source of the tensions that have spiralled in recent months.

No official data is available on birth rates among the Rohingya, who are excluded from the census in Myanmar.

But many of the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists accused of taking part in attacks on Rohingya villages that have driven hundreds of thousands into Bangladesh say they fear being displaced by the Muslim minority.

The Rohingya face official restrictions on the number of children they can have in Myanmar, although this has not been widely enforced.

Rights activists working in the camps in Bangladesh said some believed pregnancy provided protection against rape or other attacks in Myanmar, where the military has been accused of sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls.

“Some of them told us that if a woman was pregnant, she had less chance of being targeted by the military or attackers.”

Bangladesh officials say some 20,000 Rohingya women are pregnant and 600 have given birth since arriving in Bangladesh, though this may be an underestimate as many births take place with no formal medical help.

“Sterilisation of the males is the best way to control the population,” said Bhattacharjee.
“If a man is sterilised, he cannot father a child even if he marries four or five times.”
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...fugee-camps/story-voJ9aP3V1c5TOYa4ep5M7I.html





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CNN Today is with Thomas Nybo.
Yesterday at 06:02 ·
*“Every person you talk with has a story that competes for the worst story you’ve ever heard.”-*
Thomas Nybo; Freelance Photographer and Filmmaker on #Rohingya#Bangladesh #Myanmar


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## Banglar Bir

11:21 AM, October 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:24 PM, October 28, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: Khaleda’s journey for Cox’s Bazar starts*




Hundreds of people gather on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway on Saturday, October 28, 2017, as BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia starts her journey towards Chittagong from Dhaka on way to Cox’s Bazar where she will distribute relief supplies among the displaced Rohingyas who crossed into Bangladesh to flee Myanmar’ persecution. Photo: Collected
Star Online Report
*- 1:00pm: Khaleda’s motorcade stuck at Kachpur jam *
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has started her journey towards Chittagong from Dhaka on way to Cox’s Bazar where she will distribute relief materials among the displaced Rohingyas who crossed into Bangladesh to flee Myanmar’s persecution.

Accompanied by party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and vice chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Khaleda went out of her Gulshan-2 residence at 10:40am today.
*Also READ: Methodical crimes against Rohingya*
Soon after she returned home from London, Khaleda took decision that she will visit and distribute relief to Rohingyas and that’s wahy she is going to Cox’s Bazar, Fakhrul told journalists in Gulshan in the morning. 

Stating that the police chief has assured BNP of law enforcers’ support so that they can take part in the programme and return to Dhaka safely, Fakhrul sought all sorts of support from the administration.

Khaleda will stop in Feni and have lunch there. She will spend the night at Chittagong Circuit House.

She will start for Cox's Bazar tomorrow. After staying overnight at Cox's Bazar Circuit House, the BNP chief will visit four Rohingya refugee camps in Balukhali, Boalmari and Jamtali in Ukhia upazila of Cox's Bazar on Monday, Rizvi added.

The former prime minister is likely to return to Dhaka on Tuesday, said the BNP leader.

Meanwhile, other BNP leaders and activists joined with Khaleda’s motorcade from Nayapaltan central office, our staff correspondent, also with the motorcade, reports.

Members of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal and Swechchha Shebak Dal in vehicles are leading the motorcade as advance party. 

Around one hundred vehicles including the vehicles of different media outlet took part in the journey.

Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, BNP standing committing member, will join the motorcade from Comilla, party sources said.

In Chittagong, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, another standing committing member, and Abdullah Al-Noman, party vice chairman, will greet Khaleda when she reaches the port city later in the day.

Thousands of party activists and supporters will assemble at different points on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway to welcome Khaleda who will be travelling in a motorcade.

However, the party high-ups have asked the leaders and activists not to set up any arches on the highway or block the traffic.

On Wednesday, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had a meeting with the leaders of the party's district, front and associate bodies concerned at the party headquarters in Nayapaltan to make Khaleda's tour a success.

*Khaleda last went to Cox's Bazar in November 2012 to visit Buddhist monasteries and houses which were damaged in communal attacks in Ramu upazila*
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...ey-dhaka-chittagong-coxs-bazar-starts-1482940





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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:02 PM, October 28, 2017
*Pope's Visit in Nov: Bishops in Myanmar 'nervous'*
Afp, Yangon
*Myanmar's Catholic bishops are "nervous" Pope Francis will mention the Rohingya during his visit next month, a spokesman said yesterday, fearing that it would prompt protests from a Buddhist public that loathes the minority.*
The pontiff's visit to Buddhist-majority Myanmar, scheduled for November 27, comes after a military campaign that has driven more than 600,000 Rohingyas from the country in two months.

Myanmar's Catholic leaders are concerned the pope, who expressed sympathy for the Rohingyas on Monday, could trigger further upheaval if he specifically refers to their proper name.

There is "nervousness about (his) using the word Rohingya", said Father Mariano Soe Naing, a spokesman for the Catholic Bishop's Conference of Myanmar, the country's main Catholic body.

"Our anxiety is that if he mentions (it), some problems may rise against him," he said.

"He would be wise enough not to create any difficulties for the host country and also for the Church as well," the priest said, adding that Catholics have "sympathy" for the Muslim group.

The Rohingyas have faced decades of discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they were stripped of their citizenship in 1982, effectively rendering them stateless.

On Monday, the Pope mourned the plight of Rohingya children stuck in overcrowded Bangladeshi refugee camps.

"Two hundred thousand Rohingya children (are) in refugee camps. They have barely enough to eat, though they have a right to food. (They are) malnourished, without medicine," he said.

The refugee crisis has inflamed longstanding religious tensions in Myanmar, which is also home to a small Catholic population, among other minorities.

The Southeast Asian nation and the Vatican only established full diplomatic relations in May, shortly after Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Pope Francis during a European tour.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/pope-francis-visit-nov-bishops-myanmar-nervous-1482796


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## Banglar Bir

*‘Baffled’ by Rohingya Stance, U.N. Official Scolds Aung San Suu Kyi*
By RICK GLADSTONE
OCT. 26, 2017




Yanghee Lee of South Korea, a leading child rights expert appointed to her United Nations human rights post in 2014, underscored international frustrations over the behavior of the Myanmar leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, regarding the persecution of the Rohingya.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, a hero of democratic rights who endured years of house arrest by Myanmar’s military to become the top civilian politician of her country and de facto head of the government, has not criticized the deadly campaign against the Rohingya, who are widely reviled among the country’s Buddhist majority.

The campaign, carried out by Myanmar’s armed forces and allied militias, has uprooted hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from their villages in the western border state of Rakhine since August. The fallout has created a refugee and public health crisis in Myanmar’s impoverished neighbor, Bangladesh, as more than 600,000 people have fled across the border.

Other top United Nations officials have called the anti-Rohingya purge a campaign of ethnic cleansing or worse. Diplomats of the Security Council are discussing a draft resolution aimed at pressuring the Myanmar military to end the violence. The Trump administration also has threatened to take punitive action.




*Across Myanmar, Denial of Ethnic Cleansing and Loathing of Rohingya *
*OCT. 24, 2017*



*U.S. Threatens to Punish Myanmar Over Treatment of Rohingya*
*OCT. 23, 2017*




*Muslims on 2 Continents Protest Persecution in Myanmar *
*SEPT. 4, 2017*
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations on Thursday, Ms. Lee said “there is so much hatred and hostility against the Rohingya” in Myanmar that few dare speak out against it. Well-documented accounts of killings, rapes, burned villages and forced displacement get no coverage in Myanmar’s news media.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi skipped the annual United Nations General Assembly last month in what was widely viewed as a way to avoid hard questions and confrontations over the Rohingya crisis.

Other leaders have criticized her seemingly insensitive response, including some fellow Nobel laureates. But Ms. Lee’s comments were particularly pointed.
*The Interpreter Newsletter*
Understand the world with sharp insight and commentary on the major news stories of the week.

“It has really baffled everyone, and has really baffled me, about Daw Aung’s non-position on this issue,” Ms. Lee said. “She has not ever recognized that there is such a people called Rohingya — that’s a starting point. I’m very disappointed.”

She said if the Myanmar leader were to “reach out to the people and say, ‘Hey, let’s show some humanity,’ I think people will follow her — she’s adored by the public.”

There was no immediate response to Ms. Lee’s comments from Myanmar’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations.

Myanmar officials have previously denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and have asserted that outside depictions of the crisis are distorted or fabricated by pro-Rohingya sympathizers. They have also sharply restricted access to Rakhine.

Ms. Lee spoke a day after she delivered a sharp critique of Myanmar’s human rights situation to the United Nations General Assembly. Ms. Lee said she was particularly appalled by the anti-Rohingya mood in the country.

“Unfortunately, there seems to be little sympathy, let alone empathy, for the Rohingya people in Myanmar,” she said. “For decades, it has been cultivated in the minds of the Myanmar people that the Rohingya are not indigenous to the country and therefore have no rights whatsoever to which they can apparently claim.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-aung-san-suu-kyi.html?smid=fb-share


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## Banglar Bir




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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar harvests abandoned Rohingya fields, raising fears for return*
AFP
Published at 04:03 PM October 28, 2017




Rohingya refugees wait for relief aid at Balukhali refugee camp in the Bangladeshi district of Ukhia on October 24, 2017. Nations have pledged $340 million (290 million euros) to care for Myanmar's Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, an "encouraging" step in the response to the intensifying crisis, the UN said on October 23 *AFP*
*Hundreds of villages have been burned to the ground, with more than 600,000 Rohingya a stateless group in mainly Buddhist Myanmar - fleeing across the border for sanctuary in Bangladesh*
Myanmar’s government began harvesting rice from farmland abandoned by Rohingya in northern Rakhine on Saturday, officials said, a move likely to raise concerns about the prospect of return for more than half a million refugees who have fled communal violence in the area.

The border region has been emptied of most of its Muslim residents since late August, when Myanmar’s military launched a crackdown on Rohingya rebels that the UN says likely amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Hundreds of villages have been burned to the ground, with more than 600,000 Rohingya a stateless group in mainly Buddhist Myanmar – fleeing across the border for sanctuary in Bangladesh.

Under intense global pressure, Myanmar has agreed to repatriate “scrutinised” refugees who can prove their residence in Rakhine.

But details of the plan remain thin, seeding concern about who will be allowed back, what they will return to and how they will live in a region where anti-Rohingya hatred remains sky-high.

On Saturday the government began harvesting 71,000 acres of rice paddy in Maungdaw – the Rohingya-majority area hardest-hit by the violence – according to state media and a local official.

“We started harvesting today in Myo Thu Gyi village tract,” Thein Wai, the head of Maungdaw’s Agricultural Department, told AFP.

“We are going to harvest some paddy fields of Bengalis who fled to Bangladesh,” he said using a pejorative term for the Rohingya commonly used in Myanmar.

“We do not know when those Bengalis who fled to other side will come back. That’s why we have to harvest,” he said, adding that he did not know what government would do with the paddies in the future.

Workers were bused in from other parts of the country to assist with the harvest, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
*‘Deeply disturbed’*
Myanmar has denied charges of ethnic cleansing and defended its military campaign as a counter offensive targeting Rohingya militants who attacked police posts in late August, killing at least a dozen.

But media, rights groups and the UN have documented consistent accounts from Rohingya refugees of atrocities at the hands of Myanmar security officers, who are accused of killing civilians, raping women and torching homes.

On Friday UN rights experts said they were “deeply disturbed” after speaking to refugees in Bangladesh.

The accounts they heard “point to a consistent, methodical pattern of actions resulting in gross human rights violations affecting hundreds of thousands of people,” said Marzuki Darusman, who chairs the fact-finding mission.

Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi – who has no control over the powerful army – recently created a committee to oversee resettlement in Rakhine, where tens of thousands of other minority groups were also internally displaced by the violence.

The construction of homes for minorities such as the Mro has begun, according to state media, while Suu Kyi’s government has enticed business tycoons to donate to the rebuilding effort.

But fear abounds that the rehabilitation will sideline the Rohingya – a group that has suffered under decades of state-backed discrimination.

Myanmar refuses to recognise the Rohingya as a distinct minority, rendering the 1.1-million strong group stateless.

The army has spread the view that they are foreign “Bengalis” from Bangladesh, despite many having lived in Myanmar for generations.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...andoned-rohingya-fields-raising-fears-return/


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## Banglar Bir

*Lonely, yet we do not walk alone*





Rohingya refugees line up for relief aid at the Nayapara refugee camp in Teknaf. Photo: AFP
Nizamuddin Ahmed
*The position of Russia is bullish at best because the Kremlin machinery does not have the eye to see the human destruction in the Rakhine State of Myanmar; yet there have been protests in Moscow, and arrests too, with Chechen Republic's Ramzan Kadyrov contemplating a nuclear strike.

China (playing the “internal matter” card to mask its Belt and Road Initiative) takes a little time, as it did in 1971, to understand the situation in Bangladesh because its radar, some say, is slow to detect friends. Interestingly, across China's border province of Yunnan, Myanmar's Kachin and Shan populations have been restive for over fifty-five years.

India's position is “clear haay” because of its heavy investment in Myanmar for its “Act East” policy. Modi shook hands with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi after her out-of-her-control army launched the bloody carnage, and Sushma Swaraj is jetting to and fro to keep intact, even if by cementing, Indira Gandhi's pledge of lasting Dhaka-Delhi friendship. *

In her most recent visit to Dhaka, the Indian external affairs minister said that “normalcy” can only be restored after all the refugees in Bangladesh return to Myanmar, not uttering “Rohingya”, which should please Naypyidaw. Suu Kyi is a Jawaharlal Nehru Awardee and Bhagwan Mahavir World Peace winner.

Two are permanent members of the UN Security Council and the third is a contender, despite which for the first time in nine years the 15-strong council unanimously expressed on September 13 “concern about reports of excessive violence during the security operations and called for immediate steps to end the violence in Rakhine, de-escalate the situation, re-establish law and order, ensure the protection of civilians.” One can vaguely read “the brutality of Burma” between those lines.

Holding on to her Nobel Peace Prize by the apology of tradition that the award has never been rescinded, the “military prisoner” has lost face. Oxford University's St Hugh's College has removed Suu Kyi's portrait from public display in a decision that followed students voting. She will also be stripped of the Freedom of the City of Oxford after the city council voted unanimously, saying it was “no longer appropriate” to celebrate the de facto leader of Myanmar.

UK decided last month to suspend all engagement, including training, with the Myanmar until military action against civilians in Rakhine State stopped. Notwithstanding Brexit, the European Union will cut back contacts with Myanmar's top generals in a first step to increase sanctions over the vicious army offensive. This follows an existing EU embargo on arms and equipment “that can be used for internal repression”. Suu Kyi had been bestowed with European Parliament's Sakharov Prize.

The US has condemned atrocities against Rohingya Muslims and in late October was considering new sanctions because the atrocities committed are tantamount to “ethnic cleansing”, which the French President Emmanuel Macron has called genocide. Present and past Myanmar military leaders have also been barred from visiting the states, only one year after decades-long trade sanctions against the secretive and isolated regime were lifted to set the stage for democracy. Suu Kyi is a US Congressional Gold Medallist.

Professor Muhammad Yunus—among the first Nobel laureates to speak out against the atrocities being committed against the Rohingya—penned an open letter to the UNSC asking the latter to intervene. Archbishop Desmond Tutu also condemned fellow Nobel peace prize awardee Suu Kyi with the words “Silence is too high a price”. Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai condemned the tragic and shameful treatment of the Rohingya. Suu Kyi is a recipient of the Swedish Olof Palme Prize.

In December last year, several Nobel laureates called for the “international community as a whole to speak out much more strongly” as “a human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity” was unfolding in Myanmar, a disturbed country with over a hundred different ethnic communities.

It appears the 400,000-strong Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) were looking for an excuse to pounce on the Rohingya to depopulate the Rakhine State as per the country's 1982 constitutional amendment. It can now be confirmed that the country (where the military has a stranglehold on the civil society) has backtracked from marching towards democracy. Isolation is addictive.

While some in Dhaka's sceptic opposition are accusing the Hasina government of failing in international diplomacy, the savoir-faire with which the prime minister has won the hearts beyond boundaries is evident even among world leaders. In fact, the people of Bangladesh can take a bow. Here we must add plaudits for our government officers who have done a splendid job thus far by managing the colossal task of providing for over six lakh additional people, sick and weary, hungry and homeless, in a few thousand acres of land, amidst the rain.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi was sent to Myanmar to urge the government to halt deadly violence against the Muslim-majority Rohingya amid growing anger in the world's most populous Muslim nation. She also visited Dhaka to assure Bangladesh of its humanitarian support.

In addition to Germany providing humanitarian aid, its Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that Germany supports the recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission under the leadership of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a “good starting point”. Suu Kyi has been honoured with the Norwegian human rights award, the Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize.

The Arab world has been stirred too. Saudi's King Salman has ordered the payment of USD 15 million aid for the Rohingya refugees. The Saudi Cabinet renewed the Kingdom's calls on the international community to take urgent action to stop the attacks and to allow the Myanmar Muslim-minority their basic human rights. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told the UN General Assembly, “My country is gravely concerned and condemns the policy of repression and forced displacement carried out by the government of Myanmar against the Rohingya minority.”

As part of its USD 100,000 intervention for Rohingya refugees, Qatar Red Crescent Society also aims to vaccinate children and fund public catering centres for the refugees.

UNHCR chartered a Boeing 777 to deliver family tents, shelter materials, jerry cans, blankets, sleeping mats and other essential items as emergency relief for 25,000 refugees—1/24th of the total number fleeing from Suu Kyi, who won UNESCO's International Simón Bolívar Prize.

Indian Air Force used Chittagong's Shah Amanat International Airport to deliver India's massive 7,000-tonne relief assurance for Bangladesh. Another flight carrying 14 tonnes of relief materials from Morocco also landed at Chittagong. The Indonesian ambassador to Dhaka Rina Prihtyasmiarsi Soemarno handed over tents, blankets, rice and sugar at Chittagong.

Malaysia was strongly vocal, saying that Myanmar had denied permission for the international community to provide humanitarian aid to the Rohingya Muslims and, more disappointingly, killed Rohingya women and children. Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Malaysia could not accept the Myanmar crackdown on the Rohingya community and wanted the issue to be resolved democratically and by international standards.

Most recently, United Nations investigator Yanghee Lee acknowledged that there were “well-documented accounts of killings, rapes, burned villages and forced displacement” of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

In spite of overwhelming global denouncement of Myanmar and yet disappointing international relief for the Rohingya, despite widespread condemnation of Suu Kyi and yet regionalised concern based on strategic self-interest, regardless of bravado verbalisation by world bodies and leaders, and yet no effective socioeconomic action plan, there is reason to believe we are not the only friends of a marginalised ethnic population. We do not walk alone.
Dr Nizamuddin Ahmed is a practising architect, a Commonwealth Scholar and a Fellow, a Baden-Powell Fellow Scout Leader, and a Major Donor Rotarian. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/chintito-1995/lonely-yet-we-do-not-walk-alone-1483006


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## Banglar Bir

*Bernicat backs 1992 deal for Rohingya verification*
Saturday, 28 October 2017




*US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat has backed the Rohingya verification criteria based on principles agreed between Bangladesh and Myanmar in 1992 when the two countries inked an agreement for return of the persecuted Muslim-majority people.*

According to her, the 1992 deal of Rohingya repatriation can have additional characteristics considering the changed situation.

“It is the two governments to decide,” she told a local online newspaper on the sidelines of an event in Dhaka on Saturday, after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier spoke to Myanmar's army chief over phone.

Tillerson had urged the army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, allowing safe return of ethnic Rohingyas, according to the 1992 Joint Statement with Bangladesh and 'without further conditions'.

Bangladesh, earlier, pointed to the changed situation and said the 1992 rules would “not be realistic” now.

According to a bdnews24.com report, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque said the 1992 agreement can serve as the ‘principal base’ of repatriation discussions.

“Obviously things have changed since 1992,” Bernicat said. “It’s a good start because there was an agreement actually made. Obviously, the agreement of the 2017 will inevitably have additional different characteristics,” she said, adding that the US was ready to help the two governments like other international community.

“We are all very hopeful,” she said, given the fact that in the last one month there had been exchange visits by the ministers of two countries and both are working on forming a joint working group.

Speaking at the launch of an anti-TB campaign, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim lauded the US response to the Rohingya crisis.

Bernicat thanked the Health Minister and said the US would “continue to exert pressure on Myanmar”.
*“We believe, like Bangladesh, the problem lies back in Burma itself,” she said.*
She said Tillerson’s phone call “proved that we are continuing our efforts”.

Bernicat said they were focusing on the problem and putting pressure on Myanmar and urging the government and the army to do the right thing and bring the refugees back in a “safe and secure manner”.

She said the international community have interest to resolve the crisis in a way that “restores Rohingyas’ dignity and ability to live in that country where they born and where their ancestors were born.”

Over half a million Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh since Aug 25 to escape a violent crackdown in what the UN has described as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Around 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have already been living in Bangladesh for decades.

Amid international pressure, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a statement on Sept 19 said her country is ready to take back their nationals after verification.

She said the verification criteria will be based on principles agreed to earlier in 1992 when the two countries inked an agreement based on which Myanmar took back nearly 250,000 Rohingyas as members of its society.

The online newspaper earlier saw the text of the 1992 agreement, article IV of which mentioned the criteria on how to verify them.

At that time, the Myanmar government agreed to repatriate in batches all persons “carrying Myanmar citizenship identity cards/national registration cards, those able to present any other documents issued by relevant Myanmar authorities and all those persons able to furnish evidence of their residence in Myanmar, such as addresses or any other relevant particulars”.

The Myanmar government in a spirit of “cooperation” agreed to accept after scrutiny all those people who took shelter in Bangladesh and whose presence had been “recorded through Refugee registration cards” issued by the government of Bangladesh.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said around half of the Muslim villages in the northern Rakhine State have been burned down, so the identification of Rohingyas based on their residence in Rakhine would not be realistic.

A diplomat who visited Rohingya refugee camps last month also told bdnews24.com that “it is unlikely that they hold any card issued by Burmese authorities”.

*Bangladesh started biometric registration of the newly arrived Rohingyas, a process that the UN refugee agency UNHCR said would eventually help refugees “exercise the right to return when the time is right”.*
http://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/p...992-deal-for-rohingya-verification-1509208935


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## Banglar Bir

*‘Myanmar army’s relief to the Rohingya is only propaganda’*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 04:12 PM October 29, 2017




Rohingya refugees line up in to receive aid in Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar on October 26, 2017 *Reuters*
*The Myanmar Army has been providing relief to the Rohingya, only to snatch it away after taking photographs*
Myanmar army has been claiming to have been providing aid to the internally displaced Rohingya people. But camp denizens say otherwise. According to them, the relief is nothing but a prop for a photo shoot, snatched away from the clutches of the Rohingya after the photographs are taken.

The Myanmar army has always been criticised by the international community, and the revelation of their recent “humanitarian efforts to restore peace” in Rakhine further questions their motives and methods.

Global leaders and organisations have unequivocally called upon Myanmar to cease the aggression against the Rohingya. The army appears to have been trying to stage the relief to appease the international community.

The Dhaka Tribune spoke to Bashir Ahmad, a Rohingya man from Maungdaw who currently lives in a camp in Rakhine, over a phone call initiated by his brother Yasir Arafat.

Bashir said: “The army often comes to our villages and offer aid to the few who remained after the devastation. They announce the time and date in advance. When we lined up for the aid, we saw many troops and Mogh vigilantes. They took hundreds of pictures, of us with the sack of relief, of people standing in line, and so on.

“And once the pictures are taken, they snatch the sacks from our hands and shoo us off,” Bashir lamented. He has been trying to escape to Bangladesh for the past 10 days.

*Bashir finds the staged relief nothing but a mockery of the plight of the Rohingya crisis; a mockery by the Myanmar army and the Mogh crusaders, who are also behind the expulsion of the Rohingya people from their homes.*

“The Myanmar army is staging the photo shoots to prove to the world that they are helping the Rohingyas so that the pressure on the Myanmar government eases.”

However, Bashir noted, the army sometimes relents to the Rohingya’s pleas. They have been noted to give between 1-1.5kg of rice.
*Also Read- Law and order situation dips in Ukhiya, Teknaf*
Bashir helped Dhaka Tribune get in touch with Jakir Mia, another Rohingya man who lives in Buthidaung.

Jakir despises the Myanmar army and refused to accept any form of charity from them. He said his neighbours had no such compulsions, but they were ridiculed when the Moghs snatched the bags away from them.

To confirm the story, the Dhaka Tribune spoke to several people who arrived on Friday. They all narrated either experiencing or hearing of the same treatment.

Jafor Alam of Buthidaung, who crossed the border on Thursday, said that they were compelled to hide for months while the army scoured the villages and set them ablaze.

He starved with his family throughout their ordeal for days. Even when they heard the army announcing aid, they were sceptical and refused to go. But some of their neighbours, believing or maybe even hoping, went and formed a line.

The neighbours later returned dejected with barely enough rice for just one meal for a family. They too said what Bashir had earlier described.

A Rohingya woman also added that often the same sack of rice was given to several Rohingya people for the photographs. After the photographs were taken, the contents were divided among them, with each receiving a sparse quantity.

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday said Myanmar authorities have agreed to allow the United Nations (UN) to resume distribution of food in northern Rakhine state which was suspended for two months.

The agreement, whose details are still being worked out, came as Unicef reported that Rohingya refugee children fleeing into Bangladesh were arriving “close to death” from malnutrition.

Rohingya insurgent attacks on police stations triggered an army crackdown, which the UN has called “ethnic cleansing,” and UN humanitarian agencies have not been able to access northern Rakhine to deliver aid since then.

The retaliatory attack by the Myanmar army and local Moghs forced about 605,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Rohingya are among the world’s largest stateless community and one of the most persecuted minorities. Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya Muslims as citizens and forces them to live in squalid camps under apartheid-like conditions.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/10/29/myanmar-army-relief-propaganda/

*IKEA Foundation
Violence that erupted on 25 August in Myanmar has forced thousands of Rohingya families and children to flee across the border into Bangladesh.

While the situation remains extremely challenging, our partner Save the Children in Bangladesh is working hard, providing integrated education and child protection services.*
#WithRefugees




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*Experts of the Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar conclude visit to Bangladesh*




A group of Rohingya refugees walk on the muddy road after travelling over the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 1, 2017. (Photo: Reuters)
*Experts of the Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar conclude visit to Bangladesh
Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar established by HRC resolution 34/22
-Press Release-
Dhaka, Bangladesh, 27 October 2017* – Three United Nations human rights experts concluded their first fact finding mission in Bangladesh today “deeply disturbed” by accounts of killings, torture, rape, arson and aerial attacks reportedly perpetrated against the Rohingya community in Myanmar.

More than 600,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, have fled to Bangladesh since 25 August, when Myanmar forces began the so-called “clearance operations” following alleged armed attacks on security posts. More than half that number are children. 
*Although the total number of deaths is unknown, it may turn out to be extremely high.*

The UN Human Rights Council appointed the Fact-Finding Mission last March to “establish the facts and circumstances of alleged human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State”. 
*If the Mission concludes that there have been violations, it will seek to ensure full accountability for perpetrators and justice for the victims.*

“We are deeply disturbed at the end of this visit,” said Marzuki Darusman, former Indonesian Attorney-General and human rights campaigner, who chairs the Fact Finding Mission. “We have heard many accounts from people from many different villages across northern Rakhine state. 
They point to a consistent, methodical pattern of actions resulting in gross human rights violations affecting hundreds of thousands of people.”

Expert Radhika Coomaraswamy, former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, said the misery and despair she witnessed in the camps had left her “shaken and angry. 
The accounts of sexual violence that I heard from victims are some of the most horrendous I have heard in my long experience in dealing with this issue in many crisis situations,” she said. “One could see the trauma in the eyes of the women I interviewed. 
*When proven, this kind of abuse must never be allowed to go unpunished.”*

While in Bangladesh, the experts interviewed Rohingya victims in the Kutapalong, Nayapara and Balukhali camps and held consultations with government officials, diplomats and NGOs. In addition teams of human rights officers, dispatched by the Fact Finding Mission, have been in Bangladesh for many weeks conducting comprehensive interviews with those who fled from Rakhine State.

The Mission has applied to the Myanmar Government for access to Myanmar. It seeks the views of the Government and the military on what has happened and why, and wishes to conduct inquires inside Rakhine State itself. 
However, access to the country has not yet been granted, without which it becomes more difficult – though not impossible – to establish the facts. 

For example, whether the armed attacks on military posts actually occurred, as the Government claims, can only be established when the Government presents the information that has led it to draw this conclusion.

The third expert, Christopher Sidoti, an Australian international human rights specialist, said the visit to Bangladesh also focused on the future of the Rohingyas. The United Nations and many Governments have called for their return to Myanmar. “They must be allowed to return home,” Mr Sidoti said. “But any repatriation must be voluntary and can only take place after the establishment of effective mechanisms to ensure their safety and protection. 
*That may require the placement of international human rights monitors in Rakhine State.”*

The data derived from all interviews, alongside other information sources, will be subjected to a meticulous verification process and legal analysis before being submitted as part of the Fact-Finding Mission’s final report. 

The Mission is required to submit an interim report to the Human Rights Council in March 2018 and a final report in September 2018 to the Council and to the General Assembly.
Original _here_:
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/experts-of-independent-international.html

*Malnutrition Crisis Grips Rohingya Refugee Children*




A Rohingya Muslim woman, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, feeds her daughter inside the centre of Action contre La Faim (ACF) for malnutrition children near Kutupalong, Bangladesh, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2017.
_By_ Lisa Schlein
Voice of America
October 28, 2017
*GENEVA* — The U.N. children’s fund warns potentially life-threatening malnutrition is soaring among Rohingya refugee children who have fled to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh to escape violence and abuse in Myanmar.

The U.N. children’s fund does not know the extent of acute malnutrition among Rohingya child refugees. So, UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado says a nutrition survey is underway that will provide vital data when it is completed in November.

“What we already know is that the combination of malnutrition, sanitary conditions, and disease in the refugee settlements, is potentially catastrophic for children," said Mercado.

More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox’s Bazar since August 25 to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine State. Children comprise nearly 60 percent of the refugees.




A Rohingya Muslim woman, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, holds her 10-month-old son inside her shelter in Thaingkhali refugee camp, Bangladesh, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017.

Mercado says UNICEF screened several hundred children who were stuck at the border during the mass influx in mid-October. She says dozens of children were found to be severely acutely malnourished and in need of immediate life-saving treatment.
She says screening conducted by Doctors Without Borders found 14 cases of the worst form of malnutrition among 103 children.

“This is an extremely small number of children, so these numbers are not representative," said Mercado. "But, what they do tell us is that at least some of the children are close to death by the time they make it across the border.”

UNICEF spokeswoman Mercado says the spread of infectious diseases is also of concern. She notes measles cases have been reported among newly arrived children as well as those who have been living in Cox’s Bazar for some time.

She says the risk of diarrheal disease and dysentery is exceptionally high in the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions in which the children live.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/malnutrition-crisis-grips-rohingya.html


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## Banglar Bir

http://yenisafak.vod.ma.doracdn.com...17/10/28/d716b63a90a14a9880d96d23a3d1c67e.mp4
*Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh face cooking fuel shortage
Haber Merkezi 14:46 October 28, 2017 Yeni Şafak
Aid and charity organizations have been working hard to keep Rohingya Muslims who fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh fed and clothed but those who live in the camps say they are facing another problem - a lack of cooking fuel. 

Kerosene rations are far from enough for families to live on and the forest areas around the camps are barren as people have cut down trees and collected leaves to use as firewood. Money is scarce and some have resorted to selling food handouts to buy firewood.*


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## Banglar Bir

2:00 AM, October 30, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:26 AM, October 30, 2017
*'Beijing with Dhaka'*
*Chinese ambassador says on refugee crisis, hopes soon it'll be solved; pro-army rally in Myanmar despite Rohingya outcry; US delegation to visit soon*




A Rohingya refugee girl collects water from a shallow well, dug from the sand along a drain at Uchiprang refugee camp in Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Staff Correspondent
*Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka yesterday said his country stands by Bangladesh and hopes there will soon be a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis.*

"We expressed our commitment that we stand by Bangladesh [on the Rohingya problem]. We do hope that this issue will be settled as soon as possible peacefully," Ma Mingqiang said at a function at the Economic Relations Division in the capital.

The ambassador and Disaster Management and Relief Ministry Secretary Shah Kamal at the programme signed a certificate of acceptance for firefighting equipment, including escalators, air compressors, generators and forklifts China provided to Bangladesh.

Ma said there are many similarities between the disasters faced by the two countries. "Even today, you're also facing disaster. It's a serious problem of refugees."

Stating that Myanmar and Bangladesh are friendly countries, the envoy said, "We hope our two brothers will sit down and solve this problem. I did see that there's some visible progress in terms of discussion."

Over 600,000 Rohingyas have crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh fleeing a military crackdown in response to insurgent attacks on police posts and an army camp on August 25.

The humanitarian crisis stemming from the influx has drawn global attention and become a topic of discussion at the United Nations.
*The UN Security Council, however, has failed to take any action against Myanmar because of opposition from China and Russia.*

Last month, Ambassador Ma said Bangladesh is suffering because of the Rohingya influx while China is also in trouble because there are Chinese investments in Myanmar.

Guo Yezhou, a deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party's international department, last week said China's principle was not to interfere in the internal affairs of another country.

"Based on experience, you can see recently the consequences when one country interferes in another. We won't do it," Guo said.
*RALLY FOR MYANMAR ARMY*
Also yesterday, tens of thousands of people in downtown Yangon rallied in defence of Myanmar's army, an institution accused by the global community of driving Rohingyas from the country, reports AFP.

Concerned over the atrocities in Rakhine State, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson phoned army chief Min Aung Hlaing earlier this week and urged a swift and safe return of the Rohingyas.

The US is also weighing targeted sanctions against key military leaders.

The European Union decided not to invite the army chief and other senior commanders of Myanmar armed forces to the EU and its member states.

But inside the country, support for the army has surged -- an unlikely turnaround for a once feared and hated institution that ruled for 50 years and whose lawmakers lost heavily in 2015 polls.

Those elections sent Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party into power, but the Rohingya crisis has put her government on the backfoot.

Demonstrators carried banners lauding Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and rebuking the international community for “pressuring the army”.
*EU COMMISSIONER TO VISIT CAMPS*
EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides will arrive in Dhaka this evening to visit the Rohingya refugee camps.

He will go to Kutupalong in Cox's Bazar tomorrow, see the plight of refugees and meet high government officials and depart on the evening of November 1.

The EU has pledged over €51 million for the Rohingyas this year.

"We stand united for the right cause. The cause of stateless people who have suffered for too long: the Rohingya... We have a moral duty to give these people hope," said Stylianides in a statement.
*US DELEGATION'S VISIT*
Simon Henshaw, US acting assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, would lead a delegation to Myanmar and Bangladesh on October 29-November 4 to discuss ways to address the humanitarian and human rights concerns stemming from the Rakhine State crisis.

The issue of improving the delivery of humanitarian assistance to displaced people in Myanmar as well as in Bangladesh, would be on the delegation's agenda, reports UNB.

A diplomatic source said the delegation is likely to visit Myanmar first before coming to Bangladesh on November 2-3.

The delegation would visit affected communities in Cox's Bazar to hear the stories of the people who have fled, assess the impact of the emergency humanitarian response, identify gaps in assistance, and advise on ways to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-beijing-dhaka-1483600


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## Banglar Bir

*Chappell: Why I’m not surprised Bangladesh is welcoming Rohingya refugees*
Agencies
Published at 12:31 AM October 30, 2017
Last updated at 12:45 AM October 30, 2017




Former Australia cricket team captain Ian Chappell
*Ian Chappell is a special representative for Australia for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency’s fundraising partner in Australia*
Former Australia cricket team captain Ian Chappell has given his take on the ongoing Rohingya crisis.
Chappell is a special representative for Australia for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency’s fundraising partner in Australia.
*
Below are his excerpts:*
“In November 2000, I paid my only visit to Dhaka to commentate on Bangladesh’s inaugural Test match — the Bangladesh Tigers played India.

“I was struck by the crowds and the traffic in Bangladesh. The nation has 163m people crammed into an area less than two-thirds the size of Victoria.

“Today I find it hard to imagine how this densely populated country will absorb the half a million Rohingya refugees who have arrived in the past few weeks. Population aside, Bangladesh is a poor country that deals with far more than its fair share of disasters, enduring frequent floods and cyclones. The obvious thought is that Bangladesh is struggling to look after its own population and the last thing they need is more people.
*Also read: 313,000 Rohingya refugees registered*
“But, from what I know of Bangladesh, I’m not surprised the refugees are accepted and welcomed. My involvement with Bangladesh has always been through the lens of cricket, and it’s always been positive – Bangladeshi cricket fans are the most joyful I’ve encountered in world cricket, always cheering their team on, but never deriding the opposition. My brother Trevor Chappell, who coached the Bangladesh cricket team from 2001 to 2002, often comments on the gentle, warm and hospitable nature of the locals.

“Some 585,000 Rohingya refugees and counting have arrived in Bangladesh since 25th August this year. But the government has kept the borders open and is working hard – with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other aid organisations – to keep them safe, sheltered and fed. 
At a personal level, Bangladeshi people are rallying to share their own limited resources with the new arrivals.

“Refugees who arrive sick, hungry, and with tales of unspeakable horrors in Myanmar, are being treated with warmth and compassion, in stark contrast to the hardening attitudes we see from so much of the world. This reflects the values I saw in Bangladesh’s cricket community.

“Responding to what is now the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis is a massive undertaking. UNHCR’s two existing refugee camps in southern Bangladesh were quickly overwhelmed, and more space had to be found immediately.

“Critical items such as tents, tarpaulins, blankets and mosquito nets are being airlifted in, while food is being distributed. Water and sanitation services are being installed; vaccination campaigns have been launched to prevent epidemics; and medical clinics rapidly established.
*Also read: Bangladeshis stand by Rohingya refugees*
“It’s not just short-term physical needs that aid agencies and government must meet. UNHCR psychologists have begun trauma counselling, and teams are working to reunite children with their families, after they’d been separated in the chaos.

*“Bangladesh is shouldering a far greater burden than other wealthier countries in this crisis. This isn’t a surprise – the vast majority of refugees globally are hosted by developing countries.*

“I was raised with a well-developed sense of fair play, but in my 15 years involvement with refugee issues it doesn’t seem to me that there’s much justice in the world in this area. 
*Bangladesh can’t handle this crisis alone. *
Governments in wealthy countries need to do more, and as individuals we need to do more.

“Refugees aren’t the faceless masses they’re portrayed as by politicians. They are individuals, each with a devastating story of escaping violence, walking for days with no food, seeing relatives killed, or watching children drown as boats capsize.
*“I challenge anyone to hear a refugee tell his or her story and not want to help.”*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/sport/c...rised-bangladesh-welcoming-rohingya-refugees/


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## Banglar Bir

*OFID supports UNHCR relief operations in Bangladesh*
20.10.2017




_Photo: UNHCR_
*Vienna, Austria, October 20, 2017.* The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has approved an emergency assistance grant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help fund ongoing humanitarian operations in Bangladesh, where an estimated 20,000 Rohingyas per day are seeking refuge after outbreaks of violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar.

These outbreaks have triggered one of the most massive and swiftest refugee crises in the world today, with nearly one half million people fleeing to safety, primarily in Cox’s Bazar District in Bangladesh. There, they have joined 33,000 Rohingyas registered as refugees in the camps in Kutupalong and Nayapar, as well as over 274,000 others, mainly in so-called makeshift camps.

A large number of the refugees comprise women and children, many of whom have become separated from their families. UNHCR has declared this a refugee crisis and has launched an appeal, coordinating and working closely with the government of Bangladesh and agency partners to help meet refugees’ most basic needs, including supplementary feeding program, shelter, water, sanitation and healthcare, as well as camp and site preparation and management, among other activities.

OFID’s US$400,000 grant will help fund the top priorities as identified by the UNHCR; especially those concerning food security and nutrition; safe water supplies and sanitation facilities, as well as medical care and preventive health measures. 
Cooperation between OFID and UNHCR dates back to 1984. Since then, 13 grants have been extended in support of UNHCR’s relief operations in Asia and Africa.
http://www.ofid.org/NewsEvents/ArticleId/3393/OFID-supports-UNHCR-relief-operations-in-Bangladesh


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## Banglar Bir

*Khaleda: Govt failed to take proper steps in repatriating Rohingyas*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 01:56 PM October 30, 2017
Last updated at 03:02 PM October 30, 2017




The BNP chief distributes relief among the Rohingyas in Moynarghona camp on October 30, 2017 *Tarek Mahmud/Dhaka Tribune*
*According to UNHCR, at least 605,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence which erupted in Myanmar on August 25*
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia said the government has failed to take proper steps regarding the repatriation of Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence in Myanmar.

She made the statement while talking to the journalists at Moynarghona camp in Cox’s Bazar Monday afternoon.

The BNP chief said: “The Rohingyas are still here [in Bangladesh] because the government failed to take proper steps to repatriate them.

“The displaced people are destroying the environmental balance here.”

She also urged the Myanmar government to take back the Rohingyas and give them their rights and citizenship.

Khaleda also blamed the government of failing to supply aid properly to the Rohingyas and creating obstacles to for BNP in distributing relief.

The BNP chief arrived in Ukhiya around 12:30pm.

Khaleda is currently at Moynarghona camp. After visiting this camp, she will visit the camps in Hakimpara and Balukhali.

Meanwhile, huge crowd's was noticed in the four camps where Khaleda is scheduled to distribute relief.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, party Vice Chairman Abdullah Al Noman and leader Lutfur Rahman Kajol are accompanying the BNP chief.

Earlier, BNP Chairperson’s Media Wing Officer Shairul Kabir Khan said: “Central BNP leaders will accompany the BNP chairperson during her stay at the camp from 11am to 2pm.

“She will also hand over 45 trucks containing relief to the Bangladesh Army.”

After distributing relief, Khaleda Zia will leave Cox’s Bazar for Chittagong where she will stay for the night. She will start for Dhaka on Tuesday morning and take a break in Feni in the afternoon.

On Saturday, the motorcade heading towards Cox’s Bazar for the BNP chief’s planned relief distribution for the Rohingya was attacked at Mohammed Ali Bazar near Feni.

According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at least 605,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence which erupted in Myanmar on August 25.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/politics/2017/10/30/224666/


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## Banglar Bir

*Shifting blame as US agenda unfolds in Myanmar*
by Tony Cartalucci
Published: 00:05, Oct 27,2017
Updated: 01:08, Oct 27,2017 




*AS VIOLENCE continues to unfold in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state against the nation’s Rohingya ethnic minority, the agenda driving the conflict is likewise unfolding in a more transparent and direct manner.
As was predicted *— the US is shifting blame away from the US-backed client regime headed by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy party the US installed into power in 2015 *— and toward Myanmar’s independent institutions, including the nation’s still powerful military.*

The US secretary of state Rex Tillerson in a recent talk before the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC *laid the blame squarely on Myanmar’s military, claiming:
‘…we’re extraordinarily concerned by what’s happening with the Rohingya in Burma*.
I’ve been in contact with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the civilian side of the government. As you know, this is a power-sharing government that has — that has emerged in Burma.
*We really hold the military leadership accountable for what’s happening with the Rakhine area.’*

Reuters in an article titled, *‘Lawmakers urge US to craft targeted sanctions on Myanmar military,*’ would report:
‘More than 40 lawmakers urged the Trump administration on Wednesday *to re-impose US travel bans on Myanmar’s military leaders and prepare targeted sanctions against those responsible for a crackdown on the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.’*

And Freedom House — a subsidiary of the US government and corporate-funded National Endowment for Democracy — would also publish a piece titled, ‘Does Democracy’s Toehold in Myanmar Outweigh the Lives of the Rohingya?,’ shifting the blame away from the very regime it worked for decades to put in power, and target Myanmar’s military.

*It claimed:*
‘In less than two months, more than half a million Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the destruction of entire settlements, systematic rape, and the mass slaughter of men, women, and children.
*This horrendous violence is perpetrated by the military, with assistance from elements of the local Rakhine Buddhist population.’*

It is clear that the confined nature of Myanmar’s ongoing Rohingya crisis will not lead to the same type of nationwide militancy observed in Syria.
It is also clear that the United States is likewise confining its condemnation for the violence not to the ultra-violent elements that it cultivated under Suu Kyi’s political movement for decades, but on the military who often stood between Rohingya communities and violent onslaughts.

*The pressuring and weakening first, then either co-opting or overthrowing of Myanmar’s current military leadership under the pretext of the current crisis will invite a larger and expanding US and European role in Myanmar’s internal affairs. *

Secretary Tillerson alluded to precisely that in his recent remarks, claiming:
‘And so we have been asking for access to the region. We’ve been able to get a couple of our people from our embassy into the region so we can begin to get our own firsthand account of what is occurring.
We’re encouraging access for the aid agencies — the Red Cross, the Red Crescent — UN agencies to — so we can at least address some of the most pressing humanitarian needs, but more importantly so we can get a full understanding of what is going on.

*Someone — if these reports are true, someone is going to be held to account for that. And it’s up to the military leadership of Burma to decide what direction do they want to play in the future of Burma, because we see Burma as an important emerging democracy, but this is a real test.

With US ally Saudi Arabia fuelling a militancy under the guise of a Rohingya ‘resistance,’ the US will also be able to justify military aid, joint-operations, and even permanent US military facilities — however meagre — that will present a serious obstacle to Chinese influence in the nation and in the region. 
It will also be an obstacle that once erected, will be difficult to dismantle as America’s enduring and unwanted military presence in the Philippines is proving to be.
What’s really happening in Myanmar *
WHAT Freedom House in its aforementioned report intentionally omits is that ‘the local Rakhine Buddhist population’ it refers to is actually part of a much larger political — not religious — network that had fed saffron-clad ‘monks’ onto the streets for pro-Suu Kyi protests in 2007 and which has systematically thwarted efforts by the military-led government before Suu Kyi’s rise to power to begin the process of granting Rohingya minorities proper legal and political status within Myanmar.

It is also a political network that has systematically abused, brutalised, and driven Myanmar’s Rohingya population first from their homes and businesses into camps, then from camps to abroad in neighbouring nations including Bangladesh and Thailand.

While attempts to compare Myanmar’s crisis to ongoing conflict driven by US-backed regime change in Syria —* it is clear that Myanmar’s crisis is more comparable to the US occupation of Afghanistan minus the presence (for now) of US troops.*

While the United States and its European partners control Myanmar’s civilian government, the US is attempting to divide and weaken the Myanmar state to corrode independent institutions still beyond Wall Street and Washington’s control, hinder the central government from achieving any sort of independence itself, *as well as create a pretext for an initial and then expanded presence of US missions — economically, diplomatically, and militarily — in Myanmar.*

The goal — as it is in Afghanistan — is to disrupt, undermine, and ultimately overturn progress China and other alternative centres of global power have made in the two nations.
In particular, the highly confined violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state is precisely where China sought to establish and use one of its One Belt, One Road logistical hubs.
*America’s plans for its Myanmar client state*
Through a large US State Department and European-funded network of faux-non governmental organisations, Western-backed opposition parties, and likewise Western-backed street fronts, Myanmar’s current client regime was successfully installed into power after general elections in 2015.
Prominent opposition party, the National League for Democracy assumed power of the government but maintained little control over the nation’s independent military.

The NLD’s party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, literally created a new political office for herself to occupy as de facto ‘head of state.’ Under Myanmar’s constitution Suu Kyi was barred from holding high offices in the nation’s political system due to her marriage to a foreign spouse — a British man — and because her children hold dual UK-Myanmar citizenship.
Suu Kyi herself received a foreign education and worked within Western institutions including the United Nations in the US before returning to Myanmar to engage in domestic politics.

Her entry into politics and her ascension into power has been openly funded and backed by the United States, former colonial ruler the United Kingdom, and a long list of European collaborators, for decades.

Many senior positions within Myanmar’s ruling regime are held by likewise products of extensive US funding, training, indoctrination, and support, including the current minister of information Pe Myint.
Just as the US controls the government in Kabul, Afghanistan, it controls the civilian leadership in Naypyidaw, Myanmar.

And just as the US perpetuates the threat of terrorism in Afghanistan as a pretext for the permanent US military occupation of the Central Asian state, *the US and its Saudi allies are attempting to use the current Rohingya crisis as a vector to introduce a foreign-funded militancy as a pretext first for joint ‘counter-terrorism’ cooperation with the government of Myanmar, and then the permanent positioning of US military assets in a Southeast Asian state that directly borders China — a long-term goal of US policymakers stretching back decades.*

It is expected that the military of Myanmar will come under increasing pressure, targeted sanctions, and outright threats until it capitulates, collapses, or manages to overcome foreign influence and the client regime serving as a vector and facilitator for them.

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi’s regime will continue being granted relative impunity across the West despite the fact that it is her own support base carrying out anti-Rohingya violence.
The crisis will be leveraged to thwart China’s economic inroads and prop up a burgeoning US-European diplomatic and military presence in the country.

Voices across the media exposing US plans will make it increasingly difficult for the US and its partners to manoeuvre in Myanmar and give counterbalancing forces further leverage in frustrating and rolling them back.

New Eastern Outlook, October 25. Tony Cartalucci, a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, writes especially for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/27009/shifting-blame-as-us-agenda-unfolds-in-myanmar


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## Banglar Bir

*Danish minister visits Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar*
Tribune Desk
Published at 04:12 PM October 30, 2017
Last updated at 04:15 PM October 30, 2017




Ulla Tornaes expressed the need for international support during her visit to Cox's Bazar *Collected*
*The minister met with government representatives and officials of several organisations during the visit to Cox's Bazar*
*Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Ulla Tornaes visited the Rohingyas on her trip to Cox’s Bazar from October 29-30.*

*She visited the Danish-supported humanitarian projects that help with immediate protection, food aid and shelter for hundreds of thousands Rohingyas.

The minister met with government representatives and officials of several organisations during the visit to Cox’s Bazar, according to a press release by the Danish Embassy.

The Danish minister, expressing the need for international support, said: “Bangladesh has performed a great task by receiving this huge number of refugees but it is very important that the international community now steps up to support Bangladesh and the affected local communities around Cox’s Bazar. Bangladesh cannot solve this crisis alone.

“Denmark reacted swiftly with substantial humanitarian aid when the crisis began in August. So far, we have allocated and committed over DKK120 million ($18.7 million) for civilians in Rakhine as well as for the hundreds of thousands Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar.”

She added: “I am especially concerned about the many women and children who have been exposed to brutal attacks and sexual violence. They are particularly vulnerable. Denmark also supports One-Stop-Crisis Centres near the refugee camps. The centres take care of traumatised women and children in a safe environment.”

According to the United Nations, more than 600,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar since August 25.

Denmark’s most recent humanitarian commitment came at the UN’s Donor’s Conference in Geneva where Ulla Tornaes pledged to commit an additional DKK32 million ($5 million) to UNHCR for the most affected refugees and for the people affected in the communities in Cox’s Bazar.

Denmark has also contributed with DKK40 million to Red Cross International and UN’s World Food Program as well as previous donations to UNHCR and Danish NGO’s working in the area.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...r-development-visits-rohingyas-in-coxs-bazar/*


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## Banglar Bir

*BD, Myanmar to sit together to solve Rohingya issue: Chinese envoy*
SAM Staff, October 30, 2017




Rohingya refugees waiting outside in the open sky while it was raining at a makeshift near Cox’s Bazar’s Balukhali area, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017. Photo: UNB
*Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ma Mingqiang on Sunday (Oct 29) said Bangladesh and Myanmar will sit together and solve the Rohingya problem.*

“We also expressed our commitment that we stand with Bangladesh (regarding Rohingya problem). We do hope that this issue will be settled as soon as possible peacefully,” he said.

The Chinese envoy was addressing a function at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) here marking the handover of acceptance certificate of Chinese firefighting equipment to Bangladesh with Chinese grant.

Ma Mingqiang signed the acceptance certificate on behalf of the Chinese side while the Secretary of the Disaster Management and Relief Md Shah Kamal on behalf of the Bangladesh side.
*Also Read: India loses the plot on the Rohingya issue: Hands the game to China*
Noting that China faces different kinds of natural disaster like flood, drought and earthquakes every year resulting in billions of RMB Yunun every year, Ma Mingqiang said that Bangladesh also faces similar types of disasters. “Even today, you’re also facing disaster…a serious problem of refugees.”

Terming Myanmar and Bangladesh as friendly countries, the Chinese Ambassador said, “We hope our two brothers (Bangladesh and Myanmar) will sit down and solve this problem. I did see that there’s some visible progress in terms of discussion.”

Last month, the Chinese envoy said China has been maintaining close contact with Bangladesh on the influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh from the Rakhine State of Myanmar.

“China has been maintaining close contact with Bangladesh Foreign Minister on this matter and we hope that the situation will calm down as soon as possible,” said the Chinese ambassador while replying to a question on the influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh.

He then said attacks on police in Rakhain State of Myanmar on August 25 have created this turbulent situation and Rohingyas have started coming to Bangladesh crossing the border. As a result, Bangladesh is facing suffering, he said, adding that China is also in trouble because there are Chinese investments in Myanmar.
*Also Read: China wants peaceful solution to Rohingya crisis*
Since August, hundreds of villages in Rakhine have been burnt down, with more than 600,000 Rohingyas fleeing across the border seeking shelter in Bangladesh.

Under an intense global pressure, Myanmar has agreed to repatriate “scrutinised” refugees who can prove their residence in Rakhine.

About the handover of firefighting and rescue equipment to Bangladesh, the Chinese envoy said the equipment include escalators, air compressors, generators and fork lifts.

Disaster Management and Relief Secretary Md Shah Kamal said that the equipment will help provide training to volunteers and other personnel on tackling disasters and conducting rescue operations.
SOURCE UNB
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...-together-solve-rohingya-issue-chinese-envoy/

*‘Take National Verification Card or leave Myanmar’*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 04:26 PM October 30, 2017




File Photo: Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 16, 2017 |*Reuters*
*The NVC does not guarantee citizenship*
Rohingya refugees say Myanmar has been pressing them to accept the National Verification Card (NVC) that does not mention the holders’ religions and ethnicities.

It also does not guarantee citizenship but will allow the holders to apply for citizenships at a later date.

Myanmar says NVC is first step before the scrutinisation of citizenship in accordance with the 1982 law, which defines citizenship based on ethnicity.

Shamsu Alam, a Rohingya refugee, told the Dhaka Tribune that NVC barred them from owning properties above 50,000 kyat.

“*We were being forced to take NVC. They planned to give us ‘temporary citizenship’ without our ethnic identity and grab our properties,” he said.*

Shamsu’s village was burned to the ground on the eve of the Eid. Many villagers were killed and women were raped. The army had also cut off food supply.
*
“They threatened to kill us if we refused to accept NVC,” he added.*

Rohingya people have been objecting to NVC projects dating back to the previous military government. At that time, it was mandatory for the Rohingya to identify as “Bangali” on the card, to imply that they were illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

“The NVC is a temporary document. 
We will have to apply later for permanent citizenship but will not be identified as Rohingya,” said Shamsu, a resident of Buthidaung’s Taung Bazar who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday.

“It is just a mockery,” he added.
_*Click here to read more stories on Rohingya crisis 2017*_
Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya, often considered to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August when Myanmar military claimed it launched a ‘clearance operation’ in response to insurgent attacks on security forces.

The UN has described the Myanmar violence as ethnic cleansing. It said the systematic crackdown had been designed to permanently drive the Rohingya away from their home in the Rakhine state.

More than 7,000 people had been given NVC in Rakhine state, the government said.

The Rohingya would lose everything if they accept the card,” refuge seeker Bashir Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune over phone from a shoal along the border, where he was waiting to cross into Bangladesh.

Bashir, from Maungdaw’s Sikdarpara village, dubbed NVC a public stunt.

Barakat, another Rohingya, said he did not take the NVC. “Some of my neighbours went to get it but came back after hearing the terms and conditions.”

Rohingya refugee Salim said secretly visited his village Sudhapara in Maungdaw recently. He called his friend Yasir Arafat on Sunday noon.

“The villagers are being threatened to accept cards or face action,” he told Arafat.

U Aung Min, director of the Rakhine State Immigration and Population Department, said that villagers had been advised “to hold NVC as long as they live in Myanmar.”

Rehana Begum from Buthidaung’s Changnama village joined, who joined Shamsu’s group with her husband and four children, said the army and local Moghs had closed the village markets and shops.

Once the villagers ran out of food, they offered relief.

“They would give us relief materials and pose for photos but would snatch the goods from us after that,” Rehana said.

On October 17, the army ordered the villagers to take NVC and told them that nobody would be allowed to live in Rakhine without them, she said.

“They threatened us with serious consequences as nobody wanted the cards,” Rehana said. “We chose to flee.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ake-national-verification-card-leave-myanmar/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 31, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:12 AM, October 31, 2017
*VIOLENCE AGAINST ROHINGYA WOMEN*
*Almost everyone is survivor or witness*
*UN says about those who have fled Rakhine*




A Rohingya child is in tears after crossing into Bangladesh from Myanmar along with other refugees at Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf yesterday. Photo: AFP
Diplomatic Correspondent
*Almost every Rohingya woman and girl, who fled the Rakhine State in Myanmar and took shelter in Bangladesh, is either a survivor of or a witness to multiple incidences of sexual assault, murder through mutilation or burning alive of a close family member or neighbour, said UN Women.*
“Women and girls have experienced sexual and gender‑based violence, perpetrated by both the Myanmar army and by Rakhine locals,” according to the latest report of UN Women.

The October 2017 report titled “Gender brief on Rohingya Refugee Crisis Response in Bangladesh” published yesterday said many women whose sexual assault resulted in conception were reported to have sought out abortions after arriving in Bangladesh.

UN Women prepared the report with testimonies from community leaders and interviews with refugees in makeshift settlements in Balukhali of Cox's Bazar.

It said 51 percent of the displaced people were women and girls and they live in terrible conditions and lack adequate food, water, sanitation, medical care and access to their livelihoods and assets.

The crisis disproportionately affects women, girls and the most vulnerable and marginalised Rohingya refugee population groups by reinforcing, perpetuating and exacerbating pre-existing, persistent gender inequalities, gender-based violence and discrimination, it said.

This is a frightening reminder that sexual and gender‑based violence are among the most horrific weapons of war, instruments of terror most often used against women, the report said.

The recent influx has more than doubled the population living in refugee settlements and stretched the capacities of humanitarian agencies working to provide emergency shelter, access to clean water and sanitation, healthcare services, delivery of food, nutrition support for malnourished girls and boys, education, and protective services.

Increasing overcrowding and decreasing privacy at all refugee sites elevate safety and security risks, particularly for women and girls, it said.

Almost 400,000 refugees need immediate access to water and sanitation. Due to the increased population, women and men are forced to share toilets without basic protection measures including gender segregation, it said.

Twenty‑four thousand pregnant and lactating women require maternal healthcare support at the already overstretched healthcare facilities.

Many Rohingya refugee households are female headed. Households led by females or elderly people with no male relatives are exhibiting greater vulnerability than those with adult males, the report said.

Having fled extreme circumstances, these households are not only traumatised by the loss of their loved ones, but also the loss of their assets, livelihoods and all forms of financial security.

Women and children are also at heightened risk of becoming victims of human trafficking, sexual abuse or child and forced marriage for the same reasons.

The report said women and adolescent girls between the ages of 13 and 20 newly arriving from Myanmar typically have two to four children each.
*SANITATION ISSUE*
The lack of toilets and well-maintained manual water pumps have complicated the crisis of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, where 30 percent of the 4,370 manual pumps installed were in poor condition and 36 percent of the 24,773 latrines were about to overflow, the United Nations reported Sunday.

"There is continuous new influx of refugees resulting in increase in population at multiple sites which is overloading existing WASH facilities (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) due to heavy use," said the Inter Sector Coordination Group, which coordinates agencies working in the refugee camps.

The number of refugees who have fled the armed conflict in Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25 has risen to 607,000, as of October 28. The new influx of refugees brought the number of the ethnic group that sought refuge in Bangladesh to about 819,000.
*EU COMMISSIONER IN TOWN*
Meanwhile, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides arrived in Dhaka last night for a two-day visit to the Rohingya refugees camps and see their plights.

Christos Stylianides will leave Dhaka this morning for visiting the Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar. He will back to Dhaka tomorrow and hold bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and will depart Bangladesh.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...s-almost-everyone-survivor-or-witness-1484242

*Rohingyas seek int’l help to return home*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:09, Oct 31,2017 | Updated: 00:19, Oct 31,2017
*Forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals on Monday urged the international community to help them going back to their homes in Rakhine State with security and dignity from Bangladesh.
They reiterated the urge while talking to Danish development cooperation minister Ulla TØrnæs in Cox’sbazar. *

She was in Cox’s Bazar as a part of her two-day visit to Bangladesh to have on the ground experience of the situation of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals, widely known as Rohingyas.
Ulla TØrnæs expressed her wariness particularly for the women and children who are vulnerable and
have been subjected to horrible atrocities and sexual violence in Rakhine State, according to a foreign ministry press release.

There is still acute need for humanitarian assistance for the Rohingyas, she said.
Head of Danida Martin Herman, Danish ambassador to Bangladesh Mikael Hemniti Winther and foreign ministry director general Mohammad Khorshed A. Khastagir accompanied the Danish minister in Cox’s Bazar.

Simon Henshaw, US acting assistant secretary of state for the bureau of population, refugees and migration, is due to arrive in Dhaka tomorrow as part of a 7-day tour of a US delegation starting on Sunday to Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The delegation would visit Cox’s Bazar district to hear the stories of the people who have fled, assess the impact of the emergency humanitarian response, identify gaps in assistance, and advise on ways to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Canadian special envoy to Myanmar Bob Rae is also expected to visit Bangladesh.
Rae, who was appointed by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, is expected to play a political role within Myanmar without jeopardizing diplomatic relations on the ground with a government that is prickly about foreign interference in its affairs.

Over 6,07,000 minority Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and October 24.

New ongoing influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,24,000 till October 29, according to estimates of UN agencies.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/27300/rohingyas-seek-intl-help-to-return-home


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## Banglar Bir

*Interview*
*'Myanmar won't resolve Rohingya crisis if int'l pressure recedes'*
Raheed Ejaz and Rozina Islam 
Update: 21:56, Oct 27, 2017 



_Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said the Myanmar authorities would not ultimately resolve the Rohingya crisis despite its pledge to do so if the international community stops exerting pressure on Naypyidaw to take concrete steps._

_His apprehensions conform to suspicions expressed by the global media and rights activists about Myanmar's sincerity to address the issue of violation of rights of Rohingya people of Rakhine state._

_The Myanmar authorities have already outright rejected the recommendations put forth by the Kofi Annan Commission assigned to recommend solutions to problems in Rakhine, the Bangladesh minister pointed out._

_Back from a three-day Myanmar visit on 23-25 October, Asaduzzaman also regretted that Naypyidaw backtracked on a 10-point decision it worked out in a consultation with Dhaka during a Myanmar minister's visit to Bangladesh earlier this month, to solve the Rohingya crisis._

_He went to Myanmar to negotiate repatriation of Rohingya Muslims who have taken shelter in Bangladesh. The country is burdened with nearly one million Rohingya refugees including over 600,000 new arrivals since 25 August following consistent persecution of Rohingyas in the northern state of Rakhine in Myanmar._

_The minister, during his visit, held talks with lieutenant general Kyaw Swe and also made a courtesy call on state councillor and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi._

_Asaduzzaman Khan talked to Prothom Alo in detail at his secretariat office on Thursday evening.*Raheed Ejaz* and *Rozina Islam* took the interview and it has been rewritten in English by *Rabiul Islam*._
*Here is the full text of the interview:*

*Prothom Alo (PA): How was your visit to Myanmar?*

*Asaduzzaman Khan (AK):* During the meeting with the Myanmar home minister, I noticed they are calling Rohingyas 'Bangalees'. I told them that as much as 350 million people speak in Bangla. Are all of them Bangalees? We clearly stated that they are not Bangalees. The people of Rakhine state have a long of history of shuttling between Bangladesh and Myanmar. I have asked them to know the history.

*PA: What was the outcome of the discussion?*

*AK:* We told them that one million Myanmar nationals entered Bangladesh. It's a huge burden for us. Our forest is being destroyed. Social life is also affected. We are in a disastrous situation. So, take your nationals back as quickly as possible.

*PA: What was the reply of the Myanmar home minister?*

*AK:* He said they would take Rohingyas back. Before taking back, they would verify their nationality. Then I told him that there is already a decision as to what should be done regarding the verification of the identities of Rohingyas.

*PA: Did you convey the decision taken at the meeting between the Bangladesh foreign minister and the minister of Myanmar State Councillor's Office in Dhaka on 2 October?*

*AK:* Yes. At that meeting, a decision was taken to form a joint working group to solve the crisis. The Joint Working Group will decide how the Rohingyas would be repatriated. I proposed to form the Joint Working Group by 30 November. Later, Myanmar agreed to the proposal. By the time, the jurisdiction of the Joint Working Group will be fixed. The foreign minister will take the next step in this regard later at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

*PA: What did they say about the repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh?*

*AK:* They didn't differ on any matter. They just said they would take a decision after discussing the matter with the higher authorities. We had insisted that they should work on the basis of the Joint Working Group, Kofi Annan Commission’s recommendations and our prime minister's 5-point proposal placed at the UN General Assembly.

*PA: Are they fine with the issue of Kofi Annan Commission?*

*AK:* No, they are repeatedly amending the things there.

*PA: What were the issues that came up for discussion with Suu Kyi?*

*AK:* I got a different behaviour from the home minister while talking Suu Kyi. She said nothing negative. She nodded her head whatever we said. Discussion was open.

*PA: What did you discuss with Suu Kyi?*

*AK:* I told her that Bangladesh does not produce drugs. Drugs from Myanmar are ruining our young generation. Suu Kyi said Yaba has also been a problem in Myanmar. They are anxious over it.

*PA: What did you discuss with her on Rohingya issue?*

*AK:* I told her that both Bangladesh and Myanmar will fall in trouble if Rohingyas stay in Bangladesh for long. If Rohingyas fall into the trap of extremists, we will not be able to control them. So, 'it’s our request to you to take steps to bring back Rohingyas'. Suu Kyi said she has started working as per the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission. She is taking initiative so that the Rohingyas do not come back to Bangladesh once they are taken back to the Rakhine state. She is also thinking about the livelihoods of the Rohingyas.

*PA: Did Suu Kyi give you any new proposal?*

*AK:* At one stage of discussion, she said it was found in the past that after returning to Rakhine state, Rohingyas entered Bangladesh again. Rohingyas may not go to Bangladesh again if a village is built up ensuring all the facilities for them in Myanmar. She spoke of building 'internally displaced persons (IDP)' village for Rohingyas.

*PA:* Look, Myanmar already took internally displaced Rohingyas to IDP camps.

*AK:* She didn't spoke of IDP camp, rather she spoke of IDP village. The Rohingyas will be kept in that village in a specific place providing all facilities.

*PA: Did Myanmar backtrack on the 10-point decision which includes full implementation of Annan Commission’s recommendations and bringing an immediate end to the Rohingya influx into Bangladesh? These two key issues were missing in the circular Myanmar published on your visit*

*AK:* The Myanmar government dropped those matters whereas those were the common decisions after the meeting. Our ambassador asked me what he should do. I told our ambassador not to sign the meeting minutes if the Annan Commission’s recommendations are not included. Accordingly, we did not sign it.

*PA: How will you evaluate Myanmar’s position?*

*Ak:* Look, Myanmar will not take any initiative to solve the crisis if the international pressure does not continue. And that’s why we didn’t sign the meeting minutes. We clearly stated that the matter of Annan Commission’s recommendation must be included in the minute.

*PA: Did you mention in your discussion that the atrocities committed by the Myanmar army on the Rohingyas are genocide?*

*AK:* I didn't call it genocide. I called it a brutality. Suu Kyi told me to encourage Rohingyas to return home as they are not willing to return home. I told her that you know well why they do not want to return. They do not want to return because a peaceful atmosphere does not exist there.

*PA: Did they take it easily when you described Rohingyas as Myanmar nationals as Myanmar does not recognise them as their citizens?*

*AK:* We explained to them that the ancestors of Rohingyas had been living in Myanmar for several hundred years. They were also born there. Which country do they belong to if they are not the residents of Myanmar?

In this context, I couldn't but mention one thing. During the meeting with the Myanmar home minister, an army general all of a sudden started giving his own opinions on Rohingyas in breach of diplomatic norms. The general said these people are Bangalees. The British brought them from Bangladesh to Myanmar for cultivation. Our ambassador told the general that Rakhine state was up to Chittagong. The language the Rohingyas speak is not Bangla. It is the language of Rakhine region. Afterwards, that general got deflated.

*PA: Did Myanmar hand over any list of ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) to Bangladesh?*

*AK:* They said they would give me a list. Asking the inspector general of police (IGP), I came to know that a list was given to him, but that is not complete.

*PA: How many people are in the list?*

*AK:* They have spoken of about 500 people, but the IGP informed me about a list of 200 people. However, I'm not sure about it.

*PA: Did you raise the issue of planting landmines across Bangladesh-Myanmar border?*

*AK:* Militants might have planted the landmines. However, the Myanmar army and the police will remove them.

*PA: How far are you hopeful about the solution to the crisis?*

*AK:* Experience says that they will not do anything easily. If the international pressure continues, they will be compelled to solve the crisis.

*PA:* Thank you.

*AK:* Thank you too.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/164563/Myanmar-won-t-resolve-Rohingya-crisis-if-int-l


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## Banglar Bir

*Responding to comments posted by U Ye Htut on his Facebook wall*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/10/responding-to-comments-posted-by-u-ye-htut-on-his-facebook-wall.html




By Mohammed Ayub (နည္းပညာ)
*Responding to comments posted by U Ye Htut on his Facebook wall on 22-10-2017 at 5:34 pm
(ဘဂၤလီ/ရိုုဟင္ဂ်ာအေရးေဆြးေႏြးပြဲအေတြ႕အၾကံဳ (၂))
U Ye Htut: လူဦးေရ
ရခုုိင္ျပည္နယ္တစ္ခုုလံုုးမွာ ဘဂၤလီေတြက လူနည္းစုု ၂၉ % ေလာက္ပဲရိွတာမွန္ တယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ အခုုေဖာ္ျပထားတဲ့ေျမပံုုကုုိ ၾကည့္ရင္ ရခုုိင္ျပည္နယ္ေတာင္ပိုုင္းေဒသမွာ လူနည္းစုုျဖစ္ေပမယ့္ ေျမာက္ပိုုင္းျမိဳ႕နယ္ႏွစ္ခုုမွာ ဘဂၤ လီေတြဟာ လူမ်ားစုု ၉ ၅% ရိွေနျပီး စစ္ေတြျမိဳ႕နယ္မွာေတာင္ ရခုုိင္ေတြနဲ႕သိတ္မကြာေတာ့တာေတြ႕ရမယ္။ ဒီေဒသကိုု အဂၤလိပ္ေတြသန္းေခါင္စာရင္းေကာက္ ေတာ့ ၁၈၇၂ ခုုႏွစ္မွာ မဟာေမဒင္ ၅၈၂၅၅ ဦးပဲရိွတယ္။ ၁၉ ၀၁ ခုုႏွစ္စာရင္းက်ေတာ့ ၁၅၄၈၈၇ ဦး ရိွသြားတယ္။ ေခတ္အဆက္ဆက္ သန္းေခါင္စာရင္းေတြကိုု ျပန္ၾကည့္ရင္ ဘူးသီးေတာင္၊ ေမာင္ ေတာေဒသမွာ ဘဂၤလီေတြရဲ့ လူဦးေရ တိုုးပြားမႈႏႈန္းက ရခိုုင္ေတြထက္ အမ်ားၾကီးမ်ားေနတာကိုု ေတြ႕ရမယ္။ ဒါဟာ ရခုုိင္တစ္ျပည္နယ္လံုုးကိုု ဘဂၤလီေတြ၀ါးျမိဳသြားလိ္္မ့္မယ္လိုု႕ ရခုုိင္တုုိင္းရင္းသား ေတြစိုုးရိမ္စိတ္ျဖစ္ေစတ့ဲအခ်က္တစ္ခ်က္ပဲ။ ေနာက္ျပီး အဂၤလိပ္ေခတ္သန္းေခါင္စာရင္းေတြမွာပါ တဲ့ လူဦးေရတိုုးတက္မႈႏႈန္းကိုုၾကည့္လိုုက္ရင္ စစ္တေကာင္းဘက္က ေျပာင္းေရႊ႕၀င္ေရာက္လာသူ ေတြအမ်ားစုုရိွေနတယ္ဆိုုတာ ျငင္းလိုု႕မရဘူး။
Translation:
Population
Bengalis across Arakan State are minorities and 29% were they.
According to the map, they are minority in southern Arakan State, but they are majority in two northern suburbs, forming 9 5%, even in Sittwe their numbers are not much difference with Rakhines. 

According to British census in 1872, there were 58255 Mahomadens and in 1901 it increased to 154887. Looking back at all ages Census in Buthidaung and Maungdaw area, the population growth rate of Bengali is found to be much higher than that of Rakhines’. 
This is anxiety-causing factor that Rohingya will swallow Rakhines in terms of Population. In addition, if we look British-era census population growth, it is undeniable that there were many Chittagonian immigrants in Arakan.*




*Map Supplied by U Ye Htut
Refutations:
Dear U Ye Htut,
You have expressed your concern about the size of population of Rohingya in Arakan. 
And also you said that the population growth rate of Rohingyas is higher than Rakhine, which makes Rakhines presume Rohingya will swallow them. You also exerted that, according to the British censuses, there ere many immigrants from Chittagong who settled down in Arakan.

You also wrongly quoted that, according to 1872 census, the Rohingya (Mahomadens) population of Arakan was 58255, which was the total Rohingya population in Akyab district only. 
The actual Muslim (Rohingya) population according to 1872 census was 64000.

Logically, Regarding population growth, an example is entertained. 
If any body is financially strong enough to live in furnished apartment in the downtown area, why will he go for wood-and-bamboo-made tent in outskirt area? Still the choice will be his. It’s his right. Just because a race has higher growth rate, it should not be eradicated by exerting various forms of torture. 

That must not be the ground that Rakhines will be marginalized by means of population. That chance of increasing growth rate is also with Rakhines. Why not followed by Rakhines, then? Rohingyas are not sole contractor of high population growth rate. 

Besides, there are no Rohingyas who got poor just because they have many children and also there are no Rakhines who got rich just because they have fewer children. Many Rohingyas do have no family planning. 

Give them the chance to liberate themselves from the current deadlock and the opportunities to learn, study and grow. They will plan it for themselves. If one sister community group is afraid of the other just because of relatively higher population growth rate, aren’t we be feeling that we are dragging back ourselves to stone ages, though we are IT ages in. 

Just see the neighboring country Bangladesh, the population of which is estimated at 163 million (2016), where about 86% of Bangladeshis are Muslims, followed by Hindus (12%), Buddhists (1%) and Christians (0.5%) and others (0.5%). 
The 86% Muslims embraced 1% Buddhists and 12% Hindus, and ensured all their rights, and living peacefully since long. But in Myanmar with total population 51419420, what word to use, if about 90% of Buddhists are presumably to fear the 4.3% Muslims in the name of Islamophobia? 
If over-populated Bangladesh wants to Islamize Myanmar, why then they not forcibly convert or drive out 12% of Hindus and 1% of Buddhists from the soils of Bangladesh first?
Factually
According to the British-Burma census of 1872, who fled to the Southern Chittagong to escape the brutalities of Burmese King Boedawpayah, returned to their original home Arakan after British conquest (see pic screenshot-1), and according to Dr. Abid Bahar, a prominent historian, the fear of uncertainty still persisted and that many Rohingya driven by the 1784 genocide preferred to work in Arakan only as “seasonal laborers.”

There were seasonal immigrants to Arakan from Chittagong, Madras and other parts of India but the Chittagonian returned home after seasonal work, having earned pocketful of money, and the Indians used to return their home after saving some money during the stay in British Burma from one to four years. Further more, in the census report of 1872, it was mention that the population of British Burma is increasing at maximum known rate of natural increase (Screenshot-2). 

The report also pointed out that there were numbers of Indian elements that year to year remained constant and non-reproductive. 
The report also well documented that from 1862 to 1871 the increase rate was 2.68%, which is normal. 

Remarkably, in the year 1872 the increase rate was 7.21% for which the report claimed that there were no exceptional increase but put that the accuracy of enumeration, closer counting and high reproduction rate among the inhabitants, were the reasons behind the increase (Screenshot-3). 
Therefore, population growth rate increase cannot make Rohingyas the Chittagonian Bengali immigrants.

Another interesting points to be noted from 1872 census reports are; that 
(1) the adult male population size in British-Burma was greater than the size of female population, that is there were extra more male than female in British Burma, confirming that the Chittagonian laborers did not bring their families with them and went back after season expired and, 
(2) in the same year 1872, according to the Bengal census, in Chittagong there were fewer male than female, confirming that some of the adult males have gone to British Arakan for seasonal work leaving behind their families at Chittagong (Screenshot-4).

Therefore, it is on the part of Myanmar government to sincerely focus on historical facts to solve long entangling Rohingya problem. History is not to read and feel with emotional feelings. If we interpret the history as we feel it, the sufferer will be not only Rohingya but also Rakhines and other countrymen.*




*Screenshot-1 (1872 British-Burma census report)*




*Screenshot-2 (1872 British-Burma census report)*




*Screenshot-3 (1872 British-Burma census report)*




*Screenshot-4 (1872 British-Burma census report)
U Ye Htut: ေက်းရြာမ်ားတည္ရိွမႈ
အခုုေဖာ္ျပထားတဲ့ ေက်းရြာအုုပ္စုုေျမပံုုေတြကိုု ၾကည့္လိုုက္ပါ။ အနီေတြက ဘဂၤလီသီးသန္႕ရြာေတြ၊ အ၀ါေရာင္ေတြက ဘဂၤလီနဲ႕ ရခုုိင္ေရာေႏွာရြာေတြ၊ အျပာေရာင္ေတြက ရခုုိင္နဲ႕အျခားတုုိင္းရင္းသား သီးသန္႕ရြာေတြ၊ လိေမၼာ္ေရာင္အရင့္ေတြက နတလ ရြာေတြ၊ အစိမ္းေရာင္က ၂၀၁၂ ပဋိပကၡမွာ မီးရိႈ႕ခံခဲ့ရတဲ့ရြာေတြ။ ဒီေက်းရြာေတြတည္ရိွမႈအရ အဲဒီေဒသမွာရိွတဲ့ ရခုုိင္နဲ႕ အျခားတုုိင္းရင္းသား ေတြကဘဂၤလီေတြအ၀ိုုင္းခံေနရတယ္ဆိုုတဲ့စိုုးရိမ္ထိပ္လန္႕မႈေတြအျမဲရိွေနမယ္ဆိုုတာကိုု နားလည္ ႏုုိင္တယ္။
Translation:
The Existence of villages
Now look at the tract map displayed. 
Red marked were Bengalis separate villages, Yellow, mixed Bengalis and Rakhine villages and, Blue, Arakanese and other villages, Dark Orange, NaTaLa villages and, Green, 2012 conflict-affected torched villages. 
The ways of existence of the villages make feel Rakhines and other ethnics that they are being circled by Bengalis. From that, it can be understood that it is anxiety-causing factor for them.
Logical and Factual Refutations:
In 1990s, it was the Military government who initiated the settlement of NaTaLa Villages in between Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State on the confiscated lands of Rohingyas. Those Rakhine villages were built on Rohingyas sweat and money. 

The new settlers were partly from Yangon, who were homeless and lawless, and partly from Bangladesh, who are Bengali Buddhists. 
Rohingyas had forcefully to surrender their forefathers owned farmlands to Rakhines. The government induced the hatred and hostile policies in NaTaLa villagers and from that on Rohingyas have been living life in extra high tension. 

As the settlers grew, crimes and atrocities towards Rohingyas both by Rakhines and security forces also grew. They looted Rohingyas belongings whenever and wherever possible. The most distinct affect was that the area has been populated with various kinds of gambling and liquor houses making the atmosphere very hostile and causing moral corruptions and degradations.

It is baseless and illogical to say that fear is rooted in Rakhines because they feel their villages were surrounded by Rohingya villages. It is government that created that atmosphere by discriminating Rohingyas and degrading their citizenship standard. 
We are human. We are not living life in the forest like animals. 
Even animals can live peacefully in the forest, we, being humankind, why cannot we?*




*Screenshot-5 (en.wikipedia.org)*



*Screenshot-6 (en.wikipedia.org)*




*Screenshot-7 (Google Map)
U Ye Htut: ရခုုိင္ေျမာက္ပိုုင္းက ပဋိပကၡသမိုုင္း
၁။ ၁၉ ၄၂ခုုႏွစ္ အေရးအခင္း။ အဂၤလိပ္ေတြ ရခုုိင္ျပည္နယ္ကေန ဆုုတ္ခြာသြားေတာ့ ဘဂၤလီေတြကိုု နယ္ျခား ေစာင့္တပ္ဖြဲ႕ဖိုု႕လက္နက္ေတြေပးခဲ့တယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ဂ်ပန္ကိုု တုုိက္ရမယ့္အစား ရခုုိင္ေတြကိုု တိုုက္ ခိုုက္ေမာင္းထုုတ္ခဲ့တယ္။ အဲဒီအေရးအခင္းမွာ ရခုုိင္တုုိင္းရင္းသားေတြ ဘယ္ ေလာက္ေသခဲ့တယ္ဆိုုတာနဲ႕ပတ္သက္ျပီး အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳးေျပာတယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ စစ္အျပီးအဂၤလိပ္ အစီ ရင္ခံစာတစ္ခုုမွာေတာ့ ဘူးသီးေတာင္၊ေမာင္ေတာေဒသက ရခုုိင္ရြာ ၂၀၄ ရြာက လံုုး၀ပ်က္သြားခဲ့ ျပီး အဲဒီအထဲက ရြာ ၆၀မွာပဲရခုုိင္ေတြျပန္ေနခဲ့တယ္လိုု႕ဆိုုတယ္။ ဒါ့ေၾကာင့္လည္း ဒီေန႕ အထိ ဘဂၤလီ ရြာေတြက ရခုုိင္နာမည္ေတြနဲ႕ျဖစ္ေနတာကိုုေတြ႕ရလိမ့္မယ္။ အဲဒီထက္အေရးၾကီးတာက ၁၉ ၄၂ ခုုႏွစ္ အျဖစ္အပ်က္က ရခုုိင္ေတြရဲ့ ဘဂၤလီေတြအေပၚ အျမင္ကိုု အမ်ားၾကီး အက်ိဳးသက္ေရာက္ မႈရိွတယ္။ ၂၀၁၂ ခုုႏွစ္ ရခုုိင္ျပည္နယ္စံုုစမ္းေရးေကာ္မရွင္က ရခုုိင္တုုိင္းရင္းသား ၁၂၀၀ ကိုု ေမးတဲ့ အခါ အားလံုုးက အဲဒီျဖစ္စဥ္ကိုု သူတိုု႕မိဘေတြဆီကေနၾကားဖူးတယ္လိုု႕ေျပာတယ္။
Translation:
The history of the conflict in northern Arakan
Uprising in Arakan state. In 1942, withdrawing British from Arakan armed Bengalis to form the BGF. However, instead of fighting Japan, began to push against Rakhines. There were different sayings about how many Rakhines were killed. 

But after the war in a British report, in Buthidaung and Maungdaw regions 204 Arakanese villages were destroyed and only in 60 villages Rakhines were to resettle. So until today one can still find Bengali villages in Rakhine names. More importantly, 1942 events have a profound effect on Bengalis by Rakhines. When in 2012, Rakhine state inquiry commission interviewed 1200 Arakanese, they all answered that they’ve heard about 1942 conflict from their parents.
Logical and Factual Refutations:
1942 Massacre
Well, dear U Ye Htut! As pointed out earlier, history is not emotional version records of the ages. 
If we one-sidedly emphasize the part of history, then we will never be able to have correct results to help solve problems. According to the Wikipedia.org, in 1942 massacre of Arakan both Rohingyas and Arakanese Buddhists were perpetrators targeting Rohingya Muslims in Japanese-controlled southern part of Arakan by armed Arakanese Buddhists, and Arakanese Buddhists in northern Arakan by British loyalists local Rohingyas. 

So, the casualties from both sides were remarkable and in one place Wikipedia.org recorded that “Muslims from Northern Rakhine State killed around 20,000 Arakanese, including the Deputy Commissioner U Oo Kyaw Khaing. 
In return the Buddhist also killed a large number of Rohingya Muslims. However the number of Arakanese killed is being questioned, and the number of Muslims killed is claimed to be around 40,000. 

The total casualty of both parties in that conflict is not certain and no concrete official reference can be found.” More than 300 villages of Rohingyas (you said 204 villages of Rakhines were destroyed) were destroyed and 62,000 had fled to Bengal, part of British India (Screenshot-5 and 6).

Therefore, if you only talk about the sufferings of Rakhines, would you feel safe in your inner mind-set? 

Their elders also told Rohingyas how they suffered in 1942 massacre, as you mentioned that, when Rakhine commission in 2012 interviewed 1200 Rakhines. These are emotional feelings and perception. 

It is the government who is responsible to mediate between the two communities. Instead, the government is very much concern about Rakhines’ emotional feelings that are against Rohingyas and when their feelings are against government, it pass the problems to Rohingyas by creating anti-Muslim propagandas. The sad is for Rakhine politicians and leaders who repeatedly fail to see that trap till now.

And you mentioned that there are many Rohingya villages in Rakhine names. Please any one can explain me, which of these names are Rakhine or Burmese? Arakan (now Rakhine), Akyab (Sittwe),Cheinkharli (Ohntaw), Gorakhali (Kyaungtaung), Goduthara, Kanhpuu, Bagonenaa, Bolibazar (Kyeinchaung), Nurulla para (TetOoChaung), Inndin. 

These are only few from many. The reality was that the government purposely changed Rohingya named to Burmese names to misguide the world about the Rohingya history. And you know there is Rohingya para in Sittwe, which is now called as Yupa Taung Ward (screenshot-7). And there were many official maps of Maungdaw, which use Bolibazar (Not Kyeinchaung).

You argued about the Rakhines villages destroyed, but on the other side, you purposely remained silent about the Rohingya villages destroyed in southern and northern Rakhine. Will government allow resettling those Rohingya villages? Why one-sided?

Who understand logic can decide who suffered most in 1942 massacre; Rohingyas or Rakhines? British supported Rohingya Muslims with arms in the absentia and Japanese forces supported Rakhines with their presence. There were records from Wikipedia and Rohingyas who survive in those days witnessed how brutal the Japanese forces and Rakhines were towards Rohingyas.

The immigration authorities imposed limitations of movement upon Muslims from the regions of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung to Akyab [Sittwe]. The Muslims were not resettled in the villages from which they had been driven out in 1942 (with the exception of villages they left in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung regions). Some 13,000 Rohingya still living in refugee camps in India and Pakistan whence they had fled during the war, were unable to return; as for those who did manage to return, they were considered illegal Pakistani immigrants. The properties and land of all these refugees have been confiscated (HRW)
U Ye Htut: ၂။ ၁၉ ၄၈-၁၉ ၅၄ မူဂ်ာဟစ္သူပုုန္။ အဲဒီကာလမွာလည္း ဘူးသီးေတာင္၊ ေမာင္ေတာ ေဒသက ရခုုိင္ တိုုင္းရင္းသားေတြထြက္ေျပးခဲ့ရျပန္တယ္။
Translation:
1948-1954 Mujahideen rebels. 
In this period also Rakhines from Buthidaung Maungdaw had to flee again.
Logical and Factual Clarification:
After independent of Burma, all ethnic groups, not only Rohingya, took rebellion against Burmese government for the autonomy. Why not arise concerns about how many of civilians fled due to the fights between Burmese forces and ethnic groups in other parts of Burma. 

Particularly pointing about the Rakhine state is fueling ongoing tension between the two communities. And Mujahids were the first to surrender the Government from amongst armed rebellion groups in Myanmar. 

Do you know how many Rohingyas had fled to Bangladesh due to atrocities committed by Burma Territorial Force (BTF)? After independent, Burmese authorities have launched more than 20 offensive operations again Rohingyas and every time Rohingyas are the ones who need to flee to safety.
U Ye Htut: ၃။ ၁၉ ၇၁ အိႏိၵယ-ပါကစၥတန္စစ္ပြဲ။ အဲဒီအခ်ိန္မွာ အေရွ႕ပါကစၥတန္ ( အခုု ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရ္ွ) ဘက္ ကေန ဒုုကၡသည္ငါးသိန္းေလာက္ ျမန္မာႏုုိင္ငံဘက္ကိုု ၀င္လာတယ္။ စစ္ျပီးေတာ့ အေတာ္မ်ားမ်ား ျပန္သြားတယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ဘယ္ေလာက္ ျပန္သလဲ၊ ဘယ္ေလာက္က်န္သလဲ ဘယ္သူမွမသိဘူး။ အဲဒီအခ်ိန္က ျမန္မာအစိုုးရဟာ အေရွ႕ေျမာက္ေဒသမွာ တရုုတ္ေထာက္ခံတဲ့ ဗကပ နဲ႕အၾကီး အက်ယ္တုုိက္ေနရလိုု႕ အေနာက္ဘက္နယ္စပ္ကိုု ဂရုုမစိုုက္ႏုုိင္ခဲ့ဘူး။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ရခုုိင္ေတြကေတာ့ ဗဟုုိ အစိုုးရဟာ သူတိုု႕ကိုု ဂရုုမစိုုက္ဘူးလိုု႕ခံစားရတယ္။

U Ye Htut: ၄။ ၁၉ ၇၈ နဂါးမင္းစစ္ဆင္ေရး။ ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရ္ွဘက္က ခုုိး၀င္သူေတြကိုု စိစစ္တဲ့အခါ ႏွစ္သိန္း ေက်ာ္ေလာက္ ထြက္ေျပးသြားတယ္။ ႏွစ္ႏုုိင္ငံညိွျပီး ဒုုကၡသည္ေတြကိုု စိစစ္ျပီးလက္ခံခဲ့တယ္။ ဒါ ေပမယ့္ ျပႆနာက မူလထြက္သြားပါတယ္ဆိုုတဲ့ စာရင္းထက္ သံုုးေသာင္းေလာက္ပိုုျပီးလက္ခံခဲ့ ရတယ္။ ရခုုိင္တုုိင္းရင္းသားေတြက အဲဒီကိစၥအေပၚ အၾကီးအက်ယ္ေဒါသထြက္တယ္။ အစိုုးရရဲ့ ျပန္လည္စိစစ္ေရးအစီအစဥ္ေတြအေပၚ ေမးခြန္းထုုတ္ခဲ့တယ္။
Translation:
1971 India-Pakistan war. 
During the war from the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) about half of a million refugees took refuge in Burma. Many of them returned after war. But, how much returned and how much remained was not known. At that time, the government of Myanmar was in war with China backed Bama Communist Party in the northeast region and could not pay attention to the western border. But Arakanese felt that they were neglected by the central government.
1978 Operation King Dragon. 
In screening illegal entry from Bangladesh, more than two hundred thousand people had fled the area. They were accepted back on a situation where the two countries together verified. But the problem is out of the original list; the government of Myanmar had received about thirty thousand. These issues make Arakanese outraged and questioned on the government’s repatriation procedures.
Logical and Factual Refutations:
3,4. The Bangladesh government claimed 252,000 persons sought refuge in Bangladesh 1978 exodus and, after negotiation, the operation commenced on 31st August 1978 and ended on 29th December 1979 and involved repatriation of a total of 187,250 refugees from 252,000 to Arakan (burmalibrary.org). 

In actual number, more than 64,750 remained in Bangladesh due to fear of persecution by Burmese security forces and local Rakhine mobs. But U Ye Htut claimed that 30,000 extra had to be accepted back from 1978 exodus for which Rakhines were outburst against the government and questioned about the repatriation procedures.

You said that 500,000 refugees took shelter in Myanmar during 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war. Majority of them had returned after war. 
But no body knows that how many of them had returned, and how many of them remained. Hypothetically speaking, if Nagamin operation was to scrutinize illegal entry, those illegally remaining from 1971 refugee must have gone to Bangladesh, as they will not have any chance to prove Myanmar Nationality in 6 years time, then why would they come back again to Myanmar, seeing danger in the future? 

Assuming that they fled because of no legal documents as Myanmar residence and, according 1978 MoU, only lawful residents of Burma were repatriated, then why would they be accepted back? 
By the way, how many times and how much the government has showed care towards Rakhine (Any ethnic group) since independent? 
If the same has enjoyed by the ethnic groups, the why they still are embracing gun to fight Burmese government?
U Ye Htut: ၅။ ၁၉ ၈၈ ခုုႏွစ္ေမာင္ေတာအေရးအခင္း ။ ၁၉ ၈၈ အေရးအခင္းကာလမွာ ပတ္၀န္းက်င္ ဘဂၤလီ ရြာေတြက ေမာင္ေတာျမိဳ႕ကိုု သိမ္းပိုုက္ဖိုု႕ၾကိဳးစားတာျဖစ္တယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ရဲတပ္ဖြဲ႕ က ကာကြယ္ ႏုုိင္ခဲ့တယ္။
Translation:
1988 Maungdaw uprising. 
In 1988 uprising, Bengali villages tried to occupy Maungdaw. However, police could control it.
Logical and Factual Clarification:
It is a white lie. 
Everybody knows that 88 uprising were against the government by the all people of Burma for the all people of Burma. 
It was not specific communal violent carried out by a specific ethnic group. 
And it was not the war between Rohingya and government but the revolution against the government from oppressed people of Burma. 
Still you want to stick Rohingyas name on it. 

What happened in northern Rakhine state were the destructions of village administrative offices and government establishments but not private properties belonged to any other ethnic groups.


*


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Where do we go from here?*
Sohel Rana
Published at 06:55 PM October 30, 2017





Are our humanitarian efforts sustainable?*MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU*
*We need to take all sides of the Rohingya crisis into account*
Two-month-old infant, Shaokat Ara, has been living in Balukhali makeshift Rohingya camp-1 in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, since her birth.

To her, the planet is a green one — courtesy of Ukhiya’s picturesque natural beauty — full of hope.

But she was born without much hope when her mother, Rehana, narrowly escaped a locally named “_launcha_” — a weapon similar to a missile, fired by the Myanmar military to set her home ablaze.

Rehana had absolutely no other option but to run and flee.

She crossed a narrow strait of Naf in Myanmar to Ulubunia, Palingkhali, Ukhia — leaving behind her torturous past at Balibazar, a village in Maungdaw district in Myanmar, where her family had been living for hundreds of years.

The short walk toward Ulubunia at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border came to a halt as Rehana felt a surging pain burning her womb. It was time for the delivery of her child — she had been carrying for 10 months.

Showkat Ara was born on her mother’s walk to freedom from persecution and pain.

Rehana had company — thousands swarming the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, left with no choice but to run for their lives. Often with a solar panel or an elderly member of the family hanging on the shoulder and a battery bag in hand.
*Two sides of the same coin*
Across the Naf river, the picture was a little different from what they had fled from. Bangladesh set an extraordinary example of humanity and compassion. The Rohingya were forced to lead a nomadic life, displaced from their agrarian lifestyle.

*Lately, Myanmar’s militarised government conjured a ridiculous theory: The Rohingya are, in fact, migrated Bangladeshi Muslim agrarian people, who travelled to their land some generations ago and thus never conformed to their citizenship principles.*

Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning Indian economist, slapped this line of defense with a fiery retort: “The Rohingya didn’t come to Myanmar; Myanmar came to the Rohingya.”

Bangladesh was born with a fundamental pledge to justice, equity, and compassion. In the face of one of the biggest humanitarian crises, our government, along with the Bangladeshi locals in Cox’s Bazar, embraced the traumatised Rohingya with smiling faces and are still doing what they can to help.
*The heavy lifting*
Immediately after the fresh influx beginning on August 29, the Cox’s Bazar district administration, in collaboration with RRRC (Refugee, Relief, and Repatriation Commission, Bangladesh), set up temporary makeshift camps and developed a system not only to distribute relief coming from all over the world, but also to create a functional work environment for the UN bodies and hundreds of NGOs.

Other agencies like the police and the army, led by the district administration, accomplished an insurmountable task to facilitate the safe and secured distribution of a huge amount of diverse relief.

Our efforts to force the Myanmar government to do the right thing are way less than our efforts to accommodate the Rohingya in Bangladesh

Hundreds of national and international NGOs are doing commendable jobs to ensure minimum sanitation and health standards in the makeshift camps. Everyone, except Myanmar, is trying to build a fate for these battered souls, a home for these homeless, and give hope to people.
*Reality checks*
But we need to reconsider a few things given the harsh realities and new developments in the Rohingya camps.

A few days back, at Balukhali makeshift camp-1, three Bangladeshi citizens from Chittagong, who were trying to distribute cash as relief, on which the government has imposed a ban, were brutally beaten by some Rohingya. They were recovered half dead and the offenders claimed that they were trying to steal their kids.
*
But later on, the allegations were found not to be true.*

The money from the Bangladeshis was snatched away by the Rohingya and to cover it up, they simply manufactured a false allegation. Recently, a policeman was hit in the head by a Rohingya couple at Teknaf.

These developments, though rare, indicate a law and order concern for us.

Some believe, years of exposure to extortion, exploitation, and violence may have rendered the Rohingya cunning and violent. While it’s best to avoid this type of racial profiling, unfortunately, the potential for a “Rohingarchy” in the lives of the locals is not too unlikely.
*Is our humanity sustainable? *
Besides, the concern is not only about law and order. Bangladesh has been advancing gloriously for the past few years, and this half a million (and counting) can seriously affect the thriving growth of our nation.

The number itself is a threatening statistic. Prevention of locals mixing with the Rohingya would be a near impossible job for the security forces and it may result in fatal consequences for the locals.

Though WFP and UNHCR will take the responsibilities of this added population, there is no guarantee that they will not cut loose from the camps. It may be the locals’ fates that will be at risk.

Will they go back?
Will they be given their legitimate right of citizenry?
What exactly is a solution to this crisis?
*
These questions won’t see answers any time soon.*

At the moment, international authorities are busy meeting immediacies based upon the sheer generosity shown by our PM.

Interestingly, our efforts to force the Myanmar government to do the right thing are disproportionate compared to our efforts to accommodate the Rohingya in Bangladesh.

Yes, we want a compassionate solution to this crisis and a future for the Rohingya, but not at the cost of risking our own fate.
_Sohel Rana is an Assistant Commissioner and Executive Magistrate working in DC office, Feni, Bangladesh and a member of Bangladesh Civil Service. He is now attached to Cox’s Bazar DC office to work for the Rohingya crisis. Currently, he is in charge of the Balukhali-1 makeshift relief distribution Rohingya camp Ukhia, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh._
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/10/30/where-do-we-go-from-here-3/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, October 31, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:13 AM, October 31, 2017
*Condemnation not enough*
*Says Khaleda, calls upon all to ensure safe return of Rohingyas*




BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia takes a baby in her lap during a visit to a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar's Ukhia yesterday. Photo courtesy: BNP
Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has called upon international organisations and communities as well as the Bangladesh government to step up efforts to ensure Rohingyas' safe return to Myanmar.

“Condemnation and sympathy are not enough. Take steps immediately so that Rohingyas can return to their motherland safely,” she said.

The BNP chief was talking to reporters after distributing relief supplies among Rohingyas at Moynargona refugee camp in Ukhia yesterday.

Khaleda said the Bangladesh government has to make diplomatic efforts to send back Rohingyas and the international organisations should also have to take the responsibility. “It is their moral responsibility.”

The BNP chairperson said her party would continue its relief distribution programme for as long as possible. “But the distribution of relief is not the solution. They [Rohingyas] should be repatriated through holding talks and making diplomatic efforts.”

Drawing the attention of the international community to the Rohingya crisis, Khaleda said, “Your words won't work unless you translate it into action. You should also think of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is not a rich country; it's a poor and small country. People of Bangladesh have big hearts and that's why they extended support to Rohingyas. Now it is Myanmar's responsibility to take them back.”

About the Saturday's attack on her motorcade and journalists, the former premier said, “It's a humanitarian programme. But my motorcade came under attack and many journalists were injured. The government knows who carried out the attack and their photographs have also been published [in media].”

“I want the government to stop it. These activities will not produce any benefit. Rather, you will be isolated from people. That's why I think steps should be taken so that everybody can work together for the sake of humanity.”

On her way to Chittagong, Khaleda's motorcade was attacked in Feni. The BNP and the ruling Awami League have been trading blame for the attack.

Recalling that the previous BNP governments had sent back Rohingyas to Myanmar in 1978 and 1992 through talks and continuous engagement, the BNP chief said strong diplomatic efforts and talks with Myanmar were crucial for sending Rohingyas back home.

Accusing the government of not standing by the Rohingyas with enough relief, Khaleda said the government was rather “obstructing” those who were trying to help Rohingyas with relief materials.

“We believe that it's not possible for Bangladesh to shelter Rohingyas for a long period for different reasons.... The government is yet to make any effort [to send them back].”

Fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State, over 600,000 Rohingyas have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25.

Khaleda said the early-arriving Rohingyas had been in a sorry state and the BNP had demanded deployment of the army to mitigate their suffering.

She lauded the army's role in distributing relief in a disciplined manner and said her party gave 110 tonnes of rice to the army for distribution.

Expressing concern about the impact of the Rohingya influx on Bangladesh's environment and ecology, Khaleda said the country's environment and ecology were threatened due to habitation of Rohingyas and indiscriminate felling of trees in Cox's Bazar.

Later, she visited Rohingya camps at Hakim Para and Balukhali and a medical camp set up by Doctors Association of Bangladesh (DAB), a pro-BNP physicians' body, in Ukhia.

The BNP chairperson talked to some Rohingya families at the camps. She was shocked to hear the harrowing tales of torture on the Rohingyas in Myanmar. She cradled some babies in her arms.

Khaleda distributed relief at the camps and also handed over food, medicine and other goods for Rohingya children and expecting mothers to the DAB medical team at its camp in Balukhali for distributing those among refugees.

Asked whether the BNP was satisfied with the government's diplomatic efforts, she said, “Earlier I said diplomatic efforts should be stepped up to end the crisis.”

Around 9:00am, BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Nazrul Islam Khan handed over relief materials, loaded in 45 trucks, to the army relief coordination cell in Ukhia on behalf of the party chief.

Thousands of BNP leaders, activists and supporters, including a large number of women, stood along the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf road to greet Khaleda on her way to Ukhia in the morning.

The BNP chief left Cox's Bazar for Chittagong last night. She will stay at Chittagong Circuit House at night and is expected to start for Dhaka today.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...isis-relief-distribution-not-solution-1484236

*Trump needs to say something — and do something — about the assault on the Rohingya*




Kulsuma Begum, 40, a Rohingya refugee, cries while recounting her story at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Friday. She said that her daughter was missing and that her husband and son-in-law were killed by Burmese soldiers. (Hannah Mckay/Reuters)
_By_ Editorial Board
The Washington Post
October 30, 2017
*THE BIGGEST and most ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing the world has seen in years continues unabated in Burma. *
Since Aug. 25, more than 600,000 members of the Rohingya community have been driven across the border to Bangladesh by the Burmese military, which has systematically torched their homes and killed those who resisted.
*The United Nations says it expects most of the 500,000 remaining Rohingya in the Rakhine state to cross the border in the coming weeks; the military has pushed many of them into camps, to which aid groups and journalists are denied access.*

This atrocity is being perpetrated against a despised minority: The Rohingya are Muslims who are regarded by Burma’s Buddhist majority as foreign interlopers, even though they have lived in the country for generations.
Virtually no one in Burma, also known as Myanmar, has come to the victims’ defense — not even Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who controls the civilian government, if not the generals.

A senior U.N. official, Yanghee Lee, pointed out last week that the country’s revered leader might be the only one who could counter the popular “hatred and hostility” against the Rohingya if she were to “reach out to the people and say, ‘Hey, let’s show some humanity.’ ”
But Aung San Suu Kyi has remained silent.

After weeks of hesitation, the United States has finally begun to act against this staggering crime. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Oct. 18 that “the world can’t just stand idly by and be witness to the atrocities,” adding that the military leadership would be held accountable.

A few days later, the State Department followed up by pulling the waiver allowing current and former Burmese military officials to travel to the United States, and said military units involved would be deemed ineligible for U.S. aid.
It called on the government to “facilitate the safe and voluntary return of those who have fled” and “address the root causes of systematic discrimination against the Rohingya.”
*
That, however, is not enough. 
So far State has not formally adopted the term “ethnic cleansing” to describe the forced exodus.*
Mr. Tillerson called Burma’s army chief on Thursday, but a statement issued afterward referred only to “reported atrocities.” In fact, as Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, has said, what is occurring is “genocide” — and the U.S. response should be proportionate.

Burma was something of a pet project for the Obama administration, which lavished attention on the regime and lifted long-standing sanctions after it held a democratic election.
It’s now clear that those who questioned whether President Barack Obama acted prematurely in removing the remaining sanctions before leaving office were correct.
*
President Trump, who seems to take a visceral pleasure in reversing Mr. Obama’s legacies, would be right to do so in this case*.
Senior Burmese military officials should be targeted with asset freezes, and all business with the military and its affiliates should be suspended.

Mr. Trump has yet to speak out about the assault on the Rohingya, though it is the most serious human rights crisis to occur so far in his presidency.
*His upcoming visit to Asia, during which he will attend a summit of Southeast Asian nations that includes Burma, provides him an opportunity to show he will not ignore crimes against humanity.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/trump-needs-to-say-something-and-do.html*

*US Acting Assistant Secretary of State to visit Bangladesh Wednesday*
SAM Staff, October 31, 2017




US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Simon Henshaw will visit Bangladesh Wednesday (Nov 1) to discuss ways to address the humanitarian and human rights concerns stemming from the Rakhine State crisis.

The US delegation, will also discuss about improving the delivery of humanitarian assistance to displaced persons in Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh, and the region, a US embassy statement said here today.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Tom Vajda of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and Office Director Patricia Mahoney of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs will accompany the Acting Assistant Secretary.

The delegation, which is now in Myanmar, will meet with various stakeholders to discuss the US and international responses to the ongoing Rohingya crisis and to explore durable solutions.

In Myanmar, Acting Assistant Secretary Simon Henshaw and the delegation will meet with the diplomatic community, senior government officials, and UN, international, and NGO partners.

The delegation members will discuss the current state of the crisis, promote protection for persons affected by the violence and accountability for reported human rights abuses during their visit to Myanmar.

They will also urge Myanmar authority unhindered humanitarian access to affected communities in Rakhine State, and press for the establishment of protection mechanisms to enable individuals voluntarily return in safety and with dignity.

During Dhaka tour, Simon Henshaw and the delegation will meet with senior government officials, donors, and humanitarian agencies to discuss efforts to improve conditions and effectively meet life-saving needs for the significant influx of refugees into Bangladesh.

The delegation will also visit affected communities in Cox’s Bazar District to hear the stories of the people who have fled, assess the impact of the emergency humanitarian response, identify gaps in assistance, and advise on ways to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance, the statement added.
SOURCE BSS
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...t-secretary-state-visit-bangladesh-wednesday/


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## Banglar Bir

Published: 10:59 AM, 31 October 2017
*Australia supports humanitarian needs in Cox’s Bazar*
Asian Age Online




*The Australian government has announced a further AUD 10 million to support the humanitarian needs of almost 600,000 Rohingya people.*
This brings Australia's total assistance since the onset of the Rohingya crisis to AUD 30 million, said the Australian High Commission in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The recent violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar, has resulted in more than 600,000 Rohingya crossing the border into Bangladesh.

Most of these people have few possessions and are reliant on humanitarian aid to survive.

Almost 60 percent of the new arrivals are children, around 10 percent are pregnant or breastfeeding women, and a significant percentage of women have experienced sexual violence.

Australia appreciated the government of Bangladesh generous acceptance of this influx and acknowledges the increasingly heavy burden being placed on Bangladesh.

Australian support will contribute to providing food, clean water, sanitation, and shelter to more than 600,000 displaced people, said the High Commission.

It will also help treat children for malnutrition, create safe spaces for women, and provide maternal health services.

This assistance will be provided through the World Food Programme, the International Organisation for Migration, UNHCR, UNFPA, and other trusted humanitarian partners including local NGO BRAC and Australian NGOs.
http://dailyasianage.com/news/92915/australia-supports-humanitarian-needs-in-coxs-bazar


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## Banglar Bir

ASİA
*UN picks Norwegian for Myanmar role as tensions simmer over Rohingya crisis*
October 31, 2017 Reuters Agency




*Rohingya refugees wait to receive permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue their way*
The United Nations named a new interim U.N. resident coordinator for Myanmar on Tuesday, appointing Knut Ostby of Norway to take over the humanitarian role at a time of growing strains with the Myanmar government over the handling of the Rohingya crisis.

The appointment of a temporary placeholder was expected after Myanmar blocked an upgrade of the U.N. country chief position.

*Myanmar's de facto leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has told diplomats in private meetings that she is frustrated with the United Nations, particularly its human rights arm.*

Ostby, who has served with the United Nations in a number of hotspots, including Afghanistan and East Timor, will replace Renata Lok-Dessallien, who has completed her term.

Some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after ethnic violence erupted in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state in late August.

Rights monitors and Rohingya refugees say the army and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have forced them to flee their homes.

U.N. investigators interviewing Rohingyas living in refugee camps near Cox's Bazar said on Friday they had gathered testimony pointing to a "consistent, methodical pattern" of killings, torture, rape and arson.

The fact-finding team, led by former Indonesian attorney general Marzuki Darusman, said the death toll from the Myanmar army's crackdown following Rohingya insurgent attacks on Aug. 25 was unknown, but "may turn out to be extremely high".

The U.N. team, which was established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in March, renewed its appeal for access to Rakhine state and for talks with the Myanmar government and military to "establish the facts".

In the early stages of the crisis, the United Nations described the military campaign as "ethnic cleansing", an accusation rejected by Myanmar, which says its military was engaged in counter-insurgency operations against Rohingya militants behind a series of attacks on security posts.

Suu Kyi has said the refugees can return, but thousands continue to arrive in Bangladesh.

Myanmar, an overwhelmingly Buddhist country with small Christian and Muslim minorities, is struggling to emerge from decades of military rule.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/dunya/u...-tensions-simmer-over-rohingya-crisis-2797166

*Striving to survive: Rohingya refugees in Malaysia




Overseas Development Institute
There are over 50,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Malaysia. Without the right to work, and little support from the government or aid system, how do they survive? This video is part of a larger project aimed at listening to refugees to understand their hopes, priorities and perspectives. 
The full report is available at: 
https://www.odi.org/refugee-livelihoods.
*


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## Banglar Bir

2:00 AM, October 31, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:33 PM, October 31, 2017
*Prolonging the Rohingya crisis will work to China's disadvantage*




Even a drop of conscience should compel Chinese policymakers to act responsibly for about one million refugees are living in dire and desperate conditions in Bangladesh. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Ruby Amatulla
*The Rohingya crisis, if not resolved soon, may haunt the entire Southeast Asian region. And China is a critical player in all this. 
It is in China's best interest as well as that of the region to bring about a sustainable conflict resolution without losing any time.*
Once the ARSA resistance gains momentum and links up with international terrorist networks there would be a real threat of radicalisation in this region. 

The difficult terrain of mountains and forests is most suitable to sustain long-term guerilla warfare both against Myanmar and China, and that would be extremely costly to endure. 
Prominent military generals have conceded that there is no military solution to neutralising radicalised groups. 
*The deep-rooted issues that give rise to them must be addressed.*

If the past is any reference, ignoring the causes of radicalisation has fuelled the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East. Since 9/11, instead of addressing the grievances and injustices, the Western powers undertook a military strategy called the War on Terror to quell rebellion. 
The strategy has failed even after spending hundreds of billions of dollars for over a decade. 
Terrorism has increased many folds since then.

Tunisia has proved that a conflict resolution is the most powerful deterrent against radicalisation and violence. As the previously conflicting groups came together to establish a functioning democracy, a polarised and confrontational society became more pluralistic and tolerant. The case of neighbouring Nepal is an example of that constructive process and so is El Salvador in the 1990s. The Balkans have a similar story.
*
China is the biggest stakeholder in this turmoil.* A radicalised region is going to be a major roadblock for China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as well as to maintain the gas-oil pipelines carrying 80 percent of China's imports that come from the Middle East and Africa.

For a peaceful, stable region nothing short of a comprehensive approach is going to work. That means Myanmar should take Rohingyas back, giving them full citizenship status, respecting their rights and dignity under the supervision of the international community. Rohingyas need to be rehabilitated, their homes rebuilt and their lives restored.

A few isolated terrorist attacks were used as an excuse to commit crimes against humanity and unleash a campaign of ethnic cleansing on the entire Rohingya population. Satellite imageries have confirmed that many areas of Rakhine were burned to ashes. Countless Rohingyas have lost everything they had. The horrible tales of torture and persecution, family members being killed in front of their very eyes and babies thrown into fire in front of mothers, have been echoed from one end of the vast refugee camps to the other.

This crisis indeed is going to be a stain on the leadership of China and other countries for a long time to come. Even a drop of conscience should compel Chinese policymakers to act responsibly for about one million refugees—according to the most recent UN assessment—are living in dire and desperate conditions in Bangladesh, a poor country itself. 

Looking back, when Rakhine residents including Rohingyas revealed the damages they faced due to the Chinese gas-oil pipeline project (from Rakhine to Yunnan province of China), had China given the local residents fair compensation for the expropriated lands for China's pipeline project, things might have turned out differently. The compensations for Rakhine residents would have been only a tiny fraction of the enormous benefit China would receive every year by bringing in gas and oil through Rakhine instead of through the distant Strait of Malacca and the risky South China Sea.

A stable and developed Rakhine would have been conducive to China's expressed greater vision of the regional developments in which China would remain an indispensable and dominant player. The possibility of a win-win state of affairs was nipped in the bud. Now, a costly quagmire in the form of a mega humanitarian crisis has emerged.

How costly can it become? China does not need to go far to look for an answer. The story of Vietnam is good enough. More than half a century ago, if America had spent USD 500 million to help build the infrastructure of Vietnam (then an American ally) after the World War II devastation, and addressed the economic crisis the Vietnamese were facing, as was suggested by an expert and American official posted then in Vietnam and as Ho Chi Minh himself was eager to work with America at that time, the entire Vietnam war could have been avoided. 

Instead, the American leadership abandoned the path of helping others who needed it most—the path advocated both by President Woodrow Wilson in the 1920s and Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1940s to help build a peaceful and progressive world—and embarked on a path of prejudice, cynicism and military confrontation. 

The vigorous persuasion of the vested interests, the military industrial complex, and the neoconservatives using fear-mongering has helped derail the decision-making process of the superpower. The consequence: a futile war that took about 55,000 American lives, killed over one million people in the region, and cost American taxpayers 2,000 times (USD 1 trillion in 2011 valuation) that of the meagre USD 500 million that was to be given to help Vietnam. 

The trust and political capital that this sum of money could have earned at that time would have brought about new heights of America's position in the world and a paradigm shift in our time. A golden opportunity was squandered in the early 1950s, which, if used, could have brought the Cold War to an end much sooner. Moreover, it could have achieved many of the foreign policy goals at the fraction of the price the US paid later.

This is the price for deviating from principles, for ignoring the sufferings of a people, and for having the arrogance to think that military power is going to fix everything. China and Myanmar today have a lot to learn from America's blunder.
Ruby Amatulla is Executive Director of the US-based Muslims for Peace, Justice and Progress, and the Bangladesh-based Women for Good Governance.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...-crisis-will-work-chinas-disadvantage-1483957


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## Banglar Bir

*Educate and liberate*
SN Rasul
Published at 06:59 PM October 30, 2017




Rohingya children need a proper education *SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN*
*We have to ensure that the Rohingya of today do not become the terrorists of tomorrow*
No matter the context, it has become difficult to defend any group or individual whose inspiration and ideology derive from religion, especially in this day and age, especially if it’s extremist, and especially if it’s Islam.

The fear for what has been termed as “Islamism” is rampant enough to warrant groups like these worthy of fear, suspicion, and disdain. A group could, potentially, be on the “right” side of history (morally speaking), but due to the very fact that they have potentially Islamist ideology flapping in their coattails, they would be dismissed by the world as being violent and untrustworthy.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, is no different. As the world slowly turns to support the plight of the Rohingya, in which Myanmar (a non-Muslim and thereby non-Islamist entity) has unequivocally been the villainous antagonist, it has become important in the current post-9/11 climate to ensure that they are not put in a box which carries the negative connotations surrounding Islamism.

We have seen this played out elsewhere. Across the barren lands of the Middle East, we have seen how Hamas, because their faith is of import, has been demonised by Western media, in effect wiping out from the history books the infractions committed by Israel, replacing it with pithy phrases which speak of how the oppressor is trying to “defend itself” or merely “retaliating” against the terrorist group that is Hamas.

*Yes, in the era of the War on Terror, the equation of “Islam + Violence = Terrorism” is one that must be avoided*.
This is evident not only in political environment surrounding the issue of contentious land masses, but also in the way mainstream narrative continues to treat any crime: From the lone-wolf gunmen in America to the suicide bombings in the war-ravaged nations strung up to die by the misdirected theocracies.

It is more important now, more than ever, to keep for a narrative that separates the religion from the people, the faith from the massacre

But this day and age has also brought us, hopefully, a heightened self-awareness. While we continue to tell the story of the Rohingya, we have refrained from letting the equation of terrorism engulf the struggles and terrors they themselves have suffered.

*But it has played a part in delaying and in somewhat putting the international interference we have been asking for, for so long.*

While, in principle, we shouldn’t have to pander to Western ideas of terrorism, the sad reality is that that’s exactly the situation we have to play for. It is more important now, more than ever, to keep for a narrative that separates the religion from the people, the faith from the massacre.

The powers that be have ensured that such are the rules of the game we currently play.* But the creation of ARSA should, at least, serve to highlight how terrorism breeds inside the confines of oppression.*

It should at least be a lesson for the world to recognise the environments which require intervention (something that the great nation of the United States of America has repeatedly gotten wrong), *how to provide aid to those who have suffered, and how important it is to act in time.*

The world has watched in muted silence and indifference as an entire people was being systematically wiped out and ejected out of their own lands. Before the age of information, this was acceptable.

But now, the world has no excuse for inertia and incompetence.

It cannot claim that it didn’t know what the extent of oppression and torture was and how they were sidetracked by religious affiliations.

Given the opportunity (or lack thereof), any community will fracture and unite under an un-ideal authority figure who will capitalise on the vulnerable mindsets of the oppressed minority.

ARSA’s leader Ata Ullah, revered, respected, mythologised, is a perfect example.

Whether or not Ata Ullah’s intentions remain true to the cause of the Rohingya, and not to establish an intolerant theocracy which wishes to dominate the people through Sharia Law, remains to be seen.

But what is problematic is that this is, by the very way Myanmar has treated the Rohingya, now a possibility.

More and more amongst them will see the false light at the end of the theological tunnel.

Young impressionable minds will rise to the occasion of an unseen God and fight for an unseen Messiah.

It’s important that we don’t let this happen. As we take in more of the Rohingya, and their repatriation becomes increasingly the stuff of fairytales, it has become Bangladesh’s duty to ensure that they do not use religion as the violent tool in the way many elsewhere in the world have, and fringe elements within them have.
*
Educate and liberate: It is the only way to ensure that the Rohingya of today do not become the terrorists of tomorrow.*
_SN Rasul is an Editorial Assistant in the Dhaka Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @snrasul. _
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/10/30/educate-and-liberate/

12:00 AM, November 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:51 AM, November 01, 2017
*Stop using landmines*
*Rights group to Myanmar army*




A Rohingya refugee man holds his daughter as it rains, after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Staff Correspondent
*Nine out of the 14 states and regions in Myanmar are contaminated with landmines, making it the world's third most landmine-contaminated country, behind Afghanistan and Colombia. 
The telling statistic was revealed by Fortify Rights, a US-based rights group.*
A human rights group has asked Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups to immediately cease using antipersonnel landmines that terrorised, maimed and killed civilians in Rakhine and other states of Myanmar.

*Fortify Rights, which works in Southeast Asia, also demanded that Myanmar ratifies the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. *

It said that since August, Fortify Rights and others, documented how the Myanmar military laid antipersonnel landmines in northern Rakhine state, resulting in the deaths and maiming of Rohingya civilians fleeing a military-led attack.

Over 607,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the Myanmar army began its “clearance operations” in response to the coordinated killings of Myanmar security personnel by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on August 25 this year.

Also, on October 20, two ethnic Ta'ang civilians died from injuries sustained by landmines, Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed-group operating in Kachin State and parts of Shan State, told Fortify Rights. They also added the KIA uses antipersonnel landmines as well. 

In September 2016, the rights group said Myanmar's Deputy Minister of Defence, Major General Myint Nwe, admitted its army continued to use landmines in armed conflicts in the country.

Myanmar leaders say they use landmines to safeguard the life and property of people and in self-defence.

In April 2016, the United Nations Secretary General attributed half of the child casualties of war in Myanmar to landmines and other explosive remnants of war.

“Landmines are indiscriminate and dangerous during and after armed conflict,” said Matthew Smith.

“Armed groups should listen to the communities they claim to be protecting and stop using these weapons.”

Myanmar, KIA, and other ethnic armed-groups are bound by customary international humanitarian law to avoid indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

“Displaced communities can't return home until the peace process improves and they can't do it safely until mines are cleared,” Matthew Smith said.
*PRESIDENT ASKS UN TO MOUNT PRESSURE ON MYANMAR*
Describing the Rohingya influx as a big burden for Bangladesh, President Abdul Hamid yesterday urged the UN and other international agencies to continue mounting pressure on Myanmar to take back its forcefully displaced people from Bangladesh, reports UNB.

"The Rohingya crisis is a big problem for Bangladesh as it's one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Over one million forcefully displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar are now staying here and it's a big burden for us," he told outgoing UN Resident Coordinator to Bangladesh, Robert D Watkins, as he met the President at the Bangabhaban.

The President's Press Secretary Joynal Abedin briefed reporters after the meeting.

President Hamid sought continuous support from them to repatriate the displaced Rohingyas with dignity.

He thanked the UN for helping Bangladesh achieve its Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) targets and hoped that it will continue supporting the country in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals.




Rohingya refugee children wait in line to receive permission from the Bangladesh authorities to continue on their way after crossing the border in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Robert D Watkins assured that the UN will continue its support to Bangladesh.

He also hailed the role of Bangladesh over the Rohingya issue, and assured UNDP will provide all-out support, including technical assistance, to the Election Commission of Bangladesh to strengthen its capacity.
*FOUR ROHINGYA DIED*
Four Rohingya refugees died after a boat carrying a group of Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar capsized in the Bay of Bengal early yesterday, reports our correspondent in Cox's Bazar.

The deceased are Enamul Hasan, 4, Minara Begum, 5, Jahura Begum 60 and Sirajul Islam, 19.

The boat capsized at Baillakhali point of Rajapalong union in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar at around 6:00am, said Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Nikaruzzaman.

Members of police, coast guard, fire service and district administration jointly rescued 33 passengers of the boat. Ten of the injured survivors were sent to local hospitals for treatment, while 23 others to Kutupalong Rohingya settlement.

Survivor Ostambor Ali, 19, said he left his home at Yong Chong village of Buthidaung of Rakhine and reached Garzandia, on the eastern side of Naf River of Myanmar two days back. He boarded the Bangladeshi fishing trawler with around 40 other Rohingyas at 2:00 am Tuesday.

He claimed that just before reaching the shore, the boatman sank the trawler into the river. Another survivor Mujibor Rahman, 18, said the boat capsized due to big waves of the river.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Ukhia Nikaruzzaman said they buried four bodies yesterday following the direction of higher authorities.
*WATER, SANITATION REMAINS MAJOR CHALLENGE*
UN Migration Agency, IOM, said the Rohingya settlements are dangerously congested and overcrowded, while the pressure on sources of clean drinking water and basic sanitation are enormous.

“All of the spontaneous and makeshift sites where the Rohingya have sought shelter are in urgent need of water, sanitation and hygiene support to prevent diseases and to restore basic human dignity,” says Antonio Torres, IOM's expert on water, sanitation and hygiene.

"Existing WASH facilities are not yet sufficient to cope with this number of people.”

Of an estimated 750,000 people initially targeted for WASH assistance, some 530,000 have now been reached. Over the next six months, some 1.166 million people in Cox's Bazar settlements and host communities will need assistance.
*EU COMMISSIONER VISITS ROHINGYA CAMP*
European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides, meanwhile, began a two-day visit to Bangladesh, particularly to assess the situation in the Rohingya settlement.

"Here in Bangladesh, the scale of this emergency is painfully clear to see; this is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world," he said in a statement after visiting Kutupalong Rohingya settlements.

"The Rohingya people are not alone in these difficult times... European Union continues to insist on full aid access in Myanmar and is working to address the situation in Northern Rakhine," said Stylianides.

It is crucial that every refugee is registered properly and that Myanmar takes all necessary steps to allow them a voluntary and dignified return in secure conditions, said Commissioner Stylianides. 

EU and its member countries pledged more than 50 percent of the USD 344 million funding raised at the international Conference in Geneva recently, he said.

Australia, meanwhile, yesterday announced a further 10 million Australian dollars to support the humanitarian needs of the Rohingyas, bringing the total Australian fund for the Rohingyas to 30 million Australian dollars.
*US DELEGATION ARRIVES TODAY*
Simon Henshaw, acting assistant secretary of US State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, is leading a delegation to Bangladesh today to discuss ways to address the humanitarian situation stemming from the Rakhine state crisis.

The delegation visited Myanmar from October 29. During Henshaw's visit to Bangladesh until November 4, he will meet senior government officials, donors, and humanitarian agencies.

The delegation will also visit affected communities in Cox's Bazar to assess the impact of the emergency humanitarian response, identify gaps in assistance, and advise on ways to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/mayanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-stop-using-landmines-1484632


----------



## Banglar Bir

*63rd CPA confce kicks off today*
*CPA to hold special session on Rohingya issue*
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Dhaka | Published: 00:05, Nov 01,2017
*The 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, one of the largest annual gatherings of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, get underway today at Radisson Blu hotel in the capital.*
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also vice-patron of the CPA, will officially inaugurate the 63rd CPA conference at South Plaza of Jatiya Sangsad on November 5, which will last till November 8, Jatiya Sangsad speaker and CPA executive committee chairperson Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury said on Tuesday.

She also said that this year’s CPA conference would elect its new chairperson for a three-year term. ‘All members of the CPA would elect their new chairperson through the 63rd conference,’ she said adding a total of CPA’s 550 members including 56 speakers and 23 deputy speakers of the national and provincial assemblies of 44 countries will join the conference. 

Shirin said the main theme of this year’s conference is ‘Continuing to enhance the high standards of performance of Parliamentarians,’ while the theme of the CPA is Democracy, Diversity and Development.

Deputy speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Md Fazle Rabbi Miah would lead a four-member Bangladesh delegation in the 63rd CPC and the other members are chief whip of Jatiya Sangsad ASM Feroz, Fazilatun Nasa Bappy and Fakhrul Imam. 

The CPA president and chairperson of CPA executive committee Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, also speaker of Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad, is hosting the 63rd CPC, which will take place from 1 to 8 November, 2017 (inclusive of arrival and departure dates) in Dhaka.

Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad extends a very warm welcome to all the speakers, deputy speakers, members of parliament and distinguished delegates to Bangladesh at the 63rd CPC. A member of the CPA since 1973, the Jatiya Sangsad has been an active partner in promoting democratic values across the Commonwealth.

*Meanwhile, the Rohingya crisis is expected to largely feature the upcoming CPA conference with host Bangladesh’s delegation chief and deputy speaker M Fazle Rabbi Miah saying a special session was planned to discuss the issue in the meet. 
‘The special session will be held on November 5 when our foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali will explain the situation,’ Miah said. 
*
The CPA meet comes amid continued influx of Rohingyas who fled their home in Myanmar’s Rakhine State to evade atrocities while their number exceeded 600,000 since Aug 25 while Bangladesh previously sheltered over 400,000 of them for decades.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/27391/63rd-cpa-confce-kicks-off-today


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## Banglar Bir

*Not Every Mass Atrocity Should Be Called a Genocide. What's Happening to the Rohingya Is.*




Rohingya refugees wait to receive food at a camp in Ukhia in Bangladesh on Monday. (Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images)
_By_ Kate Cronin-Furman
Slate
October 31, 2017
*Human rights advocates are too quick to use the G-word to describe mass atrocities. But in the case of the Rohingya, it applies.*
The Rohingya refugees who have been pouring across the Myanmar-Bangladesh border for the past month carry with them stories of unspeakable brutality. Enforced starvation, torture, mass rape, the slaughter of newborn infants, the litany of horrors inflicted by Myanmar’s military goes on. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has called these acts “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” But as the death toll mounts, many are asking whether Myanmar is expelling the Rohingya or exterminating them.
*In other words: Is this genocide?*
The “crime of crimes” was named and outlawed in 1948 by an international community still reeling from the shock of the Holocaust. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it—“acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”—and codifies a commitment to “liberate mankind from such an odious scourge.” Nearly 150 countries have signed the convention, accepting an obligation to prevent genocide from happening and punish those who commit it.

Although the convention doesn’t explicitly say anything about stopping ongoing violence, the mandate “Never Again” echoes in the minds of policymakers and the public. Famously, during the slaughter in Rwanda, the Clinton administration was so convinced that a designation of genocide would carry with it a moral obligation to intervene that it instructed its officials not to say the word.

Human rights activists invoke the charged term to ring the alarm about ongoing attacks on civilians, signaling by analogy to the “worst crimes in human history” that the situation demands international action. And given how frequently serious violations of human rights are met with apathy and inertia, persecuted groups often see a genocide label as their best hope of intervention on their behalf.

But there are important reasons to avoid invoking genocide liberally. And like many international lawyers, I’ve been a broken record cautioning against the rush to deploy the G-word. It has a specific legal meaning, one that hinges upon the perpetrators’ intent to destroy a group. Using it to refer to mass slaughter without evidence of that intent risks diluting the definition of the crime beyond all meaning.

For instance, the torture, rape, and murder of huge numbers of civilians in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria, for instance, are war crimes and/or crimes against humanity, but not genocide.
Although the violence is systematic and devastating, civilians are not being targeted on the basis of their group identity.

Activists often claim that deferring to these concerns yields a definition of genocide so harshly restrictive that it rarely applies, letting the international community off the hook from responding to horrific violations of human rights. It’s true that most atrocities don’t qualify.
But misclassifying atrocities as genocidal can lead to poorly tailored policy solutions because it obscures who is being attacked and why—information that is critical to an effective response.

If we’re careful to avoid crying genocide when it’s not warranted, we should be all the more confident about doing so when it is.
*And in Myanmar, the signs of genocide are there for anyone who knows how to read them. *
Not in the scale or savagery of the violence, although both are shocking, but in the evidence of the military’s intent to eradicate the Rohingya minority.

Without mind-reading powers, it can be hard to identify genocidal intent. For instance, in both the Central African Republic and South Sudan, widespread and brutal violence is being inflicted on civilians, clearly on the basis of their ethnicity.
But whether these attacks are genocide or another crime depends on what’s inside the perpetrators’ heads. Was the slaughter of 500 members of an ethnic minority part of an effort to wipe the group out, discourage them from supporting a rival armed group, or scare them into fleeing the country?

It’s difficult to distinguish among these possibilities without knowing what the perpetrators were thinking.
The Nazi regime kept extensive records documenting its plans to wipe out the Jews, but most atrocity perpetrators aren’t so meticulous. Because of this, international courts have repeatedly ruled that genocidal intent can be inferred from context.
The tribunal convened after the genocide in Rwanda convicted perpetrators of genocide based on the huge numbers of Tutsi victims and the systematic nature of their targeting.
And the Yugoslavia tribunal looked to “the general political doctrine which gave rise to the acts” to establish intent.

As we witness the horrors being unleashed in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the contextual clues that international courts look for are abundant. The Rohingya are subjected to harsh deprivations of citizenship rights and restrictions on the ability to marry and bear children, pursuant to a series of formal laws beginning in 1982.

A leaked 1988 policy document tellingly titled* “Rohingya Extermination Plan”* outlines the government’s intent to limit the Rohingya’s population growth “by application of all possible methods of oppression and suppression against them.”
And for the past five years, they have been denied freedom of movement, kept in squalid displacement camps and urban ghettos ostensibly in the name of security.

Together with ominous comments from high-ranking military officials that refer to the Rohingya as* “an unfinished job,”* these measures suggest the existence of a long-standing plan to eliminate the group. They make up exactly the sort of sociopolitical context in which international courts have inferred in the past that mass atrocities were committed with genocidal intent.

Viewed against this background, many of the Myanmar military’s recent actions that could have plausibly been interpreted as efforts to terrorize the Rohingya into fleeing instead look like measures in pursuit of their destruction.
The targeting of teachers and religious leaders, systematic burning of homes, and the particular brutality inflicted on women and very young children appear calculated to erase Rohingya culture, eliminate all traces of their presence, and prevent the survival of future generations.

The Rohingya crisis is a rare case where we can make an even stronger claim, based on more than just suggestive evidence.
*Some of the military’s actions are simply inconsistent with any goal other than the Rohingya extermination. *
Aid workers on the ground report that security forces have surrounded a number of villages blocking both the delivery of supplies and any escape routes while the inhabitants starve to death. Others have documented multiple instances of soldiers shooting people as they attempt to flee across the border.

And finally, international media reports confirm that the military has laid landmines in the border area, causing those attempting to seek refuge in Bangladesh to be killed and maimed.
*These are not efforts to coerce the Rohingya population into flight but to pen them in and eradicate them.*

Observing the scale of the crisis and the viciousness with which Myanmar’s military is targeting the Rohingya, international actors have denounced these atrocities as crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
But these terms do not capture the full extent of the attack on the Rohingya population. Failure to correctly identify genocidal violence when it is clear what is happening has grave consequences. Not only for the victims, who risk annihilation, but for citizens of all the repressive states whose leaders are watching, and may be emboldened by international inaction.

The atrocities unfolding in Rakhine state are not the actions of a military using violence and terror to expel an undesirable population. This is a government bent upon the destruction of a vulnerable ethnic minority.
*It’s time to call it what it is: genocide.*
_Kate Cronin-Furman is a human rights lawyer and political scientist who researches mass atrocities. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Follow her on Twitter.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/not-every-mass-atrocity-should-be.html_

*The Lady, the general and sanctions*
Larry Jagan, November 1, 2017





Military songs rang out across downtown Yangon on Sunday as tens of thousands rallied in defence of Myanmar’s army, an institution accused by the global community of driving Rohingya Muslims from the country Photo – AP
*International criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi and her government over the handling of the violence in Rakhine State is being racketed up. 
The UN, Western governments and many Muslim countries are currently pondering resuming sanctions against Myanmar, some have already singled out the military or Tatmadaw.*
Later this month (November) the European Union (EU) and the Organization of Islamic States (OIC) are planning to have a sanctions motion put before the UN Security Council.
But all this has done is to further isolate the country’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In an effort to persuade both the civilian government and the Tatmadaw to do more to prevent the communal violence and restore some measure of peace and stability to conflict-torn Rakhine, several countries have announced targeted sanctions directed at the Tatmadaw.

*Later this month Pope Francis will visit Myanmar, at the State Counselor’s invitation, all part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s campaign for national reconciliation, with the overall message that “the language of hate, will not deliver peace.” Although not public at the moment, he is expected to visit Rakhine during his trip, according to Myanmar intelligence sources.*

Last week the US announced sanctions, which come into force this week. These include the suspension of travel waivers for current and former members of the Myanmar military and a ban on US assistance to military units and officers in northern Rakhine. The US added that it was also mulling over the possibility of economic measures against those responsible for atrocities against the Rohingya Muslims.
*Also Read: U.N. picks Norwegian for Myanmar role as tensions simmer over Rohingya crisis*
Earlier last month the EU and its member states’ announcement that they would suspend invitations to the Commander-in-Chief and other senior military officers and review all practical defense cooperation, due to the Myanmar military’s disproportionate use of force against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine State.

*Sanctions – at least against the military – because of the Rakhine situation, has exacerbated the situation. 
“They [the army] now believe she [Aung San Suu Kyi] is a sabotage agent,” said the retired army officer. 
The international criticism of their [military] operations in Rakhine and the growing pressure for sanctions is viewed as a “UK-US conspiracy”, orchestrated behind the scenes by Aung San Suu Kyi. 
There is a growing belief within the army that they are under siege.*

The UK was the first off the mark when two months ago it 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 in Rakhine.
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 behavior.

Contrary to many analysts view, and the military themselves, this move was not at the behest of the State Counselor, nor was she is in fact favor of it, according to sources close to Aung San Suu Kyi. These moves have isolated the civilian government from the army.
Aung San Suu Kyi 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.
Demonstrations in support of the Tatmadaw have been held throughout the country recently.

But instead of encouraging reconciliation and the return of the refugees now harboring in neighboring Bangladesh, it has probably hindered it and delayed any possible solution, one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s closest advisors told _South Asian Monitor_ (_SAM_). Last Thursday, reflecting the government’s view, an editorial in the state-run Myanmar language newspaper _The Mirror _slammed the US actions against the military leadership, saying “those actions by no means help solve the problems in Rakhine State.”
*Also Read: US Secretary of State calls Myanmar army chief to help end violence in Rakhine*
These sanctions have also further exacerbated tensions between Myanmar’s civilian leader, the State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s military commander, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, on one hand and the UN on the other.

The result so far has been to isolate Aung San Suu Kyi, and leave her desperately alone, virtually trapped in the Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw.
Relations with the UN and many Western countries have also dramatically, deteriorated.
They have also worsened the already acrimonious tensions between her and the army commander.

*Inter-religious dialogue also features prominently in Aung San Suu Kyi’s strategy. 
In part this follows the recommendations put forward by the Kofi Annan Commission on Rakhine, but is also a function of the State Counselor’s planned overall approach, intended to strengthen her nationalist mantle and challenge the position of the nationalist Buddhist movement led by Ashin Wirathu. 
It is intended to stress the shared Buddhist values of virtue of love and kindness, according to a government insider.

The international strategy of targeted sanctions has only increased the gulf between Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing*. Relations between the two have hit rock bottom, according to a senior advisor to the State Counselor. “The mistrust of Aung San Suu Kyi is growing within the military, not just between her and Min Aung Hlaing but the army as a whole,” a senior retired military officer, who is also close to the army commander, told _SAM_.

Sanctions – at least against the military – because of the Rakhine situation, has exacerbated the situation. “They [the army] now believe she [Aung San Suu Kyi] is a sabotage agent,” said the retired army officer.
The international criticism of their [military] operations in Rakhine and the growing pressure for sanctions is viewed as a “UK-US conspiracy”, orchestrated behind the scenes by Aung San Suu Kyi. There is a growing belief within the army that they are under siege.
*Also Read: We must pursue accountability for atrocities in Rakhine, says US*
Many analysts suggest that this is the worse thing to happen and will not encourage the military to mend their ways.
Although in the wake of the US announcement, the military withdrew some of its troops from northern Rakhine and allowed the World Food Program to resume its aid work in the area, there is no evidence that there is a direct correlation between the two events.
The military itself has yet to make any official comment, either on the troop withdrawal or the re-imposition of sanctions.

What is clear is that the international community has made Aung San Suu Kyi’s strategy all the more difficult to implement.
She wants to resolve the problems in Rakhine peacefully through dialogue.
“She believes only discussion and peaceful efforts can solve the current crisis,” said one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s close confidants.
A view that the government editorial also reflected: “What the international community should do is assess the military stand [on the Rakhine issue]—right or wrong—through dialogue,” said the Myanmar-language paper.




Aung San Suu Kyi 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. Demonstrations in support of the Tatmadaw have been held throughout the country recently.

But she also sees this as the essential approach of the whole peace process – including the current on-going negotiations with the ethnic rebel groups involved in the national ceasefire talks and the creation of a federal state.
The military is also an integral part of this.
In the end, the fundamental aim is to change the constitution and reduce the military’s political role. This can only happen if the military leaders accept the idea, and that won’t happen if they are alienated.

Inter-religious dialogue also features prominently in Aung San Suu Kyi’s strategy. In part this follows the recommendations put forward by the Kofi Annan Commission on Rakhine, but is also a function of the State Counselor’s planned overall approach, intended to strengthen her nationalist mantle and challenge the position of the nationalist Buddhist movement led by Ashin Wirathu.
It is intended to stress the shared Buddhist values of virtue of love and kindness, according to a government insider.
*Also Read: ‘Suu Kyi government played into the hands of the military’*
This was the rationale behind the recent interfaith gathering in Yangon, which was addressed by Myanmar’s Catholic cardinal, Charles Maung Bo — one of the few public figures in the country, who has been willing to speak out for the Rohingya. Later this month Pope Francis will visit Myanmar, at the State Counselor’s invitation, all part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s campaign for national reconciliation, with *the overall message that “the language of hate, will not deliver peace.” *
Although not public at the moment, he is expected to visit Rakhine during his trip, according to Myanmar intelligence sources.

However, this may yet provoke a serious reaction, and not necessarily just from the nationalist Buddhist monks.
The militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army is planning another attack – they claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in August this year and October last year on the order guard posts – either just before or just after the Pope’s visit, according to Asian intelligence sources.
The Myanmar military share this concern, and say they are prepared for it this time.

Myanmar’s military must participate in the country’s future political map, and be party to the development and democratization of the country.
The sanctions imposed on Myanmar in the past simply isolate the country and forced its leaders into the hands of the Chinese.
Any fresh sanctions will only do the same.

Instead of considering sanctions against Tatmadaw, the EU and other Western countries should do everything possible to support Aung San Suu Kyi and her government.
They should also encourage the reform of the Tatmadaw.
This is the best way to secure a lasting solution to Rakhine, and promote democracy, peace and development in Myanmar.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/01/lady-general-sanctions/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Probable steps by the USA against Myanmar:VOA*
*মিয়ানমারের বিষয়ে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সম্ভাব্য পদক্ষেপ*
*October 28,2017*




*রোহিঙ্গা নির্যাতনকে কেন্দ্র করে মিয়ানমারের বিষয়ে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সম্ভাব্য পদক্ষেপ কি হতে পারে তা নিয়ে ভয়েস অফ আমেরিকার 
Michael Bowman এর প্রতিবেদন শোনাচ্ছেন রোকেয়া হায়দার ও তাওহীদুল ইসলাম।
মিয়ানমারের বিষয়ে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সম্ভাব্য পদক্ষেপ
সরাসরি লিংক Click the Link for the Audio interview in English
https://www.voabangla.com/a/myanmar-usa-27oct17/4089284.html
রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানরা প্রতিদিন যে ভয়াবহ দু:খ-কষ্ট ও অত্যাচার ভোগ করছে, যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের ক্যাপিটল হিলেও তার প্রভাব পড়েছে। FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE বা বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির রিপাবলিকান সেনেটর CORY GARDNER বলেন, "মানব বিপর্যয়ের চেয়ে এটা কম কিছু নয়।"

বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্রেট সেনেটর BEN CARDIN বলেন, "বার্মার রোহিঙ্গা জনসংখ্যার অর্ধেক দেশ ছেড়েছে। অর্থাৎ ১২ লাখের মধ্যে ৬ লাখ রোহিঙ্গা দেশ ছেড়েছে।"

বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্রেট সেনেটর JEFF MERKLEY বলেন, "হাজার হাজার নারী ধর্ষিত হয়েছেন, হাজার হাজার পুরুষ ও নারী গ্রাম থেকে পালিয়ে যাবার সময় গুলিবিদ্ধ হয়েছেন। গ্রামগুলোকে ঘিরে রাখা হয়েছে এবং মানুষজন ক্ষুদার্ধ।"

মিয়ানমারের সশস্ত্র বাহিনী এবং বেসামরিক ব্যক্তিরা যেভাবে রোহিঙ্গাদের লক্ষ্যবস্তুতে পরিনত করেছে, সে বিষয়ে কিছু আইন প্রণেতা কড়া মন্তব্য করেছেন। বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্রেট সেনেটর BEN CARDIN বলেন, "এটা জাতিগত নিধন, যা বেশ স্পষ্ট। হ্যাঁ আমি মনে করি- এটা গনহত্যা।"

সেনেটর CARDIN সহ অন্যান্য আইন প্রনেতারা চান, জাতিগত নিধনের ঘটনা যে ঘটেছে, তা ট্রাম্প প্রশাসন ঘোষনা করুক। আর এটা হবে মিয়ানমারের বিরুদ্ধে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের নতুন নিষেধাজ্ঞার সম্ভাব্য প্রথম পদক্ষেপ। গত মাসে যুক্তরাষ্ট্র জাতিসংঘে এ ধরনের ঘোষণার কাছাকাছি পৌঁছেছিল। জাতিসংঘে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের রাষ্ট্রদূত NIKKI HALEY বলেন, "আমরা বার্মার কর্তৃপক্ষের নিষ্ঠুরতা এবং দেশটি থেকে জাতিগত সংখ্যালঘু নিধনে টেকসই প্রচারাভিযানের বিষয়ে পদক্ষেপ নেয়ার কথা বলতে ভয় পেতে পারি না।"

ক্যাপিটল হিলে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের কর্মকর্তারা ঐ নির্মমতার বিষয়ে কথা বলেন এবং রেঙ্গুন যাতে তাদের আচারন পরিবর্তন করে, সে দাবি জানায়। যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সহকারী পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রী PATRICK MURPHY বলেন, "সহিংসতা বন্ধ করুন, বেসামরিক ব্যক্তিদের রক্ষা করুন, মানবিক কার্যক্রম ও গনমাধ্যমের প্রবেশাধিকার প্রসারিত করুন, দোষীদের জবাদিহিতার আওতায় আনুন, দেশ ছেড়ে পালিয়া যাওয়াদের নিরাপদে দেশে ফিরিয়ে আনুন।"

মিয়ানমারে যখন গণতান্ত্রিক সংস্কারের মধ্য দিয়ে অং সান সুচি ক্ষমতা আসে, তখন ওবামা প্রশাসনের সময় দেশটির বিরুদ্ধে যুক্তরাষ্ট্র নিষেধাজ্ঞা শিথীল করা হয়। তবে এখন শাস্তিমূলক ব্যবস্থা বিবেচনায় থাকা উচিত বলে মনে করেন আইন প্রণেতারা। বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির রিপাবলিকান সেনেটর BOB CORKER বলেন, "যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের বার্মাকে বর্জন করা উচিত নয়, তবে নীতি সমন্বয়ের জন্য এটা উপযুক্ত সময় হতে পারে।"

যাই হোক না কেন, যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের কর্মকর্তারা সমগ্র দেশের তুলনায় ব্যক্তিগত মানবাধিকারের বিষয়েই দৃষ্টি দিতে চান। যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সহকারী পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রী PATRICK MURPHY বলেন, "অসহায় জনগোষ্ঠী জন্য সীমান্ত নিষেধাজ্ঞাগুলি খুব ভাল হতে পারে, কারন এখনও একই রকম সহিংসতা এবং অপরাধমূলক ক্রিয়াকলাপের কারনে তারা অধিকতর ঝুঁকির মধ্যে রয়েছেন।"

মিয়ানমারের মানবিক সংকট নিয়ে যখন কথা হচ্ছিলো, তখন বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্র্যাট সেনেটর JEANNE SHAHEEN হোয়াইট হাউসের ভূমিকার বিষয়ে প্রশ্ন তোলেন। তিনি বলেন, "যুক্তরাষ্ট্র যখন মুসলিম-সংখ্যাগরিষ্ঠ দেশগুলিতের ওপর ভ্রমণ নিষেধাজ্ঞা দিচ্ছে, তখন বার্মার সামরিক ও বেসামরিক নেতৃত্বের কাছে কোন ধরনের বার্তা যাচ্ছে?”

এদিকে সবশেষ খবর হচ্ছে বৃহস্পতিবার যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী রেক্স টিলারসান রাখাইন রাজ্যে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের বিরুদ্ধে সামরিক অভিযান বন্ধ করার জন্য মিয়ানমারের প্রতি আহ্বান জানিয়েছেন।

মিয়ানমারের সশস্ত্র বাহিনী কমান্ডার-ইন-চীফ সিনিয়র জেনারেল Min Aung Hlaing সাথে টেলিফোনে কথা বলার সময় যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী, রাখাইন রাজ্যের অব্যাহত মানবিক সংকটের বিষয়ে উদ্বেগ প্রকাশ করেন।
সরাসরি লিংক Click the Link for the Audio interview in English
https://www.voabangla.com/a/myanmar-usa-27oct17/4089284.html
রোহিঙ্গা মুসলমানরা প্রতিদিন যে ভয়াবহ দু:খ-কষ্ট ও অত্যাচার ভোগ করছে, যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের ক্যাপিটল হিলেও তার প্রভাব পড়েছে। FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE বা বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির রিপাবলিকান সেনেটর CORY GARDNER বলেন, "মানব বিপর্যয়ের চেয়ে এটা কম কিছু নয়।"

বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্রেট সেনেটর BEN CARDIN বলেন, "বার্মার রোহিঙ্গা জনসংখ্যার অর্ধেক দেশ ছেড়েছে। অর্থাৎ ১২ লাখের মধ্যে ৬ লাখ রোহিঙ্গা দেশ ছেড়েছে।"

বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্রেট সেনেটর JEFF MERKLEY বলেন, "হাজার হাজার নারী ধর্ষিত হয়েছেন, হাজার হাজার পুরুষ ও নারী গ্রাম থেকে পালিয়ে যাবার সময় গুলিবিদ্ধ হয়েছেন। গ্রামগুলোকে ঘিরে রাখা হয়েছে এবং মানুষজন ক্ষুদার্ধ।"

মিয়ানমারের সশস্ত্র বাহিনী এবং বেসামরিক ব্যক্তিরা যেভাবে রোহিঙ্গাদের লক্ষ্যবস্তুতে পরিনত করেছে, সে বিষয়ে কিছু আইন প্রণেতা কড়া মন্তব্য করেছেন। বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্রেট সেনেটর BEN CARDIN বলেন, "এটা জাতিগত নিধন, যা বেশ স্পষ্ট। হ্যাঁ আমি মনে করি- এটা গনহত্যা।"

সেনেটর CARDIN সহ অন্যান্য আইন প্রনেতারা চান, জাতিগত নিধনের ঘটনা যে ঘটেছে, তা ট্রাম্প প্রশাসন ঘোষনা করুক। আর এটা হবে মিয়ানমারের বিরুদ্ধে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের নতুন নিষেধাজ্ঞার সম্ভাব্য প্রথম পদক্ষেপ। গত মাসে যুক্তরাষ্ট্র জাতিসংঘে এ ধরনের ঘোষণার কাছাকাছি পৌঁছেছিল। জাতিসংঘে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের রাষ্ট্রদূত NIKKI HALEY বলেন, "আমরা বার্মার কর্তৃপক্ষের নিষ্ঠুরতা এবং দেশটি থেকে জাতিগত সংখ্যালঘু নিধনে টেকসই প্রচারাভিযানের বিষয়ে পদক্ষেপ নেয়ার কথা বলতে ভয় পেতে পারি না।"

ক্যাপিটল হিলে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের কর্মকর্তারা ঐ নির্মমতার বিষয়ে কথা বলেন এবং রেঙ্গুন যাতে তাদের আচারন পরিবর্তন করে, সে দাবি জানায়। যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সহকারী পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রী PATRICK MURPHY বলেন, "সহিংসতা বন্ধ করুন, বেসামরিক ব্যক্তিদের রক্ষা করুন, মানবিক কার্যক্রম ও গনমাধ্যমের প্রবেশাধিকার প্রসারিত করুন, দোষীদের জবাদিহিতার আওতায় আনুন, দেশ ছেড়ে পালিয়া যাওয়াদের নিরাপদে দেশে ফিরিয়ে আনুন।"

মিয়ানমারে যখন গণতান্ত্রিক সংস্কারের মধ্য দিয়ে অং সান সুচি ক্ষমতা আসে, তখন ওবামা প্রশাসনের সময় দেশটির বিরুদ্ধে যুক্তরাষ্ট্র নিষেধাজ্ঞা শিথীল করা হয়। তবে এখন শাস্তিমূলক ব্যবস্থা বিবেচনায় থাকা উচিত বলে মনে করেন আইন প্রণেতারা। বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির রিপাবলিকান সেনেটর BOB CORKER বলেন, "যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের বার্মাকে বর্জন করা উচিত নয়, তবে নীতি সমন্বয়ের জন্য এটা উপযুক্ত সময় হতে পারে।"

যাই হোক না কেন, যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের কর্মকর্তারা সমগ্র দেশের তুলনায় ব্যক্তিগত মানবাধিকারের বিষয়েই দৃষ্টি দিতে চান। যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সহকারী পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রী PATRICK MURPHY বলেন, "অসহায় জনগোষ্ঠী জন্য সীমান্ত নিষেধাজ্ঞাগুলি খুব ভাল হতে পারে, কারন এখনও একই রকম সহিংসতা এবং অপরাধমূলক ক্রিয়াকলাপের কারনে তারা অধিকতর ঝুঁকির মধ্যে রয়েছেন।"

মিয়ানমারের মানবিক সংকট নিয়ে যখন কথা হচ্ছিলো, তখন বৈদেশিক সম্পর্ক বিষয়ক কমিটির ডেমোক্র্যাট সেনেটর JEANNE SHAHEEN হোয়াইট হাউসের ভূমিকার বিষয়ে প্রশ্ন তোলেন। তিনি বলেন, "যুক্তরাষ্ট্র যখন মুসলিম-সংখ্যাগরিষ্ঠ দেশগুলিতের ওপর ভ্রমণ নিষেধাজ্ঞা দিচ্ছে, তখন বার্মার সামরিক ও বেসামরিক নেতৃত্বের কাছে কোন ধরনের বার্তা যাচ্ছে?”

এদিকে সবশেষ খবর হচ্ছে বৃহস্পতিবার যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী রেক্স টিলারসান রাখাইন রাজ্যে রোহিঙ্গা মুসলিমদের বিরুদ্ধে সামরিক অভিযান বন্ধ করার জন্য মিয়ানমারের প্রতি আহ্বান জানিয়েছেন।

মিয়ানমারের সশস্ত্র বাহিনী কমান্ডার-ইন-চীফ সিনিয়র জেনারেল Min Aung Hlaing সাথে টেলিফোনে কথা বলার সময় যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী, রাখাইন রাজ্যের অব্যাহত মানবিক সংকটের বিষয়ে উদ্বেগ প্রকাশ করেন।*
https://www.voabangla.com/a/myanmar-usa-27oct17/4089284.html


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## Banglar Bir

2:07 PM, November 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:49 PM, November 01, 2017
*Myanmar’s hilarious claim*
*It says Bangladesh is delaying Rohingyas’ repatriation process for international aid*




Myanmar on Tuesday, November 1, 2017, comes up with a hilarious claim that Bangladesh is delaying the repatriation process of over 800,000 Rohingyas for international donations.This Reuters photo taken on September 27, 2017, shows an aerial view of a burned Rohingya village near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine state, Myanmar.
Star Online Report
*Myanmar has come up with a hilarious claim that Bangladesh is delaying the repatriation process of over 800,000 Rohingyas for international donations.*
Myanmar was ready to begin the repatriation process any time, based along the lines of an agreement that covered returns of Rohingya to Myanmar in the early 1990s, Reuters reports today quoting Zaw Htay, a spokesman for Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
*Also READ: Myanmar's Proposal: All that glitters is not gold*
Claiming Bangladesh had yet to accept those terms, Zaw Htay linked the delay by Bangladesh to the money raised so far by the international community to help build gigantic refugee camps for the Rohingyas.

"Currently they (Bangladesh) have got $400 million. Over their receipt of this amount, we are now afraid of delaying the programme of deporting the refugees," he said in_ *comments carried in a front-page article in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Wednesday.*_

"We are ready to start, but the other side did not accept yet, and the process was delayed. This is the number one fact," Zaw Htay, director-general of the Ministry of the State Counsellor's Office, told journalists on Tuesday.
*READ more: Myanmar army doing no wrong!*
"They have got international subsidies. We are now afraid they would have another consideration as to repatriation," Reuters reports quoting Htay.

Over 607,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the Myanmar army began its “clearance operations” in response to the coordinated killings of Myanmar security personnel by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on August 25 this year.

An estimated 3,000 Rohingya Muslims were killed, while more than 284 Rohingya villages were burned down in the army operation. Thousands of Rohingyas continue to cross the border to Bangladesh. 
*Also READ: Same old trick*
Myanmar also violated Bangladesh's airspace and laid landmines along the border apparently to prevent return of the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and other basic rights by Myanmar despite having their roots there for generations.

However, Myanmar, with support from the state media, is trying to confuse the international community and some neighbouring countries as it terms the violence as "Islamist terrorism" or "extremist Bengali terrorism".

For decades, the Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar, made stateless and forced to leave the country. Though the operation in late August began against the militants, civilians, including women and children, faced cruel persecution.

A memorandum of understanding on border liaison posts was signed with Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan following talks in the Myanmar capital, Naypyitaw, last week, but there was no progress on reviving the old agreement.

The Bangladesh government issued a statement on Thursday saying that Myanmar had not agreed to 10 points put forward by its minister at last week's talks, including the full implementation of the recommendations of an Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, chaired by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, for a sustainable return of Rohingya.

Khan told Bangladesh media on Friday that the two sides were unable to form a joint working group but said it should be set up by the time Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali goes to Myanmar for talks on November 30.

The Myanmar government has said it would accept the Rohingya once it was established that they had lived in Myanmar.
Zaw Htay said Myanmar was awaiting a list of Rohingya refugees from the Bangladesh side.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...epatriation-process-international-aid-1484782


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## Banglar Bir

*EU commissioner’s visit in #Rohingya Camps in Cox’s Bazar*
*EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides has started a two-day visit to Bangladesh, to assess the situation on the ground and visit EU aid projects that are addressing the Rohingya refugee crisis.*

His visit comes a week after the EU and its Member States pledged more than 50% of the USD 344 million total funding raised at the International Conference on the Rohingya Refugee Crisis held in Geneva.

European Union’s Humanitarian Assistance and Crisis Management Commissioner Kristos Stellendius has termed the situation in Rakhine state as more or less ethnic cleansing.

15-member delegations of the European Union led by Christos Stylianides have visited the Kutupalong Refugee Camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar today. In the meantime, he also spent some time in the ACF-led nutrition center and observed the nutrition Program for Rohingya children and mothers.

Subsequently, they have seen children’s reading in Kutupalong Rohingya camp.

Later, at a press conference, Christos Stylianides said that *Rohingyas have the basic right to return to their motherland, so Myanmar must take back its citizens and create congenial environment so that they(Rohingya) can stay there with honor and dignity as well as full assurance of security.*

he also urged to Myanmar government to allow international humanitarian organizations full and unfettered access in affected area or Rakhine state.The European Union will work to start repatriation process as soon as possible.

At the same time, he praised loudly the Bangladeshi people and the generosity of the government towards Rohingyas, the European Union will provide financial support to the education and protection of Rohingya Muslims.he added




__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*UN: Rohingya Muslim women in 'terrible' condition*
*Rohingya refugee crisis 'disproportionately' affects women, girls, says UN Women's Oct. 2017 report*
October 31, 2017 Anadolu Agency




*File Photo
Women and girls have experienced sexual and gender-based violence, perpetrated by both the Myanmar army and by Rakhine locals, according to UN Women's latest report.*
The Oct. 2017 report titled 'Gender Brief on Rohingya Refugee Crisis Response in Bangladesh' reminded that the violent conflict began in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine in Oct. 2006.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, over 607,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

The refugees are fleeing a fresh military 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.

"The distressed and traumatized displaced population – approximately 51 per cent of which are women and girls – lives in terrible conditions and lacks adequate food, water, sanitation, medical care and access to their livelihoods and assets," the report said.

It said the situation "disproportionately" affects women, girls and the most "vulnerable and marginalized" Rohingya refugee population groups by reinforcing, perpetuating and exacerbating pre-existing, persistent gender inequalities, gender-based violence and discrimination.

"Many women whose sexual assault resulted in conception are reported to have sought out abortions after arriving in Bangladesh. This is a frightening reminder that sexual and gender-based violence are among the most horrific weapons of war, instruments of terror most often used against women," it added.

The report said about 400,000 refugees need immediate access to water and sanitation. It added 24,000 pregnant and lactating women require maternal health-care support.

Women and children are also at "heightened" risk of becoming victims of human trafficking, sexual abuse or child and forced marriage, it added.

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

Last October, following attacks on border posts in Rakhine's Maungdaw district, security forces launched a five-month crackdown in which, according to Rohingya groups, around 400 people were killed.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.




00:00 dk27 Ekim 2017Yeni Şafak
*UNHCR in Bangladesh seeks to give 'sense of security' to Rohingya women, children*
Rohingya Muslims continue to stream into Bangladesh, fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar. Most bring tales of horror and brutality inflicted on them by the members of the Myanmar army. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which is carrying out relief operations along with its partner organizations and Bangladesh government, said a large number of new refugees required urgent medical attention and a sense of security once they arrive in Bangladesh.
*Pregnant Rohingya women forced to give birth in unsanitary conditions*




*Show All*
16 Ekim 2017Yeni Şafak
Young Rohingya women are seen at a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on Oct. 11, 2017. 

Hundreds of pregnant Rohingya women are giving birth in harsh conditions at makeshift camps in unhealthy and unsanitary conditions. All they want is for their babies to survive. The Rohingya fled from oppression within ongoing military operations in Myanmar's Rakhine State and took shelter at makeshift camps in Cox's Bazar and Teknaff. 

Since Aug. 25, when the military launched a crackdown against the Rohingya, 536,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN. Thousands of Rohingyas died, and those who survived after a dangerous crossover are faced with the possibility of death, rape or abuse in the midst of dire conditions.
http://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/u...glish&utm_campaign=facebook-yenisafak-english


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## Banglar Bir

*Israel's badly kept secret: Selling arms to regimes at war*
#ArmsTrade
From Myanmar to South Sudan, and more recently the Gulf Arab states, Israel has tried to keep secret its weapons sales to regimes engaged in brutal conflicts




Yossi Melman
Wednesday 1 November 2017 08:01 UTC
Wednesday 1 November 2017 9:38 UTC
Topics:
ArmsTrade
Tags:
Myanmar, South Sudan, Eritrea, Abu Dhabi, Arms trade, Censorship
*Israel prides itself as being a free, democratic society, part of the Western world. Well not exactly. At least when it comes to two significant areas.
One*, towering above all, is the occupation of the West Bank under the iron fist of the Israeli military and depriving its Palestinian residents of basic civil and democratic rights.
*
Military exports are somewhat of a sacred cow in Israel. 
They are in the Israeli DNA

The second area* in which the lack of transparency is evident and the government has tried to quash information is military-security exports. Here, too, the censor is omnipresent and suppresses any information that can potentially embarrass the government and security establishment for its weapon sales to dictators, rogue regimes, violators of human rights and other dubious governments.
*Myanmar*
Myanmar is a case in point. In September, a group of Israeli human rights activists petitioned the High Court of Justice to stop weapon sales to that country military’s junta, which, essentially, is still in power despite elections in 2015.

According to human rights groups and UN reports, the Myanmar army is involved in systemic ethnical cleansing and war crimes against the Rohingya (a Muslim minority). It has been reported that almost half a million people escaped to neighbouring Bangladesh after thousands were killed and raped and villages were set on fire.

For years, Israel sold weapons to Myanmar, including listening equipment, communications gear and patrol boats manufactured by Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Also, Tar Ideals Concepts, an Israeli company, trained Myanmar Special Forces.
Asked for its response, the company didn't answer.

Successive Israeli governments were ashamed of these deals but encouraged arms dealers and state-owned industries to continue making them. At the same time, they used the military censor to suppress the information.




*Myanmar's army chief senior general Min Aung Hlaing speaks during the second anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) ceremony in Naypyidaw on 
15 October 2017 ( AFP)
So how do we know about all these deals? Because the Myanmar junta proudly boasted about them on its official websites and posted photos of its chiefs visiting Israel. *
These included meetings in September 2015 between Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, which acts independently of the civilian government, along with other senior officers of the military junta, and President Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot and the heads of Israel’s security services and senior officials in its arms industry.

Hlaing even wrote on his Facebook page that he and his colleagues had visited Israel Aerospace Industries near Tel Aviv and other defence firms.
*China ties*
Recently, I learned that Commtac, an Israeli manufacturer of communication gear for drones, has sold equipment installed on Chinese-made drones operated by the Myanmar army via Elul (an Israeli arms broker).
Commtac is a subsidiary of the Israeli drone manufacturer Aeronautics Defense Systems.
*The Israeli government has been particularly sensitive about this deal, not because it opposes sales to Myanmar, but because it feared the link to Chinese drones would anger the US.*

Beginning in the late 1970s, long before the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and China, Israeli defence contractors secretly equipped China's army, with government approval.
In the last decade, however, Israel stopped military sales to China under pressure from consecutive US administrations.

It can only be assumed that the suspension of Israeli sales is temporary, resulting from public pressure at home, especially by civil rights groups

Elul didn't return calls for comment, but a spokesman for Commatc and Aeronautics confirmed that the company had sold equipment to Myanmar "according to Defence Ministry regulations and with its approval." He added, however, that the Defence Ministry had recently changed its policy and suspended all licenses to all Israeli companies, including Commtac, that permit dealings with Myanmar.

It's worth noting that the ministry didn't issue any statement in this regard and hoped to keep the move under wraps. The ministry refused to elaborate, saying only: "We don't comment on export issues." The secrecy is aimed at not angering Myanmar, with the hope that sooner or later the ban will be lifted and business resumed.

It can only be assumed that the suspension of Israeli sales is temporary, resulting from public pressure at home, especially by civil rights groups. Some of them, in September, appealed to the Supreme Court to order the Defence Ministry to stop its sales to Myanmar and thus follow US and EU policies that have imposed an arms embargo on the Southeast Asian country. The state opposed, and the court rejected the appeal.

All of the deliberations were behind closed doors, indicating that, in Israel, it's not only the censor, but also the courts, that are closing ranks with the security establishment when it comes to arms sales.
*Arms to dictators
Military exports are somewhat of a sacred cow in Israel*.
They are in the Israeli DNA, and the public generally supports the government’s policy and prefers not to hear about it even if it stands in sharp contrast to universal morality, human rights and ethics.

Israeli arms exports to more than 100 countries on five continents totaled $6 billion in 2016. This represents only 6-7 percent of the total Israeli exports of goods and services, but the contribution of security contractors is not limited to exports. They are the primary suppliers of weapons to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and employ some 100,000 workers, making them a significant factor in allowing Israel’s economy to prosper.

The customers can be divided into three groups.
The first and the biggest market are countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations such as the US, the EU, India, Singapore, and Azerbaijan.




*Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers carry heavy weapons near Alole, northern South Sudan, on 16 October 2016. (AFP)
The second group* consists of countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations but are ruled by dictators or are involved in civil wars or engage in abuses of human rights,* such as Myanmar or, in the past, countries in South and Central America as well as Africa.*

Israeli arms dealers sold weapons to both sides during the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. But the most worrisome case in the Israeli exports to Africa was in South Sudan. Israel continued to supply arms to that nation even after the bloody civil war erupted there. Only recently under strong local media and foreign human rights groups the MoD announced that it had ceased all military sales to South Sudan.
*Arms sales as diplomacy*
Here, in this second category, too, the censor has stepped in to prevent publication of defence deals, as is the case with Azerbaijan, which, because of its border with Iran, is considered strategically important.

The taboo on this topic was broken in February when Azeri President Ilham Aliyev publicly acknowledged that his country had clinched deals with Israel valued at $5bn over the last two decades. In so doing, Aliyev surprised Netanyahu, who was visiting Azerbaijan at the time. Alongside the US, India and the EU, the Caucasian nation is one of the biggest markets for Israeli military toys.
*
The third category of countries* benefiting from advanced Israeli weapons and technologies ‒ "battle proven" after being used by the IDF ‒ are those that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel.
*These are mainly Arab and Muslim nations.*

Here, the deals are aimed not only at financial rewards but also to gain a foothold in the Arab world and to receive payment with intelligence information or other favours.

In the 1980s, Israel sold US-made Skyhawk jets that had been put out of service by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) to Indonesia, the biggest Muslim country in the world.
The sale was approved by the US. In return, Indonesia gave Israel favours, including allowing Israeli experts to learn about sophisticated Soviet-made weapons being used by its Arab enemies.

In past years, Israeli weapons and technologies have been used to help Jordan (Israeli helicopters and drones on loan) and Egypt (intelligence information and Israeli drones occasionally attacking Islamic State positions in Sinai).

Because Jordan and Egypt have diplomatic relations with Israel, on the surface, reports about the special security-military ties shouldn't be a problem. But, once again, the censor is allowing information to be reported locally, only if foreign news media already have reported about it.
*Gulf deals
Another important market for Israeli military technologies is the United Arab Emirates, led by Abu Dhabi and, according to reports which never been confirmed, Saudi Arabia. *

The reports claim that Israeli high-tech companies have clinched deals to supply the kingdom with intelligence equipment and that Saudi Arabia is considering buying Israel's anti-missile system called *"Iron Dome". *It is worth noting that social media in the Arab world have persistently spread rumours that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman recently visited Israel.
*Saudi spokespersons denied it.





Reports claim that Israeli high-tech companies have clinched deals to supply the Saudi kingdom with intelligence equipment and that Saudi Arabia is considering buying Israel's anti-missile system called "Iron Dome" (AFP)*
For several years, the censor has used its iron fist to prevent any reports in the Israeli media about sales to the Arab world. This attitude proved to be absurd and ridiculous because the main broker in the "secret" deals, an Israeli arms dealer called Mati Kochavi, revealed the deals with Abu Dhabi in a public seminar in Singapore out of sheer self-importance and ego.

The English writer, Samuel Johnson, wrote that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
" It can be said that Israel’s Defence Ministry is quick to use “security reasons” as a pretext to justify every evil possible that is carried out by unscrupulous arms dealers, corrupt defence contractors and ruthless dictators.
*In the first two decades after gaining its independence in 1948 Israel hoped to be a light unto the nations, but unfortunately has become a weapons supplier to dubious regimes.*
_- *Yossi Melman* is an Israeli security and intelligence commentator and co-author of Spies Against Armageddon.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: In this photograph taken on 21 October 2016, Myanmar army soldiers patrol a village in Maungdaw located in Rakhine State as security operation continue following the 9 October 2016 attacks by armed militants. (AFP)_
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/israels-badly-kept-secret-selling-arms-regimes-war-875322890

*Myanmar seeks amendment of 1993 repatriation agreement with Bangladesh*
Tribune Desk
Published at 05:13 PM November 01, 2017




Rohingya refugees wait to receive permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue their way after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at a port in Teknaf, Bangladesh, October 31, 2017 REUTERS
*Camps set up to receive returning refugees have now been erected in Taung Pyo Let Wae and Nga Khu Ya villages in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw township*
*Myanmar is working to modify a 1993 agreement with Bangladesh allowing the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled the country amid armed clashes between ethnic insurgents and government security forces, a senior government official said.*

The changes will be made in consultation with Bangladesh and will “add more points to the agreement,” Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary of the Department of Immigration and Population, on Tuesday told Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Myanmar Service.

“The agreement was inked in 1993, and it is now 2017,” Myint Kyaing said. “A very long time has passed, and the situation has changed.”

“Four major points from the 1993 agreement will remain the same, but we will add more points after discussing this with the Bangladesh side,” he said, without elaborating on which points would be kept and which would need to be added.
*Also Read- Rohingyas to be repatriated on PM’s 5 points, Annan commission recommendations*
“Identification forms will be delivered only after both countries sign the agreement, and people will have to fill them out, stating where they were born in Rakhine state, in what year they were born, and what documentation they were holding when they lived in Rakhine,” he said.

“Refugees can return when a government-approved verification team approves ID forms. We will accept everyone back who will be approved,” he said.

Camps set up to receive returning refugees have now been erected in Taung Pyo Let Wae and Nga Khu Ya villages in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw township, Myint Kyaing said.

“There is a bridge with checkpoints at each end in Taung Pyo Let Wae village,” Myint Kyaing said, adding, “If we see people coming in without approved forms, we can immediately send them back to the Bangladeshi border security team.”
*Also Read- Myanmar will take back displaced Rohingyas*
Meanwhile, Thailand-based Women’s League of Burma (WLB) called on Tuesday for an end to what they described as “widespread propaganda” driving racial tensions and insecurity among Rakhine’s ethnic communities.

“WLB believes that this violence has been deliberately created and fuelled by certain groups who do not want sustainable peace in Burma,” the group said, using another name for Myanmar.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...dment-1993-repatriation-agreement-bangladesh/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Repatriation and their breasts conceal is far worse*





Rohingya Muslim children try to reach Bangladesh from Myanmar, August 28, 2017. (Reuters)
_By_ Min Khant
RB Opinion
November 1, 2017
*Arakan Rohingyas Salvation Army (ARSA) is the final justification of both public government, run by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and head of the military department Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to end the Rohingya existence in Rakhine state, evidently the ARSA itself is the ultimate creation of the government in appearance of Rohingyas as militant or insurgent group.* 
The so called ARSA’s attacks on more than 30-police stations, ‘_*no one believes to be happened without the green-light of military strategies*_’, has sparked to destroy nearly 300-hundred Rohingyas villages by military’s uneven aggression on Rohingyas innocent people from Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships since 25 August 2017 let alone mass killings, arson attacks, gang rapes, torching, arbitrary arrests and unknown of where about of uncountable Rohingyas males. 
*The integrated aggression against Rohingyas people has been the coordinated action of multi political forces within further understandings among destructive forces. *

Those are: “the entire NLD party’s politicians; all the rest political parties registered under the state Election Commission; intellectuals and intelligentsia of the states; all the state owned news outlets; daily circulating multi journals, face book media; lawful and illegal CD and video productions and distributions all around the country; celebrities and randomly _yellow-ribbon wrapped Buddhist monks _who have visibly been seen with arms in public places; and the entire grassroots level of Myanmar nationals”.

Amid the international community’s constant demands for investigation due to human rights violation committed since October, 2016 to during recent violent crackdowns on innocent Rohingyas by both military and Rakhine armed militants in the region, yet, Myanmar government has been sticking that the international community’s investigation would neither help to solve the issue but such conduct would rather intensify the existing communal tension between Rohingyas and Rakhine people to live together in the region. What an Excuse to hide behind ‘open to all’ brutality!

Regrettably, the United Nations itself has been paralyzed to take the concrete action in regard Rohingyas fates though it has noted down that Rohingyas are the most persecuted people in the world after conducting the relevant works in localities for more than two decades.

Although the ‘*deadlock Rohingyas*’ issue is duly deserved to have THE final settlement for a long time, the issue deliberately becomes a “big-dilemma” in the World United Nations Security Council forum as “*a tug-of-war contest*” between yes votes and no votes. 
To solve the Rohingyas issue simply, the rivalry between two groups has intensified in the quest of the strategic and economic interest in the region, RAKHINE.

Though majority of yes votes nodded in favor of Rohingyas who have been visibly enduring multi atrocities of the regime, just a single or couple of powers’ heartless standing to cooperate with the world to have unanimous agreement to be a peaceful resolution in dispute is just a “_silly sagacity_” of those nations who wish the innocents lives of Rohingyas to be perished more and the vulnerable ones rights to be stripped of by the cooperation of with the butcher nation, Myanmar for their LUST in the pastures which have been rendered in a half price to shield Myanmar regime’s crimes against Rohingyas in the world forums.

*Everyone knows that the Republic of China is a big investor, as exploiter, and a single rower in Myanmar, taking advantages since the WEST has imposed sanctions on the last Myanmar military regimes for its crackdown on democratic activists.

In the end, the Republic of China is a sole nation that supports Myanmar brutalit*y against the very innocent Rohingyas in Arakan state and the emergency of UNSC’s paralysis to take urgent focus to handle the Rohingyas issue is solely responsible by China. 

In fact, we all understand that the CHINA has been perceived by the Myanmar unfounded episodes & multi narratives and become familiar with things because of hearing them repeatedly. Being the CHINA as a permanent member of the UNSC, it is very crucial for it to maintain Peace and Security of the world by coordination with the rest of the world in true matter, as no rivalry will stop in this world with true sense between powers and among the groups.

As more, from the one hand, instead of listening and believing to whatever Myanmar whispers regarding ARSA to CHINA, it needs to agree to the world opinion to investigate to the brutalities, oppressions, burnings, killings, arson attacks, disenfranchisement, starvations, right restrictions, and total chaos & insecurity in the hands of brutal regime from the other. 

Bangladesh is a tiny country and it has already hosted nearly one million Rohingya in their country, it has been a big burden for their nation though the world has generously extended the humanitarian assistances, which have been in dire need for life saving of Rohingyas, who fled the atrocities of Myanmar regime in their localities.

Myanmar regime’s deceiving temperament to the people of Rohingya has been periodically different based on condition, insisting Rohingyas are not the citizens of Myanmar who have fled but the absconders or the people who fled to Bangladesh. 
*This word has been from their mouths right now and what their breasts conceal is far worse.*

Myanmar wanted to repatriate the Rohingyas in accord by the bilateral agreement they have reached between Bangladesh and Myanmar in 1993. However, Bangladesh government insists such an agreement does not legalize now, as there are many additional terrible phenomenon, which have emerged on Rohingyas due to multi atrocities committed by Myanmar forces.

Following the return back of last mission of Bangladesh regarding the repartition of the Rohingya refugees, there have been inner discussions between the government bodies to accept some part of the proposal of the Bangladesh to accept the Rohingyas refugees.

The Myanmar regime has now shown fright of building of the big camps in Bangladesh for Rohingyas, fearing that such durable constructions by Bangladesh after receiving international big assistance ($440 million) may delay the Rohingyas repatriation process to the country though Myanmar wants earlier repatriations to avoid the possible international economic sanction and freeze of assets of several Military generals. 

The time now is very imperative for not only the government of Bangladesh, Rohingyas refugees and but also international communities to reach to the final and targeted agreements with Myanmar government, which has been the deceiving characters to trick both Rohingyas and international communities in discharging the agreements in which it agreed upon in the past and possibly in the future. 
*Rohingyas and international community cannot be cheated repeatedly.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/repatriation-and-their-breasts-conceals.html*


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 02, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:16 AM, November 02, 2017
*Rohingya Crisis: US assures help in repatriation*




Diplomatic Correspondent
*The United States has assured Bangladesh “both financial and diplomatic” support for the safe, sustainable and dignified repatriation of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals.*
Washington and Dhaka also agreed to continue the pressure on the Myanmar government in this regard.

The assurance was made by the visiting Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, Simon Henshaw, during his meeting with State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, yesterday.

The acting assistant secretary, who arrived in Dhaka yesterday with a delegation after a visit to Myanmar, deeply appreciated Bangladesh's decision to temporarily shelter more than 600,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals and stated that Bangladesh “responded extremely well” to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

The state minister highlighted the five-point proposal given by the Prime Minister at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in September this year and also requested for continuation of the support in this regard, said a foreign ministry press release.

Other members of the delegation are Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Scott Busby, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Tom Vajda and Director of the Office of Mainland Asia Patricia Mahoney. US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat was also present during the meeting.
The US delegation will visit different Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar today and tomorrow.
*EU STANDS WITH BANGLADESH*
The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, who returned to Dhaka from Cox's Bazar after visiting the Rohingya camps, said “EU stands by Bangladesh in this difficult time”. 

Talking to reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali yesterday afternoon at the state guesthouse Padma, Christos Stylianides said that “dialogue between Bangladesh and Myanmar is the only way to bring a political solution to the Rohingya crisis.”

“I strongly believe that there can be a political solution to the crisis,” he said, adding that the root cause lies in Myanmar. “The government of Bangladesh and Myanmar should continue dialogue. This is the only way to ensure safe, dignified, and voluntary return of those who were forced to cross the border and want to return home,” he said. 

His visit comes a week after the EU and its Member States pledged more than 50 percent of the total $434 million funding raised at the international Conference on the Rohingya Refugee Crisis held in Geneva.

He visited Rohingya camps and said the scale of this emergency was “painfully clear to see; this is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world”.

“Our help will continue. I hope [the] Rohingyas will be able to return to their home in a safe and dignified way,” he said. “Our promise is that we'll continue to provide assistance as long as it takes,” he added.

The foreign ministry in a statement also said that during the meeting, the foreign minister briefed Christos about the current situation and apprised that over 1 million Rohingyas are now living in Bangladesh.

He also mentioned that the presence of this huge number of Rohingyas created “massive socio-economic and environmental challenges for Bangladesh”.

He further sought “sustained political support” of the EU so that a solution to this problem could be forged in light of the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission.

Citing recent engagements between Myanmar and Bangladesh, the foreign minister expressed hope that EU will continue their “persuasion” of Myanmar until the Rohingyas return to their homeland safely, with security and dignity.

The European Commissioner thanked the Government and the people of Bangladesh for giving shelter to the distressed Rohingyas of Myanmar and deeply appreciated Bangladesh's humanity and generosity.
*OTTAWA WILL MATCH THE DONATIONS OF CANADIANS*
Canada will increase its assistance to thousands of Rohingya refugees, who have fled violence in Myanmar to seek refuge in Bangladesh.

The Federal Government says that it will match every dollar Canadians donate to registered charities helping the Rohingya refugee crisis, at the end of August and until November 28.

“I encourage all Canadians to donate to the organisation of their choice. Your donation will save lives. It will allow them to recover their sense of dignity until they can return to their homes,” International Development Minister, Marie-Claude Bibeau, said while inviting Canadians to”be generous“.

She announced that for every eligible donation made by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities between August 25 and Nov 28, the government of Canada will contribute an equivalent amount to the fund.

The relief fund for the Myanmar crisis has no ceiling, the minister said, adding “these donations will be made to the Myanmar Crisis Relief Fund.”

The UN launched an appeal for over $434 million to respond to the crisis. Canada has committed over $25 million in humanitarian assistance funding in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/us-assures-help-repatriation-rohingyas-1485121

12:00 AM, November 02, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:18 AM, November 02, 2017
*Rohingya problem is neither a border nor a law and order issue*




While the normal diplomatic lines of communications must never be disrupted, we cannot pretend as if nothing has happened between the two neighbours. PHOTO: STAR
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)
*And yet the approach of the government has demonstrated exactly that. *
The home ministry's statement to the media stated that the purpose of the minister's recent visit to Burma was to attend a meeting on cooperation between Bangladesh and Myanmar on border and security matters. 
And therefore one would not be wrong to say that the government has so far treated the Rohingya issue as a border and normal law enforcement matter.

However, according to the home minister's statement on Oct 12, “Our main agenda in the discussions will be repatriation of the Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh and stopping a recurrence of such events,” is a matter which to my mind should have best been left to the foreign ministry, and the foreign minister's visit to address the repatriation issue would have been in order.
*
To my mind the Rohingya and security does not fall within the ambit of the home ministry's remit, unless of course the Prime Minister, who also happens to be the defence minister, had tasked the home minister to talk these issues too. *
But again, the usual caveat that Myanmar foists on the progress to the path of a quick resolution of the problem is the 1992 Agreement. 
And only yesterday Myanmar made the most ludicrous comment that Bangladesh is delaying the process of repatriation to attract more foreign aid. 
So whatever Suu Kyi says is subtly countermanded by the Generals. 
*The devious mind of the Myanmar general puts even the satanic innovations to shame. *

That Aung Sun Su Kyi is not in charge in Myanmar has been all but clear for a long time. She does not call the shots, and is quite happy to let the military run the affairs of the country. For a person who is supposed to have fought for democracy and the rule of the people in her country, that is an odious compromise for her political survival. 

It is not really the rule of the people but a sham democracy with the Nobel Laureate for Peace in the shop window—displaying to the world the “face of democracy” in Myanmar. It is virtually a military rule in the guise of democracy. And it is not the parliament but the military who calls the shots in Myanmar. Therefore, it is not the anointed leader but the real power base that should be targeted for the resolution of the Rohingya issue. 
*
That, one understands, is a tall order to achieve. *
Given the deep-rooted strategic-economic interest of some regional and supra regional powers in Myanmar, the reasons for the unwillingness to take action against Myanmar despite the renewed ethnic cleansing of the Rakhine is clear. 
*
The US intention to explore ways to impose sanctions on Myanmar is perhaps more substantive than what has been expressed or done by most countries except for the EU. *
Tillerson's message to the Army Generals was meant to convey a message. 
*But any demonstrated firm action on the country is going to be restrained by India and China*, the two most influential countries that can bear upon the Myanmar military, both with different and conflicting stakes in that country. 
And this has been amply demonstrated by the Indian call to the US for restraint following US Secretary of State's veiled threat to the Myanmar Generals. 

And whatever faint hope there might have been of passing a resolution on the matter by October 31 in the Security Council, the last day of France's presidentship of the Council and who had circulated the draft to all members of the Council was dashed, because neither Russia nor China had consented to the draft.

But while we are calling upon the international community to assume a more stringent posture against the military regime in Naypyidaw, our business-as-usual posture with Myanmar will certainly dilute the gravity of the situation. 
*First *it was the visit by our food minister to that country to purchase rice, in the midst of the persecution and exodus of the Rohingyas which was creating the most severe problems for Bangladesh. 
While the normal diplomatic lines of communications must never be disrupted, we cannot pretend as if nothing has happened between the two neighbours. 
*That would convey the wrong message to the world, and certainly to the military junta in Myanmar.*

*And now* we have the MoU signed during the home minister's visit. 
We are not aware of the details of it, but if the comment of the Myanmar government's permanent secretary for home affairs following the signing of the MoU is anything to go by, it shows that not only has the ball been deftly sent back to our court, it reads as if it is Bangladesh's responsibility to stop the Rohingya exodus. 
The onus of the problem has been made to devolve on us by very intricate and skilful use of language. The two statements merit dissection. 

*The comments interestingly read, “The two sides have agreed to halt the outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh”, and “form a joint working group”. And, “the two countries agreed to restore normalcy in Rakhine to enable displaced Myanmar residents to return from Bangladesh at the earliest opportunity”.

Excuse me!* How is it up to Bangladesh to halt the outflow of the Myanmar residents? 
Unless of course Myanmar allows Bangladesh forces to sanitise the Rakhine State. 
And notice how subtly Myanmar avoids referring to Rohingya as “citizens” by terming them “Myanmar residents.” 
And how is it Bangladesh's responsibility to restore normalcy in the region. 
Is that the preamble of the proposed Joint Working Group? 
*One wonders whether we have unwittingly become a party to the resolution of the conflict in Rakhine. This is a question the policy makers should seriously ponder on and provide an answer to.*
Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd) is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...either-border-nor-law-and-order-issue-1485130

*EU for political solutions addressing root causes in Myanmar*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:03, Nov 02,2017 | Updated: 00:13, Nov 02,2017
*The European Union on Wednesday stressed the need for political solutions, addressing the root causes in Myanmar, for ensuring safe, dignified and voluntary return of the ethnic minority Rohingyas who fled violence in Rakhine state of the country.*
Christos Stylianides, European commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, said this at a press briefing in Dhaka after visiting the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. 

‘There can only be a political solution to the crisis’, the root causes of which lie in Myanmar, he said after a meeting with Bangladesh foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali. 
The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar should continue to engage in dialogue as ‘this is the only way’, he said, to ensure safe, dignified and voluntary return of the Rohingyas.

International community should play a moral role for giving the displaced community hope and prospect with a comprehensive and coordinated humanitarian response to the biggest refugee crisis, Christos Stylianides said. 

The European commissioner, who visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, said he was shocked as ‘needs’ and ‘trauma’ of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas ‘are beyond imagination’.
Rohingya children in the camps were suffering from acute malnutrition and the vast majority of them ‘don’t have any chance’ to go to school,’ he said. 
‘This is appalling,’ he said, adding that, ‘Rohingyas do not deserve less than any other human being in the world.’ 

The EU would continue to support Bangladesh in this very difficult condition, he added. 
Foreign minister Ali, in his meeting with the EU team, sought sustained political support of the EU so that a sustainable solution to this Rohingya problem could be forged in the light of the recommendations of Kofi Annan Commission.

He also mentioned that the presence of this huge number of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals has created massive socio-economic and environmental challenge for Bangladesh.

Over 6,07,000 minority Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and October 29.

The ongoing influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,24,000 till October 29, according to estimates of UN agencies. 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/27458/eu-for-political-solutions-addressing-root-causes-in-myanmar

*TIB calls for sanction on Myanmar*
Staff Correspondent | Published: 01:17, Nov 02,2017 
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman addresses a press conference on the occasion of releasing a survey report on Rohingyas in Bangladesh on Wednesday.
*Transparency International Bangladesh on Wednesday called for imposing sanction on Myanmar for putting pressure on the country to stop its ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas.*
‘There is no alternative to imposing targeted sanction on Myanmar in order to stop the Rohingya exodus,’ TIB executive director Ifthekharuzzman said at a press conference on launch of rapid assessment titled ‘Problems Related to Refuge Provided in Bangladesh to Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (Rohingya)’ in Dhaka.

‘Sanction can vary from soft to hard forms like imposing travel, assistance, commerce, military ban,’ Ifthekharuzzman said, adding that Myanmar was carrying out one of the world’s worst ethnic cleansing on the Rohingyas. 

He also called on the Bangladesh government to expedite its diplomatic efforts to compel Myanmar to take back their nationals from Bangladesh.

According to the UN estimation on Sunday, 6,07,000 Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh since the beginning of the new influx, what the United Nations called the world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency, on August 25.

Officials estimated that the new influx already took to 10.26 lakh the number of documented and undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh entering the country at times since 1978.
The new influx began after Myanmar security forces responded to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s reported attacks on August 25 by launching violence what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing.

The rapid assessment found that some local and international non-government organisations are discouraging Rohingyas not to do mandatory biometric registration. 

The assessment also alleged that Rohingya community leaders, widely known as Majhis, are selling the relief token, embezzling relief material, taking bribe from other Rohingyas promising relief token.
The assessment said that Rohingyas were exploited and subjected to extortion in different steps of their journey starting at border crossing and reaching one of the camp areas and finding a place to build shelter. 

‘Such as those who crossed the border by boat had to pay Tk 5,000-Tk 15,000 in Burmese Kiyat or gold ornaments where the actual boat fare is Tk 200 to Tk 250,’ said the assessment.
Taking advantage of the absence of any formal money exchange system, middlemen are exploiting the Rohingyas badly during money exchange. 

‘Where standard rate is Tk 6,000 for 1,00,000 Burmese Kiyat but Rohingyas are getting Tk 2,000-Tk 4,500. 
Since they do not understand the value of Bangladeshi currency, they often provided more in fares using local transport,’ said the assessment. 

Though the place they are staying and building temporary houses belongs to the forest department, a local syndicate is taking Tk 2,000- Tk 5,000 from each family. 
*This syndicate consists of local UP members, local political leaders and some of the Rohingya ‘Majhi’ as several stakeholder mentioned, alleged the assessment.*

The assessment recommended that government put its best diplomatic efforts involving all related stakeholders to mount pressure on Myanmar government so that the crisis did not prolong and the Rohingyas returned within a shortest possible time.
*This Rohingya crisis is an international crisis. 
Though Bangladesh has provided them temporary shelter on humanitarian grounds, all related stakeholders and parties especially, India, China and others having diplomatic, business, investment, economic and defence deals with Myanmar and other international agencies and UN agencies should come forward to mitigate this crisis, recommended the assessment.*

Besides providing the relief, collective diplomatic pressure should be put on Myanmar to compel it to take their citizens back immediately, it said. 

One of the researchers Golam Mohiuddin presented the finding of the rapid assessment survey for which they collected information in between September and October. 

TIB executive director Ifthekharuzzman said that as these Rohingyas faced brutality, possibility of growing vindictiveness among them was there. 
*‘For this reason we cannot brush aside the possibility of growing extremism among them,’ he warned.*
http://www.newagebd.net/article/27471/tib-calls-for-sanction-on-myanmar

*Rohingyas in fuel crisis*
Mohiuddin Alamgir with Mohammad Nurul Islam in Cox’s Bazar | Published: 00:05, Nov 02,2017 | Updated: 00:04, Nov 02,2017
*Rohingyas entering Bangladesh to flee ethnic cleansing in their homeland Rakhine State of Myanmar are facing acute shortage of cooking fuel as assistance from aid providers is not near the need which is forcing them to fell trees.*
Rohingyas and local people said that the international and local aid providers were providing these hapless ethnic minority people from Myanmar with assistances like shelter, food, medication but hardly any cooking fuel.

Rohingyas said that in absence of cooking fuel supply, they needed to collect wood from forests or buy it from local market.

Because of huge demand, firewood price soared significantly in localities of Teknaf and Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar, where Rohingyas took shelter.

Many Rohingyas erected makeshift shelters in reserved forests felling trees and set up shanties on hill slopes causing destruction of about 2,500 acres of forest and now their collection of firewood continued worsening the environment scenario, local people said.
Rohingya man Abdul Karim, living in a camp at Thainkhali, said that they were getting no fuel from anyone. 

‘At present, no agency is providing the community with fuel as it is flammable having high risk of fire accident in densely populated shelters,’ said International Organisation for Migration national communication officer Shirin Akhter.

Transparency International Bangladesh in its rapid assessment titled ‘Problems Related to Refuge Provided in Bangladesh to Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (Rohingya)’ on Wednesday said that hills and local forests were cut down during the erection of shelters which was affecting the local environment and biodiversity. 
*
‘The firewood for daily cooking of food is collected from natural sources which is a huge burden to the local forests,’ it said.*

Divisional forest official in Cox’s Bazar (south) Ali Kabir said that till October 2, Rohingyas made makeshift camps on 3,000 acres of forest land in Balukhali, Kutupalang and adjacent areas.
‘They have destroyed all trees of about 2,500 acre forests for making makeshift shelters and fuel wood,’ he added.

‘We are estimating total loss as Rohingyas continue to spread to others forest lands,’ he added.
According to UN estimation on Sunday, 6,07,000 Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh since the beginning of the new influx, what the United Nations called the world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency, on August 25.

Officials estimated that the new influx already took to 10.26 lakh the number of documented and undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh entering the country at times since 1978.
The new influx began after Myanmar security forces responded to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s reported attacks on August 25 by launching violence what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Rohingyas continued entering Bangladesh through different points of Teknaf.
Border Guard Bangladesh 34 battalion second-in-command Major Iqbal Ahmed said that about 2,500 Rohingyas were now staying at zero line, after entering Bangladesh through Anjumanpara border.
Teknaf upazila senior fisheries officer Delwar Hossain, responsible for keeping account of new arrivals, said on Monday that over 1,390 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh through Shah Parir Dwip on Wednesday.

The meeting of parliamentary standing committee on forest and environment ministry in parliament complex on October 10 was informed that Rohingyas destroyed forest trees of Tk 151 crore for erecting makeshift shelters and collecting wood for fuel.

Committee member Yahya Chowdhury said that Rohingyas felled trees of Tk 150.87 crore, a report from forest department showed.
Ali Kabir said the amount of loss definitely has increased as number of Rohingyas increased since then
Local people said that the price of fire wood was increasing every day with the continued influx of Rohingyas. Currently a kilogram of fire wood is selling for Tk 15, which was Tk 8-10 in August.
Rice husk is selling Tk 14-16 per kg which sold for Tk 6-8 two months ago, local people said.
Needs and Population Monitoring report of IOM on October 25 said that 40 per cent of the Rohingyas living in different sites reported to have sourced fuel from local forests and 39 per cent from local markets.

Shirin said that considering the need, international agencies were thinking about distributing briquettes.
‘There are bio gas plants to run community kitchens in Leda and Kutupaong Makeshift Settlements. Agencies have plans to scale up this intervention considering the current high demand of fuel in the settlements,’ she added. 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/27456/rohingyas-in-fuel-crisis

*NDC SEMINAR ON ROHINGYA CRISIS
Neighbours’ role criticised*
Staff Correspondent | Published: 00:12, Nov 02,2017 | Updated: 00:49, Nov 02,2017
*National Defence College commandant Lieutenant General Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardy on Wednesday was critical of the role strategic partners and neighbouring countries played in addressing the Rohingya crisis.*
‘In the recent crisis in Myanmar and influx of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh have raised a question as to who is our real friend in need. We expected our strategic partners and neighbouring countries to take necessary steps to address these issues,’ Hasan Sarwardy told a seminar.

The college in Mirpur Cantonment organised the seminar on formulating an effective foreign policy outline for realisation of ‘vision 2041’, which was declared by prime minister Sheikh Hasina after assuming in power through the January 5 election, boycotted by major political parties. 

The keynote was presented by a group of NDC course participants, led by Air Commodore Qazi Mazharul Karim. It identified a number of challenges in formulating the ‘Vision 2041’ including lack of national unity, space for civil society, corruption, bureaucracy and lack of good governance, among others.

Although the seminar was organised to fetch an effective foreign policy to achieve the Vision 2041, discussants mostly focused on the diplomatic engagement in Rohingya crisis. 
At the begging of the seminar, the NDC commandant said the Bangladesh signed strategic partnership deals with one country.

About China, the NDC commandant said ‘The country was never supportive to Bangladesh until 1975. 
Yet we thought China would be out best partner but it never works...’
In fact, he said, most of the South East Asian nations paid no attention in the Rohingya crisis.

Armed Forces Division director general (intelligence) Brigadier General Monirul Islam Akhand also said they expected assistances from big powers in solving the crisis that began after August 25.

‘Bangladesh is disappointed with the way a few global powers, to be precise three regional and global power, had responded to the issue. We expected them to take stronger stance on our behalf…they are out strategic partners. We have deep economic and military cooperation with them,’ said Monirul.

‘How do we balance this dilemma?’ he asked, seeking an explanation on the issue from the prime minister’s international affairs adviser Gowher Rizvi.

*But, Mir Mushtaque Ahmed Robi, Awami League lawmaker for Sathkhira-2, intervened and said, ‘China was never with Bangladesh…India is always with Bangladesh and will remain with it’.*

Later, Gowher Rizvi said, ‘It is wrong in diplomacy to ask anyone whether you are with us or against us. 
That is the wrong way to go forward.’

He said, ‘We only saw the official communiqué that came out from Naypyidaw after the Indian prime minister Narandra Modi’s visit to Myanmar.’

‘We have been shared the transcripts of the discussion that took place in closed door [in first week of September immediately after trouble begun in northern Rakhine in Myanmar on August 25]. And prime minister Modi had talked for us.’

Over six lakh Rohingyas crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 25 after a military offensive in Northern Rakhine state of Myanmar. 

The prime minister’s adviser said, ‘Whatever you call Rohingyas refugee or displaced person or undocumented Myanmar nationals, the fact is that there are one million Rohingyas in Bangladesh.’ 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/27459/neighbours-role-criticised


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:16 PM, November 06, 2017
*How 'humanitarian technology' can help deal with Rohingya crisis*





Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine state, Myanmar on September 27, 2017. PHOTO: REUTERS
Md Saimum Reza Talukder
*Since August 25, 2017, the world has experienced one of the most brutal and fastest-growing humanitarian crises that led to the “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” involving the Rohingya community in Myanmar. *
Being a neighbouring country and respectful of their human rights, Bangladesh has since provided shelter to more than 600,000 Rohingyas who fled persecution by the Myanmar army and their local cohorts. Most of these refugees (although Bangladesh doesn't give them the refugee status, and instead considers them as displaced Myanmar citizens) are women and children.

We would not have realised the actual level of devastation on the ground had it not been for the satellite images and drone footage showing burnt villages and houses as frightened people, with whatever left of their belongings, crossed over into Bangladesh to save their lives. We also had audio-video clips and still pictures shared on social media by the victims, journalists and human rights activists. These digital technologies have revealed the gravity of the situation, mobilised popular opinion and played a crucial role to make the international community and governments listen and respond. 

The role of information and communications technology in bringing up real stories about the humanitarian crises unfolding in different parts of the world has been the subject of much discussion in recent times. These technologies, besides collecting evidence, are also being used to coordinate distribution of humanitarian aids in remote areas and conflict zones.

A new term coined to address this emergent field of technology—“humanitarian technology”—is now being used by the rights activists, aid workers, social and political activists, scientists and researchers, and applied to a broadly defined context of crises, including humanitarian disasters. They are using the technologies to collect, process and disseminate information from the conflict and crisis zones worldwide. 

According to an article published by the International Committee of the Red Cross, humanitarian technologies have fundamentally altered how humanitarian crises are detected and addressed, and how information is collected, analysed and disseminated. These developments are changing the possibilities for prevention, response and resource mobilisation for the humanitarian actors and the affected communities alike. They have been helping us to understand the gravity and impact of the situation on which short- and long-term policies for action are being made by the state and non-state actors. Also, these humanitarian technologies can help in evidence documentation during a crisis or conflict, which can later be used to find its root cause(s) or punish the offenders.

But using humanitarian technology can also compromise the objective of the humanitarian action and obscure issues of accountability towards the victims. Therefore, how technological innovation affects humanitarian action needs a critical enquiry. For example, Bangladesh government is collecting biometric data of the Rohingya refugees although it does not have any data protection law. It has purchased software from Tiger IT (_The Daily Star_, September 11), a private company, and we do not know under which policy this software company will ensure the protection of the personal data of the Rohingyas. 

There is also the risk that the data might somehow be leaked to an adversary group (through hacking, for example) which will put the Rohingyas in danger during future repatriation. Moreover, international organisations like the UNHCR are also collecting baseline data of the Rohingyas through a data-gathering smartphone app. If there is no coordination among Bangladesh government and international humanitarian organisations on this matter, any difference between the databases might create an opportunity for the Myanmar authorities to discredit and delay the repatriation process.

Meanwhile, the Rohingyas are contacting their relatives inside Myanmar through WhatsApp, Viber and other social media services (Dhaka Tribune, October 26). As the mainstream media has largely failed to provide real-time information, victims are finding alternative ways (new media) to communicate inside Myanmar. For example, Rohingya refugees are reportedly receiving various video clips, text messages and still pictures of atrocities through dozens of WhatsApp groups to fill the information gap. But often the source of information is untraceable, and some of them are found to be fake news. This also raises the possibility of politically motivated disinformation which might be spread by adversary parties like ARSA and the Myanmar military junta. It also raises security concerns for the governments of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.

But there is also the concern that over-securitisation might curtail the freedom of expression and the right to information of the Rohingyas as well. Any restriction on using humanitarian technologies might hamper the re-unification and repatriation initiatives for the Rohingyas in the long run. For example, without the humanitarian technology, Kamal and his younger brother Nazir would not have been able to reunite lost Rohingya refugees with their family members through “lost and found” booth in Kutupalong Refugee Camp (Al Jazeera, September 27; Dhaka Tribune, October 17).

It's important that the human rights of Rohingyas, despite being a stateless community, are respected and protected by all the government and non-government actors. I think there should not be any limit on the use of humanitarian technologies. Rather, the victims, governments and humanitarian aid agencies should be allowed to use them as per the “Responsible Data Principle,” according to which the collection, storage, and use of data should be carefully planned; and data should be collected for a specific purpose and deleted once that purpose has been fulfilled. 

Any surveillance on the Rohingyas or restriction against the spread of fake news and politically motivated propaganda should be strictly targeted and duly authorised by a judicial authority. Also, there should be greater coordination on the use of humanitarian technologies, supported by a multi-stakeholder right-based approach which will include the victims, local people, government and non-government organisations involved in the process.
Md Saimum Reza Talukder is an advocate in District Court, Dhaka.
Email: piash2003@gmail.com
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...hnology-can-help-deal-rohingya-crisis-1486732

12:00 AM, November 06, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:13 PM, November 06, 2017
*Solution, not punishment*
*Says US on its objective regarding Myanmar and Rohingya issues*




A Rohingya refugee girl carries wood through the Kutupalong refugee camp at sunset in Cox's Bazar on Saturday. Photo: Reuters
Diplomatic Correspondent
*The United States right now is preferring diplomatic solutions to the Rohingya crisis instead of punishment to Myanmar though there is scope for sanctions if needed, a State Department official said in Dhaka yesterday. *

“We have a variety of sanctions available to us should we decide to use them. This will be a part of larger efforts of pressure,” said Thomas A Shannon, under secretary of state for political affairs.

“But right now, as I noted earlier, our purpose is to solve the problem, not to punish,” he said. 

Shannon noted that his country sees some “positive movements” including Myanmar authorities receiving members of international community in Rakhine State and holding talks with Bangladesh.

He made the comments just days after US lawmakers proposed re-imposing targeted sanctions and travel restrictions on Myanmar military officials over the treatment of Rohingyas.

Shannon was speaking at a joint press briefing, flanked by his Bangladesh counterpart Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque, at the state guesthouse Padma yesterday.

Before this, they co-led the sixth US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue, the premier forum between the two countries for further expanding and deepening cooperation on bilateral and regional issues.

During the meeting, Shannon thanked the government of Bangladesh for its generosity in responding to the refugees fleeing Myanmar, and expressed appreciation for its continued efforts to ensure assistance reaches the affected population.

“He noted that we call on Bangladeshi and Burmese officials to continue developing a framework for the safe and voluntary return of Rohingya communities to Burma and that we urge rapid and complete implementation of the Annan Commission's recommendations,” reads a media note issued by the Office of the Spokesperson, US State Department, in Washington. 
*'CAPTURE THAT PROGRESS'*
Shannon, who arrived in Dhaka yesterday morning, also called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and had a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali. He is due to leave for Colombo this morning.

The US diplomat said as dialogue is taking place between Myanmar and Bangladesh in regard to Rohingya crisis, Washington wanted to “capture that progress” and drive it towards a resolution without having to resort to other means.

He said they intend to work with the government of Bangladesh, international institutions and organisations like the UN to address the humanitarian crisis.

“Our focus is to solve the problem and we are going to pursue a diplomatic solution to this problem,” Shannon said, adding “The focus is also to address humanitarian needs to those who fled to Bangladesh.”

The Bangladesh foreign secretary appreciated the US for its role on the Rohingya issue as he found the US position “the strongest” on this.

“They are supplying humanitarian assistance and so far has taken 31 concrete measures in terms of making solutions,” he said in his opening remarks.

Asked about the impacts of those measures, Shannon said because of those measures, their diplomats and international community have been allowed in Myanmar to discuss the issue. They were also allowed to visit Rakhine State, he said.

In his opening remarks, the US official said his country counts Bangladesh as a “close and reliable” partner in its endeavours towards free trade, sustainable development, the rule of law and universal values of democracy and human rights.

He added that they “devoted special attention” to trade and prosperity agenda, security in the Indian Ocean region, combating transnational terrorist groups, North Korea's “dangerous and provocative” conduct and the Rohingya crisis.

He said this dialogue demonstrates that Washington and Dhaka collaborate on many important issues and share a long history of cooperation and a vision for a tolerant, democratic Bangladesh that serves as a bridge for commerce between South and Southeast Asia.

"Bangladesh is an anchor for stability and prosperity in the region, and we appreciate the government's commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”

Asked whether they discussed sending back of a convicted killer of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, staying in the US on political asylum, Shannon said, “I can assure you that in every meeting we have with Bangladeshi diplomats, the case is raised, and the foreign Secretary raised it and as did Bangladesh's ambassador in Washington.”
*PARTNERSHIP DIALOGUE*
Earlier, in the plenary session, both sides discussed important issues of bilateral, regional and global interest and concern.

The safe, sustainable and dignified return of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals was discussed with utmost importance. Bangladesh side deeply appreciated Washington's strong political and humanitarian support on the Rohingya issue.

“Bangladesh underlined the fact that despite the claim from the Myanmar side that the violence has stopped, people from Myanmar are still crossing the border and coming to Bangladesh in hundreds and thousands every day narrating stories of atrocities that are contributing to the continued influx of Rohingyas from the Rakhine State in Myanmar to Bangladesh,” according to a press release of the foreign ministry.

Bangladesh also elaborated on the initiatives undertaken by the government in temporarily sheltering the huge number of refugees, and providing emergency humanitarian assistance to them.

The US side also assured Bangladesh side of their continued political support and actions including financial assistance to address this man-made humanitarian catastrophe of nearly unmanageable magnitude.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...efugee-crisis-solution-not-punishment-1486831


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Time to cut trade ties with Myanmar*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 09:18 PM November 04, 2017




*How can we answer to our conscience knowing full-well what the Myanmar military is doing to the innocent Rohingya minority -- not even sparing children or pregnant women?*
Despite the on-going humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in their home state, Bangladesh continues to trade with the country responsible for it.

Myanmar’s ruthless persecution of the Rohingya has burdened an already overpopulated Bangladesh with around one million hungry and severely distressed refugees.

The government, while doing its best, is struggling to host and feed them, while also figuring out the plan for eventual repatriation with officials in Myanmar who are bent on making the process as difficult as possible.

The Myanmar military’s crimes against humanity have prompted international outrage and even some punitive action, such as the World Bank halting a $200 million development loan to the country.

And yet, sadly, Bangladesh continues to approve deals to import rice and fuel oil from our hostile neighbour.

It is understandable that Bangladesh needs to stock up on food, but do we really need Myanmar as a trading partner?

It should be a matter of principle that a nation should not trade with another that is directly involved in ethnic cleansing, and, further, a matter of dignity, because Myanmar has been trying to sully our name with false accusations.

How can we answer to our conscience knowing full-well what the Myanmar military is doing to the innocent Rohingya minority — not even sparing children or pregnant women?

To send the right message to Myanmar, we need a clear and decisive policy regarding our trade dealings with the country — this means putting a stop to all trade unless and until Myanmar ends its human rights abuses.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/11/04/time-cut-trade-ties-myanmar/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Aung San Suu Kyi to be stripped of honourary presidency by UK university
Burma's de facto leader accused of 'inaction in the face of genocide' *
@shehabkhan
The Independent Online




Aung San Suu Kyi speaks during an official dinner function at the Istana in Singapore Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty
The Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be stripped of her honorary presidency at a UK university's student union over her country's treatment of Rohingya minority Muslims.

Once seen as a symbol of freedom and non-violent resistance, Burma’s de facto president Ms Suu Kyi was recognised by students at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1991.

But amid accusations of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Burmese army in the north-western Rakhine state, the LSE student union is now expected to pass a vote removing her from the role.

More than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to Bangladesh amid increasing violence. Although the country's military leaders retain control of internal security, Ms Suu Kyi was accused of “inaction in the face of genocide”.
*READ MORE*

Aung San Suu Kyi visits Burma's border to observe Rohingya plight
Rohingya crisis drone footage shows thousands of Muslims fleeing Burma
Burma 'killed hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children'
Burma: '228 Rohingya Muslim villages destroyed in just one month'
A motion has now been tabled by the LSE student union and senior members of the leadership, including general secretary Mahatir Pasha, are confident it will pass.

“I have asked all LSE students to support a motion I will be taking to UGM on 9 November, asking to strip Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary presidency away from our union.
*This will act as a strong symbol of our opposition to her current position and inaction in the face of genocide,” Mr Pasha told The Independent. *

Students at LSE "have often been at the forefront of fighting for social justice", Mr Pasha said. “Suu Kyi’s silence in the face of this genocide has come at too much a cost – her complicity in the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people. It is time for the world to take action in support of the Rohingya people and against Aung San Suu Kyi,” he added.

Quratulain Ahsan, president of LSE's Human Rights Society, said it was important to show solidarity with those who have been forced to leave their homes in Burma.

“The crisis of the Rohingya today mirrors several historical incidents of ethnic cleansing, but the idea that such violations of the basic human rights of a particular ethnicity can take place in a progressive 21st century, is both appalling and shaking,” Mr Ahsan told _The Independent. _

And Kamilia Rozlan, treasurer of the union's Student Action for Refugees group, said the student body would not stay silent in the face of "blatant persecution".

"The Rohingya people deserve a voice, and if Suu Kyi won’t lend hers, we will," Ms Rozlan said.All students of the LSE have been invited to attend the debate and subsequent vote at the university next Thursday.

If the motion passes, LSE will join the cities of Oxford and Glasgow, both of whom have also stripped Ms Suu Kyi of honorary awards in recent weeks.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...residency-myanmar-lose-stripped-a8036171.html

12:00 AM, November 05, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:15 PM, November 05, 2017
*Responsibility lies with Myanmar
Visiting US official says on Rohingya return*




Photographers help a Rohingya refugee to come out of Naf River as they cross the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Palongkhali, in Cox's Bazar on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
Star Report
*The US wants Myanmar to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas in their own villages following their exodus from violence-wracked Rakhine State towards Bangladesh, a senior State Department official said in Dhaka yesterday.*
Simon Henshaw, acting US assistant secretary of state who visited refugee camps in southeast Bangladesh, said Myanmar should also punish those who committed atrocities in Rakhine.

"Responsibility for repatriation of Rohingya people lies with the government of Myanmar ... safe and secure repatriation is the best possible way to resolve the crisis," the US official said at a press conference in the city.

"Part of bringing people back to Rakhine State requires these people be allowed to return to their land .... And for those whose villages are burnt, quick efforts need to be made to restore their homes and their villages," he added.




Simon Henshaw
Asked about Myanmar's dillydallying in repatriation, he said no matter how frustrating the talk is for either side, it has to go on and the US will do whatever it can to keep it continuing.

Henshaw's visit comes as the US lawmakers have proposed sanctions against Myanmar's military in some of the strongest efforts yet by Washington to pressure the Southeast Asian nation to end abusive treatment of the Rohingya minority.


House Republicans and Democrats introduced legislation that would curtail assistance or cooperation with Myanmar's military and require the White House to identify senior military officials who would have US visa bans imposed or reimposed against them.

A bipartisan group in the Senate, including Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain, introduced their bill Thursday.

It calls for renewal of import and trade restrictions on Myanmar, including re-imposing a ban on jade and rubies from the country.

"Our legislation would hold accountable the senior military officials responsible for the slaughter and displacement of innocent men, women and children in Burma, and make clear that the United States will not stand for these atrocities," McCain said in a statement.

House Democrat Eliot Engel said lawmakers wanted to send a "clear message" with the targeted sanctions, both to the military and the civilian leadership, about the violence that has left hundreds of people dead.

"This violence must stop, perpetrators must be held accountable, and there must be meaningful civilian control over Burma's military and security forces," Engel said.

Lawmakers also want Myanmar's military to ensure safe return of refugees displaced from Rakhine.

"There will be consequences for their crimes against humanity," said Senator Ben Cardin, a Democratic sponsor of the bill.

But efforts to bring sanctions and accountability through the Senate ultimately rest on the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, a longtime supporter of Suu Kyi.

McConnell has thus far sided with those wary of anything that could undermine her position, destabilise the country and diminish the newly installed democratic government.

Henshaw, acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said his country will constantly evaluate the situation to issue sanctions against Myanmar.

"We will constantly evaluate the situation to make those decisions. The congress has given us a number of tools, which we can use."

The US official led a seven-member delegation to Myanmar from October 29 and then came to Bangladesh to visit the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar and discuss the issue with officials of Bangladesh and international organisations.

Stating that there are disturbing reports of atrocities in Myanmar, he said the US calls on full investigation of those reports of violence that sent Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh in last two months.

"We also call on Myanmar government to allow access to press and international organisations so they too can see the situation on the ground," he told the press at the American Club.

“Over 600,000 people moved to Bangladesh not just because they wanted to move. Something serious definitely took place in Rakhine State. And we have made clear our views on this," he said describing his talks with Myanmar officials.

The US delegation told Myanmar government that it is their responsibility to restore security and stability in Rakhine for a voluntary and safe repatriation of the Rohingyas.

"It is their responsibility to investigate the reports of atrocities and bring those who committed crimes to accountability," said Henshaw.

Finally, he added, reconciliation between groups in Rakhine -- political reconciliation must be there for return of the refugees.

"We believe the best solution is the return of Rohingya people to their land. It is assuring that the government of Myanmar is taking steps to discuss in turn with your government.”

Henshaw also noted that the Rohingya issue is very "complex".

"There are some political issues inside Burma [Myanmar]. It involves the fact that the country is going through military-civil democracy process. So, all these are very difficult and complex issues."

In another development, the EU Commission's humanitarian aid chief has acknowledged the plight of the oppressed Rohingya as likely constituting “ethnic cleansing”.

Speaking to Euronews late Friday, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Christos Stylianides said he was “shocked by the magnitude of needs” of the Rohingya he saw on a two-day visit to Bangladesh last week.

“We have to persuade the Myanmar government that it's just human rights, fundamental rights for any person, for any human being. I agree with UN Secretary-General Guterres that maybe the only description for this situation is ethnic cleansing.”
*SHOCKING, APPALLING*
Talking about his visit to refugee camps, Henshaw said the situation is shocking and appalling and it is hard not to cry hearing the stories of sexual abuses, murders and other atrocities.

"Six hundred thousand people moving in a two month-period is something that I haven't seen in my four and a half years of time in this job," he said, but appreciated Bangladesh's efforts in sheltering and helping them.

Spokesperson of the US State Department Heather Nauert and US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat were present at the press conference.

Nauert said Rohingya crisis has the top attention of the officials in Washington -- "not just at the State Department but at the White House."

She said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would visit Myanmar on November 15 and discuss the issue.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/repatriation-rohingya-myanmars-responsibility-1486411

03:09 PM, November 04, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:41 PM, November 04, 2017
*Scottish council withdraws offer to award Suu Kyi*




Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi smiles as she walks from a military helicopter after arriving at Sittwe airport on November 2, 2017, following a visit to Maungdaw in Myanmar's Rakhine State. Photo: KHINE HTOO MRATT / AFP
Star Online Report
*In the wake of the Rohingya crisis, the Glasgow City Council on Friday withdrew their offer to award Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.*
The council had offered Suu Kyi the Freedom of Glasgow in 2009, when she was still under house arrest as Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, reports BBC.

"I and the Leader, Councillor Susan Aitken, recently wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi voicing the city's concerns about the human rights atrocities occurring under her watch and urging her to intervene. The response we received was disappointing and saddening," Indian news portal The Times of India quoted Glasgow's Lord Provost Eva Bolander as saying.

The Scottish council said that withdrawing such an honour was "unprecedented" and its decision had not been taken lightly.

According to an estimate, more than 623,000 refugees have crossed over into neighbouring Bangladesh and taken shelter in crowded settlements in Cox's Bazar since August 25, fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State.

Suu Kyi visited the Rakhine province of Myanmar this week for the first time since violence erupted in the state in late August and was criticised for failing to address the issue of refugees who have fled across the border.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...award-myanmar-leader-aung-san-suu-kyi-1486240

*THE ROHINGYA TRAGEDY*
*Burma Shows Us What a ‘Muslim Ban’ Really Looks Like: Apartheid*
*‘Muslims are not allowed to settle here or stay overnight,’ reads a sign. ‘No one here is allowed to marry a Muslim. Anyone breaking the rules will be labeled a traitor.’*
JOSHUA CARROLL
SAM AUNG MOON
*10.18.17 5:00 AM ET*
RANGOON, Burma—When Khin Win Myint and her son were stopped by police at a checkpoint in Burma’s southeastern Kayin state last month, she tried to hide the fact she was a Muslim.

But the officer was suspicious. He searched the car and called in backup before holding the pair and their driver at the checkpoint near the Thai border for two hours. Eventually, she told the truth. Then things got worse.

“I was so scared,” she told The Daily Beast. “The police were saying to the driver: ‘Why did you bring these Bengalis? Their religion is all about killing. The Islamists, they are rapists. Why did you bring them? Why do you support them?’”

This happened more than 500 miles from western Rakhine state where Burma’s army is ethnically cleansing Rohingya Muslims in response to what it calls terror attacks. More than half a million Rohingya have fled across the border to Bangladesh since late August.

The Rohingya are commonly referred to inside the country as Bengalis, a name that reinforces the false belief they are foreign interlopers. The army says its actions are a response to attacks against police outposts on Aug. 25 by a small, ragtag militia called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. But the UN says its clearance operations began before those attacks.

“‘If Muslims want to travel between townships, they need recommendations from village administrators.’”
Khin Win Myint is not a Rohingya, but amid an outpouring of hatred against the group, fear and suspicion against all Muslims has spiked in her home state. Some believe that Muslims have traveled from Rakhine and infiltrated Kayin, also known as Karen, state.



*How Burma Built Concentration Camps and Got Away With It*
The week after Khin Win Myint was detained, local authorities said Muslims would need special documents to travel.

“If Muslims want to travel between townships, they need recommendations from village administrators,” an announcement read.

“There has been some conflict within the last two months in Rakhine state, so we have been doing security checks,” said Tayza Tun Hlaing, a spokesperson for the Karen state government.

The military’s clearance operations in Rakhine have received popular support inside Buddhist-majority Burma despite condemnation from abroad. That has emboldened Buddhist extremists around the country to push forward with local, apartheid-style policies against Muslims.

These include setting up committees to punish Buddhists for trading with Muslims, banning members of the religion from entire villages and, in Karen state, limiting freedom of movement.

The Karen government said the new restrictions were decided on after nine Muslims without national ID cards were detained near the Thai border.
*Karen state’s chief minister has since denied any involvement in issuing the notice, blaming it on an administrative error, but Muslims say the restrictions are still in place.

While Burma’s Muslims have faced persecution for decades, inter-communal violence in 2012 set off a grassroots campaign, often supported by local authorities, to impose outright segregation.

“‘These villages have become symbolic bastions of Buddhist purity.’”
“Muslims are not allowed to settle here or stay overnight,” reads a sign at the entrance to Payar Gyigone village in the southern Irrawaddy delta region. “No one here is allowed to marry a Muslim… anyone caught breaching the rules will be labeled a traitor and punished.”

At least 21 villages have erected signboards like this across the country, though the actual number is likely higher, according to the Burma Human Rights Network, a group focusing on the plight of Burma’s Muslims.

“These villages have become symbolic bastions of Buddhist purity,” the group said in a recent report.

Buddhist nationalists will use the spike in hatred against the Rohingya since the Aug. 25 attacks to encourage more villages to erect these signs, said Kyaw Win, the group’s executive director.

“When there is a problem involving the Rohingya, they capitalize on that fear,” he told The Daily Beast.

Non-Muslims seen as too sympathetic toward Muslims are also a target. One woman in Myebon, an area in southern Rakhine state that has not been hit by the recent violence, learned this the hard way.

Soe Chay, 35, went to the market last month to buy rice and other goods to sell on to local Muslims, who have been confined to camps with restricted access to food since the violence in 2012.

After making her purchases, she said, “I got chased by some people on motorbikes.” The thugs asked: “Who are you going to give these things to?” before beating her and cutting her hair.

Then they tied a sign around her neck reading “I’m a national traitor” and marched her through the town while forcing her to shout the same phrase.

“I can’t even eat rice today because I am in so much pain,” she told the Democratic Voice of Burma, a local news outlet, shortly after the attack.

After Khin Win Myint was stopped in Karen state, police took her to a nearby police station where, she said, officers beat her son, who is in his early twenties. They were released the next day and sent back to their hometown of Hpa An, the state capital.

Tayza Tun Hlaing, the government spokesperson, said that local media had “exaggerated” their reports about the restrictions, which were needed because most Muslims do not have national ID cards. “We understand the problems of the Muslims and want them to feel comfortable.”

But longstanding government-led discrimination is precisely the reason many Muslims lack these ID cards. Rights campaigners have reported cases of Muslims being flat-out denied the cards, or told they could only have them if they provided evidence of their lineage dating back centuries.

Muslims in Hpa An who have ID cards told The Daily Beast they had had no trouble traveling since the order, but religious leaders say more than two thirds of the state’s Muslims don’t have cards.

“They feel discriminated against,” said Saw Than Htut, a Member of Parliament for Hpa An with the ruling NLD party and also a Buddhist. He only found out about the new travel restrictions, he said, when a Muslim friend confronted him brandishing a copy of the announcement and asked, “What’s this?”

Did the MP, who appeared more tolerant than many, think travel restrictions against Muslims in the name of security were fair? “I think it’s better if I don’t answer that,” he said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/burma...ks-like-apartheid?source=facebook&via=desktop*

*There's only one conclusion on the Rohingya in Myanmar: It's genocide*




_By _Azeem Ibrahim
CNN
October 23, 2017
*The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar is now widely described as ethnic cleansing. But the situation has been evolving. And now, it seems, we can no longer avoid the conclusion we have all been dreading. This is a genocide. And we, in the international community, must recognize it as such.*

Article II of United Nation's 1948 Genocide Convention describes genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Though the Rohingya situation has met most of the above criteria for being described as a genocide under international law for a number of years now, the label has been resisted until now because we think of genocide as one huge act of frenzied violence, like the machete insanity in Rwanda or the gas chambers of Nazi Germany. 

But the final peak of violence is in all historical cases merely the visible tip of the iceberg. And the final outburst only occurs once it has already been rendered unavoidable by the political context.
In Rwanda, Hutu tribal propaganda ran for years on the radio and in magazines referring to the Tutsis as cockroaches and a mortal threat to the Hutus that needed to be eliminated lest the Hutus themselves would die. Kill or be killed. 

The frenzied killing was not something that just occurred to the Hutus one day in April 1994. It was the logical conclusion of a campaign of dehumanization and paranoia which lasted for years.

The same is true of the Holocaust. The Nazi genocide began slowly and had few distinctive outbursts of violence to delineate where one degree of crime against humanity ended and where another began.
All in all, that genocide developed and unfolded over a period of more than 10 years. Most of that period was not taken up with the killing of Jews, Gypsies and all the other "sub-humans." Rather, it was taken up with manufacturing of the category of "sub-humans" by state propaganda. Only once the problem was manufactured and sold to the wider population did the "final solution" become viable.
*Pattern of genocide*
In Myanmar, extremist Buddhist monks have been preaching that the Rohingya are reincarnated from snakes and insects. Killing them would not be a crime against humanity, they say -- it would be more like pest control. 

And necessary "pest control" too. Just like the Tutsi conspiracy to kill all the Hutus, or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Rohingya are supposed to be agents of a global Islamist conspiracy to take over the world and forcibly instate a global caliphate. The duty of any good Buddhist who wants to maintain the national and religious character of Myanmar is to prevent the Islamist takeover, and thus to help remove the threat posed by the "vermin."

Every modern genocide has followed this pattern. Years of concerted dehumanization campaigns are the absolutely necessary pre-condition for the mass murder at the end. Usually these campaigns are led by a repressive government, but other political forces also come into play. Such was the case in Bosnia, Darfur and Rwanda. And so it is with Myanmar. 

The campaign of dehumanization against the Rohingya has been going on for decades, and events certainly took an unmistakeable turn towards genocide since at least the outbursts of communal violence in 2012. Those clashes, and the ones in the subsequent years, drove 200,000 to 300,000 Rohingya out of Myanmar. 

But somehow, at that rate of attrition, and against the backdrop of Myanmar's supposed move towards democracy with the election of Aung San Suu Kyi to power in late 2015, world leaders have allowed themselves to hope that the situation could still be turned around.

Now, the reality of an exodus of a further 600,000 people in the space of just six weeks; the incontrovertible evidence of large scale burning of villages by the Myanmar military -- which the military is calling clearance operations of terrorists -- and the reports of widespread extra-judicial killings against fleeing civilians by the country's federal security forces have made it much more difficult to avoid the conclusion: this is genocide. We no longer have just the slow-burning genocidal environment which whittles down a people until their ultimate extinction.

Now we are also confronting the loud bang at the end. More than half of an entire population has been removed from their ancestral lands in just eight weeks!

The tragedy is that the international community will abet the situation. The UN Security Council will decline to respond to the situation with the seriousness it deserves. If a situation is defined by the Council as a "genocide," then the UN becomes legally bound to intervene, with peace-keeping missions and so on. That is why Western countries will be reluctant initiate such a move, and China, who is building one branch of its New Silk Road infrastructure right through Rakhine State to access the port of Sittwe, will likely veto any such proposal.

Just like we did in Rwanda, just like we did in the Balkans, we are once again seeing a genocide happen before our very eyes. And we will do nothing about it. We will bury our heads in the sand, and when our children will ask us why we let this happen we will plead ignorance. Once the final act of killing starts, it is usually too late. For the Rohingya, the final act is in full swing. And still we are in denial about what is happening.
_Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Policy and author of "The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide" (Hurst & Oxford University Press)_
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/10/theres-only-one-conclusion-on-rohingya.html


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## Banglar Bir

*UN council weakens response to Myanmar after China objects*




Rohingya refugees near the Naf River, which separates Myanmar and Bangladesh. Villages in Myanmar burned in the background. (Photo: Adam Dean for The New York Times)
_By_ AFP
November 6, 2017
*United Nations -- The UN Security Council today dropped plans to adopt a resolution demanding an end to the violence in Myanmar in the face of strong opposition from China and instead opted for a statement, diplomats said.*

The statement calls for an end to the violence, full access for humanitarian aid workers to Myanmar's Rakhine state and for the return of hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh.
*
It does not threaten sanctions against Myanmar's military.*

Britain and France circulated a draft resolution last month, but diplomats said veto power China, a supporter of Myanmar's former ruling junta, had argued that a resolution was not the appropriate response to the crisis.

*Following negotiations, China agreed to the formal statement to be adopted later today, which includes almost all of the demands of the proposed resolution but does not carry the same weight.
"The important thing is the content," British Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen told reporters. "Gaining a very strong, unanimous statement I think was the real prize here."*

Since late August, more than 600,000 Rohingya have been driven from their homes by an army campaign in Rakhine state that the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar authorities say the military operation is aimed at rooting out Rohingya militants who staged attacks on police posts.

The council statement was agreed as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is to travel to Manila this week to join leaders of the Southeast Asian (ASEAN) bloc for a summit.

The Rohingya refugee crisis is expected to be a top issue of discussion at the summit, to be attended by US President Donald Trump, who will dispatch US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Myanmar later this month.

The Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and have been denied citizenship since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.

More than two months after the crisis erupted, rights groups have accused the Security Council of dragging its feet and are calling for tougher measures, such as an arms embargo and targeted sanctions against those responsible for the attacks against the Rohingya.

On Friday, Human Rights Watch urged the council to ask the International Criminal Court to open war crimes investigations in Myanmar, describing the torching of villages, killing, rape and looting as crimes against humanity.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/un-council-weakens-response-to-myanmar.html


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## Banglar Bir

*U.N. Security Council urges Myanmar to stop excessive military force*
Michelle Nichols
*UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council urged the Myanmar government on Monday to “ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state,” where violence has forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the Buddhist-majority Asian country.*
A Rohingya refugee walks uphill carrying a vessel filled with water at Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
*
The United Nations has denounced the violence during the past 10 weeks as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. *
The Myanmar government has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing.

*To appease council veto powers Russia and China, Britain and France dropped a push for the Security Council to adopt a resolution on the situation and the 15-member body instead unanimously agreed on a formal statement.*

The council expressed “grave concern over reports of human rights violations and abuses in Rakhine State, including by the Myanmar security forces, in particular against persons belonging to the Rohingya community.”

“The Security Council calls upon the Government of Myanmar to ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine State, to restore civilian administration and apply the rule of law, and to take immediate steps in accordance with their obligations and commitments to respect human rights,” it said.

Myanmar has been stung by international criticism for the way its security forces responded to attacks by Rohingya militants on 30 security posts. More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25.

A Rohingya refugee carrying a child walks along the Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

“The Security Council stresses the primary responsibility of the Government of Myanmar to protect its population including through respect for the rule of law and the respect, promotion and protection of human rights,” the statement said.

It stressed the importance of transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and “in this regard, the Security Council calls upon the Government of Myanmar to cooperate with all relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and instruments.”
Slideshow (12 Images)

Myanmar has refused entry to a U.N. panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.
*
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for rights abuses and says Myanmar will accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar.*

The Security Council said it was alarmed by the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Rakhine state and warned that the increasing number of refugees “has a destabilizing impact in the region.”

The council demanded that the Myanmar government allow immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian aid and media access. It asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report back in 30 days on the situation.
Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...o-stop-excessive-military-force-idUSKBN1D62MK

*Slaughter of the innocents: Searing eye-witness accounts from the genocide taking place under the nose of feted Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi*





Rohingya refugee receive bananas from a Bangladeshi volunteer after crossing from Myanmar into Bangladesh. More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in Myanmar in August triggered an exodus
_By_ Peter Oborne
Mail Online
*November 6, 2017*

*Peter Osborne visited the Bangladesh/Myanmar border to witness the tragedy*
*Over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled for their lives over past 10 weeks*
*He says 'nothing he has ever seen compares to systematic killing' under Suu Kyi*
*Genocide is a word which should be always be used with care. Random atrocities, however horrible, certainly do not constitute genocide.
Genocide is carefully planned.*

According to the United Nations, genocide comprises 'acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group'.

That is why the savage and deliberate massacre of more than one million Cambodians by the dictator Pol Pot in the Seventies was genocide. 

The methodical killing of 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 was genocide. 

So was the horrific slaughter of several thousands of Yazidis in Iraq by Islamic State three years ago.
And, of course, the term applies to the Holocaust, when the Nazis eliminated six million Jews during World War II. 

Today, on the bloodstained border between Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and Bangladesh, the world is witnessing genocide again.

Shamefully, it is being presided over by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Oxford-educated leader of Myanmar who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 in recognition of her lifelong battle for freedom. Even more disturbing, world leaders are doing nothing to stop it.

Myanmar is a former British colony which got independence in 1948 and is the world's 40th largest nation, sharing borders with India, China, Bangladesh, Thailand and Laos.

In 1962, the country fell under the control of a brutal military dictatorship. It was toppled thanks to the huge courage of Suu Kyi, who led Myanmar to free elections two years ago.
During the past few days, I have spoken to numerous survivors of the savage — and brutally calculated — onslaught unleashed by Myanmar's largely Buddhist army on its minority Muslim population.

More than 600,000 Muslims from the country's Rohingya ethnic minority have fled for their lives across the border to Bangladesh in the past ten weeks.

Every day, thousands more arrive and each has a heartrending story to tell. These traumatised refugees describe how the Myanmar army burnt their homes. 

They recount stories of an orgy of killing and rape and of mass graves. In a hideous twist, they also relate how their military persecutors were egged on by Buddhist monks, betraying their principles of not harming any living thing by savagely trying to wipe out their religious rivals.
Though the oppression of the Rohingya has gone on for two decades, the latest outburst of mass killing was sparked on August 25, when a terrorist group claiming to represent the Rohingya struck at Myanmar security posts.





A Rohingya refugee child is pictured carrying another as they cross from Myanmar into Bangladesh
True, these attacks took place, but were easily repulsed. They certainly do not justify attacking hundreds of thousands of defenceless Rohingya villagers over recent weeks.

As a journalist, I've reported from Darfur, where thousands of men, women and children were slaughtered in Western Sudan in 2003 in the civil war as rebels accused the government of oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs. 

I've witnessed the reign of terror of death squads in Iraq and, in 2010, I visited a Nigerian village where bodies lay rotting in wells or buried in shallow graves — a result of the terrifying religious hatred between Christians and Muslims.
*
But none of these compared with the widespread or systematic killing that is happening in Myanmar.*




Shamefully, the genocide is being presided over by Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured), the Oxford-educated leader of Myanmar who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, writes Peter Oborne

It is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most heinous crimes of the 21st century.
Critics say that the evidence appears overwhelming, that the Myanmar government is intent on the annihilation of the minority population of Rohingya Muslims.

They say this is part of a policy of ethnic cleansing which has also meant that the minority has been denied citizenship and was mostly forced to live in ghetto-like camps.

When Suu Kyi came to power in 2015 — having spent years behind bars and under house arrest for her defiance of the military regime — her country's Rohingya population was estimated at just over one million.

Today, there are probably 300,000 left — the rest are dead or have fled across the border, a perilous journey over mountains and through forests. 

They are frequently forced to hide in ditches, water-tanks and paddy fields. If found, they are killed.
Survivors simply cannot understand why the world will not intervene and come to their rescue.
'Please help us,' one old man asked as the rain poured down on his temporary home. 'Please tell our story to the world.' 

On my arrival at the Balukhali refugee camp a few miles from the Myanmar border, I was braced for horrific accounts. Yet what I heard was infinitely worse.

Survivors spoke of an atrocity at Tula Toli, a Rohingya village in western Myanmar. 
Early in the morning on August 30, around 150 government soldiers and 100 Buddhist civilians appeared on foot in the north of the village.

Using rocket-launchers, the troops began setting houses on fire. Terrified villagers fled the flames. 




Rohingya refugees line up to receive humanitarian aid in the Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
As they ran, soldiers began shooting with what witnesses say were semi-automatic rifles.

Tula Toli lies between jungle and a gushing river. As villagers attempted to run for the jungle, a line of Buddhist civilians from non-Muslim villages holding long swords blocked their path. 

The only place to go was the riverbank. Soon, the entire village had gathered on a large sandbank on the river's edge. That was the signal for the real killing and savagery.

Abdullah, a village mullah, estimates fatalities at around 1,500 people, including his wife and five of his six children (one married daughter escaped unharmed as she was living in another village). 
He and around 15 other what he calls 'stronger people' swam the river and hid in a cemetery. From there, 40 yards away, they watched the horrific scene unfold.

Abdullah says he witnessed soldiers separate the Rohingya into three groups: men, young women (including girls as young as five) and old women or, as Abdullah chillingly described them 'those who are not so beautiful'.

Some villagers lay down to try to prevent themselves being forced into groups. It was no use.
The soldiers opened fire. 'All the young men were shot at once,' recalls Abdullah. 'It took less than ten minutes.'

When the firing was over, the soldiers walked over to the pile of bodies to check for survivors. If they saw signs of life, they hacked them to death with a machete.

After a five-minute pause, in which they did not reload, the soldiers opened fire on the old women.




Every day, thousands more Rohingya refugees arrive and each has a heartrending story to tell, writes Peter Oborne
*
'They put blankets on the piles of dead bodies, then they poured on petrol and just lit a fire on the piles of the bodies,' Abdullah recalls. 'And while there was a big flame, they throw the small children — while still alive — onto the fire*.'

Abdullah says he saw the commander of the military sitting silently observing his troops as they went about their butchery.

This suggested that the soldiers were acting under prior orders.
But what happened next, according to Abdullah, was even worse.

The soldiers took the defenceless young women — a total of about 100 — to the edge of the forest.
Then they dragged them in groups of five or six back to the village, forcing them into the houses not yet burnt.

Abdullah was too far away to spot his family, but he knew that his wife and daughters were in these groups.
There followed a period of three hours' silence.




Rohingya refugees wait at a temporary shelter after crossing the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh this week

Abdullah describes seeing the womenfolk put inside houses as a stream of soldiers went in and out. 
He could not see what was happening inside, but it takes no imagination to guess. *Rape. 
At the end of the three hours, Abdullah says the houses were set on fire, with the young women inside.
He could hear them screaming. 
Just seven were able to run to safety, although they had been badly beaten and burnt.*

Abdullah never saw his wife or daughters again.

The soldiers went down to the river and dug a large hole into which, with the help of non- Muslim villagers, they dumped the bodies. 

Only a few very young children were still alive. Witnesses say that some, too, were then burnt alive, others thrown into the river.

At 4.30pm, Abdullah set off on the three-day walk across the border to Bangladesh where, ten days later, he met up with his married daughter.

I was unable to establish the truth of Abdullah's account by travelling to Tula Toli myself. 





Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, Bangladesh 
This is because the Myanmar army won't allow foreign observers into areas where, euphemistically, they say 'clearances' are taking place.

However, other survivors, as well as independent international observers, have confirmed the basic facts of his terrible story.

Abdullah's testimony fits the wider pattern of atrocities which have taken place in Rohingya areas in the past ten weeks.
*
Other refugees told me how tens or hundreds have been killed in their villages during the state-sponsored terror.*

Mohammed, a betel leaf seller, says soldiers attacked his village of Dar Gyi Zar and he witnessed 'more than 100 dead bodies'.

From his hiding place in the forest, he then saw soldiers gather up corpses and burn them. They then put the remains in bags and threw them into the river.

Again and again, I heard the same stories about the epidemic of killing and rape of the Rohingya.
The truth is something dark and terrible is taking place in Myanmar — and, disgracefully, world leaders are turning a blind eye.

Matthew Smith, of the human rights group Fortify Rights, which has warned of an impending genocide for years, told me: 'The death-toll is horrific. It is much larger than anybody has estimated.'
He pointed out the Myanmar government had not allowed in outsiders to make a record of casualties: 'There's normally a reason for that. That's not a good sign.' 

Chillingly, Mr Smith says: 'We may not have seen the worst of it. There is a distinct possibility we shall see more mass killing in the coming weeks.'

That is why the world must respond now. Britain — which ruled the country for more than 120 years from 1824 — has urged the UN Security Council to discuss reports of mass civilian deaths. Otherwise, London's response has been utterly pathetic.

The Left-wing British Establishment which has lionised Aung San Suu Kyi for years is also complicit with her silence. 

However, her supporters point out — correctly — that the army is largely outside her control, and the true responsibility lies with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of Burma's armed forces.

Yet Suu Kyi must shoulder huge blame and is guilty of falsely claiming the 'clearances' ceased on September 5. She has also asserted that the brutal military response has been justified by attacks on Myanmar security command posts by Rohingya terrorists in August.
*One reason for the feeble international response may be a fear of offending China, Myanmar's regional protector.*

At the very least, targeted sanctions must be placed on the military chiefs. The UN must as an imperative send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar to establish the truth of what is happening.
Above all, Aung San Suu Kyi must be persuaded to speak out against the killings — and if she refuses, she should be stripped of her Nobel Peace Prize.

There is still enough time to stop Myanmar's remaining 300,000 Rohingya from meeting the same fate as the doomed villagers of Tula Toli.
Victims' names have been changed to protect identities.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/slaughter-of-innocents-searing-eye.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Perils in Naf River*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 02:27 PM November 07, 2017
Last updated at 02:36 PM November 07, 2017




A boat carrying Rohingya refugees is seen leaving Myanmar through Naf river while thousands other waiting in Maungdaw, Myanmar |*Reuters*
*Rohingyas cross the perilous waters using nothing but jerry cans*
“As the tide was in favour on Saturday afternoon, we set out to cross the river in hopes of reaching the bank of the river. We kept on swimming for days despite the high tide, and not having eaten for days,” said Kamal Hossain, a Rohingya refugee hailing from Godampara village in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar.

With nothing but a small five litre yellow jerry can to stay afloat, Kamal swam his way across the Naf River. The harsh conditions of the river could not stop his determination to make it. Eventually, the same evening he reached Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf, despite all odds.




_Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on November 1, 2017* | Reuters*_
Five other young men, aged 17 to 20, made it to the island with him. They were Aman Ullah, Belal Uddin, Rabiul Hasan, Md Sadek and Abdul Karim.

Abdul said: “We left our village over a month ago and stayed on Daungkhali Char for the past 11 days. There were some international NGOs there who provided relief – food and essential supplies. However, recently the supplies have stopped and hunger has made life difficult.”

They explained that before making their journey, their Rohingya elders had asked them to let the women and children cross the river first and to wait their turn. But due to dire circumstances and lack of food, they decided to risk it all with only faith in their hearts.




_Rohingya refugees continue their journey after crossing the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Palong Khali, Bangladesh, November 1, 2017_ | *Reuters*
At least 14,000 Rohingyas from Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships are currently waiting at Daungkhali Char for the past two weeks.

Sadek said: “We had the chance to speak to those who had made it before us over the phone and that is how we got the idea to use jerry cans to cross the river.”

Lt Col Khalid Hasan, ad-hoc regional director of operation of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), said: “These young men have fought fierce conditions. Once our soldiers saw them at the river banks, they began rescue operations. They are all right now and are being given food and medicine. Once they are rested and able, they will be sent to the refugee camps.”




_Rohingya refugees walk after crossing the Naf River at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on November 1, 2017_ | *Reuters*
On November 3, a total of 19 Rohingya children crossed the Naf River from Daungkhali Char to Shah Porir Dwip in broad daylight. On November 2, four more youngsters managed to make their way to the island.

With this Saturday’s rescue, a total of 51 young people have made their way to Bangladesh from Myanmar and they all came using jerry cans.

So far, approximately 200 people have been killed by the attempt to cross Naf River from Myanmar.

According to the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, about 621,000 Rohingyas have so far entered Bangladesh since August 25.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/11/07/perils-naf-river/


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## Banglar Bir

*It’s time to get tough with Myanmar*
*Professor Dilara Choudhury*
*Presently, Bangladesh is confronted with numerous security threats due to the presence of as many as 900,000 (nine lac) Rohingya refugees, an ethno-religious minority of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, who fled into Bangladesh from the atrocities of its Army beginning August 27, 2017.* 
Absolute imperative is to send them back to their country of origin, and to that end, effective policies must be formulated.

Root of this problem lie in Myanmar’s refusal to accept them as their citizens excepting a miniscule number of Rohingyas. It has stated unequivocally that Rohingyas are not a part of Myanmar’s ‘national races’, considering them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. By declaring so Myanmar simply denies history and it is trying to prove its claim by rewriting history. Bangladesh’s view is just the opposite that narrates Rohingyas’ genuine history, and that historically Rohingyas have been living in Arakan, which was an independent Muslim State, for centuries. 
*Their trouble began as then Burmese King occupied and annexed Arakan in 1784.
Genesis of the problem*
Though Rohingyas became Burmese nationals at Myanmar’s independence in 1948, with military junta in power, it started a heinous plan to annihilate Rohingyas systematically since 1966. 
Through its domestic policies like ongoing low intensity violence, and at times, perpetuation of violent brutalities on them, and laws such as Amended Citizenship Law of 1982, and Race and Religion Law of 1993, Rohingyas were denied of their citizenship, basic rights and recognition as one of Myanmar’s ‘national races’. Eventually they lost their ‘Rohingya’ identity in 2014 due to the demands of xenophobic Buddhists and the result of this development has been the deprivation of Rohingyas’ historical claim on their motherland.

Bangladesh made a great mistake, in this regard, by naively signing a bilateral agreement with Myanmar in 2015, agreeing that neither party would address them either “Bengalis” or “Rohingyas.” The new move identified them as “Muslims” left a grey area, as in this backdrop, negotiation for their entry in Myanmar was to be extremely difficult. State Counselor Suu Kyi, thus, cleverly insisted that Kofi Anan in his report should identify “Rohingyas” as “Muslims” only.

Though innocuous, underlying plan has been that in appropriate time this “Muslim” identity would be utilized to complete Myanmar’s “unfinished job of history” i.e. to get rid of illegal immigrants from Bengal. This way they can be labeled interchangeably as both “terrorists” and “illegal Bengali immigrants”. Bangladesh should have insisted on terming them as “Rohingyas” only so that their historical claim could be formidable, which Dhaka did not. Defining their “identity” is now the actual bone of contention between Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is indeed a very complex issue.
*Dhaka’s ambivalence*
Surprisingly, Dhaka’s reactions of Rohingya crisis have been quite curious. 
There was no outrage, no large scale demonstration, excepting the Islamists, and the state and civil society failed to take a moral high ground by denouncing Myanmar’s atrocious violation of human rights. 
Dhaka’s timidity and its ambivalence emboldened Myanmar to continue its horrendous brutalities and ongoing flow of refugees leaving the burden of sheltering nine lac refugees and their repatriation. 
As far as the policy options are concerned its ambivalence is clearly visible not knowing whether to opt for bilateralism or multilateralism or both. Effective policy should have been both, which it seems Dhaka is doing. 

There are, however, contradictory statements abound discernible from the statements of Ministries of Home and Foreign Affairs. 
*However without skillful diplomacy and political leadership no positive results have been yielded either from bilateralism or its engagement with United Nations.*

*First,* bilaterally Bangladesh’s failure to comprehend Myanmar’s objective of projecting its willing to cooperate with Bangladesh with regard to Rohingya issue to the world community has been regrettable as the visit by Myanmar Minister to Dhaka to address the issue was no more than eye wash. 

Bangladesh Home Minister’s visit (Oct. 23-25) to Myanmar has been equally disappointing. It turned out to be like a routine bilateral interaction between the two rather than the two discussing the urgent Rohingya issue as centripetal. 

Bilateral response of China and India also resonated with that of Myanmar. Both have advised Dhaka to deal with the issue bilaterally for whatever reasons—national interests or Islam phobia or both.
*
Second*, until now Dhaka’s multilateral diplomacy has been confined within the bounds of United Nations. 
There too, the results have been dismal as nothing has transpired in Britain and France initiated Security Council in which Myanmar’s interests were protected by China and Russia. 
Similarly, proposal using the word Rohingya and call for the implementation of various recommendations of UN General Secretary and Kofi Anan by Myanmar has been placed in UN Human Rights Council to pressurize it, may be passed, but given Myanmar’s past record of defiance it could be a moral victory only. 
Nonetheless, it is heartening to note that Dhaka has decided to go for somewhat pro-active diplomacy. However, more and effective multilateralism with poignant dimension are called for.
*Time to get tough*
Without doubt Bangladesh is in a fix on Rohingya crisis and the challenges Dhaka faces are somewhat insurmountable, in the context of Myanmar’s Machiavellian diplomacy, should be overcome. 
*It is time to get tough on Myanmar. *
Dhaka must now respond to Myanmar and the world with clarity, firmness, and as a solidified nation, that Bangladesh will not host this huge burden alone for a prolonged period and former must take their nationals back and international community must really put pressure on Myanmar.

Bangladesh, while appreciating International Community’s denunciations and demands, should work relentlessly with International Community that it’s time that they take steps that would really hurt Myanmar’s military establishment, who in effect calls the shots, financially and otherwise. 
Sanctions targeted towards Army—that has been imposed only by EU and Britain should be taken by other members of the world community. 
Bangladesh may seek help from ASEAN and OIC countries that they begin bilateral sanctions, which will hurt Myanmar’s economy.

Discontinuation of Myanmar’s manpower supply to Malaysia that constitutes huge source of former’s foreign exchange income could be an example for others to follow. 
Similarly, ASEAN, OIC and other regional organization should be persuaded to concertedly apply various sanctions to punish Myanmar. All these will depend on the skills of our diplomats and sagacity of our leadership.
*
Simultaneously, the policy of appeasing Suu Kyi, especially Bangladesh, must be dropped. *
After all she is no less Muslim hater and no less enthusiastic supporter of Ma Ba Ha (terrorist Buddhism) theory than her military cohorts. She is also guilty of negating and collaborating with Myanmar Army’s horrendous brutalities against Rohingyas, especially Rohingya children and women.
*Looming radicalization
Most important of all apprehensions for a potential radicalization of the Rohingyas and its impact such as threats to international security, and destabilization of not only Bangladesh but the region as a whole should be sent to the world community, especially to China and India in loud and clear voice. *

Myanmar has justified it’s genocidal activities on the pretext of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s (ARSA) destabilizing activities but given its numeric strength i.e. at the most five hundred (500), and its use of crude weapons defy Myanmar’s argument and is hardly convincing. 
Moreover, ARSA’s “terrorism” should not be confused with the mindless and insane activities of groups like ISIS or Al Qaeda.

They are acting so only to get justice for their people. With no justice done to them the camps in Ukheya and Kutupalang could turn into a fertile recruiting ground by transnational radical Islamic militants. 
In the context of United Nations’ categorizing Rohingyas as the world’s most persecuted group forming largest number of stateless people, one wonders what one would do in such a situation. 
*It is in this context that Kofi Anan, Chairman of the United Nations’ General Secretary as well as the Chairman of UN fact finding mission, US State Department, United Kingdom, France have warned that unless and until Rohingya issue is solved peacefully and justly, chances of radicalization of Rohingyas are extremely high.*

Bangladesh being a weak and moderate Muslim country may not be able to control such eventuality. This ominous message should be strongly related not only to western powers, but most importantly to two regional powers, India and China, who are siding with Myanmar. 
They must be convinced that it does not serve their interest if they worry about the instability in Myanmar only, it is also in their strategic and economic interest to prevent destabilization of Bangladesh, which would have a snowballing effect on the entire region that will not augur well for none of these regional powers.
Professor Dilara Choudhury is a political analyst
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx

06:05 PM, November 07, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:35 PM, November 07, 2017
*CPA calls for urgent action to resolve Rohingya crisis*
Star Online Report
*Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) today called for urgent action from the international community to resolve the ongoing Rohingya crisis on humanitarian ground.*
The 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) today adopted a consensus and issued a statement in this regard during its concluding session at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka this evening. 

The members of the parliaments of the Commonwealth countries may equivocally condemn the atrocities committed against Rohingyas in Myanmar which amounts to genocide, the statement read.
*More to follow... *


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya NewsTv
Over 700,000 #Rohingya vaccinated for cholera to prevent epidemic
The second-largest cholera vaccination programme in history has achieved a milestone in Bangladesh.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has immunized 700,000 Rohingya refugees in less than a month.
They're particularly at risk because their squalid camps provide the perfect conditions for a cholera outbreak. With Yemen already facing an unprecedented epidemic, government officials hope to avoid a similar situation in the camps near neighboring Myanmar.*




__ https://www.facebook.com/





*Humanitarian space and world’s most persecuted minority*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/humanitarian-space-and-worlds-most-persecuted-minority.html




By Furkhan Noordeen
*SRI LANKA: Often referred to as the world’s most persecuted minority, the Rohingya are an ethnic group of 1.33 million people in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar’s Western Coastal State of Rakhine, and have since 1982 with the pre-independent migration of labourers been rendered stateless and denied citizenship. *

Although the Rohingya, a majority of who are Muslims, have lived in Myanmar since the early 12th century, they have not been recognised as one of the 135 ethnic groups in the country — stirring not merely a cultural divide but also raising discriminatory concerns amid racial and religious, in this case, Buddhist supremacy. 

Following Myanmar’s exclusive Union Citizenship Law of 1948 and the post-1948 military coup, the Rohingya were given only foreign identity cards which restricted their employment and educational opportunities and making matters even worse, in 1982 Myanmar enacted new legislation rendering the Rohingya stateless and depriving them of almost all human rights including the right to practice their faith. 

According to Eleanor Albert of the Council on Foreign Relations, the outbreak of violence against the ethnic minority dates back to 2012 when a group of Rohingya men stood indicted on charges of raping and killing a Buddhist woman. It later led to Buddhist extremists launching a campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’ by killing some 280 Rohingyas and setting fire to their homes. 

Against this backdrop are brutal military crackdowns and the recent retaliatory attack by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on police outposts along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, extrajudicial killings, rape, arson, torture, and restrictions on marriage, employment, education and religion by the de facto Head of State, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, which forces the Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and several other Southeast Asian countries, risking their lives on rickety boats in search of humanitarian aid and greener pastures. 

Last month, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) official Abdul Jalil reported that 12 out of a 100 refugees fleeing Myanmar had died when their boat capsized near neighbouring Bangladesh. This is one of many recent incidents of this nature with such deaths having dominated headlines in the past and considering what happens almost on a daily basis, perhaps, a thousand more might have faced the same fate at the time this article was published. 

Yet, what nettles human rights activists is the inability of the administration of Suu Kyi, the incumbent State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to trace a single atom in villages that blow up to smithereens in the most ungodly hours of the day. Tun Khin, a longstanding political confrère of Suu Kyi, said the State Counsellor mostly obliged to the military that kept her under house arrest for 15 long years.

According to Myanmar’s third and present Constitution published in September 2008 following a referendum, the military is allocated 25% of the seats in parliament with the ministries of home and border affairs and defence coming under its purview. It is also permitted to appoint one of the two Vice Presidents. The Commander-in-chief of the military, Tatmadaw, whose powers override those of the President, is authorised to exercise State sovereignty during emergencies, and under these circumstances, to fathom whether the State Counsellor has any leverage over the military requires another article altogether. 

Nevertheless, Suu Kyi’s unwillingness to acknowledge the mass exodus of the Muslim minority has rekindled humanitarian space, so much so that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan himself toured the ‘becoming-war-torn site.’ 

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi revealed that more than 500,000 (over 607,000 as of November 7) Rohingya refugees were sheltered in two camps at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh this year as a result of the brutal security operations deemed as a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein. Among the refugees are some 240,000 children and 50,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women suffering from malnutrition. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina too has called for international pressure so as to discontinue forthwith the oppression of the Rohingya. 

Despite severe backlash arising from the allegations of ethnic cleansing, systematic violence and human rights violations, Suu Kyi rejects and denies the allegations outright saying it were the Rohingya militants who instigated violence, while journalists and aid agency representatives who wished to study the ground situation in Rakhine were being continually denied access. 

In September, Myanmar authorities postponed a visit by UN rapporteurs and diplomats to Rakhine and in a related incident detained two journos covering the flight of the ethnic Rohingya to Bangladesh. It is also alleged that Myanmar’s Chief of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), Renata Lok-Dessallien, attempted to prevent human rights advocates from visiting areas where the Rohingya live. To add insult to injury, the office of the UN resident coordinator in Myanmar said recently the delivery of relief aid had been suspended due to security concerns and government field-visit restrictions rendered it impossible to carry out the provision of humanitarian assistance amid the Myanmar Government earlier this year even devising a plan to relocate the Rohingya in a remote, uninhabitable island. 

However, when UN Secretary General António Guterres urged to end the military operation against the Rohingya, Myanmar’s National Security Adviser Thaung Tun refuted allegations of ethnic cleansing and bloodshed. 

Surprisingly, the Rohingya plight has taken its toll on celebrities too. 19-year-old Miss Grand Myanmar Shwe Eain Si was stripped of her pageant title after she posted a video on the ongoing violence in Rakhine on her Facebook page — her post however did not allege the Burmese military to have engaged in widespread atrocities against Rohingya. Also in September, Miss Turkey was dethroned after she tweeted about last year’s coup attempt. 

Nevertheless, efforts to air and probe ongoing violence against the Rohingya have become possible, at least to some extent, with Radio Free Asia reporting on October 2 that several emissaries and UN agencies visited Rakhine despite warnings by Myanmar law enforcement agencies about possible terrorist attacks in the area. Lately, a delegation of 67 diplomats from at least 46 countries toured Rohingya camps at Kutupalong and Balukhali in Bangladesh and lent a patient hearing to the woes and broken dreams of the refugees. 

In a drastic turn of events, Suu Kyi pledged in a televised address at Myanmar’s Capital Naypyidaw on September 19 that she would entertain the returnees on verification of their citizenship — a promise too good to be true because the Rohingya are not likely to be bestowed citizenship in the foreseeable future. However, this was seconded by a Myanmar minister during a recent bilateral meeting with Bangladeshi officials. Furthermore, Suu Kyi diverted media attention saying Rakhine Buddhists remained anxious over their shrinking population albeit they don’t face any sort of discriminatory population control regulation like the Rohingyas do. The Rohingya Muslims by the way are restricted to having a maximum of two children a family. 

With tensions building up whenever Rohingya brave rough seas, the international community and humanitarian agencies pledge their support by means of aid or at least by tweeting their condolences. Although many countries were less hospitable initially, with time they shouldered a greater burden of the plight faced by the Rohingyas by converting into action the term, ‘being humane.’ Among the countries which have generously extended a much-needed helping hand are Bangladesh, the US, Canada and Indonesia. 

With the announcement of an additional $32 million in humanitarian assistance to Rohingya at the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the US has pledged a total of $95 million aid. Adding to the $6.63 million aid to the conflict-stricken in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Canadian International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced another $2.5 million in humanitarian assistance. Briefly after sending eight sortie missions or 74 tonnes of aid, two Hercules aircraft carrying aid for Rohingya in Rakhine left Jakarta. Also, the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement said King Mohammed VI had instructed to send urgent humanitarian aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Furthermore, Channel News Asia reported last month that the EU and the US were discussing sanctions against Myanmar military leaders in the wake of human rights violations. 

Meanwhile, several countries including China and India have taken a non-humanitarian stance on the Rohingya issue with Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang announcing on September 12 that China condemned the violent attacks in Rakhine and supported Myanmar’s efforts to safeguard peace. On the other hand, Aljazeera reported on October 3 that the Indian Government said it would not stop its efforts to deport the estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees, of whom more than 16,000 are registered with the UN Refugee Agency. In the most recent case where two Rohingyas had filed a petition against the Indian Government’s plan to deport the persecuted refugees, Government Attorney Tushar Mehta said the Rohingya were a security threat, thereby breaching Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which states ‘right to life’ is available to both locals and foreigners while such forced repatriation may violate Customary International Law under ‘non-refoulement.’ 

The Tamil Nadu Police confirmed that with these developments, a group of 32 people — of whom 30 are Rohingyas and the other Indians — living for the past five years under refugee status granted by the UNHCR office in India, had on April 30 ventured on an illegal voyage to Australia by boat via the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka. 

As the vessel entered Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, coastguards patrolling the International Maritime Boundary Line took the boat people into custody on charges of illegal migration and handed them over to the Kankesanthurai Police the same day. With the Indian High Commission acknowledging that these refugees had sailed from Nagapattanam, Tamil Nadu, a report under reference number B/372/17, under Section 45 & 45A of the Immigration and Emigration Act, was filed and the refugees were produced before the Mallakkam Magistrate who ordered these people to be housed at the Mirihana detention camp pending the AG’s advice and the two Indians be kept under remand custody. 

Based on a report by Attorney Shainaz Mohamed who appeared on behalf of the Myanmar refugees, according to the AG’s advice, Section 45 & 45A of the Immigration and Emigration Act shall not apply and the case filed cannot be maintained since it was confirmed that these Myanmar nationals are in fact refugees. Interestingly though, Sri Lanka is not among the 142 State Parties to both the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. However, it had inked a Working Agreement with the UNHCR in 1987, which enables the refugee agency to accommodate up to 2,000 refugees each year. 

However, the law-abiding refugees were forced to move to a house in Mount Lavinia (taken on lease by the UNHCR) after a refugee was alleged to have been raped by an officer attached to the Mirihana detention camp. A case was filed against him at the Gangodawila Magistrate’s Court under case number B/2030/17. 

Despite the transfer being carried out with prior notice to the area police, the cops acted completely oblivious to the relocation when extremists led by radical Buddhist monks stormed the UN safe house in Mt. Lavinia. It was also alleged that relatives of the police officer charged with raping a Rohingya refugee were among the uncivilized, narrow-minded protesters who showcased to the world their true nature. These hapless refugees among whom were men, women and children, some of them infants, were then transferred to the Boossa detention camp for security reasons. 

Despite the fact that several individuals who instigated this kind of senseless violence against the Rohingya refugees during the height of the Sinhala-Muslim communal clash have been legally taken care of, some elements still engage in hostile, blasphemous discourse and inhumane activities igniting the flames of ethnic discord. 

It is astonishingly-noteworthy to underscore the sad fact that Sri Lanka, which proclaims itself to be one of the most hospitable countries in the world, is hampering the temporary accommodation of a handful of Rohingya refugees — numbering a mere 0.0068% of those accepted by Bangladesh. 

A media communique issued by Internal Affairs Ministry Secretary D. Swarnapala on September 18 states this was not the first time Myanmar refugees arrived in Sri Lanka. The communique said 55 people who arrived from Myanmar on March 3, 2008, were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan Navy and subsequently handed over to the UNHCR. They had been sent back in 2012. Again in February 2013, Sri Lanka had rescued two boat loads of 138 and 170 asylum seekers and they too had been sent back in November 2015. 

If it is not an issue within Sri Lanka that makes the country less hospitable than what it used to be, then what is it? Can we oversimplify internal concerns saying international pressure prompted them to act in this manner? We may not be bound to reach out to the needy and look into their grievances, but we could at least not rape, torture or abuse the innocent who are already distressed and in various stages of degradation and destitution forced to flee from country to country. Why are the relevant authorities keeping mum on this humanitarian issue? It may not be a responsibility, but we could, as a nation, be humane enough to act with equanimity, peace and harmony by living the Buddha’s precept, “let all beings be happy” at least till such time the refugees are sent back home.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/humanitarian-space-and-worlds-most-persecuted-minority.html


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Suu Kyi urges her people not to quarrel*
*Holiday Report*




Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Palong Khali, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh November 1, 2017. — Reuters
*Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on Thursday urged people “not to quarrel” as she visited areas riven by ethnic violence for the first time since hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims began fleeing the country to escape a brutal military crackdown.*
Reuters photographers saw thousands of desperate Rohingyas wade through shallows and narrow creeks between islands of the Naf River to reach neighbouring Bangladesh the previous evening.
Some had small boats or pulled makeshift rafts to get to Bangladesh on the river’s western bank, but most walked, children cradled in their arms and the elderly carried on their backs, with sacks of belongings tied to staves on their shoulders.

Reaching the far side, some women and older people had to be pulled through the mud to reach dry land atop steep banks.

More than 4,000 crossed at different points on the river on Wednesday, Major Mohammed Iqbal, a Bangladesh security official in the southern district of Cox’s Bazar, told Reuters.

Over 600,000 Rohingyas have fled predominantly Buddhist Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since late August to escape violence in the wake of a military counter-insurgency operation launched after Rohingya militants attacked security posts in Rakhine State.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has faced heavy international criticism for not taking a higher profile in responding to what UN officials have called “ethnic cleansing” by the army.

Amid heightened security, she boarded a military helicopter at Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital, to be taken to a village in Maungdaw, the district that has seen the greatest exodus.

“On the road where some people gathered, she stopped the car and talked to everyone,” said Chris Lewa, from the Arakan Project monitoring group, citing a Rohingya religious leader who was present.
“She only said three things to the people - they should live peacefully, the government is there to help them, and they should not quarrel among each other.”

Lately Suu Kyi, who does not control the military, has appeared to take a stronger lead in the crisis, focusing government efforts on rehabilitation and pledging to repatriate refugees.
*Talks on repatriation*
Suu Kyi had not previously visited Rakhine since assuming power last year following a landslide 2015 election victory. The majority of residents in the northern part of the state, which includes Maungdaw, were Muslims until the recent crisis.

Myanmar has rejected the accusations of ethnic cleansing, saying its security forces launched a counter-insurgency operation after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts in northern Rakhine on Aug 25.

Refugees in the Bangladesh camps say the Myanmar army torched their villages, but Myanmar blames Rohingya militants.

Suu Kyi was accompanied by about 20 people travelling in two military helicopters, including military, police and state officials, the Reuters reporter said.

Businessman Zaw Zaw, formerly sanctioned by the US Treasury for his ties to Myanmar’s junta, was also with the Nobel laureate.

Suu Kyi launched a project last month to help rehabilitation and resettlement in Rakhine and has urged tycoons to contribute.

She has pledged to allow the return of refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar, but thousands of people have continued to flee to Bangladesh.

Talks with Bangladesh have yet to deliver a pact on a repatriation process made more complex because Myanmar has long denied citizenship to the Rohingyas.

Suu Kyi’s spokesman voiced fears on Tuesday that Bangladesh could be stalling on the accord to first get millions of dollars of international aid money, an accusation a senior Bangladesh home ministry official described as outrageous.

But the scene on Wednesday at the Naf River showed Rohingyas were still ready to risk being destitute in Bangladesh, rather than stay in Myanmar in fear for their lives.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=3&date=0#Tid=15014

3:27 AM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:31 AM, November 08, 2017
*Bangladesh saved over 6,00,000 lives
UNHCR assistant high commissioner says, calls for safe and dignified return of Rohingyas*




Volker Türk
Staff Correspondent
*Any return of the Rohingya refugees who took shelter in Bangladesh must be voluntary, safe and dignified, the UNHCR assistant high commissioner for protection said yesterday.*

Volker Türk, the UNHCR official, also appreciated the role of Bangladesh in tackling the Rohingya issue and assured the country of full support from his agency.

“The people of Bangladesh and its authority have our full appreciation and admiration. You have literally saved over 6,00,000 lives by opening the border and allowing the Rohingyas to enter," he told a press conference.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) organised the conference at a hotel in the capital after Türk concluded his five-day visit to the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar.

“Your initiative was extremely noble and honourable, and you deserve full support from the international communities and the UN,” he said.

Replying to a question, the commissioner said, “It is clear that we need to fight for the return of the refugees who fled from Rakhine State. It is obvious that the people who fled are in a very vulnerable and extremely dire situation.”

About Myanmar government's delay in solving the crisis, he recommended having patience and be persistent to ensure Rohingyas' right to return to their country. He said, “We also need to ensure the return is sustainable.”

The commissioner said, “We also have to listen carefully to the needs of the host community in Cox's Bazar.

“We need to work with the government of Myanmar and its people to help them implement the Rakhine commission report. Of course, it won't be easy, but we need to start the process,” he also said.

In a UNHCR press release issued last night, Türk said, “For return to happen, it's clear there has to be safety and guarantees of protection. There has to be a very serious commitment to immediately implementing the recommendations of the commission's report".
*UNHCR FAMILY COUNTDOWN*
One-third of the Rohingya families, who took shelter at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, are in a vulnerable situation because of serious health problems and harsh condition of the camp, UNHCR found after conducting a recent family countdown.

Of them, about 14 percent are single mothers holding their families together with little support in harsh camp conditions, while others are struggling with serious health problems or disabilities, it found.

The UN refugee agency revealed the findings yesterday after finishing the first phase of the Rohingya refugee family counting, where 120,284 families comprising 517,643 refugees from Myanmar have so far been counted, said a statement of UNHCR.

According to UNHCR, around 6,07,000 Rohingyas estimated to have fled to Bangladesh following the torture by the Myanmar authorities on the Muslim minority in Myanmar's Rakhine since August 25.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/bangladesh-saved-over-600000-lives-1488115

12:00 AM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:12 AM, November 08, 2017
*Myanmar needs to engage with UN, Bangladesh*
*UNSC says on Rohingya repatriation, calls for end to violence in Rakhine*




Rohingya refugees cover a newly built temporary shelter with a plastic sheet provided by a non-government organisation at Palongkhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Diplomatic Correspondent
*The UN Security Council has called upon Myanmar and Bangladesh to invite the UN refugee agency and other relevant international organisations to participate fully in a joint working group to allow voluntary return of all the Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar.*
In a statement issued on Monday, the UNSC urged the Myanmar government to end the excessive military force and intercommunal violence that had devastated the Rohingya community in Rakhine State.

It also called for implementing the agreed‑upon mechanisms to assist return of those who have fled Rakhine and to ensure access for humanitarian aid.

“The Security Council remains determined to continue to closely follow the situation in Myanmar and requests the Secretary‑General to brief the Security Council on developments on the situation in Rakhine after 30 days from the adoption of this statement,” said the statement.

The UNSC called upon the Myanmar government to work with the government of Bangladesh and the UN to implement the commitment to establish the Joint Working Group (JWG) and to expedite the voluntary return of all internally displaced people to their homes in Myanmar.

Sebastiano Cardi of Italy, UNSC president for November, read out the statement at a meeting of the council on Monday.

With this, the UNSC again failed to adopt a resolution to press for an end to the excessive use of military force on Rohingyas in the face of strong opposition from China.

The UN body on September 13 had issued another statement, expressing deep concern about violence in Rakhine.

On October 2, Dhaka and Naypyidaw had agreed to set up a JWG to facilitate the repatriation of Rohingyas, but they failed to do so as Myanmar wanted to solve the crisis bilaterally without including the UN in the joint group.

The development came during Myanmar Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe's visit to Dhaka. He expressed his country's willingness to take back the “displaced residents” and proposed following the principle and criteria agreed upon in the 1992 Joint Statement.

Bangladesh had signed the joint statement with the State Law and Order Restoration Council of Myanmar on April 28, 1992 under which Myanmar agreed to take back those refugees who could “establish their bona fide residency in Myanmar” prior to their departure for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said Dhaka didn't agree to Naypyidaw's proposal about following the principle and criterion of the 1992 deal.

He said the criterion was “not realistic” and the situations of 1992 and 2017 were entirely different.

The UNSC in Monday's statement welcomed Myanmar's decision to establish the “Union Enterprise Mechanism” for humanitarian assistance, resettlement and development in Rakhine. It also lauded the government commitment to ensure that humanitarian assistance and development work undertaken by the Union Enterprise Mechanism is provided for the benefit of all communities in Rakhine without discrimination and regardless of religion or ethnicity.

It further urged the Myanmar government to ensure the Union Enterprise Mechanism supports the voluntary, safe and dignified return of displaced individuals and refugees to their homes in Rakhine, and to allow UN agencies to operate with full access in Rakhine.

“The Security Council calls upon the government of Myanmar to address the root causes of the crisis in Rakhine State by respecting, promoting and protecting human rights, without discrimination and regardless of ethnicity or religion, including by allowing freedom of movement, equal access to basic services, and equal access to full citizenship for all individuals.

“The Security Council welcomes the government of Myanmar's public commitment to implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State chaired by Kofi Annan, as well as the establishment of a ministerial‑level committee to implement the recommendations.”

The UNSC stressed the importance of undertaking transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and violations, including sexual violence and abuse and violence against children, and of holding to account all those responsible for such acts to provide justice for victims.

It also called upon the Myanmar government to urgently grant domestic and international media organisations full and unhindered access to Rakhine and ensure the safety and security of media personnel.

Over six lakh forcibly displaced Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh since the Myanmar army launched a crackdown on the ethnic minority group on August 25.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...is-myanmar-needs-engage-un-bangladesh-1487890

12:00 AM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:21 AM, November 08, 2017
*FROM A BYSTANDER*
*Will the “Myanmar democracy” survive the Rohingya crisis?*




Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar armed forces, and Aung San Suu Kyi during Myanmar's top six-party talks at the Presidential Palace at Naypyidaw in 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS
Mahmood Hasan
*These are difficult times for Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy. 
The crisis is the creation of her xenophobic army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. 
However, as Hlaing went about committing genocide on the Rohingya, Suu Kyi sided with the general in a show of unity. 
On other matters, however, she does not see eye to eye with Hlaing.*
Strangely, both Suu Kyi and Hlaing are Islamophobes and are in sync in dealing with minority communities—the Shan, Karen, Kachin, Rohingya, etc. Her handling of desperately poor but peaceful Rohingyas reflects her bigotry and her complicity, which has outraged world opinion. Her prejudices became clear during the 2015 election, when NLD did not field any Muslim candidate from any seat.

Myanmar's so-called democratic government is a forked administration—Suu Kyi's powerless civilian government and the junta-led ministries independent of Suu Kyi. *This disconnect between Suu Kyi and Hlaing has brought the core issue to the fore—that of democracy versus military dictatorship.*

The powers enjoyed by Suu Kyi as state counsellor are at best tenuous under the military-drafted 2008 constitution. The constitution debarred her from becoming president and she knew that she could not amend the draconian provisions of the constitution given the seat arithmetic in the parliament. Yet she went ahead to play the game laid out by the military.

Not only can she not change the charter, the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) is the Damocles' sword over her head. This most powerful body has 11 members, six of whom are military men—an in-built majority. Naturally, all important decisions have to be approved by the NDSC. The most dangerous provision in the constitution says that the military can retake powers of the government in case of threats to “national security” or “national unity”—essentially any time the junta wants.

*Worst still, the military holds effective charge of three ministries—defence, home affairs and border control—all led by serving generals. *The home ministry has taken over the responsibilities of immigration and population, making it very powerful. Suu Kyi's government also does not control the police, justice system, security services and ethnic issues.

Expulsion of the Rohingyas has been the military's plan since 1962, when General Ne Win seized power after the parliamentary democracy experiment failed to establish peace and unite the country. The entire anti-Rohingya narrative is based on lies, which has converted ethnic majority Bamars into ultra-nationalists.

To a large extent, the West is responsible for the current Rohingya crisis.
As part of Pivot to Asia (i.e. containing China), President Obama visited Myanmar twice—in 2012 and 2014, when he met Suu Kyi.
Though Rohingya persecution was ongoing at that time in Rakhine, Obama did not ask Naypyidaw to stop the oppression.
Rather to encourage Suu Kyi's democracy, President Obama overlooked the gross human rights violations committed by the military and lifted the economic sanctions in October 2016.
*Now, geopolitical games involving India, China, US, Russia and Japan over Rakhine are putting pressures on Suu Kyi's government, while the expelled Rohingyas wait to return home from Bangladesh.*

However, the waiver of sanctions greatly overjoyed Hlaing. He waved the Suu Kyi flag to bring Myanmar out of pariah status and get readmitted into the comity of nations.
*The West was befooled that democracy has returned to Myanmar and welcomed Suu Kyi with open arms, barely realising that she is a lame-duck head of government. *

Clever Hlaing went ahead with his anti-Rohingya campaign, knowing well that his military's brutal actions will be blamed on Suu Kyi and not on him. Thus the latest attacks on Rohingyas in 2016 and 2017.
*He cared little about Suu Kyi's reputation or credibility. 
Hlaing's glee has now turned sour as the Trump administration has started to reverse Obama's Myanmar policies. 
Hlaing's impunity may not last long. 
Little did he foresee that world opinion would go against him. *

Interestingly, as international pressure mounts on Hlaing, his popularity has surged within Myanmar, and Suu Kyi is on the back foot. Thousands of Bamar Buddhists rallied in Yangon on November 1, singing patriotic songs. Hlaing is seen as the saviour of Myanmar from Muslim takeover. This is bad news for Suu Kyi's democracy as the old political groups—USDP and allied parties—have become active.
*
Despite her popularity, Suu Kyi's moral capital is now in tatters.* Instead of protesting the junta's brutality she went ahead to make that speech on September 19, 2017, which was clearly drafted by the junta. She denied any wrongdoing by the military and hid behind an “iceberg of misinformation”—to quote Suu Kyi herself. That speech actually undermined her integrity.

In her book _Freedom from Fear _Suu Kyi wrote, “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” How true. If only the lady could overcome the fear of losing power, she could probably save her brand of democracy from the quasi-military dictatorship and restore the rights of minorities, including Rohingyas. Ultra-nationalism and xenophobia have no place in democracies.

Myanmar as a country has the legal status of a sovereign state. But with its internal contradictions it is not yet a “nation”. Nation-building requires embracing and integrating all people irrespective of race, religion and culture through ensuring human rights.

The paranoid junta does not want to see Suu Kyi succeed in establishing peace or democracy. Perception of threat to national security is the raison d'être of the military. According to observers, instability in Rakhine and international pressure can lead to a collapse of the Suu Kyi government and to the power vacuum being filled in by the military once again. If that happens, it will be the end of the “Myanmar democracy”.
_Mahmood Hasan is a former ambassador and secretary of the Bangladesh government. _
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...democracy-survive-the-rohingya-crisis-1487710

12:00 AM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:42 AM, November 08, 2017
*Act now to solve Rohingya crisis*
*MPs from C'wealth countries urge int'l community; no resolution adopted for constitutional limitations*




Rohingya refugee children stumble in a melee to get food at the distribution centre in Palongkhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Staff Correspondent
*Lawmakers from Commonwealth countries have called upon the international community to take urgent action to resolve the Rohingya crisis.*
The call was made at the 63rd general assembly of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in the capital yesterday.

In a statement, the CPA condemned the atrocities, ethnic cleansing, displacement and all gross violations of human rights in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.

It asked the Myanmar government to stop violence and ethnic cleansing in Rakhine immediately and unconditionally.

The CPA, a platform of 52 countries, however, could not adopt any resolution on the Rohingya issue despite a strong demand from most of its member states.

Talking to journalists at her office at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, CPA Chairperson Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, also Speaker of the JS, said no resolution on the issue could be adopted due to the CPA's constitutional limitations.

According to the CPA constitution, in order to adopt a resolution on any issue, a notice has to be sent to the CPA Secretariat in London 60 days before the annual conference.

Earlier at a briefing session on November 5, CPA delegates criticised Myanmar for persecution of the Rohingyas and demanded that the association adopt a resolution on the issue.

At the session, the CPA chairperson and its Secretary General Akbar Khan had assured them that the demand would be considered seriously.

The eight-day annual conference of the CPA began on November 1 with more than 550 delegates from 144 national and provincial parliaments of 44 countries. It ends today.

In yesterday's statement, the CPA urged Myanmar to ensure the sustainable return of all forcibly displaced Rohingyas, who have taken shelter in Bangladesh and other countries, to their homes in Myanmar within the shortest possible time.

“The members of the parliaments of the Commonwealth countries may unequivocally condemn the atrocities committed against the Rohingyas in Myanmar which amounts to genocide.”

The Rohingya issue must be addressed in the light of the recommendations made by the Kofi Annan Commission, it noted.

More than six lakh Rohingyas have taken refuge in Bangladesh since the Myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown on the Rohingyas in Rakhine on August 25.

The lawmakers from Commonwealth countries lauded the Bangladesh government, particularly Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, for opening the borders to the forcibly displaced Rohingyas and helping around one million distressed Rohingyas with shelter, food, sanitation, water and medical support.

The CPA called upon all its member states to help secure the basic rights of the Rohingyas, extend humanitarian support to them and join the efforts of Bangladesh and the international community towards a sustainable return of the Rohingyas to their homeland.

The lawmakers requested the CPA secretary general to convey the statement to all the parliaments of the CPA member states, the United Nations secretary-general, and relevant international and regional organisations.

The CPA also urged the Commonwealth Parliament and its lawmakers to keep watch on the developments in Myanmar and inform the CPA secretary general for raising the matters at the next conference in Mauritius in 2018.
*NEW CPA CHAIRPERSON*
Emilia Monjowa Lifaka, deputy speaker of the national assembly of Cameroon, was elected chairperson for the next three years.

Two other candidates for the position were -- Shirley M Osborne MLA, speaker of the Montserrat Legislative Assembly; and Niki Rattle, speaker of the Cook Islands Parliament.

CPA member countries elect a new chairperson at the general assembly every three years.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...-crisis-act-now-solve-rohingya-crisis-1487881

*MYANMAR committed crimes and pay compensations to CHINA*




Min Khant
RB Opinion
November 7, 2017
*The UNSC’s heartily and energetic effort in regard Rohingya issue, “the matter of life and death”, in the meeting hall was feel frustrated after the Republic of China’s indication to use its veto power for objection to the proposed resolution of the world BODY. *
The Republic of China’s deliberate objection to the world united proposal to have a fine UNSC resolution to go ahead to save tens of thousands of Rohingyas’ live has been a steadfast ally of Myanmar de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and S.G Min Aung Hlaing. 

Those leaders and majority of Myanmar people want to cleanse the entire Rohingya population from their ancestral land and the Rohingyas carnage since 9 October 2016 to date have been seen and recognizable by all the people of the world.

The Republic of China has been a main GAME player in the matter of political and economic bubble of Myanmar since 1990, advocating Myanmar in international forums from taking actions by the world communities due to its crimes against humanities on all ethnic indigenous of Myanmar and nowadays CHINA has rudely shown its rebellious manner to the *world accord* regarding Rohingyas concern. 

Right now, as known everyone, to solve Rohingya dilemma is completely up to the *United Nations Security Council alone* other than pushing or directing to regional organizations such as the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN), South Asian Association of Regional Countries (SAARC), Organization of Islamic Corporation (OIC) or else, because of the fact that all those continuous efforts have been fagged out by Myanmar government and the Rohingyas issue ultimately becomes as the *international central problem*.

Knowing in mind that, as long as the world's most unsettled and complicated affairs have been discussed and reached to the unanimous agreement as final for the permanent settlement by the UNSC, nowadays Rohingyas case is similar to those of the world matters which might have been in the world history. 

*CHINA’s standpoints to the Rohingya problem in the forum of UNSC , which has been merely the issue of humanitarian nightmare, has arrogantly though been attached to its economic and geopolitical strategy of RAKHINE state to save and protect from any foreign powers, want the EXCUSES to step in Rakhine, MYANMAR.* 

Because of the CHINA’s constant solid-stand for whatsoever Myanmar regime comes to the power since 1990 to date, the world community has failed again and again in the UNSC meetings to adopt the necessary resolutions which could have been benefiting not only the fair democratic reform and flourishing of economy in the country, and the concerted actions of the world would have saved the golden Myanmar from being swallowed, exploited, sucked, and spoiled by CHINA, the natural and Human resources of Myanmar.

Whenever the problems arise in local and Myanmar regime, military leaders are being overwrought with their killing innocent people, and burning the villages, its leaders would quickly run and approach to the Chinese leaders to save and protect from the crimes, which they have committed against the ordinary people. China has been ever ready for such THE opportunities in Myanmar and it would protect, save, and prop up for the crimes that Myanmar authorities have committed to the fellow citizens in return for *CLANDESTINE compensation*, it is sure, no doubt. 

Now situation of Myanmar is “to commit the multiple crimes against its people and the state of CHINA is to protect the criminals again and again in the world forum in response big reward “Strategic-ECONOMY”.

The Republic of China is the most populous nation in the world and more than one-fourth total of the world people are belong to the state of CHINA. 
China is a lovely country and that is why it bears one and half billion populations in it, they do lovely with one another, and promoting economic beings faster than ever before, people guess China will replace the USA, which is the world no. 1 economy, within couple of years. 
Things have been cheerful that CHINA becomes THE might in economy and hope leading to the world in the field of humanities. 

The Republic of China knows that the Rohingyas are the most persecuted people in the world and the consecutive governments have been committing human rights violations against Rohingyas to be driving out, segregating in their localities and at last to be annihilating them right through brutal operations after operations, which have been clearly seen via the *mobile-phone shots* alone by the runners during their trekking to Bangladesh, with the exclusion of world journalists and photographers.

If all media of the word, journalists, and photographers were allowed to the localities, then the conscience people would have imagined how much extent of the dreadful, terrible, horrendous, and nasty scenarios would come out to the sight of the world communities.

Then, why doesn’t the Republic of China concentrate its humanitarian’s attitude to focus to the long standing suffering of Rohingyas people as in line principle of world community to have a final settlement for their peaceful, secured and dignified living in their ancestral land? 
WHY is that?

In reality, the Republic of China should behave a norm of world standard through its practical cooperation with the world community to show its *understanding and compassion* to the persecuted Rohingyas people rather than _*shielding and sheltering*_ the oppressive and suppressive Myanmar brutal regime.

While the entire Rohingyas people, ‘the matter of life and death’ is depend on the table of UNSC, the Republic of China has to choose the right direction *more willingly* than promoting oppositions to the world communities who want to save Rohingyas lives and continue to live in their land with *dignity, peace, harmony and security*.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/myanmar-committed-crimes-and-pay.html


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

10:26 AM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:22 PM, November 08, 2017
*Rohingya crisis: Myanmar says UN move can harm talks with Bangladesh*
*More boats carrying Rohingyas reach Bangladesh*




Myanmar on Wednesday, November 8, 2017, says that the UN Security Council's statement on the Rohingya refugee crisis could “seriously harm” its talks with Bangladesh over repatriating more than 600,000 people who have fled there to escape a Myanmar military crackdown. In this Reuters photo taken yesterday, a Rohingya refugee walks uphill carrying a vessel filled with water at Palongkhali refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Reuters, Yangon
*Myanmar said on Wednesday that the UN Security Council's statement on the Rohingya refugee crisis could “seriously harm” its talks with Bangladesh over repatriating more than 600,000 people who have fled there to escape a Myanmar military crackdown.*
The Security Council had urged Myanmar, in a statement on Monday, to “ensure no further excessive use of military force” and had expressed “grave concern over reports of human rights violations and abuses in Rakhine State”.
*READ more: Myanmar needs to engage with UN, Bangladesh*
Responding, Myanmar's de facto leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, whose less than two year-old civilian administration shares power with the military, said the issues facing Myanmar and Bangladesh could only be resolved bilaterally, a point she says was ignored in the Security Council statement.

“Furthermore, the (Security Council) Presidential Statement could potentially and seriously harm the bilateral negotiations between the two countries which have been proceeding smoothly and expeditiously,” Suu Kyi's office said in a statement.
*Also READ: Act now to solve Rohingya crisis*
Negotiations with Bangladesh were ongoing it said, and the Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali had been invited to Myanmar from November 16-17.

*US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Myanmar a day earlier, on November 15, with moves afoot in Washington to bring a bill calling for sanctions on Myanmar that specifically target the military and related business interests.*

*In a nod to China, the Myanmar statement said it appreciated the stand taken by some members of the Security Council who upheld the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries.*

To appease council veto powers Russia and China, Britain and France dropped a push for the Security Council to adopt a resolution on the situation and the 15-member body instead unanimously agreed on a formal statement.
*More boats reach Bangladesh*
The United Nations has denounced the violence during the past 10 weeks as a classic example of ethnic cleansing to drive the Rohingya Muslims out of Buddhist majority Myanmar.

Rejecting that accusation, the military says its counter-insurgency clearance operation was provoked by Rohingya militants' synchronised attacks on 30 security posts in the northern part of Rakhine State on August 25.

Rohingya refugees say the military torched their villages, but the military say the arsonists were Rohingya militants. The refugees' have given harrowing accounts of rape and murder. Myanmar says those accusations will have to be investigated.

Meantime, the exodus from Rakhine continues. Several thousand Rohingya reached Bangladesh last week, many of them wading through shallows on the Naf river on the boundary between the two countries, and some making a short, but perilous sea crossing in small boats.

On Tuesday, Bangladesh border guards told Reuters of at least two more boats reaching Cox's Bazar, bringing 68 more Rohingya to join the hundreds of thousands who have taken shelter in refugee camps there.

Suu Kyi, a stateswoman lionised as a Nobel Peace Prize winner for defying the junta that ruled Myanmar for decades, has been pilloried abroad for not speaking out more forcefully to rein in the military.

Last week she went to Rakhine for the first time since the crisis erupted, and met with community leaders and saw what efforts were being made to deliver aid and return the region to some semblance of normality.

While she has spoken of plans to open repatriation processing centres, where the refugees will have to prove they were once resident in Rakhine before being allowed to return.

Having been classed as stateless by the military junta that ruled Myanmar for decades, Rohingya could struggle passing the repatriation test.

During recent weeks, authorities began issuing "national verification cards" to people in northern Rakhine. Remaining Rohingya have been reluctant to accept these cards as they do not guarantee citizenship, and would effectively treat them as new immigrants
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...tary-violence-rohingya-refugee-crisis-1488124

03:39 PM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:45 PM, November 08, 2017
*China to help Myanmar in Rakhine fencing*




Union Minister for Border Affairs Lt-Gen Ye Aung visited the construction site of border fencing in Taungpyo Letwei, Maungdaw on September 12. Photo: Eleven Myanmar
Star Online Report
*China will help Myanmar to fence its Rakhine border with Bangladesh, local media reported today.*
China’s Asean Economic and Cultural Association will help in border fencing at Rakhine to meet international standard and to work for regional development, the report said.

Personnel from Hintha Akari Co. from Myanmar, and the association went to Sittwe yesterday and met chairman of Rakhine State parliament and other officials and discussed the matter.

“They visited here to learn more about the current situation. This association is continuously reporting the situation in Rakhine,” said Nwe Nwe Aye, managing director of Hintha Akari Co.

“They will meet with heads of government on November 14 and implement their plans. They will utilize latest modern technology,” Nwe Nwe said.

*In meeting with parliament speaker of Rakhine State, chairman of the association said that as China and Myanmar are neighbors, they are ready to help Myanmar in time of need.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/s...is-china-help-myanmar-rakhine-fencing-1488175

12:00 AM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:50 AM, November 08, 2017
*TIB against taking ADB fund as loan*




Staff Correspondent

*The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has urged the government not to take financial assistance from ADB for the Rohingya refugees if it comes as loan.*
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman in a statement yesterday said this regarding the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) proposal to provide financial assistance to the host country to meet various needs of the Rohingyas who have taken shelter in Bangladesh.

Dr Iftekharuzzaman urged the government to continue all-out diplomatic efforts to collect interest-free grants from all international sources including the ADB for the Rohingyas who have fled to Bangladesh to escape ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar military.

It has been known from media reports that the ADB like the World Bank has also proposed to provide financial assistance to Bangladesh to meet the needs of the Rohingya refugees, he said.

But it is not still clear if the financial assistance would be loan or interest-free grants, he added.

*“If ADB tries to put a burden of loan on Bangladesh in the name of assistance taking advantage of a humanitarian disaster, it would be very sad, inhuman and unacceptable.”*

Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the responsibility of one million Rohingya refugees who have entered Bangladesh falling victim to a planned crime against humanity by the Myanmar government and army does not fall on Bangladesh alone but on the international community as well.

If any international agency or donor country including ADB or the WB is interested to provide financial assistance to Bangladesh in this regard, it must be interest-free grants, he observed.

He added the direct and indirect support of the powerful countries for long have encouraged the Myanmar army to take the barbaric path. Failure of the international community in taking effective steps against Myanmar's killing and barbarity in one hand and continued economic support, investment, development, trade and military assistance on the other have created this serious situation, he observed.

*He said the possibility of the return of the Rohingyas is becoming slimmer day by day.*

The TIB executive director said as a major donor agency of that country the ADB can assert its position so that Myanmar takes back the Rohingyas in the quickest possible time.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/tib-against-taking-adb-fund-loan-1487911


November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:03 AM, November 08, 2017
*TACKLING ROHINGYA CRISIS*
*WB offers both loan and grant*




Rejaul Karim Byron
*At a time when Bangladesh is hosting over a million Rohingya refugees as a show of compassion, the World Bank is offering the country financial aid in a mixed form of loan and grant.*
However, Bangladesh is insisting that the bank's aid come fully as grant.

Amid atrocities on Rohingyas in Myanmar, termed ethnic cleansing by the UN, Bangladesh shared its scarce resources with over 6 lakh Rohingyas, who crossed the border in just over two months since late August, and gave them shelter. 
Over three lakh Rohingya nationals were already in Bangladesh following previous influxes.
*
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) earlier raised its objection at the offer of assistance in the form of loans.*

Yet, a World Bank team has indicated that it may provide financial support of $250 per head for one million Rohingyas staying in Bangladesh, but 50 percent of it will come as grant while the rest will be given as loan. But some top ministry officials expressed their reservation about taking such loans.

A six-member WB mission completed its 14 day visit to Dhaka on Saturday. Finance and other ministry sources said the team made the indication during the visit. Though they did not exactly say how much fund will be provided, it is assumed that the amount may be $250 million to $300 million.

The team which came to Bangladesh on October 22 went to Cox's Bazar and on its return to Dhaka, sat with officials from the relief and disaster management, education, home and health ministries as well as from the local government engineering department.

In the meetings,* the WB said a country may get a maximum of $400 million from the WB refugee window; one-sixth of which will be from regular soft loan allocation and the remaining five-sixth will come from the refugee window*. 
*Fifty percent of the amount will be grant and 50 percent loan.

Relief and disaster management ministry officials proposed giving the whole amount as grant as the assistance is being given on humanitarian grounds*. 
Officials of the other ministries echoed the same view.

Foreign ministry officials said the government has different opinions about taking loans from development partners. It wants quick return of the Rohingyas and as such it has not yet formally announced them as refugees. If the loan is taken from the bank, it would mean allowing the crisis to linger.

Finance ministry officials said a wrap up meeting with the WB mission was held at the Economic Relations Division on Saturday.

The ERD said they will convey their detailed opinion about the assistance after opinion of the ministries concerned is received. 
The WB team will quickly send the draft proposal to the ERD.

A WB document, which outlines the criteria to be eligible for the assistance, does not say Bangladesh has to formally declare the Rohingyas as refugees.
*However, Dhaka has to meet two major criteria to get the fund.

“A country would be eligible if the number of UNHCR-registered refugees, including people in refugee-like situations, is at least 25,000 or it is at least 0.1 percent of the country's population,” according to the documen*t.

In addition to that, it would need to have in place an action plan, strategy or similar documentation that describes concrete steps,* including possible policy reforms.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/wb-funds-mix-loan-grant-1487908

*Foreign ministers from four countries to visit Dhaka for Rohingya crisis*
Sheikh Shahriar Zaman
Published at 03:07 PM November 08, 2017
Last updated at 03:19 PM November 08, 2017




*The foreign minister of Germany, China, Japan and Sweden will visit Bangladesh before visiting Myanmar later this month
The foreign ministers of China, Japan, Germany and Sweden are scheduled to visit Bangladesh to discuss repatriation measures for thousands of displaced Rohingya, who fled to Bangladesh following unrest in Myanmar.*

They will arrive in Dhaka before attending the 13th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ meeting set to be held on November 20 and 21 in Myanmar capital Naypyidaw, a Foreign Ministry official told the Bangla Tribune on Wednesday.

“The four ministers will discuss the latest situation regarding the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, before participating in the ASEM summit,” the official added.

*The ministry official said the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang YI’s plan to visit Dhaka was finalised last Tuesday. 
German Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel and Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström will arrive on November 18.
The Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono will visit Dhaka on November 19.*

“Bangladesh is discussing ways to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis with the international community. We have urged that international pressure continued be mounted on Myanmar regarding this issue,” the official added.

When asked about what stance the member nations of European Union have taken regarding the matter, another official of the foreign ministry said: “Most European countries have given political support to Bangladesh, and have protested Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya people.”

Several European countries have hinted that though the Rohingya issue is not part of the main agendas in the meeting, it will be brought up in a different angle during the summit, the official told the Bangla Tribune.

The government official expressed optimism that if the European countries raise the Rohingya issue in a summit held in Naypyidaw, the pressure on Myanmar government will increase significantly.

Meanwhile, speaking about the issue, an expert on condition of anonymity said: “It is true that Aung San Suu Kyi will get a lot of attention during the ASEM summit.

However, she has little power over the Myanmar government.”

“The refugee crisis was triggered by the actions of Myanmar military, and they are the ones who should feel international pressure over the issue,” he added.

*In can be noted, a delegation from the US senate is scheduled to visit Dhaka on November 18 to assess the refugee crisis situation.*

USA is very vocal about the Rohingya issue. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled to visit Myanmar on November 15 to discuss the issue.

On the other hand, a member of the Saudi royal family is scheduled to visit Cox’s Bazar this November to inspect Rohingya camps situated there.

Canadian Minister for International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau also plans to visit Dhaka on November 21.
_This article was first published on Bangla Tribune._
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad.../11/08/rohingya-four-foreign-ministers-dhaka/


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## Banglar Bir

06:36 PM, November 08, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:56 PM, November 08, 2017
*Dhaka seeks UK support for Rohingya repatriation*




Temporary shelters cover a hill at Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 8, 2017. Photo: Reuters
BSS, Dhaka
*State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam today urged the British government to keep pressure on Myanmar to ensure peaceful and sustainable return of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals from Bangladesh to their home.*
He made the call when a UK delegation led by Ms. Lucy Maria Powel, MP from the UK Labour Party and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Greater Manchester met him this afternoon at the State Guest House, Padma.

During the meeting, Alam expressed gratitude to the British government, different political parties and people for raising strong voice against the oppression on Rohingya people by Myanmar military and for pursuing the matter with the UN Security Council.

He requested the UK delegation to encourage its government to take further initiatives and keep pressure on Myanmar government to stop violence against Rohingya people and sought UK's support for the 3rd Committee resolution on Myanmar in UN Security Council on November 13.

The UK delegation praised Bangladesh for receiving the large number of Rohingya people and assured that British government, House of Commons and people will continue to extend all kind of supports to Bangladesh to solve the problem.

Besides this, they discussed the issues of bilateral cooperation, upcoming Commonwealth Summit to be held in London in early 2018, Brexit issue and significant role of Bangladesh's diaspora in the economy of Bangladesh and the UK.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/d...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

*Breaking 10-year silence, UN Security Council gives Myanmar a month to get its act together *
Source: Xinhua
2017-11-07 23:43:14
Editor: huaxia
by William M. Reilly
*UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday issued a presidential statement both complimenting and criticizing Myanmar for its action and inaction in its violence-wracked Rakhine State and gave the government a month to get its act together.*

In response, Myanmar's representative to the United Nations Hau Do Suan complained that the statement put undue political pressure on his country.

More than 600,000 ethnic Muslim Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in a little over two months from northern Rakhine State following deadly rebel attacks on security posts on Aug. 25 which touched off retribution. The full extent of the violence remains unknown because of the government's restriction on visits to the region.

Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi of Italy, this month's president of the council, read out the 1,300-word statement at a formal session, the first statement on Myanmar in 10 years.

While such an official statement reflects the consensus of the 15 council members, it does not hold the weight of international law like a resolution does.

The statement strongly condemned attacks against the Myanmar security forces carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Aug. 25, then expressed "grave concern" over the government response, the alleged burning of villages and threats to villagers to flee, among others.

The council said the government's primary responsibility is protection of Myanmar's population, citizens or not.

It called for reform in Myanmar's security and justice sectors and urged the government to work with Bangladesh and the UN to allow the voluntary return of refugees to their homes, on the basis of an Oct. 24 memorandum of understanding between the two countries.

The panel welcomed a "union enterprise mechanism" for humanitarian assistance, resettlement and development in Rakhine.

It recommended the government ensure the mechanism supported such return and allow UN agencies full access, urging governments and all humanitarian partners to pay special attention to the needs of women, particularly survivors of sexual violence.

The council also welcomed the Myanmar government's public support for recommendations by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and called for their full implementation.

It urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to consider appointing a special advisor on Myanmar.

But Hau Do Suan expressed serious concern over the statement, which he said would not help resolve the issue as it placed undue political pressure on Myanmar.

The ambassador said the Aug. 25 ARSA attacks involved unspecified foreign militants fighting beside the rebels.

Since those late August attacks and the alleged retribution, more than 600,000 Rohingyas fled in fear of death or mutilation to refuge in make-shift camps in neighboring Bangladesh, UN officials said. Some fled by land, others in leaky boats over an inlet of the Bay of Bengal.

Eventually the UN refugee agency UNHCR and other humanitarian groups with the aid of the government of Bangladesh were able to organize camps in the Cox's Bazar region. The largest is Kutupalong, which now has an extension where new refugees are being sent.

In the last two weeks, 4,000 refugees entered Bangladesh while four people drowned in a shipwreck while fleeing, officials said.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund said it feared disease hitting the untold numbers of malnourished youngsters in the camps.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-11/07/c_136734962.htm


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar cardinal urges Pope to avoid use of the term Rohingya*
Reuters
Published at 02:14 AM November 09, 2017




*The pope is set to visit largely Buddhist Myanmar from November 27 to 30, before going to Bangladesh*
Myanmar’s most senior Catholic prelate has urged Pope Francis to avoid using the term ‘Rohingya’ during a visit this month, when he is expected to raise the humanitarian crisis faced by the ethnic minority after a Myanmar army offensive in August.

The pope is set to visit largely Buddhist Myanmar from November 27 to 30, before going to Bangladesh, where more than 607,000 Rohingya have fled to take shelter in refugee camps.

In the first visit by a pope to Myanmar, Francis will meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who leads a civilian administration that is less than two years old, the generals it has to share power with, as well as leading Buddhist monks.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo told Reuters the pope would raise the need to provide assistance to the Muslim minority, saying, “These are people who are suffering and these are the people in need of help now.”

*Francis has used the term Rohingya when he has spoken about their suffering in the recent past. But Suu Kyi has asked foreign leaders not to use the term Rohingya, because in her view it is inflammatory.*

Bo, appointed by Pope Francis in 2015 as Myanmar’s first and only cardinal, said church leaders in the country had advised him to sidestep the divisive issue of the name.

“We have asked him at least to refrain from using the word ‘Rohingya’ because this word is very much contested and not acceptable by the military, nor the government, nor the people in Myanmar,” Bo said in an interview in Yangon.

It was unclear if the pope would heed the advice, Bo added, but if he did so, it would not be to politicise the issue or endorse the Rohingya right to Myanmar citizenship, “but he just wants to identify this particular group who call themselves ‘Rohingya’.”

Many people in Myanmar regard the largely stateless Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and they are excluded from the 135 “national races” recognised by law.

Regardless of Myanmar’s sensitivities, however, the United Nations and United States continue to call them Rohingya, upholding their right to self-identify.
*Importance of dialogue*
Francis will highlight the importance of resolving the refugee crisis through dialogue between Myanmar and Bangladesh and with the help of the international community, Bo added.

Myanmar has said Rohingya who can prove they were resident would be allowed to return, but the two countries have still to agree how the repatriation should be carried out.

“These are the people who do not enjoy the citizenship and are somewhat unwanted in both countries,” said Bo, referring to Myanmar and Bangladesh.

“They are also human beings, they have a human face and they also need human dignity, so eliminating or killing any one of them, that’s not justified…,” Bo said, referring to the group as “our brothers and sisters”.

Francis will celebrate a mass in Yangon that is expected to draw around 200,000 people, Bo said, adding that Buddhists, Muslims, and those of other faiths were welcome to attend.

Myanmar has about 700,000 Roman Catholics, said Bo, from among a population of more than 51 million.

The United Nations has denounced the violence in Myanmar’s northwest over the past 10 weeks as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, a charge Suu Kyi’s administration has denied, while saying accusations of rights abuses should be investigated.

Myanmar’s military says its counter-insurgency clearance operation was provoked by Rohingya insurgents’ attacks on about 30 security posts on August 25.

In the following days, the pope spoke about “the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters” and asked Catholics to pray for them, adding that they should be given “their full rights”.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/11/09/myanmar-cardinal-urges-pope-avoid-use-term-rohingya/

12:00 AM, November 09, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:30 AM, November 09, 2017
*Food supply gets more challenging*
*Says WFP country director*




Christa Rader
Porimol Palma
*UN food agency sees tough days ahead as it struggles to raise funds for continuing food support for over 800,000 Rohingyas amid conflicts in various parts of the world.*
"We are knocking at the donors' doors on a daily basis. But there are so many emergencies in this world," said Christa Rader, country director of World Food Programme (WFP) in Bangladesh.
*
Of the US$77 million sought by WFP for six months* until February 2018, the international community has confirmed *only US$22 million and pledged US$24 million more.*

*The WFP call is part of the UN appeal for US$434 million, and donors have so far pledged US$ 344 million in total. *

"We hope towards the end of this year some donors will commit some money for the Rohingyas if some money is left over," she said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star at the UN office in the capital on November 7.

She sought more generosity from the international community for the Rohingyas who fled violence in Myanmar and are now in a vulnerable state. 

*Rader, however, says it is not feasible for the donors to continue funding the large number of Rohingyas for an indefinite period and suggested that some of them make their own living.*

The male members of the community can be engaged in establishing the camps in Balukhali of Ukhia, where the Bangladesh government has allocated 3000 acres of land, she said.

Rader said they can also be trained and engaged in producing items needed by the community such as soaps, fuel and stoves. 

*They could also produce goods, including handicrafts, which can be sold in other parts of the country. However, the private sector needs to come forward if that is to happen, she said.

"I think this will be a win-win situation for Bangladesh and the refugees," the UN official said.*

Asked if this would lead to competition in the labour market between the locals and the Rohingyas, especially given the high unemployment rate in Bangladesh, Rader said it was not unlikely.

"But, what to do? This is a dilemma. If some of the refugees are not allowed to make their own living, they would starve... simply starve."

The WFP presently provides 50 kgs of rice, nine kgs of lentils and yellow split peas, and 4 litres of vegetable oil per month for over one lakh households each.

It also provides rice to Action Against Hunger, which in turn prepares hot meals for the new arrivals. New arrivals are also provided with fortified biscuits. The UN Food Agency further provides super cereal food for children under five, pregnant and lactating mothers.
*
The total cost per month for food support is US$12.83 million, WFP said.*

Rader said as there is a shortage of funds, WFP would focus on the most vulnerable people -- small children, nursing women and school-going children -- by providing diversified food through electronic vouchers.

"This will be our focus; not trying to feed a million who could be partially brought into productive jobs," she said.

Mohammad Habibul Kabir Chowdhury, head of Rohingya cell at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, however, said the government has put restrictions on recruitment of the Rohingyas by any Bangladeshi employer as many people in Cox's Bazar are already jobless. 
"We have no plan to engage the Rohingyas in any jobs," he told this correspondent.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/food-supply-gets-more-challenging-1488445


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## Banglar Bir

*UN official tells Trudeau Canada can do more for refugees
Janice Dickson*
Tuesday, November 7th, 2017
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, March 21, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
*The UN’s high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi says he told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during their meeting Monday afternoon that Canada is a “real role model” in terms of supporting refugees, but Canada can do even more.

“He personally has really advocated very strongly and effectively and we want this to continue. I told him I need that,” said Grandi in an interview with iPoliticsat the United Nations High Commission for Refugees [UNHCR] office in Ottawa Monday evening.

Grandi said he and Trudeau discussed the plight of Rohingya Muslim refugees, the possibility of Rohingyas staying in Bangladesh for an extended period of time, and Canada’s newly announced immigration levels.

The Liberal government announced last week it will match donations to registered charities helping Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh until November 28. So far, the government has contributed over $25 million in humanitarian assistance to groups helping Rohingyas.

“I think of course that’s good and that’s a substantive amount. Unfortunately, there will be a need for more,” said Grandi. Since August 25, according to a United Nations estimate, 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar.

Grandi said the UN has appealed for resources until the end of February but that they have to start planning for the rainy season. Grandi called Canada’s contributions a “good start” and said it was one of the first governments to respond to the crisis.

“Unfortunately we need more, and the situation in Myanmar is not easy to solve,” he said. After the atrocities in Myanmar began in late August, a group of human rights activists launched a petition calling on Trudeau to revoke de facto Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s honourary Canadian citizenship.

Grandi said it’s not his place to say whether or not San Suu Kyi should have her Canadian citizenship revoked — or whether it’s a helpful measure — but he believes it’s meant to put pressure on the Myanmar government.

“I think it’s good to convince the Myanmar government to do the right thing, but I don’t know, it’s difficult to say whether this is a helpful measure,” said Grandi.

Grandi also spoke highly of the federal government’s recent pledge to welcome one million immigrants over the next three years.

“Of course it could always be higher, but it is a substantive program,” said Grandi. “Given resettlement is under pressure in the U.S., I think it would have been good to have something more incremental. On the other hand, I know there’s certain flexibility in that figure.”

When Grandi says “flexibility,” he’s referring to emergency cases — such as what Canada did when it welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees within a tight timeline. “We know in case of emergency we can count on the Canadians, that’s very clear.”

Grandi said he and Trudeau also discussed a new initiative that would help women at risk. “There’s so many of them in emergency situations but we need to explore that a little bit more,” said Grandi. The new initiative would aim to resettle women who have suffered violence, rape, forced marriage and psychological violence.

“There’s a quote a lot of unfortunately growing problems of violence against women which requires specific resources and I thought that maybe one of the tools could be resettlement of the most needy cases, but also intervening where people cannot be resettled, like in Bangladesh.”
http://ipolitics.ca/2017/11/07/un-official-tells-trudeau-canada-can-do-more-for-refugees/*


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## Banglar Bir

*UN steps up pressure on Myanmar*
Larry Jagan, November 9, 2017





UN Headquarters
*The United Nations is stepping up pressure on Myanmar to rapidly resolve the violence in its strife-torn western province of Rakhine. 
In a Presidential Statement, released after the UN Security Council discussed the situation in Myanmar at length, the UN condemned the communal violence, demanded that Myanmar end the excessive of military force, and urged the authorities to allow the thousands of refugees who have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to return as quickly as possible.*

Adopted unanimously by the 15-member UN body, the statement avoided the threat sanctions if the situation did not improve, it left Myanmar in no doubt that more is to come if serious measures are not taken soon to resolve the inter-communal violence, reign in the military, respect human rights “without discrimination and regardless of ethnicity or religion, including by allowing freedom of movement, equal access to basic services and equal access to full citizenship for all individuals.”
*Also Read: Myanmar warns U.N. pressure could harm talks with Bangladesh*
Although the UN Security Council stopped short of adopting a strongly worded resolution sponsored by Britain and France and strongly supported by the Muslim countries of the OIC, in deference to Beijing and Moscow’s threat to veto it, the UN is definitely turning up the heat on Myanmar. 

In their statement they suggested that the UN Secretary General consider appointing a Special Adviser on Myanmar – something which the UN had previously, but ended last year at the Myanmar government’s request. The UN Security Council gave formal notice that it would be on the agenda in a month’s time, at which the UN chief Antonio Guterresis to report back on developments.

Myanmar protested that the statement did not sufficiently acknowledge the complexity of the problems in Myanmar and was tantamount to interference. It was based on accusations and false claims of evidence, complained Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN, Hau Do Suan. “It exerts undue political pressure on Myanmar,” he said. “And it fails to give sufficient recognition to the government of Myanmar for its efforts to address the challenges in Rakhine State.”

Nonetheless, the statement still represents the strongest council pronouncement on Myanmar in nearly ten years, and reflects widespread international concern at the plight of the Muslim Rohingya, who face official and social discrimination in this Buddhist-majority country. The sponsors of the resolution see this a first step, and believe the ball is now firmly in Naypyidaw’s court.
*Also Read: Tillerson’s Myanmar visit shows Trump’s renewed interest in South-East Asia*
The UN also condemned the attacks by the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) some nine weeks ago, which sparked the latest violence in Rakhine, which led to the exodus of nearly 700,000 Muslims across the border, alleging the systematic killing, sexual violence and the deliberate destruction of homes by the Myanmar military. For its part, the army denies these allegations and blames the Muslim militants for the carnage.

*However, the UN – after a series of investigations since the first ARSA attacks last October – accused Myanmar’s military of ethnic cleansing.*

The Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. They are not recognized by Myanmar’s government as an ethnic group, which insists they are Bengali migrants from Bangladesh living illegally in the country. They have been denied citizenship since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.

The statement also stressed the importance of transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and “in this regard, the Security Council calls upon the Government of Myanmar to cooperate with all relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and instruments.” Myanmar has refused to allow a UN fact-finding mission, set up the UN human rights council in March to investigate all allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016, and is likely to also investigate the current outbreak of violence.
*Also Read: US lawmakers seek to slap new sanctions on Myanmar military*
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for rights abuses and insists all refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar will be accepted back. The military have also set up their own inquiry into the army’s conduct in Rakhine since the latest violence erupted in late August which far from convincing, and failed to bring any soldiers to book for the allegations of human rights abuses at the time.

Aung San Suu Kyi has insisted that Myanmar did not need further UN enquiries as they were investigating these allegations of abuse internally. More importantly she pointed to the Kofi Annan advisory commission on Rakhine State – appointed more than a year ago – to suggest solutions to the problems of Rakhine. They submitted their recommendations in August, a day before the ARSA launched their attacks on more than twenty border guard posts, leaving more than a hundred dead.

Since then the recommendations have become the blueprint for reconciliation in Rakhine. Foreign leaders in the region and international diplomats often cite the Commission’s report and recommendations as providing an important way forward. It led to the establishment of the Union enterprise for humanitarian assistance, resettlement and development in Rakhine, with Aung San Suu Kyi’ at the helm to oversee their implementation.

The UN referred to both matters in the presidential statement. But they warned that all UN agencies that are providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees, and those involved in their repatriation and resettlement should be given full access. 

It “urged the Governments and all humanitarian partners to pay special attention to the needs of women, particularly survivors of sexual violence.” Similarly, while welcoming Myanmar’s public commitment to implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission, it urged “all parts of the Government of Myanmar to work together to implement these recommendations swiftly and in full.”
*Also Read: Myanmar’s Suu Kyi ‘urges people not to quarrel’ on visit to Rakhine*
So, the UN has certainly stepped up its involvement in seeing Myanmar resolve the problems in Rakhine state. While UN sanctions are not on the table, it does not preclude individual countries from taking further action. Several Western countries have adopted travel bans on Myanmar’s military leaders, with further measures being considered. 

Myanmar’s problems will also feature prominently on other international arenas in the coming days. Once again ASEAN – with its annual meeting about to start in Manila — will also focus on the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and the mass exodus of Muslim refugees. The plight of the Rohingya refugees is also expected to top the discussions when the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits Myanmar later this month.
*RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR*




MYANMAR
*Lack of UN pressure on Myanmar encourages further attacks on Rohingyas*




MYANMAR
*Myanmar warns U.N. pressure could harm talks with Bangladesh*




ISSUES
*Tillerson’s Myanmar visit shows Trump’s renewed interest in South-East Asia*
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/09/un-steps-pressure-myanmar/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya row to Bangladesh as Myanmar’s Suu Kyi runs summit gauntlet*
Reuters | Published: 16:18, Nov 09,2017 




Rohingya refugees sit on a makeshift boat as they wait permission from Border Guard Bangladesh to continue after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at Shah Porir Dwip near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 9, 2017. — Reuters photo
*Blessed by calmer seas, several hundred more Rohingya Muslims on Thursday joined a multitude of refugees in Bangladesh, as calls grew for upcoming regional summits to exert more pressure on Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi to stem the crisis.*
A Myanmar military operation has driven out more than 600,000 Rohingya since late August and the latest refugees to find sanctuary in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh say many thousands more are still trying to leave.

Ariful Islam, of Bangladesh’s Border Guard, said about 200 people arrived on Thursday morning on the stretch of coast he commands at Teknaf, on the southern tip of Cox’s Bazar district.

Abdus Sabir was among a group that came ashore at Shamlapur after a six-hour boat journey, the final leg of an escape begun weeks ago.

‘We fled because the military is still burning our houses,’ Abdus, who had abandoned his home in the Rathedaung region of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, told Reuters.

Nearby, Husain Shorif, from the Buthidaung region, said he had rowed for four hours to help bring across 56 people on a raft cobbled together from bamboo and plastic jerrycans.

‘Some boatmen were asking for huge money we didn’t have. So we made our own boat and came,’ Shorif said, adding that thousands more Rohingya were still stranded at Pa Nyaung Pin Gyi at the mouth of the Naf river.

Reuters were unable to verify that claim as Myanmar’s military has restricted access to northern parts of Rakhine, where it launched a clearance operation it says was aimed at Rohingya militants behind attacks on 30 security posts on Aug. 25, but which UN officials described as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

The storm of opprobrium over the humanitarian crisis will expose Myanmar to more diplomatic pressure, at least from leaders of Muslim-majority countries and the United States, during three summits hosted by Vietnam and the Philippines.

Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar’s less than two-year-old civilian administration, left on Thursday to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Vietnam’s central seaside resort of Danang.

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for standing up to the generals who had ruled the country for nearly half a century, Suu Kyi now effectively shares power with them, under a constitution drawn up in 2008 when junta was still in control, and has little control over what they do.

After Friday’s APEC summit, Suu Kyi will attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping in Manila on Sunday, followed by an East Asia Summit in Angeles, just north of the Philippine capital.

Setting up a regional trade block, and concerns over North Korea’s ambitions to become a nuclear-armed state are summit priorities, but New York-based Human Rights Watch beseeched them to ensure stronger action by Myanmar to end the crisis.

US secretary of state Rex Tillerson will meet Suu Kyi on November 15 for talks on the Rohingya crisis, and they are expected to hold a joint news conference.

‘World leaders shouldn’t return home from these summits without agreeing to targeted sanctions to pressure Burma to end its abuses and allow in independent observers and aid groups,’ Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that referred to Myanmar by its old name.

Adams said the leaders should discuss how to investigate alleged rights abuses and atrocities in Rakhine, and refer them to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The rights group also urged the Security Council to impose an arms embargo, economic sanctions and travel bans targeting Myanmar military officials.

US senators seek to adopt measures for the United States to impose such sanctions.

The Security Council this week opted for a strongly worded statement scolding Myanmar, as diplomats said China and Russia would have vetoed any resolution.

China has publicly supported the Myanmar government’s efforts to ‘maintain stability’ in Rakhine. The stance taken by China and other Southeast Asian governments fighting insurgencies by Muslim militants should spare Myanmar from any harsh spotlight in the summits’ final communiques.

‘On the Rohingya, the leaders will agree that there is no quick fix to the long-standing inter-communal problem with deep historical roots that needs to be carefully managed,’ an ASEAN diplomat told Reuters, adding that the group aimed to deliver $500,000 of relief supplies to Myanmar.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/280...desh-as-myanmars-suu-kyi-runs-summit-gauntlet


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar ignores UNSC presidential statement*




(Photo: AFP)
Min Khant
RB Opinion
*November 9, 2017
On 7 November 2017, Ministry of the Office of the State Counsellor issued a press statement, stating: “The issuance of the Presidential Statement of UNSC, on 5.11.2017, ignores the fact that the issues facing Myanmar and Bangladesh today can only be resolved bilaterally, in an amicable manner, between two neighboring states. *
Furthermore, the Presidential Statement could potentially and seriously harm the bilaterally negotiations between the two countries which have been proceeding smoothly and expeditiously”. 

The truth is that Prime Minister of Bangladesh has declared the world: “The ROHINGYAS refugee problems lie with in Myanmar government alone and Bangladesh has nothing to do or involve in the matter, but Bangladesh prime minister insists the time and again Rohingyas refugees’ influx into the territory of Bangladesh because of the inhumane oppressions and atrocities of Myanmar regime be stopped for the sake of both countries, Myanmar and Bangladesh in the long run”. 

While the state of Bangladesh wants to avoid the unnecessary arguments with Myanmar frequently for the sake of her country and to protect the mass exodus of Rohingyas refugees from Myanmar, It has, of course, proposed some essential & possible recommendations to the government of Myanmar to grant THEM such as: citizenship, safety, peace, dignity, and guaranteed security and stability through safeguarding them by the government of Myanmar not to be repeating mass flow of people into her land, Bangladesh.

Bangladesh being a tiny and populous country, it has to ask the world communities to help provide the necessary assistances to the refugees who have been reaching to her country and it has been undeniable.

Bangladesh has been sheltering and feeding to the Rohingyas refugees of Myanmar with the cooperation of world communities and in that case, the world involvements, proposals, and commitments to solve the Rohingyas issue become the world communities’ concerns now. 

Bangladesh, realizing the past Myanmar governments’ insincerity, irresponsibility, and carelessness to fulfill the agreements, which were stricken previously between them due to Rohingyas refugees repatriation and resettlement, right now, Bangladesh seems it has decided to bring the Rohingyas issues to the world powerful table to be decided and be witness by the world governing body, UNSC for durable solution. 

What are the world communities’ false and that of the Bangladesh in this concerning issue? 
Why does Myanmar show its fury in this regard?

Myanmar government’s irritated announcement against the UNSC presidential statement has shown its *innate nature and double-cross* not to abide the direction of the UNSC meeting result. Myanmar regime’s intention to reach an agreement between the two countries during Bangladesh foreign Minister’s visit to Myanmar (from 16 to 18 November 2017) may be a *cheating time-pass game* that will possibly frustrate world communities, Bangladesh and entire Rohingyas rather than coming out a fruitful agreement for the final settlement as per saying of Myanmar.

Seemingly, Myanmar has *tripartite* powerful executive bodies - the democratically elected government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is responsible to claim world assistance to rebuild the country; Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who holds all the power of the state to destabilize the entire indigenous localities with brutal wars in the name of sovereignty and the last body is *SANGA*, the Buddhist Monks Association, which has been responsible *to tear down Muslim and Christian communities* in the country and all the relevant ministers from the Ministries have been surrendering in a manner of *“ADDRESS LOYALTY”* to MONKS whatever the ministry offices have done, are executing and will be going to do in future due to state affairs. 
IT seems SANGA association is above all and it opposes Rohingyas repatriation by the name of Rohingya IDENTITY.

In particular, The RNDP party chairperson U AYE MAUNG, mentally deranged and tongue-lashing animal surgeon has been very outlandish to annihilate Rohingya communities from Rakhine state with the cooperation of most of the political parties’ affiliations in the country since the commencement of U Thein Sein’s Presidency up to now. 

Right now, Myanmar government has no sense to handle the Rohingyas issue because government itself and all destructive forces against Rohingyas do not interest to pay attention to the world instruction whilst all the internal forces have a belief in CHINA and RUSSIA that they would do against to the orders of the world which are not binding resolution from the world bodies. 

Therefore, deplorably, the last UNSC’ presidential statement is nothing as an *effective instrument* to help solve Rohingyas issue in an urgent manner but the statement is a great INCENTIVE for the government, Rakhine militiamen, Rakhine army AA, Rakhine authorities and Myanmar military forces to be able more and more destructions of the Rohingya people lives and livelihoods to those who are still remaining in their localities within *a 30-day interval*, which UNSC’s presidential statement has awarded the UN Secretary General to collect information from the regime of Myanmar whether it has discharged the orders of the UNSC presidential statement or not . 
Presumably, in the end of a 30-day, UNSG will surely collect more hostile information from the ground committed by all forces of Myanmar who oppose the Rohingyas rights and existence. 

Without delay, to help solve Rohingyas issue within country and for the earlier repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh to their localities in dignity, safety, and guaranteed secured guardianship, the world communities and UNSC are more needed to keep aside the differences among them to adopt the unanimous *binding resolution*. 

Do save the innocent Rohingyas people lives in time and _“Human dignity and lives are above all” _than any lucrative interests and geopolitical strategic importance.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/myanmar-ignores-unsc-presidential.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Lack of UN pressure on Myanmar encourages further attacks on Rohingyas*
SAM Report, November 9, 2017




*The executive director of the International Campaign for the Rohingya (ICR), Simon Billenness, has told Sputnik that the lack of pressure by the United Nations on Myanmar encourages the country’s government to deny the excessive use of force by its military.*
“Given the failure of the UN Security Council to agree on a mere resolution on the Rohingya crisis in Burma, it is clear that this lack of real pressure from the UN on Myanmar will simply encourage the army of Myanmar to continue its attacks on the Rohingya. 
It will also encourage the government to continue to deny the widespread proof of atrocities by the military,” Billenness said.

The head of the non-governmental organization has expressed doubt that the Myanmar authorities would implement its UN Security Council declaration, which urged the Asian nation’s government to stop the excessive use of military force in the state of Rakhine, unless pressured politically or economically.

According to Billenness, Rohingya refugees in neighboring Bangladesh have shared stories of multiple violations perpetrated by Myanmar military forces against civilians.
*Also Read: UN steps up pressure on Myanmar*
“Despite international condemnation, Burmese authorities continue to restrict access to the region for most international humanitarian organizations, a UN fact-finding mission, and independent media,” the head of the ICR said.

The ICR is urging national governments to support a global arms embargo, stop supplying any equipment or providing any training to Myanmar’s military, scrap investment into and deals with military-owned companies and review cooperation with the country’s government.
*Significant Step*
Dr Simon Adams, executive director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, has expressed hope that Myanmar would choose to follow the UN Security Council resolution and stop using excessive force against the Rohingya minority rather than face international isolation.

“Hopefully the Presidential Statement will make the Myanmar authorities realize that there are two paths available to them from here. One leads to further international isolation, bilateral sanctions and the shame of being known as a state guilty of ethnic cleansing. The other is the path of accountability, the rule of law and upholding human rights of all your people, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. I hope they choose the second path,” Adams told _Sputnik_.
*Also Read: Myanmar warns U.N. pressure could harm talks with Bangladesh*
According to the head of the non-governmental organization, the official condemnation by the UNSC was a significant step.

“I hope this very public international rebuke will focus the minds of those in Myanmar who have the power to halt the burning of villages and end the mass displacement of Rohingya civilians,” Adams said.
SOURCE SPUTNIK
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/09/lack-un-pressure-myanmar-encourages-attacks-rohingyas/

*36,673 orphaned children living in Rohingya camps*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 08:46 PM November 09, 2017




*Among the orphans, 12.5% are still shelterless.*
A total of 36,673 orphaned children are now living in the 12 Rohingya camps under Ukhiya and Taknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar, according to a government survey.

Among the orphans, 12.5% are still without any shelter.

The survey also shows that a total 700 adolescent girls are living in an adverse environment at the refugee camps.

The Department of Social Services (DoSS) conducted the survey from September 20 to November 7, dividing the 12 Rohingya camps into 16 areas.

DoSS Database Officer Manjur Morshed told the Dhaka Tribune that about 65.8% children were living with their mothers or other people after losing their fathers in the recent spate of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“About 5,900 children lost their parents in Myanmar while about 500 children were separated from their parents during the crisis. About 17.5% of the orphaned children are living with their relatives, whereas 6.8% children are with their siblings and out of touch with any kind of child-friendly environment,” he added

The government is likely to take up a Tk470.26cr project to nurse the orphans in a secured environment inside the camps, dividing them into seven categories, said DoSS Deputy Director Abu Abdullah Md Wali Ullah, coordinator of the survey. “The categories are: living alone; living with mother; living with relatives; living without any shelter; living with siblings; living with any adult who is not a relative and other circumstances.

“We are at the preliminary stage of the survey. We are now verifying the numbers to come up with more accurate data on the orphans. After that, we will initiate our action plan in line with the instructions of the Ministry of Social Welfare. The project to facilitate foster care is pending for approval.”

The government may provide smart cards to the orphaned children which would help officials have the updated information.

According to the Children Act, any one below the age of 18 is considered to be a child.

The orphaned children are to be taken care of under the provisions of the Orphanages and Widows’ Homes Act.

According to Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, about 625,000 Rohingya refugees entered the country till November 8 since August 25 this year.

Nearly 340,000 Rohingya children are living in squalid conditions in Bangladesh camps where they lack enough food, clean water and health care, says Unicef.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...6673-orphaned-children-living-rohingya-camps/

12:00 AM, November 10, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:25 AM, November 10, 2017
*One step forward, two steps back!*




A Rohingya woman carries a child through Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia on September 28, 2017. PHOTO: AFP
Shah Husain Imam
*It is a supreme irony that victimhood and villainy sometimes get weighed on the same scale with material stake getting the better of the moral imperative. 
Manifestly therefore, the concerns over the Rohingya crisis that most of the world shares with Bangladesh—with the exception of Myanmar—in which they are rooted, have remained at the focal point of global attention, but not of action as such. *
The establishment in Naypyidaw may have been rattled by mounting international pressure to end the collusive violence between the military and the Buddhist vigilantes that has all but emptied Rakhine State of minority Muslims, but the ruling junta is working overtime towards three agendas:
*One*, looking to dictate the size and frequency of repatriation instalments;
*two, *curtail the number of returnees so as not to outnumber the Buddhists in Rakhine State; and *three*, encage them in hamlets to flush them out at intervals as they have done over the years.

In such a context, their return with dignity, honour, livelihood and security can only be guaranteed by relocating them to IOM/UN-supervised safe zones leading to the restoration of their full citizenship rights.

It is in the interest of all concerned—the sending country, the host country, and inter- and intra-regional countries—that a sustainable solution is found to prevent textbook ethnic cleansing episodes against the weak and vulnerable from erupting time and again.

Lately, we have had unanimous condemnatory statements from the United Nations Security Council and the 63rd General Assembly of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association held in Dhaka. Both the statements fell short of “resolutions” obviously for varying reasons, not to mention the difference in the calibration and clout of the respective platforms.

Incidentally, Myanmar, which was called Burma when it was offered the membership of the Commonwealth in 1948, refused to join it in a huff, true to its predilection to comfort in corralled cocoon, so to speak.

So forgetful of the Arakanese ancestry the country's historians have been, that it reads bizarrely amnesic! This is illustrated by the lyricist, singer, poet and translator (of Padmavati) Alaol, a son of Faridpur who had come under the wings of Magan Thakur, the chief minister of Rosang, the old name of Arakan province. The minister became the music disciple of Alaol who had mastered many languages—around the middle of the seventeenth century—to wield considerable influence in the now-troubled Rakhine State.

*A likely veto from China stood in the way of passing a directional resolution by the UN Security Council. 
On the other hand, the CPA, a platform of 52 countries, could not adopt a resolution because of legal and time constraints. *

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has reacted strongly to the UNSC's unanimous statement—softer than a resolution she should be happy about—urging the Myanmar government “to end the excessive military force and inter-communal violence” that has devastated the Rohingya community in Rakhine State.

What betrays a sad lack of gumption on her part is the statement that the UNSC's remarks may obstruct the process of bilateral negotiations that, according to her, were about to get underway.

The UNSC statement, at any rate, has been forward-looking in some aspects. For instance, it has categorically emphasised on the UN refugee agency and other relevant international organisations like IOM to fully participate in a joint working group. This can ensure safe and voluntary return of all Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

The UNSC is “determined” to continue to closely follow the situation in Myanmar. It has requested the Secretary General to brief the council on the developments in Rakhine 30 days after the adoption of the statement.

*The first hurdle is Naypyidaw's insistence on a strict bilateral formation of the joint working group. 
But the sticking point for Bangladesh is involvement of an UN agency in the repatriation process. *

The second point of discord is fundamental in nature: Myanmar's Union Minister for Office of the State Counsellor Kyaw Tint Swe, during his visit to Dhaka, referred to the April 28, 1992 agreement as the basis to take back the refugees who could establish their bona fide residency in Myanmar prior to their departure from Bangladesh. In contrast, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali did not agree to Naypyidaw's proposal of adhering to the criterion of 1992.

The context in 2017 is different with huge numbers being involved. Many of the refugees had left their abodes and rushed to Bangladesh in fear of being killed without any papers whatsoever. Thus, verification will have to be based on a three- tier system: registration of Bangladesh authorities and cards issued by them; verification from Myanmar's side and the UNCHR's inputs from both the Myanmar and Bangladesh sides.

The Myanmar government's commitment, to ensure that the humanitarian assistance and development work undertaken by the Union Enterprise Mechanism, is provided for the benefit of all communities, may be taken with a pinch of salt. Remember, Aung San Suu Kyi's spearheading speech after a long silence: it made a point about multiple priorities on her hand implying, one may infer, that she has to distinguish between the major and the minor, an apologia for not keeping abreast of happenings in Rakhine, one would have thought.
_Shah Husain Imam is an adjunct faculty at East West University, a commentator on current affairs and former associate editor at The Daily Star. 
Email: shahhusainimam@gmail.com_
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/pleasure-all-mine/one-step-forward-two-steps-back-1488907

2:00 AM, November 10, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:56 AM, November 10, 2017
*Address Rohingya crisis at APEC, ASEAN meets*
*Rights body urges world leaders*





A group of Rohingya refugees, who fled from Myanmar by boat last night, walks towards a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar. Photo: Reuters
Diplomatic Correspondent
*Human Rights Watch has called on world leaders meeting in two summits in the Philippines and Vietnam to address the Rohingya crisis.*
Heads of government from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), including the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Canada, Australia, and Mexico, would be meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, today.

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) would be meeting in Manila, Philippines, on Sunday for the 31st Asean Leaders Summit. They were scheduled to hold side-summits, with the US, European Union, Japan, and South Korea, on November 13-14.

“The Rohingya crisis is among the worst human rights catastrophes in Asia in years and demands concerted global action,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

“World leaders shouldn't return home from these summits without agreeing to targeted sanctions to pressure Burma [Myanmar] to end its abuses and allow in independent observers and aid groups.”

HRW said leaders at the Asia summits should jointly call on the Myanmar government to allow access to northern Rakhine State by the UN fact-finding mission created by the Human Rights Council in 2016, as well as other UN human rights and humanitarian staff.

Meanwhile, foreign ministry officials in Dhaka expects that the ongoing humanitarian crisis would expose Myanmar to more diplomatic pressure, at least from world leaders, including the US, during the three summits hosted by Vietnam and the Philippines.

They said it would not be possible to get Myanmar to resolve the crisis without continuing pressure on the country.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres would be attending parts of the Asean and related summits in the Philippines while Myanmar de facto leader Suu Kyi would be meeting Asean leader in the Philippines after the APEC summit.

According to the HRW, the UN Security Council "should impose an arms embargo and targeted economic sanctions and travel bans on military officials implicated in the atrocities".

The council should now take more meaningful action, but in the meantime governments concerned, especially those in Asia, could take coordinated bilateral or multilateral action to impose targeted sanctions and travel bans, the rights group added.

Leaders gathering in Asia should also discuss the creation of judicial mechanisms to hold perpetrators of abuses in Myanmar accountable, including via the General Assembly and Human Rights Council. The Security Council should refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.

“The International Criminal Court was created precisely to deal with crimes against humanity like those being committed in Burma,” Adams said. “Members of the Security Council attending the Asia summits should be discussing referring the situation in Burma to The Hague.”

Meanwhile, the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an editorial titled “Asean has an obvious role in Rohingya crisis” said representatives of the platform need to address the crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state at its root causes.

Among the 10 member-countries of Asean, only Malaysia had displayed courage, it said.
*TRUDEAU TO MEET SUU KYI*
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the APEC summit in Vietnam, according to a report of Canadian Press.

This would be their first meeting since a crackdown by security forces that began on August 25 and has forced over 600,000 Rohingyas to take shelter in Bangladesh. About 200 entered Bangladesh just yesterday morning.

Bob Rae, Canada's special envoy for the Rohingya crisis, is scheduled to brief Trudeau on his findings in Myanmar at the APEC leaders' summit. Rae is also expected to use the 21-member APEC event to meet other regional players to push for a co-ordinated solution to the crisis.

Trudeau had said that he reached out to Suu Kyi about the atrocities being committed against the Rohingya.

Meanwhile, the Liberal government has come under pressure to strip Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...ress-rohingya-crisis-apec-asean-meets-1489084


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Why is Burma driving out the Rohingya — and not its other despised minorities?*
By Navine Murshid November 9 at 7:00 AM
Why is Burma [URL='https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/rohingya']attacking only the Rohingya?[/URL]
As the Burmese military drives out upward of 600,000 Rohingya in what one United Nations official called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” most media analyses correctly highlight ethno-religious discrimination and economic motives.

But that leaves us with the question: Why only the Rohingya? Burma, also known as Myanmar, has other hated ethnic groups. Since the country first gained independence from the British in 1948, its government has been fighting the Karen, the Karenni, the Kachin, the Shan and the Mon. Those ethnic groups have had armed militias for decades. The Rohingya only recently spawned a small armed group — and most Rohingya disapprove of their methods.

So why are the Rohingya being so brutally singled out? The answer lies in Burma’s peculiarly stratified hierarchy of citizenship.

*In addition to full citizens, Burma has several less-than-full citizenship categories*

In 1982, Myanmar passed a citizenship law that institutionalized a social hierarchy of full citizens, “associate citizens,” “naturalized citizens” and “resident foreigners” — complete with different-colored identity cards for each status. The law was part of a campaign of “Myanmafication_,”_ which included the later name change from Burma to Myanmar, whose ostensible goal was to include ethnic groups beyond just the Burmans — although Burman language and culture defined this nationalism.

_[5 things you need to know about the Rohingya crisis — and how it could roil southeast Asia]_
The quotes below are taken from a Human Rights Watch explanation, which includes more detailed information, as well.

*Citizens* “belong to one of the national races or whose ancestors settled in the country before 1823, the beginning of British occupation of Arakan State.” National races refer to indigenous groups with a heritage of linguistic and cultural competence, from which 1960s leader General Ne Win fashioned a Burmese nationalism that united disparate ethnic groups. These include the Karen, Mon, Shan and Chin.
*Associate citizens *have “one grandparent, or pre-1823 ancestor, [who] was a citizen of another country.”
*Naturalized citizens* are those who can “provide ‘conclusive evidence’ that he or his parents entered and resided in Burma before independence in 1948. Persons who have at least one parent who holds one of the three types of Burmese citizenship are also eligible.”
*Resident foreigners *have no citizenship rights at all. They cannot hold public office, move freely about the country or enroll in higher education.
 *Play Video 5:06. Click on link below:*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...pised-minority-groups/?utm_term=.dea2916c2793

A Rohingya man escaped Burma, scared and badly burned. Then he went back for his mother.
Mohammad Ilias, a Rohingya Muslim refugee, escaped from Burma after its security forces began burning down his village on Aug. 26. In the chaos, he was separated from his mother. A week later, he went back for her. (Maher Sattar, Joyce Lee/The Washington Post)

*Other ethnic groups rebelled but accepted the classifications. The Rohingya challenged the system wholesale. *

The Karen, Mon, Shan and Chin, designated as “national ethnic groups,” have long taken up arms against a state they see as oppressive and are fighting for some form of self-determination, such as autonomy or independence. But they accept the state’s position that the Rohingya are “resident foreigners,” ineligible for even second-class citizenship because they do not have documents such as birth certificates and land titles. The poor often lack these documents simply because they often don’t own property and traditionally have home births. That the other groups buy into the othering of the Rohingya suggests that they have internalized the social hierarchy that grants them citizenship rights.

However, the Rohingya refused theirs. Before 1982, they were de facto citizens; now they are classified as resident foreigners. The government claims they are Bengali Muslims who didn’t arrive in the region until British colonial rule, between 1823 and 1948. If so, under the citizenship law, they should be able to become associate or, at least, naturalized citizens.

But in the 1980s, claiming that their roots go back to the eighth century, if not earlier, the Rohingya challenged the entire hierarchy and demanded full citizenship — and equal rights. They understand that Burma’s citizenship law renders them stateless — and are calling for it to be amended.

*The Burmese government says the Rohingya are violent terrorists*

The Burmese government apparently sees this as an existential threat to its system, more problematic than the effort of others to break away from central control.

That’s not what the government says, of course. Rather, the government and some observers point to the Rohingya Solidarity Organization or the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and argue that the Rohingya are violent, militant terrorists.

However, my interviews with Rohingya refugees corroborates research that shows how few Rohingya agree with or belong to these organizations, disagreeing among themselves how best to gain full citizenship. Most are focused on mere survival.
_[There’s a massive humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps]_
*
Unfortunately, not just the military junta of Burma but also the Bangladeshi government and many among the NGO and aid community believe that the Rohingya have terrorist ties.* 
In 2008, I spoke to officials at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Washington and in Bangkok about durable solutions to the Rohingya crisis. A number agreed that these claims of ties with Islamic terrorism are dubious and unsubstantiated — but said that because they have been made, the prospects for resettlement in the developed world are nil. Many categorically said that only Bangladesh could provide a durable solution to the crisis, which leaves the fate of hundreds of thousands of refugees in the hands of one of the poorest nations in the world.

_[Why the Rohingya will continue to flee Myanmar — even if we try to deter them]_




The story must be told.

*Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation — both internationally and domestically
Play Video 3:06

Aung San Suu Kyi's fall from grace*
Why has Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate and Burma's de facto civilian leader, been so unwilling to condemn the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in her country? (Joyce Lee, Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post)

Interestingly, state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and not the military junta, has taken much of the flak for the ethnic cleansing campaign, even though she has little control over the military. The daughter of a prominent Burmese politician, Suu Kyi gained a reputation as a champion of human rights and democracy since the late 1980s, when the authoritarian Burmese government held her under house arrest for demanding democratic reforms. That international image is now wearing thin.

During my fieldwork in 2008 and 2012, I learned that Burma’s minority ethnic activists didn’t see her as a national hero the way international observers did. Rather, they believed her to be a Burmese nationalist who supported the official system of unequal citizenship. Some pointed as evidence to her failure to speak up for the Rohingya who had supported her democratic campaign. They told me that democracy without ethnic power-sharing would not bring peace, and they doubted whether she could or would shed her nationalism and help arrange full equality.
_Navine Murshid is associate professor of political science at Colgate University and author of “Politics of Refugees in South Asia: Identity, Manipulation, Resistance” (Routledge, 2014)._
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...pised-minority-groups/?utm_term=.dea2916c2793


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh wants permanent solution for Rohingya crisis*



ANTALYA, TURKEY - NOVEMBER 9: The head of the Red Crescent in Bangladesh Mohammad Habibe Millat speaks to press during the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) General Assembly meetings in Antalya, Turkey on November 9, 2017. The head of the Red Crescent in Bangladesh has described the Rohingya refugee crisis as the “biggest man-made disaster in the world”. (Murat Kula - Anadolu Agency)
_By_ Seyit Ahmet Aytac
Anadolu Agency
November 9, 2017
*Head of Red Crescent in Bangladesh says world needs to present united front to resolve refugee issue
ANTALYA, Turkey* -- The head of the Red Crescent in Bangladesh has described the Rohingya refugee crisis as the “biggest man-made disaster in the world”.

Mohammad Habibe Millat said his country was doing all it could to assist more than 611,000 Rohingya Muslims who have crossed the border from Myanmar since Aug. 25 but that this was “not the permanent solution”.

Speaking at a summit of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) General Assembly in Antalya, southern Turkey, he said: “From Aug. 25, more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims, most of them women and children, crossed the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

“This is a biggest manmade disaster in the world. We as government of Bangladesh and Red Crescent Society try to do our best and open our border for them for humanitarian reasons.
“We will do everything to help Rohingya muslims as much as we can, but this is not the permanent solution.”
*
He said the approaching winter raised fears about the welfare of the refugees housed in makeshift camps along the border*.

The refugees have fled a military operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages.
Speaking in September, the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali said around 3,000 Rohingya had been killed in the crackdown.
*
Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised the issue at the UN*.
Millat, who is also a Bangladeshi lawmaker, praised First Lady Emine Erdogan for her visit to the camps in September.
*- Permanent solution*
“I want to thank her as the first high-level person to visit the camps. One of the refugee women told in front of the first lady that they’ve been tortured.
“They are lucky to survive and cross the border. Turkey and its institutions work hard to solve this crisis. 
*Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey’s efforts make things little easier, but still we have longway to go.”*

He praised the efforts of the IFRC in providing humanitarian aid to the refugees.
“We will continue to support and help the Rohingya Muslims as much as we can but we are low-middle income country. 
*The international community should remember that.*

*“We thank the government and the people of Turkey for their very kind gesture and we appreciate it.”
Millat called for the world to “speak with the same voice and put pressure on the Myanmar government, that is probably the permanent solution.”*

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.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings and disappearances committed by security personnel.
In a report earlier this year, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
The IFRC General Assembly concludes on Saturday.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/bangladesh-wants-permanent-solution-for.html


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## Banglar Bir

ROHINGYA CRISIS
*Home truths about Dhaka’s foreign policy
Notwithstanding the fact that the UNSC’s unanimous affirmation backed by China has strongly condemned the Rohingya crisis, albeit without threatening sanctions, expressing “grave concern” over rights violations and called on Myanmar to rein in military operations, quite unexpectedly Myanmar has hit back at the statement saying it could “seriously harm” efforts to repatriate the Rohingya minority from Bangladesh.*

In the interim public health situation among the multitudes of refugees in Cox’s Bazar may assume epidemic proportions, and the WHO has reported on October 21 that 77 Rohingyas died of different diseases between August 25 and October 21 and by now the figure must have swelled. Some 6,15,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh in the new influx what the United Nations called the world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency.
The new influx of refugees has totalled to 10.24 lakh entering Bangladesh since 1978.

Incontrovertibly, it is an unbearable economic and logistic burden thrust upon Bangladesh by Myanmar government run to all intents and purposes by Aung San Suu Kyi and the military.

Having been taught Philosophy—-which in essence deals with the fundamental nature of knowledge, principles of ethics, moral values, existence etc at St. Hugh’s College in England—- regrettably, alas, Suu Kyi did not learn that pogrom, persecution, mass murder, ethnic cleansing verging on genocide of the minority disadvantaged Rohingya Muslims are crimes against humanity.

She ought to have known that Ethnic cleansing—- a policy carried out by strong states to mould the demographic map—-is related to genocide, but ethnic cleansing is focused more closely than genocide on geography and on forced removal of ethnic or related groups from particular areas.

The greatest overlap or common characteristics between ethnic cleansing and genocide takes place when forced removal of population leads to a group’s destruction. [Vide The Oxford Genocide Studies edited by Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses and published in May 26, 2010].

In her publicised speech full of untruth, trumped-up story and barefaced lie Suu Kyi—-reported to be an Islmophobic for her anti-Muslim statement—-brazenly trivialised and deprecated the anti-Rohingya pogrom characterised by arson, rape, shooting down and so forth perpetrated by the military and the Buddhists. Suu Kyi said:

“There had been no clashes or clearance operations in the northern state since 5 September; the government had made efforts in recent years to improve living conditions for all people in Rakhine including Muslims”.

Closing her eyes to numerous video footages of the BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Al Jazeera, Reuters, AP, AFP, DPA and thousands of words of news stories datelined Rakhaine in Myanmar, this so-called educated lady barefacedly said, “Most Muslims had decided to stay and that this indicated the situation was not so severe.” Suu Kyi parroted the military which says its operations in Rakhine are aimed at rooting out militants, and has repeatedly denied targeting civilians—-countering witnesses, over half a million refugees and journalists who have contested this.

Why not watch the print and video report on the spot in Rakhaine by Jonathan Head, the BBC’s Southeast Asia Correspondent, ‘A Muslim village was burning’, 7 September 2017 [bbc.com/news/ world-asia-41189564]?

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been stripped of her Oxford honour owing to her shameful stance on the Rohingya Muslims. A confirmed Muslim hater Islamophobic after her BBC interview with Mishal Husain, presenter of HARDTALK, last year, Suu Kyi said that she “needs ‘solid evidence’ of violence against Rohingya Muslims.”

Two years back the weekly Holiday congratulated Suu Kyi on her polls win and suggested that she resolve the Rohingya Muslim problem. This paper wrote, the Rohingyas of Arakan had supported Suu Kyi’s NLD candidates in the past and they won all the 23 seats of Arakan some years ago. But Rohingya Muslims’ loyalty, allegiance, courtesy and love have backfired now! [Vide Ms Suu Kyi’s victory vis-à-vis Rohingya Muslims, November 13, 2015.]

It is deplorable to see such a spineless namby-pamby Suu Kyi—-once-upon-a-time under house arrest for 15 years in her home spending her time playing on the piano, reading, and occasionally receiving foreign dignitaries like Hilary Clinton as well as erstwhile top Myanmar leaders General Than Shwe and General Khin Nyunt—-who has stooped so low as to endorsing falsehood. Let alone human values, she has climbed onto the bandwagon of the bloodthirsty military.

This is as a consequence of Suu Kyi’s abominably indefensible sheer lust for subordinate power under the military. The Rohingya have been referred to as the world’s “most friendless people” and are undoubtedly in need of protection. For decades, they have faced persecution and been denied citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Though 20-year-old Malala Yusufzai, the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, on 3 September 2017 told her fellow Nobel laureate, 72-year-old Suu Kyi that the “world is waiting” for her to act over unrest that has seen tens of thousands of people flee into neighbouring Bangladesh”. But insensitive stone-hearted Suu Kyi has not budged an inch.

Genocide, as theorists say, does not of necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, and the economic existence of national groups. 

This is exactly what is happening in Myanmar concerning which the government in *Dhaka, instead of seeking directive from New Delhi, should put its foot down and calibrate or recalibrate its own book of diplomacy and foreign policy based on the credo: 
Friendship to all, malice to none.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=4&date=0#Tid=15074*


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 10, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, November 10, 2017
*EDITORIAL*
*Repatriation of Rohingyas*
*Myanmar looking for excuses*




*The communiqué issued by Aung San Suu Kyi in response to a UN Security Council statement is disappointing. It is yet another reminder that Myanmar's government is looking for excuses to delay the resolution of the crisis.*
Suu Kyi emphasises on solving the crisis 'bilaterally, in an amicable manner' with Bangladesh. That the US secretary of state and Bangladesh's foreign minister are poised to visit Myanmar soon seemed to match the statement. 

However, it is hardly surprising that the Myanmar government caught the very first opportunity to lash out at the international community instead of reining in military operations in Rakhine State that have pushed hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to Bangladesh. 

The State Counsellor's statement argues that the UNSC statement, despite being watered down, hampers the bilateral efforts to repatriate Rohingyas from Bangladesh. 
In fact, it is Myanmar, whose acts threaten to derail efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement of Rohingya crisis. 

Since Aung Sun Syu Kyi first expressed her willingness to repatriate Rohingyas in September, Myanmar government has raised different conditions during repatriation talks with Bangladesh, rather than agreeing to the categorical return of Rohingyas. 
Last week, Myanmar even ridiculously accused Bangladesh of delaying repatriation process. This betrays the actual intention of the Myanmar government and its lack of commitment to resolve the crisis. 

*Naypyidaw must refrain from using dubious tactics to avoid its responsibility of taking Rohingyas back. At the same time, it must create the conditions where Rohingyas will feel safe to return.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/repatriation-rohingyas-1488910


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## UKBengali

Banglar Bir said:


> 12:00 AM, November 10, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, November 10, 2017
> *EDITORIAL*
> *Repatriation of Rohingyas*
> *Myanmar looking for excuses*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *The communiqué issued by Aung San Suu Kyi in response to a UN Security Council statement is disappointing. It is yet another reminder that Myanmar's government is looking for excuses to delay the resolution of the crisis.*
> Suu Kyi emphasises on solving the crisis 'bilaterally, in an amicable manner' with Bangladesh. That the US secretary of state and Bangladesh's foreign minister are poised to visit Myanmar soon seemed to match the statement.
> 
> However, it is hardly surprising that the Myanmar government caught the very first opportunity to lash out at the international community instead of reining in military operations in Rakhine State that have pushed hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to Bangladesh.
> 
> The State Counsellor's statement argues that the UNSC statement, despite being watered down, hampers the bilateral efforts to repatriate Rohingyas from Bangladesh.
> In fact, it is Myanmar, whose acts threaten to derail efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement of Rohingya crisis.
> 
> Since Aung Sun Syu Kyi first expressed her willingness to repatriate Rohingyas in September, Myanmar government has raised different conditions during repatriation talks with Bangladesh, rather than agreeing to the categorical return of Rohingyas.
> Last week, Myanmar even ridiculously accused Bangladesh of delaying repatriation process. This betrays the actual intention of the Myanmar government and its lack of commitment to resolve the crisis.
> 
> *Naypyidaw must refrain from using dubious tactics to avoid its responsibility of taking Rohingyas back. At the same time, it must create the conditions where Rohingyas will feel safe to return.*
> http://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/repatriation-rohingyas-1488910




"At the same time, it must create the conditions where Rohingyas will feel safe to return."

This will be impossible without UN peacekeepers or BD annexation of Northern Arakan. Barmans are uncivilised savages as has been proved up to the present day. Fundamentally Rohingya land will need to be eventually annexed to BD to secure the lives and well-being of the ethnic Rohingyas, who have a better claim to the land than Barmans.

Reactions: Like Like:
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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Blogger*




__ https://www.facebook.com/




*The U.S. Congress moved to pressure the Burmese military into ending the crisis facing the Rohingya, in a bipartisan effort that proposes a range of options aimed at ending the violence against the Muslim minority. 
The bill would impose new sanctions, cutting off U.S. cooperation with the military while funding economic assistance. 
VOA's congressional reporter Katherine Gypson sat down with the co-sponsors of the bill to learn more.*

*Amid 'deep concern' for Rohingya refugees, Trudeau meets with Myanmar leader Suu Kyi*
*CBC News Posted: Nov 10, 2017 7:48 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 10, 2017 12:28 PM ET*




*Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi greets Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Da Nang, Vietnam, where leaders have gathered for the start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. (CBC)
Related Stories
Trudeau to meet with Myanmar leader Suu Kyi at APEC summit Friday*
*Special envoy Bob Rae urged to enlist Myanmar's neighbours to help stop crackdown on Rohingya muslims*

*What awaits Bob Rae? Abused Rohingya living in epic squalor in Bangladesh*

*Some 600,000 refugees later, Ottawa digs in on dealing with Myanmar on Rohingya crisis*

*'Human rights nightmare' in Myanmar could spread, UN chief warns
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his special envoy to Myanmar, Bob Rae, met with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday, before the start of APEC trade talks in Da Nang, Vietnam.
During the 45-minute meeting, they talked about Suu Kyi's perceived inaction on the Rohingya refugee crisis, which has seen hundreds of thousands of Rohingya flee from Myanmar's Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh in the face of violence at home.

Rae told reporters after that Trudeau was forthright about the level of violence and the extent of the problems causing people to flee.

"From my point of view that was extremely important for her to hear, directly from Canada's prime minister. I think it was also important for us to hear her out," Rae told reporters.




Bob Rae, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's special envoy to Myanmar, said Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi told him she is committed to helping bring the Rohingya home. 
He also said she should offer reassurances they will be safe. (CBC)

"From her perspective, she's doing what she can in a difficult circumstance. I think it's fair to say that we feel that more needs to be done and more could be done."

The former Ontario premier and interim Liberal leader says resolutions will be raised at the United Nations General Assembly, the main policy-making body of the UN.

"These are not judgments that are unique to Canada, we're not alone in raising these questions," Rae said.

The meeting comes as Myanmar faces allegations of large-scale human rights abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority population in the predominately Buddhist nation.

Special envoy Bob Rae urged to enlist Myanmar's neighbours to help stop crackdown on Rohingya Muslims*

*Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate and an honorary Canadian citizen, has been criticized for not speaking out against the violence aimed at Rohingya Muslims in her country, which the UN calls ethnic cleansing.

Trudeau spoke to Suu Kyi in September amid questions about her leadership at a time when many were accusing the country's military of carrying out ethnic cleansing against this long-persecuted group.

During that call, Trudeau "stressed the particular importance of the state counsellor as a moral and political leader," according to a readout.

Last month, Trudeau announced Rae would visit Myanmar on a fact-finding mission and report back on what role Canada can play in ending the humanitarian crises in the Southeast Asian country.




Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waves as he arrives in Hanoi on Wednesday. *

*The two-day state visit ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit marked only the second meeting between the two countries' leaders since the end of war in 1975 and the normalization of relations. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-meeting-aung-san-suu-kyi-vietnam-1.4396538*


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 11, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:13 AM, November 11, 2017
*Rohingya children face harsh reality*
*36,373 orphaned children are now living in and around refugee camps; many are at risk of abuse, trafficking*




Rohingyas from Myanmar cross the Naf River with an improvised raft made of empty plastic jerrycans to reach Teknaf of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Martin Swapan Pandey
*When much of the camp around her is still fast asleep, Radia, 12, wakes up at 5:00am and quickly buries herself in her Quran study. Throughout the day, she spends as much time as she can -- eight to ten hours daily -- memorising the Arabic texts.*
“This way, I try not to remember the things I have been through. But it doesn't work all the time,” she says, pain etched on her face.





Radia
Both her parents were shot and killed by the Myanmar army inside their home at Throngbazar of Busidaung in the Rakhine State as the family was trying to escape the military crackdown in early September.

Amid intense firing, she hid in a nearby hill with some relatives. They came out of the hiding to bury her parents after the army left, said Radia, who reached Cox's Bazar two months ago after trekking through hills and jungles for 12 days.

She is one of the 325 kids -- 171 girls and 154 boys -- now sheltered in the Orphanage for Refugee Rohingya Children in Ukhia's Balukhali Camp-2. Aged between eight and 14, they lost both or either of their parents in the military offensive or do not know where their parents are.

But this is only a tiny fraction of the Rohingya children who have lost their parents, many for ever. In a survey, the social welfare ministry found 36,373 such children in the refugee camps as of November 8.

“We are now verifying the list,” said Md Nikaruzzaman, upazila nirbahi officer of Ukhia, adding that it was possible that parents of many of these children were alive but had been separated from their kids while fleeing the violence.

“Parents of some of these children may well be somewhere in the refugee camps,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.
*RISK OF TRAFFICKING, ABUSE*
But finding their parents will not be easy. Many of these children are too young to tell their parents' names or any other particulars. Also, 4.5 lakh of the refugees have been registered biometrically so far -- less than half of nearly one million Rohingyas now living in tents and under tarpaulin sheets in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar. It is not yet clear how many of the children have lost their patents to the military operation.

At the moment, most of these children are living with their relatives or neighbours or in centres run by aid agencies such as Save the Children.




Refugees, including women and children, get off the raft at Sabrang point in Teknaf. Photo: Reuters

But with so many children living without their parents, aid workers and government officials are worried about trafficking and abuse. They fear that some of these children may also be used to carry drugs, such as yaba tablets smuggled in from Myanmar, inside and outside the camps.

“Such risks are there, but we are alert. After we finalise the list and determine how many kids have lost their parents in the violence, we will decide on how they can be integrated with the Rohingya community. They should not be separated from the society,” Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Md Abul Kalam said.
*NO ESCAPING THE PAST*
In the orphanage set up by Beximco Pharmaceuticals and managed by Indian charity UNITED SIKHS, Radia talks little and made hardly any friends.

Nafiza Ferdowshi, assistant professor of educational and counselling psychology at Dhaka University, said these were signs of trauma that would have long-term impacts on these children. Some may even start showing the signs five or ten years later.

Radia tries her best to follow the instructions as 10 teachers -- all of whom taught in madrasas in Rakhine until they themselves fled the violence -- take turns to give the children lessons on Quran and Hadith.

But all of this is new to her -- the place, the teachers, neighbours, everything. Back home, she used to go to school with her friends, with whom she would play marbles in the afternoon.

Does she have those marbles with her? She shakes her head. No matter how hard she tries to concentrate on her Quran studies to forget her past, some memories are constant.

She remembers, for example, how she fled for life as her parents lay dead or how hastily she buried them to avoid being seen by the army or the local vigilantes.

Nafiza warned that children like Radia would be in a life-long trauma if they did not get proper care, counselling and protection. Because they are vulnerable, it will be easy to exploit them and they will face problems in family bonding and trusting others.

Because they have seen things such as torture and killing at an early age, they will always be haunted by fear, even if they are safe or have food and shelter, she added. “Scenes of such violence may even appear in their dreams.”

*Radia is already showing some of these signs. And she has a recurring dream: her parents getting shot as Myanmar burns.
Every time she has this dream, she wakes up, shudders in panic, cries and tries to sleep again.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...-rohingya-children-face-harsh-reality-1489414


2:00 AM, November 11, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:15 AM, November 11, 2017
Aid access still challenging
Says UN official about humanitarian efforts in Myanmar's Rakhine state
Diplomatic Correspondent
Though the Myanmar authorities have agreed to allow the UN to resume food distribution in Rakhine, aid access in the state remains extremely challenging, says the UN.
“Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that aid access in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state remains extremely challenging, with the UN being granted almost no access by the government,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

The international Red Cross movement (ICRC) was able to continue providing assistance in the area, he said.

“However, the needs remain high, with the Red Cross movement aiming to reach more than 180,000 people with assistance by the end of the year. Further humanitarian access and assistance is urgently needed.”

Dujarric said the UN secretary-general has called for “full and unfettered access for aid workers in Myanmar, including in Rakhine State, to ensure that all those in need receive assistance.

As a result of the overall limitations on access, the UN could not conduct an independent comprehensive needs assessment in Rakhine, he told journalists.

According to a latest report of US Agency for International Development (USAID), the military operations in Rakhine since August 25 have caused severe food insecurity and mass displacement.

Meanwhile, several hundred more Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar yesterday. According to the local administration, nearly 700 Rohingyas arrived in Cox's Bazar through Shah Porir Dwip point of the Naf river.
ADDRESS HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS
Four UN human rights experts have called upon ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) states, including Myanmar, to address pressing human rights issues during the 31st ASEAN Summit being held in the Philippines from November 10-14.

Recognising the important work of many civil society organisations across the region, the experts expressed concern about “a worrying deterioration in the environment in which they operate”.

They expressed worries over the rising numbers of cases of serious human rights violations in ASEAN states. They also urged the countries to do more to protect all vulnerable groups, reminding governments that inclusion and meaningful participation are elements of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The UN experts are Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association Annalisa Ciampi, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst.
CONCERN OVER TERROR RECRUITMENT
ASEAN defence ministers have voiced concern that Rohingya refugees might be recruited by terrorists. They have urged the ASEAN states to do extra concerning the matter, said Philippines' Secretary of National Defence Delfin Lorenzana, reports InterAksyon, an online news portal of the Philippines.

He was speaking at a programme titled “ASEAN Leadership Amid a New World Order”, hosted by the Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute, at a Manila hotel on Wednesday.

Lorenzana said the matter was amongst a number of considerations raised throughout the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting and ADMM (ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting)-Plus -- a platform of defense ministers from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the USA.

“The consensus was for Myanmar to do more to resolve these issues. Because ASEAN says that the concern of ASEAN is that these refugees might find their way into some terrorist camps and train, and then they will train the other camps in the region, and it will become a problem,” the Philippine defence secretary said.
VACCINATION EFFORTS STEPPED UP
An increase in the number of suspected measles cases among the newly arrived Rohingyas and their host communities in Cox's Bazar has prompted the Bangladesh government and UN partners to step up immunisation efforts in overcrowded camps and makeshift shelters close to the border with Myanmar, according to a joint press release of WHO and Unicef released yesterday.

It said nearly 360,000 people, aged between six months and 15 years, among the new Rohingya arrivals in Cox's Bazar and their host communities, irrespective of their immunisation status, would be administered measles and rubella vaccines through fixed health facilities, outreach vaccination teams, and at entry points into Bangladesh.

As of November 4, one death and 412 suspected cases of measles have been reported among the vulnerable population living in camps, settlements, and among the host communities.

As part of stepped up vaccination efforts, 43 fixed health facility sites, 56 outreach vaccination teams and vaccination teams at main border entry points will administer MR vaccine to population aged between six months and 15 years, along with oral polio vaccine to children under five years and TT vaccine to pregnant women.

More than 70 vaccinators from the government and partners have been trained to deliver routine vaccination though fixed sites and outreach teams from tomorrow. The vaccination at the entry points at Subrang, Teknaf has been going on since November 1.

Earlier, Communist leaders from South Asian countries in a statement demanded increased involvement of the UN to ensure "dignified sanctuary" to Rohingya refugees.

“We urge all Communist and workers parties and political forces who support justice to raise their voice against the atrocities and to pressurise Myanmar government to stop brutal sectarian massacre against Rohingyas,” reads the statement signed by seven leaders from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...e-crisis-aid-access-still-challenging-1489432
*


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya children close to starvation due to 'unimaginable' 'health crisis*




Rohingya refugees wait to be seen by a doctor at a camp in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district. Thousands of children are suffering from malnutrition despite escaping across the border from Myanmar. Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images
_By_ Kate Hodal
The Guardian
November 10, 2017
*‘Rampant malnutrition’ reported following Rohingya exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh as agencies warn shocking new figures may be tip of the iceberg*
One in four Rohingya children who recently fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar is now suffering from life-threatening malnutrition, with aid workers warning that refugees are “essentially starving” before they have even crossed the border.

The preliminary findings of a joint nutrition assessment conducted in late October at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar show that severe acute malnutrition rates among child refugees under five have doubled since May, while nearly half of young children are also underweight and suffering from anaemia.

The figures – already above international emergency levels – are likely to increase, warned aid agencies, since the assessment surveyed only 10% of the population in need, and included families who had arrived before as well as after violence erupted in Rakhine state in August.
Once data is taken solely from new arrivals, malnutrition – and with it the risk of diarrhoea, dysentery, respiratory infections and measles – is expected to increase.

“The conditions we are seeing in Cox’s Bazar create a perfect storm for a public health crisis on an unimaginable scale,” said Cat Mahony, emergency response director in Cox’s Bazar for the International Rescue Committee.

“These shocking figures substantiate the IRC’s own findings on worrying food insecurity: three in four do not have enough food, and 95% of the population are drinking contaminated water. This is especially serious, as agencies report that two-thirds of the water in Cox’s Bazar is contaminated with faeces.”

Malnutrition rates among children in northern Rakhine state were above emergency thresholds even before the recent exodus. But severe acute malnutrition has increased tenfold since last year, according to the joint assessment by Save the Children, IRC partner Action Against Hunger and Unicef. Conditions have worsened due to acute food and water shortages and unsanitary living quarters in Kutupalong camp, which is home to roughly 26,000 refugees.

More than 600,000 Rohingya men, women, and children have crossed the border from Myanmar to Cox’s Bazaar since August. These families joined an estimated 212,000 Rohingya previously living in Bangladesh. The IRC expects an additional 200,000 new arrivals in the weeks ahead, pushing the total refugee population to more than 1 million.

Severe acute malnutrition can affect anyone but, if left untreated, children under five are up to nine times more likely to die than a well-nourished child.

New arrivals are often forced to set up camp far from the main road where food and medical distribution centres are located, said Save the Children’s Rik Goverde, leaving many refugees facing a long walk simply to get one meal a day.

“Malnutrition is rampant here, absolutely rampant, even among the adults,” said Goverde, speaking by phone from Kutupalong camp.

“Two men just came into the clinic weighing 32kg and 34kg. This hasn’t happened overnight – they have been hungry for a very long time and they are exhausted.”

New arrivals are required to register for an identity card in order to qualify for food distribution, Goverde said, which can take a few days to arrive. Many adults and children are consequently obliged to walk for hours into the forest, where they cut firewood in order to sell it and buy food.

“There are problems here on every sector – this isn’t just about food and malnutrition,” said Goverde. “We’re sure there are children suffering from mental health issues because they’ve suffered terrible things, they’ve lost their parents in the chaos, or seen their parents being shot. It’s truly grim.”

Unicef and other humanitarian agencies are currently treating more than 2,700 acutely malnourished children at 15 treatment centres. But the agencies are overstretched and underfunded, prompting the IRC to launch an emergency response on both sides of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, which the agency says will require $12m (£9m) over the next year.

The response will include four 24-hour care centres to treat severe acute malnutrition, as well as six “one stop shops” that will deliver critical assistance and child protection. The aim will be to reach 80,000 refugees within the first six months.

Two more nutrition evaluations are planned for this month, including one at a makeshift settlement. The findings from the three assessments will help update the projected number of children expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition over the next few months, guiding the emergency response, said Unicef’s Jean-Jacques Simon.

“There is an urgent need to prioritise families with malnourished children and come up with a minimum package of effective interventions to safeguard the health and wellbeing of these children,” said Simon.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/rohingya-children-close-to-starvation.html


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## Banglar Bir

*A photographer bears witness to the Rohingya crisis*



TED Guest Author




_*Photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind went to Bangladesh to help document the Rohingya refugees fleeing violence and persecution in Burma. Here’s what she saw.*
In eastern Bangladesh, where there once were verdant green slopes covered with trees, there is now bleeding red earth. “As far as you can see, the rolling hills have been deforested,” says photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind, who travelled to the city of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in early October. The hills have been cleared for thousands of makeshift tents that house hundreds of thousands of people who have made a desperate, dangerous journey there in search of safety.

These refugees are Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority in their home country of Burma. The Burmese military, who refer to the Rohingya as “Muslims” or “Bengalis”, claim they are “terrorists” and are currently targeting them; more than 200 Rohingya villages on the west coast of Burma have been burned down by the country’s troops since the end of August and perhaps thousands of Rohingya have been killed or injured. More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh to escape this violence in the last two months alone, according to the United Nations. “The number of people fleeing over such a short time is almost unprecedented,” Taylor-Lind says. “This refugee camp is growing day by day.”

Taylor-Lind, a London-based TED Fellow, went to Bangladesh on a fact-finding mission with Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is investigating and documenting what they’ve labeled ”crimes against humanity” by the Burmese security forces against the Rohingya people. Because the Burmese government has blocked access to the country for journalists as well as humanitarian aid organizations, HRW is collecting the stories of massacre survivors at the camps in Bangladesh, as well as using satellite images to measure the destruction in Burma. “My job is to find a way to visualize what is happening there,” Taylor-Lind says. “The majority of my time is spent making portraits of survivors who are here in exile in Bangladesh and have given eyewitness testimony.”_




Shofiqa, 15, survived a massacre of Rohingya at Tu Lar To Li in Burma. She watched as soldiers beat her 10-year-old sister to death, then they beat Shofiqa unconscious. She woke up in a burning house and managed to escape. Photo: Anastasia Taylor-Lind for Human Rights Watch
_HRW Emergencies Director Peter Bouckaert, impressed with the portraits Taylor-Lind made in Kiev during the 2014 revolution in Ukraine, hired her to take photographs of the Rohingya refugees — images that will accompany his group’s investigation. “Our work at Human Rights Watch is not just about documenting the horrors,” Bouckaert wrote in an email to TED. “Just as importantly, it is about trying to stop the killings while they are still going on. We can’t do that with words alone: powerful photography is central to what we do.”

This conflict appears to be built on centuries of ethnic tension between the Rohingya Muslim minority and the Buddhist majority in Burma (which is also called Myanmar). The current crisis began on August 25, 2017, when a Rohingya militant group staged a series of attacks on a military camp and 30 Burmese security outposts. In retaliation, HRW reports that Burmese security forces began to commit massacres in Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State, which borders the Bay of Bengal to the west and Bangladesh in the north._




_Eyewitness accounts detail these atrocities, and satellite images show that after the Rohingya were driven from their homes, the Burmese military burned entire communities to the ground. While the Burmese government contests the international media’s depiction of the current crisis, human rights organizations worldwide have condemned the actions of the Burmese military, and the United Nations has deemed their actions “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

“I photographed children with machete wounds to the head and many young men with multiple bullet wounds, and children also,” says Taylor-Lind, who has shared a number of her Rohingya portraits on Instagram. “I’ve photographed women and children who’ve arrived here with horrific burns, and women who’ve had their children murdered in front of them — beaten to death, and in some instances, their babies pulled from their arms and killed in front of them.”



_
Rashida, 25, was the sole survivor of a massacre. After the army attacked her village and systematically killed all the men, she was taken to a house with four other women where a soldier smashed her 28-day-old infant to death. Soldiers began killing the women with machetes and knives; Rashida was stabbed and had her throat cut. Afterwards, the soldiers locked the house and set it on fire. Rashida woke up in the burning house and broke through a bamboo wall to escape. Photo: Anastasia Taylor-Lind for Human Rights Watch.
_Most of the Rohingya who have survived the massacres flee Burma at night and cross the Naf River in groups to reach Bangladesh. Bangladeshi border guards then escort the refugees to loosely defined camps, where, Taylor-Lind says, “they are loaded off a truck on the side of the road and left there.” Food and water are scarce, she reports, and with few latrines, the sanitation conditions are desperate. Medical care is insufficient, and due to the fact that it’s the middle of monsoon season in Southeast Asia, there’s frequent flooding and lots of mud. Most people live on the bare earth under makeshift tents made from black plastic sheeting held up by bamboo poles. “It’s a pretty dire situation,” Taylor-Lind says. “People are destitute, hungry, traumatized, and often hopeless. I have never seen anything like this before.”

At the camps, Taylor-Lind made dozens of portraits of Rohingya men, women and children who had survived massacres in their village. After a refugee was interviewed by HRW, Taylor-Lind would ask the survivor through a translator, “Can I make your picture? Can I show it to people? Can I tell your story?” The refugee sat as Taylor-Lind tested the light, composed the shot and adjusted the aperture, while the translator held the reflector. “I talk out loud while I’m working, and explain everything I’m doing,” she says.



_
Taylor-Lind’s makeshift portrait studio in the Thaing Khali refugee camp, Bangladesh. Pictured here is Mohammed, a Rohingya refugee. Photo: Anastasia Taylor-Lind for Human Rights Watch
_The portrait sessions, which lasted about 30 minutes each, tended to be quiet. “I wanted to create an atmosphere like a church or mosque,” Taylor-Lind says. “I wanted to reduce the clutter and clamor of the camp in the hopes that I might glimpse a moment in which their experience passed across their face — in the way they looked or the way they looked at me — and show what I cannot photograph.” When she finished, she’d show the survivor their image in the back of her camera. Later, she had the portraits printed at a local shop so she could give each subject a photograph they could keep.

“Most people don’t have photographs with them, because they leave their home with nothing,” Taylor-Lind says. “Most people don’t have photographs of anyone they lost. Can you imagine that? To not have a photo of someone who died? To only be able to rely on your memory to know what their face looked like?”

Taylor-Lind sees these portraits as a collaboration with the survivors — an opportunity to give the Rohingya, after losing so much, a voice. “I don’t think these are necessarily my pictures,” she says. “This isn’t just my picture of Rashida; this is a picture we made together. It’s a collaboration.”



_
Mohammed, 16, was shot in the chest. He is the only surviving member of his family; the rest of his family was massacred by Burmese security forces at Tu Lar To Li. Photo: Anastasia Taylor-Lind for Human Rights Watch
_After 26 days at the camps, Taylor-Lind is back in London, editing the photographs she took in Bangladesh. Beyond raising international awareness about the crimes being perpetrated in Burma, she hopes that her portraits, in conjunction with the testimonies collected by HRW, might one day provide evidence of those crimes — the first time her work would be used for such a purpose. “It is important that those who are responsible for these crimes are held accountable,” she says. “And when that happens, this evidence, these testimonies and these photographs may be able to contribute.”

Taylor-Lind also hopes that, in a small way, her portraits might help reaffirm the humanity of Rohingya survivors who are, for now, living in the mud in Bangladesh. “What struck me so much about working there was people’s willingness, their desire, to be photographed,” Taylor-Lind says. “This is ethnic cleansing, and I am photographing the people who survived. Maybe a photograph is proof of life, in some way.”
https://ideas.ted.com/a-photographer-bears-witness-to-the-rohingya-crisis/amp/_


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## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya are facing genocide. We cannot be bystanders*
We cannot allow people to be slaughtered and burnt out of their homes, while the world watches, write in this open letter




‘After every atrocity, we say ‘never again’. We must mean it.’
Photograph: Hannah Mckay
Reuters
Friday 10 November 2017 15.48 GMT
Last modified on Friday 10 November 2017 19.48 GMT
*Over the past two months, more than 600,000 Rohingya people have been driven from their homes, had their land destroyed, and endured torture and rape while searching for safety. Remember what happened in Rwanda? Now, pay attention to Myanmar.*
The Rohingya are often described as among the most persecuted people on earth. They are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, and despite having lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine state for centuries, they’re refused citizenship. For years, their movement has been restricted, and they have been denied access to education, health care, and other basic services.

Under the guise of fighting insurgency, or terrorism, the Rohingya have suffered what the UN has called a “textbook case” of ethnic cleansing. Since 25 August, almost half the Rohingya population in Myanmar has been driven out – one of the fastest movements of people in recent decades.

Bangladesh has opened its borders and is doing what it can, which is a lot for the most densely populated country on earth, already fighting poverty and the consequences of climate change.

The international response to the Rohingya crisis has fallen far short of what’s needed. The UN appeal is still underfunded, and world leaders have not put sufficient political pressure on the government.

Myanmar is no longer a pariah state; it has a democratically elected government and has been flooded with foreign direct investment over the past few years.

The corporations who have invested in this region must speak up and divest, unless human rights are respected, or they too will be complicit in these horrendous acts.

This Friday, world leaders will gather at the Asean summit but the Rohingya crisis is nowhere on the agenda. We call on leaders to pressure the Myanmar government to stop these atrocities, grant the Rohingya citizenship, and allow them to return to a place they call home.

Countries must fully fund the UN appeal and close the funding gap that is leaving traumatized children without basic food, water, and shelter. Finally, member states of the United Nations must assess what diplomatic efforts can enable them to fulfill their responsibility to protect the Rohingya.

We must not be bystanders to this genocide. We cannot allow people to be slaughtered and burnt out of their homes, while the world watches.
*After every atrocity, we say: “Never again.” We must mean it.*
_*Full list of signatories here:*_
Waris Ahluwalia, Babi Ahluwalia, Sachin Ahluwalia, Riz Ahmed, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Aziz Ansari, Dev Benegal, Gotham Chopra, Nandita Das, Rana Dasgupta, Anil Dash, Kiran Desai, Noureen DeWulf, Geeta Gandbhir, Vikram Gandhi, Shruti Ganguly, Janina Gavankar, Neelam Gill, Maneesh Goyal, Arjun Gupta, Mohsin Hamed, Hitha Prabhakar-Herzog, Anadil Hossain, Vijay Iyer, Sakina Jaffrey, Madhur Jaffrey, Poorna Jagannathan, Riddhika Jesrani, Rega Jha, Mindy KalingRaghu Karnad, Siddhartha Khosla, Hari Kondabolu, Shruti Kumar, Anjali Kumar, Hari Kunzru, Ajay Madiwale, Karan Mahajan, Rekha Malhotra, Aasif Mandvi, Sunita Mani, Nimitt Mankad, Suketu Mehta, Hasan Minhaj, Smriti Mundhra, Ajay Naidu, Aparna Nancherla, Kumail Nanjiani, Karuna Nundy, Maulik Pancholy, Joseph Patel, Shomi Patwary, Freida Pinto, Shaifali Puri, Aniq Rahman, Saira Rao, Zuleikha Robinson, Salman Rushdie, Reema Sampat, Reshma Saujani, Nikil Saval, Sumana Setty, Shiza ShahidKamila Shamsie, Anoushka Shankar, Sheetal Sheth, Sonejuhi Sinha, Madhureeta Goel, Southworth Lakshmi, Sundaram Himanshu Suri, Sonali Thimmaya, Pej Vahdat
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...nocide-ethnic-cleansing-never-again?CMP=fb_gu


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 12, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:39 AM, November 12, 2017
*Rohingya rafts keep coming*




A Rohingya refugee boy cries as he arrives on a makeshift raft on the Teknaf river in Sabranf after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border near Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Our Correspondent, Cox's Bazar
*Over 1,500 Rohingya floated into Bangladesh in a single day yesterday as the persecuted minorities continue to flee violence in Myanmar.*
Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, chairman of Palongkhali Union Parishad, said many of them arrived in Cox's Bazar on rafts made with jerrycans.

Md Atiqur Rahman, an official of Border Guard Bangladesh, said such rafts were being seen in increasing numbers in recent days and some Rohingyas were arriving on small engine boats.

The groups that arrived yesterday crossed the Naf river to reach Anjumanpara in Ukhiya and Maheshkhali, reports our correspondent. Police rescued them and sent them to Balukhali shelter.

On Thursday, 132 and on Friday afternoon 529 Rohingyas reached Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf on rafts, according to police. 

Police said so far 28 boats or trawlers have gone down at sea or in the Naf river causing 200 deaths of mostly women and children.

Mobile courts have so far meted out punishment to 452 Bangladeshis, including boat owners and middlemen or brokers, for illegally boarding Rohingyas on boats and trawlers.
*ROHINGYAS INVITING RELATIVES*
Rohingyas who have managed to secure shelter at different camps in Cox's Bazar, are now encouraging their relatives in the Rakhine State to come to Bangladesh for a “safe and better life”. 

Md Moinuddin, officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station, told The Daily Star over telephone, “We have come across some Rohingyas who recently came to Cox's Bazar after being convinced by relatives, who reached here before. Rohingyas already living in government-sponsored shelters and getting food and other humanitarian assistance from local and international agencies are informing their relatives about the conditions in the camps.”

He said Rohingyas have been communicating with their relatives via mobile phone and assuring them of their safe stay in temporary government shelters.
The police official however could not be sure how many had arrived following such communication.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingya-rafts-keep-coming-1489825


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 12, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:35 AM, November 12, 2017
*Food, Shelter to Rohingyas: $882m needed for 10 months
Estimates CPD, warns the govt int'l support may not continue for long*
Staff Correspondent
*Centre for Policy Dialogue yesterday said an estimated $882 million or Tk 7,126 crore would be needed to provide food, shelter and other support to the Rohingyas until June next year.*
It also said the expenditure for each Rohingya over the period would be Tk 59,388.

The independent think tank came up with the figures based on the estimate of the UN, which said $434 million would be needed for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh between September and February next year.

The humanitarian support currently provided by the international organisations would not continue for a long period. Hence, the burden would be on the government of Bangladesh, CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun said while presenting a paper on the implications of the Rohingya crisis for Bangladesh.

“Given the present budgetary framework for fiscal 2017-18, there is not much room for additional public spending,” she said.

Fahmida presented the paper at a dialogue titled "Addressing Rohingya Crisis: Options for Bangladesh" at Khazana Gardenia Banquet Hall in the capital yesterday. The programme was chaired by CPD Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan and attended by diplomats, former ambassadors, international relations analysts and officials from UN agencies and other international organisations.

The CPD termed the Rohingya crisis a multi-dimensional problem for Bangladesh and suggested that the government continue "*energetic diplomacy" particularly with the regional partners to solve it.*

Discussants at the dialogue recommended taking both soft and hard approaches bilaterally and multilaterally so that the Myanmar authorities take back its nationals soon.

Some of them said the issue is likely to linger and affect Bangladesh in various ways.

*They also warned about the risk of security, terrorism, spread of diseases, trafficking of women and children as well as illegal drug trade in the south-eastern region if the Rohingyas stayed there for a long period.*

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque said the government wants to see a peaceful solution to the crisis.

He said Myanmar is a close neighbour and Bangladesh has to have good relations with it. The government is currently focusing on signing a bilateral arrangement with the country for the return of the Rohingyas, he added.

Haque said the government was not seeking humanitarian support from the international communities. "Rather, the government asks for political support to solve the Rohingya issue.

“This is a conflict between Myanmar and its own nationals. Bangladesh in no way created this environment. Bangladesh tries to become a responsible and responsive state. A state which responds to humanitarian crisis,” he said.

Fleeing persecution in Myanmar, over 613,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh since August 25.

The CPD said over a million Rohingyas now are staying in the south-eastern region of the country, creating economic, social and environmental challenges for Bangladesh.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow at the think tank, said the total number of refugees across the world is 6.5 crore and Bangladesh would be the fourth largest host country for refugees.

“We have shown generosity and it does not depend on resources, it depends on the heart,” he said.

William Moeller, political officer at the US Embassy in Dhaka, said solution lies with Myanmar and Bangladesh is just an innocent bystander to this crisis.

Ragnar Gudmundsson, country representative at International Monetary Fund, said a contingency plan would be very important for Bangladesh.

Anup Kumar Chakma, former Bangladesh ambassador to Myanmar, said Myanmar's relation with countries like China and the US has an impact on the Rohingya issue. He said China, US, India, and Thailand have interests and investments in Myanmar.

Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations at University of Dhaka, recommended "becoming proactive" and sending high-level delegation to countries, particularly to China and India.

Referring to the ongoing atrocities against Rohingyas, Border Guard Bangladesh Director General Maj Gen Abul Hossain said the matter should be taken to the International Court of Justice.

Former ambassador Farooq Sobhan claimed that there was an attempt within Myanmar to permanently solve the Rohingya issue.* He said One Belt One Road initiative of China would be seriously jeopardised if the issue was not resolved.*

"There is also a potential threat of terrorism due to the crisis," he said.

Prof Sukamol Barua from Buddhist Federation said the Rohingya crisis is not a religious issue. He said local Buddhists were very cautious over the matter.
http://www.thedailystar.net/educati...elter-rohingyas-882m-needed-10-months-1489834


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## Banglar Bir

*'Bangladesh close to Rohingya repatriation deal with Myanmar'*
Prothom Alo English Desk | Update: 22:55, Nov 11, 2017 





*Remained focused on having a 'bilateral' solution to the Rohingya crisis, Bangladesh is very close to reaching a repatriation agreement with Myanmar, said foreign secretary Shahidul Haque on Saturday.
"Currently, we're focusing on signing a bilateral agreement for the return of Rohingyas...we're very close in terms of reaching a return agreement with Myanmar authorities," he said.*

The foreign secretary was addressing a dialogue titled 'Addressing Rohingya Crisis: Options for Bangladesh' arranged by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) at a city hotel.

He, however, said if the bilateral arrangement does not work finally, Bangladesh has other options on the table which he would not share right now.

Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University's Department of International Relations, former Bangladesh ambassador to Myanmar retired major general Anup Kumar Chakma and executive director of BRAC Muhammad Musa spoke at the dialogue.

CPD executive deirector Fahmida Khatun presented the keynote paper at the dialogue chaired by CPD chairman professor Rehman Sobhan.
CPD distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya moderated the session.

The foreign secretary said foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali is going to Myanmar later this month. "Hopefully, we'll be able to close the differences we have in a couple of places of the latest draft. We think we'll be able to resolve it peacefully."

Noting that the Rohingya crisis will have to be solved maintaining the good relations with Myanmar, Shahidul Haque said Bangladesh has so far adopted a policy which is a mix of 'soft and hard approaches' to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

He agreed with Imtiaz Ahmed who earlier at the dialogue said the radicalisation cannot emerge from the camps at the moment.

Explaining why the terminology 'refugee' is not being used for Rohingyas, he said the government of Bangladesh calls them 'forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals', not citizens, following its experiences of 1978 and 1991-92.

One of the reasons is this time Myanmar wanted to call the people refugees.

In reply to Bangladesh's prime minister's statement in the United Nations General Assembly, Myanmar called 'refugees' in fact, he said.

Professor Imtiaz said Bangladesh should call the Rohingyas 'refugees' as the terminology 'forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens,' does not make any sense and it is not a legal term as well.

The terminology 'forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens,' is absolutely unworkable and wrong as they are not Myanmar citizens, he said adding that citizen is a legal term. "So, I think, first we should call them what they are. They are refugees. Once you call them refugees, they have to go back," he said.

*Imtiaz said, "For the first time, there is an international consensus and there is enough footage to say genocide took place. Since it is genocide or ethnic cleansing, it cannot be bilateral. No genocide in the world can be bilateral. It's an international issue."*

*He said Rohingyas are not only in Bangladesh, also in several countries including India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.*

*Professor Imtiaz also said it is high time to arrange international conferences with the countries that hosted Rohingyas. "The international community should not see it as an issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar. They rather should see it as a global issue as Rohingya Diaspora is everywhere."*

Imtiaz said radicalisation will not come from the camps and it did not come in the 1970s and 1990s.

*Former ambassador Farooq Sobhan said if the Rohingya problem is not solved, the whole 'One Belt One Road Initiative' and Bimstec will be seriously jeopardised.*

Professor Rounaq Jahan said the media should focus on the plight of Rohingya rather than the challenges of Bangladesh in this regard.

Professor Sukumar Barua said it is not religious issue between Muslim and Buddhist rather it is an issue of state. "It can be solved bilaterally but international community will have to keep pressure for resolving the crisis."

The Buddhist people of Bangladesh extended their helping hands to the displaced Rohingyas, he added.

Indigenous community leader Sanjeeb Drong said if it takes a longer time to send back Rohingyas, the life and security of the indigenous community will be seriously affected in the Chittagong Hill Tracks (CHT).

Fahmida, in her keynote presentation, said some Tk 7,126 crore (US$ 882 million) will be required for 10 months from September 2017 to June 2018 to maintain the displaced Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar.

The CPD estimated the fund requirement for the 10 months of the current fiscal year based on an UNHCR estimate, she said.

The initial loss of forest area due to the Rohingya influx is 3,500 acres, which is 0.05 percent loss in total national forest area, the CPD executive director said.

BGB director general Maj Gen Abul Hossain, security expert retired brigadier M Sakhawat Hossain, ActionAid country director Farah Kabir and diplomats from different foreign missions stationed in Dhaka also spoke at the dialogue.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/166115/Bangladesh-close-to-Rohingya-repatriation-deal


----------



## Banglar Bir

*A brief note from Bangladesh: Bearing witness to my country's genocide and meeting the Survivors.*
My family and I excluding my old girl in college in US spent a week in Bangladesh visiting Rohingya survivors of Myanmar genocide.
We just got home in UK last night. This is my little reflection on what we witnessed.
I came home with a long list of "To-Do's".




Natalie, my wife, and I work as a two-person team of researchers and writers. We use each other as a sounding board and we teach each other on the Rohingya. She is the one who initially helped me overcome my own anti-Muslim racism and my own ignorance about Rohingyas.

So naturally, I wanted Natalie and Nilah to bear witness to my country's Buddhist genocide - note no quotations marks - of the most vulnerable segment of our society, the Rohingyas.

Here is my 8-year-old Nilah and Nat meeting with Rohingya children and moms.







*I interviewed 2-dozen survivors, the majority of whom were mothers between the ages of 18 and 35. The youngest survivor I interviewed was a 10-year old Rohingya boy who was shot in the leg. *

The most sadistic tale I heard a survivor recount was this:
her father was shot in the head in front of their house as he ran to the house *where her daughter , 16, was tied up and gang-raped by a group of Burmese government troops, wearing red scarfs (light infantry unit commandos, as far as I know).
the father's head got blew open, and one soldier picked up bits of his brain and fed them to the chickens.*
this IS an act of genocidal and sadistic killing, seen against the backdrop of what else has been done to the Rohingyas as a group by Myanmar over the last 40 years.




The Burmese society is brainwashed to hate the Rohingyas for no real reason: the Tatmadaw's racist, pathetic generals have adopted the institutionalized threat perception - that they are a a threat to national security and that their presence is a part of Bangladesh's cold war of population transfer from Chittagong to N. Rakhine.

The Burmese military (Tatmadaw) have accordingly manufactured and propagated lies after lies over 40-years.
*
I know every other influential figure personally who has been involved in this genocide. 
I view them as evil as the Nazis. They consider me a "national traitor" and "enemy of the state". *
I identify with the survivors of my country's genocide despite our differences in ethnicity and faith background.




So, I said, "Sorry", to this Rohingya brother who broke into tears at the site of a "good Burmese" at Kutupalong camp.

We held each other for about 5 minutes. No conversation as he did not speak Burmese. But no conversation was needed either.
*Compassion and pain are universal. *
A young Rohingya mother and widow (18) recounted to me how she was gang-raped by Myanmar soldiers. They handcuffed her with a small rope, and she tried to untie the rope with her teeth, and they put her hands on the table and chopped off a finger, with the hand still tied, for resisting the rape!




This Rohingya gentleman (pix below) has something dignified about him. He is 67 years old, from Maungdaw, and was a Class Cell leader at a township level in the Ruling Burma Socialist Party during General Ne Win's early days when Rohingyas continued to be recognized as an ethnic community of Burma with full citizenship rights.




This grandfather Rohingya man (76) was a former teacher and agricultural technician, who heard Prime Minister U Nu speak in his hometown of Maungdaw in the 1950's when Rohingyas were full citizens, and carried an original National Registration Card first issued in mid-1950's (the first of its kind in the history of ID in Burma's recorded history).




He spoke about his life-long desire to return to Burma, his birthplace, although he has been in the Registered Refugee camp at Kutupalong in the last 20 years.

He showed me his family IDs and pictures of the mosque he said his well-to-do family built in Maungdaw in 1895.

The typically repeated media and official narrative that Rohingyas were not citizens or an ethnic group of Burma is a verifiable lie on which rests the genocidal policies.

The mosque this Rohingya gentleman's foreparents built in 1895.




Finally, this is my Bangladeshi host (HFM Mr Ali) (pix below), who made it possible for our family to bear witness to the inter-generational impact of my own country's genocide and hear first hand the harrowing tales from Rohingya survivors.




They ARE survivors, not simply IDPs or refugees. They have survived the genocide across the borders in N. Rakhine State.

We are extremely grateful to the Honourable Foreign Minister and his MOFA staff who enabled us to get the most out of our week-long visit to Dhaka and Cox's Bazaar.
*
Based on what we have learned on this trip I will soon be hitting the speaking trail in UK, USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Bangladesh the rest of this year and early Jan. 
Nat will continue to write critical pieces that challenge conventional but flawed ideas about the survivors 'return/repatriation' 'statelessness' and all those policy non-senses. 
Meanwhile 1 million Rohingya survivors await anxiously - and in inhuman conditions - what the mythical international community will do to help secure a normal human future. *
This little Rohingya survivor girl waited for her family's turn for food ration at Kutupalong registered camp under the scorching sun, taking advantage of the little shade from the two standing men's longis.




As a father, I ask myself, naturally, what I would do or how I would feel if my 8-year old were in this Rohingya girl's shoes, and so should every decent human.
http://www.maungzarni.net/2017/11/a-brief-note-from-bangladesh-bearing.html?m=1


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## Banglar Bir

*Malaysia Foreign Minister: Asean summit to discuss Rohingya refugee crisis*




Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said he believed that not only Malaysia, but other countries like Asean’s dialogue partners would raise the issue regarding the Rohingya Muslims. — Reuters
_By_ Bernama
November 11, 2017
*MANILA — The Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar is expected to be raised at the 31st Asean Summit and Related Summits, which kicks off here tomorrow, with the possibility of it being discussed behind closed door.*
Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who will be leading the Malaysian delegation to the three-day Summits, was very concerned about what was happening in Rakhine State.

“And in all probability it will be one of the agendas, but it also depends on the circumstances. Maybe there is a closed door meeting, that could be more effective,” he told the Malaysian media covering the Summits.

Anifah also said he believed that not only Malaysia, but other countries like Asean’s dialogue partners would raise the issue which had seen more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims displaced from their homes, having fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since Aug 25, when the crackdown on the Rohingya intensified in Rakhine state.
*
Leaders from the 10 Asean member countries and its dialogue partners, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, United States, Canada, the European Union and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will gather here for the important summits hosted by the Philippines.*

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is leading the country’s delegation to the Summits.
Anifah also said the leaders would discuss regional and international issues of common concern such as the South China Sea, Korean Peninsula, counter terrorism and violent extremism and cyber digital economy.

The Manila gathering will see a total of 11 Summits and expected to adopt 56 outcome documents, said Anifah, adding that it includes the non-legally binding Asean Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

“The instrument was drafted as a follow-up to the Asean Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers or Cebu Declaration 2007 inked by Asean leaders in 2007,” he said.
He said Asean Economic Ministers are also expected to sign the Asean-Hong Kong, China Free Trade Agreement (AHKFTA) and the Agreement on Investment among Asean member states and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (AHKIA).

Other outcome includes East Asia Summit Leaders’ statement on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, cooperation in poverty alleviation and chemical weapons.

On the sidelines of the Summit, Najib is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts — Shinzo Abe of Japan, Lee Hsien Loong from Singapore and China’s Le Keying.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/malaysia-foreign-minister-asean-summit.html

*CPD: Tk7,126 crore needed to host the Rohingyas till June 2018*
Nawaz Farhin
Published at 11:17 PM November 11, 2017
Last updated at 12:29 AM November 12, 2017




A view of the the Rohingya refugee camp in Tang Khali near Cox's Bazar on October 18, 2017
*Reuters
The think tank has estimated the 10-month fund requirement based on an estimation of the UNHCR for six months
A total of $882 million* or about Tk7,126 crore will be required as funding until June 2018 for the Rohingyas who have taken refuge in Bangladesh after facing brutal military persecution in Myanmar, says the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

The independent think tank on Saturday disclosed at a dialogue the estimated 10-month fund requirement based on an estimation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for six months.

With a latest additional requirement of $83.7 million, UNHCR’s total need for the Rohingyas until February next year now stands at $517.78 million, said CPD quoting UN website.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) earlier had estimated $434 million to be the total funding requirement for 1.2 million Rohingyas until February.

Based on these numbers, CPD added, expenditure required per Rohingya for September, 2017-June, 2018 period would be $795 or Tk5,939.

The latest requirement estimated by CPD is equivalent to 1.8% of Bangladesh’s national budget for FY2017-18, 0.3% of the GDP and 2.5% of the total revenue of the country.

The estimations were made in a keynote presented by CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun at the dialogue, titled “Addressing Rohingya Crisis: Options for Bangladesh,” organised at a Dhaka hotel on Saturday.

Fahmida said the Rohingya crisis has hit the locals in Cox’s Bazar as a social disaster, affecting population growth, and causing health and sanitation problems.

“The total forest area in Cox’s Bazar is nearly three million acres and around 3,500 acres of it has already been lost due to the Rohingya influx,” she said.

Since August 25, following a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, about 625,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh, according to the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission.
*Draft proposal*
At Saturday’s dialogue, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said the government has drafted a proposal for an agreement with Myanmar to repatriate the Rohingyas.

“We are taking all kind of preparations to solve the crisis and peaceful efforts are still underway. The foreign minister will meet Myanmar officials on November 23 in this regard.”

He also emphasised political support received from the international community, rather than the economic ones, to solve the crisis. “Myanmar is our neighbour and we need to resolve this peacefully, maintaining our friendship.

CPD Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan stressed on organising an international conference to find out ways on how to solve the Rohingya crisis. “The Rohingyas need to be sent back to Myanmar voluntarily, not forcefully.”
He said the crisis had hit Bangladesh’s economy, society and environment most.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/11/11/cpd-rohingyas-funding-unhcr/

*Rohingya refugees suffer unspeakable acts of cruelty at the hands of Myanmar's military*




UNCHR psychologist Mahmuda counsels refugees who has suffered traumatic ordeals. (UNCHR: Roger Arnold)
_By_ James Bennett
ABC News
November 11, 2017
*In the refugee camps of Bangladesh, a small handful of psychologists are attempting the near impossible — trying to counsel hundreds of thousands of traumatised Rohingya refugees. 
Many of their patients have seen or suffered unspeakable acts of cruelty at the hands of Myanmar's military.*
Bangladeshi psychologist Mahmuda, who goes by the one name, begins to list horrifying — but sadly familiar examples — when asked what trauma her patients have suffered.
"The slaughtering of husbands, missing children," she begins.

But then, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) worker starts to tell a tale of loss so painful, it is hard to listen.
"She saw her husband slaughtered by the army," Mahmuda begins.




Some Rohingya children have seen both their parents slaughtered. (UNHCR: Roger Arnold)
This woman, who Mahmuda estimates is in her early twenties, heavily pregnant and carrying a one-year-old baby, fled alone.

Then her contractions began.
*"It was a really, really horrible situation," Mahmuda continued.*
As the woman endures labour, entirely, utterly alone, she loses track of her one-year-old.
"She lost her baby," Mahmuda said, her voice wavering.
"She had no relatives, there was no one who could take care.
"And also, she gave birth."
Having lost one child and given birth to another, this distraught new mother walks, for days, alone with her newborn to the safety of Bangladesh.
There, fresh tragedy.
"After long walking, almost eight or 10 days, finally the baby didn't survive," Mahmuda concludes.
Asked what she says to someone enduring such grief, she sighs.
"What I have said to her is now you are safe, secure and you are alive," she said.
*Children draw harrowing pictures of memories*
Alongside mothers who have lost children, her patients also include children with no parents.
"A few of the children, they don't have any parents, any relatives," she said.
"They have been experiencing — they have seen in front of them — father and mother both slaughtered or burned.
"We have provided some basic support, not in depth counselling."




A child in Rohingya holds up a haunting picture she drew of her memories. (UNHCR: Roger Arnold)
One of the things Mahmuda has asked these traumatised children to do is draw their memories.
The images are confronting — helicopters, shooting down from above, burning villages, and people fleeing in boats.

She says schooling, and more safe spaces for children in the teeming camps are desperately needed.
To provide some basic play therapy, and to become then normalised, in their daily life.
None of this has happened because, faced with now over 600,000 fresh refugees since August, aid agencies are still struggling to feed and house them.

A quarter of young children are malnourished and the disease threat hangs like an ominous cloud.
The Red Cross, UNHCR, Care, Oxfam and Save the Children are launching fresh appeals for funding, amid fears the world is moving on from this still unfolding human suffering.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/rohingya-refugees-suffer-unspeakable.html


----------



## Banglar Bir

*U2 condemn Suu Kyi’s silence on violence against Rohingya people*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/u2-condemn-suu-kyis-silence-on-violence-against-rohingya-people.html





Musicians, Adam Clayton, from left, Bono, Larry Mullan Jnr and The Edge, of the band U2, perform on stage at Twickenham Stadium in London, Sunday, July 9, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
By Sorcha Pollak, The Irish Times
*Rock group’s blog post does not acknowledge Bono’s involvement in offshore investments*
U2 has condemned Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi for her silence in the face of “violence and terror being visited on the Rohingya people”.

Ms Suu Kyi has been widely criticised by former supporters, including fellow Nobel laureates, for failing to speak out against the violence being inflicted on thousands in her home country of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).

Commenting in a post on the band’s website, U2 writes that it spent years campaigning for the release of Ms Suu Kyi after she was detained and placed under house arrest for her efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar.

The post signed “Adam, Bono, Edge, Larry” writes: “When she came to Dublin to thank Ireland and Amnesty International, we Irish could not have been more proud.

“When her party the NLD won a landslide in the elections and she stood her ground to become de-facto head of the country, an impossible journey seemed to be reaching its destination.”

The post continues that they could have “never imagined” Ms Suu Kyi would remain silent while more than 600,000 Rohingya people were forced to flee police brutality in Myanmar.

The band members write they never could have predicted “the woman who many of us believed would have the clearest and loudest voice on the crisis would go quiet. For these atrocities against the Rohingya people to be happening on her watch blows our minds and breaks our hearts.”

The Irish musicians say they have attempted to contact Ms Suu Kyi in recent months “to speak directly about the crisis in her country” and that they expected to speak to her this week but that the call had been cancelled.

“Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence is starting to look a lot like assent. As Martin Luther King said: ‘The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.’ The time has long passed for her to stand up and speak out.”
*‘A mistake’*
The group also called for greater international awareness of the role Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s military, has played in the crackdown on the Rohingya people, warning that condemning Ms Suu Kyi while ignoring Mr Aung Hlaing “is a mistake”.

“While this in no way excuses her silence, Aung San Suu Kyi has no control, constitutional or otherwise, over his actions, and it is he who has authorised and overseen the terrorisation of the Rohingya people under the guise of protecting Myanmar from terrorism,” writes U2.

“If this horror of human rights abuses is to stop, and if the long-term conditions for resettlement of the Rohingya people are to ever occur, General Min Aung Hlaing and his military must be just as much the focus of international action and pressure as Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government.”

Saturday’s post from U2 follows revelations that band frontman Bono made a number of property investments via offshore entitites including a shopping centre in Lithuania and an office building in Germany.

Details of these investments emerged through the Paradise Papers, files obtained by German newspaper _Süddeutsche Zeitung_ and shared with ICIJ, The Irish Times and more than 90 other media organisations in 67 countries.

Bono, who has campaigned for years against secretive offshore tax schemes, has not yet commented on his involvement with the offshore entities.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11...ence-on-violence-against-rohingya-people.html


----------



## Banglar Bir

*U.N. official says will raise sexual violence against Rohingya with ICC*




Rohingya refugees walk after crossing the Naf River in Teknaf, Bangladesh, November 12, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
_By_ Serajul Quadir
Reuters
November 12, 2017
*DHAKA -- A senior United Nations official said on Sunday she would raise the issue of persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority, especially sexual violence and torture, with the International Criminal Court (ICC). *
Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, also said around $10 million is needed immediately to deliver specialist services for survivors of gender-based violence. 

Patten was speaking in the Bangladeshi capital after a three-day visit to the Cox’s Bazar region, near the border with Myanmar. There she met women and girls who are among hundreds of thousands of Rohingya that have sought refuge in Bangladesh following a crackdown by Myanmar’s military on the predominantly Muslim minority. 

“When I return to New York I will brief and raise the issue with the prosecutor and president of the ICC whether they (Myanmar’s military) can be held responsible for these atrocities,” Patten said after visiting several camps. 

“Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar, otherwise known as the Tatmadaw.”
*“Rape is an act and a weapon of genocide.” *
She said she would brief the U.N. secretary-general on the situation in Cox’s Bazar and that her office’s annual report, to be presented to the Security Council in March, would include a dedicated section on Myanmar. 

Patten said brutal acts of sexual violence had occurred in the context of collective persecution that included the killing of adults and children, torture, mutilation and the burning and looting of villages. 
“The widespread threat and use of sexual violence was a driver and ‘push factor’ for forced displacement on a massive scale, and a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingya as a group,” she said. 

“The forms of sexual violence we consistently heard about from survivors include gang-rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation, and sexual slavery in military captivity. One survivor was in captivity for 45 days by the Myanmar army.” 

Patten said that since the first mass influx of refugees into Bangladesh in August, gender-based violence specialists had delivered services to 1,644 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, “although this is only the tip of the iceberg”. 

“We need full funding for this humanitarian crisis from the international donor community. The burden is too heavy to be borne by the government of Bangladesh alone,” she added, calling for about $10 million of international funding. 
Patten said she had been denied access to Myanmar itself. 

Myanmar warned on Wednesday that a scolding delivered by the U.N. Security Council could “seriously harm” its talks with Bangladesh over repatriating more than 600,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state since Aug. 25. 

The United Nations has denounced the violence during the past 10 weeks as a classic example of ethnic cleansing to drive the Rohingya Muslims out of Buddhist majority Myanmar, an accusation Myanmar rejects. 
_Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Editing by Catherine Evans
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/un-official-says-will-raise-sexual.html_

*British MP George Foulkes: ‘What’s happening with the Rohingya is genocide’*




British Member of Parliament George Foulkes (Photo: Dhaka Tribune)
_By_ Shovel Mamun, Ashif Islam Shaon
Dhaka Tribune
November 12, 2017
*Shovel Mamun and Ashif Islam Shaon of Dhaka Tribune speaks with British Member of Parliament George Foulkes
He discussed the upcoming Bangladesh general election in 2019 and the Rohingya crisis. Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock PC is a British Labour Co-operative life peer. He has been a member of the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament and as a life peer is now a member of the House of Lords.
What could Commonwealth countries do to solve the Rohingya problem?*
Bangladesh has done a lot better than a lot of countries with the Rohingya crisis. Both the people and the government of Bangladesh should be congratulated for their sincere efforts. We want to help Bangladesh and are making every effort to ensure CAP countries are beside Bangladesh to help solve this problem. 
*Every country should put pressure on Myanmar to address their responsibilities.*

My hope is that the Rohingya problem is resolved quickly. But things as they are, Bangladesh is a developing country and is faced with far more complications than other developed countries. Britain along with other countries has started to provide funds and assistance to the Bangladeshi government to aid in the effort.

We will raise the Rohingya issue in our parliament to find an effective solution.

*Do you think there is a bilateral solution to this problem?*
There is a need to have a bilateral agreement between the countries on this issue and Bangladesh needs support from other countries such as the UK. If there is commitment from the global community, it is possible to find a bilateral solution.
*In your opinion, do you think Myanmar government has been delaying their efforts to find a solution?*
Yes they are. *This is genocide.* British media has broadcasted reports of Myanmar army torturing the Rohingya people. Every country has a responsibility to pressurise the Myanmar government to find an effective solution quickly.

*What are your thoughts on the polls for the upcoming Bangladeshi elections?*
Great Britain has been practicing democracy for a very long time. I visited Bangladesh in 1991 during national elections and at the time, all parties, including BNP and Awami league, participated in what I felt was a free and fair electoral process.

However, in the previous election many questions were raised and phrases like “one party election” were being thrown around. My hope is that all parties will come together and participate in the upcoming national elections because in the end, democracy doesn’t work without participation.

*What are some challenges in a democracy?*
There are a lot of challenges. Take Russia for instance who are said to have influenced the recent US Polls by using social media. Fabricating news to influence the outcome of an election is a global issue and Bangladesh is no exception.

There is however, a difference between developed countries and developing countries such as Bangladesh. In the US, people are able to go and vote freely in a safe and secure polling station that are monitored and where vote rigging is not possible. While the economy of Bangladesh is rising, it is still developing and that brings its own set of challenges.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/british-mp-george-foulkes-whats.html

*Bob Geldof to return Freedom of Dublin in Aung San Suu Kyi protest*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/bob-geldof-to-return-freedom-of-dublin-in-aung-san-suu-kyi-protest.html




Bob Geldof and Jeanne Marine attend the 'Electric Burma' concert for Aung San Suu Kyi at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre on June 18, 2012 in Dublin, Ireland (Image: PA)
By Press Association
*Bob Geldof is to hand back his Freedom of the City of Dublin, saying he does not want to be associated with the award while it is also held by Aung San Suu Kyi.*
The Live Aid founder and musician blasted the Burmese Nobel peace laureate, who has faced widespread criticism over her country’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

In a statement he said: “Her association with our city shames us all and we should have no truck with it, even by default. We honoured her, now she appals and shames us.

Mr Geldof said he would hand back the freedom at City Hall in the Irish capital on Monday morning.

Irish-born Mr Geldof, who received an honorary knighthood from the Queen for his charity work, said he was a “proud Dubliner” but could not continue to hold the freedom while Ms Suu Kyi also held it.

He added: “In short, I do not wish to be associated in any way with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people of north-west Burma.

“I am a founding patron of The Aegis Trust, who are concerned with genocide prevention and studies. Its founders built and maintain the National Holocaust Museum of the UK.

“I spoke at the inaugural National Holocaust Memorial Day at Westminster and in my time, I have walked amongst peoples who were sectionally targeted with ethnic cleansing.

“I would be a hypocrite now were I to share honours with one who has become at best an accomplice to murder, complicit in ethnic cleansing and a handmaiden to genocide.”

More than 600,000 of the minority group have fled the northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh since August, leading to a major humanitarian crisis.

It is not the first time Mr Geldof has spoken out against Ms Suu Kyi. Last month at a summit in Colombia he described her as “one of the great ethnic cleansers of our planet”.

In his Sunday statement Mr Geldof added: “The moment she is stripped of her Dublin Freedom perhaps the council would see fit to restore to me that which I take such pride in. If not, so be it.”
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11...om-of-dublin-in-aung-san-suu-kyi-protest.html

12:00 AM, November 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:32 AM, November 13, 2017
*Atrocities of the millennium*
*Says Brazilian ambassador about the cruelties inflicted on the Rohingyas*
Unb, Dhaka
*Brazilian Ambassador to Bangladesh Joao Tabajara de Oliveira Junior has described the persecution of the Rohingya by Myanmar security forces as "atrocities of the millennium".*
"This is something difficult to understand. This is unthinkable. Rohingya persecution is atrocities of the millennium," he said at a views-exchange meeting at the Daily Sun office yesterday.

The diplomat said although the displaced Rohingyas were leading a safe and better life at camps in Cox's Bazar, situation might worsen for want of relief and other supplies.

"More than 6,000 Rohingya children in Cox's Bazar are reportedly orphans. They are innocent. Yet they are exposed to many atrocities because of identity," he said.

Replying to a query, he said Brazil is shocked and concerned over Rohingya crisis, and it would like to work with Bangladesh and other countries to resolve the crisis.

The meeting was held during Tabajara's visit to the English daily office at East West Media Group Ltd complex in Bashundhara Residential Area. Daily Sun acting editor Enamul Hoque Chowdhury presided over it, said a press release.

The Brazilian ambassador said he would like to visit Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar after completion of necessary formalities in this regard.

Tabajara said his country would like to boost trade and commerce with Bangladesh.

Since trade is the key to all relations in the modern world, an initiative will be taken to put business leaders of the two countries to discuss trade and exploit each other's potentials, he said.

Tabajara also held a meeting with Bashundhara Group Vice-Chairman Shafiat Sobhan Sanvir at its industrial headquarters-2 in Bashundhara Residential Area.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/atrocities-the-millennium-1490515

*Tillerson to deliver warning in Myanmar over Rohingya crisis*
AFP
Published at 09:13 AM November 13, 2017




Rohingya refugees sit on a makeshift boat as they wait for permission from Border Guard Bangladesh to continue after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar on November 9, 2017 *Reuters
The United Nations has denounced the campaign, including allegations of killings and mass rape, as 'ethnic cleansing'*
In the face of widespread “atrocities” against ethnic Rohingya people in Myanmar, the United States has been cautiously stepping up pressure on that country’s army, while taking care to avoid endangering the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

As the US takes a more active role in the region — several American delegations have passed through in recent weeks — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to travel to Myanmar on Wednesday to meet Suu Kyi, the nation’s leader, as well as army chief General Min Aung Hlaing.

Myanmar is the country formerly known as Burma.

Tillerson is expected to adopt a firm tone with military leaders there, whom he has deemed “responsible” for the crisis facing the Rohingya, an embattled Muslim minority that has seen more than 600,000 of its members flee to neighbouring Bangladesh in two and a half months.

In the name of putting down a supposed Rohingya rebellion, the army has since late August waged a sweeping military campaign in the western state of Rakhine, burning villages and sending thousands into what has become the largest exodus in today’s world.

The United Nations has denounced the campaign, including allegations of killings and mass rape, as “ethnic cleansing.”
*‘Shocking’ scenes*
Recently returned from Myanmar and the overflowing refugee camps in Bangladesh, Simon Henshaw, the State Department official responsible for refugee and migration issues, said the scene in the camps was “shocking.”

“The scale of the refugee crisis is immense,” he said, adding: “The conditions are tough. People are suffering.”
“Many refugees told us, through tears, accounts of seeing their villages burned, their relatives killed in front of them,” Henshaw said.

“The world can’t just stand by and be witness to the atrocities that are being reported in that area,” Tillerson said last month.

But it is unclear what steps the United States might take. Up to now, the State Department has merely strengthened a few punitive measures aimed at Myanmar’s army.
*‘Little concrete action’*
The initial condemnations were “important,” Sarah Margon of the organization Human Rights Watch told AFP, “but they stopped and there has been very little concrete action since then.”

She called for targeted economic sanctions meant to bring an end to “some of the most brutal and horrific atrocities that have been seen in years.”

In the absence of more determined action from the White House or State Department, several members of the US Congress are calling for sanctions to limit military cooperation with Myanmar and ban its army members from US soil. A draft bill would also ban the importation of rubies or jade from the country.

“The bill is an important, although belated, first step in pushing the Myanmar military to end the violence in Rakhine state,” said Joshua Kurlantzick of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. Now, he said, other parts of the government “should take action as well.”
*The State Department has not ruled out supporting further sanctions.*

But the United States has been careful not to place blame on Aung San Suu Kyi, drawing a line between the military and the civilian government led by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

While Suu Kyi has faced considerable criticism abroad for her apparent lack of empathy for the Rohingya, Washington has reaffirmed its support for her, saluting her commitment to allow the peaceful return of refugees.
*A swipe at Suu Kyi*
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, did however take a side swipe at Suu Kyi, saying the situation in her country “should shame senior Myanmar leaders who have sacrificed so much for an open, democratic Myanmar.”

The United States wants to support “the transition to a civilian government (but) make sure there’s no backsliding,” said a senior State Department official, speaking on background while emphasizing that Suu Kyi, once a dissident, has to deal with an army that ruled unchallenged for nearly a half-century.

And new sanctions could be taken badly in Myanmar, said historian Thant Myint-U. In the past, he told AFP, sanctions “made any transition to democracy less likely to succeed, and entrenched the isolation that is at the heart of all of Myanmar’s problems.”

Margon of Human Rights Watch acknowledged that Myanmar is in “really a difficult, delicate balance,” and added that the civilian government had been “very disappointing” in its handling of the refugee crisis.

Still, she added, “they are not the ones committing the atrocities, they are not the ones responsible for the ethnic cleansing.”

But Margon and, separately, Kurlantzick said the United States could privately deliver a stern message to Suu Kyi on the urgent need to do more.

Kurlantzick said Tillerson should warn the country’s generals that tougher multinational sanctions could ensue unless the violence stops, even while he cautions civilian leaders that they “are not necessarily exempt” from new sanctions.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/11/13/227823/


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:24 AM, November 13, 2017
*200,000 more to arrive in coming weeks
Int'l Rescue Committee fears; 'shocking level' of malnutrition found among Rohingya kids*




Rohingya refugees who entered Bangladesh on makeshift boats walk towards refugee camps after landing in Sabrang of Teknaf yesterday. Photo: AFP
Staff Correspondent
*The International Rescue Committee fears around two lakh more Rohingyas will flee to Bangladesh in coming weeks, exacerbating an already "unimaginable humanitarian crisis" in Cox's Bazar that already hosts over eight lakh refugees.*
"The IRC expects a further 200,000 new arrivals in coming weeks -- bringing the total refugee population to over 1 million," the New York-based humanitarian organisation, which operates in Myanmar's Rakhine State, said in a statement on Saturday.

The figure is based on knowledge of the remaining population of Rohingyas in Rakhine State as the pre-crisis number is estimated to be approximately 1.1 million, said IRC spokesperson Chiara Trincia.

“It's currently estimated that 2-4k people a day are crossing and it is likely that this will continue steadily over the next two months, with occasional peaks (as many as 20k in one day),” Trincia told The Daily Star in a WhatsApp message last night.

“Assuming this continues with peaks and surges, by end of year we will have at least 200k extra arrivals, adding further demand on already strained resources.”

The Rohingyas continue to flee Rakhine despite the world leaders' call to stop violence, allow access to aid agencies and ensure their security.

The UN Security Council has issued a statement condemning the atrocities, but taken no concrete action against Myanmar because of opposition from veto power China though the UN termed the military campaign "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

Amid worldwide criticism, Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi had earlier said there was no conflict in Rakhine since September 5.

Yet, the persecuted minority group continues to flee from the Myanmarese state.

The new arrivals say they had no sense of security there as they saw their homes or those of neighbours burning, men killed and women raped. They also spoke of severe food and cash crisis.

Hundreds of Rohingyas were feared killed in Myanmar army's clearance operations that began in response to insurgent attacks on August 25, forcing over 613,000 Rohingyas to stream into Bangladesh.

There were shortages of life-saving supplies in Rakhine as Myanmar had blocked all UN aid agencies from delivering vital supplies of food, water and medicine to thousands of civilians after the military campaign began.

Late October, Myanmar agreed to allow the World Food Programme to distribute food there, but it is not known how far it could reach to the people in distress.

The Red Cross, which has been operating in Rakhine, says it is often difficult to reach the people who stayed back in Myanmar.

“The nature of the terrain is very difficult, you have mountains, rivers, wetlands, and people are scattered,” said Fabrizzio Carboni, head of delegation of the Red Cross in Myanmar.

When they go to these remote villages, the first thing they do is listen to people's problems, Carboni told Beijing-based CGTN television channel on Saturday.

“I mean, there is this isolation of community, this psychological impact of the violence.”

The Red Cross says its humanitarian aid is essential now, but adds that its help is not a long-term solution.

“It's not just a humanitarian responsibility, this is a political responsibility for the people to go back to their normal life,” Carboni said.

“There is obviously a need to reconcile communities to create a political environment which allows people to go back to their normal life,” he added.
*SHOCKING LEVEL OF MALNUTRITION*
A recent survey conducted by humanitarian agencies in Cox's Bazar has revealed shocking levels of malnutrition amongst Rohingya children.

It is further deepening fears of an impending and very serious public health crisis awaiting the world's most vulnerable group of refugees, according to International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The severe acute malnutrition rate of children is 7.5 percent, nearly four times the international emergency level.

"This means that a quarter of Rohingya children between six months and five years of age -- almost 40,000 -- are already malnourished and in urgent need of life-saving help," the IRC said in a statement, fearing the malnutrition rates to be higher with the aid agencies struggling to provide adequate food and other services.

Nearly three-quarters of the Rohingya people in Cox's Bazar lack enough food as well as sanitary living conditions, while 95 percent of them drink water contaminated with faecal matters.

“The conditions we are seeing in Cox's Bazar create a perfect storm for a public health crisis on an unimaginable scale,” said Cat Mahony, IRC's emergency response director in Cox's Bazar.

“The situation will only deteriorate with more arrivals and a greater strain on already overstretched resources.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/2-lakh-more-arrive-coming-weeks-1490299


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## Banglar Bir

*Burma’s Refugees: Repatriation for whom?*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/burmas-refugees-repatriation-for-whom.html




Rohingya refugees disembark from a boat on September 13, on the Bangladeshi side of the Naf River.
By Roland Watson, Dictator Watch
*Introduction*
We are well over 600,000 new Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, all of whom have arrived since late August. They fled a campaign of genocide organized by the country’s military dictatorship, and with ideological support from racist Buddhist monks and Aung San Suu Kyi. 

They joined Rohingya who were already in the country, having fled earlier purges, most recently last autumn and in 2012. The International Organization for Migration estimates that there are now over 1,000,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
*
The genocide since late August has shocked the world.* 
The stories of the refugees are so terrible that there is no question that it is genocide, although major parties such as the U.S. and the E.U. still refuse to describe it as such, since this would convey upon them a responsibility to act. Nonetheless, the International Community does recognize that one million refugees is untenable and that they have to be allowed to go home. There is great pressure being imposed on Burma’s leaders to permit this, and which will continue when the U.S. Secretary of State visits the country on November 15th.

_*All elements of the anti-Rohingya racist alliance – the Tatmadaw, Suu Kyi and the monks – want to prevent repatriation, but they will probably fail. With this many refugees just across the border, the pressure will never go away.*_

Right now, they are negotiating for partial and only grudging admission. First, they are using absolute denial of repatriation as a threat. When the Security Council released its latest “statement” (not a “resolution,” which China prevented), they reacted to even this watered-down condemnation by saying that it would “seriously harm” repatriation. At the same time, they are systematically seizing and rezoning Rohingya land, as they have already stolen their crops and livestock. The Rohingya may someday be able to return*, but if the dictatorship has its way this will only be to new concentration camps.*

Indeed, recognizing the inevitability of repatriation, they are organizing a plan with many different hurdles, to reduce as far as possible the number who actually return. They have said that the refugees must present what for many if not most will be non-existent documentation.
*
(Children are the largest group – they do not have any papers.) *Next, anyone they do let in will be issued the despised NVC identification, which explicitly states that they are not citizens of Burma. (Repatriation therefore must be accompanied by the granting of citizenship.) And finally, the dictatorship will of course resist the demand to provide a safe environment for the returnees, meaning protection from additional attacks by regime soldiers, police, and Rakhine racists. (To have a guarantee of safety, there must be international peacekeepers.)

In summary, repatriation will happen, but we are a long way from the dictatorship yielding such that everyone is accepted back, with citizenship, and to an environment free of repression.
*Repatriation for whom?*
However, even with all of these bad signs, the process of refugee repatriation does raise one distinct opportunity. This concerns the question: Repatriation for whom? It is not enough to allow only the most recent Rohingya refugees the right to return. 
*This should be extended to the entire Rohingya exodus population. Moreover, the issue should be expanded to include other ethnic nationality refugee populations, such as the Karen, Shan and Kachin. 
If the world is going to address the problem of refugees from Burma – how can a country that is a “democracy” even have them – it should broaden the discussion, and action, to everyone.*

A process needs to be established to enable the free and peaceful return of any Rohingya refugee who wants to go home to Burma, no matter how long ago he or she was forced to flee, and the free and peaceful return of refugees from all the other ethnic nationalities as well. International activists and media should keep pressure on the generals and Suu Kyi until this is achieved.
*
In fact, this is why their efforts to deny repatriation are so strong. 
They understand that once they start letting non-Burmans come back, they will have to open the door to everyone.
Conditions inside Burma*
The best way to understand a refugee crisis is to get a feel for it from the victims’ perspective – what they have experienced. Vulnerable groups understand that they are at risk and recognize when things are turning against them. They see and hear the hate propaganda. This of course causes them to be afraid, and also to make plans for if things get worse, if they are actually attacked. This in turn varies from changing how and where one works and travels, to avoid danger; having key belongings packed in a Go Bag, so they can flee at a moment’s notice; sending copies of documents to safe locations, if possible to friends and relatives abroad, so

essential ID and papers aren’t lost forever; harvesting crops as earlier as possible and also moving livestock; preparing shelters in nearby hills, with food, clothing and other essential supplies; and creating village warning systems with guards and dogs.

Then, if and when the attacks come, they are ready to flee. Typically, entire villages flee. If their homes are not destroyed and the village is not mined with explosives, they may return when the soldiers, police and rampaging mob leaves. During this period away from their homes, they are “internally displaced persons.” If they are not able to return home, if it has been burned or mined or is in some other way still too dangerous, they may continue living in the hills as IDPs, move to established IDP camps in safe areas (these are typically guarded by ethnic nationality armies), or – if all else fails – flee over the nearest border at which point they formally become “refugees.”

In these types of situations, and as we have seen with the Rohingya, the refugee camps can grow extremely quickly and to a monumental scale. At this point the international humanitarian aid community typically intervenes (unless it is blocked) to provide the refugees with basic shelter, food, sanitation, health care, and education for children.
*
Some refugee crises are short-lived, but others are very long-term.* For the latter, the refugees can get trapped in their camps, if the host country refuses them travel and work privileges. Ultimately, they can get desperate, as new generations are born and begin to spend their entire lives in the camp. In some cases, this becomes so bad that the number of refugee suicides skyrockets. Criminal problems may develop in the camps as well.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees together with the International Organization for Migration and other agencies and groups have a process whereby refugees may be resettled to other countries. This involves first being registered as a refugee and getting a refugee document; waiting, often for years; applying for resettlement; and then waiting again for a long time before finding out if any country is willing to accept you. 
*Given the huge number of refugees around the world today, from Burma and other countries with widespread and severe civil conflict, the ability of other nations to take them in is being overwhelmed.*

In these cases, refugees often take matters into their own hands. They try to organize transportation to other countries where they can have more freedom. This may be with people they know and trust from their community, who for a fee will arrange the transportation, to using groups with which they have no connection, who also will arrange transportation for money but who cannot be trusted. These are the human trafficking gangs. 

With the Rohingya, many refugees have found their circumstances so desperate that they have used human traffickers to try to get to Malaysia, which for some led to their drowning at sea or to imprisonment and death in jungle camps in Southern Thailand. We can see a similar level of desperation in all of the Rohingya who have drowned while trying to cross the Naf River to Bangladesh. When a refugee is escaping genocide, he or she will take any risk, no matter how great it might be, to escape.
*Refugee locations and numbers*
Because the Rohingya have suffered many major attacks over the last forty years, there have been numerous mass departures from their homes in Burma. At this point the population of the group has been dispersed roughly as follows (Source: Al Jazeera and agencies):
*Bangladesh – 1,000,000 plus
Pakistan – 350,000
Saudi Arabia – 200,000
Malaysia – 150,000
India – 40,000
UAE – 10,000
Thailand – 5,000
Indonesia – 1,000
Remaining in Burma – probably less than 500,000, of which some 100,000 are in internment – concentration – camps, and with almost no rights.*
At this point, there has been limited resettlement of Rohingya refugees to Western countries, including Europe, the U.S., Canada, and also Australia and New Zealand.

This makes a total population estimate for the group of roughly 2.2 million, with less than a quarter remaining in their native Burma homeland.

The conditions for the refugees vary widely. In Bangladesh, Indonesia and also Thailand, they are effectively illegal and are greatly restricted. Rohingya who have made it to Malaysia, Pakistan, India and the Middle East have a better situation and more freedom, including to form communities and to have jobs, although there is also a propaganda campaign against them in India. The few refugees who have been able to make it to the West in some ways have the best situation of all, since they are legal and receive state assistance to get established in the societies.

*But, as mentioned above, the Rohingya are not the only ethnic group under duress in Burma. There has been massive state repression against the ethnic nationalities of Eastern and Northern Burma as well, for the last fifty-five years.*

The Internally Displaced Monitoring Center estimates that excluding the Rohingya there are over 500,000 IDPs inside Burma, with the largest groups being the Karen, Kachin and Shan. There are a further 100,000 verified refugees in a series of camps on the Thai side of the border, comprising mainly Karen and also Karenni. The actual number though is higher, since registration has ended and new arrivals are not included in the count. On the plus side, many refugees from these groups have been resettled to the West over the last ten years. For the United States alone, it is well over 100,000.
*Rohingya in Indonesia*
The situation for the Rohingya, and for all the refugees from Burma, can also be understood more clearly by looking at the population in Indonesia. There are 800 to 1,000 Rohingya refugees in Indonesia, most of whom initially fled Burma following the attacks in 2012. This purge resulted in almost 170,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh, and where most of them remain.

Many of the Rohingya in Indonesia experienced the following. They were registered by UNHCR, after which in 2013 they were taken by IOM to Jakarta. There, they spent a year in another refugee camp, really an immigration detention center – an open jail. Following this they were moved in smaller groups to other areas around the country, where they have been ever since. But, while they now have a little more freedom, they are not allowed to work or to go to school.

The Rohingya refugees in Indonesia are desperate. They can see no end to their plight. They are also frustrated because other groups of refugees in the country, such as from Afghanistan and Somalia, are being resettled to the West, and where they are given rights. It is a very curious question, why Afghani and Somali refugees would be accepted but not Rohingya. To me, the core factor underlying this must be that the Western countries, and which have already taken so many other Burma refugees, don’t want to anger Aung San Suu Kyi. She has told the world to not even say the name “Rohingya.” I have no doubt that she doesn’t want anyone in the West accepting them, either, and which signal diplomats clearly understand and are following.

The Rohingya refugees in Indonesia are like all refugees everywhere. They have the same goals. What they would like most is to be able to go home, to Burma. Until this is possible, they want the government of Indonesia to grant them rights. If the U.S., Canada and Europe can embrace refugees, why not Indonesia (and Thailand!)? Finally, if they can’t get this, they would like to be resettled to the West.

I encourage all journalists, starting with journalists in Indonesia and with pan-Southeast Asia media outlets, to investigate this situation. Please get in touch. I can connect you to Rohingya in Indonesia who can tell you their stories.
*Conclusion*
*Burma, once again, is a mess. It is absolutely a failed state*. 
When you have a genocide of a vulnerable group that is perpetrated by one arm of the government and openly backed by the other, this is the highest level of failure. Even though things may be peaceful in Rangoon and Mandalay (no public protests or free press, though), elsewhere the country is no different from Yemen or Somalia. There is perpetual conflict, never-ending oppression and exploitation, and for the Rohingya the most severe of the crimes against humanity.

The Rohingya must be allowed to return home, meaning any and all Rohingya who have fled over the last forty years. Indeed, all the IDPs and refugees in and from Burma must be allowed to go home. The greatest task of the government, after providing potable water, food and medical care, is enabling – helping – these people to come home. Everything else, including commercial and resource development, is by comparison meaningless.

This is another aspect of Burma as a failed state – that no one, certainly not the Suu Kyi government, has prioritized the problem of helping people return, and not only the IDPs and refugees but also the millions of economic migrants who fled the country. The core objective is simple: Bring everyone home who wants to come back, and then have them get to work rebuilding Burma and in a well-designed and sustainable way.

The barrier of course is obvious. All of the above would require ending the power and privilege of the military dictatorship and its cronies. Until this is accomplished, Burma is simply a mafia gang, a massive criminal enterprise, and which Suu Kyi has joined. 
*It is a country in name only.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/burmas-refugees-repatriation-for-whom.html*


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis - EU Foreign Ministers Must Back Global Arms Embargo*
*Refugee group.JPG*




*Children witnessing their mother being raped by Burmese Army soldiers.
Children seeing their school friends shot.
Thousands of homes burned.
More than 600,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.
A ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ says the UN.
And still no action from the European Union.

European Union Foreign Ministers are meeting on Monday 13th November.
Email them now to demand action.*
https://action.burmacampaign.org.uk...reign-ministers-must-back-global-arms-embargo


----------



## Banglar Bir

Source: CNN
Exclusive video tells of Rohingya massacre
*Accounts of rape, burning children and murder*
*How a Rohingya massacre unfolded at Tula Toli*
By Rebecca Wright, CNN
Updated 0507 GMT (1307 HKT) November 13, 2017
(CNN)Discarded and left for dead, Mumtaz says she found herself on top of a mound of charred, entangled bodies.

"They killed and killed and piled the bodies up high. It was like cut bamboo," says Mumtaz, a Rohingya woman from the village of Tula Toli in western Myanmar.

"In the pile there was someone's neck, someone's head, someone's leg. I was able to come out, I don't know how."
The horrors Mumtaz says she endured didn't stop there. After escaping the mass grave, Mumtaz says she was dragged to a village house and raped by soldiers. The wooden house was then locked and set on fire.

It was her seven-year-old daughter Razia, who was in the hut, that ultimately saved her.
"I called to my mum. And my mum said, 'who are you?,'" Razia says. "My mother's head was split. She was thrown aside. They struck me and threw me aside."

"I said 'your finger is on fire.' Then my mum and I got out and left."
The pair squeezed through a damaged part of a fence and hid in a vegetable patch, before other villagers found them and helped them get to Bangladesh, where a staggering 615,000 Rohingya refugees have fled since August 25, according to aid agencies.




Rohingya refugee Mumtaz and her seven-year-old daughter Razia photographed last week.
The refugees have escaped violent clashes in the north of Rakhine State, where Myanmar's military has intensified what it calls "clearance operations" targeting "terrorists" after Rohingya militants attacked police posts, killing 12 security officials.

The UN calls what's happening in Rakhine a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and the killings that took place in Mumtaz's village on August 30 have been described as one of the worst atrocities of the past two and a half months.
*Documenting a massacre*
Shafiur Rahman, a Bangladeshi-British documentary maker, first heard about what occurred at Tula Toli after he filmed a group of Rohingya crossing the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh on September 2, three days after the killings.

The dramatic footage shows dozens of men and women clambering across barbed wire fences into no man's land, some of them covered in blood and carrying dead or injured relatives. Their distress is palpable.
"It quickly became clear to me that those telling me the most horrific accounts of their last few days were those coming from Tula Toli," Rahman tells CNN. "And what also struck me was the consistency in their stories."




Mumtaz, photographed here on September 27, 2017, fled from Myanmar with her daughter.
He met Mumtaz and Razia in Bangladesh in late September. Almost mummified in bandages, Mumtaz had spent 15 days bed- bound in a clinic, unable to speak or even sip a glass of water. By mid-October, the horrific burns all over her face and body started to slowly heal, and Mumtaz began to share her story with Rahman in a series of interviews.
*
Accounts of mass rape, murder and arson have been given by many of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have escaped Myanmar.*

But the testimonies Rahman has collected from a total of 30 Tula Toli residents over the past two months, and detailed in this report depict what Amnesty International describes in an October report as "what appears to be one of the worst atrocities of the Army's ethnic cleansing campaign."
"Amnesty International believes, based on consistent, corroborating witness accounts, that soldiers massacred at least scores of Rohingya women, men, and children from Min Gyi on 30 August," the Amnesty report concludes. Min Gyi is another name for Tula Toli.
Amnesty also released satellite images showing the village before and after the houses were burnt.







*'They won't kill anyone'*
One of Myanmar's poorest regions, Rakhine State is home to the mostly Muslim Rohingya and the Rakhines, a predominantly Buddhist ethnic group.
The two have lived side by side in Tula Toli for generations although long-simmering tensions have often erupted into violence in the region. The estimated 1.1 million Rohingya have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, which regards them as Bengali. Bangladesh insists they are from Myanmar, rendering them effectively stateless.

In detailed video interviews and conversations, most of the 30 survivors told Rahman that they were given assurances by local officials that they would be safe if they remained in their village.




Rehana, photographed here on September 4, 2017, was able to flee from Tula Toli with her children
Mohammed Nasir said he was told: "They might torch the houses, but they won't kill anyone."
Residents describe helicopters landing near the village at 8 a.m. on the morning of August 30. The soldiers were joined by around 50 Rakhine Buddhists and other non-Rohingya minorities from outside the village, survivors said.

"They asked us to gather on the beach," Nasir says, describing the sandy bank of the meandering river that runs through Tula Toli. He saw the killings unfold from a hill.
"When they saw people gathering, they went straight for them. They were shooting continuously, at the same time the houses were burning.
_Cellphone footage shows Tula Toli residents heading to the river in their village on August 30, where witnesses say many were shot later that day._
Another resident, Rehana Begum, said she was also told to leave her home and stay near the river.
"They kept us there by saying that they would do us no harm," Begum says. "At 8 a.m., a helicopter landed and the village was besieged. Whoever was able to flee, they fled."

"(The military) surrounded us suddenly and we could not escape because of the river. The tide was high. There were no boats. Since my brothers could carry my children, I was able to swim and flee," she says.
"Many were shot, scores got hit and they fell on their face," Rehana said. "Those lying on the ground were picked up, chopped and later they were thrown into the river."




Hasina, left, and her husband Shahidul on October 8. They say soldiers burned their one-year-old daughter alive.

Hasina, a Rohingya woman from Tula Toli, says the soldiers and their accomplices threw her one-year-old daughter Sohaifa on a fire while she was still alive.
"They tore her from my arms," Hasina says, breaking down into tears. "They threw her into a burning pile of clothes. They had started a fire using people's belongings. And they threw her into the big burning pile."

Her husband had been working outside the village when the killings took place and later reunited with his wife in Bangladesh, where he found out about the death of their only child.
CNN cannot verify the accounts of the refugees, as access to Rakhine State is heavily restricted.
*Peace deal signed*
More than a week before the attack on the village, Rohingya village officials say there was a meeting on August 18, in which both Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims from Tula Toli signed a peace agreement.

While the village, which is home to 4,360 Rohingya and 435 Rakhines, hadn't seen any clashes in recent years, Rakhine officials said they wanted to allay Rohingya fears given tensions between the two groups elsewhere in the state and a recent military build up, the survivors told Rahman.
"A resolution was passed to not attack each other and live peacefully. It was signed by both sides, Rakhine and us," said Nur Kabir, the current secretary of Tula Toli's village administration, who is now in Bangladesh.




A group of Rohingya refugees from Tula Toli being brought from the border to the refugee camps in Bangladesh on September 2, 2017

"But they attacked on Wednesday starting at 8 a.m. and killed us."
The survivors say their trust in that peace agreement signed days before, and in the village authorities, was obliterated when the military arrived early on the morning of August 30. Those who escaped estimate that between 1,500 to 1,700 people died that day.

Rahman believes, given the instructions of local officials, the peace deal and the military build-up in the area before August 25, that the attack on Tula Toli was pre-planned. He calls it a "terrifying and inescapable notion" that undermines the repeated insistence from Myanmar authorities that the military were responding to attacks from Rohinya insurgents.

Zaw Htay, the spokesperson for Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said that local Rakhines and the military had been targeted by insurgents in Tula Toli.

"We could verify that on 30 August 2017 in Min Gyi (Tular Tuli) village, there were a total of eight attacks against Rakhine population and security forces by hundreds of terrorists," Zaw Htay said.
Previously, Myanmar's government has denied charges of ethnic cleansing, saying that the military took "full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians" in Rakhine State.
In a televised speech on September 19, Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize laureate who took power in 2015 in a power-sharing agreement with the military, said she "condemned all human rights violations," but failed to address alleged atrocities by the military.

She now faces increased scrutiny ahead of the visit of the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, on Wednesday, who has said he is "extraordinarily concerned about the situation."
Pope Francis, who has spoken out repeatedly in defense of the Rohingya, will also meet with Suu Kyi during a visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh later in November.




Seven-year-old Razia, who helped her mother Mumtaz to escape from Tula Toli. The rest of the family were killed in front of them. She suffered head injuries when her village was attacked.
*Bleak future*
Mumtaz is slowly recovering from her burns and other injuries in Bangladesh, but faces a desperate future.
Conditions in the border camps are bleak, with aid agencies struggling to provide enough food, shelter and healthcare in what the UN has described as the world's fastest growing refugee crisis and a major humanitarian emergency.

She and Razia now have only each other. In the carnage, Mumtaz says her husband was shot by the riverside. One of her three sons was thrown into a fire. The other two were killed in the wooden hut that Razia and Mumtaz escaped from.
"My brother and the others were burnt," Razia says. "They were killed by being smashed. They shot dead my dad."
Razia's head is scarred with the blows she received. But worse is the mental trauma of the memories, which are still raw.
"She saw. The little girl saw everything," Mumtaz says. "She tried to pick up her brother as he was burning. She couldn't."
Edited by Katie Hunt
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/12/asia/myanmar-rohingya-tula-toli-massacre-testimony/index.html


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## Banglar Bir

*South Asian Actors and Artists Call on World Leaders to End Violence Against Rohingya*
BY NEHMAT KAUR ON 10/11/2017
*A letter signed by prominent South Asians calls on world leaders to pressure the Myanmar government into granting citizenship to the Rohingya.*




Over 30 South Asians in the media and arts have signed an open letter condemning the world’s response to the Rohingya crisis and calling on world leaders to take action at the upcoming ASEAN Summit.

In 1994, the world wrung its hands and chose to observe – not stop – the brutal violence unfolding in Rwanda. And then, after hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost, the international community swore there would never be a repeat.

Now, an open letter from some of the most prominent South Asians in arts and media is reminding the international community of its promises, “Remember what happened in Rwanda? Now pay attention to Myanmar.”

Over 30 South Asians artistes, including Riz Ahmed, Shruti Ganguly, Heems, Aziz Ansari, Kumail Nanjiani, Freida Pinto, Manish Dayal, Nandita Das and Kamila Shamsie, have signed an open letter condemning the world’s response to the Rohingya crisis and calling on world leaders to take action at the upcoming ASEAN Summit.

Titled ‘The Genocide Under Our Noses’, the letter draws attention to the fact that over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims – nearly half their total population – have fled state-sponsored persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine state just in the past ten weeks. Reports say hundreds more continue to arrive on Bangladeshi shores, while thousands still remain stranded in Myanmar.

The unprecedented influx of refugees – bearing accounts of the Burmese military torching their villages, raping and murdering with impunity – has plunged Bangladesh into a humanitarian crisis. In late October, the United Nations declared the situation a textbook case of ethnic cleansing, and appealed for $434 million to tackle the worsening conditions in Bangladesh’s camps. With an estimated 12,000 children arriving every week, UNICEF has estimated that it will need $76 million to treat just the children, who form as much as 60% of the refugee population in Bangladesh.

And yet, international response has proven inadequate so far. The UN’s appeal remains underfunded and it was only this week that the UN Security Council released a presidential statement expressing “grave concern” over the situation in Myanmar, and asked the state “to ensure no further excessive use of military force”. Britain, France and others originally circulated a resolution for the same purpose, but dropped it since diplomats expected China and Russia to exercise their veto powers. Regardless, Myanmar retorted, saying that the statement could “seriously harm” bilateral negotiations with Bangladesh, negatively impacting efforts to repatriate the refugees.
*Also read: Timeline: Being Rohingya in Myanmar, from 1784 to Now*
But state actors are not the only players involved. “Myanmar is no longer a pariah state; it has a democratically elected government and has been flooded with foreign direct investment over the past few years,” states the letter, drawing attention to non-state actors. “The corporations who have invested in this region must speak up and divest, unless human rights are respected, or they too will be complicit in these horrendous acts,” the letter goes on to say.




Rohingya refugee men carry a man after travelling over the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 1, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Many are hoping that world leaders will use an upcoming trio of events – the APEC Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam on November 10, an ASEAN meeting in Manila, Philippines on November 12 and then the East Asia Summit in Manila on November 13 and 14 – to coax Myanmar into complying with international norms.

Referring to the ASEAN summit, the open letter calls on leaders to “pressure the Myanmar government to stop these atrocities, grant the Rohingya citizenship, and allow them to return to a place they call home.”

It adds, “Countries must fully fund the UN appeal and close the funding gap that is leaving traumatised children without basic food, water and shelter. Finally, member states of the United Nations must assess what diplomatic efforts can enable them to fulfill their responsibility to protect the Rohingya.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also released a statement ahead of the summits, demanding “concerted global action” from the countries that will be attending the summits, including the US, China, Japan, Russia, Canada, Australia, Mexico, the EU, Japan and South Korea. Brad Adams, the organisation’s director in Asia, said, “World leaders shouldn’t return home from these summits without agreeing to targeted sanctions to pressure Burma to end its abuses and allow in independent observers and aid groups.”
*Also read: For the Rohingya in Bangladesh’s Refugee Camps, Living is Surviving*
The organisation has also said the Security Council should take “more meaningful action” and recommended imposing an arms embargo, economic sanctions and travel bans on members of the military. However, with China publicly praising Myanmar’s efforts to “maintain stability” and the US withdrawing its assistance to Myanmar’s military at the same time, unanimous action by the UNSC seems unlikely. Although, as HRW and the open letter points out, that shouldn’t stop countries from taking bilateral and multilateral action.

With the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson scheduled to visit Myanmar on November 15, and ministers from China, Japan, Germany and Sweden also visiting Myanmar and Bangladesh this month, the Bangladeshi government is hoping the international community “will continue building pressure on Myanmar”.

Currently home to about a million refugees and counting, the already over-subscribed state is struggling to keep its borders open and its refugee camps habitable. The thousands stuck at the mouth of the Naf river do not know or do not care about the conditions that await them. The letter’s premise is a simple one, “After Rwanda we said ‘never again’. We must mean it”.
https://thewire.in/195832/south-asian-artistes-call-world-leaders-end-violence-rohingya/


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## Banglar Bir

*Last exit from Myanmar, Rohingya wait for weeks on beach*
Reuters
Published at 10:41 AM November 13, 2017




A Rohingya Muslim woman holds a baby as they wait to cross the border to go to Bangladesh, in a temporary camp outside Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar November 12, 2017 *Reuters*
*Well over 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to find shelter in the refugee camps*
Some 1,000 Rohingya desperate to leave Myanmar are camped on this exposed, sun-baked beach on the Bay of Bengal waiting for a boat to carry them to sanctuary in Bangladesh.

Having kept northern parts of Rakhine State virtually off limits since it launched a counter-insurgency operation there in late August, Myanmar’s military made a rare show of openness on Sunday by taking foreign journalists to see one of the beaches from which Rohingya are trying to escape.

Well over 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to find shelter in the refugee camps, the living victims of what a top UN official has called “ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country, has denied such accusations, insisting the military’s clearance operation was necessitated by national security concerns after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts in northern Rakhine on August 25.

For the Rohingya at Ah Lei Than Kyaw, some 5 km south of the mouth of the Naf river, the beach is a kind of purgatory.

Mohammad Eidnou, a 19-year-old laborer, sold his house and belongings but he and his family have spent everything surviving for the past two months and have no money to pay the $50 a head that boatmen are demanding to take them to Bangladesh.

“I don’t want to go back to my village because there is nothing for us,” Eidnou told Reuters. “We cannot survive.”

Some have been stuck there for over a month, sweltering under the plastic sheeting used to make tents and existing on handouts proved by the Myanmar Red Cross Society.

Others came just a few days ago, a sign that the flight of the Rohingya to Bangladesh is far from over. The International Rescue Committee reckons that two-thirds of some 300,000 left in Myanmar could leave in the next couple of months.

On the beach at Ah Lei Than Kyaw, 30-year-old Sauli Mullahhe was thinking only of getting away.

Like several other men, he described how things had got so bad that he could no longer go to work or his children to school. He could not get to a pharmacy when they fell sick, or go to a market to buy food and said the authorities had even stopped Rohingya leaving the village to fish.

“I could not have survived anymore,” Mullahhe said. “I will not go back to my village, I really hope to cross the Naf river to get to Bangladesh.”
*Tillerson coming*
Myint Kyaw, a police lieutenant-colonel, said his officers were leaving the Rohingya on the beach alone, and were not intervening when boats came to pick them up.

“We don’t really take any action against them, because we don’t want them in trouble,” the policeman said. “They cannot go on living in the camp for very long because they can have so many health problems. That’s why we don’t interfere with them.”

Rohingya among the hundreds who reached Bangladesh on rickety boats and rafts late last week told Reuters they had left thousands of others behind in miserable conditions on the Pa Nyaung Pin Gyi beach, at the mouth of the Naf.
*
The military-arranged media trip did not extend that far up the coast.*

Many of the Rohingya living in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, on the Bangladesh side of the Naf river, have recounted how their relatives were raped and murdered as they ran from villages set ablaze by Myanmar soldiers.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar’s less than two-year-old civilian government, has said any allegations of atrocities need substantiating and should be investigated.

Under Myanmar’s transition to democracy, civilians still have to share power with the generals who ruled the country for nearly half a century, and Suu Kyi has no say over what the military does.

She is currently on a mission explaining how Myanmar is working to stem the crisis to leaders of other Southeast Asian countries at a regional summit in Manila.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit Myanmar for talks with the country’s leadership, while senators back in Washington press for economic and travel sanctions against the military and its business interests.

Suu Kyi has said preparations are being made for Rohingya to return, so long as they can prove they were resident.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/11/13/227838/


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## Banglar Bir

*The ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya is visible from space*




Light from a torch falls on the face of a Rohingya Muslim girl sitting with a group on a raft made with plastic containers on which they crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)
*WRITTEN BY*
Tim Fernholz David Yanofsky
*November 12, 2017
In just months, more than 600,000 members of Myanmar’s ethnic Muslim minority, the Rohingya, have fled persecution into neighboring Bangladesh. When that many people move on earth, you can see it from space.*
The imagery below comes from Planet, a satellite imaging company that photographs the entire landmass of earth daily. It shows Kutupalong refugee camp, spreading over an area a little larger than ten square miles. The left side of the photo is Bangladesh; the right side, Myanmar.

In the space of a few weeks between Sept. 21 and Nov. 10, you can see the “massive expansion of the camp over a short amount of time,” Micah Farfour, who analyzes imagery like this for Amnesty International, said in an email. “You can see there were once trees/vegetation where there are now structures (lighter colors).”

Farfour says that the rapid growth of the camp confirms a large exodus from Myanmar, and suggests, “the situation in Myanmar for the people fleeing is likely desperate and widespread to cause so many people to leave so quickly.” It also suggests that migrants are getting through despite reports that the Bangladesh government tried to halt the mass movement.

Amnesty International has sent teams of researchers to Bangladesh to interview the refugees, documenting a government-led crack down on the Rohingya that began during the summer. Soldiers, accompanied by citizen militias, have burned Rohnigya towns, shot refugees as they fled and raped Rohingya women. 
*The United Nations top human rights’ official has called it ““a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”*




The area of the conflict; refugees are concentrated near Cox’s Bazaar. (Amnesty International)
One challenge for the UN and human rights organizations has been getting access to Rakhine state, the Myanmar province where the Rohingya made their home. That has made satellite imagery an increasingly important tool for human rights monitors. 
*Amnesty has used satellite imagery to track burnt villages in Myanmar.*

“Many times, I am able to work with researchers that receive reports from the ground from locals and then I can attempt to confirm or deny things with satellite imagery,” Farfour writes, noting that Planet’s frequent imaging of the same areas is critical because* “I am looking at areas of the world that the higher resolution satellites rarely document until it may be too late.”*

On Nov. 10, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Myanmar to allow the Rohingya to return to their homes and allow UN inspectors access to Rakhine state. “What has happened is an immense tragedy and the levels of violence and the atrocities committed are something that we cannot be silent about,” he said.
https://qz.com/1127120/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-the-rohingya-is-visible-from-space/


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## Banglar Bir

*One of the world’s poorest countries confronts ethnic cleansing on its doorstep*
*By Omar Waraich November 6*
torture, rape, killings, arson and other human rights violations.
*The Bangladeshi government, which had long been ambivalent towards the Rohingya, embraced them. 
On a visit to the camps last month, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared that if Bangladesh could feed 160 million people, it could feed hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees. Across the Cox’s Bazar district, she is shown consoling refugee children on placards that hail her as the “Mother of Humanity.”*





Now, the mood is slowly giving way to anxiety. Bangladeshis are keenly aware that the humanitarian crisis has enhanced their prestige abroad, but there are worries about how their poor, densely populated country will cope.

With an eye on next year’s elections, which are clouded by fears about how the religious right might exploit the crisis, ministers routinely grumble about the insupportable burden they are forced to carry. *There is no sign that the refugees will be able to return to their homes anytime soon, and there is no plan to provide for their long-term needs.*

*As far as Burma’s generals see it, they have successfully executed a plan to finally rid themselves of the Rohingya. Stripped of their citizenship, denied recognition as an ethnic group, the Rohingya have long been subject to an entrenched system of discrimination. The heart-rending testimonies of the past two months bear a chilling consistency with reports from the late 1970s, when 200,000 Rohingya were also driven out of their villages amid a frenzy of violence.*

Back then, many Bangladeshis found it easy to sympathize with the plight of the Rohingya. The memories of 1971, when the Pakistan army carried out large-scale human rights violations and drove millions of refugees into India, were still fresh. But that didn’t stop the government from trying to force them back. “We are not going to make the refugees so comfortable that they won’t go back to Burma,” a minister said at the time. Within the space of six months, 10,000 refugees had died in the camps of hunger.
*
The desire to see the refugees return to Burma appears to dominate the current Bangladeshi government’s thinking*. It has refused to grant the Rohingya refugee status, leaving them without any legal status on either side of the border. That decision may seem trivial, but it’s of fateful significance, since it prevents international humanitarian aid agencies from mobilizing the kind of support needed. Also against the wishes of the humanitarian community, the government is constructing what may become the world’s largest refugee camp.

The Kutupalong refugee camp, assigned to Rohingya refugees who fled here during the early 1990s, has now been extended in every direction. Scattered across 3,000 acres of previously forested land, it will become home to more than a million people. Plans are underway to coax earlier arrivals of Rohingya refugees out of the makeshift dwellings and onto the rambling hills where they have been assigned shelter. There is no direct access by road; supplies have to be delivered by foot.
*
The weather is oppressive. *The searing heat is only interrupted by monsoon rain or severe gusts of wind. The thought of the camp’s fate during the coming cyclone season fills the humanitarian community with dread, as do other looming hazards. A fire in a tent, or the outbreak of disease, will sweep across the camp with a fury that will be difficult to tame. Doctors Without Borders has described health conditions in the camp as a “time bomb.”

The government is still toying with the reckless idea of moving the Rohingya refugees offshore, to a pair of uninhabited and uninhabitable silt islands that have barely emerged into view.
*Meanwhile, criminal gangs, human traffickers, armed groups and others who sense opportunity in misery are a constant menace.*

Every refugee I spoke to said they wanted to go home — but not before “shanti,” or peace, returns. It will not be enough for the violence to stop. The cruel, entrenched system of discrimination and segregation that made them so vulnerable in the first place has to be dismantled. The Rohingya cannot be left living in fear of a fresh wave of violence that will drive them across the border yet again, condemned to their tragic status as a perpetually unwanted people.

For that to happen, Burma’s military must be held accountable and Bangladesh’s government must be helped with its burden. This is not a crisis that will disappear any time soon, and unless there is a determined global response over the long-term, it could become worse still. The plight of the Rohingya is a test — a moment that demands the international community demonstrate that the words “never again” still carry some meaning.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ts-doorstep/?tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.db24973c8286


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/





*Myanmar's soldiers targeted Rohingya Muslim women for gang rape: UN official*
*Sun Nov 12, 2017 05:23PM*




Rohingya Muslim refugees who entered Bangladesh by makeshift boats walk toward refugee camps after landing in the Teknaf district of Bangladesh, November 11, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
*Myanmar's soldiers have "systematically targeted" Rohingya Muslim women for gang rape in Rakhine state, says a UN official.*
Pramila Patten, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict, said many of the atrocities committed by the troops "could be crimes against humanity."

The UN official made the remarks during a press briefing in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, on Sunday, after visiting the southeastern district of Cox's Bazar, which is located near the border with Myanmar.

"I heard horrific stories of rape and gang rape, with many of the women and girls who died as a result of the rape," Patten said, adding, "My observations point to a pattern of widespread atrocities, including sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls who have been systematically targeted on account of their ethnicity and religion."

The sexual violence in Rakhine was "commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar," the special representative said.

"The forms of sexual violence we consistently heard about from survivors include gang rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation and sexual slavery in military captivity."

"One survivor described being held in captivity by the Myanmar armed forces for 45 days, during which time she was repeatedly raped. Others still bore visible scars, bruises and bite marks attesting to their ordeal," Patten stated.

The UN official added that the sexual violence was a key reason behind the exodus of the Rohingya and occurred in the context of "collective persecution" of the minority.

"The widespread threat and use of sexual violence was clearly a driver and push factor for forced displacement on a massive scale and a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and the removal of the Rohingya as a group."

Patten earlier met women and girls who were among thousands of Rohingya Muslims that have sought refuge in Bangladesh.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled the predominantly-Buddhist country of Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25, when a crackdown on the Rohingya intensified in Rakhine. The government has been engaged in a campaign against the minority, which the UN and human rights groups have called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Elsewhere in her remarks, Patten said she would raise the issue of the persecution of the Rohingya, especially sexual violence and torture, with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"When I return to New York I will brief and raise the issue with the prosecutor and president of the ICC whether they (Myanmar's military) can be held responsible for these atrocities."

International rights groups have already called on world leaders to address the plight of the Rohingya.




PressTV-HRW urges strong action against Myanmar over Rohingya
Human Rights Watch urges world leaders gathering for upcoming annual summits in Asia to address the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/11/12/541960/UN-Myanmar-Rohingya-women

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## Banglar Bir

2:00 AM, November 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:17 PM, November 13, 2017
*Learning the ropes*
*From Bangladesh standing its moral ground as it takes in another influx of Rohingya refugees to Australia's settlement services, there's a lot that we can learn from one another to better manage refugee crises*





A Rohingya refugee holds his son on his shoulder as they walk through a rice field after crossing the Naf river from Myanmar into Bangladesh on October 9, 2017. PHOTO: AFP
Nahela Nowshin
*The Bangladesh government has been globally lauded—and rightfully so—for welcoming with open arms, once again, the persecuted Rohingya people with whom the country has a checkered history. 
The Rohingyas came to Bangladesh in droves in 1978, 1992, and the 2010s. *
But at this juncture, many are wondering just how the latest influx of Rohingyas—the highest yet, numbering over 600,000—is going to pan out in the longer term.

With Bangladesh—as overpopulated and resource-strained as it is—now hosting almost a million Rohingya refugees, the absence of a coherent plan in dealing with a crisis not of its own doing is turning out to be detrimental.
Conditions at the camps are deteriorating and the dangers of child and sex trafficking are becoming more and more real as we speak.
*
The dilemma we are facing perhaps is a result of any government having to tow the difficult line between humanitarianism and realpolitik:* At what point does ceaselessly taking on the burden of more and more refugees turn into an opportunistic tool for the sending country (in this case Myanmar) to achieve its internal objectives?
Is Myanmar not taking advantage of Bangladesh's compassion to rid the Rakhine State entirely of the Rohingya?

With a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the repatriation talks, it looks like the Rohingya crisis at our doorstep is only going to balloon with time. It also makes one wonder why Bangladesh—which is no stranger to hosting refugees—has not been able to do a better job of refugee management, particularly with regard to the Rohingya. If criticising the handling of the latest influx of Rohingyas seems unfair or premature, then what of the thousands who have come here previously and continue to live in squalid camps, with their movement restricted and with little to no chance of ever getting a proper education?

A major reason behind Bangladesh's inability to better manage the crisis is the utter failure of the international community—the usual suspect—to pressurise the Myanmar government into bringing an end to the repression of the minority in the first place, so that Rohingya refugees stranded in Bangladesh would feel confident enough to go back. I say the international community because refugee management isn't a one-man show. However, that does not completely absolve the host country of its responsibilities to do its best to protect the rights of these people who have left behind everything they have ever known in fear of persecution. Sadly though, that's not how it always works out.
*
Refugee crises are ridden with dilemmas.* A dilemma for the oppressed to leave or stay. A dilemma for governments to condemn or remain silent. A dilemma for countries to refuse or let refugees in. And once they've done their part to take in a certain “quota”, there's yet again a dilemma about doing “too much” for fear that this would act as a pull factor. This has been the case with the Rohingya refugees who have come to Bangladesh in previous exoduses and have had to face restrictions such as limited access to education and no permission to work despite being here for decades.

"Refugee crises are ridden with dilemmas. A dilemma for the oppressed to leave or stay. A dilemma for governments to condemn or remain silent. A dilemma for countries to refuse or let refugees in. And once they've done their part to take in a certain “quota”, there's yet again a dilemma about doing “too much” for fear that this would act as a pull factor.

Bangladesh isn't alone when it comes to being precautious about becoming a haven for refugees. A similar line of reasoning seems to have also been taken by developed countries like Australia which are far better equipped to handle refugee crises of the scale that we are facing. Australia’s controversial offshore processing centres—long regarded as its Achilles' heel in its history of immigration policy—were established in order to “stop boat arrivals” of asylum seekers to prevent deaths at sea and “break the people smugglers' business model” (as per the official narrative).

But there lies an underlying objective of minimising the “pull factor”—much like the rationale behind imposing restrictions upon Rohingyas who have been living in camps in Bangladesh for years. In fact, multiple Australian immigration ministers have put forward the not-so-subtle argument that taking in refugees from offshore detention facilities is akin to “putting sugar on the table”.
The issue of asylum seekers and refugees has a long, ugly history of politicisation in the country and has become an intense area of criticism globally.




This handout picture taken and received on October 31, 2017 by Nick McKim, Australian Greens Senator for Tasmania, shows refugees gesturing inside the Manus detention camp in Papua New Guinea on the day of the camp's expected closure. Hundreds of "scared" refugees are refusing to leave an Australian detention camp in Papua New Guinea that formally "closed" on October 31, with fears they could be forcibly removed by authorities. Photo: Handout/Nick McKim/AFP

In humanitarian crises, governments inevitably find themselves between a rock and a hard place: Striking a balance between the moral responsibility of granting refuge to the persecuted and treading with enough caution so as to avoid negative consequences. In light of the critical situation at the Manus Island immigration detention centre—where refugees and asylum seekers have been defying the closure bids by Australia and Papua New Guinea and, as of writing this article, had until Sunday to stay in the camp—it is clear that the Australian government isn't ready to soften its stance on asylum seekers arriving by boat. That is extremely unfortunate because there is yet no sign of an end to the inhumane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers holed up in the offshore detention facilities.

Despite commonalities of ethical dilemmas, no two countries have the same experience in dealing with a refugee crisis—and there’s a lot that one can learn from another. For instance, the symbolic significance of the Bangladesh government's opening the borders to hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas is immense:
*
It should be a lesson in compassion for developed countries like the US and Australia that can do much more than they are doing to resettle the most vulnerable refugees.* Differences in context aside, the number of refugees being resettled by both Australia and the US pales in comparison to the number of Rohingya refugees we have sheltered in the past few months alone.
That being said, there is also a lot to be learnt for Bangladesh from countries like Australia and Canada when it comes to emulating key features of settlement service programmes.

In Australia, for example, where the resettlement intake for 2017–18 has been increased to 16,250 spots (not nearly enough), an extremely well-structured, comprehensive refugee resettlement programme has been put into place for humanitarian entrants. From ensuring that its governance involves all tiers of the government (federal, state, local) to the provision of medical benefits, interpretation and translation services, and skills and education programmes, Australia's refugee resettlement programme can serve as a model/blueprint for countries like Bangladesh where a strong mechanism of refugee management is lacking.

This does not mean Bangladesh should also come up with a “resettlement programme” for the Rohingyas; rather what it can do is take inspiration from existing models of refugee programmes, such as the one in Australia, to come up with its own mechanism to better handle the crisis. Because right now, Bangladesh seems to have nothing close to a plan of action to deal with the massive numbers of Rohingya refugees.

Managing such humanitarian crises comes with extreme complexities to which there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. It requires the Herculean task of skillfully balancing the art of diplomacy, assuaging public opinion, and re-allocating limited resources.

*But if there's one overarching lesson to be learnt, it is to ensure that the traumatising state of in-between, that is often a result of governments wanting a quick fix, does not prolong the cycle of suffering and exploitation of hapless victims of persecution—whether it be asylum seekers and refugees stranded in Nauru or PNG or undocumented Rohingyas in Bangladesh stuck in limbo.*
_Nahela Nowshin is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star._
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/human-rights/learning-the-ropes-1490179

07:36 PM, November 13, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:50 PM, November 13, 2017
*Myanmar replaces general in charge of Rakhine amid new reports of atrocities*




A Myanmar soldier stands near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine state. Reuters file photo
Reuters, Yangon
*Myanmar’s army has replaced the general in charge of Rakhine state following a military crackdown that has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighbouring Bangladesh amid reports of mass rape, torture and other crimes against humanity.*
No reason was given for Major General Maung Maung Soe being transferred from his post as the head of Western Command in Rakhine, where Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched a sweeping counter-insurgency operation in August.

“I don’t know the reason why he was transferred,” Major General Aye Lwin, deputy director of the psychological warfare and public relation department at the Ministry of Defence, told Reuters. “He wasn’t moved into any position at present. *He has been put in reserve.”*

The move comes ahead of a visit on Wednesday by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who is expected to deliver a stern message to Myanmar’s generals, over whom national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, criticized in the West for failing to halt the atrocities, has little control.

Senators in Washington are pressing to pass legislation imposing economic and travel sanctions targeting the military and its business interests.

The government in mostly-Buddhist Myanmar regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Leaders of Asian nations meeting in Manila on Monday skirted around the mass exodus of the Rohingya, disappointing human rights groups who were hoping for a tough stand.

Maung Maung Soe’s transfer was ordered on Friday and Brigadier General Soe Tint Naing, formerly a director in logistics, had been appointed as the new head of Western Command.

Made up of three divisions, Western Command is overseen by the Bureau of Special Operations, which reports to the office of the Commander in Chief of the military, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

A senior UN official has described the army’s actions in Rakhine as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. Myanmar says the clearance operation was necessary for national security after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts and an army base in the state on August 25.
*ALLEGED ATROCITIES
On Sunday, another UN official accused Myanmar’s military of conducting organized rape and other crimes against humanity, and said she would raise the matter with the International Criminal Court in the Hague.*

“When I return to New York, I will brief and raise the issue with the prosecutor and president of the ICC whether they (Myanmar’s military) can be held responsible for these atrocities,” Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said in Dhaka.

“Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar, otherwise known as the Tatmadaw,” Patten said following a three-day tour of the Rohingya refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh.
*“Rape is an act and a weapon of genocide,” she said.*
Refugees have accused Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes of torching their villages, murdering their families and raping women.

Patten said brutal acts of sexual violence had occurred in the context of collective persecution that included the killing of adults and children, torture, mutilation and the burning and looting of villages.

“The forms of sexual violence we consistently heard about from survivors include gang-rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation, and sexual slavery in military captivity. One survivor was in captivity for 45 days by the Myanmar army,” Patten said.
*INTERNAL PROBE*
Myanmar’s military said in October that an internal probe was being held into the conduct of its soldiers during the counteroffensive in Rakhine.

But Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

Myanmar is in the early stages of a fragile transition to democracy after being ruled by a junta for 49 years, and the generals have retained their autonomy on matters of defense, security and border issues under a 2008 constitution, and three generals are members of the cabinet.

Suu Kyi has said that any alleged atrocities should be substantiated and investigated, while her government is working to stabilize Rakhine in order for the Rohingya to return.

*For now, though, the flow is one way. International Rescue Committee, the New York-based aid agency, reckons that around two-thirds of an estimated 300,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar could head across the border in the coming months.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

*Factors hampering solution of Rohingya issue*
P K Balachandran, November 14, 2017



* 
Under pressure from the UN, the West and also China, to go in for a deal with Bangladesh, Myanmar’s military-backed government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, opened up to Bangladesh and invited the latter’s Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan for talks last month.*
The talks led to a 10-point agreement which clearly included a provision for the repatriation of 600,000 Rohingyas who had fled to Bangladesh after the latest bout of violence which began on August 25.

*But even before the ink on the agreement dried, Myanmar reneged on it and issued a dubious “Joint Statement” minus the crucial paragraph on repatriation.*

Zaw Htay, a spokesman for State Counselor (Prime Minister) Aung San Suu Kyi, said that Myanmar is ready to take refugees but only those who have official documents to prove that they had been living in Myanmar. He said that this is as per an agreement signed with Bangladesh in September 1992. But Bangladesh is refusing to go back to the 1992, he pointed out.
*
Bangladesh has good reasons for not going back to the 1992 pact. *The pact had failed comprehensively. Less than 2000 out of the 200, 000 refugees at that time had gone back because only that many had the required official documents. Most of the refugees had no documents to prove Myanmar residency either because Myanmar had not issued documents to them or they had lost them during the riots and the flight to Bangladesh. Bangladesh even used force to push the refugees out, but that too failed.

Myanmar has its own explanation for Bangladesh’s reluctance to accept the 1992 pact. According to Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, Bangladesh wants the refugees to stay on so that it could get more and more money from the international community to help build gigantic refugee camps for the Rohingyas. According to the Myanmar spokesman, Bangladesh has already received US$ 400 million and is looking for more citing continuing refugee presence.

But Bangladesh sources trash this line, saying that the 1992 repatriation agreement cannot be implemented if official residency documentation is insisted upon. Bangladesh is actually dead against the creation of permanent Rohingya settlements on its territory and is resisting efforts by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to build permanent house or shelters for the refugees. 

The government may not take the advice of some foreign experts to build more camps even to relieve congestion in the existing camps in Cox’s Bazar on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Local officials have banned Bangladeshis marrying refugees, as such marriages may lead to permanent settlement.

After Myanmar reneged on the 10-point agreement between the Bangladesh and Myanmar Interior Ministers, Bangladesh stepped up efforts to get the international community to out pressure on Myanmar.

*China, which had played a catalytic role in getting the two adversaries to talk to each other and settle the matter, had failed in its mission to find a solution through the bilateral route. But China still hopes that Myanmar will resist West-led international pressure using the concept of “national sovereignty”.

There are signs that Myanmar will use the concept of sovereignty to resist international pressure. Myanmar has said that it is still wedded to bilateralism. *It has pointed out that the talks process with Bangladesh is still on, and that Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali will come to Myanmar for talks on November 16 and 17.

That Myanmar is opposed to international intervention is evident in its response to the UN Security Council’s Joint Statement on the Rohingya issue. Suu Kyi’s office said that the UNSC statement will only hamper bilateral negotiations between Myanmar and Bangladesh which “have been proceeding smoothly and expeditiously.”

The statement also lauded China and Russia for upholding “the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries.”

However, egged on by Bangladesh, the UN and the West will continue to put pressure on Myanmar. But this will be done without upsetting their relations with their protégé Aung San Suu kyi, who had restored democracy in Myanmar after years of hard struggle.

The West would also be careful not to step on China’s toes, as China’s goodwill is necessary to contain the emerging threat from North Korea. US President Donald Trump’s overtures to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Beijing are an indication that the US will handle China with kid gloves.

Bangladesh too will not go beyond a point to seek international intervention as it might lose the support of China which is a major investor in Bangladesh; a significant supplier of military equipment; and a bulwark against its giant neighbor, India. Bangladesh may also be wary about giving in to UNHCR’s permanent settlement plan as a result of internationalizing the problem.

The West has been treading warily. Its bid to get the UNSC to pass a strong “resolution” against China failed because of the fear of its being vetoed by China and Russia, both strong advocates of the concept of the inviolability of national sovereignties. What resulted was a mild “Joint Statement”.

The US State Department has shown reluctance to describe the events in Myanmar as “ethnic cleansing”. It remains to be seen if the US Congress would urge targeted military sanctions against Myanmar. The US has also taken the extremely charitable view that Myanmar has begun the repatriation process.

However, Foreign Ministers from 53 countries from Asia and Europe, who will assemble in Myanmar for the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) on November 20 and 21, will take up the issue of the Rohingyas with the Myanmar leaders. ASEM has as its members, the US, Russia, China, Japan, India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Prior to the summit on or around November 18, Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Germany, Japan and China will visit Dhaka for talks with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and visit refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.
SOURCE DAILY FT
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/14/factors-hampering-solution-rohingya-issue/


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## Banglar Bir

*UN chief meets Myanmar’s Suu Kyi on Rohingya crisis*
AFP
Published at 08:18 AM November 14, 2017




Rohingya refugees sit on a makeshift boat as they wait for permission from Border Guard Bangladesh to continue after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at Shah Porir Dwip in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar on November 9, 2017 *Reuters*
*More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in two and a half months*
UN chief Antonio Guterres urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to allow Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to return, when they met Tuesday at a summit in the Philippines, his office said.

*The meeting added to global pressure on Suu Kyi to take action to end the crisis for the Muslim minority, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson due Tuesday also to hold talks with her in Manila then travel to Myanmar.*

“The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential,” a UN statement said, summarising comments to Suu Kyi.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in two and a half months.

The crisis erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked police posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, triggering a military crackdown that saw hundreds of villages reduced to ashes and sparked a massive exodus.
*
Authorities have blocked independent access to northern Rakhine.*

But journalists and UN officials have collected reams of testimony from Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh describing soldiers and Buddhist mobs committing murder, rape and mass arson.

Following its first official investigation into the crisis, the army published a report this week in which it cleared itself of any abuses.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, a former democracy activist, has been lambasted by rights groups for failing to speak up for the Rohingya or condemn festering anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

But she lacks control over the powerful military, which ruled the country for decades until her party came to power following 2015 elections.

The United States has been careful not to place blame on her and has focused instead on the army’s role in the conflict.

Guterres and Suu Kyi met in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to his office.

In a summit on Monday night with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, Guterres also voiced concern about the Rohingya.

He said the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya was a “worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy,” according to the UN statement.

He described the situation as a potential source of instability in the region,* as well as radicalisation.*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/11/14/un-chief-meets-myanmars-suu-kyi-rohingya-crisis/


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## Banglar Bir

*ASEAN cannot look the other way*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 06:27 PM November 13, 2017
Last updated at 11:26 PM November 13, 2017




Photo: *REUTERS*
*There was no mention of the Rohingya crisis and Myanmar’s role in it in a draft statement of this year’s ASEAN summit*
The whole world is now aware of Myanmar’s overt ethnic cleansing operations against the Rohingya — the ethnic Muslim minority that have inhabited the Rakhine state in Myanmar for centuries — which began in earnest after August 25 this year.

But the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional political and economic organisation with 10 member states including Myanmar, is choosing to turn a blind eye.

As an organisation that has Myanmar as its member, ASEAN must also take some responsibility for it — at the very least have a dialogue about it.

Yet, there was no mention of the Rohingya crisis and Myanmar’s role in it in a draft statement of this year’s ASEAN summit, which ends today, in Manila, Philippines.

As the maxim goes: “Silence gives consent.” And ASEAN’s silence is making them look quite suspect.

Malaysia was the only member country that voiced any concern, perhaps from some sort of Muslim solidarity, but this is a humanitarian crisis and all of humanity should be equally outraged, regardless of race or religion.

Moreover, the crisis can easily turn into a regional crisis unless corrective steps are taken, and ASEAN is in an ideal position to take the lead here.

Suu Kyi’s complicity in the cleansing operations has become clear over the months as she repeatedly lied, denied, and made excuses for the violence. But, according to a former foreign minister of the Philippines, she is still enjoying sycophantic treatment at the ASEAN summit.

As a regional organisation, ASEAN should be playing a much more active role to find a solution to this potential regional crisis.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/2017/11/13/asean-cannot-look-the-other-way/

*UK says Rohingya violence 'looks like ethnic cleansing'*



_By_ Anadolu Agency
November 13, 2017
*Downing Street spokesman says UK is 'appalled' by attacks on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar
ISTANBUL -- A U.K. government spokesman on Monday said violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar "looks a lot like ethnic cleansing".*
In comments reported in U.K. media, the Downing Street spokesman said the British government had been "appalled by the inhumane violence which has taken place in Rakhine state".
"It’s a major humanitarian crisis which has been created by Burma’s military and it looks like ethnic cleansing," he added.

This follows the UN's description of the violence against Rohingya Muslims as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
*
Turkey has also been at the forefront of raising the Rohingya crisis internationally.
*
Earlier on Monday, Live Aid founder Bob Geldof returned a civic award in Dublin in protest at Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's response to the Rohingya crisis in her country, where, since Aug. 25, over 611,000 people have fled the western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh.

The refugees are fleeing a military operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages.

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.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/uk-says-rohingya-violence-looks-like.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Desperate Rohingya swim 2.5 miles from Myanmar to Bangladesh*




In this Nov. 4, 2017, photo, Rohingya Muslim Abdul Karim, 19, uses a yellow plastic oil container as a flotation device as he swims the Naf river while crossing the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslims escaping the violence in their homeland of Myanmar are now so desperate that some are swimming to safety in neighboring Bangladesh, even if they have never been in the water before. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
_By_ Bernat Armangue
Associated Press
November 13, 2017
*SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh* — Nabi Hussain owes his life to a yellow plastic oil container.
The 13-year-old Rohingya boy couldn't swim, and had never even seen the sea before fleeing his village in Myanmar. But he clung to the empty container and struggled across the water with it for about 2 1/2 miles, all the way to Bangladesh.

Rohingya Muslims escaping the violence in their homeland of Myanmar are now so desperate that some are trying to swim to safety in neighboring Bangladesh. In just a week, more than three dozen boys and young men used cooking oil containers like life rafts to swim across the mouth of the Naf River and wash up ashore in Shah Porir Dwip, a fishing town and cattle trade spot.

"I was so scared of dying," said Nabi, a lanky boy in a striped polo shirt and checkered dhoti. "I thought it was going to be my last day."

Although Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for decades, the country's Buddhist majority still sees them as invaders from Bangladesh. The government denies them basic rights, and the United Nations has called them the most persecuted minority in the world.

Just since August, after their homes were torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers, more than 600,000 Rohingya have risked the trip to Bangladesh.

"We had a lot of suffering, so we thought drowning in the water was a better option," said Kamal Hussain, 18, who also swam to Bangladesh with an oil container.

Nabi knows almost no one in this new country, and his parents back in Myanmar don't know that he is alive. He doesn't smile and rarely maintains eye contact.

Nabi grew up in the mountains of Myanmar, the fourth of nine children of a farmer who grows paan, the betel leaf used as chewing tobacco. He never went to school.

The trouble started two months ago when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar security forces. The Myanmar military responded with a brutal crackdown, killing men, raping women and burning homes and property. The last Nabi saw of his village, all the homes were on fire.

Nabi's family fled, heading toward the coast, passing dead bodies. But when they arrived at the coast with a flood of other Rohingya refugees, they had no money for a boat and a smuggler.
Every day, there was less food. So after four days, Nabi told his parents he wanted to swim the delta to reach the thin line of land he could see in the distance — Shah Porir Dwip.

His parents didn't want him to go. One of his older brothers had left for Bangladesh two months ago, and they had no idea what had happened to him. They knew the strong currents could carry Nabi into the ocean.

Eventually, though, they agreed, on the condition that he not go alone. So on the afternoon of Nov. 3, Nabi joined a group of 23 other young men, and his family came to see him off.
"Please keep me in your prayers," he told his mother, while everyone around him wept.

Nabi and the others strapped the cooking oil containers to their chests as floats, and stepped into the water just as the current started to shift toward Bangladesh. The men stayed in groups of three, tied together with ropes. Nabi was in the middle, because he was young and didn't know how to swim.
Nabi remembers swallowing water, in part because of the waves and in part to quench his thirst. The water was salty. His legs ached. But he never looked behind him.

Just after sundown, the group reached Shah Porir Dwip, exhausted, hungry and dehydrated.
Nabi is now alone, one of an estimated 40,000 unaccompanied Rohingya Muslim children living in Bangladesh. He looks down as he speaks, just a few feet from the water, and murmurs his biggest wish:
"I want my parents and peace."
Late afternoon on the next day, authorities spotted a few dots in the middle of the water. It was another group of Rohingya swimming to Bangladesh with yellow plastic containers. They arrived at the same time as a pack of cattle — except that the cows came by boat.
_Bernat Armangue is the South Asia news director for The Associated Press, based in New Delhi. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BernatArmangue
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/desperate-rohingya-swim-25-miles-from.html_


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## Banglar Bir

11:34 AM, November 14, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:55 AM, November 14, 2017
*Rohingya repatriation after singing MoU with Bangladesh, Suu Kyi assures Asean leaders*




Widely criticised for her stance over Rohingya refugee crisis, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi now on Monday, November 13, 2017, tells her fellow Southeast Asian leaders that her country will take back Rohingya refugees after it signs an agreement with its neighbour Bangladesh. Reuters file photo
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila
*Widely criticised for her stance over Rohingya refugee crisis, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi now said her fellow Southeast Asian leaders that her country will take back Rohingya refugees after it signs an agreement with its neighbour Bangladesh.*
Suu Kyi gave the assurance after two of the unnamed Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders raised the issue during a plenary session of the Asean summit in Manila yesterday.

*Also READ: US to step up pressure on Myanmar army*
Myanmar was already taking steps to address the plight of the Rohingya people, she said.

“The process of repatriation of IDPs (internally displaced persons) will conclude within three weeks after a signing of a memorandum of agreement for understanding with Bangladesh,” Philippines Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Roque said quoting the de facto leader of Myanmar.

He said Suu Kyi also told her fellow Asean leaders that Rohingyas who had fled to Bangladesh could return to Mynamar after the two countries sign a memorandum of understanding.

*READ more: Myanmar military denies atrocities against Rohingyas*
“I can confirm that the Rohingya issue was discussed. It was specifically brought up by two member states,” Roque said in a press briefing.

He did not identify the two Asean leaders who raised the issue of the Rohingyas during the plenary session at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila.

“Myanmar specifically addressed the Rohingya issue. Myanmar specifically said… they are in the process of attending the Kofi Annan report (and that) they welcome humanitarian assistance,” Roque said.

A commission headed by former United Nations chief Kofi Anan in August released a report that called on Myanmar to scrap the restrictions on the movement of citizenship of persecuted Muslim Rohingya.

The report was release before the violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine state which led over 600,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh.

“Myanmar agreed that they welcome humanitarian assistance but there was no specific mention about which country will provide,” Roque said.
*Copyright: Philippine Daily Inquirer/ Asia News Network
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all*


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## Banglar Bir

12:49 PM, November 14, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:09 PM, November 14, 2017
*Myanmar military probe a whitewash: Amnesty*




Human rights group Amnesty International on Monday, November 13, 2017, pours scorn on a Myanmar military investigation into alleged atrocities against Rohingya Muslims, branding it a “whitewash” and calling for UN and independent investigators to be allowed into the country. Reuters file photo
Reuters, Yangon
“*Once again, Myanmar’s military is trying to sweep serious violations against the Rohingya under the carpet,” says James Gomez, Amnesty International’s regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific*
Human rights group Amnesty International poured scorn on a Myanmar military investigation into alleged atrocities against Rohingya Muslims, branding it a “whitewash” and calling for UN and independent investigators to be allowed into the country.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a counter-insurgency clearance operation in Rakhine State that a top UN official has called a classic case of “ethnic cleansing”.

*READ more: Myanmar military denies atrocities against Rohingyas*
Accusations of organised mass rape and other crimes against humanity were levelled at the Myanmar military on Sunday by another senior UN official, who had toured camps in Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees have taken shelter.

Myanmar’s military has consistently protested its innocence, and on Monday it posted the findings of an internal investigation on the Facebook page of its commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

*Also READ: Rohingya repatriation after signing MoU with Bangladesh, Suu Kyi assures Asean leaders*
It said it had found no instances where its soldiers had shot and killed Rohingya villagers, raped women or tortured prisoners. It denied that security forces had torched Rohingya villages or used “excessive force”.

The military’s self-exoneration came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson prepared to visit Myanmar on Wednesday for talks with leaders.

Both Tillerson and Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of a less than two-year-old civilian administration that has no control over the military, are attending a regional summit in Manila.

With US senators back in Washington pressing to impose economic sanctions and travel restrictions targeting the military and its business interests, Tillerson is expected to deliver a stern message to Myanmar's generals, while supporting the transition to democracy.

Suu Kyi discussed the Rohingya crisis with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Southeast Asian leaders’ summit in Manila.

“The secretary-general highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential,” a UN representative said in brief note on the meeting.
*General replaced*
Coincidently on Friday, the commanding officer in Rakhine State, Major General Maung Maung Soe was replaced. No reason for his transfer was given, but a senior officer with the military's media department told Reuters, Maung Maung Soe had no new assignment, and had been placed on a reserve list.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department, Katina Adams, said the United States was aware of reports of the general's replacement.

“We remain gravely concerned by continuing reports of violence and human rights abuses committed by Burmese security forces and vigilantes. Those responsible for abuses must be held accountable,” Adams said.

Amnesty International dismissed the military's internal investigation and called for a UN fact finding mission and other independent investigators to be given full access to Rakhine.

“Once again, Myanmar’s military is trying to sweep serious violations against the Rohingya under the carpet,” James Gomez, Amnesty International’s regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement released late Monday.

Amnesty said: "there is overwhelming evidence that the military has murdered and raped Rohingya and burned their villages to the ground.

“After recording countless stories of horror and using satellite analysis to track the growing devastation we can only reach one conclusion: these attacks amount to crimes against humanity.”
*May calls for accountability*
Speaking in Dhaka, Pramila Patten, the UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, said she would raise accusations against the Myanmar military with the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

“Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar, otherwise known as the Tatmadaw,” Patten said following a three-day tour of the Rohingya refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh.

British Prime Minister Theresa May also said in foreign policy address on Monday that Myanmar's military should be called to account.

“This is a major humanitarian crisis which looks like ethnic cleansing,” she said in a speech delivered at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in the City of London.

“And it is something for which the Burmese authorities - and especially the military - must take full responsibility.”

The government in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi's failure to speak out strongly over the Rohingya’s plight has widely damaged the Nobel peace prize winner's reputation as a stateswoman.

Many diplomats, however, believe Myanmar’s fragile transition to democracy would be jeopardised if she publicly criticised the armed forces.

A military junta ruled Myanmar for 49 years and the generals have retained their authority over defence, security and border issues under a constitution drafted while they held power
*Related Topics*
Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...sh-amnesty-rakhine-atrocities-muslims-1491079


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar army’s self-exoneration draws Amnesty’s scorn*
Reuters | Published: 13:27, Nov 14,2017




Rohingya Muslims wait to cross the border to Bangladesh, in a temporary camp outside Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar November 12, 2017. — Reuters photo

Human rights group Amnesty International poured scorn on a Myanmar military investigation into alleged atrocities against Rohingya Muslims, branding it a ‘whitewash’ and calling for UN and independent investigators to be allowed into the country.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a counter-insurgency clearance operation in Rakhine State that a top UN official has called a classic case of ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Accusations of organised mass rape and other crimes against humanity were levelled at the Myanmar military on Sunday by another senior UN official, who had toured camps in Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees have taken shelter.

Myanmar’s military has consistently protested its innocence, and on Monday it posted the findings of an internal investigation on the Facebook page of its commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

It said it had found no instances where its soldiers had shot and killed Rohingya villagers, raped women or tortured prisoners. It denied that security forces had torched Rohingya villages or used ‘excessive force’.

The military’s self-exoneration came as US secretary of state Rex Tillerson prepared to visit Myanmar on Wednesday for talks with leaders.

Both Tillerson and Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of a less than two-year-old civilian administration that has no control over the military, are attending a regional summit in Manila.

With US senators back in Washington pressing to impose economic sanctions and travel restrictions targeting the military and its business interests, Tillerson is expected to deliver a stern message to Myanmar’s generals, while supporting the transition to democracy.

Suu Kyi discussed the Rohingya crisis with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Southeast Asian leaders’ summit in Manila.

‘The secretary-general highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential,’ a UN representative said in brief note on the meeting.

Coincidently on Friday, the commanding officer in Rakhine State, Major General Maung Maung Soe was replaced. No reason for his transfer was given, but a senior officer with the military’s media department told Reuters, Maung Maung Soe had no new assignment, and had been placed on a reserve list.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department, Katina Adams, said the United States was aware of reports of the general’s replacement.

‘We remain gravely concerned by continuing reports of violence and human rights abuses committed by Burmese security forces and vigilantes. Those responsible for abuses must be held accountable,’ Adams said.

Amnesty International dismissed the military’s internal investigation and called for a UN fact finding mission and other independent investigators to be given full access to Rakhine.

‘Once again, Myanmar’s military is trying to sweep serious violations against the Rohingya under the carpet,’ James Gomez, Amnesty International’s regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement released late Monday.

Amnesty said: ‘there is overwhelming evidence that the military has murdered and raped Rohingya and burned their villages to the ground.

‘After recording countless stories of horror and using satellite analysis to track the growing devastation we can only reach one conclusion: these attacks amount to crimes against humanity.’

Speaking in Dhaka, Pramila Patten, the UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, said she would raise accusations against the Myanmar military with the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

‘Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the armed forces of Myanmar, otherwise known as the Tatmadaw,’ Patten said following a three-day tour of the Rohingya refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh.

British prime minister Theresa May also said in foreign policy address on Monday that Myanmar’s military should be called to account.

‘This is a major humanitarian crisis which looks like ethnic cleansing,’ she said in a speech delivered at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in the City of London.

‘And it is something for which the Burmese authorities - and especially the military - must take full responsibility.’

The government in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi’s failure to speak out strongly over the Rohingya’s plight has widely damaged the Nobel peace prize winner’s reputation as a stateswoman.

Many diplomats, however, believe Myanmar’s fragile transition to democracy would be jeopardised if she publicly criticised the armed forces.

A military junta ruled Myanmar for 49 years and the generals have retained their authority over defence, security and border issues under a constitution drafted while they held power.

More about:


Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar
Rohingya


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Sitagu Sayadaw and justifiable evils in Buddhism*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/sitagu-sayadaw-and-justifiable-evils-in-buddhism.html




Sayadaw Addresses Military officers in Kayin State, 30 October Photo - SayadawSitagu on Facebook
By Paul Fuller, New Mandala
*Sitagu Sayadaw is one of the most respected religious leaders in Myanmar. He is very well known for his teachings and for his philanthropic work. He has considerable influence.*
It therefore surprised many in his native Myanmar and worldwide when he gave a sermon in Kayin State on 30 October with a particularly striking message. *The sermon appeared to suggest that the killing of those who are not Buddhist could be justified on the grounds that they were not complete humans, or indeed humans at all.*

There has been much online discussion about the passage. In its extreme form, there is the idea that Sitagu Sayadaw argued that non-Buddhists are less than human, and that on this basis it is permissible to cause them harm.
*
How could such a revered teacher as Sitagu Sayadaw preach such a message? *Particularly troubling was that the sermon was given to a group of army officers likely to be involved in the conflict against Muslim Rohingyas.
*The interpretation could be that this was a Buddhist justification for the killing of Rohingyas.

The sermon was indeed delivered to army officers at the Bayintnaung garrison and military training school in Kayin State.*
In reflecting on the relationship between the actions of the Burmese military and the consequences of a soldier’s duty to protect the Myanmar nation, Sitagu Sayadaw used the 5th Century CE Sri Lankan chronicle, the _Mahavamsa_.

He also chose to quote from a notorious passage from the 25th chapter of the _Mahavamsa_, “The Victory of Dutthagamani”. The passage in question appears to go against many of what most people would understand to be the key ideas of Buddhism. One possible way to interpret it is simply to suggest that “Buddhists are as capable of hypocrisy, double standards and special pleading as anyone.”

I would suggest that the primary intention of the Dutthagamani passage is not to justify the killing of living beings who are not Buddhist _per se_. The point of the passage—however much we might disagree with its logic—is the idea that actions performed with the idea of protecting and defending Buddhism, or “bringing glory to the doctrine of the Buddha”, overrides more accepted ethical norms such as the precept of not killing living beings. Protecting the _Dhamma_circumvents the usual operation of _karma_. All actions have consequences, but the effects of these actions can be lessened if the motivation for them is a noble one.

In case I am misunderstood, I would like to state clearly that the use of the passage was unwise in the extreme by the revered Sayadaw. It is also a passage which sits very uneasily with mainstream Buddhist thinking on the use of violence. *However, it can, has, and is being used by Buddhists to describe how “unwholesome actions” (Burmese: arkhutho Pali: akusala-kamma) can be used to defend and preserve Buddhism.*

In the famous episode recounted in the _Mahavamsa,_ Dutthagamani, having waged a long and bloody war in which millions were killed, suffers from extreme unease and remorse. Through their supernatural powers, a group of eight Arahants become aware of this remorse and travel to see Dutthagamani. Using their supernatural powers, they travel through the air from the Island of Piyangudipa to comfort him. However, Dutthagamani tells the Arahants:

_How shall there be any comfort for me, O venerable sirs, since by me was caused the slaughter of a great host numbering millions?_
He is then famously advised:
_From this deed arises no hindrance in thy way to heaven. Only one and a half human beings have been slain here by thee, O lord of men. The one had come unto the (three) refuges, the other had taken on himself the five precepts. Unbelievers [they have “wrong-views”, micchādiṭṭhi] and men of evil life were the rest, not more to be esteemed than beasts. But as for thee, thou wilt bring glory to the doctrine of the Buddha in manifold ways; therefore cast away care from thy heart, O ruler of men!_

In the sermon or the original text as they stand there is no mention of “Buddhists” and “non-Buddhists”. Equivalent terms are not available in Pali or in Burmese. But much of the news reporting of Sitagu Sayadaw’s sermon has contained a degree of hyperbole, suggesting that this was its message. What the passage does appear to do, however, is absolve the consequences of the military killing other living beings, and even to justify these acts. This is the manner in which it was quoted by Sitagu Sayadaw.

The episode is an analysis of Dutthagamani’s remorse. He has remorse because he is responsible the deaths of millions of people. He considers that he has performed very destructive “unwholesome actions” (Burmese: _arkhutho_. Pali: _akusala-kamma_). The comforting words of the Arahants explain why these actions do not have the consequences that we might expect.

The Arahants’ analysis is based upon the idea that the “deeds”, the “actions” (_kamma_), the killing of millions of “human beings” (_manussa_) have no negative consequences because of the status of those killed. The Arahants, through their “higher knowledge” (_abhiññā_) make a judgement on the ontological and spiritual nature of those defeated in the battle. Dutthagamani’s victims are “unbelievers” in Wilhelm Geiger’s translation; more correctly, they have “wrong-views” (_micchādiṭṭhi). _
They are “men of evil life” (_dussilā), _they do not practice ethical conduct. T*hey are, in the logic of the Mahavamsa not “human beings” but “like beasts” (pasusamā).*

How, then, does the _Mahavamsa_ describe a “human being”? A full human is one who has taken refuge: in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Secondly, to be human in the context of the Arahants’ explanation is to have practiced the “five precepts” (_pañcasīla_). These are the five ethical practices of a layperson: to refrain from killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct, or intoxicants that cause confusion. Therefore, those who do not practice the five precepts are “half of a person” in the advice of the Arahants.

It would clearly be wrong to assume that this is a general appraisal of the nature of a person in Buddhism. The Arahants have the specific task of consoling Dutthagamani. To use this as a justification for violence would surely be to misuse the text.

Nevertheless, one apparent implication of the Arahants’ reasoning is that the glory brought to the religion of the Buddha overrides other more natural ideas of what is right and wrong. Dutthagamani brings “glory to the doctrine of the Buddha” (_bahudhā buddhasāsana). _This is a theme found earlier in this chapter of the _Mahavamsa_ in which a vitriolic blend of preserving Buddhism, and using violence in its defence, is clear: “not for the joy of sovereignty is this toil of mine, my striving (has been) ever to establish the doctrine of the Sambuddha”




Sitagu Sayadaw arriving at the site of his sermon to military officers on 30 October (Photo: @sayadawsitagu on Facebook)

*What was Sitagu Sayadaw doing in using this infamous passage?* (Interestingly, in the sermon he appears to be aware of the sensitivity of the message he is preaching. He repeatedly suggests that it is not he who is teaching in this way: as he notes, “the Arahants said it”). The protection of Buddhism, of the _sāsana_, is key in the recent Burmese discourse about the relationship of Buddhism and national identity. *The protection of Buddhism is both a rallying call of Burmese Buddhist nationalists, and a key element in what it means to be Burmese.*

At stake in many of the countries in which a chauvinistic form of Buddhism is gaining followers is the question of Buddhist and national identity. In Myanmar this identity is being polarised around ideas of “nation, language and religion” (_amyo-barthar-tharthanar_). There is the idea that Buddhism is under threat and needs to be protected.

The threat is usually thought to be from a growing Muslim population. The _Mahavamsa_ passage can be used to suggest the idea that Buddhism stands in opposition to other religious traditions. The four recent “race and religion protection laws”, promoted by MaBaTha (“the organisation for the protection of race and religion”) emphasise similar notions.

It might then not come as a surprise that Sitagu Sayadaw used the _Mahavamsa_and the story of Dutthagamani in the way that he did. Much of the outrage caused by its use is justified. Its message contradicts many of the fundamental principles of Buddhism. This is not to dismiss what the _Mahavamsa_is arguing.

The text has a point: that at times, defending the tradition overrides ethical concerns. Usually, however, the focus of Buddhist teachings is concerned with achieving liberation. The Buddhist path begins with undertaking ethical actions and in promoting wholesome actions of body, speech and mind.

But the fact is that one of the most renowned Buddhist monks in Myanmar has used the _Mahavamsa_ to justify violence. Its use might provoke the Burmese Buddhist community to reflect upon how distant this nationalistic Buddhism of modern Myanmar is from the cherished ideals of that more familiar Burmese Buddhism based upon compassion and kindness.

Additionally, Sitagu Sayadaw’s sermon might encourage us to question our commonly held ideas about the nature of Buddhism in Myanmar. Given his reputation, we might have expected that the Sayadaw would have renounced all forms of violence against the Rohingya.
*The fact that he does the opposite alerts us to a more intolerant form of Buddhism becoming popular within Myanmar.*
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/sitagu-sayadaw-and-justifiable-evils-in-buddhism.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Suu Kyi: Rohingyas will be taken back in 3 weeks of agreement with Bangladesh*
Tribune Desk
Published at 12:16 PM November 14, 2017
Last updated at 01:34 PM November 14, 2017




Myanmar's Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi smiles after a meeting with Norway's Foreign Minister Borge Brende (not in picture) at Myanmar's Foreign Ministry in Naypyitaw, Myanmar July 6, 2017
*Reuters
Over 607,000 Rohingya have fled violence and persecution Myanmar’s Rakhine state and sought refuge in Bangladesh*
A Philippine Presidential spokesman said the leader of Myanmar has promised to facilitate the safe repatriation of Rohingya and they would be taken back into the country after “three weeks following Myanmar’s agreement with Bangladesh on the matter.”

Manila Bulletin reports that Aung San Suu Kyi made the promise on Monday after “concern” was raised for the wellbeing of the Rohingya at the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plenary summit led by President Duterte.

Commenting on the crisis, Philippine spokesman Harry Roque Jr told local reporters that Myanmar responded by saying that Kofi Annan’s report is being addressed.

He added: “Humanitarian assistance is welcomed; and the [sic] repatriation of IDPs [internally displaced persons] will be made [sic] within three weeks after MoU (memorandum of understanding) signing with Bangladesh.”

So far, over 607,000 Rohingya have fled violence and persecution Myanmar’s Rakhine state and sought refuge in Bangladesh.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2...etin-suu-kyi-facilitate-safe-return-rohingya/


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar enters make or break year*
Larry Jagan, November 15, 2017




Aung San Suu Kyi (Feb 2015)
*This month marks the second anniversary of Aung San Suu Kyi’s electoral landslide at the 2015 polls. It also marks the start of her third year in power. This coming year is going to be a “make or break” year for her and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). *
The euphoria that greeted the Lady’s victory has subsided and been replaced by disappointment, disillusionment and frustration. It is also the year the NLD has to cast a serious eye on the next elections in three years time.

For the past two years the government has appeared rudderless, lacking a coherent strategy and failing to deliver what the NLD senior patron, Tin Oo called the “democracy dividend”. The government is besieged by endless problems: a stagnant economy, a stalling peace process and escalating violence in the country’s strife-torn Western region of Rakhine. Most of these issues, the civilian leader and her ministers seem slow to recognize and incapable of solving.

*The Myanmar government is undoubtedly facing a nightmare situation, with the escalating violence in Rakhine threatening to throw the country’s fragile democracy back into the dark ages*.

The government’s apparent helplessness is further compounded by a vociferous, nationalist movement, led by xenophobic and chauvinist monks, workers strikes and growing social unrest. To make matters worse, the State Counselor – the key government position Aung San Suu Kyi took in the government – runs the administration in a top-down fashion, with a small “inner Cabinet” and handful of foreign experts to advise her.

From the start of the NLD-administration, at the end of March 2016, the government faced an array of problems left them by the out-going administration of the former general, President Thein Sein. These included reluctant handover, a virtually bankrupt exchequer and a perilous relationship with the army – which in effect was a “coalition partner” in government.

*But even in the NLD’s heartlands – Yangon and Mandalay – and amongst those who were some of her most vibrant supporters – the business community, intellectuals, artists and professionals – disillusionment is setting in. For the urban elite, the country seems directionless, amidst an acute policy vacuum.*

The country is racked by increasing division, resentment and mistrust amongst most of the country’s ethnic minorities, and an insurmountable breakdown in communal relations in Rakhine, which has led to more than 600,00 stateless Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, creating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, in the wake of the military’s violent crackdown there, that the UN believes is akin to “ethnic cleansing”. The Myanmar government is undoubtedly facing a nightmare situation, with the escalating violence in Rakhine threatening to throw the country’s fragile democracy back into the dark ages.

The problems in Rakhine have woken a dormant nationalist strain in Myanmar’s Bamar society – the dominant ethnic group in Myanmar, making up more than 70% of the population. But this sentiment is something of two-edged sword as far as Aung San Suu Kyi is concerned. Certainly, there have been demonstrations supporting her recently – mainly in Yangon and Mandalay – but some of these rallies have been voicing their support for the Myanmar military or Tatmadaw.

But even in the NLD’s heartlands – Yangon and Mandalay – and amongst those who were some of her most vibrant supporters – the business community, intellectuals, artists and professionals – disillusionment is setting in. For the urban elite, the country seems directionless, amidst an acute policy vacuum. “There’s no policies, plans or strategy,” said Kyaw Kyaw Hlaing, a prominent Myanmar businessman and political commentator.

As a result, for much of the past two years, there has been an intense inertia, with the business community in particular, frustrated by the government’s continued delays in announcing its detailed economic policy and strategy. “We need to see clear signs that the government understands the importance of economic development,” KK Hlaing as he is known, added. “What we need is peace [referring to the peace process] and development,” he said forcefully.

One major problem that has dogged the Lady since her overwhelming electoral victory in November 2015 was the euphoria and expectations that it created. “Expectations were too high, partly because the extent of the victory surpassed even the best predictions,” said Zeya Thu a political commentator with the _Voice_ magazine in Yangon. And while the hoped for changed has not eventuated, no one wants a return to authoritarian rule – not even the army itself, he added.

When the new NLD government assumed office at the end of March last year their backs were up against the wall – with the military and the former ministers in the USDP expecting Aung San Suu Kyi to fail. “I give her six months, a year at the outside,” said several ministers in the previous regime. And their obstructionist approach to the hand-over of power did not help. “We didn’t know whether we would be allowed [by the military] to take power right up until the day before the new president was sworn in,” a government insider told me at the time.

*Now after two years the government is still there, although there is increasing talk of a possible military coup or administrative seizure of power by the army chief, as allowed in the pro-military constitution.*

The transition period – the six months between November and March – was fraught, with the out-going team deliberately preventing government officials from handing over files and policy papers to the NLD team. They even banned top government civil servants from talking to members of the incoming transition team. In the middle of March hundreds of boxes of files and documents were suddenly released, giving the NLD no time to read them and try to prepare policies for the new government. Some files and information have still not been released, a government insider told me recently.

Now after two years the government is still there, although there is increasing talk of a possible military coup or administrative seizure of power by the army chief, as allowed in the pro-military constitution. Nevertheless, on the surface there seems little to show for the last two years of angst and effort. But that is a superficial assessment of what Aung San Suu Kyi and her government has achieved. 

Despite the limited resources at their disposal, when the NLD took office, the machinery of government has kept moving. It has been a struggle for the government to keep the country solvent – despite some substantial aid packages – from foreign donors, the ADB, IMF and World Bank. And made all the more difficult by the enormous drop in foreign direct investment.

*But Aung San Suu Kyi and her government realize that this alone will not be enough, especially to attract increased foreign investment. The government’s plans and strategy are based on rapid infrastructure development and the electrification of the country. Aung San Suu Kyi recently talked about the government’s main aim was now “peace and electrification” – providing electricity throughout the country by 2020, the new energy minister Win Khaing said recently.*

In the last few months of his regime, Thein Sein’s administration’s spending virtually bankrupted the government, ministers overspent the budget by three-fold, especially as a result after the government’s unseemly spending spree in March. *The budget deficit rose astronomically to 4.6% of GDP (from 1%). They blew out the current account. And left the new government with a crippling liability – a hastily arranged and agreed loan from China for $ US 300 million at 4.5% interest: with the exchange rate falling over the last year the value of this loan has appreciated enormously.*

So to keep the government on track alone was a herculean task. Now that the government has successfully staved off the danger of national insolvency, and reversed the budget deficit, it is time to launch the detailed plans that are in the pipeline to boost economic development. Plans are afoot to reform the tax system, press on with the liberalization of the banking system – including allowing foreign equity participation in local banks – strengthen the insurance sector, also allowing foreign companies to enter. This, according to government insiders is already in the works.

*While the party gurus understand that the NLD vote in most of the ethnic areas has dissipated, and Arakan is a lost cause, Yangon and Mandalay are the key hopes for the NLD to be able to retain control of the government. With this in mind Aung San Suu Kyi instructed her protégé, the Chief Minister of Yangon, Phyo Min Thein that he must deliver on three key areas as soon as possible: provide adequate access to electricity for the whole of the metropolis, clear up the waste and sewerage, and provide low-cost housing for the workers and poor people of the city. *

But Aung San Suu Kyi and her government realize that this alone will not be enough, especially to attract increased foreign investment. The government’s plans and strategy are based on rapid infrastructure development and the electrification of the country. Aung San Suu Kyi recently talked about the government’s main aim was now “peace and electrification” – providing electricity throughout the country by 2020, the new energy minister Win Khaing said recently.

Privately Aung San Suu Kyi is worried about the lead up to the next elections in 2020. If all the ethnic groups sign the national ceasefire agreement that wont win us the next elections, she told senior party officials several months ago, according to one of her close confidants. She is also concerned to maintain the party’s popularity in the key areas that supported her last time – Yangon and Mandalay. The risk, as she perceives it, is that unless the electors are energized, they might fail to go to the polls in the vast numbers they did in 2015, not that they will vote for the opposition.
*
Apathy is the greatest danger facing the NLD. *If there is a dramatic fall in the NLD’s vote there is a danger that a military-supported candidate might steal the presidency as the army already controls a quarter of the parliament under the constitution. While the party gurus understand that the NLD vote in most of the ethnic areas has dissipated, *and Arakan is a lost cause,* Yangon and Mandalay are the key hopes for the NLD to be able to retain control of the government. 

With this in mind Aung San Suu Kyi instructed her protégé, the Chief Minister of Yangon, Phyo Min Thein that he must deliver on three key areas as soon as possible: *provide adequate access to electricity for the whole of the metropolis, clear up the waste and sewerage, and provide low-cost housing for the workers and poor people of the city.*

The government, and Aung San Suu Kyi in particular, have successfully navigated the last two years, laying the foundations for reform, stability and a transition to a stronger democracy. While expectations have certainly been tempered, the government is going to have to deliver more substantial and concrete results in the next twelve months if its to be in any position to win the next elections. 
*While in the meantime the Rakhine crisis threatens to derail the NLD’s good intentions and destabilize the country.*
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/15/myanmar-enters-make-break-year/


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar’s Suu Kyi meets Tillerson, UN chief on Rohingya crisis*
AFP
Published at 08:47 AM November 15, 2017




Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the opening session of the 31st Asean Summit in Manila, Philippines, November 13, 2017 *Reuters*
*Washington has been cautious in its statements on the situation in Rakhine, and has avoided outright criticism of Suu Kyi*
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced rising global pressure Tuesday to solve the crisis for her nation’s displaced Rohingya minority, meeting the UN chief and America’s top diplomat in the Philippines.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Nobel laureate that hundreds of thousands of displaced Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh should be allowed to return to their homes in Myanmar.

“The Secretary-General highlighted that strengthened efforts to ensure humanitarian access, safe, dignified, voluntary and sustained returns, as well as true reconciliation between communities, would be essential,” a UN statement said, summarizing comments to Suu Kyi.

Guterres’ comments came hours before Suu Kyi sat down with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Manila.

*Washington has been cautious in its statements on the situation in Rakhine, and has avoided outright criticism of Suu Kyi.*

Supporters say she must navigate a path between outrage abroad and popular feeling in a majority Buddhist country where most people believe the Rohingya are interlopers.

At a photo opportunity at the top of her meeting with Tillerson, Suu Kyi ignored a journalist who asked if the Rohingya were citizens of Myanmar.

At a later appearance after the meeting, Tillerson — who is headed to Myanmar on Wednesday — was asked by reporters if he “had a message for Burmese leaders”.

He apparently ignored the question, replying only: “Thank you”, according to a pool report of the encounter.

A senior US State Department official later said the top diplomat would press Myanmar’s powerful army chief on Wednesday to halt the violence in Rakhine and make it safe for Rohingya to return.

The official did not comment on whether Tillerson would raise the threat of military sanctions, which US lawmakers have pushed for.

Canada’s Justin Trudeau said he had spoken to Myanmar’s de facto leader.

“I had an extended conversation with… Aung San Suu Kyi, about the plight of the refugees in Rakhine state,” he told a press conference.

“This is of tremendous concern to Canada and many, many other countries around the world.

“We are always looking at… how we can help, how we can move forward in a way that reduces violence, that emphasizes the rule of law and that ensures protection for all citizens,” he said.
*‘Ethnic cleansing’*
More than 600,000 Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh since late August, and now live in the squalor of the world’s biggest refugee camp.

The crisis erupted after Rohingya rebels attacked police posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, triggering a military crackdown that saw hundreds of villages reduced to ashes and sparked a massive exodus.

The UN says the Myanmar military is engaged in a “coordinated and systematic” attempt to purge the region of Rohingya in what amounts to a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

The stream of desperate refugees who escape across the riverine border bring with them stories of rape, murder and the torching of villages by soldiers and Buddhist mobs.

The Burmese government insists military action in Rakhine is a proportionate response to violence by militants.

Following its first official investigation into the crisis, the army published a report this week in which it cleared itself of any abuses.

However, it heavily restricts access to the region by independent journalists and aid groups, and verification of events on the ground is virtually impossible.

Suu Kyi, a former democracy activist, has been lambasted by rights groups for failing to speak up for the Rohingya or condemn festering anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

Musician and campaigner Bob Geldof on Monday slammed Suu Kyi as a “murderer” and a “handmaiden to genocide”, becoming the latest in a growing line of global figures to disavow the one-time darling of the human rights community.

Supporters say she does not have the power to stop the powerful military, which ruled the country for decades until her party came to power following 2015 elections.

In a summit on Monday night with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, Guterres also voiced concern about the Rohingya.

He said the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya was a “worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy,” according to the UN statement.
He described the situation as a potential source of instability in the region, as well as radicalization.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2...kyi-meets-tillerson-un-chief-rohingya-crisis/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Blogger
Tun Khin, President of BROUK updated ongoing genocide against Rohingya people on BBC World News.




 https://www.facebook.com/




*
10:28 AM, November 15, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 10:43 AM, November 15, 2017
*FROM MALAYSIAN BACKROOMS*
*Rohingyas send what little they can to fleeing relatives*




Rohingya refugee Mohammed Siddiq poses for a photo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 2, 2017. Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation/ Beh Lih Yi
Thomson Reuters Foundation, Kuala Lumpur
*In a dimly lit shop in Kuala Lumpur, where dried fish, herbs and pickled tea leaves imported from Myanmar are on display, two men sit behind a counter inspecting bank notes.
“We send money to Balukhali and Kutupalong everyday,” one of the men, wearing a long white robe and an Islamic skullcap, said to a Rohingya man approaching the counter.*
“Send today, money arrives on the same day,” he said.

The shop is among many in the Malaysian capital that Rohingya use to send money to the two vast refugee camps in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in August prompted over 600,000 members of the ethnic group to flee Myanmar.




A sign outside a licensed money transfer company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 2, 2017. Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation/ Beh Lih Yi
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority denied citizenship in Myanmar, have been escaping persecution in their mostly Buddhist homeland for decades but the latest exodus was the worst in years.

With Rohingya families still heading to the camps, refugees who left in earlier waves who have managed to establish some sort of modest livelihood are pooling together their limited resources to send money to the newly displaced.

Much is flowing from Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country that is home to more than 50,000 Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers, where many of them work as daily labourers, hawkers and construction workers.

Money transfer companies have reported a spike in remittances since the crisis erupted in August.

But the community is also tapping popular mobile money services and a centuries-old transfer system with roots in the Middle East to send financial aid to the camps for families to buy food, medicine and other necessities.
*‘They have nothing now’*
Rohingya refugee Kamal, who has been in Malaysia since 2012, said his parents and six siblings fled to Bangladesh's Balukhali camp in October and are counting on him for financial support.

Among them is his 65-year-old diabetic father who needs a regular supply of medicine.

“They have nothing now, they have to buy every single thing,” Kamal told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a rented low-cost flat on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur that he and his wife share with another couple.

“To boil water, they have to buy firewood and a bunch of wood is 40 taka (50 cents), which is enough to get a meal,” said the 30-year-old refugee, who uses a pseudonym to protect his identity.




Inside a store frequented by Rohingya refugees in central Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 2, 2017. Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation/ Beh Lih Yi
Kamal uses bKash, a popular Bangladeshi mobile money service, to send money to his family from wages he earns working odd jobs - sometimes 1,000 taka ($12)and sometimes up to 5,000 taka ($60) - as often as he can.

His family pick up the money in Bangladesh from certified agents using a code.

An employee at a licensed money transfer firm in Pudu, an area in central Kuala Lumpur frequented by refugees, said she had received an average of 30 money transfer requests daily to Bangladesh since the latest violence erupted.

In the past, Myanmar refugees would typically send money to their homeland, rather than Bangladesh, said the staff member, who declined to give her name.

Remitting money through an official transfer store requires the Rohingya to show their UN refugee cards.

That's not something all Rohingya in Malaysia possess – it can be a slow process for a newly arrived asylum-seeker to apply for refugee status, and applications are not always successful.

Those without official documents have turned to a network of informal transfer outlets modelled on the ancient “hawala” system which is based on trust, and typically leaves no paper trail.

The system involves agents accepting funds in one country and promising to pay a beneficiary in another country in exchange for a fee that is smaller than at a bank.

Hawala is popular among migrants in the Middle East and has been used to remit money to remote areas, where banking is out of reach or too costly.
*Trust, personal ties*
Mohammed Siddiq, 34, hands over cash to one of these agents every month to send money to his family in a camp for displaced people in Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's western Rakhine state.

The agent notifies his counterparts in Sittwe, and the money is delivered to his family inside the camp.

“We trust our people, the agents have been loyal to us,” said Siddiq, who has been in Malaysia for 13 years and supports himself by delivering chickens to shops.

“I have to trust these people because my family members in the camp have no other resources. I was afraid and worried but there is no other way.”

Most of these services are run from grocery stores or restaurants popular with the Rohingya community in downtown Kuala Lumpur, often from an unmarked backroom.

Siddiq said he uses the services because sometimes, when he was short of cash to send to his family, the agents would loan him money and note down the debt which he could repay later.

A Rohingya man, who used to be an agent, said refugees rely on the system because of trust and personal ties, and their family is able to collect the money usually within a few hours.

“Most of the time when the Myanmar people here have to send money it involves an emergency, so this is quick and efficient,” said the refugee, who declined to give his name.

But he stopped acting as a middleman after a few months, partly because too many Rohingya were turning to him to borrow money.

“It is hard to say no to friends, relatives because they are in emergency,” he said. “But later they disappeared, and I kept making losses.
*Related Topics*
Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

TRT World 
Is Myanmar trying to whitewash its crimes against the Rohingya?
*Is Myanmar trying to whitewash its crimes against the Rohingya? A new internal report by the military says it hasn't committed any crimes, but instead blames the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.




 https://www.facebook.com/




*


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 15, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, November 15, 2017
*EDITORIAL*
*Another fresh Rohingya exodus?*
*International inaction breeding impunity*




PHOTO: AFP
*The fact that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) failed to pass a resolution and handed out merely a statement condemning atrocities committed against the Rohingya people has apparently emboldened the Myanmar security forces.* 
If what the International Red Cross (IRC) fears comes true, Bangladesh may be facing a fresh exodus of Rohingyas, numbering as many as 200,000 people, pouring over the border in the coming weeks! If another 200,000 are pushed out it would virtually fulfil Myanmar's long-term goal to depopulate the Rakhine State of the Rohingya minority group.

It would appear that the world community has turned its back on the continued violence and persecution of the Rohingyas. While Bangladesh reels from the pressures of looking after nearly a million people on its soil, we have neither received the necessary foreign financial commitments from the developed nations, nor have any meaningful steps been taken by the UNSC that could check the violence against an unarmed people. 

The children and the old are the worst hit by the violence in Rakhine State and malnutrition is running rampant amongst those lucky enough to have escaped the violence and ended on our side of the border. 

We have done our best to provide shelter and humanitarian assistance to these displaced people. A public health crisis is looming on the horizon, and it is ludicrous to think that Bangladesh should go on bearing the responsibility of keeping Rohingyas safe indefinitely while the UNSC debates on and on about whether it should or should not pass a resolution condemning the actions of the Myanmar government. 
*
The time for proactive action has arrived and the manner in which the Rohingyas have been treated should be subject of inquiry by the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague*.
http://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/another-fresh-rohingya-exodus-1491172


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar military denies atrocities against Rohingya, replaces general*
SAM Staff, November 15, 2017





Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi looks on during the 9th ASEAN UN Summit, Photo: AFP
*Myanmar’s army released a report on Monday (Nov 13) denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, having days earlier replaced the general in charge of the operation that drove more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.*
No reason was given for Major General Maung Maung Soe being transferred from his post as the head of Western Command in Rakhine state, where Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched a sweeping counter-insurgency operation in August.

“I don’t know the reason why he was transferred,” Major General Aye Lwin, deputy director of the psychological warfare and public relation department at the Ministry of Defense, told Reuters. “He wasn’t moved into any position at present. He has been put in reserve.”

A senior U.N. official, who had toured the refugee camps in Bangladesh, on Sunday (Nov 12) accused Myanmar’s military of conducting organized mass rape and other crimes against humanity.

The Myanmar military said its own internal investigation had exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities. The investigators’ findings were posted on the Facebook page of the military’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The developments came ahead of a visit on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He is expected to deliver a stern message to Myanmar’s generals, over whom national leader Aung San Suu Kyi has little control.

The government in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

A senior U.N. official, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein, has described the army’s actions in Rakhine as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
SOURCE REUTERS
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...-denies-atrocities-rohingya-replaces-general/


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh PM: We are on the verge of a crisis over providing aid to Rohingyas*
Agencies
Published at 07:16 PM November 15, 2017
Last updated at 08:21 AM November 16, 2017




Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at a session in parliament on November 15, 2017
*Focus Bangla*
*The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state has turned complex in the last few months due to the military crackdown and violence, said the prime minister*
Bangladesh is on the verge of an unprecedented crisis over providing humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees staying in the country’s south-east region, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday.

“The present situation is worse than any other time in the past,” she said in response to a question by Moulvibazar 2 lawmaker M Abdul Matin during the prime minister’s question and answer session in parliament, reported UNB.

She further said the Rohingya crisis in the Rakhine state in Myanmar had turned complex in the last few months due to the military crackdown and violence.

However, she expressed firm conviction that, despite the obstacles, her government would be able to resolve the Rohingya crisis peacefully with the help of the international community, BSS reported.

The government will also take steps for rehabilitation of the residents of Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas in Cox’s Bazar who lost their livelihood due to the latest influx of Rohingyas in their localities, the prime minister added.

She said Bangladesh had successfully gotten the support of the international community for the repatriation of the Rohingya people back to their homeland – the Rakhine state.

“The global community stands beside Bangladesh for the generosity that we have shown to the displaced people, welcoming our steps taken to provide them with shelter,” she said at parliament.

Hasina said the international community was working together for repatriation of the Myanmar nationals to their country.

Replying to a supplementary question from Cox’s Bazar lawmaker Abdur Rahman Bodi, the prime minister said the Rohingya influx had caused substantial damage to the environment of the region the camps are located in, as well as the livelihood of local people.

Therefore, the government has decided to provide food support as well as new occupational opportunities to the local people, she added.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/11/15/bangladesh-facing-crisis-rohingya/

2:00 AM, November 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:49 AM, November 16, 2017
*Evidence of genocide
Says Holocaust Memorial Museum; rights groups find Suu Kyi “complicit”*
Staff Correspondent
*There is "mounting evidence" of genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, says a new report by US-based Holocaust Memorial Museum, after an investigation by Fortify Rights. The report calls for an immediate halt to the atrocities in Rakhine*.
“Without urgent action, there's a high risk of more mass atrocities,” said Cameron Hudson, director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the Museum in a statement yesterday.

Echoing the findings of Fortify Rights when giving evidence before a parliamentary committee, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Burma Campaign UK and other rights groups urged the government and the international community to see the Nobel laureate as “part of the problem”, The Guardian reports. It added that the military crackdown had “thousands” of Rohingyas dead, forced an exodus of 600,000 people and mentioned numerous instances of “appalling rape”.

The Rohingyas have suffered attacks and systematic violations for decades, and the international community must not fail them now when their very existence in Myanmar is threatened, Cameron said.

More than six lakh of Myanmar's one million Rohingyas have fled the country to Bangladesh since August 25. International Rescue Committee says two lakh more will arrive in the coming weeks. Some four lakh Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in the previous years.

Fortify Rights' report titled “They Tried to Kill Us All: Atrocity Crimes against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Myanmar” is based on a year-long investigation that included more than 200 interviews documented in Myanmar and Bangladesh from October 9 to December 2016 and from August 25, 2017 to the present day.

Myanmar's military has consistently claimed its innocence and in an internal probe made public on November 13, it said it found no instances where its soldiers had shot and killed Rohingya villagers, raped women or tortured prisoners.

It denied that security forces had torched Rohingya villages or used “excessive force”. Amnesty International termed the findings a "whitewash".

The research says Myanmar state security forces and civilian perpetrators committed mass killings in dozens of villages in Maungdaw Township in 2016 and in villages throughout all three townships of northern Rakhine since August 25, 2017.

"They slit throats; burned victims alive, including infants and children; beat civilians to death; raped and gang raped women and children," says the report.

State security forces opened fire on men, women and children at close range and from a distance from land and helicopters, killing untold numbers, it added.

Survivors from some villages described how perpetrators slashed women's breasts, hacked bodies to pieces and beheaded victims, including children, the report says.

Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights said these crimes thrive on impunity and inaction. “Condemnations aren't enough. Without urgent international action towards accountability, more mass killings are likely.”

The Myanmar Army-led assault on Rohingya civilians comes in response to attacks by the Rohingya militant group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on three police outposts on October 9, 2016 that left nine dead, and another attack on 30 police outposts and one army base on August 25, 2017, that left at least 12 dead.

Members of ARSA are also responsible for human rights violations, the report added.

Myanmar continues to deny the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, including food and nutrition, to affected areas of northern Rakhine State.

“These crimes won't end on their own,” said Matthew Smith.

The report suggested enacting targeted sanctions on the individuals responsible for crimes in Rakhine, instituting an arms embargo on Myanmar and referring the situation to the International Criminal Court.
*SUU KYI “PART OF THE PROBLEM”*
HRW, which has been documenting sexual violence against Rohingya by the Burmese military, attacked the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development (DfID) for failing to send specialist teams to speak to victims who had fled to Bangladesh, it said.

The International Rescue Committee estimated there were 75,000 victims of gender-based violence, and that 45% of the Rohingya women attending safe spaces in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh had reported such attacks.

“Yes, I'm afraid she is complicit,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, on Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi. He said the Nobel peace prize winner had “authoritarian tendencies”, and used repressive laws to restrict freedom of expression, pointing out that she had refused to free political prisoners, one aged 14.

“The biggest tragedy here is she is the one person in the country who really could change attitudes towards the Rohingya. She's chosen not to do that,” he added. “We've seen a change in tone but we haven't seen a change in policy.”

“I'm saying that we need to look again at the support we have given to her government,” he reportedly said.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said two civilian experts had flown to Bangladesh on Tuesday, to conduct a needs assessment of the extent of sexual violence and service provision among the Rohingya. The deployment followed a visit by the head of team for the FCO's preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative to Cox's Bazar and Dhaka this month, alongside the UN secretary general's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten.
*
Japan urges Myanmar for repatriation*
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday to make it possible for refugees to return to their homes in Rakhine state, reports Japan Times.

Abe also appealed to Suu Kyi in their meeting in Manila to restore order in the province and to allow access for humanitarian aid. He also assured Japan is ready to give as much support as possible to Myanmar to improve the situation in Rakhine.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpag...efugee-crisis-condemnation-not-enough-1492021


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya repatriation: Myanmar places four conditions*
Tribune Desk
Published at 06:20 PM November 15, 2017




A young Rohingya woman in front of her rickety hut at Dargachhara village in Teknaf upazila, Cox's Bazar *Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune*
*Bangladesh has repeatedly denied accepting such conditions*
Myanmar government has placed four conditions before it proceeds with the repatriation of Rohingyas who fled their homeland and entered Bangladesh to escape persecution.

According to Kolkata-based newspaper Anandabazar, Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary U Kyaw Zeya marked the conditions as “strict” during an international conference on India-Myanmar relations in Yangon on Friday.
*The conditions are-*
_*– Those Rohingyas who can provide documented proof of long-term residence in Myanmar,*_

_*– Those Rohingyas who want to return to Rakhine of their own will,*_

_*– Those who can prove that they have relatives on the Myanmar side of the border,*_

_*– In the case of children, those who can provide evidences their parents are permanent residents of Myanmar.*_
Myanmar said it will take up to 300 Rohingyas back per day if they can provide the necessary documents.
*However, Bangladesh has repeatedly denied accepting any such conditions.*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...-repatriation-myanmar-places-four-conditions/


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## Banglar Bir

*Watchdogs: ‘Mounting evidence’ of Myanmar genocide*
AFP
Published at 08:28 AM November 16, 2017




A Rohingya refugee girl sits next to her mother who rests after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 6, 2017 *Reuters
The 30-page report, entitled 'They tried to kill us all,' is based on more than 200 interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, as well as international aid workers*
Myanmar security forces slit the throats of Muslim Rohingya and burned victims alive, watchdogs said in a report on Wednesday that cited mounting evidence of genocide against the minority group.

The report by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Southeast Asia-based Fortify Rights documents “widespread and systematic attacks” on Rohingya civilians between October 9 and December of last year, and from August 25 of this year.

The 30-page report, entitled “They tried to kill us all,” is based on more than 200 interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, as well as international aid workers.

Some world leaders have already described as “ethnic cleansing” the scorched-earth military campaign against the Rohingya.
*Also Read- How far will the Rohingya goodwill carry the Awami League?*
Evidence gathered by Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum demonstrates that “Myanmar state security forces and civilian perpetrators committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” during two waves of attacks in the majority Buddhist nation, the report says.

“There is mounting evidence to suggest these acts represent a genocide of the Rohingya population,” it says.

Almost 700,000 Rohingya, more than half of the population in northern Rakhine state, have been forcibly displaced since October last year when Myanmar’s army began “clearance operations” after a previously unknown group attacked and killed security officers.

Those operations were, in practice, “a mechanism to commit mass atrocities,” the report said.

“State security forces opened fire on Rohingya civilians from the land and sky. Soldiers and knife-wielding civilians hacked to death and slit the throats of Rohingya men, women, and children,” it said.

“Rohingya civilians were burned alive. Soldiers raped and gang-raped Rohingya women and girls and arbitrarily arrested men and boys en masse.”

The report said investigators from Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide traveled to Rakhine and the Bangladesh-Myanmar border area, where Rohingya have fled.

It quoted eyewitness testimony of mass killings in three villages in late August.
*Also Read- Packed out Rohingya camps vulnerable to fire*
“When the killing was complete, soldiers moved bodies into piles and set them alight,” after soldiers reportedly murdered hundreds in one attack, the report said, adding to chilling and consistent accounts of widespread murder, rape and arson at the hands of security forces and Buddhist mobs.

Global outrage is building over the violence, while Myanmar’s army insists it has only targeted Rohingya rebels.

The watchdogs’ report came a day after Washington’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said there were “credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and vigilantes.”

Speaking during a visit to Myanmar, he urged authorities there to accept an independent investigation into those allegations.

The army and administration of de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi — a Nobel peace laureate — have dismissed reports of atrocities and refused to grant entry to UN investigators tasked with probing allegations of ethnic cleansing.

“Without urgent action, a risk of further outbreaks of mass atrocities exists in Rakhine state and possibly elsewhere in Myanmar,” Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum wrote.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/11/16/228438/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Tillerson supports for Individual sanctions against Myanmar army*
SAM Staff, November 16, 2017




US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, right, attend a press conference in Naypyidaw on 15 November 2017, Photo: AFP
*US Secretary of State Tillerson said the United States would consider individual sanctions against security forces found responsible for human rights abuses against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine State.*
More than 600,000 Rohingya are now in refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing the Myanmar military’s clearance operations since August when a Rohingya militant group attacked 30 police outpost in northern Rakhine State, citing accounts of arbitrary killings, rapes and arson by the security forces.

To seek accountability from the army, the US announced sanctions against Myanmar’s military leadership last month, ceasing travel waivers for current and former senior leadership of the Burmese military while assessing authorities to consider economic options available to target individuals associated with the atrocities. The restrictions also include all units and officers involved in operations in northern Rakhine State to be ineligible to receive or participate in any US assistance programs.

Rex Tillerson was in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw on 15 November to meet with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu kyi and military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

During a joint press conference with Daw Aung San Suu kyi in the afternoon, Tillerson said all of the individual sanctions have to be evidence based.

But the Secretary of the State said he would not advise “broad-based economic sanctions” against the entire country.

“If we have credible information that we believe to be very reliable that certain individuals were responsible for certain acts that we find unacceptable, then *targeted sanctions on individuals* very well may be appropriate,” he said.

While reaffirming the US commitment to Myanmar’s transition and condemning the Rohingya militant attacks in August, Tillerson also called for a credible investigation into human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims committed by Myanmar’s security forces.
*
“We’re deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and by vigilantes who were unrestrained by the security forces during the recent violence in Rakhine State,” he said.*

But the Myanmar Army denied the atrocities in the internal investigation released on Monday.

After the meeting, a Facebook post of Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said he explained to Tillerson the real situation on the ground in Rakhine, the reasons behind the exodus, the military’s cooperation with the government, repatriation and delivering aid.
SOURCE THE IRRAWADDY
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...support-individual-sanctions-security-forces/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*ROHINGYA CRISIS
Human trafficking begins on both sides of border*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:47, Nov 16,2017 | Updated: 00:52, Nov 16,2017




A member of Bangladesh Army tries to control the crowd of Rohingya refugees who wait outside of an aid distribution centre to receive aid supplies in the Palong Khali refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday. — Reuters photo
*Human trafficking is rife among Rohingyas fleeing violence in Rakhine State as traffickers are taking them to major cities including Dhaka, Chittagong and Yangon as well as to places outside Bangladesh and Myanmar.*
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency officials said they were expecting boats carrying Rohingyas to begin arriving soon.

The Bangladesh and Myanmar governments and the international community must expedite repatriation of Rohingyas to their home in Rakhine State to contain trafficking, experts suggested.
‘Desperate men, women and children are being recruited with false offers of paid work in various industries including fishing, small commerce, begging and, in the case of girls, domestic work,’ the UN migration agency IOM said in a release on Tuesday night.

With almost no alternative source of income, ‘the refugees are willing to take whatever opportunities they are presented with, even ones that are risky, dangerous and that involve their children’, it said.
Rohingya refugees fleeing the recent outbreak of violence in Myanmar have begun arriving in Malaysia, amid warnings that this could mark the start of a dangerous new wave of people smuggling, according to Al Jazeera.

*A 16-year-old boy, who arrived in Malaysia in October, has told Al Jazeera that he and about 15 other Rohingya men and women paid soldiers to smuggle them in the back of a Myanmar military truck from Rakhine state to Yangon.*

Speaking to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity, Anwar (not his real name), said they were then passed onto different traffickers as they travelled from Myanmar, through Thailand and into Malaysia.
‘If you give them money, they will take you wherever you ask,’ he said, referring to the Myanmar military. ‘It’s because their purpose is to chase you out of the country.’

Anwar, who recently made the eight-day journey to Malaysia, said he fled his village in Buthidaung after the military set fire to his family’s home.

As people ran for their lives, Anwar lost his parents and 10 siblings, the youngest of whom is not yet one. He hasn’t heard from them since.
*
NGOs say traffickers are targeting Rohingyas in Myanmar and those in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where conditions are dire*.

Traffickers are approaching newly arrived refugees in the camps in Bangladesh, offering passage to Malaysia for 7000 to 8000 ringgit ($1655 to $1891), according to Migrant 88, a non-government organisation with staff working in Bangladesh and Malaysia, Al Jazeera reported.
Khadijah Shamsul, a programme director for the group, knows a Rohingya man in Malaysia who recently paid a trafficker 1000 ringgit ($236) to reserve a place on a boat for his relative in Bangladesh.

Zulkifili Abu Bakar, director-general of Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, said in a statement, ‘Yes, we are expecting them (Rohingyas). The coastguard would increase surveillance, especially in the Malaysia-Thailand border area.

In 2015, mass graves were discovered in jungle camps used by traffickers on the border between Thailand and Malaysia. The victims were believed to be mainly Rohingyas.
‘Regardless of the scale with which this takes place,’ Matthew Smith, chief executive of Fortify Rights, a non-government organisation, said, ‘there is a potential that people will find themselves in the vicinity of people who will use those methods again.’

*In Bangladesh, many of the recruiters are Bangladeshi, while some are Rohingya, and many were established in the area prior to the most recent influx. The number of criminals and trafficking rings operating in the district has expanded with the population.*

Once the victims of trafficking are placed at jobs, they usually find that they are not paid what was promised. They are often deprived of sleep, made to work more hours than was agreed, not allowed to leave their work premises and not allowed to contact their family.
Women and girls are often physically or sexually abused.

Some reported being forced into jobs which they never agreed to do. In one case, a number of adolescent girls, who were promised work as domestic helpers in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong, were forced into prostitution.
Others reported being brought to locations different from the agreed destination.

Prof. Tasneem Siddiqui, chair of the Refugee and Migrating Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) under the University of Dhaka, said unaccompanied women and children in the Rohingya camps are at risk of trafficking.

She stressed the need for completing registration of Rohingyas at the earliest, convincing them that ‘getting registered is required for their safety’.

The Bangladesh and the Myanmar governments must expedite the process of Rohingya repatriation with support from the international community, Tasneem said.

*The governments in Bangladesh and other countries should take all measures to prosecute the traffickers, she added. *

Over 6,18,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and November 13.

The ongoing influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,37,000 till Sunday, according to estimates of UN agencies.

Kateryna Ardanyan, an IOM counter-trafficking expert currently deployed in Cox’s Bazar, said, ‘In the chaos of a crisis like this, trafficking is usually invisible at first, as there are so many other urgent needs like food and shelter. But agencies responding to this crisis should not wait until the number of identified victims increases.’

*Rohingya refugees need preventative and proactive action now to mitigate risks of human trafficking, and the survivors need help, before this spirals out of control, she added. *
http://www.newagebd.net/article/28443/human-trafficking-begins-on-both-sides-of-border

*ROHINGYA CRISIS MAY GROW WORSE, CARITAS OFFICIAL WARNS*
09 November 2017 | by Catholic News Service
*In October, the WHO and Bangladesh's Ministry of Health launched a massive cholera vaccination program, the second-largest in history*




*Although Bangladesh has welcomed a massive influx of Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar in recent weeks, a Catholic aid official is worried that the welcome may soon be wearing thin.*
James Gomes, regional director of Caritas, the church's charitable agency, said Bangladesh responded quickly to the surprise arrival of more than 600,000 Rohingya, most of whom fled their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"As a Bangladeshi, I'm proud of my people and my government. Even though we're densely populated, we made the quick decision to open the border and host the Rohingya. People from all over the country came forward in order to stand beside these people who had suffered so much. Without that solidarity, many more people would have died," Gomes told Catholic News Service.

Yet such hospitality is starting to be tested, Gomes said.

"We are hearing from people in the host communities that the presence of the Rohingya is having a negative impact on their daily lives. Day laborers, for example, are having a difficult time finding work because the newcomers sell their labor for less. A Bangladeshi worker was getting 600 takas (US$7) a day, but a Rohingya worker will settle for 300 or 400 takas a day," he said.

Caritas Bangladesh has hired dozens of local residents to aid with assessment and food distribution. Gomes said half of the temporary hires are refugees and half are from the host community. They are paid 900 takas a day.

The humanitarian crisis has also pushed up the local cost of living.




_A Rohingya woman carries a bag of food provided by Caritas in the Nayapara Refugee Camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh ©CNS _

"Bus fares have gone from 10 to 20 takas, and at times you now have to wait a long time for a bus that has space. Similarly, even inexpensive foods like bananas have doubled in price, and that's causing problems for local people," Gomes said.

The refugee influx is also causing an environmental crisis, in part because the massive numbers of refugees quickly raced ahead of government efforts to channel them into organised settlements.

"In order to build their shelters and get firewood, since the first days they arrived the refugees have been cutting trees. This is going to create a huge disaster in the long run, and we've already seen people injured when heavy rains provoked mudslides," Gomes said.

Aid workers here worry about a possible health crisis. While wells with hand pumps were quickly installed in the cramped refugee camps, they are usually shallow and located close to primitive latrines. Open defecation is common.

In October, the World Health Organisation and Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched a massive cholera vaccination program, the second-largest in history. Any outbreak of disease in the camps would quickly spread to neighbouring Bangladeshi communities.

Tension between residents and the refugees has also flared into violence. On 28 October, a Bangladeshi man in Cox's Bazar was killed in an apparent dispute over land, and police arrested two newly arrived Rohingya men.

A critical element of the humanitarian response focuses on mitigating conflicts with local communities. As people line up for food distribution, a Caritas staff member addresses those in line about the dangers of human trafficking, including the problem of girls and young women being recruited into sex work.

The government, which does not refer to the Rohingya as refugees but rather as "displaced Myanmar nationals" - hoping both to sidestep some legal requirements as well as deflate any expectations that the Rohingya are here to stay - has prohibited non-Rohingya from being in the camps after 5 pm. It also has set up checkpoints to stop any Rohingya from traveling deeper into Bangladesh.

Gomes said that while tensions have grown, they have not yet reached a tipping point.

"People are not yet telling the refugees to go home. They are still trying to accommodate them. Government is working hard to meet their needs. That will continue until we can figure out how they can peacefully repatriate. Most of the refugees I have spoken with want to go back, but they first must be assured of their security," he said.

Archbishop Moses Costa of Chittagong said the church is called to do more than just help the refugees survive in Bangladesh.

"There is a lot of concern internationally, and people are coming forward to help. That's a good thing. But I would like to ask for more. It's not enough to meet their material needs. We need to put pressure on governments to create the conditions for them to safely return home," Archbishop Costa told Catholic News Service.

In late October, the archbishop spent two days visiting the refugee camps.

"The people I talked with told me they suffered persecution and rape and killings, and they are afraid to go home. Some of them were so traumatised they couldn't talk," he said.




_A woman from Myanmar feeds her child in a UN clinic for severely malnourished Rohingya children on 28 October in the Balukhali Refugee Camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh ©CNS_

Archbishop Costa also worries about long-term problems. He said mounting resentment about the Rohingya presence has caused some tribal groups who resemble the Myanmar refugees to leave the city of Chittagong "because they are worried about revenge from the Bangladeshi people."

The archbishop said he expects Pope Francis' between 30 November to 2 December visit to Bangladesh will bring hope to the Rohingya and their new neighbours.

"He has already said that the Rohingya are some of the most persecuted people in the world, and that they are our sisters and brothers and we must respond to them," he said.

He also acknowledged that the papal visit will likely be controversial. Pope Francis will visit Myanmar before Bangladesh.

"The bishops' conference in Myanmar doesn't want the pope to even mention the word Rohingya. That in itself is evidence of the difficulties these people face. But the Holy Father constantly pushes us to attend to the needs of the poorest people, the people at the periphery. I don't know how the pope will say it, but I know that he will not be able to go without saying something. His heart is with these people," Archbishop Costa said.
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/8058/0/rohingya-crisis-may-grow-worse-caritas-official-warns


----------



## Banglar Bir

Rohingya
*US Holocaust Museum says evidence of genocide against Rohingya in Myanmar*
Year-long report into atrocities accuses security forces of ‘unprecedented and systematic’ campaign of violence against Muslim population




Rohingya Muslim children wait to receive food at Thaingkhali refugee camp in Ukhiya, Bangladesh. Photograph: AM Ahad/AP
Poppy McPherson in Yangon
Tuesday 14 November 2017 23.47 GMT
*The United States Holocaust Museum says there is “mounting evidence” of genocide in Myanmar, after a year-long investigation with Southeast Asia rights group Fortify Rights into atrocities against persecuted Rohingya Muslims.*
The report, published on Wednesday and based on more than 200 interviews with Rohingya and aid workers, says Myanmar’s security forces carried out an “unprecedented, widespread and systematic” campaign of violence starting in October 2016 and continuing in August this year.

Close to one million Rohingya have been pushed out of their homes in northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh following “coordinated” attacks on villages that included mass killings, gang-rape and arson, the report says.

“The crimes detailed in this report indicate a failure of the government of Myanmar as well as the international community to properly protect civilians from mass atrocities,” it reads.

The United Nations has called the violence a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” but stopped short of the word “genocide”, a legal definition that would require global leaders to take action under the Genocide Convention.

Genocide is defined as the intentional targeting of a community for destruction in whole or in part.

“The facts laid out in this report demonstrate that state security forces targeted the Rohingya group with several of the enumerated acts in the law of genocide,” the report says.

Andrea Gittleman, a program manager for the Holocaust Museum’s Simon-Skjodt centre for the prevention of genocide, said: “The atrocities occurring now demand the strongest of responses in order to halt the crimes, prevent future atrocities, and hold perpetrators accountable.”

A Myanmar government spokesperson could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but the government and army have strenuously denied the allegations, saying Rohingya militants are responsible for massacres.

Matthew Smith, CEO and founder of Fortify Rights, said the Rohingya face an “existential threat”, though there had not been a final determination on genocide.

“It’s reasonable to be talking about the crime of genocide and genocide prevention, particularly in light of the evidence, which indicates the Rohingya may have been targeted for destruction,” he said.

“We’re seeing a global moral failure. The international community has failed the Rohingya. We’ve been warning about the indicators of mass atrocities for years. Rohingya communities have been warning about this for years. This could have been prevented.”

Tens of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh last year after Rohingya militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked police posts, prompting military “clearance operations” that amounted to a massive crackdown on the population.

When militants attacked again in August this year, thousands of soldiers from nearly 40 battalions were deployed, according to Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum. They moved from village to village carrying out a similar pattern of mass shootings and arson, the report said. More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since August.

“The large deployment of troops, as well as the use of RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] would have required detailed planning and coordination and the strategic allocation of significant financial resources and arms,” the report said.

Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum, whose Simon-Skjodt centre works to prevent genocide around the world, singled out three villages as sites of massacres.

In Tula Toli in Maungdaw township, Myanmar soldiers are accused of slaughtering hundreds of Rohingya, including children, who were gathered on a river bank, and then burning the bodies. “Some small children were thrown into the river,” said a witness quoted in the report. “They hacked small children who were half-alive.”

The allegations are consistent with reporting by the Guardian and others.
In Rathedaung township’s Chut Pyin village, soldiers and armed civilians allegedly herded men and boys into a hut before setting it on fire.

At least 150 men and boys from Maung Nu village, Buthidaung township, were shot dead after sheltering in the house of a local leader, survivors told Fortify Rights.

On Monday, the Myanmar army published the results of an internal probe exonerating itself of any wrongdoing.

A similar internal investigation into allegations of mass killings last year found a Myanmar soldier guilty of stealing a bicycle.

Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum are calling for the international community to enforce targeted sanctions on military commanders and an arms embargo on the country, as well as for the United Nations security council to refer the situation to the international criminal court.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/15/us-holocaust-museum-evidence-genocide-rohingya-myanmar


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## Banglar Bir

12:59 PM, November 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:24 PM, November 16, 2017
*Human Rights Watch accuses Myanmar military of widespread rape*




Rohingya refugees are spotted on an improvised raft after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at Shah Porir Dwip near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh November 13, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
Reuters, United Nations
*Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar security forces on Thursday of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the past three months against Rohingya Muslims in the country's Rakhine state.*
The allegation in a report by the New York-based rights group echoes an accusation by Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, earlier this week. Patten said sexual violence was "being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar."

Myanmar's army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the operation that drove more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

The United Nations has denounced the violence as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing.

Human Rights Watch spoke to 52 Rohingya women and girls who fled to Bangladesh, 29 of whom said they had been raped. All but one of the rapes were gang rapes, Human Rights Watch said.

"Rape has been a prominent and devastating feature of the Burmese military's campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya," said Skye Wheeler, women's rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

"The Burmese military's barbaric acts of violence have left countless women and girls brutally harmed and traumatized," she said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar and targeted sanctions against military leaders responsible for human rights violations, including sexual violence.

The 15-member council last week urged the Myanmar government to "ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state." It asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report back in 30 days on the situation.

Myanmar has said the military clearance operation was necessary for national security after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts and an army base in Rakhine state on August 25.

Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

Hala Sadak, a 15-year-old from Hathi Para village in Maungdaw Township, told Human Rights Watch that soldiers had stripped her naked and then about 10 men raped her.

She told Human Rights Watch: "When my brother and sister came to get me, I was lying there on the ground, they thought I was dead."
*Related Topics*
Rohingya crisis 
Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

12:47 PM, November 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:03 PM, November 16, 2017
*UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie condemns sexual violence against Rohingya women, children*




Hollywood star and UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie on Wednesday, November 15, 2017, strongly condemns sexual violence against Rohingya women and children in Myanmar. Reuters file photo
Star Online Report
*Hollywood star and UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie has strongly condemned sexual violence against Rohingya women and children in Myanmar.*
Also the Co-Founder, Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, Jolie “shared her strong views on the Rohingya victims of sexual violence,” reads a press release by Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.
*Also READ: ‘Myanmar military should be brought to justice’*
More than 600,000 Rohingyas have crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a brutal military crackdown described by a top UN official as a textbook case of “ethnic cleansing”.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) special envoy told a Bangladesh delegation led by Lt Gen Mahfuzur Rahman, principal staff officer of Armed Forces Division, that she is planning to visit the Rohingya victims of sexual violence and she would mention about it condemning violence in Myanmar in her key note speech in the United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Ministerial meeting. 

“She deeply applauded Bangladesh’s generous humanitarian approach,” in dealing with Rohingya influx,” during a closed door meeting on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse with the Bangladesh delegation yesterday, the press release said.

“Angelina Jolie also congratulated Bangladesh along with Canada and UK for their leadership role in launching “women, peace and security Chief of Defence network” yesterday morning in Vancouver,” it said. 

Bangladesh Delegation to the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Vancouver is headed by Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, also defense and security adviser to the prime minister, it adds.
*Related Topics*
Angelina Jolie
UNHCR 
Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

11:39 AM, November 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:50 AM, November 16, 2017
*‘Myanmar military should be brought to justice’*
*NHRC chief says*




National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Rezaul Hoque in meeting with UN Resident Coordinator to Bangladesh Mia Seppo in Dhaka on November 16, 2017. Photo: NHRC
Star Online Report
*Myanmar military officials responsible for the atrocities on Rohingyas should be brought to justice, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Rezaul Hoque said today.*
He made the call to UN Resident Coordinator to Bangladesh, Mia Seppo, when the latter called on the NHRC chief at his office this morning, says a press release.

Rezaul Hoque urged the UN official to uphold her support towards Bangladesh to pressure Myanmar to take back its citizens.

The UN official assured the national human rights boss that she will extend all her support from her end regarding this issue, which is now at the centre of international attention.

According to latest estimates, over 600,000 Rohingyas have fled from Myanmar and sought refuge in Bangladesh following persecution in the Rakhine state.
*Related Topics*
Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...-nhrc-chairman-kazi-rezaul-hoque-says-1492066

*Take all thirteen to the International Criminal Court as soon as possible.*



















+9


----------



## Banglar Bir

02:16 PM, November 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:31 PM, November 16, 2017
*FM to visit Rohingyas with top foreign dignitaries*
Star Online Report
*Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will accompany top dignitaries of the European Union, Japan, Germany and Sweden to visit the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar on November 19.*
The dignitaries are German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, Japan Foreign Minister Taro Kono and High Representative of the EU Federica Mogherini.

*They are all expected to arrive in Dhaka a day early, said a press release of the foreign ministry today. The combined visit of four high level delegates is the first of its kind.*

During the visit, the high level delegations will interact with the Rohingya people at Kutupalong. It is hoped that the visit will garner further international support for the Rohingya community.

The high dignitaries are expected to call on the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after their return from Cox’s Bazar on the same day.

Bangladesh has been sheltering over 600,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled from Myanmar in face of persecution. The country is also trying to pressure Myanmar to take back its nationals.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...ohingya-camps-top-foreign-dignitaries-1492102


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## Banglar Bir

10:56 AM, November 16, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:15 AM, November 16, 2017
*Rohingya woman in Bangladesh helps others flee Myanmar*




In this October 12, 2017, photo, Zahida Begum, left, meets with a Rohingya family she helped escape to Bangladesh as she visits them in Thangkhali, Cox's Bazar area, Bangladesh.
*Begum was only 18 months old when her mother, fleeing Muslim Rohingya persecution in Myanmar, smuggled her in a fishing boat into Bangladesh. *
When frantic relatives called her in late September to tell her that Myanmar soldiers were burning Rohingya villages and tens of thousands of Rohingya were fleeing, she jumped into action, making calls and raising money to arrange boats to bring 400 people to safety. Photo: AP
AP, Kutupalong
*Zahida Begum doesn't remember her home village, a tiny speck amid the mountains and forests of Myanmar. She was only 18 months old when her mother smuggled her across the Naf River on a fishing boat, carrying her into Bangladesh, among hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya fleeing persecution in their home country.*
Begum has been a refugee ever since. She grew up in Bangladesh's Rohingya refugee camps, and now earns a living working for a string of international aid groups. On quiet days, she's the kind of person who wanders around looking for someone to help.

So when frantic relatives called her in late September to tell her that Myanmar soldiers were burning Rohingya villages and tens of thousands of Rohingya were fleeing, the 28-year-old jumped into action.

She made calls to a half-dozen countries. She raised thousands of dollars. She called in favors and arranged for boats and smugglers.

And one day later, some 400 people — including some of Begum's relatives and other people from nearby villages — were safe.

"Had Zahida not sent those boats, we would have died in Myanmar," said 35-year-old Abdul Matlab, one of the people rescued that night.

Matlab now lives in Bangladesh with his extended family in a small shelter of bamboo and plastic tarp where they sleep huddled together on the floor.

He said from his village alone, Begum saved 70 people.* But about 400 others from the village were killed by Myanmar government forces, he said.*

Begum, a smiling, self-confident woman in a long black cloak and headscarf, grew up listening to stories about the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar's Rakhine state, just across the Naf River.

Myanmar's Rohingya have been called one of the world's most persecuted minorities, a community of Muslims in a largely Buddhist country whose government refuses to recognize them as a lawful ethnic minority. Though some Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for centuries, they are widely disparaged as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Not long before she heard from her frantic relatives in Myanmar, Begum had heard about the start of "clearance operations" by the country's security forces that eventually led to 618,000 Rohingya fleeing their homes and crossing the border into Bangladesh. The United Nations has said Myanmar's actions appeared to be "ethnic cleansing."

Begum knew she had to act quickly. There were mothers and children trying to flee. She remembered her mother's stories of their own journey out of Myanmar in 1990, when more than 250,000 Rohingya fled to escape forced labor, rape and religious persecution.

Begum told the group she was in contact with that they should make their way toward the Naf River border and wait for more instructions.

"I called my brother-in-law, who lives abroad, and told him our brothers and sisters have arrived near the river, and asked him how we can bring them across to Bangladesh," said Begum, who works as a translator and door-to-door health educator for aid and rights organizations including Human Rights Watch.

With the help of relatives in Australia and Malaysia, Begum said she raised more than $4,000 in a matter of hours. The money was wired to her through a shady middleman who charged a hefty fee.

She then contacted a fisherman in the Bangladeshi coastal village of Shamlapur, close to her home in the congested Kutupalong refugee camp, and asked him to hire two boats and set them off toward the Myanmar border.

Eventually, 70 families were brought out in the two boats, which had traveled more than 60 kilometers (100 miles) from Bangladesh to the pickup point in Myanmar, traveling through the Bay of Bengal and along the Naf River under the night sky. The smugglers charged more than $4,200.

Begum waited for the boats in Shamlapur, and first settled the new refugees around her own bamboo-and-tarp home. Eventually, she used what was left of the money, combined with more donations she had received, to give each family $35, then sent them to another refugee camp nearby to build their own shelters.

"If they are safe and healthy, I am content," Begum said when asked why she decided to help. "Nothing makes me more happy than that."
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...-bangladesh-helps-others-flee-myanmar-1492057


----------



## Banglar Bir

*UN SC RESOLUTION
A road map for speedy repatriation process of Rohingyas*
*Abdul Hannan*
*The latest Security Council consensus statement, the fourth in a row in course of last three months is the most comprehensive, substantive and explicit one providing a framework of road map for speedy repatriation process of Rohingyas to their home in Myanmar*.
The statement is clear and forthright with no scope for ambiguity or equivocation and calls upon the stakeholders of the crisis to get down to business in right earnest in cooperation with the UN and other relevant international organisations immediately.

The Security Council strongly condemned the violence that has caused more than 600,000 Rohingyas to flee Myanmar to Bangladesh.
The statement called on Myanmar to ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state and expressed grave concern at human rights violation.
The statement stressed the importance of bringing those responsible for human rights violation accountable.
*Suu Kyi’s predictable reaction*
Britain initially circulated a security resolution with similar language backed by France and the US. But the resolution was legally binding and *China strongly opposed it. *So Britain and France turned the resolution into a presidential statement which nonetheless remains the strongest Council statement ever on the issue, albeit without the clout and weight of a resolution.

The British and French delegations in the Council received well deserved thanks and appreciation from the permanent representative of Bangladesh for their persistent and active interest for adopting the most comprehensive statement on the matter.

The most important operative paragraph in the statement is when it urged upon the government of Myanmar to work with the government of Bangladesh and the UN to allow the voluntary return of all refugees in condition of safety and dignity to their homes in Myanmar.
The Security Council statement also urged upon Myanmar and Bangladesh to invite the UN High commissioner for refugees and other relevant international organisations to participate fully in the joint working group for implementation of repatriation process.
*
This last proposal rankled in the mind of Myanmar which sharply reacted that UN involvement would seriously harm the current bilateral negotiations. *Her argument is ridiculous as she wants the joint working group to remain confined to bilateral negotiation between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The reason of Myanmar de facto leader Suu Kyi’s displeasure and adverse reaction of denunciation of council proposal as an undue pressure is not far to seek. Myanmar wants to pursue a policy of foot dragging, soft peddling and subterfuge through bilateral protracted talks. Her obduracy and intransigence on the matter is clear.
By her angry reaction she has only betrayed her hypocrisy and perfidy to thwart and frustrate the repatriation process with one pretext or another.
*Follow Security Council’s roadmap*
The recent Ananda Bazar disclosure of absurdity of her four conditions of verifying the bonafide of residence in Myanmar of Rohingya refugees is a case in point. But she should understand that the plight of Rohingyas is now fully internationalised and its solution involves participation of international community. *There is no getting away from it. *
The Security Council has provided the road map for expeditious solution of the crisis and Myanmar military authorities should implement it with unquestioning obedience.

Now during the forthcoming visit of our Foreign Minister to Myanmar, he should insist on inviting participation of UNHCR and other relevant organisations in the joint working group in accordance with the directive in the security council statement and not fall into the trap of bilateral negotiations as laid down by Myanmar as a delaying tactics.
Our civil society has always expressed concern about the potential danger of bilateral negotiations without UN and international participation to resolve the problem.

Myanmar delegation in the Council debate continued to refuse to face the reality of Rohingya situation in the face and shifted the blame on so called terrorist attacks by Rohingyas as the root cause.

Bangladesh representative Masud bin Momen regretted the continual denial by Myanmar and nailed the *lie of so called terrorist attack as a fiction and figment of imagination.* He said that time was of essence to solve the massive humanitarian catastrophe caused by exodus of persecuted and displaced Rohingyas to Bangladesh.
*Pressures mounting on Myanmar*
The pressure on Myanmar is mounting. The 3rd committee of the UN General Assembly is soon going to pass a resolution on Rohingya crisis seeking early repatriation of Rohingyas to their homes in Myanmar. *The Council statement also wanted the secretary general to appoint a special representative to supervise the repatriation process.*

The statement was serious when it urged upon the secretary general to report progress on the matter to the Security Council after 30 days.
*Unless Myanmar wish to be consigned once again as an international pariah, she should heed the counsels of good sense, honour and dignity by the international public opinion.*
Abdul Hannan is a columnist and former diplomat.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx

*ROHINGYA MUSLIM REFUGEE CRISIS
Their abject plight is beyond description*
*Iqbal Hossain*




ACROSS the world the supremacy of photographs is unanimously recognised; however in tandem with it certainly words too can be very appositely effective as is unmistakably evident in the news reports of the print media of the country. 
*Over the last three months the daily newspapers of Bangladesh and the private TV channels have done an excellent job in reporting about the distress, torment, agony and sufferings of the victims of premeditated persecution, pogrom, rape and murder as part of the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims of Arakan or Rakhaine province of Myanmar.*

*Genocide of Rohingya Muslims*
There is “mounting evidence” of genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, says a new report by US-based Holocaust Memorial Museum, after an investigation by Fortify Rights. The report calls for an immediate halt to the atrocities in Rakhine. “Without urgent action, there’s a high risk of more mass atrocities,” said Cameron Hudson, director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the Museum in a statement.

Echoing the findings of Fortify Rights when giving evidence before a parliamentary committee, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Burma Campaign UK and other rights groups urged the government and the international community to see the Nobel laureate as “part of the problem”, The Guardian reports. It added that the military crackdown had “thousands” of Rohingyas dead, forced an exodus of 600,000 people and mentioned numerous instances of “appalling rape”.
*Catastrophic decimation*
The comprehensive editorial of the Holiday, dated 27 October 2017, has expressed the Rohingya crisis in a short and snappy procedure indicating the course of action. The comment entitled “Sushma Swaraj’s Visit: Rohingya crisis vis-à-vis Indo-Bangla ties” correctly states: “Veritable apocalypse of brutal decimation on a catastrophic scale of the Rohingya Muslims of Rakhaine in Myanmar through wholesale slaughter, arson, mass rapes by the military and violent Buddhists forced out the wretched humans whose ceaseless influx into Bangladesh drew extraordinarily sympathetic attention of the peoples of the world and the UN in particular. 
Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan flew 5,616km and visited Kutupalang refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar on Sep 7, 2017”.
*Sultan Jalal-al Deen Shah and Rohingyas*
Myanmar is distorting the history of the Rohingya Muslims. Throwing light on the actual history of the Rohingya Muslims the editorial of the Holiday enunciates,* “Myanmar government continues to spread disinformation with the intent to mislead the UN and the world by concealing actual history. *

In the early part of 15th century (circa 1406 AD) lower Burma’s king Meng-Sho-Ai defeated Arakanese king Meng-Shoa Mown and conquered Arakan. Later on, Mown sought military assistance from the ruler of Goud, Sultan Jalal-al Deen Shah who helped him with a commander and many soldiers who defeated Burmese king Meng-Sho-Ai, and king Mown regained his kingdom. He relocated his kingdom at Rohong from which were the people known as Rohingya and at his request the Muslim soldiers permanently settled in Arakan”.

“No pictures, no videos, no writings can explain what is happening over there. It is beyond explanation,” wrote on 20 Sept 2017 Showkat Shafi of Al Jazeera worldwide TV news netwok headquartered in Doha, Qatar. The refugees carry harrowing stories of mass killings, gang rapes and razing of whole villages, enough to break down even the most seasoned journalists.
*“Textbook ethnic cleansing”*
The Muslim Rohingyas who have fled “textbook ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar to arrive in makeshift camps in Bangladesh are unwanted by both countries. In Bangladesh they are a huge burden; in Myanmar they are loathed. They are not recognised as citizens by Myanmar and have lived under an apartheid system in the western Rakhine state for decades.

Historical evidence of Muslims living permanently in the area now known as Rakhine State goes back at least to the Mrauk-U kingdom of the 15th century. “Some [Muslims] were serving in the court as ministers, even prime ministers — there were generals in the army, the royal army,” Aye Lwin, a Muslim leader, interfaith activist and educator, said. “Devout Buddhist Rakhine kings, they had Muslim titles … and these kings they minted coins with Arabic inscriptions,” Aye Lwin told the ABC, Australia.

But Rakhine historians see it in a different way. Aye Chan, professor emeritus at Kanda University, said, *“I never deny the existence of the Muslim community in the Mrauk-U kingdom before the Burmese conquest of the kingdom in 1785 … but it was a very small community.”
Number of orphans is disconcerting — 36.373*
A general assumption is that an orphan is a child who has two departed parents; but the more all-encompassing explanations used by relief agencies tend to spotlight on a child who is deprived of parental care. An orphan is a young person under 18 years of age who has lost one or both parents.
The the Department of Social Welfare under the Social Welfare Ministry in its survey, conducted from 20 September to 10 November 2017, have enumerated the Rohingya orphans. Their number is disconcerting ___ 36.373.
*Thousands of tragic episodes*
Journalists Mohammad Al-Masum Molla and Mohammad Ali Jinnat wrote about four-year-old Nur Khan who squirmed in fear whenever he saw someone unfamiliar near his shack in Ukhia of Cox’s Bazar. When he came across anyone holding any object, he shuddered. The reason behind it is: five weeks ago, the child witnessed both his parents being brutally murdered.

Their father, Shahidul Amin, was a grocer in Bolly Bazar in Mangduaw, Myanmar. The day when he was killed along with his wife, their paternal grandfather asked their maternal grandmother to take the children and flee immediately. “Leave the country as soon as possible, he said. I left taking them with me,” Rafia Begum, their grandmother who brought them to Bangladesh, said.

“We crossed the border on September 1 but have not been able to contact Hasan’s grandfather ever since,” said Rafia, a widow in her 50s. Weighed down with pain and suffering, she seemed to have aged a decade in the past month.

While their grandmother spoke of the strenuous journey to escape the conflict-ridden Rakhine state, Nur Khan stared vacantly, into seemingly nothingness. He kept mum when asked what his name was. He did not wish to speak, especially to a stranger. Nur Khan seemed like he did not know who to trust outside of his immediate family.
*There are thousands of such tragic episodes.
607,0001 Rohingya refugees*
The influx of Rohingya Muslim refugees from northern parts of Myanmar Rakhine State into Bangladesh restarted following attacks at Myanmar Border Guard Police posts on 25 August 2017. 
As of 31 October, the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) reported that 607,0001 Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since the attacks. According to ISCG’s rapid needs assessment, 58 per cent of new arrivals are children and 60 per cent are women including a high number of pregnant (3 per cent) and lactating women (7 per cent).

The atrocities of the Myanmar military forces are continuing, while Aung San Suu Kyi is silent. She is implicated in the “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, UK lawmakers heard on 15 November 2017. Yes, I’m afraid she is complicit,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. Rohingya crisis started in 1978 and was solved during the rule of President Ziaur Rahman.
*It should be resolved permanently, and for this there should be sustained diplomatic effort to solve this predicament.*
Email: iqbal_567@yahoo.com
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=4&date=0#Tid=15112

*New Report: Mounting Evidence of Genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar*




*New Report: Mounting Evidence of Genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar*
_*International cooperation needed to halt killing and seek justice*_
*(WASHINGTON D.C. and COX’S BAZAR, November 15, 2017) — There is “mounting evidence” of genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, according to a new report published today by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights. *
The government of Myanmar has a responsibility to halt atrocities being perpetrated by Myanmar security forces, civilian perpetrators, and militants and hold perpetrators accountable. The international community should develop and implement a shared strategy to ensure the cessation of atrocities and advance accountability.

“The Rohingya have suffered attacks and systematic violations for decades, and the international community must not fail them now when their very existence in Myanmar is threatened” said Cameron Hudson, Director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Without urgent action, there’s a high risk of more mass atrocities.”

“They Tried to Kill Us All”: Atrocity Crimes against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Myanmar is based on one year of research conducted by Fortify Rights and the United States Holocaust Museum in Myanmar and Bangladesh. More than 200 in-depth, in-person interviews—documented primarily by Fortify Rights in Myanmar and on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border—with Rohingya survivors and eyewitnesses of atrocity crimes, as well as international aid workers, informed the report.

It documents widespread and systematic attacks on Rohingya civilians from October 9 - December 2016 and from August 25, 2017 to the present day committed by Myanmar Army soldiers, police, and civilians.

“They tried to kill us all,” said “Mohammed Rafiq,” 25, from Min Gyi village in Maungdaw Township, recalling how soldiers corralled villagers in a group and opened fire on them on August 30, 2017. “There was nothing left. People were shot in the chest, stomach, legs, face, head, everywhere.”

The report reveals how Myanmar state security forces and civilian perpetrators committed mass killings in dozens of villages in Maungdaw Township in the first wave of violence in 2016 and in villages throughout all three townships of northern Rakhine State since August 25, 2017.

Myanmar Army soldiers and civilian perpetrators slit throats; burned victims alive, including infants and children; beat civilians to death; raped and gang raped women and children. State security forces opened fire on men, women, and children at close range and at a distance and from land and helicopters, killing untold numbers. Survivors from some villages described how perpetrators slashed women’s breasts, hacked bodies to pieces, and beheaded victims, including children.

“These crimes thrive on impunity and inaction,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “Condemnations aren’t enough. Without urgent international action towards accountability, more mass killings are likely.”

More than half of Myanmar’s one million Rohingya have fled the country in the past nine weeks and over 700,000 Rohingya are now living as refugees in Bangladesh. Thousands are still arriving in Bangladesh weekly. Since 2012, the Government of Myanmar has confined more than 120,000 Rohingya to more than 35 internment camps throughout Rakhine State.

The Myanmar Army-led assault on Rohingya civilians comes in response to attacks by the Rohingya militant group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on three police outposts on October 9, 2016 that left nine dead and another attack on 30 police outposts and one army base on August 25, 2017 that left at least 12 dead. Members of ARSA are also responsible for human rights violations.

The government of Myanmar has enforced strict restrictions on Rohingya freedom of movement, marriage, childbirth, and other aspects of daily life for decades. The authorities deny Rohingya Myanmar citizenship by law and deny their ethnic identity, claiming they are interlopers from Bangladesh and casting them as an existential threat to Buddhist culture. The government continues to deny the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, including food and nutrition, to affected areas of northern Rakhine State.

“These crimes won’t end on their own,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “People of conscience in Myanmar need to do everything possible to end the abuses and culture of impunity in the country.”

Along with recommendations for the Government of Myanmar, the report details options for the international community, such as: enacting targeted sanctions on the individuals responsible for crimes in Rakhine State, instituting an arms embargo on Myanmar, and referring the situation to the International Criminal Court, which was established to investigate, try, and prosecute those responsible for atrocity crimes when the State is unwilling or unable to do so.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/new-report-mounting-evidence-of.html

*Chinese foreign minister to visit Myanmar, Bangladesh amid Rohingya crisis*
Reuters
Published at 08:22 PM November 16, 2017
Last updated at 08:25 PM November 16, 2017




Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi REUTERS
*China and Myanmar have for years maintained close economic and diplomatic relations*
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Myanmar and Bangladesh from this weekend, his ministry said on Thursday, amid a crisis over Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingyas.

More than 610,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a military counter-insurgency clearance operation in Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

A top UN official has described the military’s actions as a textbook case of “ethnic cleansing”. Myanmar rejects accusations of rights abuses.

*China has expressed support for what it calls the Myanmar government’s efforts to protect stability.*

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters that Wang would go to Bangladesh and Myanmar this weekend where he would meet his counterparts and exchange views on bilateral ties and issues of mutual regional concern.

On Monday and Tuesday, Wang would attend a meeting of Asian and European foreign ministers in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw, Geng added.

He did not say whether Wang would discuss the Rohingya issue.

China and Myanmar have for years maintained close economic and diplomatic relations.

The United States and other Western countries have become more engaged with Myanmar in recent years, since it began a transition to civilian government after nearly 50 years of military rule.

International concern over the Rohingya situation has grown.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called during a visit to Myanmar on Wednesday for a credible investigation into reports of human rights abuses against the Rohingya committed by Myanmar’s security forces.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...-minister-visit-myanmar-amid-rohingya-crisis/

*Human Rights Watch accuses Myanmar army
Special Correspondent
Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Myanmar security forces of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the past three months against Rohingya Muslims in the country’s Rakhine state.*
The allegation in a report by the New York-based rights group echoes an accusation by Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, earlier this week. Patten said sexual violence was ‘being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar.’

Myanmar’s army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the operation that drove more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

The United Nations has denounced the violence as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing.

Human Rights Watch spoke to 52 Rohingya women and girls who fled to Bangladesh, 29 of whom said they had been raped. All but one of the rapes were gang rapes, Human Rights Watch said.
‘Rape has been a prominent and devastating feature of the Burmese military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,’ said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

‘The Burmese military’s barbaric acts of violence have left countless women and girls brutally harmed and traumatized,’ she said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar and targeted sanctions against military leaders responsible for human rights violations, including sexual violence.

The 15-member council last week urged the Myanmar government to ‘ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state.’ It asked UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to report back in 30 days on the situation.

Myanmar has said the military clearance operation was necessary for national security after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts and an army base in Rakhine state on August 25.
Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

Hala Sadak, a 15-year-old from village Hathi Para in Maungdaw Township, told Human Rights Watch that soldiers had stripped her naked and then about 10 men raped her.

She told Human Rights Watch: ‘When my brother and sister came to get me, I was lying there on the ground, they thought I was dead.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=3&date=0#Tid=15111


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 17, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:49 AM, November 17, 2017
*Take Rohingyas back, give them citizenship*
*UN committee asks Myanmar in a resolution backed by 135 states, opposed by 10 including China, Russia; calls for end to military ops, human rights abuse*




A United Nations General Assembly committee on Thursday, November 16, 2017, calls on Myanmar to end military operations that have "led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights" of Rohingya Muslims in the country's Rakhine state. Photo: REUTERS/ Navesh Chitrakar
*Afp, New York
UN member-states yesterday urged Myanmar authorities to end a military campaign against the Rohingya in a resolution adopted despite opposition from China, Russia and some regional neighbours.*
The General Assembly's human rights committee overwhelmingly endorsed the measure presented by Muslim countries by a vote of 135 to 10, with 26 countries abstaining.

UN member-states said they were "highly alarmed" by the violence and "further alarmed by the disproportionate use of force by the Myanmar forces" against the Rohingya.

The resolution drafted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on the government to allow access for aid workers, ensure the return of all refugees and grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingyas.

It requested UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a special envoy to Myanmar.

*Aside from Russia and China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam voted against the measure as did Syria, Zimbabwe and Belarus, along with Myanmar.*

The non-binding measure now goes to the full assembly for debate next month.

More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled the mainly Buddhist country since the military operation was launched in Rakhine in late August.

Myanmar authorities insist the campaign was aimed at rooting out Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25 but the UN has said the violence amounted to ethnic cleansing.

Addressing the committee, Saudi Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi said the resolution backed a solution that recognises the "legitimate rights of Muslim citizens" in Myanmar.

Myanmar's Ambassador Hau Do Suan said his government was "making positive efforts to ease the situation" in Rakhine state, which he said was now "stable".

Earlier this month, the UN Security Council agreed on a statement calling on Myanmar to "ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state".

Britain and France had initially proposed that the council adopted a formal resolution on Myanmar but China opposed such a move.

Human Rights Watch said the vote sent "a strong message to Myanmar that the world will not stand by while its military engages in ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya".
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...-rohingyas-back-give-them-citizenship-1492609


----------



## Banglar Bir

2:00 AM, November 17, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:40 AM, November 17, 2017
*Rohingya return a long way off*
*Myanmar's army chief hints, says first they have to be accepted by 'real citizens'*




Rohingya children playfully slide down a sloping road at Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Afp, Yangon
*Rohingya refugees cannot return to Rakhine state until "real Myanmar citizens" are ready to accept them, the country's army chief said yesterday, casting doubt over government pledges to begin repatriating the persecuted Muslim minority.*
More than 600,000 Rohingya are languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army campaign launched in late August.

The UN says the scorched-earth operation, which has left hundreds of villages burned to ash in northern Rakhine state, amounts to ethnic cleansing of the stateless minority.

But Myanmar's hardline army chief Min Aung Hlaing has steadfastly denied all allegations of abuse, insisting troops only targeted Rohingya insurgents.

He has also taken to Facebook throughout the crisis to fan anti-Rohingya sentiment among the Buddhist public, branding the Muslims as foreign interlopers from Bangladesh despite many having lived in Rakhine for generations.

Yesterday he signalled repatriation of the Rohingya was a long way off, saying their return must first be accepted by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- many of whom loathe the Muslim minority and are accused of aiding soldiers in torching their homes.

"Emphasis must be placed on wish of local Rakhine ethnic people who are real Myanmar citizens. Only when local Rakhine ethnic people accept it, will all the people satisfy it (sic)," the statement, written in English, said on his Facebook page.

The army commander also said Myanmar would not allow the return of all Rohingya in Bangladesh, a country that was already hosting hundreds of thousands of the minority from previous waves of persecution.

"It is impossible to accept the number of persons proposed by Bangladesh," the army statement said, after branding the refugees as "terrorists" who fled with their families.




A Rohingya boy flies a kite at the same camp. Over 600,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh since the crackdown by Myanmar army began on August 25. According to Unicef, majority of the refugees are women and children. Photo: Reuters
The general's comments came a day after he met with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who on Wednesday called on the army to support efforts to return "all refugees", adding that the reports of widespread atrocities by Myanmar's soldiers were "credible".

Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed in principle to begin repatriation but are still tussling over the details.

Questions are mounting over how many Rohingya will be allowed to return, where they will live after they homes have been burned down and how they will coexist peacefully among ethnic Rakhine neighbours.

Tensions between the two groups have simmered for years, erupting into bouts of bloodshed in 2012 that pushed more than 100,000 Rohingya into grim displacement camps.

The Muslim minority has for years suffered under discrimination from a government that denies them citizenship and severely restricts their access to work, healthcare and education.

*Bangladesh vows to nab ARSA terrorists who crossed border*
SAM Staff, November 17, 2017




Bangladesh Border Guard officials meet with their Myanmar counterparts in Nay Pyi Taw on November 15. Photo: Myanmar Times
*Senior officials from the Bangladesh border guards expressed their confidence about arresting any Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) members who fled to Bangladesh, during a coordination meeting with their Myanmar counterparts in Nay Pyi Taw on 14 November.*
The meeting also addressed the issue of repatriation, the situation in Rakhine and good relations.

The Bangladesh border guards assured the Myanmar government that they would arrest and put on trial suspects involved in the attacks in northern Rakhine State who have since then fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

“They [Bangladesh border guard officials] said that they would not allow even an inch of their land to be used as shelter for terrorists,” said police brigadier general Aung Htay Myint of the cross-border crimes department of the Myanmar police.

“They assured that they would arrest and put on trial those terrorists,” he added.

The two sides also discussed the 66 suspected ARSA terrorists who have fled to Bangladesh, which was reported by the Myanmar government at a high level meeting of the ministers of Home Affairs of both countries last month in Nay Pyi Taw.

Bangladesh officials called on Myanmar to begin as soon as possible the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Muslims from the northern Rakhine who fled after the outbreak of violence in the region.

Myanmar Brigadier General Aung Htay Myint said the two countries have already reached a mutual understanding on the issue of repatriation.

Myanmar will start the immigration inspection of refugees after signing a memorandum of understanding when the Bangladeshi Prime Minister visits Myanmar. The visit has yet to be scheduled.

Aside from the Rakhine issues, the two sides discussed strengthening cooperation between border guards from the two countries, the general said.

Should border issues arise between the two nations occur, Bangladesh’s leadership has given instructions to resolve it based on the 1982 Agreement of the two countries, said Abul Hossain, director general of Border Guards Bangladesh at the meeting.
SOURCE MYANMAR TIMES
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/17/bangladesh-vows-nab-arsa-terrorists-crossed-border/


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 17, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:49 AM, November 17, 2017
*Take Rohingyas back, give them citizenship
UN committee asks Myanmar in a resolution backed by 135 states, opposed by 10 including China, Russia; calls for end to military ops, human rights abuse*




A United Nations General Assembly committee on Thursday, November 16, 2017, calls on Myanmar to end military operations that have "led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights" of Rohingya Muslims in the country's Rakhine state. Photo: REUTERS/ Navesh Chitrakar
*Afp, New York
UN member-states yesterday urged Myanmar authorities to end a military campaign against the Rohingya in a resolution adopted despite opposition from China, Russia and some regional neighbours.*
The General Assembly's human rights committee overwhelmingly endorsed the measure presented by Muslim countries by a vote of 135 to 10, with 26 countries abstaining.

UN member-states said they were "highly alarmed" by the violence and "further alarmed by the disproportionate use of force by the Myanmar forces" against the Rohingya.

The resolution drafted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on the government to allow access for aid workers, ensure the return of all refugees and grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingyas.

It requested UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a special envoy to Myanmar.

*Aside from Russia and China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam voted against the measure as did Syria, Zimbabwe and Belarus, along with Myanmar.*

The non-binding measure now goes to the full assembly for debate next month.

More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled the mainly Buddhist country since the military operation was launched in Rakhine in late August.

Myanmar authorities insist the campaign was aimed at rooting out Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25 but the UN has said the violence amounted to ethnic cleansing.

Addressing the committee, Saudi Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi said the resolution backed a solution that recognises the "legitimate rights of Muslim citizens" in Myanmar.

Myanmar's Ambassador Hau Do Suan said his government was "making positive efforts to ease the situation" in Rakhine state, which he said was now "stable".

Earlier this month, the UN Security Council agreed on a statement calling on Myanmar to "ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state".

Britain and France had initially proposed that the council adopted a formal resolution on Myanmar but China opposed such a move.

Human Rights Watch said the vote sent "a strong message to Myanmar that the world will not stand by while its military engages in ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya".
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...-rohingyas-back-give-them-citizenship-1492609
*

UNGA calls for end to Myanmar military operations*
SAM Staff, November 17, 2017




Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine state, Myanmar September 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters
*A United Nations General Assembly committee on Thursday (Nov 16) called on Myanmar to end military operations that have “led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights” of Rohingya Muslims in the country’s Rakhine state, reports Reuters.*
*The move revived a U.N. resolution that was dropped last year due to the country’s progress on human rights.*

The General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on human rights, voted 135 in favor, 10 against with 26 abstentions on the draft text that *also asks U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a special envoy on Myanmar.*

For 15 years the Third Committee annually adopted a resolution condemning Myanmar’s human rights record, but last year the European Union did not put forward a draft text, citing progress under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi.

However, in the past three months more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military began an operation against Rohingya militants, who attacked 30 security posts and an army base in Rakhine state on Aug. 25.

This prompted the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to put forward a new draft U.N. resolution, which will now be formally adopted by the 193-member General Assembly next month. The resolution deepens international pressure, but has no legal consequences.

Myanmar’s army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rapes and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the military operation in Rakhine state.

Top U.N. officials have denounced the violence as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar is refusing entry to a U.N. panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

The draft resolution approved by the Third Committee on Thursday urges Myanmar to grant access. It also calls for full and unhindered humanitarian aid access and for Myanmar to grant full citizenship rights to Rohingya.

They have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The 15-member U.N. Security Council last week urged the Myanmar government to “ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state.” It asked Guterres to report back in 30 days.

Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar security forces on Thursday of committing widespread rape against women and girls, echoing an allegation by Pramila Patten, the U.N. special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, earlier this week. Patten said sexual violence was “being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar.”
SOURCE REUTERS.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/17/unga-calls-end-myanmar-military-operations/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya’s return depends on ‘real Myanmar citizens’: Army*
Agence France-Presse . 
Yangon
Published: 00:05, Nov 17,2017 | Updated: 00:42, Nov 17,2017
*Rohingya refugees cannot return to Rakhine state until ‘real Myanmar citizens’ are ready to accept them, the country’s army chief said Thursday, casting doubt over government pledges to begin repatriating the persecuted Muslim minority.*
More than 600,000 Rohingya are languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army campaign launched in late August.

The UN says the *scorched-earth operation,* which has left hundreds of villages burned to ash in northern Rakhine state, *amounts to ethnic cleansing of the stateless minority.*

*But Myanmar’s hardline army chief Min Aung Hlaing has steadfastly denied all allegations of abuse, insisting troops only targeted Rohingya insurgents.*

He has also taken to Facebook throughout the crisis to fan anti-Rohingya sentiment among the Buddhist public, branding the Muslims as foreign interlopers from Bangladesh despite many having lived in Rakhine for generations.

On Thursday he signalled repatriation of the Rohingya was a long way off, saying their return must first be accepted by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists – many of whom loathe the Muslim minority and are accused of aiding soldiers in torching their homes.

‘Emphasis must be placed on wish of local Rakhine ethnic people who are real Myanmar citizens. Only when local Rakhine ethnic people accept it, will all the people satisfy it (sic),’ the statement, written in English, said on his Facebook page.

The army commander also said Myanmar would not allow the return of all Rohingya in Bangladesh, a country that was already hosting hundreds of thousands of the minority from previous waves of persecution.

‘It is impossible to accept the number of persons proposed by Bangladesh,’ the army statement said, after branding the refugees as ‘terrorists’ who fled with their families.

The general’s comments came a day after he met with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who on Wednesday called on the army to support efforts to return ‘all refugees’, adding that the reports of widespread atrocities by Myanmar’s soldiers were ‘credible’.

Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed in principle to begin repatriation but are still tussling over the details.

Questions are mounting over how many Rohingya will be allowed to return, where they will live after they homes have been burned down and how they will coexist peacefully among ethnic Rakhine neighbours.

Tensions between the two groups have simmered for years, erupting into bouts of bloodshed in 2012 that pushed more than 100,000 Rohingya into grim displacement camps.

The Muslim minority has for years suffered under discrimination from a government that denies them citizenship and severely restricts their access to work, healthcare and education.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/28526/rohingyas-return-depends-on-real-myanmar-citizens-army

*Gunshots heard from Northern Maungdaw of Myanmar*
Our Correspondent .Cox’s Bazar
Published: 00:05, Nov 17,2017 | Updated: 00:42, Nov 17,2017
*People of bordering areas in Bangladesh adjacent to Myanmar’s Maungdaw panicked as hundreds of gunshots could be heard from Northern Maungdaw areas of the Rakhine state of Myanmar early Thursday morning. *
Local Border Guard Bangladesh commanding officer in-charge Major Sariful Islam Jommadar confirmed the incident.

‘Those shootings were heard from the opposite of Teknaf BGB headquarters,’ he added.
Rohingya leader Hafiz Ahmed, now living at Balukhali makeshift camp under Ukhia upazila in Cox’s Bazar, and Arfiul Islam and Faridul Alam living at Tungbrou Konakhali zero line told New Age over mobile phone that they heard hundreds of bullet shots from the Northern Maungdaw of Rakhine in the early morning.

People near borders at Tumbrou, Gungdaum, Balukhai, Thainkhali, Palongkhali and Teknaf also heard gunshots from Myanmar.

Gungdaum Union Parished chairman under Nikhyangcchari hill upazila AKM Jahangir Aziz said that they were also hearing gunshots from Myanmar side in the early morning.

Rohingya leaders said that Myanmar military and local Buddhists were firing gunshots in the air to create panic and claim that Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked them.
Some 218 Rohingya refugees of 48 families entered Bangladesh early Thursday morning crossing the Naf.

Adil Chowdhury, a Rohingya community leader of Ukhia, said that such firing might increase the rate of exodus of Rohingyas. Myanmar army and Natala are creating panic at Rohingya villages by firing gunshots, he said.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/28525/gunshots-heard-from-northern-maungdaw-of-myanmar

*ROHINGYA CRISIS
Malnutrition among children worrying*
Mohiuddin Alamgir | Published: 00:05, Nov 17,2017 | Updated: 00:44, Nov 17,2017




A Rohingya refugee boy is fed vitamin A during a nutrition campaign at Balu Khali refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar on Thursday. — Reuters photo

The prevalence of severe acute malnutrition among Rohingya children entering Bangladesh is worrying as they live in shanties without adequate food, drinking water and sanitation facilities which expose them to further risk of malnourishment.

These Rohingya children, marginalised back in their homeland, mostly had to walk for days while fleeing ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state of Myanmar. Such exhaustion and inadequate relief assistances were some of the reasons of Rohingya children falling into severe acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF and Save the Children.

The number and rate of Rohingya children with severe acute malnutrition surpassed the estimation of international aid workers and they ring the alarm bell for expediting the relief assistance for Rohingya children to avoid any catastrophe.

UNICEF spokesperson AM Sakil Faizullah and Save the Children Bangladesh director for programme development and quality Reefat Bin Sattar told New Age on Thursday that the increasing number of Rohingya children with severe acute malnutrition was worrying.

The high rate of severe acute malnutrition has severe long-term health consequences for children and such children with medical complications needed specialised care, said Sakil Faizullah.

Against this backdrop the government along with UNICEF and other sectoral partners launched Nutrition Action Week on Thursday, to bolster nutrition interventions for Rohingya children and provide immediate support to about 17,000 under-five children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

‘The government of Bangladesh along with development partners will do everything possible to ensure that the Rohingya children get the required nutrition support,’ health and family welfare state minister Zahid Maleque said while inaugurating the nutrition action week at Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar.
‘Nutrition is the right of every child,’ he added.

According to the UN estimation till Thursday, 6,20,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh since the beginning of the ongoing influx, what the United Nations called the world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency, on August 25.

*A government handout on Wednesday, however, said that 6,30,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh till date.*

Officials estimated that the new influx already took to 10.39 lakh the number of documented and undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh entering the country at times since 1978.
The new influx began after Myanmar security forces responded to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s reported attacks on August 25 by launching violence what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Terrified, half-starved and exhausted, Rohingyas continued arriving in Bangladesh in groups trekking through hills and forests and crossing rough sea and the Naf on boat and taking shelter wherever they could in Cox’s Bazar.

*UNICEF estimated that of the new arrivals, about 60 per cent were children and 30 per cent were under five years of age.*

Inter Sector Coordination Group on Sunday said that they had so far identified 8,867 Rohingya children with severe acute malnutrition and many had taken treatments.

Preliminary data from a nutrition assessment conducted in the past week at the camp at Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar showed a 7.5 per cent prevalence of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition, a rate double that seen among Rohingya child refugees in May 2017, UNICEF said on November 3.

‘The Rohingya children in the camp, who have survived horrors in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State and a dangerous journey, here are already caught up in a catastrophe,’ said UNICEF Bangladesh representative Edouard Beigbeder.

‘Those with severe malnutrition are now at risk of dying from an entirely preventable and treatable cause,’ he said.

The rate of malnutrition among children in northern Rakhine was above the emergency thresholds, said UNICEF, adding that the condition of these children further deteriorated due to the long trekking through the border and the conditions in the camps

One in every four Rohingya children in Bangladesh is malnourished and at increased risk of death, warned Save the Children on November 2.

*The assessment screened 268 children aged 6-59 months, identifying 24.3 per cent having global acute malnutrition (moderate and severe), of which 7.5 per cent was having severe acute malnutrition. *

Save the Children’s Emergency Nutrition Adviser in Cox’s Bazar Nicki Connell said, ‘Large number of Rohingya children arriving in Bangladesh is already malnourished. They are put in a situation where they have to rely on food rations to survive, where hygiene standards are poor, where clean drinking water is hard to come by and lots of people are getting sick as a result.’

Sakil Faizullah said that the number of Rohingya children with severe acute malnutrition surpassed primary estimations.

‘In the early days we have estimated that about 7,000 children might suffer from severe acute malnutrition but it is increasing every day,’ he said.

‘Relief assistance for Rohingya children is still not satisfactory, but we all are trying our best to address the issue,’ said Reefat Bin Sattar.

During nutrition action week, at least 80 per cent of 176,756 children aged 06-59 months would be given Vitamin A capsules, 80 per cent of 118,427 children aged 24-59 months would be provided deworming tablets, 176,756 children aged 06-59 months would undergo nutrition screening and malnourished children would be referred for nutrition treatment programmes.

Information on important breastfeeding practices and appropriate feeding practices would also be given to the mothers, said UNICEF.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/28522/malnutrition-among-children-worrying


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Were Raped Systematically by Myanmar’s Military, Report Says*
查看简体中文版 
查看繁體中文版
By RICK GLADSTONE
NOV. 16, 2017





Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh in September, after fleeing Myanmar. Human Rights Watch, which interviewed Rohingya women and girls in refugee camps, said almost all of the rapes they reported were gang rapes. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
*Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingya Muslims in recent months, which has uprooted a half-million people and been condemned by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing, has been corroborated by many graphic accounts of killings, sexual violence and other atrocities.*

But a report on the Rohingya released early Thursday by Human Rights Watch, which focused on sexual violence, said that the raping of women and girls appeared to be even more widespread and systematic than earlier suspected, and that uniformed members of Myanmar’s military were responsible for it.

The report was based on interviews with 52 Rohingya women and girls who had fled to neighboring Bangladesh, including 29 survivors of rape from 19 different villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Human Rights Watch said the report’s conclusions also drew from interviews with 17 representatives of humanitarian organizations providing health services to Rohingya women and girls in Bangladesh refugee camps, as well as Bangladeshi health officials.

It found that Myanmar security forces had “raped and sexually assaulted women and girls both during major attacks on villages but also in the weeks prior to these major attacks sometimes after repeated harassment.”




*Rex Tillerson Tells Myanmar Leaders to Investigate Attacks on Rohingya NOV. 15, 2017*



*Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar Is ‘Ethnic Cleansing,’ U.N. Rights Chief Says SEPT. 11, 2017*



*Across Myanmar, Denial of Ethnic Cleansing and Loathing of Rohingya OCT. 24, 2017*




*Helping the Rohingya SEPT. 29, 2017*
*In every case, the report said, “the perpetrators were uniformed members of security forces, almost all military personnel.”*

While Human Rights Watch did not estimate the number of rapes, it said that dozens and “sometimes hundreds of cases” had been reported by aid groups working with refugees in the camps, and that they “likely only represent a proportion” of the total.

“All but one of the rapes reported to Human Rights Watch were gang rapes, involving two or more perpetrators,” the report said. “In eight cases women and girls reported being raped by five or more soldiers. They described being raped in their homes and while fleeing burning villages.”

Nisha Varia, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch’s women’s rights division, said the report showed “the patterns that we were able to uncover that provide a much fuller sense of how these attacks were carried out.”

Those patterns, she said, “include the verification of uniformed members of security forces as perpetrators, the high incidence of gang rapes, several instances of ‘mass rape,’ and the patterns of sexual harassment and violence in the weeks leading up to attacks on villages.”

The Human Rights Watch report was released against the backdrop of growing international pressure on Myanmar to stop the Rohingya persecution.

It came a day after Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson visited Myanmar and told its leaders to investigate “credible reports of widespread atrocities,” an accusation that Myanmar officials have repeatedly rejected.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights, an advocacy group, said in a report released Wednesday that there was “mounting evidence” that the anti-Rohingya campaign in Myanmar amounted to genocide. The report was based on a year of research and more than 200 interviews.

On Sunday, Pramila Patten, a United Nations diplomat who is the special representative on sexual violence in conflict, also suggested that the Rohingya were genocide victims and that the perpetrators should be tried at the International Criminal Court.

Ms. Patten spoke after a three-day visit to the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, where she met extensively with women and girls who had escaped the crackdown.

“Rape is an act and a weapon of genocide,” she was quoted by Reuters as saying. “The widespread threat and use of sexual violence was a driver and ‘push factor’ for forced displacement on a massive scale, and a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingya as a group.”

A version of this article appears in print on November 17, 2017, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Epidemic Of Rapes On Rohingya. 
Continue reading the main story
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-rapes.html?smid=fb-share


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Angelina Jolie to visit Bangladesh to meet Rohingya women*
Reuters
Published at 03:00 PM November 16, 2017
Last updated at 04:48 PM November 16, 2017




Actress Angelina Jolie at the 21st Annual Hollywood Film Awards – Arrivals - Beverly Hills, California, US on November 5, 2017 *Reuters*
*Accusations of organised mass rape and other crimes against humanity were leveled at the Myanmar military on Sunday by another senior UN official*
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie told a Bangladesh delegation in Vancouver, Canada that she planned to visit Rohingya women living in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

She has condemned sexual violence inflicted on Rohingya women in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where a military counter-insurgency operation has sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

Jolie is a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“Later she mentioned accordingly in her keynote speech about the sexual violence faced by almost each female Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh and condemned the armed conflict in Myanmar,” Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

However, it gave no details of Jolie’s proposed trip.

More than 607,000 Rohingya have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since late August, driven out by the military’s actions that a top United Nations official has described as a classic case of “ethnic cleansing.”

Accusations of organised mass rape and other crimes against humanity were leveled at the Myanmar military on Sunday by another senior UN official, who had toured camps in Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees have taken shelter.

Pramila Patten, the special representative of the UN secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, said she would raise accusations against the Myanmar military with the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

In parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh would overcome obstacles to resolve the Rohingya crisis, with the help of the international community.

“I strongly believe we will find a peaceful solution to the unprecedented crisis with the help of the international community, despite various obstacles,” she said.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/11/16/angelina-jolie-condemns-sexual-violence-rohingya-women/


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## Banglar Bir

P.K.BALACHANDRAN | 17 NOVEMBER, 2017
*India Abstains From Voting on UN Rohingya Resolution
Actor, UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie denounces sexual violence against Rohingya women
COLOMBO: India on Thursday abstained from voting on a UN Committee’s resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar in regard to the Rohingya Muslim minority. 
Among the 26 countries which abstained along with India, were Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Japan.
China and the Russian Federation were among ten countries which voted against the resolution.* China and the Russian Federation are against any form of UN international intervention directed by the West in the internal affairs of Myanmar and other developing countries. China and Russia are “crusaders” for the cause of “national sovereignty” with the West using human rights as an instrument to intervene in other countries which do not fall in line with its policies. China and Russia want Myanmar and Bangladesh to settle the refugee issue bilaterally rather than bring in third parties to settle the dispute.

*However, the resolution was carried with 135 voting for. Countries which supported the resolution included Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Maldives and Afghanistan.*

Bangladesh voted for it obviously because it is bearing the brunt of the Rohingya Muslim refugee problem with 600,000 new entrants since August 25 adding to a backlog 400,000. Pakistan, Maldives and Afghanistan voted for because they are Islamic countries in sympathy with fellow Muslim Rohingyas persecuted Myanmar’s Buddhist majority.

The Third Committee’s draft resolution, which will be put before the General Assembly in December, called upon Myanmar to end military operations that had "led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights" of Rohingya Muslims in the country's Rakhine state.

It urged Myanmar to grant access to UN fact finding teams and called for full and unhindered humanitarian aid access to Rakhine State. It also asked Myanmar to grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingyas and urged U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to appoint a Special Envoy to negotiate with Myanmar.

A move to pass a resolution last year, was dropped due to Myanmar’s progress on human rights under its new ruler State Counselor Aun San Suu Kyi. But this year, the situation worsened drastically with the Rohingyas systematically targeted by the military in what the UN described as a “textbook form of ethnic cleansing.”

Myanmar has been refusing entry to a U.N. panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

The Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar has Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia) as Chairman, and Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) and Christopher Dominic Sidoti (Australia) as members. It visited refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and came out with stinging observations about rape and murder committed by the Myanmar forces





Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie, Hollywood actress and Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Co-Founder of “Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative”, strongly criticized sexual violence against Rohingya women and children. 
Speaking at a UN conclave in Vancouver she said that” rape has a deeper impact on women than bullets.”

Lt Gen Mahfuzur Rahman , Principal Staff Officer , Armed Forces Division of Bangladesh, in a closed meeting on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse sought Jolie’s support to expose the sexual exploitation of Rohingya women and children in Myanmar. Responding to this, Jolie said she is planning to see the Rohingya victims of sexual violence. She applauded Bangladesh’s generous humanitarian approach towards the refugees.

Earlier in the week, Pramila Patten, the U.N. Special Envoy on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said in Dhaka, that sexual violence against the Rohingyas was "commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar."

While the UN Committee US was discussing the Rohingya issue in depth in distant US, the ASEAN Summit held at the same time in the South and South East Asian region almost totally ignored the burning issue in its own backyard.

The Summit avoided passing a resolution to call upon Aung San Suu Kyi and her government to in resolving the Rohingya crisis. Few countries spoke about the issue at the summit.

The only exceptions were Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Trudeau and Guterres warned ASEAN members of the consequences of bypassing the Rohingya issue and reiterated that the humanitarian crisis involving the Rohingyas might cause “regional instability and radicalization”.

*Most ASEAN member countries did not exert adequate pressure on the Myanmar leader to take back the Rohingyas. They did not come up with any specific proposal for stopping the genocide being committed by the Myanmar military.*

“Even a Code of Conduct similar to that undertaken for the South China Sea could have been visible evidence of ASEAN’s responsiveness in mitigating the severity of the Rohingya crisis. But no code was suggested,” said Dr Mohammed Parvez Imdad, Visiting Professor and Lead Economist based in Manila, Philippines, in an article in Dhaka’s The Daily Star.

Deviating from past practice, Summit totally ignored issues of human rights and civil liberties.

“ASEAN should have noted that Myanmar is sowing the seeds of discord and destabilization, the costs of which would be too much for the region to bear. Additionally, Myanmar's actions will adversely impact regional cooperation frameworks and potentials, both in Southeast Asia and South Asia,” Imdad said.

“Leaders of ASEAN would have done justice to their own agendas for peace and security had the Summit Declaration reflected how Bangladesh has responded to the Rohingya crisis. Bangladesh's response and handling of the crisis is an exemplary gesture of support to distressed individuals and extraordinary diligence in ensuring peace and stability in the region,” Imdad pointed out.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, told reporters in Beijing, that Foreign Minister Wang Yi would go to Bangladesh and Myanmar this weekend to meet his counterparts and “exchange views on bilateral ties and issues of mutual regional concern.”

But Geng did not say whether Wang would discuss the Rohingya issue.

However, China has been trying to get Myanmar and Bangladesh to sit together and thrash out the Rohingya issue bilaterally. As a result of the efforts of a Chinese Special Envoy, Sun Guoxiang, the Interior Ministers of Myanmar and Bangladesh had met once in Dhaka and agreed on a 10-point program including the repatriation of refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

But Bangladesh reneged on the agreement even though it maintained that the bilateral engagement would continue and that the Bangladesh Foreign Minister would visit Myanmar at the end of November.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Minister would attend the Asia- Europe Meeting (AEM) in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw, where Western countries, along with Bangladesh, would certainly raise the Rohingya issue both in the general sessions and in bilateral meetings with Myanmar.
http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/...bstains-From-Voting-on-UN-Rohingya-Resolution

*India lets Rohingya Muslims down cruelly for the third time in succession*
P K Balachandran, November 18, 2017




*India has let the hapless Rohingya Muslims down for the third time in succession.* 
New Delhi’s sordid record began when it endorsed Myanmar’s brutal military action against lakhs of men, women and children, and then it announced a plan to deport 40,000 Rohingyas who had fled to India on the specious plea that they are a breeding ground of Jehadi terrorists, and now it has abstained from voting on a UN Committee’s resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar.

Among the 26 countries which abstained from voting on the resolution condemning the atrocities heaped on the Rohingyas in Myanmar on Thursday, were India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Japan.

China and the Russian Federation were among ten countries which voted against the resolution. China and Russia are against any form of UN international intervention directed by the West in the internal affairs of Myanmar or any other developing country. They are “crusaders” in the cause of “national sovereignty” in the context of the West’s efforts to intervene in other countries using human rights as an instrument. Moscow and Beijing want Myanmar and Bangladesh to settle the refugee issue bilaterally rather than bring in third parties to settle the dispute.

However, the resolution was carried with 135 voting for it. Countries which supported the resolution included Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Maldives and Afghanistan. 

Bangladesh is bearing the brunt of the Rohingya Muslim refugee problem with 600,000 new entrants since August 25 adding to a backlog 400,000. It is now in the unenviable position of looking after one million Rohingyas.

*Pakistan, Maldives and Afghanistan voted for because they are Islamic countries in sympathy with fellow Muslim Rohingyas persecuted Myanmar’s Buddhist majority.

The UN panel called the “Third Committee” goes into human rights issues. The resolution it passed is a draft which will be put before the UN General Assembly in December*.

The resolution called upon Myanmar to end military operations that had “led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights” of Rohingya Muslims in the country’s Rakhine state.
*
It urged Myanmar to grant access to UN fact finding teams and called for full and unhindered humanitarian aid access to Rakhine State.It also asked Myanmar to grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingyas and urged U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to appoint a Special Envoy to negotiate with Myanmar.*

A move to pass a resolution last year was dropped due to Myanmar’s progress on human rights under its new ruler State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi. But this year, the situation worsened drastically with the Rohingyas being systematically targeted by the military in what the UN described as a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing.”
*Rampant Rape*
Myanmar has been refusing entry to a U.N. panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016. The Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar has Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia) as Chairman, and Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) and Christopher Dominic Sidoti (Australia) as members.

But itvisited refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and came out with stinging observations about rape and murder committed by the Myanmar forces

Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie, Hollywood actor and Special Envoy of the UNHigh Commissioner for Refugees and Co-Founder of “Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative”, strongly criticized sexual violence against Rohingya women and children. Speaking at a UN conclave in Vancouver she said that” rape has a deeper impact on women than bullets.”

Lt Gen Mahfuzur Rahman, Principal Staff Officer, Armed Forces Division of Bangladesh, in a closed meeting on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse sought Jolie’s support to expose the sexual exploitation of Rohingya women and children in Myanmar. Responding to this, Jolie said she is planning to see the Rohingya victims of sexual violence. She applauded Bangladesh’s generous humanitarian approach towards the refugees.

Earlier in the week, Pramila Patten, the U.N. Special Envoy on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said in Dhaka, that sexual violence against the Rohingyas was “commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar.”
*ASEAN Indifferent*
While the UN Committee US was discussing the Rohingya issue in depth in distant US, the ASEAN Summit held at the same time in the South and South East Asian region almost totally ignored the burning issue in its own backyard.

The Summit avoided passing aresolution to call upon Aung San Suu Kyi and her government to in resolving the Rohingya crisis. Few countries spoke about the issue at the summit. The only exceptions were Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Trudeau and Guterres warned ASEAN members of the consequences of bypassing the Rohingya issue and reiterated that the humanitarian crisis involving the Rohingyas might cause “regional instability and radicalization”.

Most ASEAN member countries did not exert adequate pressure on the Myanmar leader to take back the Rohingyas. They did not come up with any specific proposal for stopping the genocide being committed by the Myanmar military. Sadly, in a noteworthy departure from the past, the Summit totally ignored issues of human rights and civil liberties.
*China’s Bid*
Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, told reporters in Beijing, that Foreign Minister Wang Yi would go to Bangladesh and Myanmar this weekend to meet his counterparts and “exchange views on bilateral ties and issues of mutual regional concern.” But Gengdid not say whether Wang would discuss the Rohingya issue.
*
However, China has been trying to get Myanmar and Bangladesh to sit together and thrash out the Rohingya issue bilaterally. *As a result of the efforts of a Chinese Special Envoy, Sun Guoxiang, the Interior Ministers of Myanmar and Bangladesh had met once in Dhaka and agreed on a 10-point program including the repatriation of refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar. But Myanmar reneged on the agreement the very next day.

However, it continues to maintainthat it is wedded to bilateral engagement and said that the Bangladesh Foreign Minister would visit Myanmar at the end of November.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Minister will participate in the Asia- Europe Meeting (AEM) in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw, where Western countries, along with Bangladesh, would certainly raise the Rohingya issue. 

*It is hoped that China’s resolute opposition to UN and Western intervention will force the West and the UN to counter it by redoubling their efforts to press Naypyitaw to yield on the Rohingya question.*
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/18/india-lets-rohingya-muslims-cruelly-third-time-succession/


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## Banglar Bir

*China’s FM to visit Bangladesh, Myanmar to mediate in Rohingya crisis*
SAM Report, November 18, 2017




China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi
C*hina’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will head to Myanmar and Bangladesh this weekend in a bid to shore up Beijing’s influence in the region and mediate in the deepening Rohingya refugee crisis.*
The visit comes amid mounting international criticism of Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi who has failed to resolve the humanitarian crisis, which has seen more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar’s Buddhist-majority Rakhine state to Bangladesh since late August.

*Despite Beijing’s opposition, the United Nations General Assembly’s human rights committee on Thursday endorsed a resolution by an overwhelming 135 votes to 10 calling on Myanmar’s authorities to end military operations against the Rohingya.

The resolution, which was also opposed by Russia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia and Zimbabwe*, also urged the government under the de facto leader Suu Kyi to ensure the voluntary return of all refugees and grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingya.

Beijing has emerged as the top supporter of the embattled Suu Kyi, who has so far rejected accusations of rights abuses in the protracted crisis.

*China is behind a US$7.3 billion deep-water port in Rakhine, which plays a pivotal role in Beijing’s belt and road trade initiative, and a US$2.45 billion oil and gas pipeline project that went into operation in April, linking the remote coast of Rakhine to southwestern China’s Yunnan province, 770km away.*

*On Friday, State Grid Corporation of China launched a power transmission line and a substation project in Shwebo in Myanmar’s northwestern Sagain region, and Myanmar has also bought FC-1 Xiaolong multi-role combat aircraft from China.*

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday that Wang would go to Bangladesh first and then Myanmar where he would meet his counterparts and exchange views on bilateral ties and issues of mutual regional concern.

In a joint international effort to pile pressure on Myanmar, foreign ministers from Germany, Sweden and Japan, along with European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini will also visit the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka this weekend to mediate in the crisis.

Wang will also attend a two-day meeting of Asian and European foreign ministers in the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw, starting on Monday, which is likely to be overshadowed by the Rohingya issue, according to the Dhaka-based Bangla Tribune.

Diplomatic pundits said Beijing had taken an unusually high profile in backing Suu Kyi on the Rohingya issue after the Nobel Peace Prize laureate faced widespread condemnation over the treatment of about 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims.

China has voiced its support for what it calls the Myanmar government’s efforts to protect stability, and repeatedly resisted stronger UN involvement in addressing the crisis. In March, Beijing blocked a UN Security Council statement on the Rohingya issue.

“As a major regional power bordering resource-rich Myanmar, China apparently has a lot of geopolitical and economic interests in the country, including in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state, which has been engulfed by the refugee crisis,” Du Jifeng, a Southeast Asian affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

*China, which provided unwavering support for Myanmar’s military junta over two decades, has also invested extensively in the nascent democracy in a bid to compete for influence with the United States and other Western powers.*

“However, without Beijing’s backing, diplomatic efforts to pressure Suu Kyi are unlikely to yield any results,” Du said. Instead, the US and European countries were likely to take unilateral action against Myanmar.

Wang’s trip to Myanmar, which follows US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s five-hour visit on Wednesday, was also clearly aimed at shoring up Beijing’s position in Myanmar to counter Washington’s influence, Du said.


SOURCE SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/18/chinas-fm-visit-bangladesh-myanmar-mediate-rohingya-


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## Banglar Bir

*Unspeakable acts of cruelty*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 08:13 PM November 17, 2017




Photo: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
*It is about time these actions of Myanmar were recognised as the crimes against humanity that they are*
When it comes to describing the acts of cruelty perpetrated by Myanmar’s security forces against the Rohingya people, words fail.

Indeed, by using rape of women and girls as part of its ethnic cleansing campaign, Myanmar has shown the world that there is nothing its army will not do in order to rid the country of Rohingya.

A report from Human Rights Watch documents the extensive use of sexual violence by Myanmar’s military against women and girls, as well as other acts of violence, cruelty, and humiliation — are these accounts not enough to unite the whole world against the Myanmar regime’s current ways?

The bare facts are so horrific they need no sensationalising — many women said their spouses, parents, and young children were murdered right in front of them.

Many of the rape victims who fled to Bangladesh did so with swollen and torn genitals, all the while being deprived of food, shelter, or — it goes without saying — medical attention.

Any country that chooses to look away when it comes to these atrocities forfeits its right to claim any moral ground in any matter.

It is about time these actions of Myanmar were recognised as the crimes against humanity that they are, because to sit by and do nothing but exchange words will not make Myanmar change its ways.

It is certainly not enough to merely make statements requesting Myanmar to stop using excessive force — it is blatantly clear that Myanmar has no intention to stop its operations.

We do not need another eyewash from the international community, we need stern action.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/11/17/unspeakable-act-horror/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 18, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:33 AM, November 18, 2017
*Horrors they will never forget*
*Children in Rakhine faced grave violations, killings, rape, says Save the Children report*




Staff Correspondent
*Running away from his burning village in Rakhine State to come to Bangladesh, 12-year-old Hasan walked into an abandoned village to look for food and water. As he found a water reservoir and got closer, he saw about 50 bodies floating.*
“I can't forget the smell of the burning houses, or the sight of the bloated bodies. These are horrors I will never forget,” he told researchers from Save the Children.

The researchers pointed out that the story was not unique and Rohingya children, who have fled to Bangladesh, gave similar accounts of the appalling violence they witnessed in Myanmar.

The international NGO yesterday published “Horrors I Will Never Forget”, a report containing testimonies of Rohingya children in Cox's Bazar.

“The stories tell of children killed and maimed by the Myanmar military. Stories of children burned alive in their homes. Stories of girls being raped and abused,” Helle Thorning-Schmidt, chief executive of Save the Children, wrote in the foreword of the report.

The ongoing persecution of Rohingyas has displaced hundreds of thousands in Rakhine State. Over 620,000 people have arrived in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar in the last three months.

The Save the Children report said those who fled Myanmar spoke of seeing children targeted for brutal sexual violence, killed and maimed indiscriminately and abducted.

"These appalling crimes amount to grave violations against children in conflict. They must stop and those carrying them out must be held accountable," it said.

Around 60 percent of the Rohingyas, who came to Cox's Bazar since August 25, are children, and almost each of them witnessed a family member or someone from their community killed, it observed.

"They have seen and experienced things that no child should ever see."

Shadibabiran, a 16-year-old girl cited in the report, said military went to their village and started shooting. Her mother was shot in the ankle.

“They hit me in the face with a gun, kicked me in my chest and stamped on my arms and legs. Then I was raped by three soldiers. They raped me for about two hours and at some stage I fainted.

“They broke one of my ribs when they kicked me in the chest. It was very painful and I could hardly breathe. I still have difficulty breathing, but I haven't been to a doctor, as I feel too ashamed,” she told Save the Children, which changed the real names of the victims to protect their identities.

In recent weeks, several human rights watchdogs have accused Myanmar military of genocide and widespread sexual violence.

“These children, who have endured so much suffering, were desperate with no place to go,” said Save the Children Bangladesh Country Director Mark Pierce, urging the authorities to act.

He also demanded Myanmar to identify perpetrators of the crimes and bring them to justice or accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

"If Myanmar government fails to take credible and timely steps to investigate the crimes...and end impunity, the UN Security Council must act and refer the situation to the ICC," the report concluded.

It also asked the international community to ensure all Rohingya children, who fled to Bangladesh, receive adequate care and support to recover from trauma.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...crisis-horrors-they-will-never-forget-1492828


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## Bilal9

ISI-1 said:


> Cowardly heartless fool! Call yourself a muslim? Bangladesh foreign policy should be to help and protect the violated people not shun them, refusing help and comfort. You Banglis will never change and perhaps you should become a part of your father, RAPE-istan zionist India!



Your post has been reported to the mods.

I have my personal opinion and you have yours. 

Unwarranted personal (and racial) attacks will not be tolerated.

Please delete - else it will be deleted.

@waz bhai please do the needful - Many Thanks.


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar military trucks hit landmines in Rakhine*
Reuters . Yangon | Published: 00:05, Nov 18,2017 | Updated: 01:56, Nov 18,2017 




Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village near Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar, November 12, 2017. — Reuters photo
*One person was injured when military trucks hit landmines in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State this week, state media said on Friday, amid ethnic tension following an army crackdown that sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing.*
More than 600,000 of the refugees have entered neighbouring Bangladesh since Aug 25 attacks by ‘Rohingya extremists’ sparked the army operation. Killings, arson and rape carried out by troops and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs since then amount to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, the United Nations said.

Three landmine blasts caused extensive damage to three military trucks in Rakhine’s central Minbya township on Wednesday morning, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
*The landmines were ‘apparently targeting’ army convoys, it added.*

Later that day, another landmine exploded near the village of Vethali in central Rakhine as seven military trucks passed, injuring one pedestrian but causing no damage to the vehicles, the paper said.
It was not clear who was responsible for the attacks. *Several landmine explosions were reported near the area this year.*

United Nations staff and aid workers have said they fear violence in northern Rakhine could spread to new areas as Buddhist villagers in more peaceful areas enforce a system of local apartheid that punishes people trading with minority Muslims.

Many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar see Rohingya Muslims as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although many of the Rohingya can trace family for generations.

After the August attacks on police posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which the government has declared a terrorist organisation, security forces unleashed a brutal counteroffensive in Muslim-majority northern Rakhine.

Even though Myanmar says military operations ceased on Sept 5, hundreds of refugees have continued to cross the Naf River separating Rakhine and Bangladesh in recent weeks.

Separately, Myanmar security forces have arrested 19 men suspected of involvement in the August attacks and charged them under the anti-terrorism law, the newspaper said on Friday.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/28562/myanmar-military-trucks-hit-landmines-in-rakhine


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 18, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:10 PM, November 18, 2017
*EDITORIAL*
*UNGA resolution on Rohingya crisis*
*International community should harden its position*




Rohingya children playfully slide down a sloping road at Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: Reuters
*It was long overdue, but we welcome the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, which condemned the military operations in Myanmar's Rakhine state against the Rohingya minority community.*
The overwhelming support to the resolution, drafted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), shows the international community's unified position on the Rohingya issue. The world community has sent a clear message to the Myanmar government that ethnic cleansing cannot continue under its nose, that the government must investigate the gross human rights violations, and that Rohingya refugees must return to their homeland with their full citizenship rights guaranteed.

*We, however, regrettably note that ten countries including China and Russia opposed the resolution, and 26 others abstained. We are afraid such a position would perpetuate the violence against the very few Rohingyas that are left in Rakhine.*

Despite the nearly unanimous position of the international community in opposing the military operations in Rakhine state, Myanmar's military regime shows no sign of heeding the advice that it should refrain from using excessive force. According to multiple media reports, gunfire was still heard and big flames were seen near Bangladesh-Myanmar border area only the day before yesterday.

However, the Myanmar army chief's, statement, very soon after the resolution was passed, that they would take only “real citizens” among those who had taken shelters in Bangladesh demonstrates the devious intention of the military. And this is what the international community must take cognisance of. It has raised serious questions over Myanmar's repatriation plans for the displaced Rohingyas. 

*We urge the international community to go beyond mere resolutions and act more decisively—especially with respect to the military—whose genocidal actions deserve more stringent measures against them.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/unga-resolution-rohingya-crisis-1492780


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## Banglar Bir

*China wants to facilitate Bangladesh-Myanmar dialogue over Rohingya crisis*
Prothom Alo English Desk | Update: 00:29, Nov 19, 2017 




*Visiting Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Saturday expressed his country's willingness to facilitate talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar to resolve the protracted Rohingya crisis which has hit Bangladesh hard, reports UNB.*
Wang Yi made the offer when he met prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban.

PM's press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed newsmen after the meeting.

He said the visiting Chinese foreign minister mentioned that Rohingya issue is the internal problem of Myanmar, but this is affecting Bangladesh.

*"China is willing to facilitate a dialogue between Myanmar and Bangladesh to resolve the Rohingya crisis. This is a big challenge for Bangladesh...this is Myanmar's internal problem, but this is affecting Bangladesh,*" Ihsanul Karim quoted the Chinese foreign minister as saying.

The Chinese foreign minister said his country does not want the activities of BCIM Economic Corridor to slow down because of the Rohingya issue.

Sheikh Hasina urged the Chinese foreign minister to mount pressure on Myanmar to take back their nationals.

She said Bangladesh has given shelter to over one million Rohingyas on humanitarian ground. "Myanmar will have to take back their nationals ensuring their safety, security and dignity for a durable solution to the crisis," she said.

Hasina mentioned that Rohingyas are Myanmar nationals and they have to take back their citizens from Bangladesh as the relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar are good.

The prime minister narrated the plight of the Rohingya people in Bangladesh, especially the women and children, and said a good number of Rohingya women are pregnant.

Iterating the government's stance not to allow the land of Bangladesh for using by any terrorist group to commit any acts of insurgency in neighbouring countries, she said, "This is our firm decision."

The Chinese foreign minister recalled prime minister Sheikh Hasina's visits to China in 2010 and 2014 as well as the visit of the Chinese president to Bangladesh in October last year.

He said he is now touring Bangladesh to see the progress of Strategic Partner Cooperation that the two countries agreed for it during the Chinese president's visit to Bangladesh.

On Bangladesh-China economic cooperation, Wang Yi said his country's concessional loan now has crossed five billion dollars. "China wants to help Bangladesh more under the South-South cooperation," he said.

The Chinese foreign minister also conveyed their president's greetings to Sheikh Hasina.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/134920/China-wants-to-facilitate-Bangladesh-Myanmar


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## Banglar Bir

*The pain in the eyes of the Rohingya children haunts us*
Anisul Hoque | Update: 20:38, Nov 17, 2017 



* 
Dr. Jane Carter’s eyes fill with tears. On the way back from Cox’s Bazar on 1 November I had asked her what she thought of the Rohingya refugees she had seen.*
The physician was at a loss for words. She managed to mutter, “Indescribable, inhuman, unimaginable. Millions of people see this as a better option for them. So one can only imagine the horrific situation in Myanmar that continues to send thousands of refugees across the border. Have such a large mass of people fled from their own country into the unknown before?”

Jane Carter is a tuberculosis specialist at Brown University. She is an emerging leader in the campaign to eliminate diseases from the world. This campaign has also started in Bangladesh. Another researcher from the same university, Dr. Ruhul Abid, heads the organisation Health and Education for All (HAEFA). When the Rohingyas gradually began to arrive, Dr. Carter and Dr. Abid began to work at the refugee camp.

They have opened two health centers at the Kutupalang and Balukhali camps. They have arranged for solar energy. Everyday hundreds of refugees come to their camp. They enter their names, photos, and primary health information into their computers and give the patients a machine readable cards, as well as forms and medicine.

They keep in touch from the United States. They raise funds and public awareness. They were shocked when they arrived in person. Between 600 and 700 thousand Rohingyas arrived in a matter of two months starting 25 August. Half of them are children. Where will they stay, what will they eat, where will they find water?

I set off with them on 31 October, first to the Kutupalang camp. There are rows of shanties on either side of the muddy roads, on the hills, the slopes, in the valleys, and in the plains. These are recently built makeshift bamboo homes covered with plastic sheets on top. They were given the materials from Bangladesh and they built the homes themselves, despite hardly any able-bodied persons in the families.

During the Liberation war of 1971, we struggled and left our homes with the hope that once the country was independent, we could return. But there is no hope for these Rohingyas to return home under the current leadership in Myanmar. In 1982, the Myanmar government stripped them of their citizenship. Since then they are not allowed to move freely in their own homeland.

They aren’t counted in the census. They don’t have any healthcare or education, or any kind of rights. The Myanmar government denies citizenship to the people who came to Myanmar after the British had colonised Myanmar almost 200 years ago in 1822. The government does not accept the fact of history that these people have lived in the Arakan region of Myanmar for hundreds, and even thousands of years.

We look around the makeshift homes in the Kutupalang camp. Many of the sanitary latrines that had been installed are already full. The drains are overflowing with sewerage waste. Men, women and children are crammed in spaces of hardly 10 ft by 10ft. There is no shortage of food. People from all over Bangladesh have rushed over with aid. The deputy commissioner has said that the people of Bangladesh have been the most helpful.

The food commission of the United Nations has started working on feeding the people until February. Government administrations, the military, international organisations, NGOs and RRRC are all working together to help them. The food is all collected in one place and then distributed across camps. Each family gets 25 kilograms of rice every 15 days, along with lentils, salt and oil.

The line is huge. People are lining up under the bamboo sheds, cards in hand. The army is guarding the area. Workers are handing out food to the refugees. A youth says that there is no shortage of food, but scarcity of fuel to cook it.

The health centers are crowded with women, children and elderly people. A mother is standing in the queue with a 14-day-old child. Dr. Jane thinks for a while that the baby is dead. She looks anxious. Dr. Ruhul examines the baby and assures her that he is still alive. But he needs to be hospitalised. How far is the nearest hospital? How can this patient be transported there? Who will take him there?

We must congratulate Bangladesh for its great humanitarian work. This recent influx of Rohingyas has brought 600,000 to 700,000 people to the coastal regions of Bangladesh within the last two months. They have been living in the makeshift camps. No one has died of hunger because of the generosity of the government of Bangladesh and its people. Everybody has been taken care of. Everybody received cholera vaccines in October.

A young man has arrived at the health center. He had been shot in the head. The doctors say it is rare to find a family without an afflicted member. Every woman has been tortured, or has seen someone tortured.

“How many people are there in your family?”
“There were seven of us. Five of us are here.”
“What about the other two?”
“My two sons were killed in front of me.”

The ones who speak here are often victims of such scenarios. I saw a sign of a women and children trauma center.

People have been stunned silent, traumatised. There is no emotion in their eyes. Just nothingness and nothingness. They used to have homes, land, a country, memories - they have given up everything to save their lives and dignity. They don’t know what the future holds.

There are 10-12 people under a polythene covered roof. They don't have a kitchen or bathroom. Yet when they are asked if they were better before or are better now, they reply that they are doing much better now. They say this because they know here they will not be shot, set fire on, or raped.

Parts of hills have been excavated to build camps. There are almost a million people on 2,500 acres of land.

A lot of foreigners are arriving. Almost 600 employees of the UN are working in the region, I heard from one of the UN employees. There are big vehicles labeled UN moving around. It is hard to find rooms in the hotels. One UN employee informed us that they are working to determine the effects of the Rohingya presence on the locals. Forest land and hills are being ruined, employment opportunities are increasing in some places, decreasing in others. Locals can see that one vehicle is arriving after the other with aid and assistance for the newly arrived people. How do they feel about this?
*
NGOs are working - big NGOs like BRAC, as well as smaller ones.*
Another UN team is working to determine the extent of repression on the Rohingyas by Myanmar. They said that they are working on similar issues in Myanmar as well, not just Bangladesh. And they are investigating on the crimes against humanity occurring beyond the Rakhine region.

I walk along the camp in the muddy streets. I chat with children. There is one named Mostafa and another named Hasan. There is a girl Anwara, and another, Khadeja. None of them have ever been to school. The girls wear cheap earrings. The boys play with cheap plastic toys. Bangladeshis have opened small restaurants and shops here. Rohingyas have also opened up shops to earn money. They sell cheap candy and toys.

A child stands, sucking on a brightly colored lollipop. Some children are just standing quietly. Their faces are so innocent. Won't they go to school? Do they not have a future?

Some boys who had studied up till high school come up to Dr. Ruhul. ¨Sir, please open a school, we will teach there.¨

Bangladesh wants to send them back home as soon as possible. We can understand it from an outside perspective. But Myanmar hadn't done this inhuman act for them to be sent back. This is a part of a long time plan. They want to completely destroy the Rohingyas. They want a Rohingya-free Myanmar. Bangladesh isn't calling them refugees. They are calling them Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals.

Bangladesh is heavily burdened under its dense population coupled with a paucity of finances. It cannot bear the weight of this newly arrived huge number of people. This has been harmful to the local environment and may create tension among locals. It will create opportunities for local and international crime cycles. But we cannot heartlessly send these helpless people back.

So what is the solution? There is only one - to demand justice for ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. To raise huge worldwide awareness so that Myanmar is forced to take back their rightful citizens with the appropriate respect, rights and security.

Even a good photograph can irk the world. A video clip often gets the attention of millions of people.

And we can also think about a million-man march. In whatever way we can, we have to raise the most effective force in this world, that that is consciousness. This sense of consciousness appears to be silent at this moment.
We return to Dhaka. The pain in the eyes of the Rohingya children haunts us.
_** Anisul Hoque is associate editor of Prothom Alo. The piece originally published in Prothom Alo print edition is translated by Padya Paramita*_
http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/134844/The-pain-in-the-eyes-of-the-Rohingya-children


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## Banglar Bir

*Tillerson is right to call for justice for the Rohingya. 
He’s naive to think Burma will deliver.*
Editorial Board* November 17
SECRETARY OF STATE Rex Tillerson too often has shown a disregard for human rights issues, especially in his public diplomacy. 
So his news conference INBurma on Wednesday was a welcome departure. Standing next to the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr. Tillerson spoke forcefully about “credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by [Burma’s] security forces” against the Rohingya ethnic minority.*
He said the campaign, which has driven more than 600,000 people across the border to Bangladesh, “has a number of characteristics of certainly crimes against humanity.”

Mr. Tillerson repeatedly called for a* “credible” and “independent” investigation, said that those guilty of abuses should be held accountable, and indicated that U.S. sanctions against involved individuals would be appropriate. *He also called on the government to allow the voluntary return of the Rohingya and provide them with “a transparent and fully voluntary path to citizenship,” which most lack. “Myanmar’s response to this crisis,” he said, using the name for the country favored by the regime, “is critical to determining the success of its transition to a more democratic society.”

Mr. Tillerson’s connection of “the humanitarian scandal” of the Rohingya to Burma’s democratic transition was particularly significant. Aung San Suu Kyi, who lacks authority over the country’s military, has attempted to sidestep the crisis, offering bland statements about the need for “harmony” and establishing commissions with vague missions.

Her aides say her priority is consolidating democracy by gaining the military’s support for changes to the constitution, which now gives the generals an overwhelming role. Given the scale of the offenses, which U.N. officials have labeled “ethnic cleansing” and members of Congress have called “genocide,” that’s a blinkered view.
*As Mr. Tillerson said, “the key test of a democracy is how it treats its most vulnerable and marginalized populations.”*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...6bc834-cb03-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html

*Muslim leader’s warning of a forced exodus a la Myanmar angers Assam’s leaders*
P K Balachandran, November 19, 2017




Bengali Muslims of Assam
*Assam’s leaders, whether of the Hindutva variety or the Assamese nationalistic variety, are livid with Jamait Ulema-e-Hind leader Maulana Arshad Madani, for warning that the on-going revision of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) could lead to a mass expulsion of Bengali Muslims from the State in a manner reminiscent of the Rohingya Muslims’s plight in Myanmar.*
Madani has actively taken up the cause of 48 lakh married Bengali Muslim women, who are in danger of losing their right to Indian citizenship if officials revising the NRC do not accept Certificates of Residence given by Village Panchayat Secretaries.

He, along with others, has appealed to the Indian Supreme Court against the Guwahati High Court’s order declaring the Village Panchayat Secretary’s certificates as “unconstitutional” and “a threat to national security.”

The Supreme Court has asked officials revising the NRC to leave out the 48 lakh cases in question till it decides on them, but finish the revision by December 31 this year.

The apex court’s order is keenly awaited by the Assamese leaders who have a vested interest in limiting the number of Bengali Muslims from East Bengal (or Bangladesh). But Bengali Muslims are awaiting the result with trepidation.

As Madani said if lakhs of women are declared illegal immigrants and ordered to be deported, lakhs of families will be broken up, leading to horrific social consequences.

But Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who belongs to the Hindutvite Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and leaders of nationalist parties in the state have dubbed Madani’s assertionsas “disruptive, communal and anti-national.”

Sonowal has stated that anyone opposing the revision of the NRC is an “anti-national”. He warned Muslims that Assam is a land of the brave and listed a number of leaders of the past who had fought for the Assamese fearlessly. Agriculture Minister Atul Bora went a step further and warned that disruptors would be dealt with sternly.

Assamese leaders trooped to New Delhi to put pressure on the BJP government at the Center not to yield to the Muslims’ demand for leniency in the matter of qualifying for citizenship.

The reason for this acute anxiety on the part of the Assamese Hindusis the fear of being “over run” by Bengali Muslim “illegal” immigrants from Bangladesh. It is believed that the Muslims multiply faster than the Hindus, partly because of illegal immigration. Any reduction of the Hindus’ numerical dominance sets off alarm bells because Assam is a medley of various ethnic groups fiercely competing for communal rights in the political and economic spheres.

The movement to expel illegal immigrants from Assam goes back to the 1970s. The 1970s’ violent movement ended in 1985 following an Accord between Rajiv Gandhi’s government in New Delhi and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU).

As per the “Assam Accord”, only those Bengali Muslims whose families had been living in Assam prior to March 24, 1971, could be deemed to be indigenous to Assam and entitled to citizenship. Others would be “foreigners” who would have to leave the country.

The Bengali Muslims, on the other hand, are traumatized by the prospect of being stripped off their right to stay in India where they might have been living for generations.The rise of the BJP at the Center and Assam, and the re-start of the process of identification of “foreigners” to draw up a fresh register of citizens, have raised the specter of expulsion again.

With the NRC revision taking place against the backdrop of the massive and violent displacement of 600,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar from August 25 till now, on the issue of citizenship, and given India’s attitude towards the Rohingyas and its determination to identify and expel 40,000 of them on national security grounds, the scenario is grim if not scary.

Above all, there is an overarching threat from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. In a speech at Serampur in West Bengal in the run up to the 2014 parliamentary elections, he thundered: “You can write it down. After May 16, these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed.”
*Background*
Despite the Assam Accord, migration of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh into Assam has been on, triggered by lack of opportunities in an over-populated, politically unstable, and violence-prone Bangladesh.

However, the recent partial barbed wire fencing of the Indo-Bangladesh border and the “shoot at sight” orders given to the Border Security Force (BSF), have reduced infiltration to a great extent.

Nevertheless, the issue of weeding out “illegal” Bengali Muslim immigrants has come up off and on, gathering momentum in the last three or four years with the ascendency of the aggressively Hindu BJP both at the Center and the State as the ruling party.

In Assam, the BJP has been feeding the Assamese Hindu majority with a potent mixture of Hindu nationalism and Assamese pride, which has revived the bogey of being overrun by Bengali Muslims from across the border. The scare created has worked in as much as for the first time the BJP has been able to win the Assam State Assembly elections.
*Blatant Injustice*
Revision of the NRC has already led to blatant injustice. In October, Mohd. Azmal Haque, a retired Bengali Muslim Indian Army Junior Commissioned Officer, with 30 years’ service in the force was notified as a “foreigner” and asked to prove his Indian citizenship. The move shocked him and also the rest of the Bengali Muslim community which apprehends that more such cases could come up as work on the NRC proceeds apace.

Add to this the Guwahati High Court’s nullification of the Panchayat Secretary’s certificates and the result is panic. The fact of the matter is that lakhs of married Bengali Muslim women have no other document to prove their residence in India.

Being poor and illiterate, these women do not have documents identified by the authorities as “valid”.

“List A” includes documents which were issued before midnight on March 24, 1971 and have the name of the applicant or his/her ancestor to prove residence in Assam. The valid documents are: The 1951 NRC; 1971 Electoral Rolls; Land and tenancy records; Citizenship certificate;Permanent residential certificate; Refugee registration certificate; Passport; LIC; Any government issued licence/certificate; Government service/employment certificate; Bank/post office accounts; or Birth certificate.

If only the name of the ancestor appears in the document submitted as per “List A”, then the applicant will have to submit documents as per “List B” to establish his/her relationship with such ancestor/parents.

“List B” includes the following documents: Birth certificate; Land document; Board/university certificate; Bank/LIC/Post office records; Circle officer/gram panchayat secretary certificate in case of married women; Electoral roll; Ration card; Any other legally acceptable document.

However, the ration card and Panchayat Secretary’s Certificate mentioned above are no longer acceptable. But as stated earlier, these are the only documents the poor would have. From 2010 to the recent Guwahati High Court judgment, the Panchayat Secretary’s certificate had been deemed valid, because it had the approval of the State cabinet.

It is the upsetting of the apple cart which made Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind President Arshad Madani approachthe Supreme Court along with others.
*Unabashedly Anti-Muslim Ordinance and Bill*
Bengali Muslims’ fears of discrimination is further heightened by the BJP government’s open preference for Hindu immigrants in the matter of granting citizenship.

In 2015, more than 4,000 Hindus from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh were granted Indian citizenship on the grounds that they had been persecuted in these Muslim majority countries.

There is in addition, the Citizenship Act Amendment Bill of 2016, which seeks to give effect to the 2014 election promise to give citizenship to persecuted Hindus from other countries. The bill envisages granting citizenship to illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Significantly, Muslims are left out.

But the Bill could be challenged in court on the grounds that it discriminates on the basis of religion, violating Art 14 of the constitution which guarantees equality in the eyes of the law.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...rced-exodus-la-myanmar-angers-assams-leaders/

*Pranab Mukherjee plans to visit the Rohingya in Bangladesh*

Tribune Desk
Published at 10:55 AM November 19, 2017




*According to the Anandabazar report, governments of Bangladesh and India will soon be approached for discussing the details of Pranab’s visit*
Pranab Mukherjee, who had served as the 13th president of India, has been enjoying his retirement life by reading books and writing his diary.

On rare occasions, he leaves his bungalow at 10 Rajaji Marg, New Delhi to attend programmes.

Quoting a source close to Pranab, a report published by the Anandabazar Patrika revealed that the former Indian president has chosen Bangladesh as his next travel destination, and he plans visit the Rohingya refugee camps.

According to the Anandabazar report, governments of Bangladesh and India will soon be approached for discussing the details of Pranab’s visit.

Several other reputed media portals have also reported about the former Indian president’s upcoming Bangladesh visit.

Pranab reportedly told his inner circle that he wants to avoid raising any complications centring his visit to Bangladesh, as the 11th general polls is right around the corner.

If could be noted, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the country’s former president a days ago.

Sources said Modi discussed present diplomatic issues with the neighbouring countries, especially the Rohingya crisis, with Pranab.

The former president reportedly spoke in favour of increasing diplomatic pressure on Myanmar to resolve the ongoing refugee crisis.

Pranab however expressed his doubt over whether Myanmar will take back the displaced Rohingya or not.

The 40,000 Rohingya refugees that entered India following the recent unrest in northern Rakhine, is not huge burden for the country. However, New Delhi is concerned about thousands of refugees that are currently staying in Bangladesh.

An Indian government official told the Anandabazar that it is possible that some Rohingya refugees will refuse to return to their home land.

A significant number of Indian diplomats believe that to prevent a sudden spike in border infiltration, New Delhi must work with Dhaka to resolve the ongoing refugee crisis.

Under the current circumstances, the possible Bangladesh visit of Pranab Mukherjee could hold great diplomatic importance to the south bloc nations. The former president’s contributions for further developing Indo-Bangla diplomatic ties during the tenure of Congress-led government are well known.

According to Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, more than 625,000 Rohingya refugees entered Bangladesh from August 25 to November 8, fleeing a brutal military campaign in Rakhine state.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...ab-mukherjee-plans-visit-rohingya-bangladesh/


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## Banglar Bir

*Where’s the international community?*
Tasmiah Nuhiya AhmedTahsin Noor Salim
Published at 08:14 PM November 17, 2017




*How long will it take the world to resolve the Rohingya crisis?* *REUTERS*
*The world has a major role to play in the Rohingya crisis*
The Rohingya crisis has been documented by the Bangladesh government, UNHCR, and many other global institutions as ethnic cleansing.

Ethnic cleansing is the concept that a minority is mistreated, killed, or forcibly removed from a territory to “cleanse” the region, so to speak. This is evidently forbidden by overflowing number of international human rights treaties and instruments.
*Existing conventions and treaties*
For instance, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted and opened for signature and ratification by General Assembly resolution 2106, (XX) clearly prohibits such activities when done on the basis of race or ethnicity.

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment prohibits the mistreatment of people when they are forcibly expelled from their homes and their possessions and property destroyed.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted and opened for signature, ratification, and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) also speaks of prohibition of such immoral activities.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted and opened for signature, ratification, and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of December 16, 1966, came into effect on March 23, 1976, and under Article 27 states:

“In those states in which ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language.”

Ethnic cleansing means the infringement of the right to life, the right to housing, and food — in violation to the aforementioned treaties, and many more. From this aspect, international human rights law is clearly engaged but Myanmar is not party to either the ICCPR, ICESCR, UNCAT, nor the Race Convention — although aspects of the rights in question are part of the corpus of customary international law.

The plight of Rohingya implies that the R2P-bound international community has no alternative but to intervene
*The purpose of R2P*
In 2005, the UN sanctioned the global political commitment of Responsibility to Protect (R2P or RtoP) with a view to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

R2P stresses that national governments do not take sovereignty for granted in any intent or purpose, is based on the theory that sovereignty necessitates a conscientiousness to shield all populations from mass atrocity crimes and human rights infringements.

Myanmar government’s failure to safeguard the Rohingya makes a strong case for the international community to deal with this crisis. This can be done either by way of undertaking measures acknowledged in the R2P frame or by linking regional powers.

R2P’s exposure is far-reaching because it recognises the fundamental rights of all people, regardless of citizenship — and in doing so, it recognises the fundamental rights of “aliens” or stateless people too.

The plight of the Rohingya implies that the R2P-bound international community has no alternative but to intervene. It also entails that the international community has ethical and legal obligations under international law to pressure Myanmar to take actions to end ethnic cleansing, and simultaneously support Bangladesh in her effort to ensure the survival of the refugees.

To invoke the Right to Protect (R2P) in Myanmar, the international community needs proof of all or any one of the four atrocities among ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes, or genocide.
*Suggestions and a way forward*
A report of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect recommends several actions to be undertaken on an urgent basis to address the Rohingya crisis. It suggests that the UN Security Council immediately adopt a resolution to tackle the ongoing mass murder in Myanmar, through imposing an arms embargo and targeted sanctions directed at senior military officers in command and the key forces in ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
*Individual governments and regional organisations should also impose targeted sanctions and discontinue all bilateral aids and training programs with Myanmar’s security forces.*

The Myanmar authorities should allow the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Fact-Finding Mission to go into Rakhine State and expeditiously implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The authorities should also permit humanitarian and human rights organisations unimpeded right of entry to susceptible populations in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states.

The government of Myanmar must revoke or amend all laws and regulations that methodically discriminate against Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar, including the Protection of Race and Religion laws and the 1982 Citizenship Law.

The government should undertake adjoining steps towards building a more general society in which the rights of Myanmar’s diverse populations are protected.

Evidence strongly indicates that the Myanmar government has failed in its duty to protect her own population, a duty it has acknowledged and accepted in the World Summit 2005 and in the General Assembly Interactive Dialogue in 2009.

Therefore, this article is aimed at presenting the proposition that due to the Myanmar government’s failure, the duty to protect the Rohingya falls on the international community.

Thus, it is crucial that the international community makes the Myanmar government understand the consequence of this atrocity and to seriously treat its population in accordance with the standard of international human rights law.

It is hoped that a long-term resolution of the Rohingya crisis can be achieved with the combined efforts of the government of Myanmar and the international community.

Rohingya have been suffering for long.

In spite of their contributions to the economy and society of Myanmar, their origin, ethnicity, and identity have been questioned.

The Myanmar government categorises them as “illegal Bengali immigrants.”

Now, after the latest influx of Rohingya into Bangladesh starting from August 2017, the government of Bangladesh has not recognised them as Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, instead identifying them as “forcefully displaced Myanmar citizens.”

Bangladesh is pushing the Rohingya agenda at the UN Security Council, even though it is doubtful that it will result in swift action, thanks to the council’s history of bureaucratic red tape and veto politics.

Nevertheless, there can be a sliver of hope. European nations have backed Bangladesh’s stance on the crisis, with UN-based organisations requesting nations for more resources and moral support towards Bangladesh. We may be on the right track.
_Tasmiah Nuhiya Ahmed is Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh and a research assistant at Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) and Tahsin Noor Salim is a research assistant at Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA)._
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/11/17/wheres-international-community/

*Military ‘burns Rohingya alive’, says Human Rights Watch*




Rohingya fetch firewood at Bangladesh’s Kutupalong refugee camp. Picture: AP
Reuters
12:00 AM November 17, 2017
*Human Rights Watch yesterday accused Myanmar security forces of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the past three months against Rohingya Muslims in the country’s Rakhine state.*
The New York-based HRW report echoes one released on Wednesday by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Southeast Asia-based Fortify Rights that alleged security forces slit the throats of Rohingya and burned victims alive.

They support an accusation by UN special envoy Pramila Patten this week, who said sexual violence was “being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar”.

The army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rape and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the operation that drove more than 600,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

HRW spoke to 52 women and girls who fled to Bangladesh, 29 of whom said they had been raped. All but one of the rapes were gang rapes. “Rape has been a prominent and devastating feature of the Burmese military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” said author Skye Wheeler.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights documented “widespread and systematic attacks” on Rohingya civilians between October 9 and December last year, and from August 25 this year.

It said evidence gathered from more than 200 interviews with survivors, witnesses and international aid workers demonstrated that “Myanmar state security forces and civilian perpetrators committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing”.

More than half of the population of Rakhine has been displaced since October last year in Myanmar’s army “clearance operations” after Rohingya militants killed security officers.

“State security forces opened fire on Rohingya civilians from the land and sky. Soldiers and knife-wielding civilians hacked to death and slit the throats of Rohingya men, women, and children,” it said. “Rohingya civilians were burned alive. Soldiers raped and gang-raped Rohingya women and girls and arbitrarily arrested men and boys en masse.”
_Reuters, AFP
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...h/news-story/ca0e4947dda3a8b4fa46dcff83d912de_

*Unspeakable acts of cruelty*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 08:13 PM November 17, 2017




Photo: SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
*It is about time these actions of Myanmar were recognised as the crimes against humanity that they are*
When it comes to describing the acts of cruelty perpetrated by Myanmar’s security forces against the Rohingya people, words fail.

Indeed, by using rape of women and girls as part of its ethnic cleansing campaign, Myanmar has shown the world that there is nothing its army will not do in order to rid the country of Rohingya.

A report from Human Rights Watch documents the extensive use of sexual violence by Myanmar’s military against women and girls, as well as other acts of violence, cruelty, and humiliation — are these accounts not enough to unite the whole world against the Myanmar regime’s current ways?

The bare facts are so horrific they need no sensationalising — many women said their spouses, parents, and young children were murdered right in front of them.

Many of the rape victims who fled to Bangladesh did so with swollen and torn genitals, all the while being deprived of food, shelter, or — it goes without saying — medical attention.

Any country that chooses to look away when it comes to these atrocities forfeits its right to claim any moral ground in any matter.

It is about time these actions of Myanmar were recognised as the crimes against humanity that they are, because to sit by and do nothing but exchange words will not make Myanmar change its ways.

It is certainly not enough to merely make statements requesting Myanmar to stop using excessive force — it is blatantly clear that Myanmar has no intention to stop its operations.

*We do not need another eyewash from the international community, we need stern action.*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/11/17/unspeakable-act-horror/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis: Canadian minister to visit Bangladesh on Nov 21*
UNB
Published at 11:20 AM November 19, 2017
Last updated at 01:11 PM November 19, 2017




Exhausted, tired, undefed, malnourished and scared- the five criteria every fleeing Rohingya person possess . The picture was taken on Thursday, September 9, 2017 at a temporary refugee shelter in Cox's Bazar*Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune*
*The Rohingya refugee situation has become the world's fastest-growing refugee and humanitarian crisis*
Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canadian minister of International Development and La Francophonie, will travel to Bangladesh from November 21 to 23 to witness first-hand the devastating impact of the Rohingya crisis.

The Canadian minister will assess the best ways for Canada to assist the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled from Myanmar.

Minister Bibeau will also meet with the government of Bangladesh to discuss its efforts to address the Rohingya crisis.

Since August 25, more than 620,000 Rohingya, mainly women and children, have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar.

This is in addition to an estimated 300,000 Rohingyas who had previously sought refuge in Bangladesh.

The country has opened its borders and is providing life-saving assistance in camps and informal settlements in the Cox’s Bazar area located in the south of the country along the border with Myanmar.

During her visit, Minister Bibeau will visit refugee settlements and host communities to engage with beneficiaries, including Rohingya women, children and local Bangladeshi, to gain a deeper understanding of the needs on the ground.

She will also meet with humanitarian partners and representatives of local civil society to discuss the response and coordination of efforts to assist the most vulnerable.

Canada has had a long-standing development programme in Bangladesh, which includes support to health and education.

On the last day of her visit, Minister Bibeau will meet with senior Bangladeshi government officials, local women’s organisations and other partners to discuss development needs in Bangladesh, particularly as they relate to the empowerment of women and girls.

“The unprecedented scale of the current Rohingya crisis and its dire impact on women and children requires us all to take urgent action,” said the Minister.

That is why, the minister said, Canada launched the Myanmar Crisis Relief Fund, which matches dollar for dollar every eligible donation that Canadians make to an organisation providing life-saving assistance to the Rohingya people.

“Canadians can be proud of our country’s experienced humanitarian partners that are providing vital assistance to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable, especially women and girls,” said Marie-Claude Bibeau.

The Rohingya refugee situation has become the world’s fastest-growing refugee and humanitarian crisis.

Thus far in 2017, Canada has committed over $25 million in humanitarian assistance funding in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

On October 31, Canada launched the Myanmar Crisis Relief Fund. For every eligible donation made by individuals to registered Canadian charities between August 25 and November 28, 2017, the government of Canada will contribute an equivalent amount to the Myanmar Crisis Relief Fund.

On October 23, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named the Honourable Bob Rae as his special envoy to Myanmar.

As special envoy, Rae will reinforce the urgent need to resolve the humanitarian and security crisis in Myanmar and to address the situation affecting these vulnerable people.

Rae visited the refugee settlements in Bangladesh on November 4 and subsequently briefed Minister Bibeau as she prepared for her own visit.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...gya-crisis-canadian-minister-visit-bd-nov-21/

*Bangladesh to reject China’s proposals on Rohingya crisis*
Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Published at 08:47 PM November 18, 2017




*Bangladesh will continue to hold dialogue with Myanmar to resolve the refugee crisis*
The government plans to reject a proposal by China recommending Bangladesh seek a bilateral solution to the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis with Myanmar.

*The Bangladesh government will speak in favour of international pressure on Myanmar, and will reject China’s offer for mediating an agreement with Myanmar during a meeting scheduled for Saturday.

The meeting will be attended by Bangladesh Minister of Foreign Affairs AH Mahmud Ali and his Chinese counterpart Wang YI, a government official told the Bangla Tribune.

The official added that Bangladesh will continue to hold dialogue with Myanmar to resolve the refugee crisis, but the international community must remain involved in the matter.

China has been recommending Bangladesh reach a bilateral solution to the Rohingya issue with Myanmar, and advised against involving the international community.

Chinese special envoy of Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang pressed this issue during his visit to Dhaka earlier on November this year.

Addressing the matter, the government official said: “Bangladesh has held bilateral discussions with Myanmar over the Rohingya issue on numerous occasions, but had failed to make any headway in resolving the crisis.

“As soon as Bangladesh changed its stance and sought involvement from the international community, attempts to resolve the crisis began,” the official added.

“We do not think China’s offer to help solve the Rohingya crisis, and the recommendation of not involving the international community is acceptable.”

The official also said Bangladesh does not agree with China’s stance on dealing with the Rohingya refugee crisis, and will continue to hold dialogue with the international community, including China, to bring the refugee crisis to an end.

On October 25, following a meeting with Chinese special envoy Sun Guoxiang, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told reporters: “We have presented our stance over the matter. I told him [Guoxiang] when he visited Bangladesh six months ago, there were only 400,000 Rohingya refugees, now there are over 1,000,000.”

“This is the gravity of the situation,” Shahidul had said.

The foreign secretary had also admitted that China is recommending that Bangladesh should seek a bilateral solution to the Rohingya refugee issue with Myanmar.
This article was first published on Bangla Tribune

http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...1/18/bangladesh-reject-china-rohingya-crisis/*


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## Banglar Bir

05:40 PM, November 19, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:49 PM, November 19, 2017
*US senators dub atrocities in Myanmar as "war crime"*




Visiting US Senators Jeff Merkley and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Photo: BSS
BSS, Dhaka
*Visiting US Senators today dubbed as "war crimes" the atrocities inflicted on Rohingyas by Myanmar security forces as they called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a day after visiting them in their makeshift refuge in Cox's Bazar.*
"It is like war crimes," premier's press secretary Ihasnul Karim quoted the high-profile delegation's leader Jeff Merkley as telling the Prime Minister during the call on at her Gonobhaban residence.

He said the senators told Sheikh Hasina that every country should condemn the crime and ethnic cleansing and were of the opinion that the crisis deserved more international attention as it was required for its resolution and sending the forcibly displaced people back to their homeland.

Karim said the Prime Minister laid importance on implementation of the Kofi Annan report to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

She said Bangladesh extended Rohingyas the shelter on humanitarian ground remembering the horrifying memories of 1971 when millions of people of Bangladesh were forced to take refuge in India to escape the Pakistani genocide.

The premier also recalled her personal memories of taking refuge along with sister Sheikh Rehana to India following the brutal killing of Bangabandhu in 1975.

"Out of sense we have taken decision to give shelter to these oppressed people of Myanmar and share our food with them if necessary," the premier said.

But, Sheikh Hasina said, Bangladesh wanted next-door Myanmar to take back their nationals with "full security" while under an identification system over five lakh of them were provided identity cards by now.

The premier also pointed out her government's success in resolving the over two decade-long crisis in southeastern hills when Bangladesh returned 60,000 Bangladeshi nationals who took refuge to India.

"Bangladesh brought back the refugees and rehabilitated them with necessary support," she said referring to the landmark 1996 Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Agreement.

The US senators call on the premier came a day after the visited the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar's Kutupalang.

The senators, Karim said, appreciated the premier for her generous response to the challenge of bracing the Rohingyas and said the US was ready to provide all assistance to resolve the crisis.

They said the Rohingyas said they were very much pleased with Bangladesh government for giving them the shelter as they interacted with the ethnic minority people.

Merkley said they gathered firsthand information from the persecuted people in the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar while the description of persecution was "horrifying".

The premier's press secretary the US senate team also praised Bangladesh's economic growth calling it the "testimony of hard work of the people of Bangladesh".

They hailed as well the state of women empowerment in Bangladesh and discussed the issues of climate change and appreciated Bangladesh's fore- frontal position on the global issue.

US Senator Richard Durbin, Congresswomen Betty McCollum and Jan Schakowsky and Congressman David N. Cicilline were among others included in the delegation accompanied by US ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat.

PM's advisor Dr Gowher Rizvi and Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury were present on the occasion.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...ub-atrocities-in-myanmar-as-war-crime-1493461


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## Banglar Bir

*‘Foreign ministers to raise Rohingya issue in ASEM meeting’*
Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar Tarek Mahmud
Published at 03:27 PM November 19, 2017
Last updated at 04:25 PM November 19, 2017





Part of a foreign delegation visiting Kutupalong camp*Abdul Aziz/Dhaka Tribune*
*They arrived at the Kutupalong camp site around 11am on Sunday, and are scheduled to visit several other Rohingya refugee camps in the region*
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam has said the foreign ministers visiting the Kutupalong camp have agreed to discuss the Rohingya crisis in the 13th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ meeting.

He made the statement while talking to reporters at the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar district on Sunday.

*The Foreign Ministers’ meeting will be held on November 20 and 21 in Myanmar.*

Earlier in the day, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono visited the Rohingya camp.

The foreign delegates were accompanied by Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Shahriar Alam, along with representatives from several international humanitarian agencies.

They arrived at the Kutupalong camp around 11am, and are scheduled to visit several other refugee camps in the region.

The European bloc nations are already quite vocal about the plight of Rohingya refugees.

Bangladesh is optimistic that the international community will continue to give political support to Bangladesh and further increase pressure on Myanmar for resolving the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Since August 25, more than 620,000 Rohingya, mainly women and children, have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...ief-3-foreign-ministers-visit-rohingya-camps/


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## Banglar Bir

*China proposed three-phase plan for Rohingya issue*
Reuters
Published at 10:00 AM November 20, 2017




Rohingya refugees walk towards a refugee camp after crossing the border in Anjuman Para near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 19, 2017 *Reuters*
*More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August from Myanmar’s Rakhine State*
China has proposed a three-phase plan for resolving the Rohingya crisis, starting with a ceasefire, that has won the support of Myanmar and Bangladesh, the Foreign Ministry said.

More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August driven out by a military clearance operation in Buddhist majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The Rohingyas’ suffering has caused an international outcry.

Visiting the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China believed that the issue could be addressed by a solution acceptable to neighbours Myanmar and Bangladesh through consultations.

*A ceasefire should be followed by bilateral dialogue to find a workable solution, the ministry website reported late on Sunday. 
The third and final phase should be to work towards a long-term solution.*

Wang said a ceasefire was basically in place already, and the key now was to prevent a flare-up. He hoped the two sides could soon sign and implement an agreement already reached on repatriation.

The international community and the United Nations Security Council should give encouragement and support to both countries “to create the necessary conditions and a good environment”, it quoted Wang as saying at a joint press conference with Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader.

Myanmar was supportive of the Chinese plan, as was Bangladesh, where Wang visited earlier in the weekend. In Dhaka Wang said the international community should not complicate the situation.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/11/20/china-proposed-three-phase-plan-rohingya-issue/


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## Banglar Bir

2:00 AM, November 20, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, November 20, 2017
*Caravan of the Dispossessed*




Rohingya children look on at a refugee camp in Palong Khali near Cox's Bazar, October 4, 2017. PHOTO: REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
C R Abrar
_Over the last four decades the Rohingya people of the Rakhine State of Myanmar have been subjected to ongoing, planned, systematic oppression. Gradually, the international community is beginning to acknowledge the acts of the Myanmar government as genocide. Understanding Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya as genocidal is critical in light of narratives framing the plight of the Rohingya as a “humanitarian crisis” or “ethnic cleansing” and the Myanmar government's consistent denial of abuse. 

The latest exodus of Rohingyas that began on August 25, 2017 is an integral part of the realisation of the genocidal agenda. This essay is based on field-work interviews conducted in the first half of October in the Ukhia, Teknaf region by a three-member team of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). The narratives of the survivors provide a glimpse of the gruesome reality that Rohingyas had to endure in their own country and during their flight._

“Suddenly all hell was let loose. We felt _keyamat_ (the last day of judgment) had arrived. We rushed out of the house and began to run aimlessly. My paralysed granddad stayed put at home, hoping the army would take pity on him. Later we learnt he was charred to death when our house was torched,” says Nur Mohammad, 35, from Buthidaung. The guilt continues to haunt Nur as he struggles to eke out a subsistence in a Kutupalong shack surrounded by hundreds of refugee families of northern Rakhine. Nur was not the only one bearing such burden. There were many.

The indiscriminate torching of property by the army was accompanied by killing, torture and abduction. Young girls were their explicit targets. Many were taken away in military vehicles never to be heard from again; others were raped or gang-raped in public, often in front of near and dear ones. Some were even gored to death. Narrating such experience, 21-year-old Amena from Maungdaw notes, “I am dirty (meaning dark) and poor. I always wondered why God was so unkind to me. When two good looking sisters of a rich family of our neighbourhood were picked up by the army only then I realised what God had in store for me.”

Rakhine militant Buddhists led by monks were partners in crime of the Myanmar army. The army crafted a clever ploy to divide the communities, and, over the years, the cleavage widened. Not everyone was consumed by the flames of communal hatred as Noor Hakim of Maungdaw (24) informs, “When I begged my late father's Rakhine friend for shelter he didn't say a word. I could see the pain in his eyes. He gave me some money instead and his blessings. I realised that's the best he could do.”

Faced with brutality of epic proportion, residents of Buthidaung started fleeing the area. Their obvious option was crossing the border for safety. Men, women and children endured a lot of hardship on the way. Within days some families ran out of dried food and cans of water that they had managed to carry with them. “It was quite a trek that lasted for days. In order to avoid the scorching sun and detection by the Myanmar army we used to begin (our journey) in the evening, walked through the night braving jungles and streams. One of our fellow travellers died of snake bite. During the entire journey I do not think my two eyelids met even once as I was scared of my teenage daughter being kidnapped. So far, God was kind to me. I am not sure what fate lies ahead of me,” says Sakhina, 34, a resident of Gundam camp.

The mayhem that accompanied army atrocities in northern Rakhine split many families. Family members did not have the time and opportunity to plan their escape. While some were at home, others were away. Rumana (22) recalls, “When the armed _moghs_ arrived my husband and mother ran in one direction, and I, with my child, in another. More than a week later I learnt that they managed to find shelter in a camp (in Bangladesh) where my relatives were already staying. I contacted them over the phone. I am not sure if I will be allowed to go there but I am dying to see them.”




Over 600,000 Rohingyas have fled Rakhine State for Bangladesh since late August, many walking for days through thick jungles before making the perilous boat journey across the Naf river. Photo: AFP
Twelve-year-old Sharu Shaikh was not that lucky. “As we reached the beach (in Rakhine) there was a huge crowd trying to get into the boat that was about to set sail. My father pushed me onto it. It was packed to the brim, and he and my mother failed to board. (After arriving here in Shah Pori) I waited for the whole day hoping they would come in the boats that arrived (subsequently). I do not know if I would ever get to see them,” he says with tears rolling down his dried cheeks, refusing to take a packet of food that was offered to him by relief workers.

As the Rohingyas gradually settle down in their land of sanctuary despite all uncertainty and difficulties, refugees express their gratitude for the warm hospitality that the people of Cox's Bazar, Teknaf and Ukhia offer. They also recognise the outpouring of support of people from other parts of the country as the young and the old distribute much-needed water, biscuits, food, medicine, orsaline and the like. While they wait patiently for improved shelter and a better relief distribution mechanism to emerge, news of missing children, particularly those of young girls, has become a major source of concern. “I have been told that touts are bringing in offers of job and marriage and many fell prey to their deceit. Young girls had also gone missing when they went to the woods to fetch firewood and water, or respond to the call of nature. I have two daughters and I constantly worry about them,” says Rahim Mollah (55).

The effort of Bangladesh authorities to register Rohingyas is being viewed by some refugees with suspicion. The registration process was not preceded by any awareness campaign on why it was necessary. Misgivings prevail. Some think it may lead to their forced repatriation to Myanmar. For Roshida Banu (55), who was waiting in the landing station in Kutupalong, the reason is somewhat different, “No, I am not going to register with men in uniform. I am scared of them.” The trauma of having to endure protracted army violence has had a permanent negative imprint in her psyche about the security forces.

A stark contrast between earlier flows of Rohingyas and the current stream is the composition of the refugee population. After talking with key functionaries in refugee management, both in government and in the non-government sectors, we learnt that members of many well-to-do families have also joined the caravan of the destitute.




Mohammad Haroon, who until late August was the owner of several buses, a motor parts store and a modest house in Maungdaw, recounts, “When we were preparing for Eid, little did we know that my family would have to live a destitute life on that auspicious day. Anticipating trouble I managed to send quite a bit of money to my relative in Chittagong through hundi. (After coming to Bangladesh) We had plans to join them but the restrictions on our movement have stalled the plan.” Haroon is hiding with his family of six in a private house in Cox's Bazar in constant fear of being apprehended for violating government stipulation to live in designated site/camps. He dreads at the prospect of being sent to the squalid camps. Haroon is well aware that like graveyards, camps are great levellers.

Visiting the refugee sites one cannot but have an unqualified appreciation of the sacrifice being made by the locals whose daily life is massively disrupted by the almost overnight presence of tens of thousands of uninvited guests. For Renu Bala (41), a local resident of Harinathpur, Kutupalong, hosting refugees of her own faith poses the question, “How could we turn away someone who sought refuge? Yes, it is difficult to share the house with strangers but that is perhaps what God ordained.”

After talking with dozens of refugees in different locations, young and old, male and female, we noted one common stand, “Of course, we will go back.” Nishat Ahmed, a school teacher, argues, “We are grateful for the hospitality extended to us but this is no life. The Myanmar government did not respect our Rohingya identity, nor does the Bangladesh state. The international community is an accomplice to Myanmar's genocide. One day their leadership will be made to stand on the dock along with the Myanmar army and Suu Kyi.”

Hopefully, Rohingya refugees do not have to wait for long for that day to arrive.
CR Abrar _teaches international relations at the University of Dhaka. He coordinates the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). This essay is based on field visits to Ukhia, Teknaf in October 2017. CR Abrar acknowledges the contribution of fellow team members Dr Jalaluddin Sikder and Marina Sultana._
http://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/caravan-the-dispossessed-1493692

10:46 AM, November 20, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:25 PM, November 20, 2017
*Suu Kyi silent on Rohingya crisis at ASEM
Seeks Asia-Europe stronger ties*




Myanmar's State Councellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi (L) walks down an escalator before the 13th Asia-Europe (ASEM) foreign ministers' meeting in Naypyidaw on November 20, 2017. Photo: AUNG HTET / AFP
UNB, Nay Pyi Taw
*Though silent about the protracted Rohingya crisis, State Counsellor and Union Minister of Foreign Affairs Aung San Suu Kyi today called for a new and stronger partnership among countries in Asia and Europe for the maintenance and promotion of peace and sustainable development through collective efforts.*
"We must continue to nurture partnership to create new connections -- not just between governments but also across the private sectors and civil societies and of course people to people," she said.
Read More: Resolving Rohingya Crisis: Europe stands by Bangladesh
Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader who is widely criticised over Rohingya issue, made the remark while delivering her speech at the inaugural session of the two-day 13th ASEM Foreign Ministers meeting at Myanmar International Convention Centre here without touching the Rohingya crisis.
Also Read: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi denounces 'terrorists', silent on Rohingya exodus
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali is leading Bangladesh delegation.
European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, among others, addressed the opening session.

Two youth representatives presented their visions on the ASEM process.

Suu Kyi said there is a vital need for new and stronger partnership to address far-reaching challenges such as regional and international conflicts, on domestic security, and threat of terrorism and violent extremism in their various forms and manifestation.

She said the discussions during the two days will provide opportunities for all of them to reflect on progress made and explore future areas for the enhancement of political, economic, social, cultural in line with the three pillars of ASEM Cooperation.

The State Counsellor said the role of youths is essential to all areas of cooperation in the ASEM mechanism.

The EU High Representative reiterated their commitment to global peace and security and support for strengthening partnership between Asia and Europe.

The European Union's top diplomat, earlier, said she is encouraging Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's willingness to implement the recommendations of an expert panel on ensuring stability in troubled Rakhine state.

Federica Mogherini said work still was needed on implementing the recommendations, reports AP.

The Rakhine Commission, established last year at Suu Kyi's behest, issued its report the day before deadly insurgent attacks on multiple police posts in Rakhine state on Aug. 25. The subsequent military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims sparked a major refugee exodus and widespread condemnation.

Mogherini is among the foreign ministers from Europe and Asia meeting Monday in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar.

She said the European Union believed stopping the violence was necessary, as well as a guarantee of full humanitarian access and safe repatriation of the refugee.

Foreign Ministers from Asian and European countries on Monday began two-day talks to strengthen partnership for peace, find joint efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with focus on Rohingya issue.

Though the Rohingya issue is not mentioned specifically in the draft agenda of the 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of Foreign Ministers, this biggest humanitarian crisis of the world will come up in a big way to put further pressure on Myanmar for a solution to it.

A diplomat told UNB that regional, international issues, promotion of peace, traditional and non-traditional security challenges will be discussed in the meeting. "So, the Rohingya issue will definitely be there at some point."

Ahead of ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Myanmar, Bangladesh tried to make the best use of high-level visits from a number of countries, including China and Japan in the last two days -- Saturday and Sunday -- to mount pressure on Myanmar and expedite talks for sending Rohingyas back to their homeland.

After visiting Rohingya camps, the Foreign Ministers on Sunday said they will raise the issue at the ASEM FMs meeting.

Bangladesh is expecting louder voice from the international community at the meeting.

Connectivity across the diverse domains, transport, tourism, climate change, energy security, poverty reduction, people to people contact and cultural cooperation, education, trade and investment cooperation will also be discussed.

A diplomat who is in touch with the upcoming ASEM Foreign Ministers' meeting told UNB that the joint visit to Bangladesh, including Rohingya camps, before their participation in the ASEM FMs' meeting does put Myanmar on the spotlight for its failure to address the Rohingya issue.

"I can assume that the European leaders are very serious about this issue and they would definitely bring additional pressure on Myanmar authorities for Resolution of the issue," he said wishing to remain unnamed.

The diplomat said they might go for a separate Political Declaration, during the Summit or ask regional players to play a more constructive role in resolving this protracted issue.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...i-meeting-begins-shed-light-rohingyas-1493881


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 20, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 10:31 AM, November 20, 2017
*Call it genocide*




People take part in a rally in support of Myanmar's stateless Rohingya minority in the Chechen capital of Grozny, Russia,on September 4, 2017. PHOTO: Reuters
Gregory Stanton
*The UN calls the Myanmar army's aggression against the Rohingya “ethnic cleansing”. “Ethnic cleansing” is a term invented by Slobodan Milosevic. It's a euphemism for forced displacement and genocide. It's an insidious term because there is no international treaty law against it, whereas there are international laws against forced displacement and genocide.*
“Ethnic cleansing” is not a crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It has no legal meaning in international law. Another term without legal meaning is “atrocities”.

Genocidal massacres are acts of genocide. Genocide is defined as acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. They include killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and inflicting conditions of life on a group calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.

Over 600,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh in the past three months to escape systematic massacres by the Myanmar army that has slaughtered thousands of Rohingya and burned over 500 Rohingya villages to the ground. The killings continue today.

Genocidal massacres are precisely what the Myanmar army and Rakhine militias are committing against the Rohingya. Myanmar is committing both “ethnic cleansing” [forced displacement] and genocide. The crimes often go together. Genocidal massacres are used to terrorise a victim group into fleeing.

Why does the so-called “international community” avoid using the word “genocide”?

Many people think “genocide” requires millions of deaths. Thousands aren't enough. But the Genocide Convention outlaws intentional destruction “in part” of ethnic or religious groups.

Lawyers have gutted the word “genocide” by insisting on proof of “specific” intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Some even claim that only a court can invoke the word “genocide”.

This view is profoundly wrong. It ignores the very name of the International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Courts judge genocide after it's over—when it's too late for prevention.

Myanmar's systematic campaign of mass murder and destruction is surely enough proof of specific intent to destroy part of the Rohingya people.

Those who ignore the power of words argue that “ethnic cleansing”, “crimes against humanity” or “atrocities” are just as terrible as genocide.

They're wrong. “Genocide” is a much more powerful word.

Three epidemiologists and I studied the impact of using the words “ethnic cleansing” rather than “genocide” in four genocides: Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Darfur. We counted the number of times “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” were used in The New York Times, UN statements, major law journals, and reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Our study concluded:

- Use of the terms has no relationship to the number of people killed. Eight thousand killed at Srebrenica was ruled “genocide” by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Yet a UN Commission of Inquiry held that over 50,000 killed in Darfur (now over 300,000) was a “crime against humanity” but not genocide.

- The term chosen is determined by the willingness to take forceful action to stop the killing.

- It was not until “genocide” became the dominant term, that force was used to stop it.

This tipping point occurred three months into the genocide in Rwanda. The US State Department finally admitted on June 10, 1994 that “acts of genocide” in Rwanda are the same as “genocide”. But recognition of “genocide” came too late. 
*
Eight hundred thousand Rwandans were already dead.*

The same denial emerged in Bosnia. The UN and press called the massacres “ethnic cleansing” from 1992 until the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995. A NATO meeting on July 21 called it “genocide”. NATO bombing of Serb forces followed on August 30. Milosevic agreed to a ceasefire, division of Bosnia, and NATO peacekeeping. The Bosnian genocide stopped.

Kosovo was called “ethnic cleansing” until US Ambassador David Scheffer noted “indicators of genocide” on April 7, 1999. Bombing of Belgrade followed immediately, with Serb surrender and NATO occupation of Kosovo.

Darfur is the exception that proves the rule. The UN refused to invoke the G word: “genocide”. No military forces were sent to stop the crimes. Instead the African Union and UN sent “monitors” to observe them. The Darfur genocide continues to this day.

The UN avoids the word “genocide” because world leaders avoid military action to stop it.

Genocide is not a sacred or magic word. But when the word “genocide” is used, force to stop it becomes possible. Weaker words like ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, or atrocities mean that no force will be used to stop the massacres.

Will the UN send troops to protect the Rohingya when they are forced to return to Myanmar? Not if the UN denies that Myanmar is committing genocide against the Rohingya. World leaders will again fail to stop the Crime of Crimes.
_Gregory Stanton is the Founding Chairman of Genocide Watch. http://www.genocidewatch.com_
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/politics/call-it-genocide-1493548


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## Banglar Bir

*NOVEMBER 18 2017
Backpack bravery: Perth veteran helps Rohingya refugees
Jess Allen
A Perth veteran who served in East Timor and Afghanistan has taken leave from his day job as a firefighter to shoulder the burden of a different battle.*




*Alex Galonski was compelled to travel to Bangladesh last month to help the more than half a million Rohingya people who have fled their ethnic homeland of Rakhine State, Myanmar, for the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar District in Bangladesh.* 
Myanmar security forces 'targeting' Rohingya children in ethnic purge: report
*ASEAN adrift as crises humanitarian crisis escalate*
Now back in Perth, Mr Galonski said that although he is an army veteran and first response worker, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw in Bangladesh.

"The sheer volume of the suffering, the magnitude of trauma these people have experienced is overwhelming," he said."You see children with multiple bullet wounds, most of the people I spoke to had lost at least one family member and there were countless horrific stories from the Rohingya people of rape, abuse and torture at the hands of the Myanmar Army."
"One lady had fallen pregnant after being raped and was crying tears of relief when she miscarried because she didn't want to bring a child into these conditions."
https://chuffed.org/project/bpmdrg-bangladesh
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/b...-helps-rohingya-refugees-20171117-gznfmq.html


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## Banglar Bir

*AJ+*
18 November at 09:08 · 
*Myanmar’s military is terrorizing the Rohingya with gang rape.*




__ https://www.facebook.com/





*Suu Kyi blames world conflicts partly on illegal immigration*
Tribune Desk
Published at 08:02 PM November 20, 2017




Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 13th Asia Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, November 20, 2017REUTERS
*Foreign ministers and representatives of 51 countries are meeting in Naypyitaw in a forum that aims to further political and economic cooperation but takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis*
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the world is facing instability and conflict in part because illegal immigration spreads terrorism in a speech on Monday that comes as her country is accused of violently pushing out hundreds of thousands of unwanted Rohingya minorities, Associated Press reports.

Suu Kyi did not directly mention the refugee exodus as she welcomed European and Asian foreign ministers to Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar. But her speech highlighted the views of many in Myanmar who see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants and blame the population for terrorist acts.

The ongoing Rohingya exodus is sure to be raised by the visitors at the meetings held on Monday and Tuesday.

The world is in a new period of instability as conflicts around the world give rise to new threats and emergencies, Suu Kyi said, citing “Illegal immigration’s spread of terrorism and violent extremism, social disharmony and even the threat of nuclear war. Conflicts take away peace from societies, leaving behind underdevelopment and poverty, pushing peoples and even countries away from one another.”

Foreign ministers and representatives of 51 countries are meeting in Naypyitaw in a forum that aims to further political and economic cooperation but takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis.

A flurry of diplomatic activity preceded Monday’s opening, with the foreign ministers of Germany and Sweden joining the EU’s foreign policy chief in a visit to the teeming refugee camps in Bangladesh. China’s Wang Yi was also in Bangladesh and met privately with Suu Kyi on Sunday in Myanmar following that trip.

In her speech to the visiting foreign ministers, Suu Kyi also cited natural disasters caused by climate change as compounding the world’s problems. She said mutual understanding of problems like terrorism would be crucial for peace and economic development.

“I believe that if policymakers develop a true understanding of each of those constraints and difficulties, the process of addressing global problems will become easier and more effective,” she said. “It is only through mutual understanding that strong bonds of partnership can be forged.”

The European Union’s top diplomat said earlier Monday that she is encouraging Suu Kyi to implement the recommendations of an expert panel on ensuring stability in Rakhine state and work was still needed on that.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...s-world-conflicts-partly-illegal-immigration/


*Why a bilateral solution won’t work*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 06:44 PM November 19, 2017
Last updated at 12:26 AM November 20, 2017




*China’s proposal for bilateral talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar without getting the international community involved makes no sense*
When dealing with a humanitarian crisis, the consensus of the international community is key.

Which is why, after consistently blocking the UN Security Council on any meaningful resolution to the Rohingya crisis, China’s latest proposal for a bilateral solution between Bangladesh and Myanmar — with the caveat that the international community stay out of it — is hard to take seriously.

We have already said at the start of the month, when Suu Kyi made a similar suggestion, that such a proposal appears to be — at best — a poorly cloaked attempt at cornering Bangladesh and attempting to strong-arm us into accepting an unacceptable and damaging status quo.

At worst, it is a cynical ploy to buy further time to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

To believe that such a proposal is placed out of concern for the humanitarian crisis that that has been perpetrated by Myanmar strains credulity.

Given their public mendacity, intransigence, and brutality, it is difficult to believe that Myanmar will negotiate in good faith.

They have refused to budge from *an outdated 1993 agreement on repatriation*, which didn’t work then, and certainly won’t work now.
*
Our prime minister is, therefore, absolutely right to reject China’s new proposal, which appears to be little more than an attempt to provide cover for Myanmar at the expense of Bangladesh*.
*
China’s proposal for bilateral talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar without getting the international community involved makes no sense.
Given Myanmar’s record, international pressure is the only way to get Myanmar to play ball, and everybody knows it*.
*Let us not waste our time.*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/11/19/bilateral-solution-wont-work/


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## Banglar Bir

01:04 PM, November 21, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:12 PM, November 21, 2017
*Myanmar’s Suu Kyi hopes to strike deal with Bangladesh this week on Rohingya repatriation*




Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 13th Asia Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM) in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, November 20, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Reuters, Nayptitaw
*After glossing over the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis at 13th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) yesterday, Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi today hoped to strike a deal with Bangladesh by this week on the “safe and voluntary return” of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh in the past three months.*
Turning to the question of repatriation of Rohingya, Suu Kyi said discussions would be held with the Bangladesh foreign minister on Wednesday and Thursday. Officials from both countries began discussions last month on how to process applications by Rohingya wanting to return to Myanmar.

“We hope that this would result in an MOU signed quickly, which would enable us to start the safe and voluntarily return of all of those who have gone across the border,” Suu Kyi said at the end of a meeting of senior officials at an Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM, in Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw.

A counter-insurgency operation launched in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has driven more than 600,000 Rohingyas out of the Buddhist-majority country since late August.

Rights groups have accused Myanmar’s military of atrocities, including mass rape, against Rohingyas during the clearance operation.

“We can’t say whether it has happened or not. As a responsibility of the government, we have to make sure that it won't happen,” Suu Kyi told reporters in response to a question about human rights violations.

The Nobel laureate did not use the term “Rohingya”. Myanmar rejects use of the term for the Muslim minority, which is not on an official list of the country's ethnic groups.

Her less than two-year old civilian government has faced heavy international criticism for its response to the crisis, though it has no control over the generals it has to share power with under Myanmar's transition to power after decades of military rule.

The Rohingya are largely stateless and many people in Myanmar view them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi said Myanmar would follow the framework of an agreement reached in the 1990s to cover the earlier repatriation of Rohingya, who had fled to Bangladesh to escape previous bouts of ethnic violence.

That agreement did not address the citizenship status of Rohingya, and Bangladesh has been pressing for a repatriation process that provided Rohingya with more safeguards this time.

“It's on the basis of residency...this was agreed by the two governments long time ago with success, so this will be formula we will continue to follow,” she said.

Earlier talks between the two countries reached a broad agreement to work out a repatriation deal, but a senior Myanmar official later accused Bangladesh of dragging its feet in order to secure funding from aid agencies for hosting the refugees.

It was hard to tell exactly how close Myanmar and Bangladesh were to an agreement, Suu Kyi said.

Suu Kyi, Myanmar's state counsellor and foreign affairs minister, said the country was doing everything it could to "make sure security is maintained" in Rakhine, but warned that "it takes time" to resolve the issues there. It was unclear, however, whether a safe return was possible, or advisable, for the thousands of Rohingya women and children still stranded on the beaches trying to flee hunger and instability in Rakhine.

Myanmar intends to resettle most refugees who return in new "model villages", rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach the United Nations has criticized in the past as effectively creating permanent camps.
http://www.thedailystar.net/world/r...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

11:11 AM, November 21, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:24 PM, November 21, 2017
*Amnesty accuses Myanmar of imposing ‘apartheid’ on Rohingyas*




A Rohingya refugee men carry sewer rings at Balukhali refugee camp in Ukhia district of Bangladesh on November 20, 2017. Photo: Munir UZ ZAMAN / AFP
AFP, Yangon
*Myanmar’s suffocating control of its Rohingya population amounts to “apartheid”, Amnesty International said on Tuesday in a probe into the root causes of a crisis that has sent 620,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh.*
Read More: How 'humanitarian technology' can help deal with Rohingya crisis
Distressing scenes of dispossessed Rohingya in Bangladeshi camps have provoked outrage around the world, as people who have escaped Rakhine state since August recount tales of murder, rape and arson at the hands of Myanmar troops.
Also Read: Myanmar Exodus: Rape being used as a weapon of war
Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed in principle to repatriate some Rohingya but disagree over the details, with Myanmar’s army chief saying last week that it was “not possible” to accept the number of refugees proposed by Dhaka.

The Amnesty report, published on Tuesday, details how years of persecution have curated the current crisis.

A “state-sponsored” campaign has restricted virtually all aspects of Rohingyas’ lives, the Amnesty study says, confining them to what amounts to a “ghetto-like” existence in the mainly Buddhist country.

The 100-page report, based on two years of research, says the web of controls meet the legal standard of the “crime against humanity of apartheid”.

“Rakhine State is a crime scene. This was the case long before the vicious campaign of military violence of the last three months,” said Anna Neistat, Amnesty’s Senior Director for Research.

Myanmar’s authorities “are keeping Rohingya women, men and children segregated and cowed in a dehumanising system of apartheid,” she added.

The bedrock for the widespread hatred towards the Muslim group comes from a contentious 1982 Citizenship law.

Enacted by the then junta, the law effectively rendered hundreds of thousands of Rohingya stateless.

Since then, Amnesty says a “deliberate campaign” has been waged to erase Rohingya rights to live in Myanmar, where they are denigrated as “Bengalis” or illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

A system of identification cards is central to those bureaucratic controls, and likely to form the basis of the decision on who will be allowed to return from Bangladesh.

The latest wave of persecution has pushed more than half of the 1.1-million strong minority out of the country, with those left behind sequestered in increasingly isolated and vulnerable villages.

Although the Rohingya have been victims of discrimination for decades, the report details how repression intensified after the outbreak of violence between Buddhist and Muslim communities in 2012.

Long before the recent mass exodus of Rohingya from northern Rakhine state -- now a virtual ghostland of torched villages and unharvested paddy fields -- they were unable to travel freely, requiring special permits and facing arrest, abuse and harassment at numerous checkpoints.

In central Rakhine state, Rohingya Muslims were driven out of urban areas after the 2012 violence.

They remain completely segregated from the Buddhist community, confined by barbed wire and police checkpoints to camps that Amnesty calls an “open-air prison”.

The Muslim community is widely denied access to medical care, their children are unable to attend government schools while many mosques have been sealed off.

“Restoring the rights and legal status of Rohingya, and amending the country’s discriminatory citizenship laws is urgently needed,” said Anna Neistat.

“Rohingya who have fled persecution in Myanmar cannot be asked to return to a system of apartheid.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all

2:00 AM, November 21, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:24 AM, November 21, 2017
*Rohingyas' dignified return to their homeland
An agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar which only deals with repatriation of Rohingyas but does not guarantee their rights and security as citizens of Myanmar will risk the recurrence of the latter's ethnic cleansing campaign*




Rohingya refugees queue for relief aid at Nayapara refugee camp in Teknaf on October 21, 2017. Photo: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP
Farhaan Uddin Ahmed
Negotiations are ongoing between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar to formulate a plan to repatriate the Rohingyas who have sought refuge in Bangladesh fleeing the atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar military. The major point of contention between the two governments is most likely to be the criteria for deciding who is eligible to be repatriated and who is not, i.e. the standard of proof that an individual was a legitimate inhabitant of Rakhine State in Myanmar.

The Myanmar government no doubt intends to set strict criteria so as to deny repatriation to as many Rohingyas as possible. Since the citizenship law in Myanmar disenfranchises the Rohingyas by denying them citizenship, it is quite unlikely that they would be able to produce any credible document to prove that they are former residents of Rakhine. Further aggravating this problem is the fact that most of the refugees while fleeing the atrocities have left everything behind in Rakhine and many of their homes and villages have been burned to the ground. Therefore, the issue of setting the appropriate criteria of eligibility would be a major impediment to the finalisation and successful implementation of a repatriation plan.

*Myanmar could also intentionally drag on the negotiations until the issue loses relevance thus prolonging the crisis. Bangladesh and the international community must continue to exert pressure with increasing intensity on the government of Myanmar to resolve the crisis.*

The aim of this piece is to explore whether the repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar in and of itself would effectively resolve the crisis in the long-term from the perspective of Rohingyas and Bangladesh. Although the best possible means to resolve the crisis still seems to be the establishment of a United Nations Interim Administration in Rakhine, an agreement between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar supported by the international community may be able to successfully resolve the crisis.

*From the perspective of Rohingyas and Bangladesh, any plan of action or agreement must ensure that the Rohingyas are duly conferred citizenship of Myanmar and accorded rights and treatment as legitimate citizens, so that they can rebuild their lives in Rakhine, and the assurance that the Myanmar government would never engage in another such brutal campaign is also necessary. *

Without these guarantees, it is highly likely that the Myanmar military may restart its ethnic cleansing campaign with greater intensity as and when the pressure from the international community eases and it may inconspicuously and strategically continue to depopulate Rakhine State of the Rohingyas so as not to draw attention to its atrocities.


Rohingyas have been seeking refuge in Bangladesh since the 1980s and Bangladesh couldn't do much about it. A steady trickle of refugees over decades does not garner the same reaction or sympathy in the international community as does a mass exodus in the short span of two months. Therefore, in the future, steady streams of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar will not muster enough international support to stop Myanmar's depopulating campaign.

Therefore, an agreement which only deals with the issue of repatriation but does not guarantee the rights, safety, and security of the Rohingyas will not “resolve” the crisis and risks its recurrence in the future. In order to conclusively resolve the crisis and ensure peace, the agreement should not only deal with repatriation but also rehabilitation of the Rohingyas in Rakhine State, restitution of their lands, their reintegration into society and politics, and of course, grant of citizenship and all the complementary rights.

The agreement must guarantee humanitarian aid agencies and organisations, including the United Nations, unfettered access to Rakhine State. It must also establish an international commission which will oversee and monitor full implementation of the agreement and ensure that the international community continues to be a stakeholder in the process, so that on the off chance that the agreement falls through, the international community will have a responsibility to act accordingly.

It needs to be understood that, at present, Myanmar is being given a bitter pill to swallow. As such, it is up to Bangladesh and the rest of the world to ensure that it cures the Rohingyas of their plight. As long as Rohingyas are persecuted in Myanmar, Bangladesh will continue to bear the brunt.
Farhaan Uddin Ahmed is a researcher of international law and legal theory, and lecturer at the School of Law, BRAC University.
Email: farhaan17@gmail.com
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/human-rights/rohingyas-dignified-return-their-homeland-1494088

*This is not what good neighbours do*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 05:07 PM November 20, 2017
Last updated at 10:52 PM November 20, 2017




REUTERS
*How long will Myanmar hide behind hackneyed statements and false promises?*
Myanmar’s Union Minister Dr Pe Mynt has said that it is essential that, as neighbours, Bangladesh and Myanmar have “good relations,” going on to say that there should be frequent meetings between the countries to strengthen these relations.

If that were truly Myanmar’s intentions, why has it continued to drive out the Rohingya and make unreasonable demands regarding their return?

How long will Myanmar hide behind hackneyed statements and false promises?

Its army, the primary driving force behind the Rohingya exodus, has continued to undermine talks of Rohingya return, saying the Rohingya can only come back when Myanmar’s “real citizens” accept.

This is in addition to Myanmar’s demands to see papers for those who were driven out — an even more unreasonable demand.

It is clear that this is nothing more than a ploy by Myanmar to make the process impossible for the Rohingya people, and to buy time until international interest in the issue wanes.

This is not neighbourly behaviour.

While Bangladesh has done everything in its power to both assuage the Rohingya’s needs and create dialogue with Myanmar to find a solution to the crisis, Myanmar has not been cooperative.

So much so that international interference has become almost necessary.

Moving forward, it is expected that, in the 13th Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Myanmar will tackle the Rohingya issue and strive for a better solution to the crisis.

For there to be any sort of peace on our borders, Bangladesh needs Myanmar to be, first and foremost, honest. That is what good neighbours do.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/editorial/2017/11/20/not-good-neighbours/


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## Banglar Bir

*Crisis in Myanmar is genocide, says local Rohingya Muslim*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/crisis-in-myanmar-is-genocide-says-local-rohingya-muslim.html




*By Christine Coulter, CBC News*
*Yasmine Ullah says calling the crisis ‘ethnic cleansing’ makes the international community unaccountable*
Yasmine Ullah says the current plight of the Rohingya Muslims — which has forced more than 600,000 refugees to flee Myanmar — is genocide and she wants the international community to recognize it.

Ullah, a Rohingya Muslim who left Myanmar at the age of three, lived in Thailand as a refugee before immigrating to Canada six years ago. She now lives in Surrey, B.C., but remains in constant contact with immediate family in her home country.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch accused the Myanmar military of using widespread rape as a systematic tool to attack Rohingya Muslims.

Rohingya Muslims, a minority group in Buddhist majority Myanmar— also known as Burma — have been facing persecution for decades. Since August 25, they have been flooding into neighbouring Bangladesh, creating a humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations has described the situation as one of ethnic cleansing and says it is still determining whether the crisis is genocide.

But Ullah believes using those words makes it too easy for the international community to turn away — despite the fact that all the characteristics of genocide according to the United Nations definition are there, she said.

“The word ethnic cleansing, it doesn’t bring about as much responsibility … It doesn’t bring anyone to be accountable for this,” she said.

*Ethnic cleansing vs. genocide*
Shayna Plaut, an adjunct professor at the school for international studies at Simon Fraser University, says once something is labelled as genocide, there’s an obligation for the international community to intervene.

“The definition of genocide requires that there is intervention,” said Plaut.

Plaut says this is the reason why the United Nations has never called anything a genocide while it occurs.

“So if you want to say something is bad, but you don’t actually want to put your money where your mouth is, then one of the things you could call it would be ethnic cleansing,” Plaut said.

“Ethnic cleansing is something that is recognized by international law as a very bad thing. It is not something that is recognized by international law as requiring an intervention.”

*‘They’re finding it hard to survive’*
Ullah has been raising money to help people in Myanmar, where part of her family continue to struggle.

“My uncle has just said to my mom last night that the military have come in and tried to take away men in the villages again and two men were incarcerated yesterday without charges.”

The Rohingya have faced segregation, have been denied education and were stripped of their citizenship in 1982. Ullah said that because her people are not considered citizens, they have no rights.

“My cousin, she is just a few years older than me, and she has two very young children. They’re finding it hard to survive in the country now,” she said.

Ullah said her cousin’s husband is incarcerated and has been for months without charges.

“He doesn’t have any rights to fair trial. So it’s either he will be murdered later on or he would be kidnapped. That’s just the plight of the Rohingya,” she said.

*Call for help*
Ullah will be heading to Ottawa this week in hopes of spurring members of parliament to take action.

“We cannot just say that we’re going to help with humanitarian aid because this is not going to end the issue. This is not going to end the crimes against humanity.”

Ullah plans to go with Maung Zarni, a long-time human rights activist who studies genocide and has been speaking out on the state-sanctioned violence against Rohingya Muslims for decades.

“I’ve lived all my life thinking that I don’t matter,” Ullah explained.

“My peoples’ experience and whatever we have been through is something that’s not right and someone has to take responsibility and someone has to take a stand against all of these atrocities.”
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/crisis-in-myanmar-is-genocide-says-local-rohingya-muslim.html


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## Banglar Bir

*The geo-politics of the Rohingya crisis*
Forrest Cookson
Published at 05:57 PM November 21, 2017
Last updated at 01:48 AM November 22, 2017




What Myanmar does will largely be dicated by Chinese interests *BIGSTOCK*
*Only China comes out as a winner in this scenario*
The expulsion of 700,000 Rohingya by Myanmar into Bangladesh is a terrible human tragedy involving the murder of 100,000 Rohingya and the rape of innumerable Rohingya women.

A vicious and cruel assault on a human group that qualifies for crimes against humanity and probably even genocide. It is another dramatic story of the cruelty of man and signals a deep social sickness in Myanmar society.

The crisis has attracted great attention and the international press presented and written of the horrors of the expulsion.

Why did this happen now? Trouble with the Rohingya presence in Myanmar is not a new issue — there have been frequent repressive periods resulting in 100,000-200,000 to be expelled into Bangladesh. But the events of the past three months have been of a different level of cruelty than in the past.

The international community has been forthcoming with some financial support. However, the burden of caring for and nurturing the Rohingya has fallen to Bangladesh. The response of the Bangladeshi people and the government has been quite extraordinary. Deploying the army in a non-combatant role along the border, camps for the Rohingya are being rapidly constructed.

Registration of the refugees has proceeded with a large percentage now having IDs issued. The general public in Bangladesh has reacted remarkably, gathering resources and delivering to the unfortunate refugees.

Shelter and food are gradually being managed. The medical problems are enormous, and only a start has been made. The refugee population is reported to be mostly children (60%) with a large number of orphans among them.

Medical problems include malnutrition, dangers of infectious disease such as cholera, and PTSD.

The danger to the minds of the children is reported to be extensive and difficult to cure. The response of the ordinary people of Bangladesh has been extraordinary, and stands in contrast to the cruelty of the Myanmarese.
*How it all happened*
Who is behind this tragedy? Is it just the insane behaviour of the Myanmarese? Perhaps it is the army generals high on their own meth-amphetamines? Or is there something else that underlies these events and provides a better explanation?

In seeking such an explanation, we turn first to the behaviour of the Chinese and Indian governments.

The Chinese government has stood with Myanmar from the start of this crisis, supporting the claim that the treatment of the Rohingya was a natural consequence of security issues — of course the Chinese diplomats have done their best to calm the Bangladeshis and promise to help with the return of the Rohingya to Myanmar.

Their efforts are largely scoffed at by Bangladesh elites who believe that there is little hope for the return to Myanmar of these refugees.

The Indian government has also supported Myanmar in this crisis while trying to cover their tracks in Bangladesh with many statements that make their position fuzzy.

The reality is that the Indians see this crisis as a security issue, and fear that the Rohingya issue is all mixed up with the growth of Islamic fundamentalism.

However, private Indians are generously providing food for the refugees. Interestingly, the camp holding the Hindu Rohingya is not under the control of the Bangladesh army and the sources of financing and security are not clear.

The above points miss, however, what this crisis is really about.

The international community has been forthcoming with some financial support. However, the burden of caring for and nurturing the Rohingya has fallen to Bangladesh
*Big players, bigger problems*
China has a fundamental problem: Its economy is dependent on ocean shipments for supply of gas and oil and for exporting to its major markets in Europe and the Northern hemisphere.

A large part of this trade passes through the Straits of Malacca or the the Straits of Lombok (for large tankers).

It is no exaggeration to say that at this time, in late 2017, China is dependent on the freight flowing through these channels to power its economy and to fight a protracted war.

Unfortunately for the Chinese, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia maintain very close relationships with the US and the 7th Fleet of the US Navy controls these areas. For the Chinese, it is like having a knife at your throat all the time.

The driving objective of Chinese foreign policy is to escape this trap that geography has forced on them.

*But getting the Americans out of Asia is more easily said than done. There are three main steps the Chinese are taking:

• Building a strong blue water navy potentially able to provide a counterforce to the US 7th Fleet

• Extend their sovereignty and power in the South China Sea

• Use the Belt and Road Project supported by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to construct alternative routes*

One of the most important aspects of the Belt and Road investments is the linkage between Myanmar and China with one end at Kyaukphyu located at the southern end of the Rakhine state and the other in Kunming in China.

This includes natural gas and oil pipelines and a railway combined with an industrial estate in a Special Economic Zone. These investments will provide an alternative route for Chinese trade.
*The Chinese connection*
The intention of the Chinese is to build up these links over time and to create a very large facility for transport and manufacturing. This will lead to a large Chinese community that will run to hundreds of thousands.

The capacity of these links is still far below what passes through the Straits of Malacca but it makes a real contribution to shifting reliance away from this vulnerable Malacca route.

The Chinese want stable conditions in these areas.

The Chinese distrust of Islam is based on their general distrust of foreign religions and the problems that they face with their own Muslim citizens, many of whom are in active revolt.

This revolt originated from the repression of their religion in Xinjiang. Difficulties that the Chinese state will face from their repression of Muslims will not go away — such concerns are in the mind of the Chinese with respect to their presence in the Rakhine state where there was, until three months ago, a large Muslim population, almost one-third of the population of Rakhine state.

One reason that brings comfort to the Chinese is the impact of all of this on the Western alliance’s presence in Myanmar. In the past four years, the deal offered to Myanmar was: Move towards democracy and there will be a great deal of Foreign Direct Investment, access to the world financial markets, and allowing Myanmar back into the real world.

This deal was attractive to Myanmar, which resulted in their pushing back against the powerful Chinese influence.

The Rohingya crisis will reduce the attractiveness of Myanmar as an investment site, the West’s influence will decline and Chinese influence will increase. With another 200,000 Rohingya expected to move into Bangladesh in the next few weeks, the stress on Bangladesh will only increase.

*The West has few cards it is willing to play, and the Chinese are the winners.*
_Forrest Cookson is an American economist._
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/11/21/geo-politics-rohingya-crisis/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:27 AM, November 22, 2017
*Talks on track for Rohingya deal*
*Suu Kyi expects MoU this week after 2-day negotiations; Mahmood Ali optimistic*





Diplomatic Correspondent
*Dhaka and Naypyitaw are in negotiation for reaching a bilateral agreement in a couple of days on repatriation of over six lakh Myanmar nationals who have taken shelter in Bangladesh to escape persecution in Rakhine State.*

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, now in Naypyitaw to attend a conference, will hold bilateral talks today and tomorrow to form a joint working group to facilitate the repatriation.

He yesterday expressed optimism about striking a deal with Myanmar over Rohingya repatriation. "Chances look good. Let's see,” he said.

According to diplomatic sources, Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed in principle to sign an agreement on repatriation of the Rohingyas, but are yet to disclose the details of the plan, terms and conditions or criteria.

Officials from both countries began discussions last month on how to process documents of the Rohingyas willing to return to Myanmar.

Last week, Myanmar army chief said that it was “not possible” to accept the number of refugees proposed by Dhaka.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday hoped to strike a deal with Bangladesh by this week on the “safe and voluntary return” of the Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh since August 25.

"Nothing can be done overnight, but we believe that we will be able to make steady progress," she said.

Turning to the question of repatriation of the Rohingyas, Suu Kyi said discussions would be held with the Bangladesh foreign minister today and tomorrow.

She, however, said it was hard to tell exactly how close Myanmar and Bangladesh were to an agreement.

“We hope that this would result in an MoU signed quickly, which would enable us to start the safe and voluntarily return of all of those who have gone across the border,” Suu Kyi said at the end of a meeting of senior officials at an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw, reports Reuters.

In response to a question about human rights violations, Suu Kyi told reporters, “We can't say whether it has happened or not. As a responsibility of the government, we have to make sure that it won't happen.”

She said Myanmar would follow the framework of an agreement reached in the 1990s to cover the earlier repatriation of Rohingyas.

“It's on the basis of residency...this was agreed by the two governments long time ago with success, so this will be the formula we will continue to follow,” added Suu Kyi.

Dhaka, however, has not agreed to Naypyitaw's proposal to follow the principle and criteria of the 1992 deal to take back the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals.

On October 9, Mahmood Ali told foreign diplomats in Dhaka that the 1992 criteria are not “realistic”.

He said the situation of 1992 and the present one are “entirely different” as most of the Muslim villages in the northern Rakhine State have been burned down this time, and the identification of Rohingyas based on residency in Rakhine would not be realistic.

On April 28, 1992, Bangladesh signed a joint statement with the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) of Myanmar under which Myanmar agreed to the return of those refugees who could “establish their bona fide residency in Myanmar” prior to their departure for Bangladesh.

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque and some key officials of the foreign ministry left Dhaka for Naypyitaw yesterday to take part in the negotiation over the repatriation deal.

“It is now almost certain that a deal will be signed,” said a key foreign ministry official, seeking anonymity.

Dhaka will strongly press for the UN's inclusion in the repatriation process, added the official.

Myanmar, however, does not want the presence of the UN or any other international organisations in the repatriation process.

The UN and the international community have been calling for the safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation of the Myanmar nationals to their places of origin.

Bangladesh, which has also made the same call, is now desperate to send back the Myanmar nationals at any cost.

“Of course, we want safe, dignified and sustainable return of the refugees to their homeland. But above all, we want their quick repatriation,” said a foreign ministry official on condition of anonymity.

At a press briefing at the UN headquarters on Monday, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary‑general, said the number of Rohingya refugees, who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar since August 25, has reached 621,000.

“They are arriving traumatised and destitute, with more than half living in a single camp in Cox's Bazar,” he said.

Bangladesh had seen influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar also in 1978, 1991 and 2012.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/return-rohingya-refugees-dhaka-naypyitaw-track-deal-1494628





__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

2:31 PM, November 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:59 PM, November 22, 2017
*Unicef concerned over high level contamination of well water at Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar*




Unicef on Tuesday, November 21, 2017, shows a deep concern over reports suggesting high levels of bacterial contamination (E.coli) from water drawn from wells inside the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong. In this Reuters photo taken on November 17, a Rohingya refugee woman washes her legs in a tube-well in the Palong Khali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar.
Star Online Report
*“... a total of 36,096 AWD cases were reported including 10 related deaths,” says Unicef in a press release.*
Unicef has showed a deep concern over reports suggesting high levels of bacterial contamination (E.coli) from water drawn from wells inside the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong. 

“The latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that 62 percent of water available to households is contaminated,” Unicef said in a press releaseyesterday.

*Also READ: Dhaka-Naypyitaw talks begin*
Some of the tube wells inside the Rohingya camps have been dug to shallower depths, have been poorly sited, are very congested and do not have safeguards in place to prevent bacterial contamination at ground level, it said. 

Contamination may be being caused through poor hygiene practices such as the use of dirty containers, bad hygiene habits of the population in water handling, it added.


Between 25 August and 11 November 2017, a total of 36,096 Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) cases were reported including 10 related deaths, it said. 

A total of 42 percent (15,206) were in the under-5 age group showing an upward trend in infection rates. Whilst the exact cause of increased cases of AWD remains uncertain, it may be linked to contaminated food or water, the press release said. 

Based on an analysis of the risk, Unicef is working with the Bangladesh authorities to urgently investigate levels of contamination, and to ensure better construction practices for tube wells that meet international standards.

“We are stepping up measures to distribute water purification tablets to provide for water treatment at the household level as well as promoting good hygiene practices,” Unicef said. 




Since 25th August and the start of the massive influx which has seen some 621,000 new arrivals in less than three months, Unicef and partners have been working to ensure the provision of safe drinking water, latrines and sanitation systems inside the refugee camps, it said. 

Currently, the UN agency is distributing around 195,000 liters daily to over 50,000 people through water treatment and trucking; additionally, we have installed more than 420 tube wells serving some 140,000 people, according to the press statement.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

01:25 PM, November 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:53 PM, November 22, 2017
*Rohingya child happy with friends in Bangladesh*
Star Online Report




After her parents were forced to flee from Rakhine state of Myanmar, Noor has developed friendship with many similar to her age at a tiny village of Bangladesh.

A heartwarming video recently produced by Unicef shows Noor’s friendship with Jannatua, a girl from a border village of Bangladesh.

“We play cooking, we go skipping, and we run together,” says Jannatua.

*Also READ: Unicef concerned over high level water contamination at Rohingya camps*
“It makes us happy,” says Noor on her part.

Jannatua’s tiny village in Cox’s Bazar district has taken in around 36,000 Rohingya refugees, according to Unicef.

Over 620,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border and taken shelter in Cox's Bazar district since August 25.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, November 22, 2017
*EDITORIAL*
*Continue the diplomatic pressure on Myanmar*
*MoU on Rohingya repatriation needed now*




*We welcome the call by the delegates at the 13th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) to implement the Kofi Annan Commission recommendations and finalise the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh and Myanmar that would put in place a roadmap for the return of displaced Rohingyas to the Rakhine state. It is good to see the EU standing by Bangladesh's demand that Myanmar must make moves to demonstrate its willingness to take back its people.*
While China has proposed a three-phase plan to be implemented through bilateral consultations between the two countries, we should keep our focus on the diplomatic front that involves the international community. 

Bangladesh has been taking the burden of about a million people on its soil, largely using its own resources. This is a situation that cannot be sustained much longer. Myanmar needs to demonstrate to the world that the regime has stopped the atrocities which precipitated large-scale exodus of the Rohingyas in the first place, and create conditions for the safe return of the refugees.

And it is only when we have a MoU in place that we can talk about the manner in which the Rohingyas may return to their homeland. We find it ironic that the democratic leader of Myanmar, till now, refuses to acknowledge Rohingyas as the country's nationals and chooses to talk about “terrorism and violent extremism.” Our two countries need an agreement that would lay out timelines and conditions for the repatriation of Rohingyas very soon. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/continue-the-diplomatic-pressure-myanmar-1494544


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## Banglar Bir

07:36 PM, November 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:57 PM, November 22, 2017
*US terms violence against Rohingyas as ‘ethnic cleansing’*




Rohingya refugees walk on the shore as they arrive on a makeshift boat after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 9, 2017. Picture taken November 9, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
AP, Washington
*The United States declared the ongoing violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar to be “ethnic cleansing” on Wednesday, putting more pressure on the country’s military to halt a brutal crackdown that has sent more than 600,000 refugees flooding over the border to Bangladesh.*
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson blamed Myanmar’s security forces and “local vigilantes” for what he called “intolerable suffering” by the Rohingya. Although the military has blamed Rohingya insurgents for setting off the crisis, Tillerson said that “no provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities that have ensued.”

“After a careful and thorough analysis of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” Tillerson said in a statement.

Those who perpetrated the atrocities “must be held accountable,” Tillerson said. He added that the US wanted a full investigation and would seek justice “through US law, including possible targeted sanctions.”

The declaration followed a lengthy review process by the Trump administration to determine whether the violence met the threshold to be considered ethnic cleansing. The United Nations came to that conclusion in September, but the US had held off, with Tillerson saying he needed more information even as he expressed deep concern about the crisis.

Rohingya from Myanmar’s Rakhine state have been fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh, seeking refuge from what Myanmar’s military has called “clearance operations.” The crisis started in August, when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar security forces, leading to a brutal crackdown in which soldiers and Buddhist mobs have killed men, raped woman and burned homes and property to force the Rohingya to leave.

Last week, Tillerson traveled to Myanmar — also known as Burma — in the highest level visit by a US official since President Donald Trump took office. US officials dangled the possibility of an “ethnic cleansing” designation ahead of Tillerson’s trip, potentially giving him more leverage as he met with Burmese officials. In the capital of Naypitaw, Tillerson met with the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, well as the Myanmar’s powerful military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, who is in charge of operations in Rakhine state, home to Myanmar’s Rohingya population.

Although the “ethnic cleansing” label doesn’t carry specific legal requirements for the US, it is likely to intensify calls for the Trump administration and Congress to move toward new sanctions on Myanmar. Sanctions on the Southeast Asian nation were eased under former President Barack Obama as the country made steps toward transitioning to democracy.

Pressure from Congress to take punitive steps against Myanmar has been mounting. Earlier this month, the House passed a non-binding resolution condemning “murderous ethnic cleansing and atrocities against civilians.” It called on Trump to impose sanctions on those responsible for human rights abuses, including members of Myanmar’s military and security services.

Tillerson, during his visit to Myanmar, said the US would consider targeted sanctions against individuals deemed responsible for the violence, but that he wasn’t advocating “broad-based economic sanctions” against the entire nation.

US officials have been concerned that pushing Myanmar’s leaders too hard on the Rohingya violence could undermine the country’s civilian government, led for the last 18 months by Suu Kyi. That could slow or reverse the country’s delicate transition away from decades of harsh military rule, and also risks pushing Myanmar away from the US and closer to China.

The State Department has also examined whether the violence in Rakhine meets the definitions for “crimes against humanity” or “genocide,” but have thus far made no such determinations.

According to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention, “ethnic cleansing” isn’t recognized as an independent crime under international law, unlike crimes against humanity and genocide. It surfaced in the context of the 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia, when a UN commission defined it as “rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area.”

Human rights groups accuse the military of a scorched-earth campaign against the Rohinyga, who numbered roughly 1 million in Myanmar before the latest exodus. The Buddhist majority in Myanmar believes they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, but many Rohingya families have lived for generations in Myanmar. In 1982, they were stripped of their citizenship.

Already, the United States has curtailed its ties to Myanmar’s military over the violence. Earlier this year the US restored restrictions on granting visas to members of Myanmar’s military, and the State Department has deemed units and officers involved in operations in Rakhine state illegible for US assistance.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

07:26 PM, November 22, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:50 PM, November 22, 2017
*Bangladesh, Myanmar likely to sign MoU on Rohingya repatriation Thursday*





A group of Rohingya refugees, who fled from Myanmar by boat, walks towards a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar. Reuters file photo
UNB, Naypyitaw
*Bangladesh and Myanmar are expected to sign an 'Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State' in Naypyitaw tomorrow.*
"We had a good discussion today (Wednesday). We hope to sign the deal tomorrow (Thursday)," Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told UNB at hotel lobby after a meeting with Myanmar's Minister for State Counsellor's office Kyauw Tint Swe.

The two ministers led their respective sides at the meeting that started at 5:10pm and ended at 6:20pm (local time).

Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh Ambassador in Yangon M Sufiur Rahman and representatives from Home Ministry and Prime Minister's Office also attended the meeting.

Earlier, the Foreign Minister and the Myanmar's Minister for State Counsellor's office had a marathon meeting when they discussed various issues of bilateral interest, including Rohingya issue.

Soon after the one-to-one lengthy meeting, the Foreign Minister attended the ministerial meeting on 'Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State'.


Another lengthy meeting of senior officials was held at the same venue.

The Foreign Minister will hold the final talks with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...rohingya-repatriation-likely-thursday-1494955


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:28 AM, November 23, 2017
*CHINA'S MEDIATION OFFER*
*How fruitful can it be?*




Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)
*The two days of talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar commenced yesterday, whose outcome was not known till going to press. However, while the current talks revolve only around repatriation of Rohingyas, the wider aspect of the issue is being overlooked. *
Thus in the face of continuous resistance by some countries, and the collective international efforts to secure the return of the Rohingya refugees blocked, the Chinese offer to mediate between Myanmar and Bangladesh, and its three-stage plan for a permanent resolution of the problem, is a welcome development.

China had successfully engaged itself in mediation between the two countries in the past. We recall the unwarranted friction that developed between the two neighbours several years ago related to the presence of Burmese oil rigs in Bangladeshi waters in the Bay of Bengal. If the situation was defused, it was partly due to the role played by China.

Therefore, China's call for a long-term solution to the Rohingya crisis, and to resolve the issue of more than a million Rohingya currently in Bangladesh, consequent upon the state-sponsored violence on them by the Myanmar military, is an effort by a friendly country to see the end to the crisis and return of peace in Rakhine. The Chinese offer to act as a facilitator was followed a couple of days later by its three-point proposal at the ASEM meeting where China has suggested three definitive actions as preconditions for an end to the problem.

So far there has been no official reaction to the offer; perhaps the several points we will highlight below might explain why that is so.

To begin with, a simple question that emerges is, given China's fundamental stance on the Rohingya issue, how much will its effort to act as go-between prove effective? *One might question China's credentials as an honest broker given Beijing's consistent support to Myanmar on the Rohingya question, not only this time but also in the past, when all efforts by the UN to come to a consensus resolution on Rohingyas were nipped by Chinese objection.* This, we are constrained to suggest, has accorded a sense of impunity to the Myanmar military. China's position has, in effect, encouraged the genocidal attack on the Rohingyas if not endorsed it.
*
The second point is China's emphasis on the bilateral approach, *insisting on the fact that negotiations should be between the two countries only. *And this is what begs the question: What is there to negotiate?*

The matter is crystal clear. A million people of a persecuted minority group of Myanmar have sought shelter in our land, and they must be taken back. There is nothing to negotiate, no give and take. So far it has been our lot to take, and now it is Myanmar's obligation to take back. The problem has been caused by one country and the solution is in its hand alone. Bangladesh has been the unfortunate sufferer. However, it would be nice if our Chinese friends told us what the points they think that should be the fare for the negotiating table are.

On the other hand, the obvious fact is being overlooked. It is our belief that if there are two parties to the problem it is the government of Myanmar and the Rohingyas of Rakhine State. And it would be more apt if the Chinese were to focus on that and facilitate Naypyidaw and the Rohingyas to arrive at a long-term solution.

The “bilateral” focus is a Myanmar trap, and any endorsement of the idea is like throwing Myanmar a line to get a reprieve from the tremendous international pressure that it is facing. Bangladesh is very sceptical about this approach because bilateral understandings have been very transient.

The international community must be involved in whatever negotiation and understanding eventuate from the ongoing discussions. *Any future agreement must not only involve the return of the Rohingya refugees, commitment to a permanent solution must be made by Myanmar, the framework for which already exists in the form of the Annan Commission recommendations, those being the outcome of an exercise done at the behest of the government of Myanmar. Anything less than an international commitment from Myanmar gives it the opportunity to give everyone the slip.*

The three-point approach of China—cease-fire, repatriation, long-term solution—is a restatement of what Bangladesh has been calling on the Myanmar government to address for the last three decades. Each of the conditions stated therein is for Myanmar and Myanmar alone to fulfil. For example, the ceasefire; there is only one party that has done, and is doing, all the firing. And it is that party—Myanmar—that China should put pressure on to stop.

The excuse of a coordinated insurgent attack on Myanmar security forces was a fig leaf to hide the barbarity that was to befall the Rohingyas. A bottled report of the UN that was eventually published had established that fact. And it is for Myanmar not to put conditions in the way of repatriation of the refugees, which it has tried even this time too. The fundamental reason for the crisis is Myanmar's own creation. The Rohingyas must be given back their rights including their citizenship.

Regrettably, strong language has not stopped the killings. That apartheid can and does exist in the 21st century would be unbelievable unless one saw the recent media reports on the Rohingyas in Rakhine. Their condition is worse than the people in the ghettos of Soweto. More tangible actions must be initiated immediately by the international community. Myanmar must be prevailed upon to create conditions for not only the safe return of the Rohingyas but also their safe existence there, and the Myanmar military must be held to account for carrying out a genocide. As of now what faces the returning Rohingyas is at best ghettoisation and at worst death.
*
The world must not allow that to happen.* And our common friends, who would really want to see these conditions created, must prevail upon Myanmar to create these conditions. Bangladesh cannot and shall not be made a party to the resolution and permanent solution to the problem.
The ball is in Myanmar's court and one must not resort to subterfuge to pass it on to Bangladesh.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/strategically-speaking/how-fruitful-can-it-be-1495120


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## Banglar Bir

*Tillerson: Myanmar clearly 'ethnic cleansing' the Rohingya*
By Ben Westcott and Laura Koran, CNN
Updated 2132 GMT (0532 HKT) November 22, 2017
Source: CNN
*Report: Myanmar military raping Rohingya women 04:12
(CNN)US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has shifted his stance on the Myanmar government's actions against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country, labeling its actions "ethnic cleansing" in a statement Wednesday.*
Tillerson had earlier refused to use the term when describing the Myanmar military's actions in the country's western Rakhine State, saying instead he was "very concerned" about the reports.
"What we know occurred in Rakhine state ... has a number of characteristics of crimes against humanity," he said on November 15, after an official visit to Myanmar.
"Whether it meets all the criteria of ethnic cleansing we continue to determine ourselves."




General view of the Thankhali refugee camp in the Bangladeshi district of Ukhia on November 15.
But on Wednesday, the US's top diplomat was unequivocal in his statement denouncing the actions of Myanmar's military, while still offering cautious support for civilian leaders who share power with the military under Myanmar's government structure.

"No provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities that have ensued," Tillerson said after acknowledging the deadly attack on security forces by a Rohingya militia that triggered the current crisis.

"These abuses by some among the Burmese military, security forces, and local vigilantes have caused tremendous suffering. ... After a careful and thorough analysis of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya."




*Who are the Rohingya and why are they fleeing? 01:35

The United States has so far walked a fine line since the crisis erupted in August. Administration officials have sought to temper the violence while avoiding any criticism that could jeopardize the fragile power-sharing agreement between civilian leaders and the military, which the United States welcomed and supports.

Even as State Department officials announced their decision to call the violence "ethnic cleansing," they were careful not to attribute the violence directly to Myanmar's democratically elected leadership. They also pointed out that the designation carries no specific legal consequences, though the administration is considering what other steps it could take.

"The term 'ethnic cleansing' is not defined in the context of either international law or domestic law," a senior State Department official cautioned. "However, it is a descriptive term, and it carries with it this sense of urgency."

The United States is considering additional steps it can take with other nations or unilaterally, a second senior official said, including possible targeted sanctions. More sweeping sanctions, the officials said, would not be productive.

While the Trump administration is not specifically calling out Myanmar's government for the acts of ethnic cleansing, the official said they hope it "will increase pressure on the parties to reach an accommodation about repatriation of people who are displaced, and also pressure on the military in Burma and the civilian government to work quickly to respond to events on the ground."

Tillerson's statement comes less than a week before Pope Francis is due to touch down in Myanmar for a week-long visit of the region, including a trip to Bangladesh. He called again for an official investigation into the crisis, saying those who were responsible must be held accountable.

Authorities in Buddhist-majority Myanmar have a long history of violence and oppression against the predominantly Muslim Rohingya people who live in the country's west, but in recent months the crisis has intensified.

Since August 25, an estimated 615,000 Rohingya have fled across the border into neighboring Bangladesh, bringing with them stories of mass murder, rape and extensive destruction of homes and property.*

*In an exclusive CNN report released in November, refugees described the horrors they'd witnessed trying to reach the relative safety of the Bangladesh camps.
"They killed and killed and piled the bodies up high. It was like cut bamboo," said Mumtaz, a Rohingya woman from the village of Tula Toli in western Myanmar, who woke up to find herself on a mound of charred bodies.*

*"In the pile there was someone's neck, someone's head, someone's leg. I was able to come out, I don't know how."




Myanmar has repeatedly denied claims it is deliberately attacking Rohingya civilians, saying it is fighting against a terrorist insurgency in the province. The country's military recently exonerated itself of any wrongdoing following an investigation.*

*However, Tillerson is not the first world leader to call out Myanmar for engaging in ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.

British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said on November 13 the actions of the military in Rakhine State "looks like ethnic cleansing," adding it was a "major humanitarian crisis."

Two months earlier, just a few weeks after the violence erupted, UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said Myanmar's military operation was a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing."*

*On Wednesday, it was announced the Pope would meet with the head of Myanmar's military as part of his visit, as well as separately with a small group of Rohingya refugees.
CNN's Michelle Kosinski contributed to this report
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/22/politics/tillerson-myanmar-ethnic-cleansing/index.html*


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:09 AM, November 23, 2017
*Violence still forcing them to flee home*
*ICRC official says on Rohingyas in Rakhine*




A Rohingya refugee woman collects dry wood from her makeshift shelter roof at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar yesterday. Photo: AFP
Porimol Palma
*Armed conflicts in Myanmar's Rakhine state have deescalated, but communal violence continues to force the Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh, an official of Red Cross said.*

"For some minority communities, it is difficult to make a living and lead a daily life without fear of or pressure from other communities," said Boris Michel, regional director for Asia and the Pacific of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He did not use the term “Rohingyas”.

"It is difficult for them to move around, have access to services and even to harvest crops. This situation is certainly continuing, which triggers the continuation of the movements towards Bangladesh," he said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star at ICRC Dhaka office on November 21.

Boris had arrived in Bangladesh on November 19 on a five day visit and visited refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

Over 620,000 Rohingyas have fled atrocities by Buddhist-majority Myanmar military since August 25, following attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on police posts. The new influx joins over 200,000 Rohingyas who fled violence in previous years.

*Around 200,000 more Rohingyas are expected to arrive in Bangladesh in the coming weeks, said US-based International Rescue Committee, despite Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's statement that there were no conflicts in Rakhine since September 5.*

The UN had earlier termed the violence as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, while rights groups termed it as “crimes against humanity and genocide”.

Operations of all aid agencies, except for ICRC, had been suspended in Rakhine since the violence erupted. World Food Programme (WFP) was finally allowed to operate there only in late October.

ICRC says there is a long history of inter-communal violence between different communities in Rakhine where Rohingyas are denied citizenship and basic services including health and education.

Additionally, the latest clashes between different armed groups, armed forces and security forces have aggravated the situation, Boris Michel said.

Asked about the steps taken by Myanmar authorities to defuse communal violence, he said authorities are aware of the necessity to restore law and order, but it is very challenging as "communities are involved in the communal violence".

He said ICRC is encouraging people at all levels – state, military, security forces and communities -- to make sure that the civilian population should not be subjected to violence.

"It is very important to restore law and order if we want to see the tension diminishing and if we want to see some solution in the future," said Boris Michel.

For this to happen, the ICRC official said, the solution has to be political under a "very deep agreement" between different stakeholders as there has been differences in access to services among different communities including jobs opportunities, health and education services.

He said there has to be massive investments to create economic opportunities so that all the grievances of all the communities can be met in a way to prevent any further communal violence.

On his visit to refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Michel said the scale of the requirements is huge given the massive population movement in a short time, and it is very difficult for Bangladesh and local authorities to absorb them.

He stressed on better management of emergency services in the refugee camps and ensuring law and order in and around the camps.

"There has to be good balance between local communities and the refugees. Otherwise, it can quickly turn into problems locally," Boris Michel warned.

This is because local communities see their daily lives totally disrupted by the arrival of other people, which creates imbalance in terms of job opportunities, business, security and access to land, he added.

"So, it is a very complex situation to handle," he said.

The international community needs to be committed to financing emergency response to the crisis until Bangladesh and Myanmar find a political solution, Boris added.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...violence-still-forcing-them-flee-home-1495204


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## Banglar Bir

*China’s popularity in Bangladesh dips a bit over Myanmar issue*
Afsan Chowdhury, November 23, 2017




China has rapidly moved from an emerging popular country in Bangladesh to a lesser pedestal. For a while, China basked in the sunshine of a post-India dominated Bangladesh scenario, but it didn’t last a full season. Myanmar and Rohingyas intervened and China’s role in standing by Myanmar has eroded that position.

While China seems least bothered, it does appear that the balance of unpopularity is at play here. India has benefitted the most from this as its fence sitting on the issue which has driven a further wedge in the already not so happy relationship now looks lot less selfish. China seems a lot more like India in Bangladesh’s public opinion space.
*
Both China and India appear to be unsure about a standard South Asian policy where both countries are as they battle for domination*. India’s disadvantage is its historical record where its treatment of the smaller neighbors in the region has not been positive. The result has been a long running resentment despite ongoing trade, culture and people to people activities. South Asian non-Indians think of the regional super power as a not very neighbor sensitive power with mega ambitions.
*
The biggest beneficiary of this new equation has been China,* who moved into the region recently with its billions of investable surplus to feed the hunger of aspiring smaller economies. Taking advantage of the already existing welcome-mat generated by default due to India’s short sighted foreign policy, China had a honeymoon period, particularly in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

But in Bangladesh that crumbled quite rapidly as China firmly stood behind Myanmar during what was described by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sk. Hasina as “the most difficult period we have seen since the liberation war of 1971”. China was absent in such a period as its ally was Myanmar. While no stocks are crashing down, enthusiasm is less about China than before the Rohingyas marched in.

While India has a longer track-record built over many years apart from the socio-ethnic affinities, China is a new kid on the block. Its Myanmar’s greatest protector and Myanmar is the villain of the Rohingya piece. India is also seen as a backer of sorts but the sense of “betrayal’ is far less with it as its obvious that India’s own influence is not high in Myanmar. *That fact has not worked in favor of China who are Myanmar’s best friend now.
Regional friends and enemies*
With neither parties looking like they consider Bangladesh as a necessary friend compared to Myanmar, options rethink is inevitable. Since nobody takes the issue of Rohingya terrorism threat very seriously, most think that the time is right to look for fresh friends rather than just trash “historical enemies”

*That process includes searching for new allies which is the US, the only one who has run a few extra yards in favor of Bangladesh on the issue.*

Interestingly, Bangladesh has been reticent about an alliance with the US for a while and the present regime was quite unhappy with the US when America’s IS problem began and it said they were big in Bangladesh. Bangladesh denied this presence claiming that while a few IS activists may be strewn around, the majority of Jihadis are homegrown and home inspired led by several local outfits like the JMB.

The US Government spent considerable sum of money supporting or funding ‘IS is here’ type research and related activities but Sk. Hasina has been tough on this approach and thrown the research and researchers out. With IS’s fall, a better space for negotiations now exist.

The US is making positive news on the Rohingya issue which are all pro-Bangladesh. While the softness towards Aung Sun Suu Kyi among the Western liberals is high, the reaction of Europe in particular has been higher compared to the kind of benign indulgence noticed in the Indian and Chinese circles towards the Myanmar regime.

Several senior US, EU and Canadian officials have visited Bangladesh and they are more open about their support than expected. Since the West has little stake in Myanmar it’s possible for them to take such a stance. Just as China can’t and nor can India albeit at a lesser degree given their involvement.

While it doesn’t at all look like a sea change is about to occur over the Rohingya issue or kick off a new “cold war’ with the old West pitched against the ex-socialist camp, it’s clear that the situation has become more fluid than it was before even six months.

The West is smarting from China’s trade surplus gathering and investment but the Rohingya issue gives it an opportunity to occupy the moral ground. It’s a layer of sugar laid over the trade war cake but its real and everything points to a Western initiative which China will not like.

India won’t like either but with the West as its firm ally, it can hide under the big tent. How much impact of this new China-West equation will have on the Rohingya crisis is another matter* but China’s image as the new knight on the white steed fighting the Indian dragon in South Asia has taken a big hit.*
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/23/chinas-popularity-bangladesh-dips-bit-myanmar-issue/


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## Banglar Bir

*UN envoy: Sexual attacks against Rohingya may be war crimes*
Tribune Desk
Published at 11:52 AM November 23, 2017
Last updated at 01:23 PM November 23, 2017




Syed Zakir Hossain
*The UN envoy said widespread atrocities have been orchestrated and perpetrated by Myanmar’s military and may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide*
UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten has said the widespread atrocities against Rohingya women and girls may amount to war crimes.

She made the statement at a press conference on Thursday, reports the Indian Express.

Pramila, who met many Rohingya victims of sexual violence in Bangladesh camps during a visit this month, also fully endorsed the assessment by UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein that Rohingya have been victims of “ethnic cleansing.”

The UN envoy said widespread atrocities have been orchestrated and perpetrated by Myanmar’s military and may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

She also indentified the widespread use of sexual violence as one of the reason that forced more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar.

She said it was “also a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingya as a group”.
Patten said during her visit to the Rohingya camps she heard heartbreaking, shocking and horrific accounts of abuses committed cold bloodedly with unparallelled hatred against the Rohingya community.

She said sexual violence including gang rape by soldiers, forced public nudity and sexual slavery and it was clearly being used “as a tool of dehumanisation and as a form of punishment.”
Quoting the witnesses, she said even before August 25, Myanmar troops threw Rohingya babies into fires or into village wells to contaminate the water and deprive residents of drinking water.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/2017/11/23/un-envoy-sexual-attacks-rohingya-may-war-crimes/


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## Banglar Bir

10:24 AM, November 23, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:53 PM, November 23, 2017
*Rohingya repatriation deal inked*
*'But it has no deadline'*




Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali meets with Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at Suu Kyi's office on November 23, 2017. Photo: Collected
UNB, Naypyitaw
*Bangladesh and Myanmar finally signed an 'instrument' on Rohingya repatriation on Thursday with no ending deadline amid high hopes that the forcibly displaced Rohingyas will start returning to their homeland within the next two months.*
The two neighbouring nations struck the instrument in the afternoon following a meeting between Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in the morning at Suu Kyi's office.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar's Minister for State Counsellor's office Kyauw Tint Swe signed the instrument.

They also exchanged ratification of the boundary agreement 1998.
OPINION: Is Bangladesh falling for Myanmar's ploy?
Minister Mahmood Ali made the disclosure of signing the 'Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State' after they reached a much-sought consensus on the Rohingya repatriation.

Talking to UNB, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said the repatriation process will start soon. "This is the first step. We'll start our second step work now."

Asked about deadline, he said there is timeframe but he will tell details in Dhaka and it does not make it clear whether Myanmar agreed on specific timeframe for taking back all the Rohingyas.

When approached, a diplomat told UNB that there no such timeframe over completion of Rohingyas repatriation. "Our best efforts were there."

The bilateral instrument was being negotiated by officials of the two countries for the last couple of months.

On Wednesday morning, the senior officials of both countries negotiated the draft at their level. Later in the afternoon, Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali and the Union Minister U Kyaw Tint Swe resolved the remaining issues and finalised the draft after discussion.

The 'arrangement' stipulates that the return shall commence within two months, said the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry in a statement.

A Joint Working Group will be established within three weeks of signing the 'Arrangement'. A specific bilateral instrument (physical arrangement) for repatriation will be concluded in a speedy manner.

During the visit, Mahmood Ali and U Kyaw Tint Swe also exchanged the long-awaited "Instrument of Ratification" of the agreement on demarcation of the land section of the boundary north of the Naaf River concluded in 1998.

The two countries also signed "Supplementary Protocol on the demarcation of a fixed boundary in the Naaf River" earlier agreed in 2007.

Minister Ali also handed over three ambulances for Rakhine State as gift from the government of Bangladesh to the Union Minister of Social Welfare, Relief Resettlement U Win Myat Aye at latter's office in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday morning.

The Foreign Minister will brief the media on Saturday.

He said since their houses are destroyed and burned in Rakhine State it might take time to create conditions for their living.

The government did not share what are the terms and conditions mentioned in the signed arrangement creating confusion on how the repatriation will be executed.

Earlier, Minister Ali's meeting with Suu Kyi began at 10:00 am (Myanmar time) and it lasted for 45 minutes.

Over 622,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border and taken shelter in Cox's Bazar district since August 25 amid persecution by Myanmar military in their Rakhine State.

Referring to the influx of Rohingyas to Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a programme on the outskirts of Dhaka on Thursday that these Myanmar nationals are a burden on Bangladesh and urged Myanmar to start their repatriation soon.

Bangladesh in its senior officials meeting here on Wednesday raised the issue of keeping a provision for a timeframe over completion of the Rohingya repatriation, a senior official told UNB.

Dhaka also sought involvement of the international community, including the UN agencies in verification process.

Myanmar did not meet Bangladesh's full expectation on the repatriation timeframe as it only agrees on starting time but not the ending point, a senior diplomat told UNB.

Another diplomat said Myanmar wants to start the repatriation within the next two months from now.

He said Bangladesh wants to end the Rohingya repatriation by one year though Myanmar keeps it as an open-end one without giving any specific timeframe for completion.

On involvement of UN agencies in repatriation process, Myanmar shows a bit of soft position but nothing will be legally-binding one, an official told UNB.

Bangladesh and Myanmar, however, agreed on formation of joint working group at foreign-secretary level to start the repatriation process of all Rohingyas.
READ MORE: Amnesty against repatriation amid rights violation
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh Ambassador to Yangon M Sufiur Rahman and representatives from Home Ministry and Prime Minister's Office also attended the negotiations on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Foreign Minister and the Myanmar's Minister for State Counsellor's office had a marathon meeting when they discussed various issues of bilateral interest, including the Rohingya issue.

Soon after the one-to-one lengthy meeting, the Foreign Minister attended the ministerial meeting on 'Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State'.

The senior officials' meeting was co-chaired by Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Myint Thu and Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque.

US Secretary of State Rex W Tillerson has said the United States will pursue accountability through US law, including possible targeted sanctions on Myanmar if the situation does not improve in Rakhine State.

"After a careful and thorough analysis of available facts, it is clear that the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya," said the US Secretary of State on Wednesday.

The international community is also watching the talks and its subsequent outcome as they want to see the safe and dignified return of the Rohingyas as quickly as possible.
READ MORE: Responsibility is Myanmar's, say diplomat
Amid mounting international pressure, Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday said they have planned to sign a MoU with Bangladesh which will enable them to start the repatriation process of all the Rohingyas from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, earlier, expressed her hope that Bangladesh and Myanmar will reach a decision to sign a MoU and an agreement on safe repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh.

She said the EU is supporting this process and will stand ready to accompany this process in the coming week.

Earlier, the foreign ministers of Asian and European countries, in general, agreed in many areas on Rohingya issue and asked for immediate cessation of hostilities, halting of outflow, early return of externally displaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh.

They also asked for implementation of recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission for durable solutions.
http://www.thedailystar.net/country...-ah-mahmood-ali-sits-aung-san-suu-kyi-1495387


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh Myanmar signed deal for Rohingya repatriation*
*Special Correspondent*
*Bangladesh and Myanmar have finally signed a deal on Rohingya repatriation with no specific deadline but with high hopes that the forcibly displaced Rohingyas will start returning to their homeland within the next two months.*
The two neighbouring nations struck the deal following a meeting between Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi onThursday morning at Suu Kyi’s office.

They also exchanged ratification of boundary agreement 1998.
Earlier in the morning, Bangladesh handed over an ambulance to Myanmar authorities for use in Rakhine State.

Minister Mahmood Ali made the disclosure of signing the ‘Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State’ after they reached a much-sought consensus on the Rohingya repatriation.
Over 622,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border and taken shelter in Cox’s Bazar district since August 25 amid persecution by Myanmar military in their Rakhine State.

Referring to the influx of Rohingyas to Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a programme on the outskirts of Dhaka on Thursday that these Myanmar nationals are a burden on Bangladesh and urged Myanmar to start their repatriation soon.
Bangladesh also sought involvement of the international community, including the UN agencies in verification process.

However, Myanmar did not meet Bangladesh’s full expectation on the repatriation timeframe as it only agrees on starting time but not the ending point, a senior diplomat told UNB.
“We’ve agreed on many things though our expectation is not met fully. It’s not possible in any negotiations,” he said wishing to remain unnamed.

He said Bangladesh wants to end the Rohingya repatriation by one year though Myanmar keeps it as an open-end one without giving any specific timeframe for completion.
Bangladesh and Myanmar, however, agreed on formation of joint working group at foreign-secretary level to start the repatriation process of all Rohingyas.

“We had a good discussion today (Wednesday). We hope to sign the deal tomorrow (Thursday). It’s now at the final stage,” Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told UNB at hotel lobby after a meeting with Myanmar’s Minister for State Counsellor’s office Kyauw Tint Swe on Wednesday night.
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh Ambassador to Yangon M Sufiur Rahman and representatives from Home Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office also attended the meeting on Wednesday.

Earlier, the foreign ministers of Asian and European countries, in general, agreed in many areas on Rohingya issue and asked for immediate cessation of hostilities, halting of outflow, early return of externally displaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh
.
They also asked for implementation of recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission for durable solutions.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=3&date=0#Tid=15147


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## Banglar Bir

*China’s 3-stage plan to resolve Rohingya crisis*
*Special Correspondent*
*China, a close neighbor of Myanmar, has proposed a three-stage approach to solve the Rohingya crisis asking for a ceasefire in Myanmar’s Rakhine State so that Rohingya Muslim refugees can return from Bangladesh. *
More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August driven out by a military clearance operation in Buddhist majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Amid a burgeoning humanitarian catastrophe, rights groups have accused the Myanmar military of committing atrocities, while foreign critics have blasted Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner who leads the country’s less than two-year-old civilian administration, for failing to speak out more strongly.

On Monday, Suu Kyi opened a Asia-Europe Meeting for foreign ministers that had been scheduled to take place in Myanmar before the outbreak of the current crisis.

Speaking in Naypyitaw on Sunday having arrived from Dhaka, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China believed Myanmar and Bangladesh could work out a mutually acceptable way to end the crisis.
“The first phase is to affect a ceasefire on the ground, to return to stability and order, so the people can enjoy peace and no longer be forced to flee,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement citing Wang.

“With the hard work of all sides, at present the first phase’s aim has already basically been achieved, and the key is to prevent a flare-up, especially that there is no rekindling the flames of war.”
Visiting Myanmar last week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made many of the same points, but he also called for a credible investigation into reports of atrocities.
*Repatriation process*
Once a ceasefire is seen to be working, Wang said talks between Myanmar and Bangladesh should find a workable solution for the return of refugees, and the final phase should be to work toward a long-term solution based on poverty alleviation.

Myanmar and Bangladesh officials began talks last month to settle a repatriation process for refugees, and Bangladesh’s foreign minister expects to take those talks to the next level in coming days.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ASEM meeting, European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said: “we believe that stopping the violence, the flow of refugees and guarantee full humanitarian access to the Rakhine state, and safe, sustainable repatriation of refugees are going to be key.”

Mogherini, who also visited Bangladesh over the weekend, said, “There’s a real possibility of Myanmar and Bangladesh reaching a memorandum of understanding and agreement for the safe repatriation of refugees to Myanmar.”

She said the European bloc was ready to help with the process.
It was unclear, however, whether a safe return was possible - or advisable - given that thousands of Rohingya women and children are still stranded on the beaches trying to flee hunger and instability in Rakhine.

Myanmar intends to resettle most refugees who return to Rakhine state in new “model villages”, rather than on the land they previously occupied, an approach criticized in the past by the United Nations as effectively creating permanent camps.
*Violence largely over*
The refugee crisis erupted after the military launched a brutal counter-insurgency operation against the militants after attacks on an army base and 30 police posts in Rakhine on Aug 25.
Myanmar’s military has said that all fighting against the Rohingya militants died out on Sept 5.
The group behind those attacks, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), had declared a one-month ceasefire on Sept 10, which was rejected by the Myanmar government. But there have been no serious clashes since.

The United States and other Western countries have become more engaged with Myanmar in recent years, since it began a transition to civilian government after nearly 50 years of military rule. Currently, there is a power sharing arrangement, whereby Myanmar’s generals retain autonomy over defence, internal security and border issues.

China has close relations with both Myanmar and Bangladesh, and has long been a key player in lawless borderlands where rebel ethnic groups have fought Myanmar’s government for decades. The conflicts in those border regions have occasionally pushed thousands of refugees to seek shelter in China.
Since the Rohingya crisis, China has repeatedly expressed support for what it calls the Myanmar government’s efforts to protect stability.



*UN revives Myanmar resolution*
*Special Correspondent*
*The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on human rights, voted 135 in favour, 10 against with 26 abstentions on the draft text that also asks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a special envoy on Myanmar.*
The move revived a UN resolution that was dropped last year due to the country’s progress on human rights.

For 15 years the Third Committee annually adopted a resolution condemning Myanmar’s human rights record, but last year the European Union did not put forward a draft text, citing progress under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi.

However, in the past three months more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military began an operation against Rohingya militants, who attacked 30 security posts and an army base in Rakhine state on Aug 25.

This prompted the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to put forward a new draft UN resolution, which will now be formally adopted by the 193-member General Assembly next month. The resolution deepens international pressure, but has no legal consequences.

Myanmar’s army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rapes and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the military operation in Rakhine state.
Top UN officials have denounced the violence as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government has denied allegations of ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

The draft resolution approved by the Third Committee on Thursday urges Myanmar to grant access. It also calls for full and unhindered humanitarian aid access and for Myanmar to grant full citizenship rights to Rohingya.
They have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, where many Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

*Aid groups urge UN rights council session on Rohingya crisis*
*Holiday Report*
*Amnesty International and 34 other humanitarian groups on Monday called for the UN Human Rights Council to hold a special session on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.*
We “strongly support calls for a UN Human Rights Council special session on the deteriorating human rights situation in Myanmar and urge your delegations to support holding such a session as soon as possible”, an open letter addressed to the council said.

“In light of serious reports of human rights violations… we believe that a special session is imperative to launch decisive action and ensure international scrutiny and monitoring of the situation.”
The groups said the council should adopt a resolution that would call on the Myanmar government to “immediately cease all human rights violations, including crimes against humanity” and allow human rights groups “full and unfettered access to all parts of the country”.

The 47-member council rarely convenes for a special session. In all, the UN group has held 26 since its inception in 2006.

A special session may be held at the request of at least a third of the member states, or 16 countries.
Earlier this month the UN Security Council dropped plans to adopt a resolution demanding an end to the violence in Myanmar in the face of strong opposition from China.

More than 620,000 Rohingya are languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army campaign launched in late August.

There have given chilling and consistent accounts of widespread murder, rape and arson at the hands of security forces.

The UN has said the scorched-earth operation, which has left hundreds of villages burned to ash in northern Rakhine state, amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has faced intense criticism outside Myanmar for her perceived failure to speak up for the Rohingya.

On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini joined a stream of diplomats to meet Suu Kyi in recent days as efforts intensify in hopes of resolving the crisis.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar sticks to 1992 formula on Rohingya repatriation*
UNB
Published at 10:14 PM November 23, 2017
Last updated at 10:34 PM November 23, 2017




This handout photograph released by Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 23, 2017 shows Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, left, and Myanmar Union Minister U Kyaw Tint Swe attending a bilateral agreement signing ceremony in Naypyidaw. Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to start repatriating Rohingya refugees in two months, the Dhaka government announced on November 23. "The return shall commence within two months," said Bangladesh in a statement issued after talks between its Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali and Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw *Focus Bangla*
*The arrangement contained the guiding principles and policy arrangements to systematically verify and receive the displaced persons from Rakhine State.*
Myanmar on Thursday said the instrument signed with Bangladesh on return of Rohingyas from Bangladesh to Myanmar was based on the joint statement signed in 1992 that Bangladesh has opposed all along.

The arrangement contained the general guiding principles and policy arrangements to systematically verify and receive the displaced persons from Rakhine State.

However, with regard to the principles and criteria of return under the 1992 Joint Statement, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in a diplomatic briefing on October 9 stressed that the situation of 1992 and current situation are entirely different.
*Also Read- Myanmar proposes taking back only verified Rohingya*
Referring to the recent Dhaka visit of Myanmar’s Union Minister at the Office of the state counsellor, Kyaw Tint Swe, on October 2, the foreign minister informed the diplomats that during the meeting the union minister has expressed Myanmar’s willingness to take back the “displaced residents” of Myanmar and proposed to follow the principle and criteria agreed upon in the 1992 “Joint Statement.”

“So, identification of Rohingyas based on their residence in Rakhine would not be realistic. Bangladesh therefore proposed and handed over a new arrangement to the visiting Minister outlining the principles and criteria for repatriation,” reads the Foreign Ministry statement on October 9.

Kyaw Tint Swe and AH Mahmood Ali signed the arrangement on return of displaced persons from Rakhine State on behalf of their respective countries on Thursday afternoon.
*Also Read- Bangladesh, Myanmar finally strike Rohingya repatriation deal*
The position of Myanmar is that the issues that emerge between neighbouring countries must be resolved amicably through bilateral negotiations, according to a statement from the Ministry of the Office of the State Counsellor, Myanmar.

The present arrangement, which had been agreed to by both countries based on their friendly and good neighbourly relations demonstrate the steadfast position of Myanmar and is a win-win situation for both countries, it said.
*Also Read- Repatriating Rohingya under 1992 agreement ‘will be difficult’*
Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali met State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday morning and discussed issues of mutual cooperation including trade, energy and connectivity under BCIM.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...3/myanmar-1992-formula-rohingya-repatriation/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Deal signed for Rohingya to return to Myanmar, but details are scarce*




Rohingya refugee Mumtaz and her seven-year-old daughter Razia
_By_ Ben Westcott, Rebecca Wright and Kocha Olarn
CNN
November 23, 2017
*Myanmar and Bangladesh have signed a memorandum of understanding on the return of possibly hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine state, a spokesman for Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Thursday.*
An estimated 615,000 Rohingya refugees have fled across the border into Bangladesh since August 25 when a new outbreak of violence began between the Myanmar military and armed militants in Rakhine state.

So far, no official details have been released on the agreement, what it would entail and under what circumstances the Rohingya would return.

A statement from Suu Kyi's spokesman confirmed the agreement had been signed but only said the pact was "a win-win situation for both countries."
Zaw Htay@ZawHtayMyanmar
Myanmar, Bangladesh sign Agreement on Repatriation
4:27 PM - Nov 23, 2017
Ro Nay San Lwin, a European-based Rohingya activist, told CNN that Bangladesh should not send any citizens back to Myanmar "unless citizenship and basic rights are guaranteed."

"I didn't find any clear statement how these refugees will be repatriated," he said. "I'm not sure whether they will be allowed to return to their original village. I'm not sure whether they will get back their own lands."

The Rohingya who have fled Rakhine state have brought with them stories of mass murder, rape and widespread destruction.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Myanmar's actions against the Rohingya were clearly "ethnic cleansing." Myanmar's military has repeatedly denied it has mistreated Rohingya civilians.

There is no indication how many displaced Rohingya might want to return to Myanmar in light of what has happened.
The agreement's announcement comes less than a week before Pope Francis is set to make a three-day visit to Myanmar. The Catholic leader is expected to push for greater acceptance of the country's Muslim minority.

It is also unclear how many refugees Myanmar might be willing to accept.
On November 15, Myanmar's commander in chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said preparations were being made to return refugees but "it is impossible to accept the number of persons proposed by Bangladesh."

"The situation must be acceptable for both local Rakhine ethnic people and Bengalis, and emphasis must be placed on (the) wish of local Rakhine ethnic people who are real Myanmar citizens," Hlaing wrote on his Facebook page.

"Only when local Rakhine ethnic people accept it, will all the people satisfy it."
Senior Myanmar authorities refuse to recognize the Rohingya as citizens, saying they are Bangladeshi or Bengali.

UK-based Rohingya activist Jamila Hanan said it's essential all Rohingya be granted citizenship in Myanmar before they're repatriated, something the country has long denied them.

"(Otherwise it) would be a deal to send the victims of genocide back into the hands of their perpetrators, where they would almost certainly be locked up in concentration camps," she said.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/deal-signed-for-rohingya-to-return-to.html


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## Banglar Bir

2:19 PM, November 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:58 PM, November 25, 2017
*Rohingya repatriation deal: Bangladesh’s interest kept intact, says foreign minister*




In this Reuters photo taken yesterday, Rohingya refugees line up to receive blankets outside Kutupalong refugee settlement near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Star Online Report
*- Repatriation cannot be done in given time frame*
*- Both countries agreed to take help from UNHCR*
*- Complexities, if there any, to be resolved through discussions*
*- ‘Physical arrangement’ for repatriation to be singed *
*- After repatriation, Rohingyas will be kept at temporary camps near to their abandoned homes*
*- Bangladesh proposed Myanmar to seek help from India, China for making makeshift camps for Rohingyas*

Expressing his satisfaction over the arrangement signed with Myanmar on repatriation of the Rohingyas, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali today said the deal hampered no interests of Bangladesh.




Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali MP and Union Minister of Myanmar U Kyaw Tint Swe sign the deal on the return of displaced Rohingyas at the State Counsellor's Office in Naypyidaw on Thursday, November 23, 2017. Photo: Foreign Ministry
The main thing is to send the Rohingyas back to Myanmar and the repatriation will be done in a “logical time frame”, the foreign minister told journalists while replying to a query during a press conference at his ministry office in Dhaka.

*Read More*




*Start Rohingya repatriation immediately*




*Rohingya crisis : Ensure quick, safe return*
“The repatriation process cannot be completed in a fixed time frame,” he said at the press conference organised to brief on the bilateral instrument signed by the two countries on Thursday.
Both Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to take help from UNHCR in the repatriation process, he said.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


----------



## Banglar Bir

*US ‘ethnic cleansing’ charge unhelpful, says Myanmar*
Rezaul, November 25, 2017




Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hold a joint press conference in Naypyitaw on Nov. 15.
*The US decision to label the Myanmar Army’s counter-insurgency operation in northern Rakhine as “ethnic cleansing” is “unhelpful” for Myanmar’s efforts to bring about durable peace in the state, President’s Office spokesperson U Zaw Htay said.*
After avoiding the term during his visit to Myanmar last week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday (Nov 22) described the Myanmar Army’s actions against Rohingya Muslims as “ethnic cleansing”.

The crisis developed after an Aug. 25 attack by militants against government security forces sparked a military clearance operation, which prompted over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee into Bangladesh amid allegations of human rights abuses.

“The situation in northern Rakhine State constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” Tillerson said in a statement.

“That statement is unhelpful for Myanmar [which is] trying to find long-term solutions. We found that the statement failed to mention the killings of Hindus and innocent civilians by ARSA, and its conclusions were reached without any proven facts,” U Zaw Htay told _The Irrawaddy_.

Washington will also pursue accountability through U.S. law, including possible targeted sanctions against those responsible for the alleged abuses, which have driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh, according to the statement.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/25/us-ethnic-cleansing-charge-unhelpful-says-myanmar/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Foreign minister: UNHCR will be involved in Rohingya repatriation*
UNB
Published at 01:29 PM November 25, 2017
Last updated at 02:10 PM November 25, 2017




File photo of Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali*Dhaka Tribune*
*Nearly a million Rohingya are believed to be staying in Bangladesh*
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said the UNHCR will be involved in the process of repatriating the forcibly displaced Rohingyas to their homeland.

“The signing of the arrangement is an initial step … there are more steps. UNHCR will be involved in the repatriation process of Rohingyas,” he told the media on Saturday, while briefing on his recent Myanmar visit.

He also hoped that repatriation of the Rohingyas will start within two months.

“Their houses have been torched … where will they stay after going back … I have talked to China and Myanmar over their rehabilitation there and they agreed to extend their cooperation,” the foreign minister said.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an ‘arrangement’ on Thursday in Naypyidaw for sending back the Rohingya. Mahmood Ali and Myanmar Union Minister U Kyaw Tint Swe signed the bilateral instrument at the State Counsellor’s Office in Myanmar.

The ‘arrangement’ stipulates that the return shall commence within two months. A Joint Working Group will be established within three weeks of signing the ‘arrangement’. A specific bilateral instrument (physical arrangement) for repatriation will be concluded in a speedy manner.

More than 600,000 Rohingya fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and took shelter in Bangladesh since late August after the Myanmar military launched a brutal offensive targeting the minority group.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...er-unhcr-will-involved-rohingya-repatriation/


*Guarantee their safety first*
Tribune Editorial
Published at 05:16 PM November 24, 2017
Last updated at 01:25 AM November 25, 2017




Photo: *MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
If promises of safe repatriation are empty, then we are looking at a humanitarian crisis that will only get worse with time*
Since August 25, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have crossed over to Bangladesh fleeing persecution, and this refugee inflow has not yet stopped.

And while the solution do ultimately lie in repatriation to Myanmar, sending the Rohingya back only makes sense if their safety can be assured, and if Myanmar stops its anti-Rohingya campaign.

An agreement for Rohingya repatriation has been signed following a meeting between Bangladesh’s AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, but how much sense does it make at this point?

If repatriation does happen, it must comply with the proposal made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and so must be a lasting solution.

As things currently stand, Bangladesh must be sceptical of the agreement.

There are reports from Human Rights Watch claiming that Myanmar has been setting up camps for the refugees, which would effectively be open air detention camps.

HRW also fears that the rights and movement of the Rohingya would be severely curtailed, and they would be deprived of basic day-to-day necessities.

So while repatriation is a good goal, it is of utmost importance to make sure these refugees are not plunged into a situation which makes them worse off than they were before — and this fear is precisely the reason why so many Rohingya do not want to return to Myanmar.

Myanmar has been dishonest before, and if promises of safe repatriation are empty, then we are looking at a humanitarian crisis that will only get worse with time.

To that end, we hope Myanmar will allow full access to international agencies to monitor the condition of the Rohingya — after all, they should have nothing to hide.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/2017/11/24/guarantee-safety-first/

11:51 AM, November 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:09 PM, November 25, 2017
*Many hurdles there to cross before repatriation: Prof Ali Riaz*
*'Absence of third-party, int'l body to monitor progress most surprising, worrying'*




Rohingya children playfully slide down a sloping road at Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazary. File photo: Reuters
UNB, Dhaka
*Though Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation arrangement document to start a process in next two months, there are too many hurdles to get over before any repatriation to commence, says an international analyst.*
"I'm afraid that within the period stipulated in the signed instrument Myanmar may rush and eventually engage in a small-scale symbolic repatriation to fend off international pressure," Prof Ali Riaz told UNB in an interview.

Amid growing international pressure, Myanmar signed a bilateral document with Bangladesh on Rohingya repatriation on Thursday with no ending deadline amid high hopes that the forcibly displaced Rohingyas will start returning to their homeland within the next two months.

Over 622,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border and taken shelter in Cox's Bazar district since August 25 amid persecution by Myanmar military in their Rakhine State.

Prof Riaz of the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University, USA said history clearly indicates of such strategy of the Myanmar regime.

"The 'instrument' may neither ensure repatriation of all Rohingya refugees nor allow Bangladesh to involve the international community if the process gets stalled," he said.

The absence of a third-party, particularly an international body, to monitor the progress of the implementation is the most surprising and worrying to him, he said posing a question, "If a dispute arises how will it be resolved?"

Responding to a question, the analyst said the current document is only a precursor to the 'physical instrument' as mentioned in the document made public by both governments.

"Therefore, the main challenge is to sign and implement a mutually acceptable, effective and workable instrument with a specific deadline and signposts along the way," he said.

Prof Riaz said it has to include the modus operandi of the dispute resolution. "But, the most important challenge is to come to an agreement about the 'identification' of the Myanmar citizens taken refuge in Bangladesh and the specific modalities of repatriation."

He also said, "What's the legal standing of the 'instrument'? It's neither an MOU nor an agreement. Whether it is legally binding to each party is not clear."

After the signing, Myanmar says it is a win-win situation for two countries.

Sought his views on Myanmar 's such claim, Prof Riaz said, "Unfortunately, I don't see it a 'win-win' solution."

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on October 2 said the 1992 agreement is inadequate, but, according to Myanmar government, this instrument is on the basis of the 1992 agreement.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guteras, in his statement to the UNSC on September 28, underscored the inadequacy of the 1992 agreement. "As of now, the instrument is lopsided. We'll have to wait to see whether the second instrument can address these issues. But, the lack of clarity only benefits Myanmar," Prof Riaz said.

Prof Riaz said China has been insisting on a bilateral solution from the beginning of the crisis instead of an internationally-mediated one. "The current developments seem to be consistent with its line of diplomacy."

He also said, "The Bangladesh government, particularly the Foreign Ministry, will be able to tell us whether Bangladesh faced any pressure from China, but evidently the actions of the government show that its leaning on a bilateral solution."

While bilateral negotiations are necessary for bringing an end to the crisis, the question is whether a bilateral mechanism without international involvement is the right course of actions, Prof Riaz said.

Myanmar government sources said applications forms will be sent to Bangladesh for the Rohingyas to fill up with their personal details and the completed forms will be returned to Myanmar for verification. If these personal details are all right, the repatriation will be arranged immediately.

The Myanmar government has prepared new villages to accommodate the refugees, including the Taung Pyo Letwe and Nga Khu Ya villages in Maungdaw township, according to Myanmar media.

Union Minister for Social Welfare Relief and Resettlement Dr Win Myat Aye said Myanmar is not shirking from its responsibility to the more than 600,000 refugees from Northern Rakhine now living in squalid makeshifts camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

"We would like to actually implement it (repatriation) because it's our responsibility. Regardless of the reason for fleeing their homes, we've to accept them back. It's the duty of the State," he was quoted as saying on the eve of the deal signing.

"In whichever ways they migrated, to arrange for systematic resettlement for them is our duty. Whatever happened, to provide humanitarian aids to them is the duty of the government. We're carrying out the duty of the government," he added.

The European Union has said it will monitor the implementation of the instrument signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar on return of Rohingyas to Myanmar with attention in full compliance with international law.

"We now expect the agreement signed (on Thursday) to be implemented without delay, and Myanmar to create the conditions on the ground that will allow for a voluntary, safe and dignified return of the refugees to their places of origin," said EU HighRepresentative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini.

*The UNHCR on Friday said the return of Rohingyas must be voluntary, and take place in safe and dignified conditions that pave the way for lasting solutions.*

*"At present, conditions in Myanmar's Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns," said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards.*

The 'Arrangement' stipulates that the return shall commence within two months, said the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry in a statement.

A Joint Working Group will be established within three weeks of signing the 'Arrangement'.

A specific bilateral instrument (physical arrangement) for repatriation will be concluded in a speedy manner.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...-refugee-repatriation-from-bangladesh-1496293

06:50 PM, November 24, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:29 PM, November 24, 2017
*UNHCR against immediate Rohingya repatriation*




Rohingya refugee Almor Yhan cries while she rests with relatives hours after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border at Shah Porir Dwip near Cox's Bazar. Photo: Reuters
Star Online Report
*Conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns of Rohingya refugees, UNHCR said today.*
“At present, conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns,” said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards at a press briefing in Geneva.

A press release issued in this regard said, UNHCR has not yet seen the details of the agreement.

“Refugees have the right to return. And a framework that enables them to exercise this right in line with international standards, will be welcome,” the press release added.

Some 622,000 people have fled Myanmar's northern Rakhine State since 25 August, triggered by a wave of violence underpinned by denial of citizenship and decades of deep discrimination.

It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely, without the informed consent of refugees or the basic elements of lasting solutions in place, said the UNCHR spokesperson.

“People must have the option of returning home, and not be confined to specific areas. Progress towards addressing the root causes of flight, including their lack of citizenship, as recommended by the Rakhine Advisory Commission, will also be crucial,” added the official.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...rohingya-repatriation-from-bangladesh-1495975


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Dhaka-Naypyidaw agreement: The Rohingya point of view*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 04:22 PM November 24, 2017
Last updated at 11:50 AM November 25, 2017




Rohingya refugee children carry supplies through Balukhali refugee camp, October 23, 2017 *Reuters*
*Some of the Rohingya people believe that the Myanmar government is toying with their emotions through the repatriation deal*
The Rohingya people living in Bangladesh have given a mixed reaction about a deal signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar on Thursday, outlining the repatriation process of the displaced Rohingya.

Dil Mohammad, 55, who has been living at the no man’s land along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border for the past three months, claimed to have lost his homestead at Maungdaw during the recent violence.

“We never imagined that we will have to abandon everything and leave our country. The Myanmar Army destroyed properties belonging to the Rohingyas in just one night,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

He added the Rohingya people are hoping to finally return home after hearing that the Bangladesh government has signed a repatriation deal with Myanmar.

However, some refugees expressed confusion over how long it would take for the repatriation deal to come into effect.

Commenting on the issue, octogenarian Shajahan Mia said: “I want to go back to my birthplace but do not want to flee again to save my life. I had fled Myanmar in 1991, 2000, 2012 and 2017.

“We are tired of running back and forth between the two countries.”

Some of the Rohingya people believe that the Myanmar government is toying with their emotions through this deal.

Shahida Khatun, hailing from Buthidaung, remains sceptical about the repatriation agreement.

“I do not want to comment on the matter. I hope that decisions benefitting the Rohingya people get implemented this time. I will believe in the effectiveness of this agreement once I see some positive development,” she told the Dhaka tribune.

Many Rohingya are living in Bangladesh for decades, and are longing for their homeland in Myanmar.

Abdur Rahim, who arrived in Bangladesh at the age of 17 in 1991, said: “I have heard many stories from my parents about Myanmar. My roots are in Rakhine, and I want to go and settle there someday. Here, we are introduced as refugees, but I cannot accept this identity.”

According to the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, more than 631,500 displaced Rohingya entered Bangladesh in between August 25 and November 24 following the recent spate of violence in northern Rakhine state.

Human Rights Watch, on the basis of satellite images, revealed that at least 288 villages were partially or completely burned in northern Rakhine State since August 25.

The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens and forces them to live in camps under apartheid-like conditions.

Even before the recent influx began, several thousands of Rohingyas were already living in Bangladesh since 1991.

According to a statement of Press Information Department (PID), the government has already registered more than 600,000 Rohingyas, to help ease the repatriation process.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...haka-naypyidaw-agreement-rohingya-point-view/


*HRW: The idea that Burma will welcome back the Rohingya with open arms is laughable*
Reuters
Published at 03:41 PM November 24, 2017
Last updated at 12:33 PM November 25, 2017




Over 620,000 have crossed over to Bangladesh since August 25 when the Myanmar military started a brutal operation against the people which led them to flee their homes *Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune*
*While Aung San Suu Kyi has said repatriation of the largely stateless minority would be based on residency and would be 'safe and voluntary,' there were concerns that the country’s autonomous military could prove obstructive*
Human rights groups called on Friday for international agencies to be allowed to monitor the planned repatriation of the Rohingya from Bangladesh to the homes they fled in Myanmar during the past three months.

The two governments signed a pact on Thursday settling terms for the repatriation process. They aim to start the return of the Rohingya in two months in order to reduce pressures in the sprawling refugee camps that have mushroomed in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh.

“The idea that Burma will now welcome them back to their smouldering villages with open arms is laughable,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch, using the former name for Myanmar.

“Instead of signing on to a public relations stunt, the international community should make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security, an end to the idea of putting returnees in camps, the return of land and the rebuilding of destroyed homes and villages.”

Around 620,000 Rohingyas sought sanctuary in Bangladesh after Myanmar’s military launched a brutal counter insurgency in their villages across northern parts of Rakhine state following attacks by Rohingya militants on an army base and police posts on August 25.

The United Nations and United States have described the military’s actions as “ethnic cleansing,” and rights groups have accused security forces of atrocities, including mass rape, arson and killings.

While Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said repatriation of the largely stateless minority would be based on residency and would be “safe and voluntary,” there were concerns that the country’s autonomous military could prove obstructive.

The memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on Thursday said a joint working group would be set up within three weeks to prepare the way for the return of Rohingyas.

But it gave scant details about the criteria of return and of what role, if any, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, could play.

“It is standard practice in voluntary repatriation operations that UNHCR would be involved to ensure international standards are met for any type of return agreement,” said UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic. “We haven’t seen the paper.”

Right watchers said other important points that were not addressed in the statements released separately by the two governments included the protection of Rohingya against further violence, a path to resolving their legal status and whether they would be allowed to return to their own homes.

Suu Kyi’s spokesman was not immediately available for comment on Friday, and had declined to comment on these concerns when contacted by Reuters late on Thursday.

Charmain Mohamed, Amnesty International’s director for refugee and migrant rights, said the UN and international community “have been completely sidelined” and the talk of return is “premature” while the flow of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh continues.

Driven out of Myanmar predominantly by chaos, starvation and fear, hundreds continue to pour daily into Bangladesh, humanitarian workers say. While the violence has mostly ceased, the Rohingya say they have largely lost access to sources of livelihood such as their farms, fisheries and markets.

“We will go back if they don’t harass us and if we can live life like the Buddhists and other ethnic groups. Our educated children should get government jobs like the others,” said Sayer Hussein, 55, who arrived in Bangladesh two months ago.

Thousands of Rohingyas, mainly old people, women and children, are still stranded on beaches, waiting for a boat to take them to Bangladesh.

Some independent estimates suggest there could still be a few hundred thousand Rohingyas in Rakhine state.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...side-monitors-needed-rohingya-return-myanmar/

*‘We are ready to return to Myanmar only if our civic rights are ensured’*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 03:59 PM November 24, 2017
Last updated at 11:44 AM November 25, 2017




The Rohingya influx won’t be easy on the government’s pockets |*Reuters*
*According to a statement of Press Information Department (PID), the government has already registered more than 600,000 Rohingyas, to help ease the repatriation process.*
It has been three months since the recent refugee crisis started in Bangladesh, as an unprecedented number of displaced Rohingyas began a mass exodus from northern Rakhine state, following a campaign of terror perpetrated by the Myanmar Army.

To get an in-depth view of the current state of the refugee crisis, a Dhaka Tribune correspondent visited the Rohingya camps located in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar district.

More than a hundred Rohingya men and women, who fled Myanmar after August 25 this year, were asked their opinion about returning to their homeland.

A majority of the refugees stated that they are ready to go home only if the Myanmar government ensures their basic human rights and ethnic identity.

Kalimuddin, 30, who left his home village in Maungdaw Township day after Eid-ul-Azha [August 27], became emotional while describing the life he had in Myanmar.

“I took my wife and five children, and fled the oppression of Myanmar army and Moghs. We made a life here at Jamtoli Camp but we miss our homeland dearly,” he said.

Kalimuddin firmly added that Myanmar is his country and he wants to go back but the Rohingya people’s civic rights must be ensured first.

Mohib Ullah, a sexagenarian hailing from Chindiprang area of Buthidaung, said: “Bangladesh is not our country and we are Rohingya not Bangali. We are Myanmar nationals and we have the right live in Rakhine despite Myanmar government’s repeated claims that we do not belong there.

“We just want to preserve our ethnic identity and our rights,” he added.

Anwar Hossain, who arrived in the camp from Bolibazar area under Maungdaw Township, echoed the same.

*Also Read- Dhaka, Naypyidaw agree to start Rohingya return in two months*

“If our Hukumat [government] agrees to accept us as Myanmar nationals and allow us to preserve our identities as Rohingya, then I will begin my journey back immediately, and will not seek compensation for the damages caused in the recent violence,” Anwar, who claimed to be a landlord in his locality, told the Dhaka Tribune.

Most of the youths living in the Kutupalong Rohingya camp also expressed their wish to return home.

However, Babul Miah, 55, who fled from Buthidaung’s Sherangdaung area following the unrest, is a bit pessimistic about the whole situation.

“We demand that our government recognize us as Myanmar nationals. Once we achieve this, obtaining other civic rights would be a bit easier,” he said.

The teenagers living in the camp, hailing mostly from Kinisi area of Buthidaung, said they are happy because they get food and shelter here, but they feel homesick and are eagerly waiting to return home.

According to the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, more than 631,500 displaced Rohingya entered Bangladesh in between August 25 and November 24 following the recent spate of violence in northern Rakhine state.

Human Rights Watch, on the basis of satellite images, revealed that at least 288 villages were partially or completely burned in northern Rakhine State since August 25.

The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens and forces them to live in camps under apartheid-like conditions.

Even before the recent influx began, several thousands of Rohingyas were already living in Bangladesh since 1991.

According to a statement of Press Information Department (PID), the government has already registered more than 600,000 Rohingyas, to help ease the repatriation process.


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## Banglar Bir

*NOVEMBER 25 2017 
Deal to repatriate Rohingya to Myanmar a 'stunt': Human Rights Watch
Lindsay Murdoch
Bangkok: Human Rights Watch has described an agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to begin repatriating more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine State as "laughable" and a "public relations stunt."*
In a brief statement Bangladesh said the neighbouring countries had agreed to start returning Rohingya to Rakhine within two months. The agreement was signed on Thursday in Naypyitaw.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Myanmar's top military general in Beijing on Friday to discuss China's support.

It comes as the Turnbull Government has for the first time used the term "ethnic cleansing" while referring to atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine state.

A day after the United States accused Myanmar security forces of committing "horrendous" crimes that amount to ethnic cleaning.

"Australia has consistently said perpetrators of serious international crimes must be held to account and we remain deeply concerned about reports of ethnic cleansing", a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told Fairfax Media

Australia has refused growing calls to cut the Australian Defence Force's military support for Myanmar's army that has carried out a brutal offensive against Rohingya, including United Nations-documented mass killings, rapes and arson.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has also avoided condemning Myanmar's military or the government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

China has offered diplomatic backing to its southern neighbour throughout the crisis, despite growing pressure from Western countries for the Myanmar military to be accountable for alleged atrocities.

Myanmar authorities have announced plans to bar Rohingya from lands they farmed before fleeing, instead forcing them to resettle in so-called "model villages" which the UN has warned will be little better than creating permanent camps.

Bill Frelick, Refugee Rights Director of Human Rights Watch, said "the idea that Burma [Myanmar] will now welcome them back to their smouldering villages with open arms is laughable."

"Instead of signing on to a public relations stunt, the international community should make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security, an end to the idea of putting returnees in camps, the return of land and the rebuilding of destroyed homes and villages, and many other conditions," he said.

"Even then, it will be hard to build the trust necessary for many Rohingya to voluntarily return unless the Burmese army begins the mammoth task of reversing decades of abuses and discrimination against its Rohingya population."

The agreement is based on a 1990s accord between the countries that allows for the return only of people able to prove their residency in Myanmar.

But more than one million Rohingya in Rakhine have been denied citizenship and other basic rights for years, and many of those who have fled have no identification papers.

Aid agencies have called for any repatriation agreement to allow international oversight but Myanmar insisted in talks with Bangladesh that there be none.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pushed hard for a repatriation agreement, telling journalists in Dhaka that Myanmar "must take back the refugees to their homeland."

Myanmar claims the Rohingya are interlopers from Bangladesh.
www.dfat.gov.au/jointappeal
http://www.smh.com.au/world/deal-to-repatriate-rohingya-to-myanmar-a-stunt-hrw-20171124-gzs87n.html

*Aung San Suu Kyi escapes with a bouncing cheque*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/aung-san-suu-kyi-escapes-with-a-bouncing-cheque.html





Naypyidaw: Bangladesh's Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali (left) shakes hands with Myanmar's de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday - AFP
By Dr. Anita Schug, Spokesperson of the European Rohingya Council
*The de facto leader of Myanmar surely has learned a lot from her more dominant power-sharing military generals. Till today, all her political decisions rhymed with the Buddhist radical ideology and the military, both of whom are determined to complete the “unfinished business” of total extermination of Rohingya from their ancestral land, Arakan*.

Even before Aung San Suu Kyi’s party took power, thousands of Rohingya were forced to leave their homes in 2012’s violence, and to this day as many as 120,000 Rohingya are living in concentration camps such as IDP camps in Sittwe. In 2016, in the period of her role as the state-counsellor, 87,000 Rohingya had to flee for their lives to neighbouring Bangladesh. Since August 25, 2017, another 625,000 severely traumatised Rohingya fled, becoming the abandoning living-products in Bangladesh.

Due to the mounting international pressures, possible trade and other sanctions and her being linked to unimaginable crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing along with the military hardliners, she and her government have been using different smear tactics to get away with their crimes against Rohingya ethnic minority.

Not only do all her actions and speeches prove of her to be morally corrupt as her military counterparts but also has enormously proved that she, too, has mastered in hit-and-run strategies without the fear of being ever caught and brought to justice.

The international community is very much aware of the outcome of the ongoing Rohingya crisis, and they also know nothing will save the Rohingya unless a persistent external power rushes to come into rescue. However, the international community has been very clumsy, continuing to turn a blind-eye in dealing with one of the largest ongoing refugee crisis and Rohingya exodus in history. 

Myanmar’s governing elites have been testing the scale of international community’s reaction since 1978. They have sensed the lack of political will of the international community towards stopping the Rohingya genocide. So far, Myanmar’s governing bodies and the military have successfully got away without being held accountable for their systemic and wide spread crimes inflicted upon this defenceless ethnic Rohingya minority.

With China and Russia as their life guards at the UN Security Council, and Kofi Annan as her prime agent in the international arena, Suu Ky’s government shows unexpected willingness to allow recent Rohingya refugee exodus back to Myanmar. The irony here is that these Rohingya refugees will be detained in so-called model villages instead of their original homes. Rohingya lands have been seized by the government and reallocated to local Rakhine Buddhist population.

The repatriation agreement signed on November 23 between Myanmar and Bangladesh is equivalent to a soon-to-be bounced cheque. No government of Myanmar has the intention to accommodate Rohingya as dignified humans, let alone Rohingya be allowed to enjoy Burmese citizenship. 

With the absence of Myanmar´s military who is actually calling the shots, Bangladesh makes a fatal mistake by handling the Repatriation of Rohingya bilaterally even without taking at least one from the UN refugee agency, the European Union or USA on board. 

The current repatriation agreement was seen as an escape route by Aung San Suu Kyi´s government as she is fully aware of the facts: “Rohingya will not be voluntarily returning without a guarantee for their citizenship rights. Only very handful of Rohingya will qualify to return based on the 1993 Repatriation Agreement. 

It is very unlikely that there will be any amendment of the 1982 citizenship law.”

Sheikh Hasina’s government is aware of the danger of marginalised Rohingya falling prey to Islamic militant groups if Rohingya remain as refugees in Bangladesh. The haste in signing the current agreement to repatriate Rohingya back to Myanmar shows her government is trying effectively to send them back as soon as possible, ignoring the past experiences that Rohingya who were repatriated earlier from Bangladesh continued to face systematic state-sponsored discrimination and waves of violence in Rakhine state. 

Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations. When the generosity of the international community and local Bangladeshis will exhaust, the government of Bangladesh will not tolerate anymore to be the dumping ground for Myanmar. It is then, the voluntary return will become forceful repatriation for Rohingya.

What will happen at the end is, thousands and thousands of Rohingya will be violently pushed back by Bangladesh to concentration camps in Myanmar where they will face starvation, disease and further cycles of violence.

Bangladesh has accepted the cheque from Myanmar which is determined to bounce very soon. We are yet to witness Bangladesh crying over its fatal mistake on Rohingya repatriation agreement, and Aung San Suu Kyi will be celebrating a good shoulder tap from the Military on her perfect escape again. Tragically, Rohingya will never get out of this man-made catastrophe; persecuted at home and pushed back by their neighbouring countries.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/aung-san-suu-kyi-escapes-with-a-bouncing-cheque.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar and Bangladesh strike a shameful deal on Rohingya refugees*
November 24, 2017 1.54am AEDT
*Author*
Rosa Freedman
Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of Reading
*Disclosure statement*
Rosa Freedman receives funding from the AHRC, the British Academy, the ESRC, and the Jacob Blaustein Institute.
*Partners*





University of Reading provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.
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A deal done: the foreign minister of Bangladesh, Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali, visits Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. EPA/Myanmar Ministry of Information
*Many Rohingya people who have fled the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar are now living as refugees in Bangladesh. And now, the two countries have reportedly struck a deal to return them home. Returning Rohingya people to the hands of their persecutors not only violates international law, but raises fundamental questions about how the world protects those fleeing the most heinous crimes and abuses.*

This deal comes just days after Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the Srebrenica massacre, which took place in Bosnia even as news cameras broadcast footage around the world – in much the same way as they have documented this latest crisis of ethnic cleansing.

As far as Myanmar is concerned, the deal will ease the increasing pressure it faces from both the United Nations and its Asian neighbours. The Myanmar government has no interest in welcoming Rohingya refugees home with open arms; those Rohingya who remain in Myanmar are treated as an alien people, denied citizenship and basic rights, and systematically persecuted. The Myanmar government maintains that the recent spike in violence did not amount to ethnic cleansing, that it was not state-sponsored, sanctioned or condoned, and that the Rohingya are safe to return. But those words are empty.

Abundant first-hand reports and documentary footage all point to the same thing: ethnic cleansing conducted by state actors. Top UN officialshave been using the term “ethnic cleansing” for some time, and the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is now using it too.

Given that Myanmar is refusing to take responsibility for the atrocities, let alone to provide guarantees of protection and justice for the Rohingya, it beggars belief not just that the country is asking those refugees to return, but that Bangladesh would provide its support.

Under international law, refugees who flee atrocities are afforded fundamental protections. Above all, they are protected by the principles of offering asylum and of non-refoulement – protection against return to a country where a person has reason to fear persecution.

Bangladesh will of course insist that Myanmar wants these people to return, and that only those choosing to do so voluntarily will be returned. But that ignores the facts on the ground. Rohingya refugees’ options are bleak: remain in the squalid camps, somehow escape into Bangladeshi society with no formal documentation or status, or return home and face persecution.

*Bleak future*
Bangladesh has not acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. The country has no law to regulate the administration of refugee affairs or guarantee refugees’ rights. And despite many decades of persecution and abuses in Myanmar, Bangladesh has never allowed the Rohingya to claim asylum. Those who make it to Bangladesh are placed in overcrowded camps without basic provisions, and there they remain unless they choose to return to Myanmar.

The idea of voluntary return stems from a 1993 agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, under which those Rohingya who can prove their identity must fill in forms with the names of family members, their previous address in Myanmar, their date of birth, and a disclaimer that they are returning voluntarily. But those who do choose to return will face extortion, arbitrary taxation, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Many will be required to undertake forced labour, and some will face state-sponsored violence and extrajudicial killings.




A refugee camp in in Coxsbazar, Bangladesh. EPA/Abir Abdullah
Those who remain in Bangladesh, on the other hand, face a lifetime in camps where human rights abuses are rife, with insufficient and inadequate food, water, housing or healthcare. Fleeing these camps leaves them undocumented and vulnerable to trafficking, exploitation and abuse.

Whatever individual Rohingya people in Bangladesh might decide to do, their future is bleak. And that’s not good enough. The international community has long known about the systematic persecution of this people. The international community has long ignored the atrocities perpetrated against them. And the international community has long tolerated the cover-ups and excuses from the government of Myanmar. This time it needs to be different.

Bangladesh should step up and provide refuge to those who have been seeking it for 25 years. Myanmar’s neighbouring states and allies should help properly resettle the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya who have fled Myanmar, and Myanmar itself should be held to account for the atrocities it commits.
There’s no point saying “never again” unless action is taken.
https://theconversation.com/myanmar-and-bangladesh-strike-a-shameful-deal-on-rohingya-refugees-88041

*China's Xi discusses Rohingya crisis with Myanmar army chief*
Reuters | Published: 08:15, Nov 25,2017




Rohingya refugee children stand by a bonfire in a field at Jamtali refugee settlement in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 24, 2017. — Reuters photo
*Chinese president Xi Jinping met with Myanmar's top military general in Beijing on Friday and discussed China's support amid international criticism over its treatment of the Rohingya minority, according a statement from the general.*

China has offered diplomatic backing to its southern neighbour throughout the crisis, despite growing pressure from Western countries for the Myanmar military to be accountable for alleged atrocities.

More than 600,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim group have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh in three months since insurgent attacks on security posts sparked a brutal counter-insurgency campaign.

China helped to block a resolution on the crisis at the UN Security Council, while the United States this week called the response by the military and local vigilantes ‘ethnic cleansing’, echoing earlier statements by senior United Nations officials.

According to a statement on the Facebook page of senior General Min Aung Hlaing, he and the Chinese leader on Friday discussed the ‘promotion of cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries, the situation of China standing on Myanmar's side at the forefront of the international community regarding the Rakhine issue,’ and other issues.

Min Aung Hlaing arrived in China on Tuesday and has largely met Chinese military officers during his visit.

The statement also said they discussed ongoing talks between Myanmar's government and myriad ethnic insurgent groups, some of whom are based along Myanmar's shared border with China.

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Xi said China was closely watching the peace process and was ‘willing to play a constructive role... for security and stability in their border areas.’

The Xinhua account did not mention Rakhine, but cited Xi saying that China ‘always respects Myanmar's sovereignty and territorial integrity’.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29125/chinas-xi-discusses-rohingya-crisis-with-myanmar-army-chief


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Repatriation Deal: What we know*
Tribune Desk
Published at 02:02 AM November 26, 2017
Last updated at 02:04 AM November 26, 2017




Rohingya refugees walk on the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border near Cox's Bazar REUTERS
*'Our only goal is to send the Rohingya back to their country, and there is no point in criticizing this agreement'*
The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement on November 23 to repatriate the Rohingya. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe signed the bilateral instrument “Arrangement on return of displaced persons from Rakhine State” on behalf of the respective governments in Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Taw.

The basic conditions of the agreement come from an older repatriation deal signed by both parties in 1992. Myanmar insisted on adhering to the conditions of the 1992 agreement. The Bangladesh government’s decision to agree to Myanmar’s demand has been critisized by various parties.

On Saturday, Minister AH Mahmood Ali addressed the media to brief them on the repatriation discussions.

He said: “Our only goal is to send the Rohingya back to their country, and there is no point in criticizing this agreement.”

The foreign minister had earlier called the terms of the 1992 Rohingya repatriation agreement unacceptable several times in the past.

Initially, only the Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh after October 2016, will be sent back. Rohingyas who have been living since before the October 2016 Rohingya crisis will be sent back later. The minister said it was impractical to put the process on a timeframe.

According to the terms, the repatriation will require proof of residency in Myanmar. The agreement refers to the Rohingya as “displaced Myanmar residents.”




They will have to produce copies of documents issued in Myanmar which indicate they are residents of Myanmar. This extends to, but is not limited to, citizenship identity cards, national registration cards, temporary registration cards, business ownership documents, school attendance, etc.

Any refugee documentation issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) will also be subject to similar verification. The government of Myanmar gets the last say in any dispute.

The repatriation is expected to commence as soon as possible. The concerns of Bangladesh and the international community have been taken into account on resettlement. The foreign minister also said Myanmar would rehabilitate the Rohingya in their former neighbourhoods, or any place near their previous homesteads. However, the repatriated “will not be settled in temporary places for a long period of time and their freedom of movement in Rakhine State will be allowed in conformity with the existing laws and regulations,” reads the MoU.

A joint working group is to be established within three weeks of signing to oversee the repatriation process. The process has to commence within two months after the signing. Both governments have agreed not to develop or implement any policy which may discriminate against any particular community and/or violate universally agreed principles on human rights.

Myanmar has also agreed to not prosecute or penalize any of the repatriated for illegal exodus and return, unless they are found to be specifically involved in terrorist or criminal activities.

After the repatriation, both governments will not provide residency or citizenship to any illegal immigrants.

The minister noted the agreement is legally binding, but greatly depends on the sincerity of both governments to implement it successfully.

*WHAT THE EXPERTS THINK*
*



*
* R Abrar (migration expert)*
We have signed a deal that we know will not yield any results. Chances are very slim that our expectation on repatriation and rehabilitation of Rohingyas will come true, but we would be enlightened if it turns into reality.

Earlier, Bangladesh have made some conditions like putting emphasis on a time-bound plan, involvement of third party, ensuring an atmosphere in Rakhine state so that they can voluntarily return there, but we are retreating from those points now.

The latest agreement allows third party involvement on repatriation and rehabilitation, but not in verification as the absolute decision on verification which lies with Myanmar and it essentially kills a process that could have been neutral.

The agreement stresses for documentation, but how come a community, who fled their count from atrocities and ethnic cleansing, can have their documents?

The whole process now depends on the goodwill of Myanmar. But I do not expect that it will yield a good outcome.

*



*
*M Humayun Kabir (former ambassador)*
The way Myanmar has played tricks with Bangladesh on Rohingya crisis is a part of interpolation of time. Myanmar wants to take them back under the 1992 agreement where they need documents that can prove citizenship from Bangladesh.

But the white card, that these people may have had, have their name and address in Burmese. But their names and addresses may not match with the registration made in Bangladesh because these Rohingyas are more willing to use the Rakhine language and have little idea of Burmese. In addition, they have fled their houses and most of them even do not have those documents.

The only way was to get a resolution might be from UNGA, but the next UNGA meeting might be in December, and Myanmar has thus played a trick by taking two months so that the meeting can end during the period and Bangladesh may fail to get any resolution.
*



*
*Afsan Chowdhury (researcher and journalist)*
Where UNHCR said that Myanmar’s Rakhaine State is not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns at present situation then what will happen when we send them back.

They will come back again. So, we have to take measures that they do not come back for the forth time. We want them to go back but, do not want them to come back which happened also after the 1992 agreement.

We also do not know how this MoU will be implemented. We need to ensure that they do not come back as it becomes a regular problem for us.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/11/26/rohingya-repatriation-deal-know/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 26, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:06 AM, November 26, 2017
*‘Rape alarm’ for Rohingya women*




Mostafa Yousuf
*In Keruntali Rohingya camp of Teknaf, where stories of sexual harassment and rapes at night are ubiquitous, anything that comes in handy for women to stave off unwanted advances is a huge blessing.*
That is why Kamalida, 18, thinks that her small hand-held device, which gives off the high-pitched ambulance wail at the press of a button, is of great support for refugee women.

“To be able to leave the tent knowing that I would be able to let others know when I am attacked, is a relief. It reduces the fear to some extent,” she said.

She added that most people in the camp know what the siren is about and are likely to come out and look for its source when it goes off.

She came to Teknaf with her elderly father in late August when the Myanmar armed forces' crackdown on Rohingya villages in Maungdaw began.

Since her father is paralysed and bed-ridden, she is the one who has to run errands.

Over 5,549 unaccompanied or separated Rohingya children have come to Bangladesh, according to the Unicef, UNHCR and Save the Children data. These children are particularly at risk of being trafficked and abused.

The small device, called a “rape alarm” by Rohingya women, can be useful for those children, Mohammed Anik, project coordinator of Moonlight Development Society, told The Daily Star.

The NGO has distributed 175 such devices among women aged between 12 and 25.

“The girls are really vulnerable. We have been trying to come up with something that is cheap and could at least be of help for the time being. Then we designed the battery-run device which is also a torch,” Anik added.

Marufa Munni, manager of a medical camp run by the organisation, said, “We trained the people in the camps on how they should respond when they hear the siren. We need more such devices in other Rohingya settlements as well.”

Seventeen-year-old Chomira said she has often been stalked in the camp. “I am often scared. But the alarm gives me some courage.”
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rape-alarm-rohingya-women-1496506

*Chinese president discusses Rohingya crisis with Myanmar army chief*
SAM Staff, November 26, 2017




*Chinese president Xi Jinping met with Myanmar’s top military general in Beijing on Friday (Nov 24) and discussed China’s support amid international criticism over its treatment of the Rohingya minority, according a statement from the general.*
China has offered diplomatic backing to its southern neighbour throughout the crisis, despite growing pressure from Western countries for the Myanmar military to be accountable for alleged atrocities.

More than 622,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim group have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh in three months since insurgent attacks on security posts sparked a brutal counter-insurgency campaign.

China helped to block a resolution on the crisis at the UN Security Council, while the United States this week called the response by the military and local vigilantes ‘ethnic cleansing’, echoing earlier statements by senior United Nations officials.

According to a statement on the Facebook page of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, he and the Chinese leader on Friday discussed the ‘promotion of cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries, the situation of China standing on Myanmar’s side at the forefront of the international community regarding the Rakhine issue,’ and other issues.

Min Aung Hlaing arrived in China on Tuesday and has largely met Chinese military officers during his visit.

The statement also said they discussed ongoing talks between Myanmar’s government and myriad ethnic insurgent groups, some of whom are based along Myanmar’s shared border with China.

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Xi said China was closely watching the peace process and was ‘willing to play a constructive role… for security and stability in their border areas.’

The Xinhua account did not mention Rakhine, but cited Xi saying that China ‘always respects Myanmar’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’.
SOURCE REUTERS
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...discusses-rohingya-crisis-myanmar-army-chief/

*Should the Rohingya Return to Myanmar?*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/should-the-rohingya-return-to-myanmar.html
By PABLO AABIR DAS




Rohingya Muslims wait to cross the border to Bangladesh, in a temporary camp outside Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar November 12, 2017. Picture taken on November 12, 2017. REUTERS/Wa Lone
By PABLO AABIR DAS, The Wire
*A discriminatory citizenship structure and pervasive anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar suggest that if the Rohingya return home they are likely to face violence and persecution once again.*
Since August, over 600,000 Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have fled their homes to escape persecution. These refugees have been forced to take shelter in makeshift settlement camps in Bangladesh, where disease and malnutrition have contributed to a pervasive gap in human services. In recent weeks, as a cold front has set in around the camps, there has been increasing concern over children freezing.

As a result, it should come as a reprieve that Bangladesh and Myanmar have signed a tentative agreement to send the Rohingya back to their home in the Rakhine State. While the details are still in flux, the understanding appears to be based off a framework that resolved a similar Rohingya refugee crisis in 1993. Among other things, this means that Rohingya who can prove that they possessed identification documents prior to the crisis can return home.

The issues surrounding this proposal are numerous, not least of which is the lack of clarity on where the Rohingya would even reside – most of their villages were decimated in the violence. The underlying challenge, however, is how the repatriated Rohingya will overcome historical barriers upon their return; Myanmar’s government has denied the Rohingya citizenship and, consequently, access to basic rights.

Proponents of the agreement suggest that if the Rohingya return with documentation, they may soon receive legitimate citizenship. However, even if citizenship is included as a condition to the Rohingya’s return, it is unlikely to serve as a solution to this multidimensional crisis. An anti-Rohingya sentiment is deeply embedded in the fabric of Myanmar’s society. Throughout the country, the Rohingya are characterised as dangerous intruders, intent on proliferating radical propaganda across the nation.

Citizenship is unlikely to ease this predisposition, partially because legal issues compound the social stigma – despite holding citizenship, there are countless cases of ethnic groups that are denied access to justice and basic services. With this in mind, it is a real possibility that as the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh ends, another one will soon reappear in Myanmar.
*A conditional citizenship*
Myanmar’s rule of law is fragile and tenuous so the constructs of citizenship that uphold established democracies do not exist in the same capacity. Laws surrounding nationality and ethnicity propagate a convoluted, hierarchal system that relies on proof of ancestry as a precursor to full rights. In other words, if residents cannot prove that they had two ancestors living in Myanmar prior to 1823, they can be denied full citizenship.

The system is intentionally prejudicial. Myanmar’s ethnocracy has systematically elevated Buddhist notions and values; as a result, the principles that define democracy, such as pluralism and parity, are elusive. Instead, what prevails is a societal structure that is stratified and discriminatory. Rather than using citizenship as a mechanism for inclusivity, Myanmar has passed laws that have manipulated it into an assimilation barrier for non-Buddhists.

Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law is the cornerstone of this system. The law not only fails to recognise the Rohingya as citizens, it also places those who have citizenship into three tiers: full citizens, associate citizens and naturalised citizens. Associate citizens are typically ethnic minorities who face discrimination from public officials and, subsequently, limited social and political freedoms.




A Rohingya refugee stands outside her makeshift shelter at Hakim Para refugee settlement near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Susana Vera
*The Kaman: a cautionary tale*
It would seem that even this partial citizenship should, in theory, allow the Rohingya to live peacefully and independently. However, an examination of the Kaman people, a Muslim ethnic group who hold associate citizenship, casts doubt on this notion.

Often perceived as demographically insignificant, the Kaman are largely overlooked in Myanmar. Recognised as an indigenous population, they have nevertheless faced similar threats as their stateless counterparts. During the 2012 Rakhine State clashes between the Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists, the Kaman were forced out of their homes and into internal camps. Five years later, they remain caught up in the violence.

Unlike the Rohingya, as citizens, the Kaman should enjoy access to justice and the protection of the law. In recent years, however, as the anti-Muslim violence has risen in Myanmar, the Kaman have been denied fundamental rights including voting rights and freedom of movement.

As a peaceful ethnic group, the government has no rationale to deprive the Kaman of their rights aside from discrimination and neglect. This is most clearly reflected in the Kaman’s difficulty in obtaining citizenship documentation. In 2014, 2,000 displaced Kaman applied for national identification cards they lost in the violence, but after drawn out deliberations, only 38 had their requests granted.

With no prospects of legal recourse, the issues surrounding the Kaman are symptomatic of a failed justice system and a society that seems to value their lives solely based on race and creed. This same fate is likely to befall the Rohingya who return with documentation; societal prejudice will trump any sort of legitimacy they may be granted.
*A bleak road ahead*
It is flawed to believe that a citizenship system that has been used to deprive the Rohingya of their rights for so long can suddenly be used as an instrument to safeguard their future; especially when that system has a history of discriminating against those who already fall under its purview.

If the current state of affairs in Myanmar is not enough to raise concerns about the repatriation agreement, perhaps precedent can shed some light on the situation. The Rohingya have fled persecution in Myanmar in the past, and each time many have been forced to return to the same environment and the same treatment. Even in instances when they have been granted a political voice, like in the 1990 election when they won a small percentage of seats, it has been short lived. Following those elections, the generals annulled the results and launched a violent crusade against the Rohingya.

Once they return, there is no evidence that legal recognition will provide the Rohingya with the reconciliation, or protection, they need to secure a future in Myanmar. A long-term solution that allows the Rohingya to prosper in the Rakhine State would involve significant reforms in Myanmar’s laws and an overhaul of bias shown towards the Rohingya. These are tall orders, and as both Bangladesh and Myanmar are eager to resolve the crisis, it seems unlikely that they will be taken into consideration.
_Pablo Aabir Das is with the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/should-the-rohingya-return-to-myanmar.html_


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya must be consulted before repatriation*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/rohingya-must-be-consulted-before-repatriation.html
By Adam Bemma




Rohingya refugees are living in squalor in camps in Bangladesh [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
By Adam Bemma, Al Jazeera
*Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia –* A Rohingya repatriation deal is being hailed as a “first step” by the Bangladesh government, but many argue the plan is premature.

Myanmar’s Rakhine state is the ancestral home for Muslim-majority Rohingya, but those living there face discrimination, violence, and segregation. Human rights group Amnesty International calls it a “system of apartheid“.

The repatriation deal does not take Rohingya refugees’ rights into consideration, said the European Rohingya Council (ERC). Its Malaysia ambassador, Tengku Emma Zuriana, has spoken out against it.

“This repatriation process should not proceed until the safety of the Rohingya [can be] ensured,” she said.

Malaysia is home to about 150,000 Rohingya. Several non-government organisations held a press conference here on Thursday to discuss the repatriation plan.

The United Nations and United States have stated the violent actions taken by Myanmar’s armed forces and “local vigilantes” amount to ethnic cleansing against its Rohingya minority.

“This must be a voluntary process, in safety and dignity, and for them to return to their homes – not into camps. And if there’s any loss of property and life, it must be compensated fairly,” Zuriana said.

Malaysian civil society groups and faith-based organisations urged the Myanmar government to end the violence, and to ensure the safety of the Rohingya living in Rakhine state before any repatriation process begins.

The Malaysia Consultative Council of Islamic Organisation (MAPIM) said any repatriation deal must include protection and compensation for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who’ve lost everything amid the heavy-handed “security clearance” operation.

“Even if the agreement has been finalised, we strongly call on the UN to ensure safe passage for the Rohingya to return back to their homes,” said MAPIM President Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid.

He went on to ask the international community and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): “What repatriation are they planning to implement when the Rohingya’s’ lives are totally destroyed?”

Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) wanted to remind Bangladesh of past Rohingya repatriations to Myanmar.

“[An] estimated 240,000 Rohingya were repatriated by the Bangladesh government under the 1978 agreement, which had a six month time limit. After that, Bangladesh repatriated about 236,000 Rohingya until 2005 under the 1992 agreement,” noted MERHROM President Zafar Ahmad.

In 2012, Myanmar’s armed forces began to force Rohingya into refugee camps, both in Rakhine state and across the border into Bangladesh.

Recent attacks on a police outpost in Rakhine state by the armed group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) sparked the latest army crackdown. More than 600,000 Rohingya fled their homes into Bangladesh’s refugee camps.




Hundreds of thousands have fled since late August [Al Jazeera]

MERHROM wants the UN Security Council to conduct an assessment of the situation in Rakhine state, to ensure military operations against Rohingya have ceased.

Myanmar Armed Forces Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has said the Rohingya could return only if they are “real citizens”.

The UN said on Friday the time wasn’t right for a Rohingya return.

“At present, conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns. Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm,” said Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely, without the informed consent of refugees or the basic elements of lasting solutions in place,” headded.

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Malaysia agree they must be consulted.

“Until the Myanmar government is serious to improve the situation, the Bangladesh government should not agree to any repatriation plan,” Zuriana said.

“The European Rohingya Council is calling [on] Myanmar authorities to grant full citizenship to the Rohingya and review the [1982] citizenship law.”

ERC called on the international community to send a clear message to Myanmar that it will not tolerate any further violence. It also said it wants to see the UN observe, support, and monitor all investigations into human rights violations.

Humanitarian agencies providing aid and medical services to the Rohingya in Rakhine state are not allowed to access secured areas, where those most affected need urgent help.

Until unhindered access is granted to aid agencies in Rakhine by the Myanmar government, refugee and civil society groups in Malaysia will continue to voice opposition to any agreement, they said.

The concern is Myanmar will force returning Rohingya into displacement camps and settlement zones protected by the same armed forces guilty of carrying out attacks them.

“They don’t have the freedom to go back home,” Zuriana said.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/rohingya-must-be-consulted-before-repatriation.html

*ROHINGYA REPATRIATION*
*New deal only for entrants after Oct 2016*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:05, Nov 26,2017 | Updated: 00:21, Nov 26,2017 




Foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali speaks at a news conference on deal with Myanmar at the foreign office on Saturday.-- Focus bangla photo
*The new instrument for repatriation would be applicable to Rohingyas entering Bangladesh after October 2016 and at the request of Myanmar, the Bangladesh government has agreed that principles of verification of nationalities described in 1992 ‘statement’ would be followed.*
‘They [Myanmar] want to follow the 1992 statement. So things are done accordingly. The most important part is to take them back. There is no use of finding faults in it,’ foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali said at a press conference on Saturday.

The newly signed instrument, Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State, will be applicable to Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh from Rakhine State only after October 9, 2016.
The repatriation of ‘residents’ who entered Bangladesh earlier ‘will be considered separately on the conclusion of the present arrangement,’ said the instrument signed by Mahmood Ali and Myanmar minister of state counsellor’s office Kyaw Tint Soe on November 23.

The return must be in safety, security and dignity with options for recommencing livelihood, after verification of the returnees’ residency in Myanmar.

Bangladesh will immediately avail itself of the assistance by the UNHCR in the repatriation process, but the Myanmar government has agreed to draw the UNHCR services on need basis at the appropriate time.
Myanmar will issue the returnees an identity
card for national verification immediately on their return.

Verification of identity for return will be based on evidence of past residency in Myanmar. Documentary evidences include old and expired citizenship identity cards/ national registration cards/ temporary registration cards (white cards) and any other documents issued by Myanmar authorities. Other documents or information indicating their residence in Myanmar, such as addresses, reference of household or business ownership document, school attendance or any relevant particulars and information, would also be accepted.

There ‘shall be no restriction’ on the number of people to be repatriated as long as they can establish bona fide evidence of their residence in Myanmar.

The members of split families, their left behind members, orphans and children born out of unwarranted incidents are to be certified by a Bangladesh court. Both parents of additional offspring born in Bangladesh must be residents of Myanmar.

The final decision regarding verification will be made by the Myanmar government, which would try to resolve cases of disputes on eligibility by six months. In case of dispute on eligibility, Bangladesh and Myanmar governments ‘shall sit’ with all documents and information to resolve such cases.
Myanmar has agreed to take necessary measures to halt the outflow of Myanmar ‘residents’ to Bangladesh, to restore normalcy and to encourage those who had left Myanmar to return voluntarily and safely to their own households and original places of residence, or to a safe and secure place nearest to it of their choice.

Freedom of movement of Rohingyas in Rakhine would be allowed in conformity with the existing laws and regulations.

Myanmar will not ‘criminalise’ and prosecute returnees for illegal exit and return unless there are specific cases of their involvement in ‘terrorist or criminal activities’.
The process of return would commence ‘at the earliest’ and ‘shall be completed’ in a time-bound manner agreed by both parties.

The two governments will establish a joint working group to oversee all aspects of return within three weeks of signing of the ‘arrangement.’ The two sides are to prepare agreed terms of reference for the working group.

The process of return ‘shall commence’ within two months from November 23, and be completed within a reasonable time.

The Myanmar government confirmed its commitments to implement the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
UNHCR, other mandated UN agencies and interested international partners would be
invited to take part in various stages of return and resettlement.

After completion of return, the two governments would cooperate to prevent illegal crossing from both sides of the borders.

The two governments agreed that they would refrain from conceiving and implementing any policy discriminatory to any particular community, and harbour or support terrorists or criminals involved in arms smuggle, drugs and human trafficking.

The foreign minister described the signing of the instrument as the ‘first step’ for starting repatriation of people who have faced ruthless campaign of the Myanmar armed forces.

Asked on absence of timeframe for repatriation, he said that in many cases providing ‘timeframe becomes useless.’

Replying to a question if the ‘arrangement’ is legally binding, the minister said ‘certainly.’
‘When two countries make commitment, the commitment becomes binding,’ he said.

Replying to a query, Mahmood Ali claimed that the country’s interest was protected in signing the instrument. ‘It is the government that would decide what the interest of the country is,’ he said.
Over 6,23,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and November 23.

The ongoing Rohingya influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,42,000 till November 23, according to estimates by UN agencies.
Foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque and other senior officials were also present at the press conference.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29133/new-deal-only-for-entrants-after-oct-2016


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## Banglar Bir

*Vague MoU over Rohingya repatriation raises many questions*




(Photo: MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU)
_By_ Mahadi Al Hasnat, Afrose Jahan Chaity
Dhaka Tribune
November 25, 2017
*'The MoU is nothing but an eyewash … The repatriation has to be voluntary, meaning if they want to go back, we can send them back [and] if they do not feel safe going back home, we cannot forcibly repatriate them'*
Describing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) over Rohingya repatriation as vague, security analysts and journalists said the instrument signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar would not serve any useful purpose.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Myanmar’s Minister for State Counsellor’s Office Kyauw Tint Swe signed the MoU on Thursday, in which it has been mentioned that the repatriation process will begin within two months.

However, analysts claimed that the MoU is nothing but an eyewash and trick from the Myanmar side to lessen the international pressure facing the country.
They stressed that citizenship and other basic rights of the Rohingya must be guaranteed before the repatriation.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, M Shahiduzzaman, a noted security analyst and a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, said: “We do not know the precise details of the MoU … The issues of how many Rohingya people will be repatriated and the repatriation timeline have not been fixed in the MoU. No agreement has been signed as yet. The MoU dictates only how things should go forward.”

Veteran journalist Afsan Chowdhury said: “We do not know what we will be able to achieve through the MoU. The instrument cannot guarantee the repartition until it is implemented.
“In the previous agreements signed in 1977 and 1992, they [Myanmar authorities] said they would take the Rohingya refugees back. Why were the Rohingya forced to flee [to Bangladesh] in 1992, 2014 and this year if the problem was really solved then according to the deals?” Afsan said.
“The MoU is nothing but an eyewash … The repatriation has to be voluntary, meaning if they want to go back, we can send them back [and] if they do not feel safe going back home, we cannot forcibly repatriate them,” he stated.

Imtiaz Ahmed, a professor of international relations at DU, said: “It is unclear why this MoU is focused on an arrangement instead of an agreement. It is said that the repatriation will start within two months, but when it will conclude has not been specified in the MoU.

“Whether the Rohingya people will be able to go back to Myanmar as citizens of the country is an important issue to think about, because they went back in the ’70s and ’90s, but they were not given citizenship. Instead, whatever rights they had were taken away.”

“We should wait for our foreign minister’s press conference [to be held today] as he could say very well the nitti-gritty of the arrangement. He could explain how practical this arrangement is,” he added.
Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist based in Europe, said the Myanmar government must give Rohingya people the national identity cards acknowledging their full citizenship.

“They must be able to go back to their original villages. Their confiscated lands must be given back and all burnt houses must be rebuilt before they go back home,” San Lwin demanded.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/vague-mou-over-rohingya-repatriation.html


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 26, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:01 AM, November 26, 2017
*Upper hand Myanmar's*
*Experts, refugees doubt return of all Rohingyas under new deal that stipulates verification requiring documents of residency, 'old and expired citizenship identity cards'*
Staff Correspondent
*Myanmar will have the final say in verification of Rohingyas
Refugee documents issued by UNHCR will also be verified by Naypyitaw *

The criteria stipulated in the new Rohingya repatriation deal will make it difficult for the Myanmar nationals to return to their homes in Rakhine State from Bangladesh, say experts and Rohingya refugees.

The Rohingyas will have to go through a verification process that will require them to submit documents to prove their past residency in Myanmar.

The documents include “old and expired citizenship identity cards” or national registration cards or temporary registration cards, according to the "Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State" signed between Dhaka and Naypyitaw on November 23.

Once repatriated to Rakhine State, the Rohingyas will primarily be kept at temporary shelters or arrangements for a “limited time” and their freedom of movement will be allowed as per the existing laws in Myanmar.

However, the Rohingyas who have taken shelter in Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar say these conditions go against their interest as only a few of them have residency cards.

Besides, it was still unclear whether they would be granted citizenship and the rights as enjoyed by the Buddhists in Myanmar.

"I don't want to go back to Myanmar unless it is guaranteed that I will be given citizenship," said Rohingya community leader Jamal Hossain, 42, now staying at Balukhali camp in Cox's Bazar's Ukhia.

Another Rohingya man, Jamal Hossain, who came from Buthidaung, said he had a residency card, but it along with all other things in his house was burnt to ashes. He somehow managed to flee to Bangladesh with his family members.

"Even if I'm given the chance to go back to Rakhine, I will not accept it under the prevailing situation," he said.

Several other Rohingyas also echoed his view.

They are among the 622,000 Rohingyas, who have fled atrocities in Rakhine since the Myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown there on August 25.

The UN and the US termed the violence ethnic cleansing, while France and rights bodies defined it as genocide and crimes against humanity.

International relations analysts think Myanmar struck the repatriation deal with Bangladesh under global pressure.

They expressed doubt whether Myanmar is sincere about the Rohingya repatriation, especially because it failed to restore law and order in Rakhine where communal violence still continues.

According to the deal, the Rohingyas can also be verified based on other documents issued by the Myanmar authorities or information indicating their residence in Myanmar, such as address, reference to household or business document, school attendance or any other relevant particulars.

Prof CR Abrar, an expert on refugee and migration affairs, said it is absurd that the Myanmar authorities are asking for papers or documents from those who fled atrocities to save their lives.

“Their houses were burned down. Their assets were either destroyed or looted. How can they present any documents?" he asked.

Abrar, a teacher of international relations at Dhaka University, said the other option -- information indicating their residence or schools -- is a more acceptable way of verification.

He also referred to another provision in the deal, which says "recipient of refugee documents issued by the UNHCR will undergo the same verification process".

This means the UN agency's registration of a Rohingya would be ignored, Abrar pointed out.

The deal also says that in cases of dispute over eligibility for return to Myanmar, Dhaka and Naypyitaw will sit with all documents and information to resolve such cases. And Myanmar will make the final decision regarding verification.

Pointing to Myanmar's upper hand in determining eligibility, Abrar said, "It is Myanmar's armed forces and security agencies that forced the Rohingyas to flee. It is ridiculous that they would be the determiner of repatriation eligibility."

Abrar further said Naypyitaw is basically following the 1982 citizenship law of Myanmar and the 1992 agreement on repatriation of the Rohingyas.

"If this is so, I don't see any sustainable solution to the decades-long problem," he said.

Talking to this newspaper, a number of Rohingyas, who have residency cards, expressed unwillingness to go back to Rakhine under the prevailing situation.

Mohammad Ilias, 33, who was a school teacher in Maungdaw of Rakhine, said he has a residency card, but he does not want to return to Myanmar unless he gets back his house and other properties.

"I would like to go back home, but where would I live with my family... in a camp?" he questioned.

The repatriation deal mentions Myanmar's commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which suggested that the Rohingyas be granted citizenship and provided with equal opportunities in all spheres of life.

But in a statement on November 15, Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said the Rohingyas cannot return to Rakhine until “real Myanmar citizens” are ready to accept them.

“Emphasis must be placed on the wish of local Rakhine ethnic people who are real Myanmar citizens," he said.

Aung Hlaing also refuted all allegations of abuse, insisting troops only targeted Rohingya insurgents.

He has all along stated that the Rohingyas are Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, going in line with the hardliner Buddhists of Myanmar.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/criteria-hard-fulfil-1496503


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## Bengal Tiger 71

*রোহিঙ্গা সংকটে সমঝোতা: চীনের হাত স্পষ্ট, হাত কামড়াচ্ছে ভারত*





রোহিঙ্গাদের ফেরত পাঠানো নিয়ে মিয়ানমার ও বাংলাদেশের মধ্যে যে সমঝোতা দলিল স্বাক্ষরিত হয়েছে, তাতে স্পষ্টই চীনের ‘ফিঙ্গারপ্রিন্ট’ দেখতে পাচ্ছে ভারত। একইসঙ্গে তারা কিছুটা হাতও কামড়াচ্ছে! 
ভারতের আফসোসের কারণ— প্রায় তিন মাস সময় পাওয়ার পরও রোহিঙ্গা প্রশ্নে দিল্লি কোনও নির্ণায়ক ভূমিকা নিতে পারলো না। মিয়ানমারের অভ্যন্তরীণ বিষয়ে চীন হয়তো নাক গলাবে না, ভারতের এই ধারণাকে ভুল প্রমাণিত হলো। কারণ চীনা পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রীর পেশ করা ফর্মুলার বেশকিছুটা প্রায় সঙ্গে সঙ্গেই মেনে নিলো মিয়ানমার ও বাংলাদেশ। 
গত ২৩ নভেম্বর নেপিদোতে ওই দলিল স্বাক্ষরিত হওয়ার কয়েক ঘণ্টা পর বিকালে ভারতীয় পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয়ের নিয়মিত সাপ্তাহিক ব্রিফিংয়ে এই সমঝোতার বিষয়ে প্রতিক্রিয়া জানতে চাওয়া হয়। তখন মুখপাত্র রবীশ কুমার নিজের অস্বস্তি গোপন করতে না পেরে বলে ফেলেন, ‘যেটা এখন ঘটছে সে বিষয়ে কী মন্তব্য করবো বলুন তো? আর রাখাইন প্রদেশের বাস্তুচ্যুত মানুষদের নিয়ে কী করা উচিত, তা আমরা আগে অনেকবারই বলেছি। মনে হয় না এর পুনরাবৃত্তির কোনও প্রয়োজন আছে।’ 
ভারতে তখন বেজেছে বিকাল সাড়ে ৪টা। নেপিদোতে সই-সাবুদ শেষ হয়ে গেছে এর বেশ আগেই। ঘটনা হলো, তারপর প্রায় সাড়ে তিন দিন কেটে গেলেও ভারত এই সমঝোতা নিয়ে এখনও কোনও সরকারি প্রতিক্রিয়া দেয়নি। না গণমাধ্যমে, না সামাজিক যোগাযোগ মাধ্যম টুইটারে। 
এদিকে ভারতীয় পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয় যে কথা মুখ ফুটে বলতে পারছে না, তা সরাসরি বলে দিলো দেশের প্রথম সারির সংবাদপত্র ‘দ্য হিন্দু’র সম্পাদকীয়। সেখানে বাংলাদেশ ও মিয়ানমারের মধ্যে স্বাক্ষরিত এই সমঝোতাকে ‘চায়না প্ল্যান’ বলে বর্ণনা করা হয়েছে। চীনের মধ্যস্থতাতেই যে মূলত দুই দেশ মুখোমুখি আলোচনার টেবিলে বসে দলিলে স্বাক্ষর করেছে তা পত্রিকাটির সম্পাদকীয়তে জানানো হয়েছে দ্ব্যর্থহীন ভাষায়।

ভারতের কূটনৈতিক মহলের আক্ষেপ ঠিক এই জায়গাতেই— যে কাজটা আগে উদ্যোগ নিলে হয়তো দিল্লি করতে পারতো, শেষবেলায় এসে চীন কিনা বাজিমাত করে দিলো!

মিয়ানমারে ভারতের রাষ্ট্রদূতের দায়িত্ব পালন করেছেন এমন এক সাবেক কূটনীতিক রবিবার (২৬ নভেম্বর) বাংলা ট্রিবিউনকে বলছিলেন, ‘মিয়ানমার ও বাংলাদেশ উভয়ে আমাদের ঘনিষ্ঠ বন্ধু দেশ। কাজেই রোহিঙ্গা সমস্যা আমাদের জন্য এক উভয় সংকট। অতএব কিভাবে ভারসাম্য রাখা উচিত গত তিন মাস ধরে আমরা শুধু সেসবই ভেবে গেলাম। অথচ চীনের জন্যও পরিস্থিতি একই রকম ছিল। কিন্তু তারা ঠিক মোক্ষম সময়ে এসে একটা নির্ণায়ক ভূমিকা নিয়ে গেলো।’

দিনকয়েক আগেই চীনা পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী ওয়াং উই বাংলাদেশ ও মিয়ানমার সফরে এসে তার তিন দফা রোহিঙ্গা প্রত্যাবাসন ফর্মুলা পেশ করেন। পরে বেইজিংয়ের দাবি ছিল— দুই দেশই তা মেনে নিয়েছে।

অথচ গত সেপ্টেম্বরে ভারতীয় পররাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী সুষমা স্বরাজও ঢাকায় গিয়েছিলেন। এমনকি রোহিঙ্গা সংকটের একেবারে শুরুর দিকে প্রধানমন্ত্রী নরেন্দ্র মোদি নিজেও মিয়ানমার সফরে গিয়েছিলেন। মাঝে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের নিউ ইয়র্কে সুষমা স্বরাজ ও শেখ হাসিনার কথাবার্তা হয়েছে। ভারত ও বাংলাদেশের পররাষ্ট্র সচিবরাও গত তিন মাসে নিউ ইয়র্ক, কলম্বো, এমনকি দিল্লিতেও একাধিকবার নিজেদের মধ্যে বৈঠক করেছেন। কিন্তু সেগুলো মোটেও ফলপ্রসূ হয়নি।

এ কারণে রোহিঙ্গা প্রশ্নে ভারতের ‘শ্যাম রাখি না কূল রাখি’ দ্বিধাই শেষ পর্যন্ত কাল হলো। আর চীন এসে পরিষ্কার বুঝিয়ে দিলো এ ধরনের বিরাট সংকটে মিয়ানমার ও বাংলাদেশ কার ওপর বেশি ভরসা রাখতে রাজি।

বাংলাদেশের কূটনৈতিক মহল অবশ্য দাবি করছে, চীনের আগে প্রথমে তারা ভারতের ওপরেই ভরসা করতে চেয়েছিলেন। কিন্তু ভারতের সিদ্ধান্তহীনতা আর দোলাচলই শেষ পর্যন্ত চীনের দিকে ঠেলে দিয়েছে তাদের। কারণ বাংলাদেশ একটা প্রত্যাবাসন সমঝোতা করার জন্য মরিয়া হয়ে উঠেছিল। আর তাদের হাতে সময়ও ফুরিয়ে আসছিল দ্রুত। এই সমঝোতার বাস্তবায়ন কতটা ফলপ্রসূ হবে, কতজন রোহিঙ্গাকে কত দ্রুত ফেরানো যাবে সেগুলো অন্য প্রশ্ন। কিন্তু আপাতত চীনের মধ্যস্থতাতেই যে দুই দেশের মধ্যে একটা ‘অ্যারেঞ্জমেন্ট’ সম্ভব হয়েছে তা নিয়ে কেউই সন্দেহ প্রকাশ করছেন না।

বাংলাদেশের একজন শীর্ষ কূটনীতিক হাসতে হাসতে এই প্রতিবেদককে বলছিলেন, “এমনটাই তো হওয়ার কথা ছিল, তাই না? মিয়ানমারে চীনের লগ্নি ১০০ বিলিয়ন ডলার হলে সেই তুলনায় সেখানে ভারতের ১০ ভাগও বিনিয়োগ নেই। আমরা এখন বুঝে গেছি— মিয়ানমারের জন্য ভারত বা জাপান ‘বয়ফ্রেন্ড’ হতে পারে, কিন্তু তারা সংসার পেতেছে চীনের সঙ্গেই!”


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## Banglar Bir

09:15 PM, November 25, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 09:36 PM, November 25, 2017
*What will be fate of Rohingyas entered before Oct 9, 2016: Fakhrul*
Star Online Report
*BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today raised a question over the fate of the Rohingyas, who entered Bangladesh before October 9, 2016 in the face of persecution in Myanmar.*
“You (govt) have reached an agreement with Myanmar to repatriate its nationals who were displaced since October 9, 2016. But what will happen to those Rohingyas who entered Bangladesh before the date,” he said.

Fakhrul’s concern came hours after Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali assured that Rohingya repatriation deal will not hamper Bangladesh’s interest.

Earlier in the day, the foreign minister at a press conference said that Myanmar will take back only those refugees who fled to Bangladesh following the violence on October 9, 2016 and August 25 this year.

Fakhrul also criticised the government for signing such agreement horridly and keeping the United Nations and other interested countries away from the repatriation process.

“It is good indeed but the matter of concern is that there is no clear indication in the agreement about when and how the repatriation process will begin,” he added.

Fakhrul again said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina could have visited China, Russia and India before signing the agreement to garner their supports for smooth repatriation of the Rohingya people.

“We have been frequently calling up on the government to hatch diplomatic efforts for the sake of our national interest but failed,” he added.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...-rohingyas-entered-oct-9-2016-fakhrul-1496404


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## Banglar Bir

*Pope begins Myanmar trip in shadow of Rohingya crisis*
Reuters | Published: 08:40, Nov 27,2017 | Updated: 13:09, Nov 27,2017




Pope Francis waves as he boards a plane for his pastoral visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh at Fiumicino international airport in Rome, Italy, November 26, 2017. — Reuters photo
*Pope Francis landed in Yangon on Monday, the start of a delicate visit for the world’s most prominent Christian to majority-Buddhist Myanmar, which the United States has accused of ‘ethnic cleansing’ its Muslim Rohingya people.*
The pope will also visit Bangladesh, to where more than 620,000 Rohingyas have fled from what Amnesty International has dubbed ‘crimes against humanity’ by Myanmar security forces, including murder, rape, torture and forcible displacement.

The Myanmar army denies the accusations.

Only about 700,000 of Myanmar’s 51 million people are Roman Catholic.
Thousands of them gathered in Yangon, the country’s main city, after journeys by train and bus, excited to get a glimpse of Pope Francis.

‘We come here to see the Holy Father. It happens once in hundreds of years,’ said Win Min Set, a community leader who brought a group of 1,800 Catholics from southern and western states of the country.

‘He is very knowledgeable when it comes to political affairs. He will handle the issue smartly,’ he said, referring to the delicacy of the pope’s discussions about the Rohingya.

The trip is so delicate that some papal advisers have warned him against even saying the word ‘Rohingya’, lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the Buddhist-majority country’s military and government against minority Christians.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29262/pope-begins-myanmar-trip-in-shadow-of-rohingya-crisis

*Rohingyas: panacea to their plight*
Published: 00:05, Nov 27,2017 | Updated: 22:17, Nov 26,2017




_The international community should be more proactive and not be fooled by the phony promises that Myanmar makes when it comes to repatriation of the displaced and most persecuted refugees – the Rohingyas,_ write Tasmiah Nuhiya Ahmed and Tahsin Noor Salim
*BANGLADESH, a poor country, with inadequate cultivable land and resources and a population of about 170 million, has extended an affable and welcome approach towards the Rohingyas of Rakhine state in Myanmar*.
Bangladesh earned praise for its compassionate approach to providing humanitarian assistance to over half a million displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh.

However, this is also true that Bangladesh cannot alone bring a solution to this Rohingya crisis. Moreover, the Rohingya influx in Bangladesh has invited various socio-economic problems in Bangladesh like security threats, environmental problems, smuggling of narcotic drugs and arms.

As we all know that there has been a lot of focus on why the conflicts actually took place in Myanmar; whether the Rohingyas are to be classified as ‘intruders ‘or ‘refugees’ in Bangladesh or whether the heinous acts and the persecution of Rohingyas should be classified as genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Solutions to the crisis have also been proposed but we are yet to implement a successful and realistic panacea to this intrinsic problem. Although, the Rohingyas who have safely crossed the shore are provided essential protection and assistance in Bangladesh, this does not entail a long-lasting solution. What still remains in the grey area is the future of the Rohingyas and their children; their ability to secure a source of revenue; their access to the justice and their rights as citizens.

Piecemeal attempts to embark upon a solution are not enough and what is required is extensive burden sharing from affluent countries, safe repatriation process and a more pro active approach from the international community and neutral organisations like the United Nations.

When talking about burden sharing, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen and Nikolas F Tan in their paper titled, ‘The End of the Deterrence Paradigm? Future Directions for Global Refugee Policy’, poignantly highlights that a meaningful responsibility has to be taken by the international community. It is of paramount importance that we deal with the fact that there is an unequal distribution when it comes to taking refugee responsibility.

Therefore, there should be a stronger obligation for international community with regards to the sharing of responsibility of the refugees, eg, through resettlement, humanitarian visas, or global and regional distribution mechanisms, or on the sharing of resources, such as humanitarian assistance, expert staff, know-how, and money.

A critical Pledging Conference in Geneva was held on October 23, 2017, organised by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Organisation for Migration and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the event was co-hosted by the European Union and Kuwait.

It was organised with an aim to provide the governments from around the world an opportunity to show their solidarity and share the burden and responsibility. It was discussed that their further generous support for the Joint Response Plan, which was launched by the UN and partners, is urgently needed to sustain and scale up the large humanitarian effort already under way. It was also discussed that the plan requires $434 million to meet the life-saving needs of all Rohingya refugees and their host communities — together an estimated 1.2 million people — for the difficult months to come.

In a statement on the Rohingya refugee crisis, the UNHCR stated that they call on the international community to intensify efforts to bring a peaceful solution to the plight of the Rohingya, to end the desperate exodus, to support host communities and ensure the conditions that will allow for refugees’ eventual voluntary return in safety and dignity. The origins and, thus, the solutions to this crisis lie on Myanmar.

Bangladesh needs more foreign investment as well and international community can help Bangladesh to build up a stronger economy through investing in Bangladesh. It will eventually heighten trade opportunities and generate employment opportunities for the Bangladeshi citizens and the Rohingyas in Bangladesh in the long run. Scholars and refugee advocates worldwide have suggested a general distribution model, with quotas based on each country’s population size, GDP, unemployment rates, etc.

Adherence to such a model indubitably ensures fairness among countries and embraces the concept of burden sharing unreservedly. Unfortunately, India which is one the fastest growing economies with a GDP of 7.2 per cent (IMF, 2017) refuses to give refuge to the Rohingyas, while Bangladesh with a GDP of 6.6 per cent (IMF, 2017) opens its doors and bears the responsibility of providing shelter to the stateless Rohingyas.

The Rohingyas who do not wish to be repatriated could be resettled in affluent countries who wish to accept them, ensuring them their basic human rights. However, with most of the Rohingyas being illiterate, it is highly unlikely that the developed nations would be willing to accept them. Therefore, the Rohingyas could be given vocational training to make them suitable candidates for countries wishing to accept them.

Although, repatriation, as a solution seems bleak, it could be an effective one with the help from the international community and international sanctions. On 6 November, 2017; the Security Council in their 8085th meeting, expressed that the primary responsibility of protecting the Rohingyas lies on the government of Myanmar.

The Security Council of the United Nations also emphasised the importance of reform in security and justice sectors in the country’s transition to democracy. It urged the Myanmar government to work with Bangladesh and the United Nations to allow the voluntary return of refugees in conditions of safety and dignity to their homes, on the basis of an October 24 memorandum of understanding between the two countries.

In that meeting the representative of Bangladesh thanked the Council for a comprehensive statement, which could be a building block towards the timely and critical action that was needed. It was acknowledged that time was of the essence in this situation.

If we look at Balfour Declaration, we see that the persecuted Jewish People had been given a national home in the land of Palestine. Despite the fact that Britain had no sovereign rights over Palestine or any proprietary interest, it disposed off the land of the Palestinians, embracing the concept of Zionism. Why then is it so difficult to return to the Rohingyas, their land, that is rightfully theirs? However, it is also true that their right to return to their home safely can only be possible in the diplomatic way.

Myanmar should be subject to international sanctions and pressure should be put on them. Neutral Organisations like the UN should closely monitor the whole repatriation process. The international community as a whole should be more proactive in this regard and not be fooled by the phony promises that Myanmar makes when it comes to repatriation of the displaced and most persecuted refugees- the Rohingyas. In the event, they do not comply with their obligation Myanmar should be subject to strict international sanctions.

Tasmiah Nuhiya Ahmed is an advocate at the Supreme Court and research assistant (law) at the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs; and Tahsin Noor Salim is a research assistant (law) at the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29213/rohingyas-panacea-to-their-plight

12:00 AM, November 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:52 AM, November 27, 2017
*Rohingya Deal: Govt 'sold itself' to Myanmar*
*Claims Fakhrul*
Unb, Dhaka
*BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday alleged that the government had “sold itself” to Myanmar by signing the Rohingya repatriation instrument with the neighbouring country.*
"Under which compulsion have you [government] sold yourself to Myanmar without understating the country's interests? You should tell the nation from where you received the pressure to do so," he said.

He claimed that the instrument was signed accepting all conditions of Myanmar.

Fakhrul came up with the comment while speaking at a discussion arranged by Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal at the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh, marking BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman's 53rd birthday.

On Thursday, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an instrument on the Rohingya repatriation with high hopes that the forcibly displaced Rohingyas would start returning to their homeland within the next two months.

Fakhrul said UN body UNHCR voiced concern over the agreement as the condition of Myanmar was not suitable for safe and sustainable return of the Rohingyas.

01:35 PM, November 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:49 PM, November 27, 2017
*UK reaffirms support for Bangladesh, Rohingyas
It says global funding to dry up in 100 days*




Rohingya Muslim refugees gathers inside the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar on November 26, 2017. Photo: AFP
UNB, Dhaka
*United Kingdom's International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt today pledged that the UK will continue to stand by Rohingya people and Bangladesh.*
UK has announced 12 million pounds aid support which will help around 750,000 women and girls globally over the next three years and Mordaunt pledged to help increase protection for Rohingya women and girls against sexual violence and exploitation

This brings the UK's total support to 59 million pound since 25 August 2017, according to the British High Commission in Dhaka.

During her recent visit to Cox's Bazar, Mordaunt announced further UK aid for the Rohingya crisis, as she warns, global funding will start drying up in 100 days.

Mordaunt praised the Bangladesh government and local communities for their continued generosity in helping the Rohingya people.

She also urged other countries to follow the UK's lead by promising longer-term support to avert disaster.

"The persistent persecution of the Rohingya people must stop. It's horrifying that hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children have had their homes burnt to the ground, and parents have been forced to helplessly watch as their children die from hunger," she said.

Mordaunt said this looks like ethnic cleansing and the Myanmar military must end this inhumane violence and guarantee unrestricted humanitarian access so aid can reach those in need in Myanmar. "Any return of families to their homes must be safe, voluntary and dignified."

She said global funding to support the Rohingya people will only meet urgent needs for the next 100 days.

"We cannot turn our backs on those trapped in crisis. Other countries must follow our lead and do even more to help children overcome the trauma of war, reunite them with their families and give a future to the next generation," she said.

Mordaunt pledged to help increase protection for Rohingya women and girls against sexual violence and exploitation and announced a separate package of UK aid support (pound 12 million for multiple countries) that is expected to help around 750,000 women and girls globally over the next three years.

She met some of the 624,000 innocent men, women and children on November 25 who have been tragically driven from their homes in Myanmar and forced to make the treacherous journey to Bangladesh, relying on aid to survive and heard harrowing stories of brutal abuse.

She also met UK experts delivering life-saving treatment including medical, counseling and psychosocial support to female survivors.

"The countless stories of sexual violence I have heard from Rohingya women and girls are truly shocking and the high rates of this crime across the world are a global scandal," said Mordaunt.

She said the UK is absolutely determined to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and we are increasing protection for Rohingya women and girls against sexual violence and exploitation.

"We're stepping up our leadership - working closely with women leaders and grassroots charities - to help more survivors in some of the world's poorest countries overcome the traumas of violence," she said.

On Sunday, British Secretary Mordaunt met State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and praised the role of Bangladesh government in dealing the Rohingya crisis and appreciated the generous approach of Bangladeshi people towards the Rohingya people.

Shahriar appreciated the active role of the UK government in mounting pressure on Myanmar Government on Rohingya issue.

Referring to her visit to the Rohingya makeshift camps in Cox's Bazar, Mordaunt mentioned that she is moved by the scale of influx and assured that the aids from the UK will certainly increase in the coming days.

The State Minister expressed hope that the UK will continue to mount pressure on Myanmar until the successful return of displaced Rohingya people to their homeland in safety, security and dignity
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/uk-reaffirms-support-bangladesh-rohingyas-1497124


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## Banglar Bir

*EXPERTS, POLITICIANS ON ROHINGYA REPATRIATION AGREEMENT
Deal creates uncertainty*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:05, Nov 27,2017 | Updated: 00:01, Nov 27,2017
*Newly arrived Rohingya refugees wait to receive permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue their way after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, near Teknaf, on Sunday. — Reuters photo

The hurried signing of a Rohingya repatriation deal with Myanmar without timeframe and leaving Nay Pyi Daw to decide who could return might make the process uncertain, experts and politicians said on Sunday.*
‘The government has committed a big mistake, I should say “crime”, by signing the deal without protecting national interests,’ Communist Party of Bangladesh presidium member Haider Akbar Khan Rano told New Age on Sunday.

The government signed the instrument complying with the requests of the Myanmar authorities, he said, adding that it was unlikely that anyone would agree to voluntarily return.

The instrument, Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State, was signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on November 23 to repatriate Rohingyas entered Bangladesh from Rakhine State only after October 9, 2016.

Socialist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Khalequzzaman observed that the government hurriedly signed the deal with Myanmar without considering certain major aspects of repatriation, including willingness of Rohingyas to return, to show that it was active to resolve the crisis.

There are loopholes in the provisions of verification of the nationality of the Rohingyas with conferring much authority to Myanmar by agreeing to accept provisions stated in the 1992 joint statement and that might make repatriation uncertain, he said.

It was possible to bring documents of citizenship in 1992, but this time it was impossible for them, he said.

Steps on ensuring citizenship of Rohingyas, compensation for damages made to
them, reconstruction of their houses and trial of people involved in ethnic cleansing were kept unresolved, he added.

Chair of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign ministry Dipu Moni declined to comment on the deal signed with Myanmar. ‘The foreign minister has talked about it,’ she said.

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute vice-president Humayun Kabir said that the government started an uncertain journey without setting any destination by hurriedly signing the instrument with Myanmar when Bangladesh was in an advantageous position on the matter. ‘Where the government would hide its face if the process of repatriation gets stuck in uncertainty,’ he said.

Kabir, also former ambassador, said that the only point that might put Myanmar in trouble was that the country indirectly admitted, by agreeing to accept ‘children born out of unwarranted incidents’, that there were incidents of rape in Rakhine State.

The members of split families, their left behind members, orphans and children born out of unwarranted incidents are to be certified by a Bangladesh court and both parents of additional offspring born in Bangladesh must be residents of Myanmar, according to the deal.

Army general turned ambassador M Shahidul Haque said that the Myanmar Army, which enjoys huge control and influence on foreign, home and border management issues, was possibly not
involved in the process of negotiation of the ‘arrangement’. Myanmar Army might create uncertainty in the repatriation process, he added.

A serving Bangladesh ambassador to a European country said that it was not necessary for Bangladesh to sign the agreement ‘without any timeframe’ when the international communities were mounting pressure on Myanmar.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29237/deal-creates-uncertainty

01:45 PM, November 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:04 PM, November 27, 2017
*Suu Kyi to visit China amid Western criticism over Rohingya exodus*




Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will soon visit Beijing, state media says on Monday, November 27, 2017, as the southeast Asian nation appears to draw closer to its northern neighbour, China, amid global criticism over an exodus of Rohingya refugees. Reuters file photo
Reuters, Yangon
*Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will soon visit Beijing, state media said on Monday, as the southeast Asian nation appears to draw closer to its northern neighbour, China, amid global criticism over an exodus of Rohingya refugees.*
Myanmar has bristled at pressure from Western nations over its armed forces’ brutal response to August attacks on security posts by Rohingya Muslim militants in the western state of Rakhine.

*READ more: Rohingya crisis to be resolved keeping ties with Myanmar unharmed, says PM*
The United States and the United Nations have accused Myanmar of “ethnic cleansing” and called for the military to be held accountable over allegations of killings, rape and arson that sent more than 620,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.

China, however, has backed what Myanmar officials call a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in Rakhine, and stepped in to prevent a resolution on the crisis at the UN Security Council.

News of Suu Kyi’s visit comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese military leaders welcomed Myanmar’s powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing last week and pledged closer cooperation.


The state-run daily Global New Light of Myanmar said Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi would “soon” depart to attend a Communist Party of China-hosted forum of world political leaders in Beijing.

Suu Kyi’s spokesman Zaw Htay could not be reached for more details, but the meeting begins on Thursday and runs until December 3, according to China’s official news agency Xinhua.

Myanmar is in the international spotlight this week as Pope Francis makes the first visit by a head of the Roman Catholic church to the Buddhist-majority country.

He has previously spoken out about the treatment of minority Muslims to whom Myanmar denies citizenship, but some Christians fear doing so in the country could provoke a backlash.

Many in Myanmar refuse to recognise the name Rohingya, preferring to call them “Bengalis” to suggest they belong in neighbouring Bangladesh.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...tern-criticism-refugee-influx-rakhine-1497130

*Rohingya tragedy*
SAM Staff, November 27, 2017





*Although Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya population has suffered persecution at the hands of the majority Buddhist community for years, the recent crackdown by security forces against the Rohingya was executed with such unprecedented brutality that it has been described as ethnic cleansing. *
Over 600,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, carrying with them stories of rape, arbitrary arrest and mass arson and killings — all of them crimes against humanity. That is why when news came on Thursday of a repatriation agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar it was met with scorn rather than approbation by human rights groups.

Though struggling to provide for refugees, Bangladesh must keep its border open and not coerce people to return. For now, its humanitarian partners must step up assistance. Returning is unthinkable for those who have just escaped mass persecution.

In its report, All of My Body was Pain: Sexual Violence against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma, Human Rights Watch found that Myanmar’s military used rape as a “prominent and devastating feature” of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.

Survivors say they were left with rape, burn and bullet injuries. As Amnesty International argues, “there can be no safe or dignified returns of Rohingya to Myanmar while a system of apartheid remains in the country, and thousands are held there in conditions that amount to concentration camps”.

If and when the refugees return, their security must be guaranteed by international monitors — and all repatriations must be voluntary and assisted by international agencies. Meanwhile, with Myanmar’s military calling the shots, a policy shift to reverse decades of abuse against Rohingya populations is virtually impossible unless world pressure is applied through Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Though her indifference to the plight of the Rohingya is well established, international leaders must continue to pressure her to preserve the beleaguered population’s rights. To end, ambiguity around the repatriation agreement sans a role for the UN’s refugee agency — whose inclusion in voluntary repatriation operations is standard practice — requires clarification.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/27/rohingya-tragedy/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




*
Myanmar and Bangladesh strike a shameful deal on Rohingya refugees*
November 24, 2017
The Conversation
A deal done: the foreign minister of Bangladesh, Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali, visits Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
EPA/Myanmar Ministry of Information Rosa Freedman, University of Reading
*Many Rohingya people who have fled the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar are now living as refugees in Bangladesh. And now, the two countries have reportedly struck a deal to return them home. Returning Rohingya people to the hands of their persecutors not only violates international law, but raises fundamental questions about how the world protects those fleeing the most heinous crimes and abuses.*
This deal comes just days after Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the Srebrenica massacre, which took place in Bosnia even as news cameras broadcast footage around the world – in much the same way as they have documented this latest crisis of ethnic cleansing.

As far as Myanmar is concerned, the deal will ease the increasing pressure it faces from both the United Nations and its Asian neighbours. The Myanmar government has no interest in welcoming Rohingya refugees home with open arms; those Rohingya who remain in Myanmar are treated as an alien people, denied citizenship and basic rights, and systematically persecuted.

The Myanmar government maintains that the recent spike in violence did not amount to ethnic cleansing, that it was not state-sponsored, sanctioned or condoned, and that the Rohingya are safe to return. But those words are empty. Abundant first-hand reports and documentary footage all point to the same thing: ethnic cleansing conducted by state actors.

Top UN officials have been using the term “ethnic cleansing” for some time, and the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is now using it too. Given that Myanmar is refusing to take responsibility for the atrocities, let alone to provide guarantees of protection and justice for the Rohingya, it beggars belief not just that the country is asking those refugees to return, but that Bangladesh would provide its support.

Under international law, refugees who flee atrocities are afforded fundamental protections. Above all, they are protected by the principles of offering asylum and of non-refoulement – protection against return to a country where a person has reason to fear persecution.
*
Bangladesh will of course insist that Myanmar wants these people to return, and that only those choosing to do so voluntarily will be returned. But that ignores the facts on the ground. *

Rohingya refugees’ options are bleak: remain in the squalid camps, somehow escape into Bangladeshi society with no formal documentation or status, or return home and face persecution. Bleak future Bangladesh has not acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol.

The country has no law to regulate the administration of refugee affairs or guarantee refugees’ rights. And despite many decades of persecution and abuses in Myanmar, Bangladesh has never allowed the Rohingya to claim asylum. Those who make it to Bangladesh are placed in overcrowded camps without basic provisions, and there they remain unless they choose to return to Myanmar.

The idea of voluntary return stems from a 1993 agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, under which those Rohingya who can prove their identity must fill in forms with the names of family members, their previous address in Myanmar, their date of birth, and a disclaimer that they are returning voluntarily. But those who do choose to return will face extortion, arbitrary taxation, and restrictions on freedom of movement.

Many will be required to undertake forced labour, and some will face state-sponsored violence and extrajudicial killings. Those who remain in Bangladesh, on the other hand, face a lifetime in camps where human rights abuses are rife, with insufficient and inadequate food, water, housing or healthcare.

Fleeing these camps leaves them undocumented and vulnerable to trafficking, exploitation and abuse. Whatever individual Rohingya people in Bangladesh might decide to do, their future is bleak.
And that’s not good enough.

The international community has long known about the systematic persecution of this people. The international community has long ignored the atrocities perpetrated against them. And the international community has long tolerated the cover-ups and excuses from the government of Myanmar. This time it needs to be different.

Bangladesh should step up and provide refuge to those who have been seeking it for 25 years. Myanmar’s neighbouring states and allies should help properly resettle the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya who have fled Myanmar, and Myanmar itself should be held to account for the atrocities it commits.

There’s no point saying “never again” unless action is taken. Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of Reading This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
- See more at: http://southasiajournal.net/myanmar-and-bangladesh-strike-a-shameful-deal-on-rohingya-refugees/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 27, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:37 PM, November 27, 2017
*EDITORIAL*
*Arrangement for Rohingya repatriation*
*The devil is in the details*




*Bangladesh has always preferred problem-resolution with its neighbours through dialogue and negotiations. Thus the Arrangement signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar, we feel, is a positive development of sorts. *
But any optimism that we would like to hold will have to be guarded since like all other mutual understandings the devil is in the details. The success of the Arrangement depends on how effectively the repatriation is completed within a specific timeframe.

It is evident that Myanmar has wilted under international pressure which was being ratcheted up increasingly with newer revelations of Rohingya persecution every day. We are happy to note the support we have received from the West on the matter.

And we note the shift in India's stand on the issue from its open support to Myanmar initially. Though China is a good friend of both Bangladesh and Myanmar, it works with the latter on a different equation.
Thus the importance of China's role in the quick repatriation of the Rohingyas as well a permanent resolution of the problem, cannot be over emphasised.

Needless to say, given our past experience there is ground for pessimism regarding the final outcome of the arrangement. And it is for Myanmar to dispel all misgivings by taking actions on the ground that would attest to its positive attitude towards fulfilling the objectives of the understanding.
Thus, pending the finalisation of the terms of reference of the Joint Working Group, Myanmar must ensure that all violence on the Rohingyas cease forthwith. It must also create a conducive atmosphere for its people to return.

But there are several other issues that must also be thrashed out if the deal has to be followed through. For example, the burden of proof of identity of the forcibly displaced is on the victims. How does one expect people running for their lives to carry their ID?

They were living in an apartheid condition with no school to go to or business to run. We feel that the final decision, in cases of disputes regarding eligibility to return should not be left alone to only one of the two parties.

*The Arrangement, we must emphasise, does not mean the end but only the beginning of the end. 
Neither should it mean the end of engagement of the international community with the Rohingya issue. 
The focus of the world must not be shifted, instead, international pressure on Myanmar for a permanent resolution of the problem must continue unabated.*
http://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/arrangement-rohingya-repatriation-1496842


*Rohingya Repatriation Deal Inked in November: A Short Escape for Myanmar*
Mohammed Ayub (TU)
RB Opinion
November 27, 2017
*We have waited eagerly for the positive outcome of the bilateral meeting between Myanmar and Bangladesh last November 22, 2017. To dismay, the deal was full of dubious texts and ulterior motives. Here is how, based on the deal signed by both parties on November 23, 2017.




Fig.1 The deal inked by both Parties *(Photo credit to Poppy McPherson Twitter)
The deal has categorically divided between the Rohingyas who arrived after 9th October,2016, 25th August 2017, and Rohingyas who have been living registered and unregistered camps since 1978. There is no urgency to differentiate between the two as all are Rohingyas who took shelter from Burmese brutalities in various points of times. Definitely, there may be some hidden propagandas from the side of Myanmarese to accept the early-come group not with the fresh ones.
*See the extract below(Fig.2). *




*Fig.2 Extract from Page #2 Paragraph 3 *
And in the paragraph number of 5 of same page (See Fig. 3), it was mention that “return of Myanmar residents in earlier phases” will be based of 1992 Joint Statement signed by MoFA of Bangladesh and Myanmar, and the discussion held on November 22, 2017. Here, series of confusion arises from the texts of this paragraph. And more specifically, it is ambiguously texted on which return of Myanmar residents will be based on 1992 MoU? What does it mean by “earlier phases”?

And Bangladesh was saying before that the repatriation deal will be based on modified 1992 MoU, and on also Bangladesh PM’s five points proposal made at the 72nd UNGA session on September 21 of this year. The five points proposals are;
(1) Myanmar must unconditionally stop the violence and the practice of ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine State immediately and forever.
(2) Secretary General of the United Nations should immediately send a Fact-Finding Mission to Myanmar.
(3) All civilians irrespective of religion and ethnicity must be protected in Myanmar. For that "safe zones" could be created inside Myanmar under UN supervision.
(4) Ensure sustainable return of all forcibly displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh to their homes in Myanmar.
(5) The recommendations of Kofi Annan Commission Report must be immediately implemented unconditionally and in its entirety.

From the above five points, only point number (4) is seen in this deal and proposal number (5) is put in the last part of deal as a show piece. The current deal shows Bangladesh’s stance on Rohingya repatriation is flexible and is not met with practicality.

And till on the very day of signing the deal, the torching of the villages, killing and looting of the belongings of Rohingya are continuing in Arakan.

In the general guiding principles (Fig.4), paragraph 2 mentioned that returnees will be allowed to their original place *or* safety and secure place near it of their choice. Why dubious? This leaves a serious loop hole for Myanmarese to manipulate the deal, meaning some will be allowed to their original places and some will be not. Those Rohingya’s places(Lands) will be for China as a gift for protecting her from UNSC against vote.

And it is also mentioned that returnees *will not be kept longer but shorter period* in temporary shelter. That means Myanmar has plan to keep returnees in IDP camps with false promise of settling to original place in a very short course of time. One cannot forget that thousands of Rohingyas are suffering in IDP Sittwe since 2012 with no concrete reasons of why not settling in the original places.
*




Fig.4 General Guiding Principles *




Fig.3 Paragraph 5 of page # 2

And it was emphasized that freedom of movement for Rohingya will be only within Rakhine(fig.4) and not throughout all Burma as has been restricted for Rohingyas since 1990s. Even in Rakhine state, it must be inconformity to the existing laws and regulations.

Form these points, one can easily conclude that Myanmar does not want to recognize Rohingya as citizens, and does have ulterior motives of confining Rohingya within Arakan. Anywhere in the world, is there any law which prescribes to its citizens the rules and regulations for the freedom of movement with the country? Till date, Rohingyas have to hold temporary travel permit even to visit one’s parents’ house. It is clear that Myanmar wants Rohingya to keep in those same restrictions.

At the end of the paragraph, the deal exposes that all returnees will be issued NVC. NVC is a mechanism that was targeted Rohingya to making them foreigners though Rohingyas had identifications card as other nationals of Myanmar. NVC was introduced after 2012 violence and very few Rohingyas were forcibly made to accept those cards.
*
And in Paragraph 5,* it was expressed that returnees who have cases in the involvement of terrorism or criminal activities will punished. As the whole world know, Myanmar’s rule of law is discriminatory towards Rohingyas and therefore, Rohingyas have no trust Myanmar’s rule of law. The returnees will be criminalized on false grounds as have been done in 2012, 2016 and 2017 majority of whom are still serving their jail terms.



*Fig.5 Discriminatory policy *
In Paragraph 16(Fig.5), it stated that both Governments will refrain from conceiving and implementing any policy that is discriminatory to any particular community that violates universally agreed principles on human rights. To what extend you understand these phrases?

Myanmar has been labeling Rohingyas as Bengali since long. Is not that implementing discriminatory policy towards Rohingya and Bengali people? Universally, any race or community has the right to give their names as they wish. They have the right to be called them as other people want themselves to be called by other.

In the final part of the deal, it talked about implementing Annan’s commission report. Very pretty move from the side of Myanmarese Government. If you (Myanmar) are(is) not going to place all the returnees at their original places, to issue NVC cards, to strict freedom of Movement, then what use of implementing Annan’s report in which all the mention points are not favorable?
_*Conclusion *_
Strictly speaking, Myanmar surpass Bangladesh in this deal because the points in the deal are impractical to accept from the side of Rohingyas. And Myanmar just was successful for another few weeks to weaken international pressures.

All the Rohingyas who took shelter in Bangladesh are seriously denying the repatriation according to this deal signed on 23rd November, 2017. And from the right groups also are alarming voices that the deal did not meet international standard and repatriation need to be monitored by the outside world.
_Remarks: The full text of the deal is from Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) Twitter 
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/rohingya-repatriation-deal-inked-in.html_


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya still fleeing Myanmar despite repatriation deal*
Agence France-Presse
Published at 06:06 PM November 27, 2017




Newly arrived Rohingya refugees wait to receive permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue their way after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, near Teknaf, Bangladesh, November 26, 2017REUTERS
*The repatriation agreement applies to Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh who fled Myanmar in two major outbreaks of violence since October 2016*
Rohingya are still fleeing into Bangladesh even after an agreement was signed with Myanmar to repatriate hundreds of thousands of the ethnic minority displaced along the border, officials said on Monday.

The arrangement struck by the neighbours on Thursday raised the prospect of at least 700,000 Rohingya living in overcrowded camps in southeastern Bangladesh being returned to Myanmar.

But at least 3,000 refugees have crossed since then, the United Nations said in its latest report on the crisis, with guards at check-posts along the frontier also reporting a largely uninterrupted flow of newcomers.

“The number of arrivals has declined, but it has not stopped,” Commander of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Lt Col SM Ariful Islam said.

Ariful said at least 400 refugees had passed by guards under his command along the border with Myanmar since the agreement was signed.

An estimated 624,000 Rohingya have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar since August described by UN and US authorities as ethnic cleansing.

The repatriation agreement applies to Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh who fled Myanmar in two major outbreaks of violence since October 2016.

It does not extend to an estimated 200,000 Rohingya refugees who were living in Bangladesh prior to that date.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has raised concerns over the terms of the arrangement, saying conditions for the safe return of the Rohingya were not yet in place.

Bangladesh said at the weekend those returned would initially live in temporary shelters or camps.

Rohingya leaders have said they will not return to Myanmar unless they are recognised as citizens with full rights and ensured protection from violence.

Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya, denying them citizenship and restricting their movement.

The UNHCR says any repatriation deal must include “the informed consent of refugees.”
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...ll-fleeing-myanmar-despite-repatriation-deal/


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## Banglar Bir

10:30 AM, November 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:09 AM, November 28, 2017
*Suu Kyi loses Freedom of Oxford over Rohingya crisis*





Photo: AFP
The Straits Times, Singapore
*Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been stripped off an honour granting her the Freedom of Oxford over her response to the country's Rohingya crisis.*
Oxford city councillors said they did not want to honour "those who turn a blind eye to violence", stripping the Nobel laureate of the freedom of the city granted to her in 1997 for her "long struggle for democracy", reported the BBC.
Read More: No Glasgow honour for Aung San Suu Kyi
Suu Kyi spent years under house arrest in Myanmar during the military dictatorship in the country. But her failure to denounce the military or address allegations of ethnic cleansing that have driven more than half a million Rohingya to Bangladesh has been criticised by world leaders and rights groups.

The decision to permanently remove the honour accorded to Suu Kyi was taken at a meeting of the Oxford City Council following a preliminary vote in October.

"Oxford has a long tradition of being a diverse and humane city, and our reputation is tarnished by honouring those who turn a blind eye to violence," said Mary Clarkson, who proposed the motion. "We hope that today we have added our small voice to others calling for human rights and justice for the Rohingya people."

A portrait of Suu Kyi that had been displayed at St Hugh's College, Oxford, had earlier been removed from display.
_Copyright: The Straits Times/ Asia News Network_
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...om-oxford-honour-over-rohingya-crisis-1497559
*

Pope’s Peace and Reconciliation Mission to Myanmar*
Larry Jagan, November 28, 2017




*Thousands of people have lined the streets of Yangon to greet Pope Francis as he arrived in what is a momentous moment for Myanmar. The crowds were waving specially made flags which all carried the Pontiff’s key message on his mission: ‘love and peace’. *

The mood is subdued for fear of antagonizing the country’s majority Buddhist population. Everyone knows though that the Pope – effectively the leader of the world’s Christian community is visiting Myanmar.

There are mixed feelings amongst the average people – all Buddhists – as they go about their business. “He’s a man of peace, he represents peace world-wide and preaches peace,” said Win Lwin a 40-year-old taxi driver, a strong supporter of the prodemocracy party and a Buddhist. “Peace is what out country needs most,” he added. Others are more disinterested. “It’s great for the Catholics and Christians,” said a young Yangon student, Nay Aye. “But it won’t affect us.”

However in recent days there has been a vicious campaign in the country’s social media – in the Myanmar language – that remains hostile to his visit, accusing him of stirring religious tensions in the country. But the government remains convinced that the trip can only help its campaign for peace and reconciliation.

Pope Francis is the world’s most senior religious leader and is on a delicate diplomatic visit. It is the first visit by a Papal leader to Myanmar, and has raised expectations that is presence and message will support the government’s approach and strategy. “The Pope is a unifying figure, preaching compassion, love and peace and his visit comes at a decisive moment,” Denzel Abel, a Myanmar intellectual, former diplomat and a Catholic told the SAM. “He has a charismatic presence, and will certainly galvanize people.

Many hope he can help spur support for Aung San Suu Kyi at a very critical time for her government. Violence in the country’s western region of Northern Rakhine has led to more than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing across the border into neighboring Bangladesh in the wake of a military crackdown that Washington has called “ethnic cleansing”.

International human rights groups have accused the Myanmar army of “crimes against humanity”: including murder, rape, torture and forcible dislocation; allegations that the Myanmar military denies. These groups are hoping that the Pope will be able to highlight the plight of the Rohingya during his combined visit to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, which ends in Dhaka next Saturday. They are also pushing him to try to end the deadly violence against the largely stateless Muslims.

There have been concerns that the religious leader might use the highly contentious term ‘Rohingya’. It is not recognized by the authorities, who insist they are ‘Bengalis’, to indicate they are from Myanmar but trespassers from Bangladesh. The Pope has called them Rohingya in the past, when he urged the Myanmar authorities to end to the violent persecution of the minority Muslim population. But he is likely to avoid the term on this visit, according to sources close to the Vatican.

“We have asked him at least to refrain from using the word ‘Rohingya’ because this word is very much contested and not acceptable to the military, nor the government, nor to most people in Myanmar,” the Catholic Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Bo told the Bangkok Post in an interview last week, after he had returned from Rome, where he briefed the Pope.

The symbolism of the visit is important and the poster welcoming Pipe Francis is highly significant, suggested Denzil Abel. On one side there is Myanmar’s flag and on the other the Pope holding a dove – the international symbol of peace – under the slogan ‘love and peace’. In a video message sent to Myanmar last week, Pope Francis said he wanted the trip to lead to “reconciliation, forgiveness and peace” as well as encourage harmony and cooperation.

The Pope is the second most important leader to visit Myanmar, according to many diplomats in Yangon, after the President of the United States. “The Pope is one of the most respected moral voices in the world today, and therefore his visit is even more significant, coming as it does when Myanmar faces so many problems” said Denzil Abel.

Christianity in Myanmar is over 500 years old, and the Pope’s visit, according to many in the Catholic flock will strengthen recognition and understanding of the institution. It will show the shared Christian and Buddhist’s vision of compassion, he added.

The visit is also highly significant as it comes at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi and her government are facing increasing international pressure to resolve the communal conflict in Rakhine, end the violence and tackle the plight of the Muslim refugees. She has pinned her hopes of a solution on the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Advisory Commission, announced at the end of August, after a year-long investigation.

But immediately after the announcement, increased violence erupted, as a result of insurgent attacks on some thirty police border posts. Now the government is faced with the task of repatriating over half a million refugees from Bangladesh, rebuilding their homes and trying to improve communal relations, between the local Buddhist Arakanese and the Rohingya Muslims. The reconciliation strategy envisaged by the State Counselor, was announced when she launched the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, which she chairs herself.

As part of this strategy – and in an effort to stimulate support in the country for government’s Rakhine reconstruction and reconciliation process – Aung San Suu Kyi launched a series of inter-faith meetings throughout the country. These prayer meetings for peace were held during October, initially with the Buddhist monks participating. At the meeting in Yangon, the country’s Catholic leader played a prominent role. Through these, Aung San Suu Kyi hoped not only to improve the situation in Rakhine, but strengthen the whole peace process, according to government insiders.

In her public address to the whole nation, she emphasized Buddhist values. “I have no doubt that all of them [the people of Myanmar here and abroad] will come forth to help us with Metta (loving kindness) and Thitsa (Truth).” The aim was to mobilize the nation behind the Buddhist tenets of love and kindness, and to wrestle Buddhism out of the hands of extremists, according to an advisor involved in the speech.

But the military, and the Buddhist clergy, may have misunderstood this approach. “She looks like she wants to promote other religions above Buddhism,” a former senior military officer reflected.

And the leaders of the Buddhist faith have taken umbrage, at what they saw as a slight against the monks who participate in the ceremonies. Monks were not on present on the stage, but sat at the front near the stage, which was seen as a sign of disrespect. Recently the 47-member Ma Ha Na – the highest official Buddhist authority in the country – recently banned monks from participating in all future interfaith gatherings. This was to prevent this unintended snub enflaming the passions of Buddhists, a devout Buddhist explained to me.

“Aung San Suu Kyi – as will Pope during his visit – is promoting harmony, love and peace: the appreciation of diversity, and focusing on conciliation,” said Cardinal Bo. Fears that the Pope may inadvertently enflame religious tensions seem to be misplaced. “The Pope doesn’t want to anger any community, and is concerned not to divide or polarize,” Cardinal Bo added. “This would not help the situation: this is not the solution.”

But not all Myanmar Christians are as enthusiastic as the Archbishop in his support fot Myanmar’s civilian leader. “This over enthusiastic support could cause divisions within the wider Christian community — especially the Baptist communities like the Kachin, whose support for Aung San Suu Kyi is at its lowest ever point, given her perceived neglect and indifference to their suffering and persecution,” Seng Raw, a Kachin activist and civil society leader told SAM. “In short it does not support the peace process.”

This is not a view shared by most Catholics who strongly believe that the Pope’s visit will have a positive affect, with its emphasis on unity. This is the reason he is also meeting the army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing – at Cardinal Bo’s suggestion. But Seng Raw also hopes that “Pope Francis’s clear moral leadership — that is lacking in the leaders of this country – will inspire everyone to be more compassionate.”

Aung San Suu is meeting his holiness when he flies to the capital Nayyidaw. This is the second time the two have met. Aung San Suu Kyi at earlier in the year, at which time she invited him to visit. After near two decades of trying, diplomatic relations were established between the Vatican and Myanmar in May this year. The Pope it is understood was anxious to strengthen their ties with a personal visit. But one, which shows his commitment to peace and the plight of the poor, Cardinal Bo told SAM.

There is no doubt that Aung San Suu Kyi wants the Pope’s visit to highlight her governments efforts prioritize peace. Activists working on the peace process and Rakhine reconciliation are hoping that the visit may produce some tangible results, and not remain purely symbolic. The Vatican could involve its good offices to provide concrete support for the process, in much the same way the UN did in the past, mediating between the military and Aung San Suu Kyi, while she was under house arrest. This would keep international support apolitical and may help in finding a solid solution, especially to the problems in Rakhine.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/28/popes-peace-reconciliation-mission-myanmar/

*Number of Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh reaches 624,000: UN*
Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-28 03:39:11|Editor: pengying




A Bangladeshi man helps Rohingya Muslim refugees to disembark from a boat on the Bangladeshi shoreline of the Naf river after crossing the border from Myanmar in Teknaf on September 30, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP)
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The number of Rohingya refugees who have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since Aug. 25 has reached 624,000, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Monday.

An average of 430 Rohingya refugees entered Bangladesh per day this past week, a slowdown compared to the previous week.

The Rohingyas fled their homes in northern Rakhine State of Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh after deadly attacks staged by the rebel Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on police posts on Aug. 25 allegedly touched off a wave of retribution by government and vigilante forces.

Rohingyas arriving in refugee camps -- some having traversed an inlet of the Bay of Bengal on makeshift rafts and boats -- reported widespread violence against them.

On reports of an agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar on the repatriation of the refugees, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it is important that people are able to return to the place they came from "in a safe, dignified and protected manner."

The ethnic Rohingyas are denied citizenship in the largely Buddhist nation.
KEY WORDS:_Rohingya_


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## Banglar Bir

*The Stateless Rohingya*



*Penny Mordaunt: Extra UK aid gives a future to persecuted Rohingya*
Ms Mordaunt pledged that the UK will continue to stand by the Rohingya people and Bangladesh, now and in the future.

On a visit to Cox’s Bazar, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has announced further UK aid for the Rohingya crisis, as she warns that global funding will start to dry up in 100 days.

Ms Mordaunt pledged that the UK will continue to stand by the Rohingya people and Bangladesh, now and in the future. She met some of the 620,000 innocent men, women and children who have been tragically driven from their homes in Burma and forced to make the treacherous journey to Bangladesh, relying on aid to survive.

Today’s announcement of £12 million for the Rohingya crisis is providing urgently needed food now and ensuring more lives are not put at risk when international funding starts to run out in February 2018. This brings the UK’s total support to £59 million since 25 August 2017.

She praised the Government of Bangladesh and the local communities for their continued generosity in helping the Rohingya people and also urged other countries to follow the UK’s lead by promising longer-
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:
Read More » 
https://www.gov.uk/…/penny-mordaunt-extra-uk-aid-gives-a-fu…




https://www.facebook.com/thestateless/videos/1463680907087459/

*From Sarajevo to Kutupalong*
Brigadier General AF Jaglul Ahmed
Published at 06:29 PM November 27, 2017
Last updated at 10:25 PM November 27, 2017




An undeniable humanitarian disaster*SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN*
*Bangladesh must guard its own national interests*
The recent influx of Rohingya refugees into the southern part of Bangladesh is a novel phenomenon for the people of this land.

A human flow as large as this reminds me of Sarajevo in 1994. Decades have passed since I returned from Sarajevo, but memories of Sebrenica came flooding back with the influx of Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Globally, ethnic cleansing is not a new phenomenon, but the current Rohingya cleansing operations in the Rakhine and the consequent spill-over of survivors into Bangladesh is new in this region.

We are being forced to absorb this unprecedented surge in population and that is adding significantly to our existing problems.

Not unknown to the world, decades-long persecution of the Rohingya turned into a violent and all-out offensive after the attack on the Myanmar Security Force’s camp in August.

This, apparently, triggered the genocide, which involved Myanmar soldiers raping young girls, setting children on fire, and guillotining youths — comparable to medieval barbarism.

New stories of horror surface every day, and news of whole villages being burnt to the ground on the other side of the border are the most common yet.

The perception of the majority is that the religious identity of the Rohingyas was the primary reason for their expulsion and extermination.

Some believe that the conscience of the world is strong enough to help them return home and restart their lives as Rohingya. There is a further belief that one day they would move freely in the state of Rakhine as free Rohingya with no fear of death or persecution. But that is the belief of a small number of people whose faith in God is yet infinite.

The clamour in the national and international media is only creating more sensationalism, intended to draw in more viewers and readers but hardly providing any solution.

But what is the solution anyway in the midst of the persisting violence across the border and constant wave of refugees to Bangladesh numbering more than thousands every day?

The door for Rohingya to enter Bangladesh is still open from an idealistic humanitarian perspective but how long will such idealism hold is a critical question.

Many other issues from the realist perspective are already becoming evident, like extremists in the Rakhine blockading relief material, some Rohingyas committing crimes like murder in the refugee camps, and the sufferings of thousands of students of local schools and colleges that are in complete disarray as a result of the refugee crisis.

A nation like Bangladesh cannot share its resources and bear all responsibility for these distressed communities indefinitely.

When the supply of food runs out and the space to live gets further congested, our sympathy for the Rohingya may also start to dry up.

‘Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests’

For want of food, shelter, fresh oxygen, or water, the Rohingyas who once fled violence may turn to violence themselves.

Multilateral efforts are yet not strong enough to force Myanmar to roll back their cleansing operations and take back their own people.

Bilateral efforts already signal a long-term process, which will be a huge strain on a resource-constrained nation like Bangladesh.

Many countries in the multilateral efforts agreed to create pressure on Myanmar, while some abstained to commit to either side due to the likelihood of their own national interest colliding in the greater geo-political game.

Every state around the problem has its own strategic viewpoint from which it is to decide as to what it should calibrate with.

It is difficult to conclude who is right or wrong. But what it can remind us of is the famous quote by Lord Palmerstone: “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.”

What lies ahead for Bangladesh in terms of this precarious issue springing from across the border?

A nation embroiled in its own internal turmoil and rarely able to co-relate the role of geo-politics into its fate and future is bound to be in shock and awe with a humanitarian crisis such as this.

The humanitarian need of these distressed communities might soon be overshadowed by the interest of different vested groups. Whose interest will advance and find pre-eminence is still difficult to predict, but there is every chance that the poorer stakes will suffer.

In retrospect, Sarajevo, in the heart of Europe, received due attention from many powerful stakes; the Rakhine might even draw some attention for its geo-political significance but surely not Kutupalong — the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.

There is life back again in Sarejevo. But Kutupalong might see a humanitarian disaster to complicate not only the untroubled Bangladesh but the entire region.

An unknown game theory could draw Bangladesh into the complex geo-political whirlwinds. It is sure to suffer unless it manages the situation with an appropriate geo-political strategy.

It may be time for Bangladesh to recall the Palmerstone quote and to best harness its own national interest.

The principle behind determining your own interest must be founded on the national foreign policy objectives and geo-political realities.

Every neighbour is important, and everyone has their own interest, and so does Bangladesh. The sooner we recognise that and take the right course, the faster we can relieve ourselves of this unwanted encumbrance.
_Brigadier General AF Jaglul Ahmed is Commandant, East Bengal Regimental Centre._
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2017/11/27/from-sarajevo-to-kutupalong/





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## Banglar Bir

*Struggle of vulnerable Rohingyas continues*
Mohiuddin Alamgir | Published: 00:05, Nov 28,2017 | Updated: 00:12, Nov 28,2017
*Vulnerable Rohingyas, including aged people, pregnant and lactating women, orphan children and people with disabilities, entering Bangladesh to flee ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State of Myanmar continue struggling for survival in absence of relief work focused on them.*
These Rohingyas taking shelter on hill slopes or erecting makeshift houses cutting forest trees in Cox’s Bazar are highly vulnerable and living in difficult conditions with a little medical facilities and poor access to water and sanitation facilities.

According to an ongoing family counting, jointly conducted by Bangladesh government’s Refugee Relief
and Repatriation Commissioner’s office and UNHCR, one-third of the Rohingya families are vulnerable.
‘Long distribution pathways and a lack of signposting lead to heightened risks for women, children, elderly, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable refugees and increase the problem of children being used by families to collect items,’ said a situation report of Inter Sector Coordination Group, a coordination body of the United Nations and other international agencies working in Cox’s Bazar.
‘Aid workers usually give preference to vulnerable people while carrying out any kind of assistance but it is really important for full-fledged targeted relief activities,’ said Cox’s Bazar refugee relief and repatriation commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam.

‘The speed and scale of the influx has resulted in a critical humanitarian emergency and we need some time to react for targeted relief assistance,’ he added.

According to the UN estimation till Monday, 6,24,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh since the beginning of the ongoing influx, what the United Nations has called the world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency, on August 25.

Officials estimated that the new influx already took to 10.43 lakh the number of documented and undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh entering the country fleeing persecution at times since 1978.

The new influx began after Myanmar security forces responded to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s reported attacks on August 25 by launching violence what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Terrified, half-starved and exhausted, Rohingyas continued arriving in Bangladesh trekking through hills and forests and crossing rough sea and the Naf on boat and taking shelter wherever they could in Cox’s Bazar.

The latest update of family counting came out on November 23 said that 31 per cent of the 172,356 families counted so far were vulnerable –– 16.20 per cent single mother, 4.50 per cent serious medical condition, 4.15 per cent older person at risk, 3.96 per cent disable, 3.72 per cent with disabilities, 2.50 per cent older people with children and 0.87 per cent unaccompanied children.

Single mothers are holding their families together with little support in harsh camp conditions, said people engaged in the counting process.

Others are struggling with serious health problems or disabilities. There are also a high proportion of elderly people at risk, unaccompanied and separated children – some of them taking care of younger siblings, said people working in family counting.

Children made up 54 per cent of the Rohingyas while women 52 per cent said the latest update of family counting.

The coordination group’s situation report also said that Rohingyas were reliant on humanitarian assistance for food, and other life-saving needs. Basic services that were available prior to the influx are under severe strain due to the massive increase in people in the area.

‘In some of the sites spontaneously emerged, water and sanitation facilities are limited or of poor quality, with extremely high density raising the risks of an outbreak of disease’ it said.

‘Communicable disease risks remain high due to crowded living conditions, inadequate water and sanitation facilities and low vaccination coverage. Mental and psychosocial health needs are immense. Many Rohingya refugees are reported to have been physically and mentally traumatised by the violence, including sexual and gender-based violence. Rates of severe acute malnutrition are running at 7.5 per cent, well over the emergency threshold,’ it read.

‘Local health care facilities and NGOs have limited capacity to treat children with SAM with complications,’ the situation report said.

‘Continuum of care for pregnant women, newborn and children needs to be ensured with periodic home visits from a network of community health volunteers,’ it said.
*
About 325,069 Rohingya people still need nutrition support, said the report.*
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29310/struggle-of-vulnerable-rohingyas-continues
*ROHINGYA ISSUES*
*Envoys asked for engaging host countries*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:02, Nov 28,2017 | Updated: 00:09, Nov 28,2017
The government on Monday asked Bangladesh ambassadors abroad to engage with their respective host country and multilateral organisations to garner support for resolving Rohingya crisis.

Foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali conveyed necessary instructions in this regard to the ambassadors and high commissioners on the second day of the three-day envoy’s conference in Dhaka, diplomats said after a closed-door session on Rohingya issues.

Minister Ali, foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh ambassador to Myanmar M Sufiur Rahman and about 20 envoys participated in the discussion that continued for about two hours.
Ali, Haque and Rahman explained how the envoys could play a role in resolving the crisis by attaining support for Rohingya repartition with ensuring rights of the persecuted minority community from Rakhine State of Myanmar.

They discussed the instrument signed with Myanmar authorities on Rohingya repatriation.
The instrument, Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State, was signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on November 23 to repatriate Rohingyas who entered Bangladesh from Rakhine State only after October 9, 2016.

Several rights of Rohingyas on their access to basic services and livelihood after their return in Rakhine State, immediate issuance of identity cards to the returnees which might be helpful for the citizenship, allowing them to stay at a safe place near to their original places of residence, ensuring their freedom of movement and not to criminalise and prosecute them for illegal exit from and return to Myanmar were mentioned in the instrument.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday stressed the need for international pressure and bilateral negotiations together for a peaceful and speedy repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar.

Over 6,26,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and November 26.

*The ongoing Rohingya influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,46,000 till Sunday, according to estimates by UN agencies. 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29311/envoys-asked-for-engaging-host-countries*


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## Banglar Bir

*Letter to Pope Francis from a former Rohingya Refugee*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/letter-to-pope-francis-from-a-former-rohingya-refugee.html




*POPE FRANCIS*
Apostolic Palace
Vatican City

*Dear Pope Francis,

On behalf of Rohingya community, I am writing to you with my great humbleness in regards to your visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh, and situations of the community.

You once said, “Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.” On your auspicious journey of friendship, love and peace, we would kindly like to request you not to stop using “Rohingya” in the journey, which will ultimately do damage to the cultural and ethnic identity of the community that the successive military regime and Aung San Suu Kyi’s government have been trying to erase for many decades.

We have heard that you are advised not to use the term “Rohingya” during your visit to our country of origin, and told that it can divide the communities apart particularly minority Christian community. However, it is the way the racial and religious persecution and suppression of freedom of speech or expression being denied in Myanmar.

You are well-aware of the situations of Rohingya community. We have been stripped of citizenship, denied basic human rights such as freedom of religion, nationality, movement, education, healthcare, livelihood, etc.., and now subjected to “the textbook example of ethnic cleansing” as the United Nations calls, and “the slow-burning genocide” according to experts on genocide.

Nowhere in the world has seen a large scale of campaign of genocide in the modern day than that of Rohingya. Over 620,000 Rohingya are expelled from their ancestral homes becoming refugees in the neighbouring Bangladesh since August 25, 2017; more than 300 villages are razed to the ground; hundreds of women are raped or gang-raped; several children are thrown into fire; and now the remaining Rohingya inside Myanmar are starving and subjected to forced “national verification” process completely erasing and ethnic-reclassification of once recognized ethnic group of Myanmar.

“The people living in northern Arakan (now Rakhine State) are our national brethren. They are called Rohingyas. They are on the same par in the status of nationality with Kachin, Karen, Mon, Rakhine and Shan… They are one ethnic people living within the Union of Burma,” are the words First democratically-elected Prime Minister U Nu relayed to the nation on Burmese Broadcasting Service in September, 1954.

Moreover, Brigadier Aung Gyi, Vice Chief of Staff of Burma Armed Forces too told the country in November 1951, “not to call the Rohingya ‘Khaw Taw’ nor ‘Bengali’, nor ‘Rakhine Muslims. Instead the Rohingya leaders said their self-referential ethnic name was the Arabic word Rohingya”

“Rohingya” is once recognized term to refer the ethnic Muslim minority living in Rakhine State, and Rohingya have contributed to the nation-building until they were slowly deprived of every single mean of community, especially following the implementation of 1982 Citizenship Law.

The denial of the right to self-identification is ‘the cultural genocide’ that the Rohingya community faces in addition to the total physical destruction through the campaign of genocide.

The political leaders of world are turning the blind eye towards the Rohingya – complicitly avoiding the term as the government and the military of Myanmar instructed and desired.

We have no alternatives rather than hoping and believing individuals like you, who dares to stand up against atrocities and defend the basic human rights.

You also said in August, 2015, “Let’s think of those brothers of ours of the Rohingya. They were chased from one country to another and chased out to the sea.”

Now you are visiting two countries – Myanmar and Bangladesh, which become the places of witness of heinous crimes inflicted on the persecuted minority.

I, as a former refugee who spent more than 17 years in Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Bangladesh after fleeing the 1991 ethnic cleansing campaign “Operation Clean Nation” in Rakhine State, Myanmar, would like to hear from you the basic identification of the community – “Rohingya” during your journey in Myanmar, and make a visit to the refugee camps in Bangladesh to personally witness the unspeakable terror perpetrated by the Myanmar Military.

We, Rohingya wish your journey brings love and peace, and adds voice against the suppression of voices.

Sincerely yours,

Mohammed Rafique
Representative of Republic of Ireland
The European Rohingya Council (ERC)
+353 860391625
media@theerc.eu*
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11/letter-to-pope-francis-from-a-former-rohingya-refugee.html

*U.N. rights forum to hold special session on Myanmar Rohingya – U.N. sources*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/u-n-rights-forum-to-hold-special-session-on-myanmar-rohingya-u-n-sources.html




*GENEVA* (Reuters) – The U.N. Human Rights Council is expected to hold a special session on killings, rapes and other crimes committed against Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar that have driven more than 600,000 into Bangladesh since August, U.N. sources said on Monday.

“There will be a special session on December 5,” a senior United Nations source told Reuters.

Council spokesman Rolando Gomez could not confirm the date but said: “There are moves to convene a special session to address the human rights situation in the country.”

At least 16 of the 47 member states must request holding a special session of the Council, which are rare. Bangladesh and Muslim-majority countries were expected to back the call.

In March, the Council already set up a fact-finding team. The investigators reported after their first mission to Bangladesh last month that Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar had testified that a “consistent, methodical pattern of killings, torture, rape and arson is taking place”.

The latest Rohingya exodus from Rakhine state to Bangladesh’s southern tip began at the end of August, when Rohingya militants attacked security posts and the Myanmar army launched a counter-offensive.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein has described the army’s crackdown in Rakhine state as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. The military has denied the accusations of murder, rape, torture and forced displacement.

Amnesty International and other activist groups, in an open letter sent last week to member states, said that a special session was “imperative to launch decisive action and ensure international scrutiny and monitoring of the situation”.

Pope Francis arrived in Myanmar on Monday on a diplomatically delicate visit for the leader of the Roman Catholic church to the majority-Buddhist country.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11...-session-on-myanmar-rohingya-u-n-sources.html





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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar accused of wiping out secret network of Rohingya reporters*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/11/myanmar-accused-of-wiping-out-secret-network-of-rohingya-reporters.html




*Human rights groups fear military has disappeared or killed undercover journalists to starve the world of news about persecution in Rakhine state*
By Shaikh Azizur Rahman / The Guardian
*Reporters working inside Myanmar’s Rakhine state to document atrocities against Rohingya have gone missing, raising fears that they have been deliberately targeted by the military.*
Young Rohingya volunteers had been secretly reporting on persecution of the Muslim minority in Myanmar since 2012, sending photos, videos and audio clips out of the country using smartphones.

Human rights groups claim the Myanmar military have killed and abducted many of the reporters to “sabotage” the networks and that there is now very little reporting on what is happening in the closed state of Rakhine.

Rohingya refugee Mohammad Rafique, who edits the Rohingya community news portal The Stateless, said that “over 95%” of Rakhine’s mobile reporters had gone missing since the crackdown began.

“Burmese security forces and Rakhine militia are still committing rapes, killings and arson in the Rohingya villages. But [as] the Rohingya mobile reporter network [is] dysfunctional there now, the detailed information of the violence, which we need to produce credible media reports, is not reaching us,” Rafique said.

“International media reporters and human rights activists too gather persecution and violence-related information from the Rohingya mobile network. They all, including our community’s media outlets, are being starved of information from Rakhine now.”

When riots broke out between Buddhists and Rohingya in Rakhine in 2012, the authorities deployed the military, with allegations surfacing that the army committed human rights abuses in the Rohingya villages. With silence from the Myanmar media on the violence, Rohingya community leaders set up the network of undercover citizen reporters, who began documenting incidents and sending reports out of the country, mostly for use by Rohingya media outlets.

Ko Ko Linn, a Bangladesh-based Rohingya community spokesperson, said 2,000 had been active in 2016: “During the military crackdown in Rakhine last year, the mobile reporters collected detailed information of the actions in the villages. Their reports let the world know how exactly the security forces and their Rakhine militia partners committed excesses in the villages in the name of a security crackdown.”

Linn himself is the latest victim of the enforced disappearances – he vanished from Bangladesh one week after this interview took place.

Noor Hossain, 25, a former mobile reporter who fled to Bangladesh in early September, said they took extraordinary risks to gather information.

“We used to hide ourselves the moment the security forces approached our villages. After they left the villages following their raids we would appear on the scenes with our mobile phones, gather on-the-spot information of abuses, violence and other related incidents and send them out through the internet immediately,” he said.

“The security forces are aiming to kill Rohingya men who are found with smartphones.”

Adilur Rahman Khan, of human rights group Odhikar, said he believed the army was sabotaging the network. “We are extremely concerned that many of the horrific level of abuses, including rapes, killings and arson are going unreported,” Khan said.

“Many of the young Rohingya rights defenders became victims of enforced disappearances by the security forces in Myanmar. The military also killed many and scared away the rest out of the country to sabotage the plan of the international human rights groups to gather evidence.”

Phil Robertson, of Human Rights Watch, said: “With Rohingya reporters being absent on the ground, much of the eyewitness video and other information they provided has been lost, and this is a critical missing piece of the puzzle to understand what’s happening on the ground because most of the humanitarian agencies, journalists and international monitors are blocked from most of northern Rakhine state.

“It’s clear that the Myanmar military has been systematically committing atrocities against the Rohingya – but the community’s own monitors are not there to report it any more.”
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/11...out-secret-network-of-rohingya-reporters.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Yeni Şafak*



*The Myanmar army escalated an attack on Rohingya Muslims on Aug. 25. Since then, at least 620,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape Myanmar's persecution. 
Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a deal on Wednesday on the repatriation of these refugees. 

Not many are convinced of returning to Myanmar, where they classified as “stateless." Rohingyas demand citizenship to return the homes that the army ravaged and razed.*
http://www.yenisafak.com/…/rohingya-muslims-demand-citizens…




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## Banglar Bir

03:03 PM, November 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:37 PM, November 28, 2017
*Pope urges respect for human rights in Myanmar, avoids 'Rohingya' row*




Pope Francis is welcomed as he arrives at Yangon International Airport, Myanmar November 27, 2017. Photo: Reuters
Reuters, Naypyitaw, Myanmar
*Pope Francis today urged the leaders of majority-Buddhist Myanmar, mired in a crisis over the fate of Muslim Rohingya people, to commit themselves to justice, human rights and respect for "each ethnic group and its identity".*
The pope avoided a diplomatic backlash by not using the highly charged term "Rohingya" in his addresses to officials, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

- Pope Francis avoids using the highly charged term 'Rohingya'

- Myanmar analyst: pope trying not to antagonise local audiences

- Pope met Suu Kyi and leaders of different faiths

However, his words were applicable to members of the beleaguered minority, who Myanmar does not recognise as citizens or as members of a distinct ethnic group.

More than 620,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh - where the pope heads on Thursday - since the end of August, escaping from a military crackdown that Washington has said included "horrendous atrocities" aimed at "ethnic cleansing".

Francis made his comments in Naypyitaw, the country's capital, where he was received by Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and champion of democracy who has faced international criticism for expressing doubts about the reports of rights abuses against the Rohingya and failing to condemn the military.


"The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity, respect for the rule of law, and respect for a democratic order that enables each individual and every group – none excluded – to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good," he said.

Myanmar rejects the term "Rohingya" and its use, with most people instead referring to the Muslim minority in Rakhine state as illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

The pope had used the word Rohingya in two appeals from the Vatican this year.

But before the diplomatically risky trip, the pope's own advisers recommended that he not use it in Myanmar, lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the country's military and government against minority Christians.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which has accused the army of "crimes against humanity", had urged him to utter it.

A hardline group of Buddhist monks warned on Monday - without elaborating - that there would be "a response" if he spoke openly about the Rohingya.

*RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES "A FORCE FOR UNITY"*
Richard Horsey, a former UN official and analyst based in Yangon, said the pope's speech was "very cautiously worded" and "crafted to avoid antagonising local audiences".

"He has clearly taken the advice of his cardinals to avoid weighing in too heavily on the Rohingya crisis, but he certainly alludes to it with a message in his speech on some of the specific points that he makes," Horsey said.

Vatican sources say some in the Holy See believe the trip was decided too hastily after full diplomatic ties were established in May during a visit by Suu Kyi.

The pope met privately with Suu Kyi at the presidential palace in this sparsely populated town that became the capital in 2006, and then they both made public addresses at a conference centre.

Suu Kyi said in her speech that there had been an erosion of trust and understanding between communities of Rakhine state, but did not refer to the Rohingya.

Francis, speaking in Italian, said that as it emerged from nearly 50 years of military rule, Myanmar needed to heal the wounds of the past.

He called for a "just, reconciled and inclusive social order", adding that "the arduous process of peacebuilding and national reconciliation can only advance through a commitment to justice and respect for human rights".

Myanmar's army, whose leaders the pope met on Monday, has been battling various autonomy-seeking ethnic minority guerrillas for decades.

The military has denied the accusations of murder, rape, torture and forced displacement of the Rohingya that have been made against it.

The Rohingya exodus from Rakhine state began after August 25, when Rohingya militants attacked security posts and the Myanmar army launched a counter-offensive.

Referring to the country's communal tensions, Francis said religious differences "need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance, and wise nation-building".

He made the same point at an earlier meeting with leaders of the Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish and Christian faiths in Yangon, where he called for "unity in diversity".

Aye Lwin, a prominent Muslim leader who was at the interfaith meeting, told Reuters he had asked the pope to appeal to Myanmar's political leaders "to rescue the religion that we cherish, which could be hijacked by a hidden agenda".

Only about 700,000 of Myanmar's 51 million people are Roman Catholic. Thousands of them have travelled from far and wide to see him and more than 150,000 people have registered for a mass that Francis will say in Yangon on Wednesday.

Francis is expected to meet a group of Rohingya refugees in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on the second leg of his trip.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...m_medium=newsurl&utm_term=all&utm_content=all


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/




CTV News Channel
25 November at 08:11 · 


*The Rohingya crisis was discussed at an event at Toronto City Hall last night. It featured notable speakers including representatives from the Burma Task Force. Toronto City Councillor Neethan Shan spoke at the event and joins us with more on what transpired.*

12:00 AM, November 29, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:18 AM, November 29, 2017
*Rohingya Repatriation: A pipe dream?*
*Analysis shows latest deal toughest of the three with Myanmar*
Shakhawat Liton
*The latest agreement on repatriation of the Rohingyas may not be as effective as the two previous deals signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar in 1978 and 1992 respectively.*
A thorough examination of the latest deal signed between the two countries also signals Myanmar's reluctance to take back their nationals who have taken shelter in Bangladesh fleeing the military violence in their homeland.

The deal was signed on November 23 amid concerns by rights bodies over the absence of an atmosphere conducive to repatriation. Myanmar has tightened both the criteria for eligibility for the Rohingya's return and the verification process, making the prospect of repatriation this time almost impossible.

The situation in 1978 was not so harsh for the Rohingyas. They had citizenships in Myanmar. The then deal had made the criteria simple for their return. Presentation of national registration cards or any documents issued in Myanmar indicating their residence in Myanmar were enough for them to go back to their homes.

They even did not need to go through any verification process. The deal also stipulated a six month time frame for completion of the repatriation process. About 200,000 Rohingyas who took shelter in camps in Bangladesh fleeing violence in Myanmar were repatriated. 

Rohingyas who had to cross the border again into Bangladesh in 1991-1992 fleeing fresh military violence in Myanmar, however, had to face difficulty to return to their homes due to introduction of the verification process in the 1992 deal.

Rohingyas who lost their citizenships due to a draconian law in 1982 were required to submit documents like Myanmar citizenship identity cards or other documents to pass scrutiny.

Refugee registration cards issued by Bangladesh government were, however, considered as documents in the verification process run by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, that set up a sub-office to process the job.

In this process, around 200,000 Rohingya refugees were able to return. Yet, around 30,000 were left behind in Bangladesh as they were unable to present sufficient documentation.

But Myanmar has tightened the noose this time. According to the new agreement, Myanmar authorities, not UNHCR, will conduct the verification process and the Rohingyas will have to submit documents like copies of expired citizenship identity cards or national registration cards or other relevant documents to prove their past residency in Myanmar. 

This is something many Rohingyas will find hard to do as whatever documents they had were either burned with their houses or destroyed in their flight through the monsoon rains.

Unlike 1992, refugee registration cards issued by the Bangladesh government will not be considered this time for their repatriation.

Moreover, separated family members and orphans left behind will require to be certified by a Bangladesh court to be eligible for repatriation.

UNHCR will have a back seat in the process this time. Additionally, Myanmar authorities will also verify the refugee documents issued by UNHCR. In the end it will be Myanmar's discretion whether to take assistance of UNHCR. 

The deal does not specify any timeframe for completion of the verification process. What Myanmar's Minister of Social Welfare and Resettlement, Win Myat Aye, said recently about the verification is more alarming. He said Myanmar government could verify 300 potential returnees a day. This means at that rate the process of verifying around 700,000 Rohingyas refugees since October last year will take years to complete.

There are more things for the Rohingyas to be concerned about. After the repatriation in 1978 and 1992, the Rohingyas were able to return to their homes. But this time, many of them will not be able to go back as their houses were burned and razed.

According to the new agreement, they will be settled in temporary places at Dar Gyi Zar village, about 20 kilometers from Maungdaw near the Bangladesh border. It is one of the areas hit hard by the violence that began on August 25 that developed into a full-blown refugee and humanitarian crisis.

In the agreement, the Myanmar government, however, promised not to keep them at temporary holdings for long time. But the fate of more than one lakh Rohingya living in inhuman condition in the camps inside Myanmar after they were displaced in the violence of 2012 is testimony enough of the Myanmar government's hostile attitude towards the Rohingya. International human rights organisations and leaders labelled the camps as modern day Nazi concentration camps.

The new agreement is only for the repatriation of those who entered Bangladesh after the violence in October last year and August this year. Rohingyas who crossed into Bangladesh earlier will be considered for repatriation after conclusion of the current agreement. This means they will have to wait for an indefinite period in the camps in Bangladesh. 

Considering the above difficulties, Dhaka did not agree in early October to Myanmar's proposal of following the criteria of the 1992 deal to take back the Rohingyas.

The reasons were clear as explained by Foreign Minster AH Mahmood Ali in a diplomatic briefing on October 9: the 1992 criteria is not “realistic” and the “situation of 1992 and current situation are entirely different.”

Dhaka clarified its position a week after Myanmar Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe during his visit to Dhaka proposed to follow the criteria of the 1992 deal.

But one and a half months down the line, Mahmood Ali agreed with Myanmar's proposal and signed an agreement during his recent visit to Naypyidaw.

This development came within a week after the Chinese foreign minister's visit to Dhaka and Naypyidaw. China has been protecting Myanmar from the international community's pressure and action and it is also backing a bilateral resolution of the crisis.

Signing the agreement made China's efforts successful and made it easy for Myanmar to buy more time to breathe and to ease international pressure on it. But for the Rohingyas, the coming days may appear more uncertain and the burden on Bangladesh will grow heavier. 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/rohingya-repatriation-pipe-dream-1497811


----------



## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 29, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:39 AM, November 29, 2017
*ROHINGYA CRISIS*
*China's peace plan and where things now stand*




More than three months into the latest influx of Rohingya refugees, they continue to stream out of Myanmar into Bangladesh, saying they have lost sources of livelihood such as farms and fisheries. PHOTO: ANISUR RAHMAN
Eresh Omar Jamal
*The Rohingya crisis has been tough on Bangladesh. First, because of the sheer scale of the influx from Myanmar and its continuity and second because Bangladesh has had to witness them from up close which always makes it more difficult.*
The only exceptions to this must be those who commit such atrocities themselves, en masse, as factions within Myanmar are alleged to have done as pointed out by the UN, US, UK, France and a number of human rights organisations among countless others.

Which is why sceptics find it so hard to believe that those making the decisions in Myanmar have, or are willing to, act in good faith with Bangladesh in regards to repatriating and ending the violence against its minorities, which has harmed Bangladesh's interest in many ways, while rendering homeless more than 600,000 men, women and children now living, if it could be called that, in makeshift camps in Bangladesh.

Another reason why this crisis has been so hard on Bangladesh is the lack of substantive support it has received from many of its close partners, particularly India and China, the two most influential in the region. Although even then, one cannot help but admit that this lack of support, to some extent, is of Bangladesh's own making, as its inadequacies and weaknesses over the years have left it with very little diplomatic leverage.

Nevertheless, the most positive recent development in regards to this crisis has been China's proposed peace plan, which both Bangladesh and Myanmar have formally agreed to. The first phase of this plan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, “is to effect a ceasefire on the ground, to return to stability and order, so the people can enjoy peace and no longer be forced to flee.” The second and third parts of the plan are to facilitate an orderly return of those who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar to their homeland, and “to work toward a long-term solution based on poverty alleviation.”

Moreover, according to the “Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State” signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar (on November 23), the two countries also “have agreed” to outline some “general principles, policy aspects and modalities” needed “to ensure smooth conduct of return of displaced Myanmar residents from Rakhine State expeditiously and their integration into Myanmar society.” These “general guiding principles” are 19 in number and seem vague at first sight.

And this lack of concretisation could pose major problems moving forward as many have already pointed out, especially given the current state of relationship between the two countries and the lack of sympathy that the Myanmar government has shown towards Bangladesh, even in response to Bangladesh's immense patience in dealing with Myanmar's seemingly outright hostile activities.

Such past attitude by Myanmar also puts into question its sincerity in adhering to the arrangement, which states that the two countries reiterate “their firm conviction to resolve their problems amicably and peacefully through bilateral negotiations on the basis of mutual understanding, accommodation, trust and goodwill and maintain peace and tranquillity on their borders.”

While it is difficult to say that Bangladesh has shown anything other than a willingness to amicably and peacefully resolve the issues it has with Myanmar, the same cannot be said about Myanmar thus far. Although the latest agreement does provide Myanmar with the perfect opportunity to prove its critics wrong, and re-establish some of the trust and goodwill it has lost with Bangladesh.

But given Myanmar's lack of concern in the past for the interest of Bangladesh and the minorities that have fled from its own territories, how likely is it that Myanmar is willing to make the necessary compromises and take the required steps to establish permanent peace in the region? Critics say not very. However, the truth is that only time can tell.

What is interesting though is that according to reports, Myanmar's army has replaced the general in charge of Rakhine State, Major General Maung Maung Soe—transferring him from his post as the head of Western Command in Rakhine—only a couple of weeks back. Moreover, the impetus that China has provided could also prompt a shift in its position.

For example, according to Song Qingrun, a research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, “China's thinking is to resolve the Rohingya issue through development in Rakhine State” (“Decoding China's proposal to address Rohingya crisis”, November 22, China Global Television Network).

Referring to the Chinese foreign minister's comment about China building an economic corridor with Myanmar—starting from China's southern Yunnan Province and going down to Mandalay in Myanmar, before splitting east to Yangon and west to Kyaukpyu, a town in Rakhine State—Song explained that “China will use its capital, technology and other resources to help Myanmar to develop the poor area and decrease the causes of their conflicts.”

Whether the Myanmar authorities see things quite like this is difficult to say. But what is certainly true is that what Myanmar must now be aware of fully is that should Myanmar make an about-turn again—after China has tried to act as a mediator—it will also be irritating China, something which it can ill afford to do, particularly in the face of such widespread criticism from everyone else. Thus it is difficult to see how Myanmar can now afford to refuse China's request to stop the violence, and not work with Bangladesh to take back its nationals.

However, what Bangladesh (and China too, simply in the interest of regional stability) must remain insistent upon is that this time the violence against minorities in Myanmar must permanently be brought to a halt. That too should be included in the negotiations.

And lastly, on November 24 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reportedly said that conditions in Rakhine State “are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns” for more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees.

This the Myanmar authorities must address as it cannot expect those who have fled to return to the horrific conditions that they had escaped from in the first place.

And neither should it expect that by delaying the process of addressing these issues, it would be able to pull the wool over Bangladesh's eyes this time.
_Eresh Omar Jamal is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star._
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...peace-plan-and-where-things-now-stand-1497706

12:00 AM, November 29, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, November 29, 2017
*Pope sidesteps Rohingya crisis
Urges respect for human rights in Myanmar address*




Pope Francis stands beside Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an event in Naypyitaw yesterday. The Pope held talks with Suu Kyi during his visit aimed at alleviating religious and ethnic hatred that have driven thousands of Rohingyas from the country. Photo: AFP
Afp, Naypyidaw
*Pope Francis called for respect for rights and justice in a keenly-watched address in Myanmar yesterday, but refrained from any mention of the Rohingya or the alleged ethnic cleansing that has driven huge numbers of the Muslim minority from the country.*
Sharing a stage with Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyidaw, he did not address the Rohingya crisis head-on but instead tip-toed around the unfolding humanitarian emergency.

Peace can only be achieved through "justice and a respect for human rights", he said in a broadly-framed speech that also called for "respect for each ethnic group and its identity".

The word "Rohingya", an incendiary term in a mainly Buddhist country where the Muslim minority are denied citizenship and branded illegal "Bengali" immigrants, was entirely absent from his speech.

Francis has repeatedly defended the group, some 620,000 of whom have fled from Myanmar's Rakhine state to Bangladesh since August.

Rights groups had urged him to tackle Myanmar about its treatment of the minority during his four-day visit, but the local Catholic Church had cautioned him against straying into the Rohingya issue.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been ostracised by a global rights community that once adored her but is now outraged at her tepid response to the plight of the Rohingya.

She spoke of the challenges her country faces as it creeps out of the shadow of five decades of military rule, but also did not reference the Rohingya.

The government aimed to build the nation by "protecting rights, fostering tolerance, ensuring security for all", she said in a short speech, that gave a nod to global concern over the "situation in the Rakhine."

The pope's peace mission is studded with pitfalls in Myanmar, where a monk-led Buddhist nationalist movement has fostered widespread loathing for the Rohingya.

In recognition of those tensions his public speech was "very carefully worded", Myanmar-based political analyst Richard Horsey told AFP, speculating "he is likely to have been more forthright in private meetings with Myanmar's leaders."

But the pontiff's words were of little comfort to Rohingya stuck in dire conditions in Bangladesh.

"We are very much disappointed that he did not mention the Rohingya crisis," said Rohingya activist Mohammad Zubair from Kutupalong refugee camp, speaking of a religious leader who previously "even held prayers for the Rohingya".
*POPE, THE LADY AND A GENERAL*
Late on Monday the 80-year-old pontiff received a "courtesy visit" from Myanmar's powerful army chief -- whose troops, according to the UN and US, have waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in Rakhine.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has firmly denied allegations of widespread brutality by his forces, despite the flight of hundreds of thousands who have recounted widespread cases of rape, murder and arson.

His office said the general told the pope there was "no discrimination" in Myanmar, and he praised his military for maintaining "the peace and stability of the country".

The Lady, as she is fondly known in Myanmar, finally came to power after elections in 2015 but has fallen from grace internationally for not doing more to stand up to the army in defence of the Rohingya -- whose name she will not publicly utter.

Rights groups have clamoured for Suu Kyi to be stripped of her peace prize. Oxford, the English city she once called home, on Monday removed her Freedom of the City award for "inaction" in the face of oppression of the Rohingya.

Just days before the papal visit, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a deal to start repatriating Rohingya refugees within two months.

But details of the agreement -- including the use of temporary shelters for returnees, many of whose homes have been burned to the ground -- raise questions for Rohingya fearful of returning without guarantees of basic rights.

So far, the pontiff has received a warm welcome in Myanmar, whose Catholic community numbers just over one percent of the country's 51 million people.

But some 200,000 Catholics are pouring into the commercial capital Yangon from all corners of the country ahead of a huge, open-air mass in Yangon this morning.
Francis will travel on to Bangladesh on Thursday.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/pope-sidesteps-rohingya-crisis-1497823

*Rohingya issue: Bangladesh caught in its short-sightedness*
Published: 00:05, Nov 29,2017 | Updated: 01:15, Nov 29,2017








WHY no one seems to be too enthusiastic about the recently signed MoU between Bangladesh and Myanmar on Rohingya repatriation is best explained when our foreign minister says that it has been drafted as Myanmar desired. He added that Bangladesh is happy that Myanmar has agreed to take some of them back.

But Myanmar may be comfortable that the heat will be low now after the MoU and, of course, it can send more refugees any time and Bangladesh can do little about it. Rohingya situation/status has not changed since 1977 and Bangladesh remains at the mercy of Myanmar’s political will.

The facilitator appears to be China who was beginning to feel the heat internationally and knew that at some point of time, the United States might offer something to Bangladesh or do something that could make China uncomfortable.

China’s stake in Myanmar is high and it can still call the shots there and that is what mattered in the end. It came to Bangladesh and reduced the multi-lateral directions that Bangladesh was being forced to take and made it firmly bilateral under Chinese supervision. It was what both China and Myanmar had wanted knowing from the past that Bangladesh’s capacity to diplomatically handle the Rohingya on its own is limited.
*Does the MoU mean much?*
THE MoU basically takes the heat off Myanmar and gives China more space to pursue OBOR and other economic priorities. But it leaves Bangladesh as vulnerable as before. Given that the MoU follows the 1992 framework closely, the flaws of that one remains. It appears hurriedly cobbled together but as pro-Bangladesh government analysts are saying, It is a beginning at least.

A critical part of the MoU say, only those who came after the alleged ARSA attack will qualify to be considered for repatriation. By doing so, Bangladesh has endorsed the Myanmar, China and Russian position that all of this was due to Rohingya insurgency and not Myanmar army activities.

This also means that the Rohingya refugees before the alleged attack have lost the right to return as the MoU specifically denies/ignores the existence of any such people making the return of all Rohingyas impossible. Thus, about 4,00,00 are now here to stay as Myanmar wanted. It also relieves itself of any accusation that an ethnic cleansing took place.

Ethnic cleansing was actually used by the United Nations which has said that the situation in Myanmar is not fit for the refugees to return. Our media also report that most Rohingyas now in the camps are also not willing to return either. Where does the situation go from here now?
*Will refugees return if they at all go back?*
IT IS certainly not in favour of the refugees because they are not even a party to the discussion. It is an MoU between Myanmar, which does not recognise the Rohingyas as its citizens, and Bangladesh, which does not accept them as refugees. In this strange quandary, the Rohingyas have no role to play. They are not just victims but invisible too.

But several issues have been mentioned regarding their return to Myanmar which may mean that this is just a time-buyer and another deluge is possible in future. This is apart from the fact that many may not be able to prove their status as residents of Myanmar as mentioned in the MoU.

The 1993 term was vague on their status and the citizenship or associate citizenship is not about to be returned to them; so, even if they do return, they will be housed in temporary shelters and camps which many fear will be used to coerce them again. In that case, what guarantee is there that they will not escape back to Bangladesh? Commenting on the MoU, the Australian web site ‘Conversation’ which has covered the issue since the crisis says:

‘The idea of voluntary return stems from a 1993 agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, under which those Rohingyas who can prove their identity must fill in forms with the names of family members, their previous address in Myanmar, their date of birth, and a disclaimer that they are returning voluntarily. 

But those who do choose to return will face extortion, arbitrary taxation, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Many will be required to undertake forced labour, and some will face state-sponsored violence and extrajudicial killings.’
*Given this scenario, how far will the MoU guarantee a safe repatriation?*
It is admitted by all that China has played a critical part in getting the MoU signed as all the negative publicity was hurting China’s image as the prime vendor in the region. China needs aggressive marketing stances which have stumbled a bit recently in the region. 

However, it remains strong enough to push Myanmar and Bangladesh to a MoU and in this equation the Rohingyas are not a factor.

The problem is that an MoU that was signed and admitted by the foreign minister was largely done as sought by Myanmar.

The world has cited evidence of ethnic cleansing and the people responsible are still in power. No dates and guidelines, no guarantee of safety, no involvement of the United Nations — barring consultation with the UNHCR — if and when Myanmar decides, and, of course, no mention of any long-term plan that leaves Bangladesh as vulnerable as before to a fresh exodus.

Will Bangladesh force the Rohingyas to return if they refuse as it looks like? Will they erect fences to prevent another exodus?
*At this point, it seems more like a victory for China followed by Myanmar and a helpless Bangladesh caught in the trap of its own short-sightedness*.
Afsan Chowdhury is a journalist and researcher.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29354/rohingya-issue-bangladesh-caught-in-its-short-sightedness


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## Banglar Bir

*Govt allocates Tk 23b for Rohingya camps in Noakhali*
Prothom Alo English Desk | Update: 21:40, Nov 28, 2017 




The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved a project, Ashrayan-3, involving *Tk 23.12 billion for constructing camps in Noakhali’s Hatia for forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals, Rohingyas, reports BSS.*

The approval came at a meeting of the ECNEC held at the NEC conference room on Tuesday with its chairperson and prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

*Bangladesh navy will implement the project at Bhasan Char of Char Ishwar union in Noakhali's Hatia where one lakh Rohingyas will be accommodated and after their repatriation, the project will be used* to accommodate the poor in the country, said planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal after the meeting.

He said the ECNEC decided that this fast-track project will be implemented from December 2017 to December 2019.

A total of 14 projects were approved in Tuesday's ECNEC meeting with an estimated cost of Tk 10,0.99 billion, said the minister.

"Of the total project cost, Tk 100.48 billion will come from the national exchequer and Tk 500.88 million from the own fund of organizations concerned," the minister told reporters.

Kamal said Bangladesh-Myanmar has already signed an agreement and repatriation of Rohingyas will begin in the next two or three months.

"Rohingyas are in a distressed condition and the government has started taking steps for mitigating their sufferings and I am hopeful that other countries come forward with assistance," said the planning minister.

He said prime minister Sheikh Hasina ordered to repair all roads affected in the floods within the next one year. All old roads will have to be repaired now instead of constructing new roads, Kamal added.

While focusing on Ashrayan-3, he said the project will be implemented with government's own fund and necessary infrastructure will be constructed to ensure the security of the project area.

The project includes land development, shore protection work, construction of embankment, construction of 1,440 barrack houses and 120 shelter stations in 120 cluster villages for accommodating 1,03,200 people, construction of a place of worship, construction of infrastructure for water supply and sewerage.

Offices and residence houses will be constructed for Bangladesh navy to maintaining security of the area.

There will also be helipad, boat landing site, mobile towers, radar station, CCTVs, solar panels and power sub-station.

Other approved projects are development of power distribution system in Mymensingh (Tk 15.75 billion), development of rural infrastructures for Madaripur, Sariatpur and Rajbari districts (Tk 15.60 billion), development of important rural infrastructure (2nd phase) (Tk 9.50 billion), development of important rural infrastructure for Sirajganj district (Tk 4.46 billion),

Development of small irrigation systems in Noakhali, Feni and Laxmipur (Tk 1.44 billion), construction of multistory residential flats in Azimpur government colony for government officials-employees (Tk 9.90 billion), construction of 288 residential flats in Jigatala for government officials-employees (Tk 3.04 billion),

Construction of multistory residential buildings in Motijheel government colony (Tk 2.57 billion), construction of railway overpass at Shasangachha in Comilla town (Tk 940 million), development of Langarpara-Shreebordi road in Sherpur (Tk 820 million), stipend project for higher secondary education (7.98 billion) and construction of Chittagong Muslim Institute Cultural Complex (Tk 2.33 billion).
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/135444/Govt-allocates-Tk-23b-to-shelter-Rohingyas


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## Banglar Bir

*‘The generals and Suu Kyi sing from the same Buddhist nationalist hymn book’*
Syed Zainul Abedin Eiffel
Published at 02:36 PM September 14, 2017
Last updated at 10:48 PM September 14, 2017




Dr Maung Zarni *Courtesy*
*Myanmar's army has great political, economic and strategic interests in keeping the ethnic conflict alive in Rakhine and carrying out the purge of Rohingyas from their homeland*
In an exclusive interview with the Dhaka Tribune’s *Syed Zainul Abedin*, *Maung Zarni*, a Burmese academic exiled in the UK, says the Myanmar army has great political, economic and strategic interests in keeping the ethnic conflict alive in Rakhine and carrying out the purge of Rohingya from their homeland.

Maung Zarni is an academic, activist, commentator and expert on Myanmar. He is currently a London-based scholar with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia at the Sleuk Rith Institute.

“My own late great-uncle was deputy chief of Rohingya district and deputy commander of all Armed Forces in Rakhine Division in 1961. That was at the time when the Burmese military embraced Rohingyas as an ethnic group in Burma (Myanmar) as full citizens. They were fighting the Rakhine secessionists at the time,” he says.

*What is happening in northern Rakhine state?*
Using the pretext of fighting terrorism, Myanmar Tatmadaw (the armed forces) are engaged in the largest wave of systematic killings and destruction of the Rohingya population. They are using air force, navy and army units, as well as police and urban riot control special units in these attacks, which have resulted in 370,000 Rohingya fleeing their villages.

*What is the official line from the Myanmar government?*
The Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government in partnership with the armed forces are selling this large scale scorched earth operation as national defence in the face of a Rohingya “terrorist” attack which killed 12 police officers and soldiers. This narrative is false: Myanmar is not fighting terrorism, it is speeding up what its commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, reportedly told the armed forces was the pursuit of “the unfinished business” of World War II (1942).

*Are there any historical comparisons to the Rohingya insurgency?*
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s attacks against Burmese border guard posts in Oct 2016 and Aug 2017 more closely resemble the Nazi victims’ uprising at Auschwitz in Oct 1944 than a properly organised and armed “insurgency.” In October 1944, the Jewish inmates killed four SS officers in one barrack at a concentration camp and the SS responded by killing about 500 Jewish and Polish prisoners. Similar large scale terror campaigns were launched by the Burmese military in 1978 and 1991-92, expelling upwards of 260,000 people in each wave.

*Why is the Rohingya community being targeted?*
The Burmese military took an anti-Muslim turn when Ne Win came to power in a coup in 1962. The generals have purged the entire armed forces of all Muslim officers in the last 50 years, painted the Rohingya as having cross-border cultural, linguistic and historical ties to the populous Muslim nation of the then East Pakistan, and framed this as a threat to national security as early as the mid-1960s.

There are other binational communities along the Sino-Burmese, Indo-Burmese, Thai-Burmese borders – such as Kachin, Chin, Shan, Karen, Kokant, Mon – as well as Buddhist Rakhine (with ties to Chittagong). But none of these communities are Muslims. So despite the historical Rohingya presence in Rakhine or Arakan dating back to pre-British colonial days, the military hatched an institutionalised policy of cleansing Western Burma (Myanmar) of Rohingyas. Myanmar is engaged in the destruction of the Rohingya using national laws tailored to exclude, disenfranchise and strip them of any basic rights. There are other Muslims throughout Burma (Myanmar) but only the Rohingya have their own geographic pocket.

*Can the persecution of the Rohingyas be called a genocide?*
Yes, absolutely. Myanmar can be proven to be engaged in the fully fledged crime of genocide, in terms of both the Genocide Convention of 1948. Of the five acts of genocide stated in the Geneva Convention, Myanmar is guilty of every crime except the last, which concerns the transfer of victim children to a different group to change the character of the population. Myanmar does not even bother doing that: the troops and the Rakhine burn and kill infants and children, according to eyewitness survivors. As Professor Amartya Sen put it – this is “institutionalised killing” by the state of Myanmar. He based that assertion on the three-year research work done by me and my researcher colleague in London, called “The Slow Burning Genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya.”

*What is the history of communal divide in Myanmar?*
Burma (Myanmar) is a multi-ethnic country of about one or two dozen distinct ethnic communities. The official list of 135 national races, from which Rohingyas are excluded, is really a fiction. But in this multi-ethnic web of people with different faiths, there have been many divisions, prejudices and ethno-racism. The military employs the international, colonial “divide and rule” principle that the British used. So in Arakan (Rakhine), Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists have been divided and there has been mutual distrust and hostilities since WWII. But that is not unique to Rakhine; there were divisions and armed conflicts between the majority Buddhist Bama and Karens with 20% Christian population, or Bama and predominantly Buddhist Shan, or Bama and predominantly Christian Kachins and Chins. Virtually every non-Bama minority group attempted to seek independence from the Union of Burma. Rohingyas and the Rakhine had their own armed secessionist movements as well.

But other communal tensions are no longer stoked by the Burmese military. But it has systematically made sure that Rakhine and Rohingya do not seek or achieve communal reconciliation like the rest. One major reason is Rakhine nationalists still maintain the dream of restoring their sovereignty. The military has pitted the Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists, who have long shared Arakan as their common birthplace, in order to maintain its colonial domination over Rakhine.

Yes, there are communal aspects to Rakhine and the Rohingya conflict. But it is the Burmese central armed forces which is the primary player in keeping this conflict alive.

*Does the minority and majority issue play a role in this situation?*
The non-Rohingya minorities have been brainwashed through a systematic campaign of misinformation to think about the Rohingya as “illegal Bengali migrants,” although many Rohingyas have been in western Burma since decades before British colonial rule. These minorities and the Bama majority are brainwashed to think that only they are the true indigenous peoples of Burma, despite the fact that they too migrated to Burma during pre-colonial times in various waves of migration from Southern China, Tibet, and the Indian subcontinent. So this thinking fuels deep racism towards Rohingyas and, to a lesser extent, towards Chinese and Christians. But China is too powerful for the military to try to stoke anti-Chinese racism. So, the military diverts public discontent and frustration over hardships of life under failed military leaders towards the Rohingya – making them a scapegoat.

*How is geopolitics playing a role in this?*
Rakhine is rich in natural resources, especially in the predominantly Rohingya north of the state. It has off-shore natural gas, fertile agricultural land, untapped titanium, rare earth materials, aluminum, natural deep sea harbours for deep sea port, and land for a tax-free Special Economic Zone. Just last week Myanmar announced that today’s killing fields of North Rakhine will be turned into a vast Special Economic Zone near the Bangladeshi borders.

Also, the coastline is strategic for China, which wants to have an alternative to the narrow Straits of Mallaca near Singapore for fear of future conflicts with the US and her allies. Rakhine is that alternative. Because it is important to China, it becomes important to players with anti-Chinese strategic visions, namely the US, India, Japan and South Korea, who are all allies and friends.

*How would you explain the stance of Aung San Suu Kyi on the military crackdown?*
Aung San Suu Kyi is a well-documented and widely reported anti-Muslim racist and a Buddhist nationalist. She is utterly misinformed about the Rohingya situation – their identity, history, politics in Burma – by her ex-military senior colleagues and Rakhine supporters. The army has cleansed its ranks of any Muslims, and she has cleansed the NLD party of all Muslims.

Both the generals and Aung San Suu Kyi sing from the same Buddhist nationalist hymn book and their vision of Burma does not have much space for Muslims – and no space for Rohingyas. Her stance is nothing less than 100% genocidal. The generals view Western Burma (Myanmar) as an originally Muslim-free region and part of the kingdom of Burma – despite all evidence to the contrary that Rakhine was a rich, cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic and multi-faith kingdom.

*What does Myanmar stand to gain from all this?*
The army is regaining popularity even among the Buddhist monks who were the historical threat to the army’s rule as evident in the Saffron Revolt of 2007. The army is now making the traditionally hostile Rakhine nationalists who are anti-Burmese and pro-independence dependent on the army for their safety. And it has derailed Suu Kyi’s majoritarian democratic transition. Economically, the army has the lion’s share of all commercial and development projects in Rakhine.

*How do you see the situation developing?*
But the major losers are the people of Burma (Myanmar) at large. The society is now moving into the terrorism-obsessed mental space. The public will continue to be reliant on the army and the army’s whims because it is afraid of “jihad.” The military and Suu Kyi are unable to find a Big Tent vision for every ethnic group in Burma (Myanmar). They will continue to work together in the wrong policy framework of preempting “terrorism” from Muslims at large inside Burma (Myanmar) and the Rohingya. That will become self-fulfilling as their anti-Muslim racist policies and the genocidal violence against Rohingyas has stoked deep rage within 1.7 billion Muslims around the world.

Ultimately, Burma (Myanmar) is going to become a site of major conflicts and terrorism.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...-suu-kyi-sing-buddhist-nationalist-hymn-book/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 29, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:45 PM, November 29, 2017
*ROHINGYA CRISIS*
*China's peace plan and where things now stand*




More than three months into the latest influx of Rohingya refugees, they continue to stream out of Myanmar into Bangladesh, saying they have lost sources of livelihood such as farms and fisheries. PHOTO: ANISUR RAHMAN
Eresh Omar Jamal
*The Rohingya crisis has been tough on Bangladesh. First, because of the sheer scale of the influx from Myanmar and its continuity and second because Bangladesh has had to witness them from up close which always makes it more difficult.*
The only exceptions to this must be those who commit such atrocities themselves, en masse, as factions within Myanmar are alleged to have done as pointed out by the UN, US, UK, France and a number of human rights organisations among countless others. 

Which is why sceptics find it so hard to believe that those making the decisions in Myanmar have, or are willing to, act in good faith with Bangladesh in regards to repatriating and ending the violence against its minorities, which has harmed Bangladesh's interest in many ways, while rendering homeless more than 600,000 men, women and children now living, if it could be called that, in makeshift camps in Bangladesh.

Another reason why this crisis has been so hard on Bangladesh is the lack of substantive support it has received from many of its close partners, particularly India and China, the two most influential in the region. Although even then, one cannot help but admit that this lack of support, to some extent, is of Bangladesh's own making, as its inadequacies and weaknesses over the years have left it with very little diplomatic leverage.

Nevertheless, the most positive recent development in regards to this crisis has been China's proposed peace plan, which both Bangladesh and Myanmar have formally agreed to. The first phase of this plan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, “is to effect a ceasefire on the ground, to return to stability and order, so the people can enjoy peace and no longer be forced to flee.” The second and third parts of the plan are to facilitate an orderly return of those who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar to their homeland, and “to work toward a long-term solution based on poverty alleviation.”

Moreover, according to the “Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State” signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar (on November 23), the two countries also “have agreed” to outline some “general principles, policy aspects and modalities” needed “to ensure smooth conduct of return of displaced Myanmar residents from Rakhine State expeditiously and their integration into Myanmar society.” These “general guiding principles” are 19 in number and seem vague at first sight.

And this lack of concretisation could pose major problems moving forward as many have already pointed out, especially given the current state of relationship between the two countries and the lack of sympathy that the Myanmar government has shown towards Bangladesh, even in response to Bangladesh's immense patience in dealing with Myanmar's seemingly outright hostile activities. Such past attitude by Myanmar also puts into question its sincerity in adhering to the arrangement, which states that the two countries reiterate “their firm conviction to resolve their problems amicably and peacefully through bilateral negotiations on the basis of mutual understanding, accommodation, trust and goodwill and maintain peace and tranquillity on their borders.”

While it is difficult to say that Bangladesh has shown anything other than a willingness to amicably and peacefully resolve the issues it has with Myanmar, the same cannot be said about Myanmar thus far. Although the latest agreement does provide Myanmar with the perfect opportunity to prove its critics wrong, and re-establish some of the trust and goodwill it has lost with Bangladesh.

But given Myanmar's lack of concern in the past for the interest of Bangladesh and the minorities that have fled from its own territories, how likely is it that Myanmar is willing to make the necessary compromises and take the required steps to establish permanent peace in the region? Critics say not very. However, the truth is that only time can tell.

What is interesting though is that according to reports, Myanmar's army has replaced the general in charge of Rakhine State, Major General Maung Maung Soe—transferring him from his post as the head of Western Command in Rakhine—only a couple of weeks back. Moreover, the impetus that China has provided could also prompt a shift in its position. For example, according to Song Qingrun, a research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, “China's thinking is to resolve the Rohingya issue through development in Rakhine State” (“Decoding China's proposal to address Rohingya crisis”, November 22, China Global Television Network).

Referring to the Chinese foreign minister's comment about China building an economic corridor with Myanmar—starting from China's southern Yunnan Province and going down to Mandalay in Myanmar, before splitting east to Yangon and west to Kyaukpyu, a town in Rakhine State—Song explained that “China will use its capital, technology and other resources to help Myanmar to develop the poor area and decrease the causes of their conflicts.”

Whether the Myanmar authorities see things quite like this is difficult to say. But what is certainly true is that what Myanmar must now be aware of fully is that should Myanmar make an about-turn again—after China has tried to act as a mediator—it will also be irritating China, something which it can ill afford to do, particularly in the face of such widespread criticism from everyone else. Thus it is difficult to see how Myanmar can now afford to refuse China's request to stop the violence, and not work with Bangladesh to take back its nationals.

However, what Bangladesh (and China too, simply in the interest of regional stability) must remain insistent upon is that this time the violence against minorities in Myanmar must permanently be brought to a halt. That too should be included in the negotiations.

And lastly, on November 24 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reportedly said that conditions in Rakhine State “are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns” for more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees. This the Myanmar authorities must address as it cannot expect those who have fled to return to the horrific conditions that they had escaped from in the first place. And neither should it expect that by delaying the process of addressing these issues, it would be able to pull the wool over Bangladesh's eyes this time.
_Eresh Omar Jamal is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star._
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion...peace-plan-and-where-things-now-stand-1497706


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## Banglar Bir

*Bangladesh PM: Put more pressure on Myanmar to take back its nationals*
BSS
Published at 09:11 AM November 30, 2017




UN Under Secretary Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu talking to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in Dhaka on November 29, 2017 *Focus Bangla*
*The prime minister said the people of Cox's Bazar are in trouble with the exodus of tens of thousands of Rohingya people*
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has renewed her call to the international community, including the United Nations, to put more pressure on Myanmar to take back its nationals from Bangladesh.

“The international community should continue to mount pressure on Myanmar so that they take back their forcibly displaced nationals from Bangladesh,” she said when UN Under Secretary Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu paid a courtesy call on her at her office in Dhaka on Wednesday.

After the meeting, Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.

The premier said Bangladesh has given shelter to the Rohingya people on the humanitarian grounds. “But it will not be possible for us to keep them here for a long time,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh experienced severe flood this year. “And on top of it, the Rohingya crisis has become an additional burden for the country,” she said.

She said the people of Cox’s Bazar district are in trouble with the exodus of tens of thousands of Rohingya people who fled to Bangladesh following the atrocities on them.

Sheikh Hasina highlighted her government’s various successes in different fields, including women empowerment, development of agriculture, poverty reduction and rural development.

“The government is giving utmost priority to research for boosting agriculture production,” she said.

Pointing out Vision 2021 of her government, she said it has been working with a planned manner to achieve the goal.

Referring to Bangladesh’s commendable successes in achieving MDGs, the prime minister expressed her firm determination that it would also be able to achieve the SDGs set by the UN.

The UN Under Secretary highly appreciated Bangladesh’s development in various sectors and said the world body is reviewing to continue its assistance for Bangladesh although the country is going to graduate to a middle income country from an LDC.

In this connection, Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu mentioned that graduation of a country from an LDC to a middle income country is a success of the UN efforts.

The UN Under Secretary said assistance will not be stopped if a country is graduated to a middle income one from an LDC saying the UN step should not be like punishment.

Fekitamoeloa said it is now revisiting rules and laws about how to provide the assistance to every individual country even after its graduation to a middle income country.

She said the UN would extend some kind of packages of assistance depending on the requirements and vulnerability of every single country and it would also discuss the requirements with the respective country.

The press secretary explained that previously the UN used to give such assistance under a single policy for all countries graduated to middle income countries from least developed countries.

Prime Minister’s International Affairs Advisor Dr Gowher Rizvi and Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury were present.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...-pm-put-pressure-myanmar-take-back-nationals/


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## Banglar Bir

*Advisers who told Pope Francis not to mention Rohingya 'violated our human rights', says Burmese activist*





Pope Francis is welcomed to Burma _AP
By_ Sally Hayden
The Independent
November 28, 2017
*Human Rights Watch says pontiff missed 'important opportunity' to raise international concerns in Burma. But a leading Rohingya blogger tells The Independent the blame does not lie with Francis himself*
Pope Francis should not be blamed for his failure to mention human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims during the keynote speech of his trip to Burma, a leading activist in the country has said.
International rights groups said the pontiff had “missed an opportunity” to raise international concerns and that it was “disappointing” he chose not to mention the Rohingya by name as he appeared alongside Burma’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyidaw.

But Nay San Lwin, who has run a website called Rohingya Blogger since 2005, said it was the fault of those who advised Pope Francis on his conduct.

“The Pope is an amazing person,” Mr Nay told _The Independent_ from Bangladesh. “If I have to blame someone I would blame Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo... In my opinion Charles Maung Bo violated the basic human rights.”

Pope Francis should “condemn the ongoing genocide”, Mr Nay said. In his speech, the Pope called on the government in general terms to “respect each group and its identity”. “Religious differences need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance and wise nation-building,” he said.

Mr Nay also noted that Burmese military chief Aung Hlaing “said they don’t discriminate (against) anyone base on religion”. Mr Nay said: “That was a lie. Rohingya and other Muslim minorities have been discriminated (against) for decades.”

Refugees continue to flee to Bangladesh, which has seen an influx of almost 700,000 refugees since 25 August, when Burmese security forces began a campaign against Rohingya villages.

The country’s military has insisted it is conducting a counter-insurgency clearance operation that was provoked by Rohingya militants’ synchronised attacks on 30 security posts in the northern part of Rakhine State.

The response has been almost universally condemned by the international community.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in September that ethnic cleansing is taking place in Burma, leading to a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation for the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Burma rejects the term “Rohingya” and its use, with most people instead referring to the Muslim minority in Rakhine State as illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Pope had used the word in two appeals from the Vatican this year.

But, before the diplomatically risky trip, his advisers recommended that he not use it in Burma, lest he set off a diplomatic incident that could turn the country’s military and government against minority Christians.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, accused the pontiff of missing “an important opportunity to speak truth to power, and publicly refute the unconscionable pressure by Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar military to deny the Rohingya their identity”.
“The fact that the word ‘Rohingya’ is so contentious shows the lengths to which Burma has gone to demonise a desperately poor and repressed religious minority.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Aguirre, a former legal adviser to the International Commission of Jurists in Myanmar, said Pope Francis was slightly more sympathetic.

The pontiff was “damned if he did and damned if he did not say the word Rohingya,” he told the _The Independent_. “Although it is disappointing that he did not refer to the Rohingya by name, his visit brought attention to the human rights violations against them.”

He said it’s is up to the “diplomats in Yangon, the international community and especially neighbouring countries to use their influence with the government to halt violations of human rights and protect minorities in Burma”.

“Most of all, national leadership is required; Burma’s public intellectuals, religious leaders and voices from civil society need to promote a more inclusive, tolerant version of a national identity that respects human rights.”
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/advisers-who-told-pope-francis-not-to.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Atrocities against the Rohingya is a process of slow genocide’*




Speakers at an international conference styled "Ending the Slow Burning Genocide of Rohingyas by Myanmar” at Dhaka University on Tuesday. November 29, 2017 (Photo: Focus Bangla)
_By_ Fazlur Rahman Raju
Dhaka Tribune
November 30, 2017
*'The Burmese government is committing atrocities not only against the Rohingya, but also against 17 other ethnic communities. *
The international community and the Bangladeshi people must stand by the Rohingya during the most rapid forced mass exodus the world has seen in a generation, rights activists and religious leaders said at a conference in Dhaka on Wednesday.

They were speaking at the “Ending the Slow Burning Genocide of Rohingyas by Myanmar” conference organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building of Dhaka University.

“We are witnessing the death of a nation,” Dr Maung Zarni, a Myanmarese human rights activist and scholar of genocide and racism, said.

“The Buddhist people in Burma are purposefully wiping out a community, and they have been doing this for the past 45 years.”

*In addition to 400,000 Rohingya who were already living in Bangladesh, a total of 620,000 refugees have entered the country from Myanmar since August 24, when ethnic conflicts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state sparked the most rapid human exodus seen worldwide since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.*

“Another 600,000 people would have been killed had Bangladesh not opened its door to the helpless people,” Ma Khin Mai Aung, a Myanmarese-Rakhine lawyer, writer and activist based in New York, said.
“Each of the Myanmar people was brainwashed by [the then] military junta that the Rohingya people should not live in Burma. This is why they are targeting the Rohingya.”

Sanghanayak Suddhanda Mahathero, president of Bangladesh Buddha Kristi Prochar Sangha, called on the international community to pressure Myanmar to repatriate its nationals from Bangladesh.
“As a Buddhist, I am ashamed that Buddhist people are committing genocide against Rohingya people in Myanmar,” he said.

Slamming Myanmar’s State Counsellor for her apparent silence over the crisis, Prof Emeritus Serajul Islam Chowdhury said: “Aung San Suu Kyi’s role has taken us by surprise. She was once a victim, but now she is an ally of the perpetrators.” Dr Zarni urged the global community to extend a helping hand to the persecuted minority.

“The Burmese government is committing atrocities not only against the Rohingya, but also against 17 other ethnic communities in the country. This is a slow process of genocide [by the Myanmar authorities],” he said.

“It’s our duty to stand beside the Rohingya people and against the Burmese military; otherwise our next generation will ask questions about what we did when the Rohingya were persecuted.”

Other attendees at the conference on Wednesday included Prof CR Abrar of Dhaka University; Chair Emeritus of Parliament of the World Religious Dr Malik Majahid; rights activist Hameeda Hossain; Supreme Court Judge Syed Refaat Ahmed; Prof Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University in New York; and Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/atrocities-against-rohingya-is-process.html


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya crisis and human rights imperialism*
by Peter Symonds | Published: 00:05, Nov 30,2017
The handout picture taken and released by the Vatican press office (Osservatore Romano) on November 28 shows Pope Francis, left, greeting Myanmar’s state counsellor leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a meeting in Naypyidaw. — Agence France-Presse/Osservatore Romano
*THE visit by Pope Francis this week to Burma (Myanmar) has brought into focus the tragedy confronting the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority who have been forced to flee in droves to neighbouring countries*.

At least 6,20,000 men, women and children have been driven out of Burma in recent months by the Burmese army and associated gangs of thugs following minor attacks in August by the Arakan Rohinya Salvation Army. The refugees live in squalid, overcrowded camps in Bangladesh and India, both of which have made clear they are not welcome.

The international response to this massive humanitarian crisis is saturated with hypocrisy and cynicism, above all by the major imperialist powers — the United States, the European Union and their allies — that exploit ‘human rights’ to further their geopolitical interests, including through regime change and wars.

For decades, following its brutal crackdown on mass protests and strikes in 1988, the US and the EU treated the Burmese military regime as a pariah, denouncing its abuse of democratic rights and imposing harsh sanctions.

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy, was universally promoted as a democracy icon and awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991. Her house arrest by the junta, despite her role in derailing the 1988 protests and keeping the military in power, allowed the establishment media to bestow martyr status on her.

Neither the condemnations of the military nor the accolades for Suu Kyi were based on any genuine concern for the democratic rights or suffering of the Burmese people. Washington’s chief grievance with the Burmese army was that it was too closely aligned with China. Suu Kyi represented that faction of the Burmese elite oriented to the West and the opening of the country to foreign investors.

All that changed when the military regime signalled its willingness to distance itself from China and to engineer a political role for Suu Kyi and her NLD. Virtually overnight, the designation of Burma was changed from ‘rogue state’ to ‘developing democracy’, US and European officials made a beeline for the country, US president Obama visited in 2012 and sanctions were dropped step by step.

When the NLD won the 2016 election and Suu Kyi was installed as de facto head of government, it was hailed as the flowering of democracy. Barely noted was the fact that the military remained in charge of the key security ministries and, through a bloc of unelected parliamentary seats, retained a veto over any change to the constitution it had drawn up.

This sham has now been exposed by the military’s atrocities against the Rohingya in Burma’s western state of Rakhine.

The vilification of Muslim Rohingya in predominantly Buddhist Burma has deep historic roots in the policies of divide-and-rule fostered by British colonial rule over India which included Burma until 1937. Unlike other ethnic minorities, the Burmese elite regarded the Rohingya as ‘illegal immigrants’ or ‘Bengalis’ brought in by the British, even if they had lived for generations within what became independent Burma in 1948.

The military junta that seized power in 1962 whipped up anti-Muslim and anti-Rohingya chauvinism to divide working people and buttress its hold on power. In 1982, it stripped the Rohingya of citizenship rights by not including them as one of the country’s recognised ethnic minorities. Suu Kyi and the NLD are no less deeply imbued with such xenophobia and are opposed to the granting of basic democratic rights to the Rohingya.

With Suu Kyi and her government acting as its facilitators and defenders, the army is carrying out a purge of Muslim Rohingyas on a scale that a decade ago would have produced an international howl of condemnation and demands for tougher sanctions, if not military intervention. The international reaction today is decidedly muted and the calls for action symbolic.

In response to the growing international outrage over the military’s rampage, the US has followed the lead of UN officials and criticised the army’s actions as ‘ethnic cleansing.’ US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who visited Burma earlier this month, declared that he was ‘deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and vigilantes.’

Asked if the US would reimpose sanctions on Burma, Tillerson declared that it was ‘not something that I’d think advisable at this time.’ He added: ‘We want to see Myanmar succeed. You can’t just impose sanctions and say therefore the crisis is over.’ Tillerson and the Trump administration have studiously avoided any criticism over Suu Kyi’s role in defending the military’s actions.

Various individuals, media and human rights organisations who helped inflate Suu Kyi’s status as a ‘democracy icon’, have begun to cautiously criticise her, even suggesting that her Nobel peace prize be withdrawn. Whether Pope Francis makes any criticism at all of the army or Suu Kyi, or even uses the term ‘Rohingya’, is the subject of media speculation. He met with Burmese military head senior general Min Aung Hlang yesterday without issuing so much as a murmur of criticism.

All this could rapidly change and Burma could return to the status of ‘rogue state’ if Washington judges that it is again getting too close to China. Commander in chief General Hlang has just completed a six-day visit to China where he met with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Suu Kyi is about to head off to Beijing to attend a conference of world political parties and ‘pay a working visit to strengthen bilateral relations.’

For the international working class, the sordid manoeuvres of the major powers and their utter indifference to the suffering of Burma’s Rohingya minority are another lesson in geopolitics. Behind the banner of ‘human rights’ always lie the predatory interests of the imperialist powers which they will ruthlessly prosecute regardless of the often terrible consequences for working people around the world.
World Socialist Web Site, November 28.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29424/rohingya-crisis-and-human-rights-imperialism


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## Banglar Bir

*Myanmar and China get their way*
AKM Zakaria | Update: 11:56, Nov 30, 2017 





*An apparent way out has been reached regarding the Rohingya crisis, with Bangladesh and Myanmar signing an ‘agreement’ for the return of the refugees. The consequences of this are being debated and discussed at the moment. Generally speaking, there are two sides involved here - Bangladesh and Myanmar. But there are two important sides outside of this too, and they are India and China.*

Normally we call an agreement a win-win deal when all quarters concerned benefit equally. Where does this agreement stand? And it is also important to assess whether it is actually effective at all in resolving the Rohingya crisis.
*
There are certain salient points to the agreement for the ‘repatriation of persons displaced from the Rakhine state’. 
Firstly, Myanmar will take back those who are voluntarily willing to return, after verifying their identity. 

Secondly, Myanmar’s decision is final regarding the verification of their identities. 

Thirdly, if necessary, the two countries can involve the UN refugee agency in this task. 

Fourthly, the refugees returning to Myanmar will initially be kept in temporary camps. 

Fifthly, they will have to undergo a citizenship verification process over there.*

Outside of this, other important points are, the agreement will apply to the Rohingyas who came to Bangladesh after October last year. The 300 thousand or so refugees, who have been here from beforehand, won’t be able to return under this agreement.
*
Myanmar did not acquiesce to the agreement the way that Bangladesh wanted it. The agreement was finalised in accordance to Myanmar’s wishes, on the lines of the 1992 agreement for repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.*

It is obvious that Myanmar’s interests and conditions have been upheld in the agreement. Our foreign minister doesn’t want to admit this. He said that the repatriation of the refugees is the important issue and Myanmar has agreed to this. The important question here is, under this agreement will the refugees be repatriated in accordance to Bangladesh’s wishes?
Given the terms of the agreement, and past experience, there is no reason to be very hopeful.

Also, under what assurance will the Rohingyas be eager to ‘voluntarily’ return home where they have been facing such barbarity and oppression? What is there in the agreement that will assure them of a safe return?

If there was any other party outside of Bangladesh and Myanmar involved in the agreement, or if there was an international guarantee in this regard then there would be scope for confidence in their return. Bangladesh will be in a fix if the refugees do not want to ‘voluntarily’ return home, based on the agreement signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

According to the agreement, the returning refugees will have to stay in camps and their citizenship will be verified once again. If anyone doesn’t pass the verification, what will happen? Will they remain prisoners in the refugee camps? It is difficult to imagine any refugee wanting to willingly return based on such a flimsy agreement.

Even if the repatriation begins within two months as per the agreement, the process will be lengthy and complicated. The foreign minister himself admitted this. The agreement does not have any timeframe in which the repatriation is to be completed.

The Myanmar government’s policy concerning the Rohingyas makes it clear that they will use any excuse to obstruct and delay the process as far as possible. It is obvious that they want to free Arakan of Rohingyas and have been working to that end over the past few decades. They have in effect managed to clear Arakan of Rohingyas.

Myanmar signed an agreement in the past too with Bangladesh for the return of the Rohingyas, but we all know the outcome of that agreement. We cannot understand on what basis is there any hope for the outcome of this agreement to be any different, since it is based on the old agreement. What will Bangladesh do if the Rohingyas, faced with the uncertainty of their fate, refuse to return? Will the refugees be forced to return? If Bangladesh does so, it will lose all the appreciation it has garnered for providing shelter to the refugees.

We stand more to lose than win from this agreement. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina had put forward certain specific recommendations at the UN and other international forums regarding a resolution to the Rohingya crisis and the speedy repatriation and rehabilitation of the Rohingya refugees. She spoke of creating a safety zone under the UN so that the Rohingyas could return to their own homes and that the safety of all citizens of Arakan be ensured.

She also called for the implementation of the Kofi Annan commission recommendations. There is hardly any way for a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis other than such an initiative. It is also very clear that this work cannot be carried out without international pressure. So was it realistic at all to move away from that stance and go ahead with this deal?

From Myanmar’s perspective, this agreement is a significant achievement. They managed to sign the agreement at a time when international opinion was building up against Myanmar over the Rohingya issue. The brutality against the Rohingyas was gradually being revealed.

The UN and other international agencies and states began to use terms such as ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’. Demands have been raised at an international level, including in the US and other states of the West, from the accused military offices of Myanmar to be tried.

Various moves are also being made to take action against Myanmar. But this agreement with Bangladesh will undoubtedly quell all these initiatives. And Myanmar will use this as a shield. This agreement is an escape route for Myanmar from all the allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar is the winner.

It was only expected that China would back Myanmar on the Rohingya issue. China and Myanmar have historic ties. When China was isolated from the rest of the world and faced all sorts of sanctions, Myanmar was the only one that maintained relations with the country. But it was shocking for us that India sided with Myanmar.

Bangladesh did not get this regional power, neighbor and closest friend, India, by its side in such a dire crisis. India did not murmur a single stern word in protest against the ethnic cleansing and violence against a particular community in a neighbouring state where hundreds of thousands were being driven away.

Analysts and observers say that India took this stance due to geo-political and economic reasons. One can then ask, has India been able to benefit from such a stand? Will it be able to do so in the future? Reality reveals quite the opposite. India remains silent about the Rohingya issue at present. It is said that China has played a role behind the deal signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is evident that China, as a regional power, holds the control and authority over the Rohingya issue.

India hardly has scope to play a role here, or it has failed to play its due role. India will not be able to make a slightest dent in the influence China wields over Myanmar, particularly over the military there. While the agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar was being signed in Naypyidaw, the Myanmar military chief was visiting China. And soon Aung San Suu Kyi will be visiting China as well.

So what did India gain from the Rohingya issue? It may gain certain investment and economic benefits, but the calculations are complex when it comes to geo-politics or the completion between China and India.

Both India and China are opposed to western intervention in the region. Both the countries want to exert their influence and power in the region. From the very outset, China wanted to keep the US and the countries of the West away from the Rohingya issue. That is why China pushed the agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is clear that China wants a sole role in this regard.

China’s role behind the Bangladesh-Myanmar agreement emphasises the strength of China’s role in the region’s geo-politics. This agreement is a victory for both Myanmar and China.

What will Bangladesh do now? Bangladesh’s biggest wish now is for the return of the Rohingyas. Bangladesh had to sign the agreement in accordance to China’s wishes and so now it must get a guarantee from China regarding the implementation of the agreement.
** AKM Zakaria is a senor journalist and can be reached at akmzakaria@gmail.com <mailto:akmzakaria@gmail.com>. This column, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla print edition, has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/135535/Myanmar-and-China-get-their-way*


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## Banglar Bir

*'The Buddhist society has lost its conscience'*
Ayesha Kabir | Update: 18:11, Nov 30, 2017



* 
Zarni is a democracy advocate, Rohingya campaigner, and a former research fellow at the London School of Economics. He lived and worked in the United States for 17 years. In 1995 he founded the Free Burma Coalition and was its director until 2004.*
Zarni is also a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. Zarni now works as independent scholar specialising in racism, violence and mass atrocities. He is an adviser to the European Centre for the Study of Extremism based in Cambridge, UK.

During his recent Dhaka trip, Zarni dropped in at the Prothom Alo office and held a discussion with senior journalists of the daily, including the editor Matiur Rahman. He deliberated on a number of issues pertaining to the Rohingya crisis and the predicament of his homeland.

“The Buddhist society has lost its conscience and has turned racist. The army itself has been founded on fascist lines. And a good society has been manipulated to move into this fascist mode.”

Activist Zarni’s passionate outburst was tinged with regret as he added, “This is no longer the society where I grew up. People of different faiths and societies living together will invariably have a degree of discomfort when it comes to certain differences, but that should not culminate in violence. When I was growing up the army didn’t have that control. The press was free. Then in 1962 Ne Win took over power and the army began to exert its authority over the culture, the society, even day care centres!”

Highlighting the authoritarian nature of the rule, Zarni said, “*The party was God. There had been strength in society, families understood they knew better than the army, the monks opposed the authoritarian rule and were against the fascist ideology. 
But the army played one religion against the other and propagated its totalitarian ideology. 
But now the 55 years of the army’s fascist endeavours have culminated in the present predicament of the state.”*

Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman pointed to people’s support of the peaceful democratic movement, where Aung San Suu Kyi voiced their aspirations. Zarni responded by saying that since 1988 the movement aimed at opposing military dictatorship.

This was different from a value driven democratic movement. The movement was opposed to the shooting and violence but not for values and principles. He criticised Aung San Suu Kyi, saying she needed ‘revolution of the spirit’. He said that she and others of her ilk spoke the same language as the military, not of human rights and the sanctity of human lives.

“The military had succeeded in manipulating the people into a totalitarian space. We are worse than Germany under Hitler. Society has to resist, but over 90 per cent of the people back the military.”

Concerning the Myanmar army chief’s aspirations to be president, Zarni said, “Becoming the president is the army chief’s ambition. He is the Milosevic of Burma today. He had the gall to tell the Pope that there was no racist discrimination in the country.”

About the future of Aung San Suu Kyi, he said she may be admired in her country but internationally she had lost her stature as a Nobel Laureate.

As to whether Bangladesh was on the correct path, Zarni said that Bangladesh was a nation state with its own interests. The government of Bangladesh had one sort of stance, given its interests with China and the rest of the region, but the people had shown tremendous compassion towards the Rohingyas. They did not see them as illegal entrants this time, but as victims of genocide. This was a powerful and positive sentiment.
http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/135562/“The-Buddhist-society-has-lost-its-conscience”


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## Banglar Bir

*IS BANGLADESH READY FOR THE CHALLENGE?
Bay of Bengal geopolitics under transformation
Shahid Islam
When the tide of time changes the contours of reality, nations must reset their priorities to meet the emerging challenges and new realities. The geopolitics of the Bay of Bengal and its littoral nations are under transformation amidst competing interests of regional and global powers.*

Bangladesh, as a nation central to this new development, must prepare to take the plunges that lurk in the blue waters beyond the nation’s territorial waters, as well as on the shiny shores dotting the vast coastline shared by Myanmar and Bangladesh in particular.

*Rohingya dispossession*
This new reality has been ushered in by the systematic uprooting of the Rohingya Muslim minorities in Myanmar who are historic inhabitants of a strategic landmass called Arakan (Rakhine state of Myanmar) that spreads over 36,778 km² and, mountains as high as 3,063 metres separate the region from central Myanmar to mesh it neatly with the hilly suburbs of neighbouring Bangladesh.

Besides, the military backed regime in Myanmar considers the Rohingya as Bengali settlers who, the regime believe, should be driven back to their ancestral homes in Bangladesh’s Chittagong area that, until 1666, was part of the Arakan landmass while the rest of the land was annexed by Burma in 1784.

The Rohingya crisis is taking a turn for the worst at a time when the regional and global powers believe that the brewing China-US rivalry — and the Indian decision to strategically align with the USA—is shaping up the parameters of a major global conflict centering Myanmar’s Rakhine state; from where Rohingyas in their hundreds of thousands are being driven back to Bangladesh, sparking a major humanitarian crisis that needs immediate global humanitarian and military interventions.

*Stake for Bangladesh*
Bangladesh may have been napping—and not alerted by the increased visitations recently to the country of people and dignitaries from the East and the West—while the USA, UK, and their NATO allies might have planned for one of the three particular outcomes to unfold in this festering crisis.

*First: *Myanmar should take back the dispossessed Rohingyas and offer them citizenship.
*
Second:* The UN should make provision for a Bosnia-type humanitarian intervention backed by military force; a prospect much feared by China, Russia and India.

*Third:* Arakan should be an independent state for all the inhabitants of the area, including the local Buddhists.

Being an inheritor state of the British empire, Bangladesh does have a historic claim on Arakan due to the Arakan landmass being under the British rule since a bloody war in 1824 between the Burmese and the Brits resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo (1826), ending prolonged hostilities following Burma’s ceding of Arakan, alongside Tanintharyi (Tenasserim), to the British Indian government.

*Legal footnotes*
The rationales of the Myanmar regime in driving out the Rohingya minorities from their ancestral home are untenable, and the pattern of racial and ethnic discriminations are staggeringly overwhelming.

Following independence in 1945, the Burmese government passed the Union Citizenship Act, which ascribed the ethnicities “indigenous” to Myanmar, and, excluded the Rohingyas, the Muslim inhabitants of Arakan, for not being indigenous, and hence, not being one of the country’s 135 designated official ethnic groups.

Yet, Bangladesh failed to mount a major diplomatic offensive in 1974 when all citizens in Burma were made to get national registration cards, excluding the Bengali speaking Rohingyas, who were only allowed to obtain foreign registration cards. And again, in 1982, when a new citizenship law prevented the Rohingyas from obtaining Burmese citizenship and rendered them virtually stateless, Bangladesh displayed a curious silence.

Now that the Myanmar regime is evidently found in conducting an orgy of ethnic cleansing and, by now had forcefully evicted almost one million Rohingys from their ancestral homes, Dhaka’s burden to shouldering them can only be ameliorated by moving aggressively toward adopting a Chapter 7 enforceable Resolution under the UN Security Council, which the USA and its NATO allies seem poised to take onboard as the most viable option, according to the diplomatic mutterings swirling around.

*China, Russia, India factors*
*The move is not obstacle-free, howeve*r. Myanmar is China’s clientele state and ideologically aligned as the inseparable communist siblings of the same indoctrination. Yet, in the midst of a brewing China-US rivalry for global supremacy, and the Indian decision to strategically align with the USA, Washington does have an upper hand in steering the Rohingya crisis toward a direction suiting its global agenda.

In Bosnia too, in the early 1990s, Russia vehemently opposed any military intervention under the UN mandate while the Bosnian Muslims faced Serv-conducted ethnic cleansing. But the USA proved relentless in its pursuance of creating an independent nation-state for the Bosnian Muslims. *The same scenario may get replayed in Arakan unless the Myanmar regime takes back the driven-out Rohingya people sooner.

For its part, India can either tow the US-Western line, or dither on the grey shred of ambivalence, as it did by abstaining from voting lately in the UN Human Rights Commission-mooted motion on the crisis.*

The caveat is: Delhi’s failure to make a clear stand on the issue will cost it by
(1) stalling Western support to becoming a permanent member of the UNSC;

(2) losing face with the USA and the West at a time when Delhi’s betrayal with Moscow after decades of strategic cohabitation remains unforgivable, and;

(3) blundering on the false assumption that the historic animosity with Beijing is deferrable, or erasable.

*The national interest of Bangladesh, under these givens, will be best served by staying glued with the human-rights-conscious Western regimes to tilt the precarious diplomatic imbalance it now confronts.*

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx


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## Banglar Bir

*Shadow minister moves Rohingya crisis in UK parliament*
News Desk, bdnews24.com
Published: 2017-11-30 03:23:12.0 BdST Updated: 2017-11-30 04:03:34.0 BdST




MPs at House of Commons, British Parliament. Reuters File Photo

*The UK parliament has had a lengthy discussion on the Rohingya crisis which Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field calls a 'global humanitarian catastrophe' and not just a Muslim issue.*

British shadow Minister for International Development Roberta Blackman-Woods, who recently visited Bangladesh and Rohingya camps, moved the motion with Ian Paisley in the chair.

Over 20 MPs took part in the discussion at the House of Commons on Tuesday, according to Hansard Online, which says it puts in a substantially verbatim report of what is said in parliament.

Roberta attended the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in Dhaka as a member of the British delegation.

In her opening remarks, Roberta said, "Although stories about the crisis are similar, my visit brought home the vastness of the camps."

"The UNHCR's head of emergency planning told our group of parliamentarians that the camps needed to house the new refugees are the equivalent of a city larger than Manchester and these are being established almost overnight," she told the MPs.

"And it was built with no infrastructure, housing, water, sanitation or any of the tools needed for self-subsistence," she quoted the UNHCR emergency chief.

The International Rescue Committee estimates that nearly 300,000 people need food security assistance and more than 400,000 people need healthcare, Roberta said.




Mariam Begum, a mother of three, has taken refuge at the makeshift camp on Balukhali Hill in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhia. She says her husband was killed in front of her by Myanmar soldiers. Photo: mostafigur rahman

Only a fraction of the 453,000 Rohingya children at camps receives education. The young people they met were desperate for education—particularly higher education, the shadow minister continued.

Another MP, Philip Hollobone, said, "It is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple, and must be 100% condemned through all diplomatic channels available to us."

"I appreciate the sensitivities of the nascent democracy in Burma, but we must make it clear that the generals are responsible for this ethnic cleansing and that the international community will not put up with it."

"When it comes to the potential return of Rohingya refugees, returning stateless people to remain stateless in their country of origin is not good enough. These people require their nationhood to be given to them."

He also said Britain must stimulate further contributions from other countries, particularly Muslim countries, because 'we are dealing with a Muslim population', and “there are lots of rich Muslim countries in the world that, frankly, should be stepping up to the plate rather more”.




A family of Rohingya refugees at the makeshift camp on Balukhali Hill in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhia. Photo: mostafigur rahman

Taking the floor, Mark Field said, "It would be very dangerous for this to be seen as only a Muslim issue.

“It is a global humanitarian catastrophe, and while I accept what he says – that we want to see all nations contributing – to try to frame it in an ethnic way would be the wrong way forward."

Rushanara Ali, a Bangladesh-origin Labour MP, asked the minister whether they will be pursuing an independent security presence to protect the Rohingyas.

“Because otherwise, we are expecting the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing to be the ones managing this process?”

"Absolutely," Mark Field said in reply. "We will. I am also wary of the idea of having a long-term presence there, rather like what has happened in the Middle East where one has an unsustainable position for the longer term."

"But in the short term, we need to have an independent international presence to police this matter."

He also said the UK government concluded that the inexcusable violence perpetrated on the Rohingya by the Burmese military and ethnic Rakhine militia appears to be ethnic cleansing – or is ethnic cleansing.

The UK has been leading the international response diplomatically, politically and regarding humanitarian support.




Rohingyas return to a makeshift refugee camp at Balukhali in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar with whatever aid they could collect on Saturday. Photo: muhammad mostafigur rahman

Rushanara expressed concern over the supposed agreement between the Bangladeshis and the Burmese as what she terms 'is deeply problematic", given the state of camps in Rakhine and the way the Rohingya are being treated.

"I visited Burma twice. Our Government needs to ensure that security arrangements are in place and that the Rohingyas’ protection is guaranteed before any such process takes place," she added.

Agreeing with her concern, Roberta said, despite the deal signed on 23 November between Myanmar and Bangladesh to return the Rohingya to Myanmar, there is "understandably widespread aversion" among the displaced Rohingya to returning to their home state at present.

Labour MP from Manchester Jeff Smith said, "The repatriation deal requires that refugees produce a load of documentation, including names of family members, previous addresses, birth dates and a statement of voluntary return."

"Given the systematic denial of citizenship rights, will that be incredibly difficult for them?" he asked.

In reply, Roberta said, “It is clear that the conditions for safe, voluntary and informed returns are not being met.”

The IRC also states that 81 percent of the Rohingyas it interviewed do not wish to return to Myanmar at present, she added.

She also said, "International pressure to solve the crisis is of the utmost urgency, and I would like to hear from the Minister what the Government are going to do to try to step up the amount of aid delivered not only by the UK Government but by other partners, and how they will press for a longer-term international solution to the problem."




Rohingya refugees scrambled for relief materials at Palongkhali in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar on Saturday as aid workers threw clothes from a truck. Photo: muhammad mostafigur rahman

Labour MP from Tooting Rosena Allin-Khan, who also visited the camp, told the House of Commons, "I say on the record, as I have all week, that this is not ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing is not a crime in humanitarian law. This is genocide—the systematic dehumanisation of a population of people—and we have to call it out."

"We are proud to be British, and all that stands for. Our standing in the world is to be applauded. The amount we give to humanitarian efforts is absolutely wonderful, but it is tantamount to putting a sticking plaster on a gunshot wound and allowing the shooter to roam free. We cannot be bystanders to this genocide."

She said she met an Imam in the camp who managed to escape into the bushes as the military arrived in his village and started shooting everybody.

The Imam described, through his tears: "All the men being mutilated and killed as their wives were forced to watch; women being dragged backwards by their hair and gang-raped repeatedly as their children were forced to watch; and their children, as they ran away screaming, being dragged back and thrown into the fires."

"I know that that is hard to hear, but I promised I would tell their stories," she continued.

Another member of the British delegation that visited the refugee camps, Anne Main, a Conservative MP from St Albans said, "There is a cultural problem here—tacit agreement with the process that has happened. The local people in Myanmar are 'not unhappy' that these people have been driven out in the most horrific manner."

"That needs to be addressed. Otherwise, sending the Rohingya back will only send them back into a scenario in which they are permanently under threat, despised and robbed of their rights," she added.

Faisal Rashid, a Labour MP from Warrington South, called upon the British government to lead the way in organising an immediate and effective international response to the crisis.

He urged that the other members of the United Nations Security Council come together and use their collective power to help this persecuted minority.

"The Burmese Government must be held to account, and the war crimes that have been committed by the Burmese military must be investigated in an international court. The Rohingya people need justice," he added.
https://bdnews24.com/world/2017/11/30/shadow-minister-moves-rohingya-crisis-in-uk-parliament

*BD-Myanmar pact to repatriate refugees raises chilling questions*
*Ispita Chakravarty*
Scroll.In
*Months after thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar in the wake of mass killings, rape and arson, Bangladesh plans to send them back. On November 23, it signed a repatriation deal with Myanmar, which is said to be based on an earlier pact signed in 1992, when a similar surge of violence had sent the Rohingya fleeing across the border.
*
Since August 2017, about 620,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar military. According to a statement by a Bangladeshi minister, repatriation will start in two months. Many Rohingya, crammed into refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar and still traumatised by the violence they left behind, say it is too soon to go back.

*The deal*
The details of the deal are still sketchy and the two countries will reportedly form a joint working committee to oversee the process. This is what is known so far.

At least initially, only the Rohingya who entered Bangladesh after October 2016 will be sent back. Crucially, the agreement refers to them as “displaced Myanmar residents”, rather than citizens. They will need to provide proof of residency with documents issued in Myanmar. Documentation provided by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees will also have to be verified, and Myanmar will be the final arbiter of any dispute on their validity.

According to Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Myanmar will settle the repatriated Rohingya in their former neighbourhoods or any place near where their homes once stood. They will not stay in temporary settlements for long.

Both governments have agreed not to discriminate against any particular community in the process, Myanmar has reportedly promised not to penalise any Rohingya for “illegal exodus and return” unless they are found to be involved in terrorist or criminal activities. After repatriation, neither government will provide citizenship or residency to “illegal immigrants”.

*A publicity stunt?*
Human Rights Watch called the pact a “publicity stunt” and “laughable”, while Amnesty International said it was “unthinkable” for Rohingya refugees to return at the moment. Voices of concern have also been raised in Bangladesh, but the government is not taking questions. “Our only goal is to send the Rohingya back to their country, and there is no point in criticising this agreement,” said Ali in a press briefing. But the problems with the pact are obvious.

*First,* it makes no space for the involvement of a third party which could have monitored or steered the process. This is an especially crucial gap since neither country’s stance inspires much confidence. Bangladesh has made no secret of wanting to get the refugee population off its soil. As for Myanmar, it has maintained a sullen denial of the atrocities in the face of mounting evidence.
*
Second*, the pact lets Myanmar decide on the legality of the documents produced. As one migration expert pointed out, this “kills a process that could have been neutral”. Since Myanmar stands accused of systematically trying to eject Rohingya from the country and of denying them citizenship, it is debatable how many documents it will admit as valid.

*Third,* there are logistical problems with producing and verifying the documents. In a country that has denied Rohingya citizenship and basic rights for years, it is not known how many people have identification papers. Besides, many fled leaving everything behind so they might not have the papers even if they were issued.

As former Bangladeshi ambassador M Humayun Kabir points out, most would depend on a “white card” or temporary identity certificate provided by the Myanmar government, which claimed their citizenship was in doubt. These are printed in Burmese but refugees giving their details for registration in Bangladesh often speak in Rakhine, which means names and addresses will often not match.

*Fourth,* the pact states that neither country will provide citizenship or residency to “illegal immigrants” once registration is complete. Given the difficulties of identification, the process is likely to leave a large number of people out. This will create a large, floating population of so-called illegal migrants left stateless once again. It should be remembered that the Myanmar government justified stripping the Rohingya of civil and political rights by claiming they were illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the first place.

*Point of no return*
Finally, there is the freighted question of what the Rohingya will return to. With entire villages razed to the ground, the government will need to help them rebuild their homes and lives once again. When the pact still refuses to call the Rohingya citizens of Myanmar, the government’s enthusiasm for such a project may be lacking. The provision about Myanmar penalising so called terrorists or criminals could lay the ground for a fresh campaign of persecution.

So far, there is nothing to suggest that this deal has what the 1992 agreement did not: safeguards to ensure that Myanmar’s military junta will alter its policies towards the Rohingya and not indulge in more killing sprees that will send them running for life across the border once again. *With no evidence of a change of heart in the Myanmar government, this pact would only deliver the Rohingya back to their killers.*
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=5&date=0#Tid=15204


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## Banglar Bir

*Is future of Rohingya crisis still up in the air?
In the wake of rigmaroles of parleys and some jibber-jabbers vis-à-vis wool-gathering, now and then cold silence as well as waiting with baited breath in pursuit of resolution to end genocide, bloodshed, rape and premeditated physical annihilation process of the Rohingya Muslim minority population of Rakhaine province of Myanmar [perpetrated by the Burmese armed forces in collusion with the Buddhist civilians] a ray of hope was visible.*

But that ‘ray’ of hope of 26 November 2017 too is a ‘faint’ one now—-a will-o’-the-wisp or ignis fatuus. Why? Because the refugee influx still continues and the wretched Rohingyas are still fleeing [at least 3,000 refugees so far ] into Bangladesh even after an agreement was signed with Myanmar to repatriate hundreds of thousands of the Muslim minority displaced along the border, officials said on November 28, 2017, as reported by AFP.

When an apparently confident Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali said on 26 November 2017 that Dhaka protected its interest in signing the deal with Naypyidaw over the repatriation of Myanmar nationals and hoped to send them back home within “a reasonable time”, the people of Bangladesh—-now under terribly insufferable economic, ecological and social pressure more than flesh and blood can stand—-felt encouraged.

Mr Ali added, “Our interest has not been ignored or hampered at all…our main goal is to send back the Rohingya Muslims sheltered in Bangladesh and we have been able to make Myanmar agree to take back its nationals.”

Responding to questions from reporters, Mahmood said the criticism about not mentioning a specific timeframe in the agreement for completion of the repatriation was not right, because it can’t be done within a given timeframe. “Both the countries have agreed to start the repatriation process in two months and it will be completed within a reasonable time.”

When newsman asked whether “a reasonable time” is a vague term, the minister said it is obviously a vague term. “There is no benefit in mentioning a specific timeframe as well.” Therefore the exercise seems to be tantamount to an inconsequential exercise since Mr Ali himself admits that “a reasonable time” is obviously a vague term.

Having undergone immeasurable terrible odyssey of recurring persecution for decades, the Rohingya Muslims faced veritable apocalypse of brutal decimation on a catastrophic scale through wholesale slaughter, arson and mass rapes by the military that forced out the wretched humans whose ceaseless influx into Bangladesh drew extraordinarily sympathetic attention of the peoples of the world and the UN in particular.

Expressions of facts by Anwar Hossain, a Rohingya Muslim of Nein Chong village in Boothidong, Rakhine state—-as written by Kazi Imdad in channel_ionline.com dated 23 November 2017—-recounted how perfidious Suu Kyi betrayed their confidence in her.

There is an old injury mark below his left eye which he had sustained in 1990 when police had beaten him up because he was one of the hundreds of Rohingya Muslims who supported Suu Kyi’s poll symbol ‘Peacock’ in the parliament elections held that year and gave blood. Their Democracy and Human Rights Party supported the ‘Peacock’ symbol. Nurul Kabir said that prior to the 1990 polls his younger brother Anwarul Kabir was tortured to death by police in Akyab Jail. Alas, “after 25 years Suu Kyi betrayed with their blood.”

Aung San Suu Kyi was lambasted a couple of years ago for her insensitive heartless stance on the Rohingyas. Wrote Professor Penny Green, a Director of International State Crime Initiative, in the London-based Independent on 20 May 2015: Suu Kyi’s silence on the genocide of Rohingya Muslims is tantamount to complicity. There will be much more blood if the Burmese government is not stopped in its tracks. Indeed, that has happened in 1978, 1992, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and much more virulently in 2017.

Rohingya influx has been afflicting Bangladesh since long. In 1978 General Ne Win launched the Nagamin Dragon Operation and thousands of Rohingyas were killed indiscriminately for their allegiance to the Arakan National Liberation Party. However, President Ziaur Rahman sought intervention of the international community for a speedy resolution of the crisis, following which most of the Rohingya refugees were repatriated between 6 October and 24 December in 1979.

Professor Penny Green wrote, “In a genocide silence is complicity, and so it is with Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s desperate Rohingya community. The Burmese government’s ongoing persecution of the Rohingya has, in the last two years, reached a level so untenable that the Rohingya are faced with only two options, to remain and risk annihilation or flee.

The current exodus of those seeking asylum is just one manifestation of genocide. Genocide is a process built up over a period of years involving an escalation in the dehumanisation and persecution of the target group. Inside Burma, the Rohingya have been subjected to decades of stigmatization, violence and harassment.”

The AL government’s closest friend India—-not surprisingly—-is among the countries which did not support Dhaka, instead she abstained from voting on the UN resolution condemning the atrocities on the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. [Vide southasianmonitor. com/2017/11/18/india-lets-rohingya-muslims-cruelly-third-time-succession.]

Notwithstanding the fact that the government of Awami League (AL) chief and PM Sheikh Hasina has inked a “bilateral” deal with Naypyidaw over the repatriation of Myanmar nationals on 25 November 2017, her government in its wisdom had planned to reject just 7 days back a proposal by China recommending Bangladesh seek a “bilateral solution” to the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis with Myanmar. [Vide dhakatribune.com /bangladesh/ foreign-affairs/2017/11/18/ bangladesh-reject-china-rohingya-crisis/ ]
*
Sheikh Hasina and her Foreign Office mandarins might know better what is in store for us. 
Meanwhile, the people can only hope against hope about future of the crisis still up in the air.*
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/Homepage/Pages/UserHome.aspx?ID=4&date=0#Tid=15198

12:00 AM, December 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:12 AM, December 01, 2017
*Stand by Bangladesh
Pope calls for decisive actions from int'l community to end Rohingya crisis; lauds Bangladesh's role in helping refugees*





A child presents a flower bouquet to Pope Francis as President Abdul Hamid receives him. The Pope arrived yesterday on a VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines which landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 2:45pm from Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: PID
Agencies




*Pope Francis yesterday called for "decisive" international action on the Rohingya refugee crisis as he began a visit to Bangladesh, where more than 620,000 of the Muslim minority have sought sanctuary after fleeing violence in Myanmar.*

The pope made the comment in a speech shortly after arriving from Myanmar, where he walked a diplomatic tightrope, staying away from allegations that the army is waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya, despite pressure to publicly confront the incendiary issue, reports AFP.

"None of us can fail to be aware of the gravity of the situation, the immense toll of human suffering involved, and the precarious living conditions of so many of our brothers and sisters, a majority of whom are women and children, crowded in the refugee camps," he said.

"It is imperative that the international community take decisive measures to address this grave crisis, not only by working to resolve the political issues that have led to the mass displacement of people, but also by offering immediate material assistance to Bangladesh in its effort to respond effectively to urgent human needs," the pope told Bangladeshi dignitaries and diplomats.

He praised Bangladesh for taking in the mass exodus across the border into overcrowded makeshift camps since a fresh outbreak of violence in Rakhine state in late August.

But as in Myanmar, he refrained from using the word "Rohingya", instead referring to "refugees from Rakhine state".

Pope Francis had been urged not to use the name in Myanmar to avoid provoking hardline Buddhists and making the country's Catholics a target.

At a private talk with the pontiff later in the evening, President Abdul Hamid sought his help in sending back the displaced Rohingya to their homeland and keeping up the pressure on Myanmar to resolve the protracted crisis, reports UNB.

"During the meeting, the president categorically sought Pope's active role so that different countries and the international community put pressure on the Myanmar government to settle the issue," President's Press Secretary Joynal Abedin later told journalists.

Francis -- the first pope to visit Bangladesh in 31 years -- will spend three days in the mainly-Muslim country, which is grappling with a rise in Islamist extremism that has seen Catholics attacked for their faith, AFP added.

In Dhaka, he will meet some of the Rohingya refugees, whom he has described as his "brothers and sisters", and lead a mass for Bangladesh's tiny Catholic minority.

*DILEMMA*
Myanmar's government denies the Rohingya are an ethnic group, insisting they are "Bengali" migrants who are not entitled to full citizenship.

The Vatican has rejected suggestions that the pope's reticence to tackle the Rohingya crisis head-on represented a failure of moral leadership.

"He seemed to comprehend the dilemma he faced," David Mathieson, a Yangon-based analyst, told AFP, applauding the Catholic leader's diplomatic dexterity in a country where the army retains great power.

"He is the pope, not a pugilist... he was here to help the country work through this horrific humanitarian crisis and listen to both the civilian and military leadership."

The pontiff was warmly embraced by Myanmar's Catholics, who make up just over one percent of the population.

Today he will lead a mass at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital that is expected to be attended by around 100,000 people.

Bangladesh's Catholics make up less than 0.5 percent of the population of 160 million and have for centuries lived in relative harmony with their Muslim neighbours.

But there has been a rise in Islamist attacks in recent years targeting religious minorities, foreigners and secular figures.

The papal visit comes days after the disappearance of a Catholic priest in the same village where suspected Islamist extremists hacked a Catholic grocer to death last year.

Walter William Rosario, 40, had been making arrangements for some 300 Catholics to travel to Dhaka for the pope's mass.

Since 2015 at least three Christians, including two converts from Islam, have been hacked to death in attacks blamed on militant groups.

Tens of thousands of Catholics have travelled to the capital hoping to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis, who is to travel to the park for Friday's mass on a traditional cycle rickshaw.

The 80-year-old Argentine pontiff has established a reputation for his down-to-earth manner, vowing to stamp out extravagance among the clergy and bring the Catholic Church closer to the poor.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/myanmar-rohingya-refugee-crisis-take-decisive-measures-1498810

*U.N. seeks report from Myanmar on rapes, deaths of Rohingya women*
November 28, 2017
Stephanie Nebehay | Reuters




A United Nations women's rights panel called on Myanmar on Tuesday to report within six months on rapes and sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls by its security forces in northern Rakhine state and measures taken to punish soldiers.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) also asked authorities to provide details on women and girls killed in the violence since the army crackdown began in late August.

The campaign, which followed attacks on police posts by Rohingya insurgents, has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh and left their villages burned to the ground.

The rare request for an "exceptional report" from a country was only the panel's fourth since 1982.

"We request an exceptional report from a state when a situation of grave, massive and systematic violations occur and these issues are relevant to mandate of the Committee," panel member Nahla Haidar told Reuters.

"The exceptional report is also like a red flag," she said. The move aimed to help Myanmar authorities "get out of the tunnel of this recent conflict which has really set back Myanmar which was going on the right foot to democratisation", she said.

The U.N. watchdog panel, composed of 23 independent experts, set a six-month deadline for the government to submit the report to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"The Committee requested information concerning cases of sexual violence, including rape, against Rohingya women and girls by State security forces; and to provide details on the number of women and girls who have been killed or have died due to other non-natural causes during the latest outbreak of violence," it said in a statement.

Haider said: "Essentially it's rape, sexual violence which amounts to torture in certain cases for girls and women. And gang-raping also was documented...And yes, torture - rapes used as a systematic weapon of war".

The experts requested information on "investigations, arrests, prosecutions, convictions and sentences or disciplinary measures imposed on perpetrators, including members of the armed forces, found guilty of such crimes."

Specifically, they sought information on the battalions that have undertaken the "clearance operations" in northern Rakhine state since August 25 "and under whose command".

They asked whether instructions have been given or are being issued to all branches of state security forces that torture, sexual violence and expulsions are banned "and that those responsible will be prosecuted and punished".

The panel said it wanted to know how many Rohingya women and girls are being detained by security forces.

Pope Francis on Tuesday urged the leaders of majority-Buddhist Myanmar, mired in a crisis over the fate of Muslim Rohingya people, to commit themselves to justice, human rights and respect for "each ethnic group and its identity".
http://www.genocidewatch.com/single...rom-Myanmar-on-rapes-deaths-of-Rohingya-women


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 30, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:23 AM, November 30, 2017
*On the margins of ruin: War and displacement*




Life and living on the margins of history has not erased the delicate beauty and resilience of the Rohingya woman. PHOTO: AFP
Rebecca Haque
Not history alone, not literature alone, but my own considerable life experience has convinced me that the world is Manichean, and tragically will forever remain so. Evil has many faces, and man's expulsion from the garden of Eden has tainted the earth with blood spilt in lust and vengeance and vicious hunger for conquest of acres and acres of rich, fertile ground. 

Cyclically, mighty civilisations have flourished on the banks of mighty rivers and have perished at the hands of marauding tribes and invading armies, and those same great rivers have overflowed with human blood and carcass. Cain's act and bequest of brother against brother, his murder of Abel, is the original fable of the curse of evil lurking within each human soul. 

The mortal frame is a divided box, with opposing, warring desires of the flesh and the spirit, of the mind and the heart, and most unfortunately, yet most powerfully and crucially for the survival of entire civilisations, cultures, and tribes of peoples, the mortal self is itself a complex, convoluted, conflicted unit of light and shadow, of good and evil.

As a child, I have stood many a time on the steps and plinths of the majestic ruins of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, while my love of history books ignited my imagination to fill the emptiness of the rooms and the courtyards and the granaries and the bathhouses and the adjoining fields with living, breathing men, women, and children. 

Even my dreams were peopled by sunburnt folk wrapped in white homespun cotton garments. The Indian sub-continent is my geographical space, and I carry my Aryan-Dravidian colour and shape to the Occident and the Orient with pride. Bengal is my birthplace; with my roots firmly attached to the alluvial soil of the Gangetic Plains, I too am the inheritor of a rich culture layered with trajectories of centuries of settlements by Persian and Greek and Arab and Portuguese and Dutch and British voyagers, traders, conquerors. 

The bloodlines of the Bengali woman meet all cultures and languages, from the Greco-Roman to the Arabic, from the Hispanic to the Indic, from the Runic to the Hieroglyphic. The profile of the Bengali woman eludes the Cubist frame of Picasso: she is multi ethnic, multi dimensional. A racial chameleon, made from clay and terra cotta, Gandhara, Harappa, and Mohenjodaro.

The Rohingya is my sister as much as the Nubian and the Sumerian. Life and living on the margins of history has not erased the delicate beauty and resilience of the Rohingya woman. Displaced by colonial power two hundred years ago, by the same arm of Empire which divided Bengal not once but twice for its own mercantile gain, the Rohingya flowered across the flowing river and the fluid border beyond the boundary of my native East Bengal. 

Now, with evil intent and murder disguised in saffron robes and blood rites, the banks of the Naf are deluged sticky-red with desperate, displaced, ruined shards of humanity. Raped, battered, without her man, embracing the old and the sick and the infant, my sister grabs my shore and begs for help. How can I forsake her, my heart cries, even as it cries at my own inability to actively change her destiny.

In the city of the golden pagodas, the “pure Bamar” sits, complacent and contemptuous of our mixed race and wheatish/brown colour. Long months of placid denial of burning and butchering of Rohingya people by the ruling Burman. Long, arduous months of rescuing and sheltering and feeding the hundreds of thousands of refugees swarming into Cox's Bazaar. 

We Bangladeshi Bengalis are universally admired for our hospitality; even the poorest landless labourer is a gracious host and will happily share a meal with the starving. The inexorable forces of Nature and the peculiar contours of geography have often made my precious motherland prey to yearly denudation by flood or furious cyclone. 

Millions have migrated to other lands and are contributing to the economy of their adopted countries. Millions more, men and women, are struggling alone in distant lands to feed their own families back home in cities and towns and villages scattered across this tiny Bangladesh. The spirit of survival, of the continuity of family and lineage, is strong and unyielding in the heart of the Bangladeshi woman.

Education and equal opportunity for employment in all spheres of professional and vocational work have made us confident. Innately intelligent, inheritors of a centuries-old rich, diverse tradition of arts and culture, song and dance, many Bangladeshi women are leaders and role-models in these times of war and displacement. Succeeding generations of highly educated and dynamic Bangladeshis have won global recognition and accolades through individual achievements. 

Significantly, despite the conservative patriarchal attitude of some menfolk, there has been a fundamental reconfiguration of the ancient system of power and gender-relationship from those dark days when Bengali women were tithed in feudal bondage and deprived of the written word. While the struggle continues for those still on the margins of economic parity and social security, for those ruined by violence, for those subjugated by egregious dogma and perverted edict, I admire the efforts of enlightened fathers and brothers and spouses to fight for just rights of the Bangladeshi woman.

Today, as we house and clothe and feed and succour the ruined, forlorn Rohingya, I cannot but feel anxious for our own swiftly depleting resources. The supercilious Bamar has recently, grudgingly, bowed to international pressure for cessation of violence, but expedient political and economic affiliations of superpower nations have in turn forced us into a dubious “repatriation” treaty. 

Now, at the risk of undermining our own national security, the onus is upon us to bear the brunt of keeping the Rohingya in Bangladesh, in refugee camps, for years, perhaps decades, perhaps permanently. The real danger of Rohingya women disappearing inside the dark labyrinth of human trafficking and prostitution is already happening, as verbal and social media messages have indicated. Soon, verifiable statistics will also be available as women's rights activists begin to monitor the situation. Stateless, without a country or national identity or home or a patch of land to call their own, the Rohingya are mostly seen as expendable by the rest of the world. 

In contrast, tragically, the Rohingya woman and girl-child, neglected, illiterate, displaced, war-ravaged, but comely of appearance, is apparently seen as profitable commercial commodity by the criminal underworld.

My mind grapples with the horrific proportions of this problem, which has insidiously stretched its tentacles into our public and private spaces. Secret encroachment into our urban and rural spaces and stealing our Bangladeshi identity bring commensurate backlash of anger and rejection directed at the Rohingya. 

The perplexing moral dimensions of this problem remind me of the desert fable of the nomad, the camel, and the tent. Apropos with regard to the Rohingya–Bangladeshi–Bengali situation, I look at the photogenic face of the bereft, weeping Rohingya woman, and I think to myself, will I one day become unhoused, naked and defenceless, by offering a bit of space in a gesture of goodwill?
Rebecca Haque is a professor in the Department of English at University of Dhaka.
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/the-margins-ruin-war-and-displacement-1498225


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingyas and the politics of crisis*
Afsan Chowdhury, November 30, 2017



Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, Photo: UNHCR
*While Bangladesh is not really able to assert itself on the Rohingya crisis given its lack of clout and support, Myanmar has done better given the solid backing it has received from China. The result has been an MOU of sorts which has not generated any confidence in any quarters and ensured that the heat on Myanmar cooled a bit.*
The Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Yi while visiting Bangladesh had said that as a mutual friend of both China and Bangladesh it welcomes the agreement or the MOU.

Myanmar should feel pleased with the MOU which puts no pressure on it to take back the refugees as has been pointed out. It has already started to go down any way compared to the initial days. World press has already started to shift attention and except for stray incidents about Suu Kyi losing one degree or another, Myanmar appears safe.

The West in general is more worried about North Korean bombs and Bangladesh –Myanmar issues are heading towards a low priority zone. Having withstood the initial global condemnation quite effectively, Myanmar is now stabilizing. It translates into dictating terms on the Rohingya matter.

*Rohingya politics and Bangladesh*
Making sure the Pope doesn’t even utter the word “Rohingya’ during his Myanmar trip was a good example of how strong Myanmar has become in the last three decades since they have been sending Rohingyas to Bangladesh. China has also backed the efforts made by Myanmar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said everyone should recognize that much progress has happened since the crisis began, which is not Bangladesh’s stand.

While the MOU is about if and how and when – many think never- Rohingyas return to Myanmar, the Bangladesh Government’s position on what will happen if they don’t return is not clear which is a distinct possibility. However, there are domestic political issues involved as well.

The domestic audience wants to hear that Rohingya refugees will return as per the MOU and for the political side of the government which is also facing an election, it can’t afford not to have a “agreement” of some sort which will make it look good.

*Real China and reality China*
Chinese Minister Wang Yi while in Dhaka said that Bangladesh was the biggest recipient of Chinese concessional financial facilities, 5 billion US dollars in 2017 alone. He also discarded the claims that China loans were too expensive. “All this loans have been provided in light of actual needs,” adding that Bangladesh should dispel such speculations.
*Also Read: Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to visit China amid Western criticism over Rohingya exodus*

Wang Yi also stated that both One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative and strengthening the BCIM (Bangladesh–China–India–Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation) were both China’s priorities.

On the Rohingya issue, Wang Yi did admit that internal problems of Myanmar were affecting Bangladesh. He also praised Bangladesh’s humanitarian role on the Rohingya issue. China’s position, he stated, was a solution that was mutually acceptable and within the bi-lateral framework.

While Wnag Yi mentioned the UN’s role in the crisis the message was clear. China is a “good friend of both” and will do the best to play a constructive role. Meaning, China is the only player that matters for the moment.

*What about India?*
India has been left out of sorts from the crisis management and given China’s economic and military clout- it’s the largest arms supplier to both Myanmar and Bangladesh- India can do little. Some sections of Indian media have expressed a bit of unhappiness about China’s big role but as some analysts say, “India is not as big as China.”

While India has a long relationship with both Bangladesh and Myanmar, the ties are at different levels. Moreover, China’s relationship is also deeper with Myanmar than India’s and though it’s close to Bangladesh, China is rapidly coming closer.

So if India is feeling left out, it really can’t do much at the moment. China is playing top dog and the Indian bark is perhaps louder than its bite.

The stakes for all the countries actually have risen due to the crisis but so has uncertainty. For the moment China and Myanmar with the MOU signed may feel they have an edge over others but the MOU has to work to make Bangladesh in general and Sk. Hasina politically look better in 2018.
*Also Read: Indian BSF pushes back Rohingyas to Bangladesh*

*If the MOU is a dud, her political priorities may push her to look for options which an unexplored West led by the US seems available. 
But that may not still include India.*

South Asia’s smaller member are also going to be more cautious about China seeing that its wide ranging interest in the region means it can’t take a particular side. The rise of expensive loans will not go away either. So how far China can travel as economies grow is a new era and 2017 seems to be crunch year in that calendar.

Bangladesh has already started to invest 270 million dollars to build a camp for a lakh of refugees which means both long term and immediate prospects are being considered. The Government will also have to reduce emerging anti- Rohingya hostility in the camp zones that may spread and cause political issues for 2018.

India will also worry if a regime change may mean a government less sympathetic to India’s transit facilities, something China may not dislike. And the Jihadist anxiety grows no matter what is said.

In other words, the Rohingya problem has left the refugee camps and entered the main space in Bangladesh and may do so in the region.
*Also Read: Pope skips Rohingya crisis in Myanmar speech*
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/30/rohingyas-politics-crisis/

*Pope’s peace and reconciliation mission to Myanmar*
Larry Jagan, November 28, 2017



*Thousands of people have lined the streets of Yangon to greet Pope Francis as he arrived in what is a momentous moment for Myanmar. The crowds were waving specially made flags which all carried the Pontiff’s key message on his mission: ‘love and peace’. *
The mood is subdued for fear of antagonizing the country’s majority Buddhist population. Everyone knows though that the Pope – effectively the leader of the world’s Christian community is visiting Myanmar.

There are mixed feelings amongst the average people – all Buddhists – as they go about their business. “He’s a man of peace, he represents peace world-wide and preaches peace,” said Win Lwin a 40-year-old taxi driver, a strong supporter of the prodemocracy party and a Buddhist. “Peace is what out country needs most,” he added. Others are more disinterested. “It’s great for the Catholics and Christians,” said a young Yangon student, Nay Aye. “But it won’t affect us.”

However in recent days there has been a vicious campaign in the country’s social media – in the Myanmar language – that remains hostile to his visit, accusing him of stirring religious tensions in the country. But the government remains convinced that the trip can only help its campaign for peace and reconciliation.
*Also Read: Why did Pope Francis drop India for Myanmar?*

Pope Francis is the world’s most senior religious leader and is on a delicate diplomatic visit. It is the first visit by a Papal leader to Myanmar, and has raised expectations that is presence and message will support the government’s approach and strategy. “The Pope is a unifying figure, preaching compassion, love and peace and his visit comes at a decisive moment,” Denzel Abel, a Myanmar intellectual, former diplomat and a Catholic told the SAM. “He has a charismatic presence, and will certainly galvanize people.

Many hope he can help spur support for Aung San Suu Kyi at a very critical time for her government. Violence in the country’s western region of Northern Rakhine has led to more than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing across the border into neighboring Bangladesh in the wake of a military crackdown that Washington has called “ethnic cleansing”.

International human rights groups have accused the Myanmar army of “crimes against humanity”: including murder, rape, torture and forcible dislocation; allegations that the Myanmar military denies. These groups are hoping that the Pope will be able to highlight the plight of the Rohingya during his combined visit to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, which ends in Dhaka next Saturday. They are also pushing him to try to end the deadly violence against the largely stateless Muslims.

There have been concerns that the religious leader might use the highly contentious term ‘Rohingya’. It is not recognized by the authorities, who insist they are ‘Bengalis’, to indicate they are from Myanmar but trespassers from Bangladesh. The Pope has called them Rohingya in the past, when he urged the Myanmar authorities to end to the violent persecution of the minority Muslim population. But he is likely to avoid the term on this visit, according to sources close to the Vatican.

“We have asked him at least to refrain from using the word ‘Rohingya’ because this word is very much contested and not acceptable to the military, nor the government, nor to most people in Myanmar,” the Catholic Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Bo told the Bangkok Post in an interview last week, after he had returned from Rome, where he briefed the Pope.
*Also Read: Hindu groups raise conversion controversy ahead of pope’s Asia visit*

The symbolism of the visit is important and the poster welcoming Pipe Francis is highly significant, suggested Denzil Abel. On one side there is Myanmar’s flag and on the other the Pope holding a dove – the international symbol of peace – under the slogan ‘love and peace’. In a video message sent to Myanmar last week, Pope Francis said he wanted the trip to lead to “reconciliation, forgiveness and peace” as well as encourage harmony and cooperation.

The Pope is the second most important leader to visit Myanmar, according to many diplomats in Yangon, after the President of the United States. “The Pope is one of the most respected moral voices in the world today, and therefore his visit is even more significant, coming as it does when Myanmar faces so many problems” said Denzil Abel.

Christianity in Myanmar is over 500 years old, and the Pope’s visit, according to many in the Catholic flock will strengthen recognition and understanding of the institution. It will show the shared Christian and Buddhist’s vision of compassion, he added.

The visit is also highly significant as it comes at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi and her government are facing increasing international pressure to resolve the communal conflict in Rakhine, end the violence and tackle the plight of the Muslim refugees. She has pinned her hopes of a solution on the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Advisory Commission, announced at the end of August, after a year-long investigation.

But immediately after the announcement, increased violence erupted, as a result of insurgent attacks on some thirty police border posts. Now the government is faced with the task of repatriating over half a million refugees from Bangladesh, rebuilding their homes and trying to improve communal relations, between the local Buddhist Arakanese and the Rohingya Muslims. The reconciliation strategy envisaged by the State Counselor, was announced when she launched the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine, which she chairs herself.

As part of this strategy – and in an effort to stimulate support in the country for government’s Rakhine reconstruction and reconciliation process – Aung San Suu Kyi launched a series of inter-faith meetings throughout the country. These prayer meetings for peace were held during October, initially with the Buddhist monks participating. At the meeting in Yangon, the country’s Catholic leader played a prominent role. Through these, Aung San Suu Kyi hoped not only to improve the situation in Rakhine, but strengthen the whole peace process, according to government insiders.

In her public address to the whole nation, she emphasized Buddhist values. “I have no doubt that all of them [the people of Myanmar here and abroad] will come forth to help us with Metta (loving kindness) and Thitsa (Truth).” The aim was to mobilize the nation behind the Buddhist tenets of love and kindness, and to wrestle Buddhism out of the hands of extremists, according to an advisor involved in the speech.

But the military, and the Buddhist clergy, may have misunderstood this approach. “She looks like she wants to promote other religions above Buddhism,” a former senior military officer reflected.

And the leaders of the Buddhist faith have taken umbrage, at what they saw as a slight against the monks who participate in the ceremonies. Monks were not on present on the stage, but sat at the front near the stage, which was seen as a sign of disrespect. Recently the 47-member Ma Ha Na – the highest official Buddhist authority in the country – recently banned monks from participating in all future interfaith gatherings. This was to prevent this unintended snub enflaming the passions of Buddhists, a devout Buddhist explained to me.
*Also Read: High hopes and expectations over pope’s visit to Bangladesh*

“Aung San Suu Kyi – as will Pope during his visit – is promoting harmony, love and peace: the appreciation of diversity, and focusing on conciliation,” said Cardinal Bo. Fears that the Pope may inadvertently enflame religious tensions seem to be misplaced. “The Pope doesn’t want to anger any community, and is concerned not to divide or polarize,” Cardinal Bo added. “This would not help the situation: this is not the solution.”

But not all Myanmar Christians are as enthusiastic as the Archbishop in his support fot Myanmar’s civilian leader. “This over enthusiastic support could cause divisions within the wider Christian community — especially the Baptist communities like the Kachin, whose support for Aung San Suu Kyi is at its lowest ever point, given her perceived neglect and indifference to their suffering and persecution,” Seng Raw, a Kachin activist and civil society leader told SAM. “In short it does not support the peace process.”

This is not a view shared by most Catholics who strongly believe that the Pope’s visit will have a positive affect, with its emphasis on unity. This is the reason he is also meeting the army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing – at Cardinal Bo’s suggestion. But Seng Raw also hopes that “Pope Francis’s clear moral leadership — that is lacking in the leaders of this country – will inspire everyone to be more compassionate.”

Aung San Suu is meeting his holiness when he flies to the capital Nayyidaw. This is the second time the two have met. Aung San Suu Kyi at earlier in the year, at which time she invited him to visit. After near two decades of trying, diplomatic relations were established between the Vatican and Myanmar in May this year. The Pope it is understood was anxious to strengthen their ties with a personal visit. But one, which shows his commitment to peace and the plight of the poor, Cardinal Bo told SAM.

There is no doubt that Aung San Suu Kyi wants the Pope’s visit to highlight her governments efforts prioritize peace. Activists working on the peace process and Rakhine reconciliation are hoping that the visit may produce some tangible results, and not remain purely symbolic. The Vatican could involve its good offices to provide concrete support for the process, in much the same way the UN did in the past, mediating between the military and Aung San Suu Kyi, while she was under house arrest. This would keep international support apolitical and may help in finding a solid solution, especially to the problems in Rakhine.
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/11/28/popes-peace-reconciliation-mission-myanmar/


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## Banglar Bir

*Clash between AA, Myanmar army intensifying near Bangladesh, India border*
SAM Report, December 1, 2017




*Arakan Army fighters. Photo: Arakan Army/Facebook
The ongoing clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan Army (AA) are likely to intensify in the coming days, said Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the AA, alleging that the Myanmar Army recently launched a large-scale assault utilizing more than 30 battalions in Chin’s State Paletwa Township near Bangladesh, India border.*

On November 29, he said, there were clashes in six places for the whole day and the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army) used two helicopters to attack.

“Fierce clashes are ongoing in Paletwa at the border of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Clashes are quite fierce, and the Tatmadaw suffered casualties,” Khaing Thukha said.

“If they continue fighting like this, we will inevitably have to defend ourselves, and the clashes will only intensify,” he added.

The AA has suffered at least five casualties and some injuries in clashes that broke out in early November, said Khaing Thukha, suggesting that the Tatmadaw might have suffered many more casualties and injuries.

He refused to disclose, for security reasons, when the AA started its military activities in Paletwa.

Around 350 Paletwa locals fled across the border to India out of fear after the Tatmadaw bombed AA troops on Wednesday evening, said U Pinnya Jota, a Buddhist monk living in India.

The monk told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, there are now around 2,000 Paletwa residents taking shelter at the border in India including some 1,500 people who fled last week.

“Arakanese villages are providing as much aid as they can. The Indian government has given some rice to them. Around 350 people arrived yesterday [Nov. 29]. They fled after [the Tatmadaw] bombed, around 4:30 p.m. yesterday,” said U Pinnya Jota.

Military leaders have repeatedly said that the Tatmadaw would not hold peace talks with the AA unless it disarmed because it was established only after Myanmar had elected a quasi-civilian government, under former President U Thein Sen in 2011. 

The AA, which took part in fighting by allying with Kachin, Ta’ang and Kokang troops in the Kachin Independence Army controlled areas in northern and northeastern Myanmar, has said its troops have been mobilized since 2009.

Locals speculated that the Tatmadaw’s ongoing attacks were retaliation after it lost 11 troops—two officers and nine other ranks—in an AA ambush on Nov. 18 in Chin State’s Paletwa Township.

According to the AA, clashes have been ongoing near Myeik Wa, [a border village near India], since Nov. 25, and there were also clashes at the triangle area at the border of Myanmar, Bangladesh and India on Wednesday.

The AA said it seized two 60 mm launchers, 70 pieces of 60 mm mortar shells, some ammunition and military equipment of the Tatmadaw in clashes on Wednesday.
SOURCE THE IRRAWADDY
https://southasianmonitor.com/2017/...my-intensifying-near-bangladesh-india-border/


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, November 28, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:36 PM, November 28, 2017
*ROHINGYA REPATRIATION AGREEMENT*
*Hope for the best, prepare for the worst*




Many of the houses in the Rohingya refugee camps are built on the sides of hills and small ravines, making them susceptible to landslides because of rain. Photo: Rashed Shumon
Maya Barolo-Rizvi
*Amidst widespread international outcry and faced with the strong diplomatic stance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Myanmar government has been persuaded to repatriate the Rohingya refugees, according to an agreement reached between the two countries late last week*. 
Experts, however, are not optimistic, as the criteria for the repatriation of the Rohingyas is yet to be worked out by the Joint Working Group.* The United Nations is not directly involved and the agreement does not have the guarantee of the international community.*

If the Rohingyas are able to return to their homes with an agreed process that would lead to their full citizenship, the world can breathe a sigh of relief and move on. Bangladesh will have shown its humanitarian commitment and acted as a leader on the global stage, showcasing our values of plurality, tolerance and openness. 

However, as the experience of the repatriation of refugees across the globe has shown, the process is often uncertain and slow. *The Rohingyas who came to Bangladesh in 1992 are yet to be repatriated*. In the case that the Rohingya repatriation is not as speedy as one might wish, we must begin to expand the scope of relief efforts beyond the immediate term.

There is only six months to go till the next monsoon season, when many of the houses in the Rohingya refugee camp—built on the sides of hills and small ravines—will slide away because of rain. Before that, winter will come and with already existing fuel shortages, families will struggle to stay warm. Cyclone season will follow, and with it will come waterborne diseases and the risk of pandemics.

Camp administrators and relief agencies are struggling to meet the immediate needs of the refugees and it is only natural that food, shelter, sanitation, health and security are the first priorities. There are over 200,000 school-age children and it is imperative that going forward relief efforts include arrangements for the provision of education.

It is understandable that the government has shied away from looking beyond providing immediate humanitarian relief for fear that it might be misconstrued in Myanmar as a signal that Bangladesh is prepared to keep the Rohingya for the long haul. For that reason, perhaps formal education does not feature in the discourse. 

Moreover, given the recent diplomatic agreement, investing in the development of the refugees may on the surface seem to be a waste, if the Rohingyas are on the verge of returning home. If that turns out to be the case, all we would have lost is some effort, time and money, which is a far better proposition than looking back in retrospect—if the process takes longer than expected—regretting that we could have and should have invested in sustainable developmental opportunities.

A more considered response would be to see this humanitarian disaster also as a developmental opportunity. The international community has the chance to invest in the future of a people that have been historically excluded and marginalised. Along with the children's future, aid agencies must also consider the situation of the thousands of women whose husbands have been killed, leaving them as the primary breadwinners of the family.

When they return to Myanmar, these women will be the heads of their households but are completely unequipped for the task. Investing in skills development and vocational training with which they can support their families will not only help the Rohingya women in the short-run but will be a tool for development within their community and eventually in the Rakhine state.

Development initiatives however must go beyond the camps and into the surrounding areas. The local community in Cox's Bazar has been remarkably hospitable; ordinary people have demonstrated extraordinary charitable instincts as well as an impressive ability to adapt to a huge influx of outsiders. But it has not come without its challenges.

Given the huge demographic shift—estimates say that for every 10 people, there are now seven refugees to three Bangladeshis—the cost of living has increased several folds and there is often a scarcity of consumer goods in the market. Both the civil administration and aid agencies have recognised the importance of ensuring that the needs of the local population are not neglected.

Of course, fear remains that the refugees may not want to return to Myanmar. So long as there is lack of safety, it is neither likely that they will return nor should we force them to. But experience shows that when conditions improve and safety returns, no one wants to live in a foreign land, especially under such dire conditions. 

In 1971, following the end of the Liberation War, 10 million Bangladeshis returned in days, rather than weeks, and without any assistance nearly everyone found his or her own way home. We can be sure that once the Myanmar government creates the necessary conditions in the Rakhine state, the Rohingya will return home.

*The Rohingya influx is not the result of a sudden policy change of the Myanmar government. Nor is it the result of the supposed ARSA attacks on Myanmar security forces, which took place after the Rohingya exodus began. The eviction was a systematic, brutal and deliberate attempt to rid Myanmar of an unwanted ethnic group.*

As the US recently acknowledged, it was ethnic cleansing—and nothing short of a war crime. If the world community fails to respond adequately to this situation, minorities in every plural society in the world will be left at the mercy of majority communities. The National Human Rights Commission should use the interim period to document and record the human rights violations and prepare individual case histories. If in the future the international community wants to convene a war crimes tribunal to bring the perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing to trial, this documentation will be necessary.

Bangladesh's own experience as refugees and of genocide in 1971 has perhaps sensitised us to the needs of the Rohingyas. The PM's response to the Rohingya refugee crisis showed remarkable compassion as well as political bravery. 

No less worthy of praise is the civil administration and the tireless, dedicated effort of the international agencies and non-governmental organisations, which have worked together to avert what could have been one of the 21st century's greatest humanitarian disasters. And the exceptional hospitality of the local Cox's Bazar community has been an inspiration to the world.

The recent agreement between Dhaka and Naypyidaw is a success. We should all be optimistic about the bilateral agreement but we should not lose sight of the reality on the ground. The repatriation of refugees is a long and tedious process and much will need to be done before the Rakhine state is safe for the Rohingyas to return.

There is still a chance that the overwhelming international reaction and Aung San Suu Kyi's meteoric fall from grace may stir the Myanmar government into action, but we cannot afford to abandon our efforts now and, in fact, must begin to plan for the medium, if not long-term.
Maya Barolo-Rizvi is the country director of Humane Society Int
http://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/hope-the-best-prepare-the-worst-1497301

2:00 AM, December 02, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:36 AM, December 02, 2017
*'The presence of God today is also called Rohingya'*
*Pope meets refugees at interfaith gathering, asks for forgiveness*




Pope Francis waves to Bangladeshi Christians as he arrives to lead mass in Dhaka yesterday. The pope arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar on Thursday for the second stage of a visit that has been overshadowed by the plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees. Photo: AFP
Star Report
*For the first time on his Asia tour, Pope Francis referred to the Rohingya people by name yesterday and assured them of continued support so that they can get their rights back.*
"The presence of God today is also called Rohingya," the Pope said during an interfaith meeting at Kakrail Catholic Church where leaders of different communities prayed for religious harmony and global peace.

He also urged the world not to ignore refugees, persecuted minorities, the poor and vulnerable.

"How much our world needs this heart to beat strongly, to counter the virus of political corruption, destructive religious ideologies, and the temptation to turn a blind eye to the needs of the poor, refugees, persecuted minorities, and those who are most vulnerable," he said.




Pope Francis prays with Rohingya refugees during an interreligious meeting in Dhaka yesterday. Photo: Reuters, BSS
The highest spiritual leader of the Catholics met 16 Rohingyas -- 12 men, two women and two children -- who were brought to the cathedral premises with approval from the government and under the supervision of Caritas Bangladesh.

He heard the Rohingyas, held their hands and touched them as they walked to the dais one by one and shared their experiences in brief.

Among them was Shawkat Ara, a 12-year-old Rohingya orphan, who broke down in tears shortly after the pope spoke to her and gently touched her head.

She fled to Bangladesh after losing her entire family in an attack by the military in Myanmar.

"Your tragedy is very hard, very big. We give you space in our hearts," said the pontiff, who arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday afternoon following a three-day visit to Myanmar.

"In the name of all those who persecute you, who have persecuted you, those who have hurt you, above all for the indifference of the world, I ask for forgiveness, forgiveness." Francis said in improvised comments.

"Many of you talked to me about the great heart of Bangladesh, which offered you refuge. Now I appeal to your heart to give us the forgiveness we are asking from you," he told the group of refugees.




The pontiff receives a gift from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Photo: Reuters, BSS
He also assured them of his support, saying, "We will not close our hearts for you."

Earlier this year from the Vatican, the pope twice defended the Rohingyas by name, once saying that they had been "tortured, killed simply because they wanted to live their culture and their Muslim faith".

The pope's avoidance of the word, Rohingya, in Myanmar was an issue of dismay of the rights activists who termed the atrocities of Myanmar security forces against the minority group as ethnic cleansing, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The authorities in Myanmar reject the term Rohingya. Many in the Buddhist-dominated country regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Fleeing widespread persecution, over 636,000 Rohingyas crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August 25. Another four lakh had arrived in the previous years.




Rides a rickshaw, Photo: Reuters, BSS
*'OPENNESS OF HEART'*
Pope Francis arrived at the programme venue of the Kakrail Catholic Church on a rickshaw at 4:30pm amid huge applauds and a Bangla song welcoming a religious leader who is known for championing the rights of refugee. 

As the pope took his seat on the dais, wearing a white cassock, the programme began with the national anthem of Bangladesh.

Addressing the unique function that was featured by musical and dance performances by artistes from Banglee as well as Khasia, Santal, Oraon and Mandi communities, Pope Francis said it was a "highly significant moment in my visit to Bangladesh".

“For we have gathered to deepen our friendship and to express our shared desire for the gift of genuine and lasting peace.”

He told the gathering of some six thousand people that the meeting is a clear sign of the efforts of religious leaders and followers to live together with mutual respect and good will.




Meets a Rohingya girl. Photo: Reuters, BSS
In Bangladesh, where the right to religious freedom is a founding principle, this commitment stands as a subtle yet firm rebuke to those who would seek to foment division, hatred and violence in the name of religion, he added.

“It is a particularly gratifying sign of our times that believers and all people of good will feel increasingly called to cooperate in shaping a culture of encounter, dialogue and cooperation in the service of our human family.”

However, it entails more than mere tolerance, he said.

“It challenges us to cultivate an openness of heart that views others as an avenue, not a barrier."

He said “openness of heart” is the condition for a culture of encounter and compared it to a door, which enables communities to embark on a dialogue of life, not a mere exchange of ideas.

Openness is engaging fruitfully with another and sharing distinct religious and cultural identity, but always with humility, honesty and respect, he added.

The pope said openness of heart is likewise a path that leads to the pursuit of goodness, justice and solidarity. It leads to seeking the good of our neighbours.

"Religious concern for the welfare of our neighbour, streaming from an open heart, flows outward like a vast river, to quench the dry and parched wastelands of hatred, corruption, poverty and violence that so damage human lives, tear families apart, and disfigure the gift of creation.”

He said Bangladesh's different religious communities have embraced this path in a particular way by their commitment to the care of the earth and by their response to the natural disasters that have beset the nation in recent years.

He said he too thinks of the common outpouring of grief, prayer and solidarity that accompanied the tragic collapse of Rana Plaza, which remains fresh in the minds of all.

"In this these various ways, we see a clear confirmation that how the path of goodness leads to cooperation in the service of others."

The 80-year-old Roman Catholic leader has frequently sought to influence a world he sees as indifferent to the plight of refugees forced to leave their homelands, whether through poverty or conflict.

Last year he took three Syrian families, all Muslim, back to the Vatican after visiting them on the Greek island of Lesbos, a hotspot for asylum seekers.

He has praised Bangladesh for giving refuge to the Rohingya, who have brought with them stories of horrific abuse at the hands of the Myanmar military and local Buddhist mobs, including rape, arson and murder.

Earlier in the day, the pope led a giant open-air mass in Dhaka attended by around 100,000 Bangladeshi Catholics who sang hymns in Bengali and chanted "viva il papa" ("long live the pope") as he was driven through the crowd in an open-sided popemobile.

There he ordained 16 priests.

"I feel like I am blessed to join the pope's prayers," said 60-year-old widow Pronita Mra, who had travelled from her village in northeastern Bangladesh.

"I hope the pope will pray for peace and harmony among all communities in Bangladesh."

*THE MESSAGE OF PEACE*
Addressing the interfaith gathering on behalf of the civil society, Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman said Bangladesh was founded based on the principle of equality for all, but unfortunately religious and ethnic minorities sometimes face oppression.

The veteran educationalist thanked Pope Francis for supporting Rohingyas, and expected that this support would facilitate a solution so that the refugees can return home.

Speaking on behalf of the Muslim community, Maulana Farid Uddin Masud said the whole world is now plagued by violence and clashes among religious groups and nations.

"We are inspired by the way Pope Francis is working for peace," he said and vowed to fight against extremism and all other ills.

He hoped that with the support of pope, who is both a spiritual and a political leader, there will be a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis.

Swami Drubeshananda, who spoke on behalf of Hindus, said different religions originated in different times, but all of them speak for human welfare.

He thanked the pope for visiting Bangladesh with the message of peace.

Buddhist community leader Shanghanayak Shuddhananada Mohathero prayed for a stronger fraternity among religious and ethnic groups in Bangladesh.

Besides, he demanded Myanmar take back the Rohingyas protecting their dignity and rights.

Cardinal Patrick D' Rozario, archbishop of Dhaka, said Bangladesh is one of the best examples of religious harmony.

He called for continuing efforts to foster dialogues among all religious and ethnic groups to build a prosperous and peaceful Bangladesh.

Theophil Nisharan Nokrek, from the Catholic community, said people of all religions and ethnicities in Bangladesh live peacefully, but sometimes "bad politics" leads to violence.

He called for more dialogue among different communities.

Bishop Paul Shishir Sarker, from the protestant church, prayed for peace on the occasion. "There is corruption, immorality and poverty among us. Lord, please give us strength so that we can fight these menaces."

Foreign diplomats, including US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat and Indian High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla, were present at the programme.
[With inputs from CNN, AFP and Reuters]
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...he-presence-god-today-called-rohingya-1499239


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Voices from Inside the Rohingya Refugee Camps*




Maung Zarni poses with a Rohingya gentleman and a former leader in the Ruling Burma Socialist Party.
_By_ Matthew Gindin
Tricycle
November 28, 2017
*Burmese Buddhist and pro-democracy activist Maung Zarni recounts two days he spent in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in early November.*
"A young boy showed me his gunshot wound,” Maung Zarni tells me over the telephone. “Everyone had lost a loved one.”

Zarni, a Burmese human rights activist and academic, recently came back from spending two days in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in early November, where he met with about two dozen survivors of the ethnic cleansing campaign against them by the Myanmar government. It is a campaign some are calling genocide. “I call them survivors, not displaced persons or refugees,” Zarni says.

The horrors Zarni heard of there have been thoroughly documented by others. According to an interview that researcher Skye Wheeler gave to Human Rights Watch, following a report she wrote on the systematic use of sexual violence against the Rohingya for the same organization, “People said their villages were surrounded, and then the shooting started, with soldiers launching what we think were some kind of rocket-propelled grenades and setting roofs on fire.

Soldiers shot villagers as they fled. They pushed others into burning houses. In other villages, people were gathered together, and then women were raped, and men were shot or beaten. Almost all the rapes I documented were gang rapes.” The report continues, outlining the emotional and physical pain of women walking tens of miles into Bangladesh with swollen and torn genitals.




A young Rohingya girl in a displaced person’s camp demonstrates how her hands were tied behind her while she was raped; one of her fingers was cut off for resisting.

Zarni, who has dedicated the last several years to drawing international attention to the plight of the Rohingya, pointed to two interviews in particular that filled him both with grief and a renewed commitment to international activism on behalf of the Rohingya.
“I spoke to one Rohingya man who had been made a village administrator in Myanmar due to his eighth-grade education. In Myanmar 80 percent of adult Rohingya are illiterate. The Burmese government deprives them of nutrients for the intellect, medicine for health, food for the body. He answered to Rakhine Buddhist overseers, who in turn answered to the Burmese military.

In 2016 when the military attacked the villages, they had focused on maiming and killing the men, so this time when the military came the men were prepared, and they fled into hiding as much as they could. The Tatmadaw (Burmese military) had changed their strategy, however. This time they employed systematic violence against women and children and the burning of villages to the ground, so that when the men fled it did no good. First, they raped, killed, or expelled the women and children. Then they hunted down the men.

“So when this man fled into the forest,” said Zarni, “the military set fire to his home, where his wife and infant son were inside, hoping to wait out the violence. While he hid in the bushes, he saw his home burn down with his loved ones inside it. He was so angry and in so much pain when he spoke to me. He walked for two hours to come to be heard.”

“The second interview was with a Rohingya woman,” Zarni said. “She told me that her younger sister, who is 16 years old, was dragged into a hut by a group of Burmese soldiers wearing red scarves around their necks while she watched from a hiding place, clutching her baby. They tied up the sister with her hands above her head. Any woman who was captured was stripped naked and raped, and this in a culture where modesty is to a fault. The sister had beautiful long hair. She saw the soldiers cutting her sister’s hair with a knife as they were raping her. Their father, an old man, realized that his younger daughter was in the house being attacked, so he attempted to run to the house. She saw her father shot dead from behind as he ran; they shot him in the head.

One of the soldiers came over and stuck his fingers into the broken skull, then tossed bits of brain to the chickens free-ranging in the yard.”

The Rohingya, who have been called “the world’s most persecuted minority,” have fled Myanmar in large numbers several times in the last decades. Starting in late August, at least 600,000 fled Myanmar after the military began a ruthlessly violent campaign against Rohingya civilians in reprisal for an attack against Burmese security forces by a small band of Rohingya militants.

The attack followed decades of state-sanctioned discrimination against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where they have lived under oppressive conditions since the government passed a citizenship act in the 1980s that left most Rohingya stateless and without civil rights.

“We anticipated it was going to be a very emotional trip,” said Zarni, who was accompanied by his wife, Natalie, and younger daughter, Nilah. “I didn’t anticipate that the first thing I felt when I met with a group of women was a sense of deep guilt.

These were the people that my own had wronged so horribly. Although I have committed myself to speaking out on this issue for the last six years or so, every day I still feel that I too am responsible and that I have failed. I couldn’t bring myself to say more through the Rohingya interpreter than ‘can you please tell them I am Burmese, I am Buddhist, and I am really sorry.’ All of the sudden I was unable to speak I was so choked up inside.”

“The stories I heard, they were from maybe 25 people,” Zarni said. “There are 600,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh with stories like that.”

A native of Myanmar and the founder of the pro-democracy Free Burma Coalition, Zarni is now based in the UK, where he has left academia to work full-time on human rights issues. Zarni has been in exile from Myanmar for 29 years, with the exception of a three-year period when he was working on negotiations to end the military-ruled country’s international isolation. Zarni’s own story is heartwrenching.

“I became a pro-democracy activist while at school in the United States,” he explains, “and after that, I could not safely return to Myanmar. I cut off all ties with my family there for many years to protect them.”

When Zarni’s father became ill, Zarni offered to get him to Thailand to receive better treatment. “I don’t need better medical treatment,” his father said. “I need to see you before I die. That will make me feel better.” His father died nine days later without seeing his son.

“I fought for Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom,” said Zarni, ”but when I saw, years ago, that she was not truly committed to human rights for all I began openly criticizing her. I had hoped when she came into power I could return to Myanmar, but now that she has failed to do anything for the Rohingya and has even actively aided their persecution, I have become a critic of the current administration as well, and so again I am persona non grata in Myanmar.”




September 2017 article on Maung Zarni

Zarni is not exaggerating. Major Burmese newspapers have run front page headlines calling him an “enemy of the state,” and Burmese social media sites are awash with claims that he is a terrorist sympathizer and an academic fraud who holds a fake Ph.D.

Zarni grew up in a military family and says that he himself absorbed his country’s ethnic nationalism and racism as a child. “Undoing my racism has been a long process,” said Zarni, who credits his wife, Natalie, for introducing him to the plight of the Rohingya and challenging his untreated Burmese chauvinism. “I am still rewiring myself as a Buddhist.”

Meanwhile, the plight of the Rohingya continues. On November 23, a deal was reached between Myanmar and Bangladesh for the repatriation of several hundred thousand refugees. Despite calling for significant involvement from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the UN, which was not consulted in the making of the agreement, has expressed opposition to the deal.

“At present, conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns. Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm. Some have witnessed the deaths of family members and friends. Most have little or nothing to go back to, their homes and villages destroyed. Deep divisions between communities remain unaddressed. And humanitarian access in northern Rakhine State remains negligible,” said Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at a press briefing on Friday.

Several activists have expressed concern that those Rohingya who choose to return may be interned in Myanmar camps in a repetition of the fate of many Rohingya who were repatriated in 2012 following a similar crisis, despite assurances from the government that such internment would be “temporary.”

Zarni, speaking to _Tricycle_ after the signing of the deal, was unimpressed.
Pointing to the waves of “genocidal activity” against the Rohingya since 1978, Zarni said, “Repatriation is simply a tactical move to get the world off its back.”
*Matthew Gindin* is a freelance journalist and educator who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. A former Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest tradition, he has taught meditation in various contexts for over a decade. He is the author of _Everyone In Love: The Beautiful Theology of Rav Yehuda Ashlag_.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/11/voices-from-inside-rohingya-refugee.html

07:15 PM, December 01, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 09:51 PM, December 01, 2017
*Pope calls refugees 'Rohingya' after emotional meeting in Dhaka*




Pope Francis attends an inter-religious conference at St Mary’s Cathedral in Dhaka, December 1, 2017. Reuters

AFP, Dhaka
*Pope Francis referred to refugees who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh as "Rohingya" on Friday, using the politically sensitive name for the persecuted minority for the first time on an Asia tour dominated by their plight after meeting some of them in Dhaka.*
In a brief but strongly worded speech that followed an emotional encounter with a small group of the refugees who have fled to Bangladesh, he asked for forgiveness for all that the Rohingya have suffered "in the face of the world's indifference".

"Today the presence of God is also called Rohingya," the pope said on the sidelines of a gathering with the leaders of different faiths in Dhaka.

"Your tragedy is very hard, very great, but it has a place in our hearts. In the name of all those who have persecuted you, who have harmed you, in the face of the world's indifference, I ask for your forgiveness."

More than 620,000 Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh in the last three months, fleeing a violent military crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing.

Among those the pope met was Shawkat Ara, a 12-year-old Rohingya orphan who broke down in tears shortly after the pope spoke to her and gently touched her head.

"My parents were killed. I don’t have any joy," she told AFP, saying she had lost her entire family in an attack by the military in Myanmar.

Pope Francis is known for championing the rights of refugees and has repeatedly expressed his support for the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority whom he has described as his "brothers and sisters".

But the usually forthright pontiff walked a diplomatic tightrope during his four days in Myanmar -- the first ever papal visit to the country -- avoiding any direct reference to the ethnic cleansing allegations in public while appealing to Buddhist leaders to overcome "prejudice and hatred".

Hours after arriving in Bangladesh he addressed the issue head-on, calling for "decisive" international measures to address the "grave crisis".

But as in Myanmar, he avoided using the term "Rohingya", drawing criticism from some rights activists and refugees.

The word is politically sensitive in mainly Buddhist Myanmar because many there refuse to see the Rohingya as a distinct ethnic group.

*- Religious freedom -*
The 80-year-old Roman Catholic leader has frequently sought to influence a world he sees as indifferent to the plight of refugees forced to leave their homelands, whether through poverty or conflict.

Last year he took three Syrian families, all Muslim, back to the Vatican after visiting them on the Greek island of Lesbos, a hotspot for asylum seekers.

He has praised Bangladesh for giving refuge to the Rohingya, who have brought with them stories of horrific abuse at the hands of the Myanmar military and local Buddhist mobs, including rape, arson and murder.

Earlier the pope led a giant open-air mass in Dhaka attended by around 100,000 Bangladeshi Catholics who sang hymns in Bengali and chanted "viva il papa" ("long live the pope") as he was driven through the crowd in an open-sided popemobile.

Bangladesh has a tiny Christian population but they turned out in large numbers for Friday's service, many having queued for hours to get into the park.

Some 4,000 police and security forces were deployed for the mass in the mainly Muslim country, which has suffered a number of attacks on religious minorities by Islamist extremists in recent years.

"I feel like I am blessed to join the Pope's prayers," said 60-year-old widow Pronita Mra, who had travelled from her village in northeastern Bangladesh.

"I'll pray for my late husband and parents so that they go to heaven. I hope the Pope will pray for peace and harmony among all communities in Bangladesh."

Christians make up less than 0.5 percent of officially secular Bangladesh's population of 160 million and community leaders say it has become more difficult to practise their faith openly.

But speaking to Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu leaders, Francis praised the country's commitment to religious freedom, which he said "stands as a subtle yet firm rebuke to those who would seek to foment division, hatred and violence in the name of religion".
http://www.thedailystar.net/city/dh...s-refugees-prays-their-return-myanmar-1499128


----------



## Banglar Bir

*China, Myanmar hail close ties amid Rohingya outcry*
Reuters
Published at 10:51 PM December 01, 2017




Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at the opening ceremony of the "CPC in dialogue with world political parties high-level meeting, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Friday; December 1, 2017 *Reuters*
*'The (Communist) Party and the Chinese government will continue their policy of friendship towards Myanmar,' Xi told Suu Kyi during their meeting.*

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Aung San Suu Kyi touted their nations’ close ties on Friday as Myanmar’s civilian leader, under fire over the Rohingya refugee crisis, visited Beijing on Friday.

Suu Kyi was in friendly territory in China and neither she nor Xi publicly mentioned the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority group as they met in the Chinese capital.

“The (Communist) Party and the Chinese government will, as in the past, continue their policy of friendship towards Myanmar,” Xi told Suu Kyi during their meeting, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Suu Kyi, who took office in 2015 after five decades of military dictatorship, gave a speech later during a meeting of world parties hosted by the Chinese Communist Party.

“China and Myanmar are committed to creating closer ties,” she said, adding that the founding goals of the CCP — “happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” — and those of her National League for Democracy party are “not that dissimilar”.

The UN and US say the Rohingya are victims of an ethnic cleansing campaign by Myanmar’s military that has sent 620,000 of them fleeing into Bangladesh since late August.

Rohingya refugees have recounted widespread cases of rape, murder and arson at the hands of Myanmar’s military and Buddhist mobs.

Myanmar’s army insists its crackdown has been proportionate and targeted only at Rohingya rebels.

“Although Myanmar is not yet among the rich and powerful nations of the world, we are ambitious,” Suu Kyi said at the CCP gathering.

“Our ambition is to become a responsible member of the international community, willing and able to contribute to its peace and friendship throughout the world.”

Myanmar has received unflinching support from China, which has invested billions on ports, gas and oil in Rakhine — including a $2.45 billion pipeline that opened in April.

Xi met with Myanmar’s powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing in Beijing last week.

Last month, strong Chinese opposition forced the UN Security Council to drop plans to adopt a resolution demanding an end to the violence.

*Beijing has presented its own proposal to resolve the crisis with a ceasefire, refugee repatriation and poverty alleviation.*

Bangladesh and Myanmar have reached a deal to begin returning refugees in two months.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/asia/2017/12/01/china-myanmar-rohingya-outcry/

*Rohingya issue: Bangladesh caught in its short-sightedness*
Published: 00:05, Nov 29,2017 | Updated: 01:15, Nov 29,2017 





*




WHY no one seems to be too enthusiastic about the recently signed MoU between Bangladesh and Myanmar on Rohingya repatriation is best explained when our foreign minister says that it has been drafted as Myanmar desired. He added that Bangladesh is happy that Myanmar has agreed to take some of them back.*
But Myanmar may be comfortable that the heat will be low now after the MoU and, of course, it can send more refugees any time and Bangladesh can do little about it. Rohingya situation/status has not changed since 1977 and Bangladesh remains at the mercy of Myanmar’s political will.

The facilitator appears to be China who was beginning to feel the heat internationally and knew that at some point of time, the United States might offer something to Bangladesh or do something that could make China uncomfortable.

China’s stake in Myanmar is high and it can still call the shots there and that is what mattered in the end. It came to Bangladesh and reduced the multi-lateral directions that Bangladesh was being forced to take and made it firmly bilateral under Chinese supervision. It was what both China and Myanmar had wanted knowing from the past that Bangladesh’s capacity to diplomatically handle the Rohingya on its own is limited.
*Does the MoU mean much?*
THE MoU basically takes the heat off Myanmar and gives China more space to pursue OBOR and other economic priorities. But it leaves Bangladesh as vulnerable as before. Given that the MoU follows the 1992 framework closely, the flaws of that one remains. It appears hurriedly cobbled together but as pro-Bangladesh government analysts are saying, It is a beginning at least.

A critical part of the MoU say, only those who came after the alleged ARSA attack will qualify to be considered for repatriation. By doing so, Bangladesh has endorsed the Myanmar, China and Russian position that all of this was due to Rohingya insurgency and not Myanmar army activities.

This also means that the Rohingya refugees before the alleged attack have lost the right to return as the MoU specifically denies/ignores the existence of any such people making the return of all Rohingyas impossible. Thus, about 4,00,00 are now here to stay as Myanmar wanted. It also relieves itself of any accusation that an ethnic cleansing took place.

Ethnic cleansing was actually used by the United Nations which has said that the situation in Myanmar is not fit for the refugees to return. Our media also report that most Rohingyas now in the camps are also not willing to return either. Where does the situation go from here now?
*Will refugees return if they at all go back?*
IT IS certainly not in favour of the refugees because they are not even a party to the discussion. It is an MoU between Myanmar, which does not recognise the Rohingyas as its citizens, and Bangladesh, which does not accept them as refugees. In this strange quandary, the Rohingyas have no role to play. They are not just victims but invisible too.

But several issues have been mentioned regarding their return to Myanmar which may mean that this is just a time-buyer and another deluge is possible in future. This is apart from the fact that many may not be able to prove their status as residents of Myanmar as mentioned in the MoU.

The 1993 term was vague on their status and the citizenship or associate citizenship is not about to be returned to them; so, even if they do return, they will be housed in temporary shelters and camps which many fear will be used to coerce them again. In that case, what guarantee is there that they will not escape back to Bangladesh? Commenting on the MoU, the Australian web site ‘Conversation’ which has covered the issue since the crisis says:

‘The idea of voluntary return stems from a 1993 agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, under which those Rohingyas who can prove their identity must fill in forms with the names of family members, their previous address in Myanmar, their date of birth, and a disclaimer that they are returning voluntarily. But those who do choose to return will face extortion, arbitrary taxation, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Many will be required to undertake forced labour, and some will face state-sponsored violence and extrajudicial killings.’
*Given this scenario, how far will the MoU guarantee a safe repatriation?*
It is admitted by all that China has played a critical part in getting the MoU signed as all the negative publicity was hurting China’s image as the prime vendor in the region. China needs aggressive marketing stances which have stumbled a bit recently in the region. However, it remains strong enough to push Myanmar and Bangladesh to a MoU and in this equation the Rohingyas are not a factor.

The problem is that an MoU that was signed and admitted by the foreign minister was largely done as sought by Myanmar. The world has cited evidence of ethnic cleansing and the people responsible are still in power. No dates and guidelines, no guarantee of safety, no involvement of the United Nations — barring consultation with the UNHCR — if and when Myanmar decides, and, of course, no mention of any long-term plan that leaves Bangladesh as vulnerable as before to a fresh exodus.

*Will Bangladesh force the Rohingyas to return if they refuse as it looks like? Will they erect fences to prevent another exodus? At this point, it seems more like a victory for China followed by Myanmar and a helpless Bangladesh caught in the trap of its own short-sightedness.*

Afsan Chowdhury is a journalist and researcher.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29354/rohingya-issue-bangladesh-caught-in-its-short-sightedness


----------



## Banglar Bir

*The Rohingya tragedy shows human solidarity is a lie*


*www.thestateless.com*/2017/12/the-rohingya-tragedy-shows-human-solidarity-is-a-lie.html




The Rohingya tragedy has shown how a UN member State can have an internal policy built on racial and religious discrimination, writes Karman [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
By Tawakkol Karman, Al Jazeera
*Nobody argues any more about what is happening in Myanmar. The United Nations, international human rights organisations and world capitals all agree that the war being waged on the Rohingya Muslims is a clear example of ethnic cleansing and genocide.*

According to international reports, the number of people who have fled Myanmar military operations in Rakhine state have reached approximately 600,000 refugees by October.

The crisis continues to get worse, fanned on one hand, by the Myanmar government’s intolerance and insistence on continuing their racist exclusionary policies, and on the other hand, by the fact that the world’s interest in what is happening in Myanmar is just not deep enough.

*Human solidarity*
The most dangerous thing the Rohingya tragedy has uncovered is that the idea of “human solidarity” may be nothing more than a big lie.

Those who call and fight for freedoms and human rights regardless of race or religion or colour or ideology – and I am one of those – are facing a huge conundrum. Why is this happening? Why is this human holocaust, happening right before our eyes, not being stopped? Are there unknown conditions that must be met in order to show human solidarity and offer the support needed to end a particular people’s suffering?

These are questions whose answers, I fear, will be terrifying. Is human solidarity something afforded only to the strong and rich who have political or economic power in the international arena?

*The Rohingya tragedy has confirmed what we’ve said about the use of ‘terrorism’ by dictatorships as a useful excuse to realise political goals and destroy opposition or political opponents.*

Many are starting to understand that human solidarity does not extend to Muslims. Regardless of how accurate that opinion is, it is an indicator of the doubts that have taken root in the minds of some, and that is not a good thing.

And this is not the only loss that has come out of the Rohingya tragedy. The regime in Myanmar, which is perpetrating horrific violations every day, can still find allies who defend what it is doing. The Myanmar regime’s responsibility for the extermination of the Rohingya is clear and its statements denying what is happening are mendacious.

Sacrificing her past as a fighter for rights and freedom in order to embrace tyranny, Aung San Suu Kyi – leader of the Myanmar government and Nobel Peace Prize laureate – serves as a prime example of the damage that can befall someone we thought would keep her principles no matter what.

It is truly tragic that Aung San Suu Kyi is defying reality and denying with confidence the violence and ethnic cleansing, to an extent that Amnesty International has classified her affirmations as “a mix of untruths and victim blaming“. Aung San Suu Kyi could have fought and won a victory for human rights or for her own conscience at the very least. But she preferred to fight for her “nation” and its military vision built on exclusion, marginalisation and rejection of diversity. What a tragic end for a woman who so many counted on.

*The ‘terrorism’ excuse*
The Rohingya tragedy has confirmed what we’ve said about the use of “terrorism” by dictatorships as a useful excuse to realise political goals and destroy opposition or political opponents.

The world has seen how entire villages are destroyed and their inhabitants killed or displaced, all atrocities committed in the name of the “war on terror”; who can accept these justifications? I would think no one.

The truth is that using “terrorism” as an excuse to suppress opponents and to enable tyrannical political leadership to strengthen its bases is an old ruse that everyone can see through. The UN and international community have to be brave and prevent the use of “terrorism” in this way.

Authoritarian regimes must be deprived of the opportunity to use a just cause such as fighting “terrorism” for their own ends. Not only that, but there must also be a real accounting of those who have perpetrated human rights violations for any reason.

*Fighting racism*
There are numerous calls to end the military operations against the Rohingya today. This can be seen as a positive development, and although it comes very late – better late than never.

In spite of that fact, the regime in Myanmar likely will not respond to these calls unless there is a unified international stance against the crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated there. The military in Myanmar are still the ones who call the shots, and they don’t see anything wrong with denying the Rohingya their rights.

The Rohingya tragedy has shown how a UN member state can have an internal policy built on racial and religious discrimination without any international consequences. Therefore pressure must be increased on the regime in Myanmar if we are to see real course correction.

It is time to take a firm stance on Myanmar. We should not pacify a state promoting apartheid policies. It is time to stop a human tragedy that has persisted for decades.

A few days ago, Bangladesh and Myanmar reached an agreement that allows the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, who were subjected to a campaign of persecution and forcible displacement by the Myanmar army only two months ago. But this agreement, even if implemented, is not enough to go on as if nothing happened.

It is true that the repatriation of the Muslim-majority Rohingya is very important to put an end to this tragedy, but what guarantees will the Myanmar government provide for not repeating its ethnic cleansing campaign?

Nevertheless, this agreement should be a prelude to the end of abhorrent discrimination against the Rohingya who should be given political and civil rights as citizens of Myanmar.

The Rohingya have lived for a long time without knowing the true meaning of humanity and justice. Would it not be wonderful if they could find some of that now? We must work to realise that with all our strength, not just for them, but for all of us.

*The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.*
Tawakkol Karman
Tawakkol Karman, a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel peace prize, is a Yemeni journalist and human rights activist.
http://www.thestateless.com/2017/12/the-rohingya-tragedy-shows-human-solidarity-is-a-lie.html
*

The Stateless Rohingya*
*Pope Francis asks for ‘forgiveness’ from persecuted #Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh *
By Tom Embury-Dennis, Independent
*Pontiff also mentions word 'Rohingya' for first time during Asia trip*
Pope Francis has met with a group of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh, asking them for "forgiveness" in the name of all of those who have "hurt you".

The Pope also mentioned the word "Rohingya" in public for the first time during his trip to Asia, telling 16 refugees: "The presence of God today is also called Rohingya."

"In the name of all of those who have persecuted you, hurt you, I ask forgiveness. I appeal to your large hearts to give us the forgiveness that we are asking," he said.
http://www.thestateless.com/…/pope-francis-asks-for-forgive…




www.thestateless.com
THESTATELESS.COM


----------



## LegitimateIdiot

dang n


Banglar Bir said:


> *The Rohingya tragedy shows human solidarity is a lie*
> 
> 
> *www.thestateless.com*/2017/12/the-rohingya-tragedy-shows-human-solidarity-is-a-lie.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Rohingya tragedy has shown how a UN member State can have an internal policy built on racial and religious discrimination, writes Karman [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
> By Tawakkol Karman, Al Jazeera
> *Nobody argues any more about what is happening in Myanmar. The United Nations, international human rights organisations and world capitals all agree that the war being waged on the Rohingya Muslims is a clear example of ethnic cleansing and genocide.*
> 
> According to international reports, the number of people who have fled Myanmar military operations in Rakhine state have reached approximately 600,000 refugees by October.
> 
> The crisis continues to get worse, fanned on one hand, by the Myanmar government’s intolerance and insistence on continuing their racist exclusionary policies, and on the other hand, by the fact that the world’s interest in what is happening in Myanmar is just not deep enough.
> 
> *Human solidarity*
> The most dangerous thing the Rohingya tragedy has uncovered is that the idea of “human solidarity” may be nothing more than a big lie.
> 
> Those who call and fight for freedoms and human rights regardless of race or religion or colour or ideology – and I am one of those – are facing a huge conundrum. Why is this happening? Why is this human holocaust, happening right before our eyes, not being stopped? Are there unknown conditions that must be met in order to show human solidarity and offer the support needed to end a particular people’s suffering?
> 
> These are questions whose answers, I fear, will be terrifying. Is human solidarity something afforded only to the strong and rich who have political or economic power in the international arena?
> 
> *The Rohingya tragedy has confirmed what we’ve said about the use of ‘terrorism’ by dictatorships as a useful excuse to realise political goals and destroy opposition or political opponents.*
> 
> Many are starting to understand that human solidarity does not extend to Muslims. Regardless of how accurate that opinion is, it is an indicator of the doubts that have taken root in the minds of some, and that is not a good thing.
> 
> And this is not the only loss that has come out of the Rohingya tragedy. The regime in Myanmar, which is perpetrating horrific violations every day, can still find allies who defend what it is doing. The Myanmar regime’s responsibility for the extermination of the Rohingya is clear and its statements denying what is happening are mendacious.
> 
> Sacrificing her past as a fighter for rights and freedom in order to embrace tyranny, Aung San Suu Kyi – leader of the Myanmar government and Nobel Peace Prize laureate – serves as a prime example of the damage that can befall someone we thought would keep her principles no matter what.
> 
> It is truly tragic that Aung San Suu Kyi is defying reality and denying with confidence the violence and ethnic cleansing, to an extent that Amnesty International has classified her affirmations as “a mix of untruths and victim blaming“. Aung San Suu Kyi could have fought and won a victory for human rights or for her own conscience at the very least. But she preferred to fight for her “nation” and its military vision built on exclusion, marginalisation and rejection of diversity. What a tragic end for a woman who so many counted on.
> 
> *The ‘terrorism’ excuse*
> The Rohingya tragedy has confirmed what we’ve said about the use of “terrorism” by dictatorships as a useful excuse to realise political goals and destroy opposition or political opponents.
> 
> The world has seen how entire villages are destroyed and their inhabitants killed or displaced, all atrocities committed in the name of the “war on terror”; who can accept these justifications? I would think no one.
> 
> The truth is that using “terrorism” as an excuse to suppress opponents and to enable tyrannical political leadership to strengthen its bases is an old ruse that everyone can see through. The UN and international community have to be brave and prevent the use of “terrorism” in this way.
> 
> Authoritarian regimes must be deprived of the opportunity to use a just cause such as fighting “terrorism” for their own ends. Not only that, but there must also be a real accounting of those who have perpetrated human rights violations for any reason.
> 
> *Fighting racism*
> There are numerous calls to end the military operations against the Rohingya today. This can be seen as a positive development, and although it comes very late – better late than never.
> 
> In spite of that fact, the regime in Myanmar likely will not respond to these calls unless there is a unified international stance against the crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated there. The military in Myanmar are still the ones who call the shots, and they don’t see anything wrong with denying the Rohingya their rights.
> 
> The Rohingya tragedy has shown how a UN member state can have an internal policy built on racial and religious discrimination without any international consequences. Therefore pressure must be increased on the regime in Myanmar if we are to see real course correction.
> 
> It is time to take a firm stance on Myanmar. We should not pacify a state promoting apartheid policies. It is time to stop a human tragedy that has persisted for decades.
> 
> A few days ago, Bangladesh and Myanmar reached an agreement that allows the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, who were subjected to a campaign of persecution and forcible displacement by the Myanmar army only two months ago. But this agreement, even if implemented, is not enough to go on as if nothing happened.
> 
> It is true that the repatriation of the Muslim-majority Rohingya is very important to put an end to this tragedy, but what guarantees will the Myanmar government provide for not repeating its ethnic cleansing campaign?
> 
> Nevertheless, this agreement should be a prelude to the end of abhorrent discrimination against the Rohingya who should be given political and civil rights as citizens of Myanmar.
> 
> The Rohingya have lived for a long time without knowing the true meaning of humanity and justice. Would it not be wonderful if they could find some of that now? We must work to realise that with all our strength, not just for them, but for all of us.
> 
> *The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.*
> Tawakkol Karman
> Tawakkol Karman, a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel peace prize, is a Yemeni journalist and human rights activist.
> http://www.thestateless.com/2017/12/the-rohingya-tragedy-shows-human-solidarity-is-a-lie.html
> *
> 
> The Stateless Rohingya*
> *Pope Francis asks for ‘forgiveness’ from persecuted #Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh *
> By Tom Embury-Dennis, Independent
> *Pontiff also mentions word 'Rohingya' for first time during Asia trip*
> Pope Francis has met with a group of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh, asking them for "forgiveness" in the name of all of those who have "hurt you".
> 
> The Pope also mentioned the word "Rohingya" in public for the first time during his trip to Asia, telling 16 refugees: "The presence of God today is also called Rohingya."
> 
> "In the name of all of those who have persecuted you, hurt you, I ask forgiveness. I appeal to your large hearts to give us the forgiveness that we are asking," he said.
> http://www.thestateless.com/…/pope-francis-asks-for-forgive…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.thestateless.com
> THESTATELESS.COM


dang no one else responidng to you that sucks


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya rape survivor hopes Pope Francis can help find justice*
Reuters
Published at 10:33 PM December 01, 2017
Last updated at 11:32 PM December 01, 2017




Pope Francis meets a group of Rohingya refugees during an inter-religious conference at St Mary’s Cathedral in Dhaka, Bangladesh on December 1, 2017 *Reuters*
*The Rohingya refugees who met the pope on Friday said they would not risk going back to their homeland without assurances for their safety*
A 27-year-old Rohingya Muslim woman refugee from Myanmar met Pope Francis on Friday in the hope he can help her find justice for the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of Myanmar soldiers, including rape.

Pope Francis, visiting both Myanmar and Bangladesh this week, has called for decisive measures to resolve the political reasons that caused the Rohingyas to flee from Myanmar and urged help for Bangladesh to deal with and influx of more than 6,20,000 refugees since late August.

The Pope heard first hand, from the woman and other refuge seekers, the sort of accounts that have led to accusations from the United Nations that majority-Buddhist Myanmar has waged a policy of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim minority, including killings and rape.

“They captured me and some other women, tortured us,” the woman told Reuters in the office of an aid group in Dhaka.

“I still bleed, there is pain in the abdomen, my back hurts, I get headaches. Medicines have not helped much,” the woman said as her young daughter clutched at her black burqa.

Myanmar’s army has denied all accusations of rape and killings by the security forces. It said an internal investigation found no evidence of rape or killings by the security forces.

*Also Read- Pope refers to Rohingya after meeting refugees*
The woman and her husband said they fled from their village in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in late August, soon after the army launched a crackdown following attacks on security posts by Rohingya militants.

The woman said that on the fourth day of her 17-day-trek to the safety of a refugee camp in Bangladesh, she was raped by Myanmar soldiers after she got separated briefly from her husband.

“I will share my pain with him,” the woman said of the Pope, referring to him the “head of the Christians.”

Her husband sighed as she narrated how she was raped along with nearly a dozen other women by a stream.

“I will tell him (the Pope) about the stinking bodies we saw on our way to Bangladesh. I want him to recognise us as Rohingyas. I want my torturers to be punished,” she said.
*Also Read- Pope Francis meets 16 Rohingya refugees*

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch this month accused Myanmar security forces of committing widespread rape as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The United States has said the campaign by Myanmar’s military included “horrendous atrocities” aimed at “ethnic cleansing.”

The Pope celebrated a huge outdoor mass on Friday to ordain new priests from Bangladesh on his first full day in the country after arriving from Myanmar.

In calls for peace in Myanmar, he did not use the word “Rohingya” to describe members of the Muslim minority. The term is contested by the Myanmar government and military.

The Rohingya refugees who met the Pope on Friday said they could not risk going back to their homeland without assurances for their safety.

“We should be recognised as bona fide citizens of Myanmar, we should be assured life-long security, we should be allowed to pursue higher education, only then we can go back,” said the woman’s husband.
*“I want justice for my wife.”*
http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/south-asia/2017/12/01/pope-rohingya-rape-survivor/


----------



## Banglar Bir

10:35 AM, December 03, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 10:53 AM, December 03, 2017
*Pope says defence of Rohingya got through in Myanmar*





Pope Francis gestures during a news conference on board of the plane during his flight back from a trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, December 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Vincenzo Pinto/Pool
Reuters, Aboard The Papal Plane
*Pope Francis on Saturday defended his strategy of avoiding the term “Rohingya” in Myanmar, saying he believed he got his message across to both the civilian and military leadership without shutting down dialogue.*
Speaking to reporters aboard the plane returning to Rome from Bangladesh, the pontiff also indicated that he had been firm with Myanmar's military leaders in private meetings about the need for them to respect the rights of Rohingya refugees.
*Read More*





*Stand by Bangladesh*




*‘Gossip is a kind of terrorism’*
He also disclosed that he cried when he met a group of Rohingya refugees on Friday in Bangladesh, where he defended their rights by name in an emotional meeting.

“For me, the most important thing is that message gets through, to try to say things one step at a time and listen to the responses,” he said.

“I knew that if in the official speeches I would have used that word, they would have closed the door in our faces. But (in public) I described situations, rights, said that no one should be excluded, (the right to) citizenship, in order to allow myself to go further in the private meetings,” he said.

Francis did not use the word Rohingya in public while on the first leg of the trip in Myanmar. Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise the mostly Muslim Rohingya as an ethnic group with its own identity but as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Local Roman Catholic Church authorities had advised him not to say it because it could spark a backlash against Christians and other minority groups.

The pope met Myanmar's military leaders privately on Monday, shortly after his arrival in the nation's biggest city, Yangon.

The meeting had been scheduled for Thursday morning but the military pointedly asked at the last minute that it be pushed forward. The result was they saw the pope before the civilian leaders instead of the other way around, as had been planned.

*Non-negotiable truths*
“It was a good conversation and the truth was non-negotiable,” he said of his meeting with the military leaders.

The latest exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh of about 625,000 people followed a Myanmar military crackdown in response to Rohingya militant attacks on an army base and police posts on August 25.

Refugees have said scores of Rohingya villages were burnt to the ground, people were killed and women were raped. The military have denied accusations of ethnic cleansing by the United States and United Nations.

Asked if he used the word Rohingya during the private meeting with the military chiefs, the pope said: “I used words in order to arrive at the message and when I saw that the message had arrived, I dared to say everything that I wanted say”.

He then gave a reporter a mischievous grin and ended his answer with the Latin phrase “IntelligentiPauca,” which means "Few words are enough for those who understand," strongly hinting that he had used the word the military detests while in their presence.

Human rights groups have criticised the country's de facto civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was under house arrest for a total of 15 years before the 2015 elections, for not taking a stand against the generals.

But Francis, who met with her privately on Tuesday, appeared to give her the benefit of the doubt because of her delicate relationship with the generals who were once her jailers.

“Myanmar is a nation that is growing politically, in transition,” Francis said in response to a question about Suu Kyi and budding democracy in Myanmar.

“So things have to be viewed through this lens. Myanmar has to be able to look forward to the building of the country”.

On Friday in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, Francis held an emotional encounter with Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and then used the word Rohingya for the first time on the trip, although he had defended them by name twice from the Vatican earlier this year.

He told the crowd where the Rohingya were that God's presence was within them and they should be respected.

“I was crying and tried to hide it,” Francis said on the plane, recounting how moved he felt when the refugees recounted their ordeals to him.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...f-rohingya-got-through-myanmar-crisis-1499470
10:35 AM, December 03, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 10:53 AM, December 03, 2017
*Pope says defence of Rohingya got through in Myanmar*




Pope Francis gestures during a news conference on board of the plane during his flight back from a trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, December 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Vincenzo Pinto/Pool
Reuters, Aboard The Papal Plane
*Pope Francis on Saturday defended his strategy of avoiding the term “Rohingya” in Myanmar, saying he believed he got his message across to both the civilian and military leadership without shutting down dialogue.*
Speaking to reporters aboard the plane returning to Rome from Bangladesh, the pontiff also indicated that he had been firm with Myanmar's military leaders in private meetings about the need for them to respect the rights of Rohingya refugees.

*Read More*





*Stand by Bangladesh*




*‘Gossip is a kind of terrorism’*
He also disclosed that he cried when he met a group of Rohingya refugees on Friday in Bangladesh, where he defended their rights by name in an emotional meeting.

“For me, the most important thing is that message gets through, to try to say things one step at a time and listen to the responses,” he said.

“I knew that if in the official speeches I would have used that word, they would have closed the door in our faces. But (in public) I described situations, rights, said that no one should be excluded, (the right to) citizenship, in order to allow myself to go further in the private meetings,” he said.

Francis did not use the word Rohingya in public while on the first leg of the trip in Myanmar. Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise the mostly Muslim Rohingya as an ethnic group with its own identity but as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Local Roman Catholic Church authorities had advised him not to say it because it could spark a backlash against Christians and other minority groups.

The pope met Myanmar's military leaders privately on Monday, shortly after his arrival in the nation's biggest city, Yangon.

The meeting had been scheduled for Thursday morning but the military pointedly asked at the last minute that it be pushed forward. The result was they saw the pope before the civilian leaders instead of the other way around, as had been planned.

*Non-negotiable truths*
“It was a good conversation and the truth was non-negotiable,” he said of his meeting with the military leaders.

The latest exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh of about 625,000 people followed a Myanmar military crackdown in response to Rohingya militant attacks on an army base and police posts on August 25.

Refugees have said scores of Rohingya villages were burnt to the ground, people were killed and women were raped. The military have denied accusations of ethnic cleansing by the United States and United Nations.

Asked if he used the word Rohingya during the private meeting with the military chiefs, the pope said: “I used words in order to arrive at the message and when I saw that the message had arrived, I dared to say everything that I wanted say”.

He then gave a reporter a mischievous grin and ended his answer with the Latin phrase “IntelligentiPauca,” which means "Few words are enough for those who understand," strongly hinting that he had used the word the military detests while in their presence.

Human rights groups have criticised the country's de facto civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was under house arrest for a total of 15 years before the 2015 elections, for not taking a stand against the generals.

But Francis, who met with her privately on Tuesday, appeared to give her the benefit of the doubt because of her delicate relationship with the generals who were once her jailers.

“Myanmar is a nation that is growing politically, in transition,” Francis said in response to a question about Suu Kyi and budding democracy in Myanmar.

“So things have to be viewed through this lens. Myanmar has to be able to look forward to the building of the country”.

On Friday in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, Francis held an emotional encounter with Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and then used the word Rohingya for the first time on the trip, although he had defended them by name twice from the Vatican earlier this year.

He told the crowd where the Rohingya were that God's presence was within them and they should be respected.

“I was crying and tried to hide it,” Francis said on the plane, recounting how moved he felt when the refugees recounted their ordeals to him.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...f-rohingya-got-through-myanmar-crisis-1499470


LegitimateIdiot said:


> dang n
> dang no one else responding to you that sucks


Noting to be concerned about,as this is a pinned thread,all incidents are being recorded for future references,not really interested in earning thanks or derailing the topic.
Reference materials for future generations to come along with other distinguished members,those all are not interested in browsing the Bangladesh thread sub forum.


----------



## Banglar Bir

*‘No Such Thing as Rohingya’: Myanmar Erases a History*
By HANNAH BEECH
DEC. 2, 2017




A Rohingya woman and her child returning to the Basara camp in Sittwe, Myanmar. Across central Rakhine, about 120,000 Rohingya have been interned in camps. Many more have fled the country. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times

*SITTWE, Myanmar — He was a member of the Rohingya student union in college, taught at a public high school and even won a parliamentary seat in Myanmar’s thwarted elections in 1990.*
But according to the government of Myanmar, U Kyaw Min’s fellow Rohingya do not exist.
A long-persecuted Muslim minority concentrated in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, the Rohingya have been deemed 
dangerous interlopers* from neighboring Bangladesh. Today, they are mostly stateless, their very identity denied by the Buddhist-majority Myanmar state.*

“There is no such thing as Rohingya,” said U Kyaw San Hla, an officer in Rakhine’s state security ministry. “It is fake news.”

Such denials bewilder Mr. Kyaw Min. He has lived in Myanmar all of his 72 years, and the history of the Rohingya as a distinct ethnic group in Myanmar stretches back for generations before.

Now, human rights watchdogs warn that much of the evidence of the Rohingya’s history in Myanmar is in danger of being eradicated by a military campaign the United States has declared to be ethnic cleansing.




*Across Myanmar, Denial of Ethnic Cleansing and Loathing of Rohingya OCT. 24, 2017*



*Fate of Stateless Rohingya Muslims Is in Antagonistic Hands NOV. 3, 2017*



*Rohingya Recount Atrocities: ‘They Threw My Baby Into a Fire’OCT. 11, 2017*



*Desperate Rohingya Flee Myanmar on Trail of Suffering: ‘It Is All Gone’ SEPT. 2, 2017*

Since late August, more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims, about two-thirds of the population that lived in Myanmar in 2016, have fled to Bangladesh, driven out by the military’s systematic campaign of massacre, rape and arson in Rakhine.

In a report released in October, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Myanmar’s security forces had worked to “effectively erase all signs of memorable landmarks in the geography of the Rohingya landscape and memory in such a way that a return to their lands would yield nothing but a desolate and unrecognizable terrain.




“The Rohingya are finished in our country,” said U Kyaw Min, a former schoolteacher and the president of the Democracy and Human Rights Party. “Soon we will all be dead or gone.” CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

“The Rohingya are finished in our country,” said Mr. Kyaw Min, who lives in Yangon, the commercial capital of Myanmar. “Soon we will all be dead or gone.”

The United Nations report also said that the crackdown in Rakhine had “targeted teachers, the cultural and religious leadership, and other people of influence in the Rohingya community in an effort to diminish Rohingya history, culture and knowledge.”

“We are people with our own history and traditions,” said U Kyaw Hla Aung, a Rohingya lawyer and former political prisoner, whose father served as a court clerk in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine.

“How can they pretend we are nothing?” he asked.

Speaking over the phone, Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung, who has been jailed repeatedly for his activism and is now interned in a Sittwe camp, said his family did not have enough food because officials have prevented full distribution of international aid.

Myanmar’s sudden amnesia about the Rohingya is as bold as it is systematic. Five years ago, Sittwe, nestled in an estuary in the Bay of Bengal, was a mixed city, divided between an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority and the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Walking Sittwe’s crowded bazaar in 2009, I saw Rohingya fishermen selling seafood to Rakhine women. Rohingya professionals practiced law and medicine. The main street in town was dominated by the Jama mosque, an Arabesque confection built in the mid-19th century. The imam spoke proudly of Sittwe’s multicultural heritage.

But since sectarian riots in 2012, which resulted in a disproportionate number of Rohingya casualties, the city has been mostly cleared of Muslims. Across central Rakhine, about 120,000 Rohingya, even those who had citizenship, have been interned in camps, stripped of their livelihoods and prevented from accessing proper schools or health care.




A house burned by Myanmar’s military in a Rohingya village in Rakhine State in September. Credit Nyein Chan Naing/European Pressphoto Agency

They cannot leave the ghettos without official authorization. In July, a Rohingya man who was allowed out for a court appearance in Sittwe was lynched by an ethnic Rakhine mob.

The Jama mosque now stands disused and moldering, behind barbed wire. Its 89-year-old imam is interned.

“We have no rights as human beings,” he said, asking not to use his name because of safety concerns. “This is state-run ethnic cleansing and nothing else.”

Sittwe’s psyche has adapted to the new circumstances. In the bazaar recently, every Rakhine resident I talked to claimed, falsely, that no Muslims had ever owned shops there.

Sittwe University, which used to enroll hundreds of Muslim students, now only teaches around 30 Rohingya, all of whom are in a distance-learning program.

“We don’t have restrictions on any religion,” said U Shwe Khaing Kyaw, the university’s registrar, “but they just don’t come.”

Mr. Kyaw Min used to teach in Sittwe, where most of his students were Rakhine Buddhists. Now, he said, even Buddhist acquaintances in Yangon are embarrassed to talk with him.




Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh across the Naf River, in September.Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

“They want the conversation to end quickly because they don’t want to think about who I am or where I came from,” he said.

In 1990, Mr. Kyaw Min won a seat in Parliament as part of a Rohingya party aligned with the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s current governing party. But the country’s military junta ignored the electoral results nationwide. Mr. Kyaw Min ended up in prison.

Rohingya Muslims have lived in Rakhine for generations, their Bengali dialect and South Asian features often distinguishing them from Rakhine Buddhists.

During the colonial era, the British encouraged South Asian rice farmers, merchants and civil servants to migrate to what was then known as Burma.

Some of these new arrivals mixed with the Rohingya, then known more commonly as Arakanese Indians or Arakanese Muslims. Others spread out across Burma. By the 1930s, South Asians, both Muslim and Hindu, comprised the largest population in Yangon.

The demographic shift left some Buddhists feeling besieged. During the xenophobic leadership of Gen. Ne Win, who ushered in nearly half a century of military rule, hundreds of thousands of South Asians fled Burma for India.

Rakhine, on Burma’s western fringe, was where Islam and Buddhism collided most violently, especially after World War II, during which the Rakhine supported the Axis and Rohingya the Allies.



Rohingya crossing a makeshift bridge in the Kutupalong refugee camp, outside Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. CreditSergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Later attempts by a Rohingya insurgent group to exit Burma and attach northern Rakhine to East Pakistan, as Bangladesh was then known, further strained relations.

By the 1980s, the military junta had stripped most Rohingya of citizenship. Brutal security offensives drove waves of Rohingya to flee the country.

Today, far more Rohingya live outside of Myanmar — mostly in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia — than remain in what they consider their homeland.

Yet in the early decades of Burma’s independence, a Rohingya elite thrived. Rangoon University, the country’s top institution, had enough Rohingya students to form their own union. One of the cabinets of U Nu, the country’s first post-independence leader, included a health minister who identified himself as Arakanese Muslim.

Even under Ne Win, the general, Burmese national radio aired broadcasts in the Rohingya language. Rohingya, women among them, were represented in Parliament.

U Shwe Maung, a Rohingya from Buthidaung Township in northern Rakhine, served in Parliament between 2011 and 2015, as a member of the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party. In the 2015 elections, however, he was barred from running.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were disenfranchised in those polls.

Mr. Shwe Maung’s electoral district, which had been 90 percent Rohingya, is now represented by a Rakhine Buddhist.

In September, a local police officer filed a counterterrorism suit accusing Mr. Shwe Maung of instigating violence through Facebook posts that called for an end to the security offensive in Rakhine. (The military operation began after Rohingya militants besieged government security posts in late August.)

Mr. Shwe Maung, the son of a police officer himself, is in exile in the United States and denies the charges.

“They want every Rohingya to be considered a terrorist or an illegal immigrant,” he said. “We are much more than that.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/...lights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront


----------



## Banglar Bir

*‘No Such Thing as Rohingya’: Myanmar Erases a History*
By HANNAH BEECH
DEC. 2, 2017




A Rohingya woman and her child returning to the Basara camp in Sittwe, Myanmar. Across central Rakhine, about 120,000 Rohingya have been interned in camps. Many more have fled the country. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times

*SITTWE, Myanmar — He was a member of the Rohingya student union in college, taught at a public high school and even won a parliamentary seat in Myanmar’s thwarted elections in 1990.*
But according to the government of Myanmar, U Kyaw Min’s fellow Rohingya do not exist.
A long-persecuted Muslim minority concentrated in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, the Rohingya have been deemed 
dangerous interlopers* from neighboring Bangladesh. Today, they are mostly stateless, their very identity denied by the Buddhist-majority Myanmar state.*

“There is no such thing as Rohingya,” said U Kyaw San Hla, an officer in Rakhine’s state security ministry. “It is fake news.”

Such denials bewilder Mr. Kyaw Min. He has lived in Myanmar all of his 72 years, and the history of the Rohingya as a distinct ethnic group in Myanmar stretches back for generations before.

Now, human rights watchdogs warn that much of the evidence of the Rohingya’s history in Myanmar is in danger of being eradicated by a military campaign the United States has declared to be ethnic cleansing.




*Across Myanmar, Denial of Ethnic Cleansing and Loathing of Rohingya OCT. 24, 2017*



*Fate of Stateless Rohingya Muslims Is in Antagonistic Hands NOV. 3, 2017*



*Rohingya Recount Atrocities: ‘They Threw My Baby Into a Fire’OCT. 11, 2017*



*Desperate Rohingya Flee Myanmar on Trail of Suffering: ‘It Is All Gone’ SEPT. 2, 2017*

Since late August, more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims, about two-thirds of the population that lived in Myanmar in 2016, have fled to Bangladesh, driven out by the military’s systematic campaign of massacre, rape and arson in Rakhine.

In a report released in October, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Myanmar’s security forces had worked to “effectively erase all signs of memorable landmarks in the geography of the Rohingya landscape and memory in such a way that a return to their lands would yield nothing but a desolate and unrecognizable 
terrain.




“The Rohingya are finished in our country,” said U Kyaw Min, a former schoolteacher and the president of the Democracy and Human Rights Party. “Soon we will all be dead or gone.” CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

“The Rohingya are finished in our country,” said Mr. Kyaw Min, who lives in Yangon, the commercial capital of Myanmar. “Soon we will all be dead or gone.”

The United Nations report also said that the crackdown in Rakhine had “targeted teachers, the cultural and religious leadership, and other people of influence in the Rohingya community in an effort to diminish Rohingya history, culture and knowledge.”

“We are people with our own history and traditions,” said U Kyaw Hla Aung, a Rohingya lawyer and former political prisoner, whose father served as a court clerk in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine.

“How can they pretend we are nothing?” he asked.

Speaking over the phone, Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung, who has been jailed repeatedly for his activism and is now interned in a Sittwe camp, said his family did not have enough food because officials have prevented full distribution of international aid.

Myanmar’s sudden amnesia about the Rohingya is as bold as it is systematic. Five years ago, Sittwe, nestled in an estuary in the Bay of Bengal, was a mixed city, divided between an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority and the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Walking Sittwe’s crowded bazaar in 2009, I saw Rohingya fishermen selling seafood to Rakhine women. Rohingya professionals practiced law and medicine. The main street in town was dominated by the Jama mosque, an Arabesque confection built in the mid-19th century. The imam spoke proudly of Sittwe’s multicultural heritage.

But since sectarian riots in 2012, which resulted in a disproportionate number of Rohingya casualties, the city has been mostly cleared of Muslims. Across central Rakhine, about 120,000 Rohingya, even those who had citizenship, have been interned in camps, stripped of their livelihoods and prevented from accessing proper schools or health care.




A house burned by Myanmar’s military in a Rohingya village in Rakhine State in September. Credit Nyein Chan Naing/European Pressphoto Agency

They cannot leave the ghettos without official authorization. In July, a Rohingya man who was allowed out for a court appearance in Sittwe was lynched by an ethnic Rakhine mob.

The Jama mosque now stands disused and moldering, behind barbed wire. Its 89-year-old imam is interned.

“We have no rights as human beings,” he said, asking not to use his name because of safety concerns. “This is state-run ethnic cleansing and nothing else.”

Sittwe’s psyche has adapted to the new circumstances. In the bazaar recently, every Rakhine resident I talked to claimed, falsely, that no Muslims had ever owned shops there.

Sittwe University, which used to enroll hundreds of Muslim students, now only teaches around 30 Rohingya, all of whom are in a distance-learning program.

“We don’t have restrictions on any religion,” said U Shwe Khaing Kyaw, the university’s registrar, “but they just don’t come.”

Mr. Kyaw Min used to teach in Sittwe, where most of his students were Rakhine Buddhists. Now, he said, even Buddhist acquaintances in Yangon are embarrassed to talk with him.




Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh across the Naf River, in September.Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

“They want the conversation to end quickly because they don’t want to think about who I am or where I came from,” he said.

In 1990, Mr. Kyaw Min won a seat in Parliament as part of a Rohingya party aligned with the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s current governing party. But the country’s military junta ignored the electoral results nationwide. Mr. Kyaw Min ended up in prison.

Rohingya Muslims have lived in Rakhine for generations, their Bengali dialect and South Asian features often distinguishing them from Rakhine Buddhists.

During the colonial era, the British encouraged South Asian rice farmers, merchants and civil servants to migrate to what was then known as Burma.

Some of these new arrivals mixed with the Rohingya, then known more commonly as Arakanese Indians or Arakanese Muslims. Others spread out across Burma. By the 1930s, South Asians, both Muslim and Hindu, comprised the largest population in Yangon.

The demographic shift left some Buddhists feeling besieged. During the xenophobic leadership of Gen. Ne Win, who ushered in nearly half a century of military rule, hundreds of thousands of South Asians fled Burma for India.

Rakhine, on Burma’s western fringe, was where Islam and Buddhism collided most violently, especially after World War II, during which the Rakhine supported the Axis and Rohingya the Allies.



Rohingya crossing a makeshift bridge in the Kutupalong refugee camp, outside Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. CreditSergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Later attempts by a Rohingya insurgent group to exit Burma and attach northern Rakhine to East Pakistan, as Bangladesh was then known, further strained relations.

By the 1980s, the military junta had stripped most Rohingya of citizenship. Brutal security offensives drove waves of Rohingya to flee the country.

Today, far more Rohingya live outside of Myanmar — mostly in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia — than remain in what they consider their homeland.

Yet in the early decades of Burma’s independence, a Rohingya elite thrived. Rangoon University, the country’s top institution, had enough Rohingya students to form their own union. One of the cabinets of U Nu, the country’s first post-independence leader, included a health minister who identified himself as Arakanese Muslim.

Even under Ne Win, the general, Burmese national radio aired broadcasts in the Rohingya language. Rohingya, women among them, were represented in Parliament.

U Shwe Maung, a Rohingya from Buthidaung Township in northern Rakhine, served in Parliament between 2011 and 2015, as a member of the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party. In the 2015 elections, however, he was barred from running.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were disenfranchised in those polls.

Mr. Shwe Maung’s electoral district, which had been 90 percent Rohingya, is now represented by a Rakhine Buddhist.

In September, a local police officer filed a counterterrorism suit accusing Mr. Shwe Maung of instigating violence through Facebook posts that called for an end to the security offensive in Rakhine. (The military operation began after Rohingya militants besieged government security posts in late August.)

Mr. Shwe Maung, the son of a police officer himself, is in exile in the United States and denies the charges.

“They want every Rohingya to be considered a terrorist or an illegal immigrant,” he said. “We are much more than that.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/...lights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

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## Brainsucker

Myanmar truly has a lot of trouble. Yesterday was Kokang, now Rohingya. Not long time ago, their conflict made a lot of Kokang civilian run into China to save their life. Now Rohingya has to leave Myanmar because of the same reason. 

I think Myanmar Government truly need a new approach to solve their separatist problem.


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Crisis: Will China’s Mediation Succeed?* *November 26, 2017 Jamestown Foundation Publication: China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 15, 
Jamestown Foundation By: Sudha Ramachandran 
November 22, 2017 

During his visits to Dhaka, Bangladesh and Naypyitaw, Myanmar on November 18 and 19, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi put forward a three-phase plan to resolve the Rohingya crisis. 
First,* Wang called for a ceasefire in Myanmar’s devastated Rakhine state, which is at the center of the crisis. Aimed at restoring order and stability in the Rakhine state, the ceasefire is expected to halt the flow of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. 

China envisages that this will pave the way for the 
*second stage: *negotiations between Myanmar and Bangladesh to address the refugee problem. 

*The third and final stage* will involve the economic development of the Rakhine state to address the underlying causes of the violence (Global Times, November 20). 

China’s plan has reportedly found acceptance in Naypyitaw and Dhaka and marks the start of a new phase in Beijing’s involvement in the Rohingya conflict (FMPRC, November 20). China’s role has hitherto been limited to providing humanitarian aid to the Rohingya refugees and protecting Myanmar from international censure. 
*Why is China now adopting a mediatory role in the conflict? 
And is it likely to succeed in bringing peace to a restive region? *
The Rohingya Conflict The Rohingya crisis began on August 25 when the Myanmar government declared the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) a terrorist organization in response to deadly attacks on police and army posts in Rakhine state in western Myanmar (Mizzima, August 28). 

It also launched a military crackdown in Rakhine, which it maintains is aimed at the militants (Mizzima, October 16; Terrorism Monitor, November 10). 

However, horrific violence has been unleashed on Rohingya civilians, including women and children. Entire villages have been razed. Over 600,000 of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Myanmar are reported to have fled to Bangladesh (The Wire, November 17). 

The current crisis is the most severe that the decades-old Rohingya conflict has witnessed. While the roots of the Rohingya conflict (like Myanmar’s other ethnic conflicts) can be traced back to colonial times, independence brought with it discrimination against the Rohingya that became systematic and serious. 

A Muslim ethnic group that has inhabited the Rakhine state for centuries, the Rohingya do not figure among Myanmar’s 135 official ethnic groups. Since 1982, they have been denied citizenship, effectively rendering them stateless (Daily Sabah, October 23). 

In addition to suffering at the hands of the military, the Rohingya have been targeted by Rakhine Buddhist vigilante groups too (The Wire, November 17). 

The violence has triggered waves of Rohingya migration to neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Unwelcome in these countries as well, Rohingya refugees have been pushed back or languish in makeshift, overcrowded camps (The National, September 13). *China’s Support The Myanmar military’s reported atrocities against fleeing Rohingya civilians have evoked international outrage.* 
UN Human Rights Council Chief Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein described the situation in the Rakhine state as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” (UN News Centre, September 11). Several Muslim countries and the western powers have criticized Myanmar’s brutal crackdowns on the Rohingya too (Arab News, September 5 and First Post, September 23). 
*
However, China has publically praised the Myanmar government’s crackdowns in Rakhine.* 
In September, the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, Hong Liang, “strongly welcomed” “the counterattacks of Myanmar security forces against [Rohingya] extremist terrorists” and described its military campaign as “just an internal affair” (The Global New Light of Myanmar, September 14). 

Later that month, Hong assured the Myanmar government that China would stand “firmly” by it on the international stage and continue providing it with “necessary assistance” to help it “uphold internal stability and development” (The Irrawaddy, September 27). At the UN, China has blocked resolutions against Myanmar and forced statements critical of its brutal military campaign against the Rohingyas to be watered down. 

On November 6, for instance, the UN Security Council (UNSC) expressed “grave concern over reports of human rights violations and abuses in Rakhine State” and called on the Myanmar government “to ensure no further excessive use of military forces” there (United Nations, November 6). 

While this was strong censure of the Myanmar military’s use of force against the Rohingya, this being a statement—and not a resolution—is not enforceable. China and Russia are reported to have forced the UNSC to issue a presidential statement rather than a resolution. 

The UNSC statement denounces Myanmar’s violent handling of the crisis but it is inconsequential. China’s Interests in Rakhine China’s interest in the Rakhine state stems from its strategic location and rich resources. 

The state is located on the Bay of Bengal, which opens into the Indian Ocean. Like Pakistan’s Gwadar port, which enables Beijing to transport West Asian oil, gas and other commodities through a shorter route via Pakistan to underdeveloped western China, the long Rakhine coastline provides southern China with access to the sea and eastern China with a shorter route to the Indian Ocean (China Brief, July 31, 2015 and Mizzima, October 31).

Ports and pipelines in Rakhine significantly free China’s trade with Africa and West Asia, especially its oil imports, from dependence on the congested Straits of Malacca (China Brief, July 31, 2015). 
*Additionally, Rakhine is rich in natural resources.* 
Large gas reserves were discovered in the waters off its coast in 2004. Beginning in 2008, China has bought gas from the area and transported it from Kyaukphyu on Rakhine’s coast to China’s Yunnan Province through the Myanmar-China Gas Pipeline since 2013. 

This gas meets the needs of China’s Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces as well as that of other counties and cities. Since April this year, oil from Rakhine is being transported to China through a pipeline running parallel to the gas pipeline (China Daily, May 11 and Mizzima, October 31). 

China is said to have invested around $2.5 billion in the oil and gas pipeline projects and is also investing $10 billion in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, which will include a deep-sea port and an industrial park, with the goal of turning Kyaukphyu into a maritime economic hub (Mizzima, October 31). 

The areas that are the worst affected by the ongoing violence are in the north of Rakhine, near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. Although neither Kyaukphyu nor the oil and gas pipelines are located in or run through these restive areas, Beijing is still concerned. 

The rise of ARSA and its mounting capacity to carry out attacks on well-secured targets indicates that it is only a matter of time before it strikes outside its stronghold. This has triggered concern in Beijing over the safety of infrastructure it has invested and built in the Rakhine state. 
*
The Rakhine state plays a significant role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Like Gwadar port in Pakistan, Kyaukphyu port and Myanmar will be important links in both the Maritime Belt and Silk Road components of the BRI. *

As a result, the “stability of Rakhine” is regarded as “important” to the success of the BRI, political and ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe has said (The Irrawaddy, September 4). 

Concerns over the impact that violence and unrest in Rakhine could have on the success of its projects in Myanmar and the BRI, in particular, underlie China’s interest to end the Rohingya crisis and restore stability in the region. 
*China’s Strong Ties with Bangladesh* 
China has similarly invested heavily in upgrading and building port infrastructure, roads, bridges and railway lines in Bangladesh too. It is also Bangladesh’s top trade partner; Bangladesh provides a large market for Chinese goods. Defense ties are strong as well; Bangladesh is the second largest importer of Chinese weapons (after Pakistan) and accounted for 82 percent of all Bangladesh weapons purchases between 2009–2013 (China Brief, June 21, 2016). 
*China is also keen to protect its strong and growing interests and ties in Bangladesh. *
There is concern in Bangladesh about Myanmar’s military campaign against the Rohingya, which is directly responsible for the flood of refugees into Bangladesh and has left Dhaka with the burden of providing shelter and relief to the Rohingya refugees. 

Not only has Myanmar’s military strategy contributed to the refugee exodus but also, this has triggered Rohingya militancy. For Bangladesh, which is grappling with an array of jihadist groups already, the emergence of ARSA and the reported training of its cadres in sanctuaries in Bangladesh, poses an additional security threat. 
*
China’s endorsement of Myanmar’s strategy on the Rohingya issue *has understandably evoked “great disappointment” in Dhaka (Daily Star, November 13). To ease Dhaka’s burden of looking after the Rohingya refugees, China is providing aid, including tents and blankets to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (Xinhuanet, October 13). 

Chinese leaders are concerned with Bangladesh’s attempts to draw extra-regional powers to intervene in the crisis, prompting Beijing to accelerate efforts to bring Myanmar and Bangladesh to the negotiation table and end the refugee problem.
*Will China’s Mediation Work?* 
In the past, China avoided playing mediator in conflicts beyond its borders, arguing that this went against its principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. However, in recent years it has shown increasing willingness to mediate an end to conflicts. 

It has, for instance, been involved in efforts to bring the Afghan government and the Taliban to the negotiation table (Express Tribune, March 7). More recently, it undertook shuttle diplomacy between Afghanistan and Pakistan to arrest spiraling tensions between the two neighbors (Times of India, June 26). 
*
China appears to be taking on a mediatory role in regions where it has strong economic and other interests*, and is the primary motivation behind Beijing’s mediation in the Rohingya crisis. China’s promotion of a military-economic development approach to the Rohingya crisis can be expected to worsen the conflict. 

Development of a violent region by external actors rarely benefits locals, as seen in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. China’s development of Gwadar port in the region prompted militants to target outsiders (Express Tribune, April 12, 2015; China Brief, July 31, 2015). 

Projects in Rakhine are likely to benefit foreign investors, Rakhine Buddhists and the Barmar majority, not the marginalized Rohingya. Development that does not result in economic inclusion of the Rohingya will deepen existing grievances and generate new conflicts. 

*To resolve the conflict, it is important that Myanmar tackle the roots of the problems, which are primarily political: denial of citizenship and rights to the Rohingya people and discriminatory policies. 
China is unlikely to nudge Myanmar on the citizenship issue. *

Moreover, Myanmar’s military is known to be sensitive regarding state sovereignty, and is unlikely to respond positively to Chinese pressure on these issues. China may have significant political and economic influence in Bangladesh and Myanmar but it lacks other qualities that a mediator would need to succeed in settling the Rohingya conflict. 
*
Notably, Bangladesh believes that China is biased towards Myanmar, *and Beijing’s substantial economic and other interests in Rakhine can be expected to fuel Myanmar’s suspicions of China’s intentions and actions. 
*Conclusion Chinese mediation is unlikely to resolve the Rohingya conflict. *
At best, its intervention could keep a lid on the violence being unleashed by the Myanmar military in the Rakhine state. This could usher in a measure of stability but not peace in Rakhine. In the future, China can be expected to offer to mediate in conflicts within and between countries where it has significant interests, especially involving countries that are part of the Belt and Road Initiative. 

*Related Bangladesh says agreed with Myanmar for UNHCR to assist Rohingya's return* 
November 26, 2017 
*In "Blog" Mishandling the Rohingya Crisis May Open New Frontier for Terrorism *
September 28, 2017 
*In "Commentary" Tentative Deal May See Myanmar’s Rohingya Go Home—But To What? *
November 28, 2017 In "Blog"

- See more at: http://southasiajournal.net/rohingya-crisis-will-chinas-mediation-succeed/


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya Crisis: Will China’s Mediation Succeed?* 
*November 26, 2017 Jamestown Foundation Publication: China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 15, 
Jamestown Foundation By: Sudha Ramachandran 
November 22, 2017 

During his visits to Dhaka, Bangladesh and Naypyitaw, Myanmar on November 18 and 19, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi put forward a three-phase plan to resolve the Rohingya crisis. 

First,* Wang called for a ceasefire in Myanmar’s devastated Rakhine state, which is at the center of the crisis. Aimed at restoring order and stability in the Rakhine state, the ceasefire is expected to halt the flow of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. 

China envisages that this will pave the way for the 
*second stage: *negotiations between Myanmar and Bangladesh to address the refugee problem. 

*The third and final stage* will involve the economic development of the Rakhine state to address the underlying causes of the violence (Global Times, November 20). 

China’s plan has reportedly found acceptance in Naypyitaw and Dhaka and marks the start of a new phase in Beijing’s involvement in the Rohingya conflict (FMPRC, November 20). China’s role has hitherto been limited to providing humanitarian aid to the Rohingya refugees and protecting Myanmar from international censure. 
*Why is China now adopting a mediatory role in the conflict? 
And is it likely to succeed in bringing peace to a restive region? *
The Rohingya Conflict The Rohingya crisis began on August 25 when the Myanmar government declared the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) a terrorist organization in response to deadly attacks on police and army posts in Rakhine state in western Myanmar (Mizzima, August 28). 

It also launched a military crackdown in Rakhine, which it maintains is aimed at the militants (Mizzima, October 16; Terrorism Monitor, November 10). 

However, horrific violence has been unleashed on Rohingya civilians, including women and children. Entire villages have been razed. Over 600,000 of the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya in Myanmar are reported to have fled to Bangladesh (The Wire, November 17). 

The current crisis is the most severe that the decades-old Rohingya conflict has witnessed. While the roots of the Rohingya conflict (like Myanmar’s other ethnic conflicts) can be traced back to colonial times, independence brought with it discrimination against the Rohingya that became systematic and serious. 

A Muslim ethnic group that has inhabited the Rakhine state for centuries, the Rohingya do not figure among Myanmar’s 135 official ethnic groups. Since 1982, they have been denied citizenship, effectively rendering them stateless (Daily Sabah, October 23). 

In addition to suffering at the hands of the military, the Rohingya have been targeted by Rakhine Buddhist vigilante groups too (The Wire, November 17). 

The violence has triggered waves of Rohingya migration to neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Unwelcome in these countries as well, Rohingya refugees have been pushed back or languish in makeshift, overcrowded camps (The National, September 13). 
*China’s Support The Myanmar military’s reported atrocities against fleeing Rohingya civilians have evoked international outrage.* 
UN Human Rights Council Chief Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein described the situation in the Rakhine state as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” (UN News Centre, September 11). Several Muslim countries and the western powers have criticized Myanmar’s brutal crackdowns on the Rohingya too (Arab News, September 5 and First Post, September 23). 
*
However, China has publically praised the Myanmar government’s crackdowns in Rakhine.* 
In September, the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, Hong Liang, “strongly welcomed” “the counterattacks of Myanmar security forces against [Rohingya] extremist terrorists” and described its military campaign as “just an internal affair” (The Global New Light of Myanmar, September 14). 

Later that month, Hong assured the Myanmar government that China would stand “firmly” by it on the international stage and continue providing it with “necessary assistance” to help it “uphold internal stability and development” (The Irrawaddy, September 27). At the UN, China has blocked resolutions against Myanmar and forced statements critical of its brutal military campaign against the Rohingyas to be watered down. 

On November 6, for instance, the UN Security Council (UNSC) expressed “grave concern over reports of human rights violations and abuses in Rakhine State” and called on the Myanmar government “to ensure no further excessive use of military forces” there (United Nations, November 6). 

While this was strong censure of the Myanmar military’s use of force against the Rohingya, this being a statement—and not a resolution—is not enforceable. China and Russia are reported to have forced the UNSC to issue a presidential statement rather than a resolution. 

The UNSC statement denounces Myanmar’s violent handling of the crisis but it is inconsequential. China’s Interests in Rakhine China’s interest in the Rakhine state stems from its strategic location and rich resources. 

The state is located on the Bay of Bengal, which opens into the Indian Ocean. Like Pakistan’s Gwadar port, which enables Beijing to transport West Asian oil, gas and other commodities through a shorter route via Pakistan to underdeveloped western China, the long Rakhine coastline provides southern China with access to the sea and eastern China with a shorter route to the Indian Ocean (China Brief, July 31, 2015 and Mizzima, October 31).

Ports and pipelines in Rakhine significantly free China’s trade with Africa and West Asia, especially its oil imports, from dependence on the congested Straits of Malacca (China Brief, July 31, 2015). 
*Additionally, Rakhine is rich in natural resources.* 
Large gas reserves were discovered in the waters off its coast in 2004. Beginning in 2008, China has bought gas from the area and transported it from Kyaukphyu on Rakhine’s coast to China’s Yunnan Province through the Myanmar-China Gas Pipeline since 2013. 

This gas meets the needs of China’s Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces as well as that of other counties and cities. Since April this year, oil from Rakhine is being transported to China through a pipeline running parallel to the gas pipeline (China Daily, May 11 and Mizzima, October 31). 

China is said to have invested around $2.5 billion in the oil and gas pipeline projects and is also investing $10 billion in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, which will include a deep-sea port and an industrial park, with the goal of turning Kyaukphyu into a maritime economic hub (Mizzima, October 31). 

The areas that are the worst affected by the ongoing violence are in the north of Rakhine, near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. Although neither Kyaukphyu nor the oil and gas pipelines are located in or run through these restive areas, Beijing is still concerned. 

The rise of ARSA and its mounting capacity to carry out attacks on well-secured targets indicates that it is only a matter of time before it strikes outside its stronghold. This has triggered concern in Beijing over the safety of infrastructure it has invested and built in the Rakhine state. 
*
The Rakhine state plays a significant role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Like Gwadar port in Pakistan, Kyaukphyu port and Myanmar will be important links in both the Maritime Belt and Silk Road components of the BRI. *

As a result, the “stability of Rakhine” is regarded as “important” to the success of the BRI, political and ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe has said (The Irrawaddy, September 4). 

Concerns over the impact that violence and unrest in Rakhine could have on the success of its projects in Myanmar and the BRI, in particular, underlie China’s interest to end the Rohingya crisis and restore stability in the region. 
*China’s Strong Ties with Bangladesh* 
China has similarly invested heavily in upgrading and building port infrastructure, roads, bridges and railway lines in Bangladesh too. It is also Bangladesh’s top trade partner; Bangladesh provides a large market for Chinese goods. Defense ties are strong as well; Bangladesh is the second largest importer of Chinese weapons (after Pakistan) and accounted for 82 percent of all Bangladesh weapons purchases between 2009–2013 (China Brief, June 21, 2016). 
*China is also keen to protect its strong and growing interests and ties in Bangladesh. *
There is concern in Bangladesh about Myanmar’s military campaign against the Rohingya, which is directly responsible for the flood of refugees into Bangladesh and has left Dhaka with the burden of providing shelter and relief to the Rohingya refugees. 

Not only has Myanmar’s military strategy contributed to the refugee exodus but also, this has triggered Rohingya militancy. For Bangladesh, which is grappling with an array of jihadist groups already, the emergence of ARSA and the reported training of its cadres in sanctuaries in Bangladesh, poses an additional security threat. 
*
China’s endorsement of Myanmar’s strategy on the Rohingya issue *has understandably evoked “great disappointment” in Dhaka (Daily Star, November 13). To ease Dhaka’s burden of looking after the Rohingya refugees, China is providing aid, including tents and blankets to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (Xinhuanet, October 13). 

Chinese leaders are concerned with Bangladesh’s attempts to draw extra-regional powers to intervene in the crisis, prompting Beijing to accelerate efforts to bring Myanmar and Bangladesh to the negotiation table and end the refugee problem.
*Will China’s Mediation Work?* 
In the past, China avoided playing mediator in conflicts beyond its borders, arguing that this went against its principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. However, in recent years it has shown increasing willingness to mediate an end to conflicts. 

It has, for instance, been involved in efforts to bring the Afghan government and the Taliban to the negotiation table (Express Tribune, March 7). 
More recently, it undertook shuttle diplomacy between Afghanistan and Pakistan to arrest spiraling tensions between the two neighbors (Times of India, June 26). 
*
China appears to be taking on a mediatory role in regions where it has strong economic and other interests*, and is the primary motivation behind Beijing’s mediation in the Rohingya crisis. China’s promotion of a military-economic development approach to the Rohingya crisis can be expected to worsen the conflict. 

Development of a violent region by external actors rarely benefits locals, as seen in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. China’s development of Gwadar port in the region prompted militants to target outsiders (Express Tribune, April 12, 2015; China Brief, July 31, 2015). 

Projects in Rakhine are likely to benefit foreign investors, Rakhine Buddhists and the Barmar majority, not the marginalized Rohingya. Development that does not result in economic inclusion of the Rohingya will deepen existing grievances and generate new conflicts. 

*To resolve the conflict, it is important that Myanmar tackle the roots of the problems, which are primarily political: denial of citizenship and rights to the Rohingya people and discriminatory policies. 
China is unlikely to nudge Myanmar on the citizenship issue. *

Moreover, Myanmar’s military is known to be sensitive regarding state sovereignty, and is unlikely to respond positively to Chinese pressure on these issues. China may have significant political and economic influence in Bangladesh and Myanmar but it lacks other qualities that a mediator would need to succeed in settling the Rohingya conflict. 
*
Notably, Bangladesh believes that China is biased towards Myanmar, *and Beijing’s substantial economic and other interests in Rakhine can be expected to fuel Myanmar’s suspicions of China’s intentions and actions. 
*Conclusion Chinese mediation is unlikely to resolve the Rohingya conflict. *
At best, its intervention could keep a lid on the violence being unleashed by the Myanmar military in the Rakhine state. This could usher in a measure of stability but not peace in Rakhine. In the future, China can be expected to offer to mediate in conflicts within and between countries where it has significant interests, especially involving countries that are part of the Belt and Road Initiative. 

*Related Bangladesh says agreed with Myanmar for UNHCR to assist Rohingya's return* 
November 26, 2017 
*In "Blog" Mishandling the Rohingya Crisis May Open New Frontier for Terrorism *
September 28, 2017 
*In "Commentary" Tentative Deal May See Myanmar’s Rohingya Go Home—But To What? *
November 28, 2017 In "Blog"

- See more at: http://southasiajournal.net/rohingya-crisis-will-chinas-mediation-succeed/


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## Banglar Bir

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Muhammed45

Banglar Bir said:


> __ https://www.facebook.com/




Evidence for Buddhists terrorists' torturing of the Rohingyan Muslims ::

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## mb444

BD need to begin arming and training the rohingya.

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## mb444

China has its own interest that they are seeking towards protect.

BD needs to do the same. Stability in Burma should not be our concern... make the Burmese monkeys bleed.

BD should continue to highlight the situation and exercise other options.

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## UKBengali

mb444 said:


> China has its own interest that they are seeking towards protect.
> 
> BD needs to do the same. Stability in Burma should not be our concern... make the Burmese monkeys bleed.
> 
> BD should continue to highlight the situation and exercise other options.



The refugees will not be going back as the Barmans have said they can take a maximum of 300 a day. This is 100,000 a year maximum.

BD needs to have a 5 year plan and it should look something like this:

1. 2019 - Deploy 1-2 squadrons of new 4th generation fighters and upgrade the 8 existing Mig-29s. BAF can then handle the MAF with ease.

2. 2020-201 - Train and arm the Rohingya to fight for their land

3. 2021-2022 - If the Rohingya are not able to free their homeland then BD needs to invade and annex northern Arakan.

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## Doctor Strange

Even the Bengali ethnic identity is new one, people before 1906 had no sense of it. So people who adopted the Rohingya name certainly has history without the Rohingya name around Bay of Bengal.


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## Banglar Bir

12:00 AM, December 04, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:30 AM, December 04, 2017
*Pope defends his Myanmar strategy*




Pope Francis
Agencies
*Pope Francis on Saturday defended his strategy of avoiding the term "Rohingya" in Myanmar, saying he believed he got his message across to both the civilian and military leadership without shutting down dialogue.*

Speaking to reporters aboard the plane returning to Rome from Bangladesh, the pontiff also indicated that he had been firm with Myanmar's military leaders in private meetings about the need for them to respect the rights of Rohingya refugees.

He also disclosed that he cried when he met a group of Rohingya refugees on Friday in Bangladesh, where he defended their rights by name in an emotional meeting, reports Reuters.

"For me, the most important thing is that message gets through, to try to say things one step at a time and listen to the responses," he said.

"I knew that if in the official speeches I would have used that word, they would have closed the door in our faces. But [in public] I described situations, rights, said that no one should be excluded, [the right to] citizenship, in order to allow myself to go further in the private meetings," he said.

Francis did not use the word Rohingya in public while on the first leg of the trip in Myanmar. Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise the mostly Muslim Rohingya as an ethnic group with its own identity but as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The pope met Myanmar's military leaders privately last Monday, shortly after his arrival in the nation's biggest city, Yangon.

The meeting had been scheduled for Thursday morning but the military pointedly asked at the last minute that it be pushed forward. The result was they saw the pope before the civilian leaders instead of the other way around, as had been planned.

*NON-NEGOTIABLE TRUTHS*
"It was a good conversation and the truth was non-negotiable," he said of his meeting with the military leaders.

The latest exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh of about 625,000 people followed a Myanmar military crackdown in response to Rohingya militant attacks on an army base and police posts on August 25.

Refugees have said scores of Rohingya villages were burnt to the ground, people were killed and women were raped. The military have denied accusations of ethnic cleansing by the United States and United Nations.

Asked if he used the word Rohingya during the private meeting with the military chiefs, the pope said: "I used words in order to arrive at the message and when I saw that the message had arrived, I dared to say everything that I wanted say".

He then gave a reporter a mischievous grin and ended his answer with the Latin phrase "Intelligenti Pauca," which means "Few words are enough for those who understand," strongly hinting that he had used the word the military detests while in their presence.

Human rights groups have criticised the country's de facto civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was under house arrest for a total of 15 years before the 2015 elections, for not taking a stand against the generals.

But Francis, who met with her privately on Tuesday, appeared to give her the benefit of the doubt because of her delicate relationship with the generals who were once her jailers.

"Myanmar is a nation that is growing politically, in transition," Francis said in response to a question about Suu Kyi and budding democracy in Myanmar.

"So things have to be viewed through this lens. Myanmar has to be able to look forward to the building of the country".

On Friday, Francis held an emotional encounter with Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and then used the word Rohingya for the first time on the trip, although he had defended them by name twice from the Vatican earlier this year.

He told the crowd where the Rohingya were that God's presence was within them and they should be respected.

"I was crying and tried to hide it," Francis said on the plane, recounting how moved he felt when the refugees recounted their ordeals to him.

*SOCIAL MEDIA REACTIONS*
Pope's comments sparked a flurry of online anger in Myanmar, a country locked off from modern communications for five decades but which now has an active social media.

"He is like a lizard whose colour has changed because of weather," said Facebook user Aung Soe Lin of the pope's strikingly different stances on the crisis.

"He should be a salesman or broker for using different words even though he is a religious leader," said another Facebook user called Soe Soe.

Myanmar's Catholic church had advised Francis not to stray into the incendiary issue of the status of the Rohingya in Myanmar, in case he worsened tensions and endangered Christians.

On his Myanmar trip, he treaded softly on the topic, urging unity, compassion and respect for all ethnic groups -- but not naming the Rohingya.

His caution initially won applause from Myanmar's tiny Catholic minority -- who feared a nationalist blowback -- as well as from Buddhist hardliners, who are on the defensive after a global outcry about the treatment of the group, AFP writes.

"The Pope is a holy person... but he said something here [in Myanmar] and he said different in other country," another Facebook user Ye Linn Maung posted.

"He should say the same things if he loves the truth."

Others were more sanguine about Francis' choice of language once he had left Myanmar soil.

Maung Thway Chun, chairman of an unofficial party of nationalists called the 135 Patriots Party, applauded the pope's decision not to name them in Myanmar despite pressure from rights groups.

“It means he respects Myanmar people," he said. "He even did not use the word many times in Bangladesh... I think he said it once, just to comfort human rights organisations." 
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpa...sis-pope-defends-his-myanmar-strategy-1499746


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## Banglar Bir

*Rohingya, realpolitik, and a strategic halo*
Towheed Feroze
*Published at 07:52 PM December 03, 2017*
*Last updated at 12:13 AM December 04, 2017*




*The Pope brought the Rohingya plight in front of the global audience
Photo: REUTERS
What impact can the Pope’s visit have on the Rohingya?
The unfolding Rohingya tragedy has gone through several manifestations, starting with the sea of desolate humanity entering Bangladesh, to the latest situation where the Pope was on stage in Bangladesh with the persecuted people, listening to their tales of woe.

All through this human catastrophe, what became evident plus perturbing at every step was the assertive presence of realpolitik over simple moral imperative.

Those who were supposed to be blamed unequivocally, were spared while international censure by global leaders often seemed too reserved, covered by layers of appeasing mealy-mouthed rhetoric.

We had a papal visit recently and the breaking news was that the Pope had eventually mentioned the word “Rohingya” in the end.

This he had carefully avoided doing in Myanmar, reportedly, to ensure that the minority Christian community in that country did not face the wrath of the people plus the military.

I am not blaming the spiritual leader, whose visit was more of a show of solidarity rather than to achieve anything tangible for the oppressed.

The real problem is pushed under the carpet
In all this frenzied activity around the displaced people, the actual problem — a country where the army is calling the shots with a flimsy face of farcical democracy — is never mentioned by anyone.

While there is circumspect rhetoric about maintaining social harmony among all ethnic minorities, global leaders have not pin-pointed the Rohingya issue, refraining from directly blaming the men in uniform whose actions drove scores of people to leave their homes to seek refuge in another state.

Interestingly, whenever we hear that some global icon is visiting either Myanmar or Bangladesh there is expectation that maybe there will be some direct admonition/denunciation of the atrocities.

The aid agencies have called this “ethnic cleansing,” while the narrative from several global movers and shakers was nebulous. The Indian PM totally ignored it during his trip to Myanmar.

In this whole operation of taking back the displaced people, unwavering involvement of other, more powerful nations are essential

Reportedly, the exodus of the people began following an attack on Myanmar security posts by insurgents.

Obviously, we do not support insurgency of any format but when global personalities only talk of one side of a problem, completely disregarding the other, more diabolical face of a situation, it seems like covert approval.

The deal, sealed?
An agreement has been signed recently between the two states to begin repatriation of the people who fled to Bangladesh. The valid question remains: With memories of torture and violence fresh in the minds, will they want to go back?

Naturally, Bangladesh can’t look after them forever since our resources are finite and, at one point or the other, a process of returning will start, but in this whole operation of taking back the displaced people, unwavering involvement of other, more powerful nations are essential.

The term “Rohingya” seems to be an anathema in Myanmar; and since the Pope cautiously sidelined the word, we can understand that even usage of it carries the potential to spark a socio-political upheaval.

If that is the case, then once these people go back, how will they be identified?

If I am not wrong, one of the desires of the people is to be known as Rohingya. Hypothetically speaking, let’s assume the people go back from where they fled. They will face the uphill task of rebuilding a shattered life plus the ignominy of having no identity.

Bluntly speaking, signing an agreement may be a way forward, though the most important part is to ensure that once the people go back, they feel some sense of security and live freely, not in ghettos.

To ensure this, Bangladesh needs to have major powers by her side, otherwise, down the line, there will be another incident triggering another exodus.

Realpolitik and business
And then there is the real world — comforting and caring in rhetoric, calculating and cold in thought.

Here, own interests take precedence. From what I understand, Myanmar, opening to the world after remaining cloistered for so long, is like corporate-business Shangri La. Everyone wants a chunk of it, either it’s for a fizzy drink or a pizza chain or for imposing infrastructure projects.

The green signal for justifying their commercial interests is the face of Suu Kyi — the so-called fledgling image of democracy.

Who actually calls the shots in Myanmar has become crystal clear from the Rohingya crisis; yet, for some odd reason, foreign dignitaries, during their visit to Myanmar, are mostly seen talking to the civilian face of the government when it’s in fact just a charade.

The rationale given by Western government representatives is that if they are seen talking to the military then it might be interpreted as giving legitimacy to the army control.

But let me ask, when you talk to a civilian front of a regime controlled by the military then what are you giving credence to?

The Pope called for unity among ethnic segments in Myanmar during his visit. Honestly, speaking such a line is so vague that it can actually be used in almost all countries in the world and one does not need a humanitarian disaster either.

But then, coming back to reality, what else could he have done? To look at the positive side, his visit worked indirectly, as the Pope, in Myanmar and Bangladesh, brought the Rohingya plight in front of the global audience, using the spiritual cachet as a catalyst for reconciliation.

Hopefully, this trip will inspire world leaders to unite and pressure Myanmar to treat the returnees with civility.

The halo in the right place at the right time — very strategic indeed.
Towheed Feroze is a journalist working in the development sector.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/2017/12/03/rohingya-realpolitik-strategic-halo/
*


*‘Bangladesh’s image brighter worldwide over Rohingyas’ treatment’*
Asif Showkat Kallol
Published at 09:15 PM December 03, 2017




File photo of State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan *Dhaka Tribune*
*The state minister for finance and planning says countries that participated in two recent South-South Cooperation events have appreciated Bangladesh’s efforts in helping the refugees*
Bangladesh government’s measures in tackling the ongoing Rohingya crisis have brightened the country’s image around the world, says State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan.

He said this on Sunday at a press conference at the Finance Ministry auditorium at the Secretariat in Dhaka while briefing reporters on Bangladesh’s participation in the South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Brazil and the Global South-South Development Expo 2017 in Turkey. Both events took place in November.

Mannan led the Bangladesh delegation at both events.

South-South Cooperation is a broad framework for collaboration among developing countries based on the concept of solidarity that breaks the traditional dichotomy between donors and recipients.

The state minister told reporters the countries that participated in two South-South Cooperation events last month appreciated Bangladesh’s efforts in helping and sheltering the Rohingya refugees.

The latest exodus from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh of about 625,000 Rohingyas had followed a Myanmar military crackdown in response to Rohingya militant attacks on an army base and police posts on August 25.

Refugees have said scores of Rohingya villages were burnt to the ground, people were killed and women were raped. The military, however, have denied accusations of ethnic cleansing by the US and the UN.
http://www.thedailystar.net/busines...nh-cambodia-sign-10-deals-instruments-1499920

*Rohingya crisis: 73 countries respond to Bangladesh’s call at UNHRC*
Sheikh Shahriar Zaman
Published at 01:50 AM December 04, 2017




Rohingya refugee children carry supplies through Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, October 23, 2017 *Reuters
China and India have refrained from taking a side, but Bangladesh is continuing diplomatic effort to get its powerful neighbours on board*
Bangladesh is yet to sidestep from mounting international pressure on Myanmar even after signing a bilateral agreement on Rohingya repatriation. And as a part of the process, the government has invoked the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to call a special session to discuss the human rights condition of the Muslims and the other minorities in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia recently sent a notice to the UNHRC in this regard, and received support of 33 of the 47 member states. Also, 40 other states, which are not UNHRC members, have given their support to the move.

Although, China and India refrained from taking a side, Bangladesh is continuing diplomatic efforts to get its powerful neighbours on board.

A Bangladesh government official said they were trying to adopt a unanimous resolution regarding the special UNHRC session.

All the subjects mentioned at UN’s Third Committee Resolution are also in the latest resolution of UNHRC. Some new issues have also been appended with it, another official added.

In the Third Committee Resolution, Myanmar was asked to reconsider its 1982 Citizenship Act to provide the Rohingyas with full-fledged citizenship. The resolution had also asked the Myanmar government to bring those involved in the Rohingya persecution to book.

Asked which elements were added to this resolution, the second official said: “We want the UNHRC to be more involved with the issue and that is why we have made the special recommendation.”

*For and against Bangladesh’s call*
Among the 47 UNHRC member states, China has always been on the side of Myanmar. They had asked Bangladesh to be more ductile and resolved the issue bilaterally.

Referring to this, the government official said: “Our effort to have China change their position is still on.”

Regarding India’s stance, the official said: “We are also maintaining contact with India. We want the resolution to be unanimously adopted. Even if any nation chooses to go against it, we still believe the resolution will be accepted nevertheless receiving majority vote.”

More than 620,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh in the face of an ethnic cleansing carried out by Myanmar military forces in Rakhine state since August 25.

Since then, the Bangladesh government has been making extensive diplomatic efforts to stop the atrocity and send back the Rohingya refugees to their homeland.
_The article was first published on banglatribune.com_
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/12/04/rohingya-crisis-rights-council/


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## Banglar Bir

*Anger in Myanmar social media as Pope pronounces ‘Rohingya’*
Agence France-Presse . Yangon | Published: 01:25, Dec 04,2017 | Updated: 01:37, Dec 04,2017




Pope Francis places his hand on a Rohingya orphan girl during an interreligious meeting in Dhaka on December 1. — AFP photo

Pope Francis’s embrace of the Rohingya during a trip to Bangladesh has sparked some angry comment on social media in Myanmar, where just days earlier he chose not to publicly air their plight.
On Friday the head of the Catholic church met a group of refugees from Myanmar’s stateless Muslim minority in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. 

He referred to them as ‘Rohingya’ – a term unacceptable to many in Myanmar where they are reviled as alleged ‘Bengali’ illegal immigrants rather than as a distinct ethnic group.

During his public addresses on the previous leg of his trip in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, Francis did not refer to the group by name or directly allude to the crisis in Rakhine state, from where over 623,000 Rohingya have fled since August.

His caution initially won applause from Myanmar’s tiny Catholic minority – who feared a nationalist blowback – as well as from Buddhist hardliners, who are on the defensive after a global outcry about the treatment of the group.

A deadly attack by Rohingya militants on police posts in late August sparked a ferocious crackdown in Rakhine by the Myanmar military, which the US and UN describe as ethnic cleansing.

As he arrived back at the Vatican, the pontiff said he had taken up the Rohingya cause in private in Myanmar, also describing how he wept after meeting the group of refugees.

‘I wept: I tried to do it in a way that it couldn’t be seen,’ he told reporters. ‘They wept too.’
The comments sparked a flurry of online anger in Myanmar, a country locked off from modern communications for five decades but which now has an active social media.

‘He is like a lizard whose colour has changed because of weather,’ said Facebook user Aung Soe Lin of the pope’s strikingly different stances on the crisis. 

‘He should be a salesman or broker for using different words even though he is a religious leader,’ said another Facebook user called Soe Soe.

Myanmar’s Catholic church had advised Francis not to stray into the incendiary issue of the status of the Rohingya in Myanmar, in case he worsened tensions and endangered Christians.

In his public addresses he treaded softly on the topic, urging unity, compassion and respect for all ethnic groups – but not naming the Rohingya.

‘The Pope is a holy person... but he said something here (in Myanmar) and he said different in other country,’ another Facebook user Ye Linn Maung posted. 
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29648/anger-in-myanmar-social-media-as-pope-pronounces-rohingya

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## Banglar Bir

*UNHRC to hold special session on Rohingya issue*
Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 00:22, Dec 04,2017 | Updated: 00:24, Dec 04,2017
*The United Nations Human Rights Council is scheduled for Tuesday to hold a special session in Geneva on the human rights situation of the ethnic minority Rohingya Muslim population and other minorities in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.*
The special session is being convened following an official request by Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, supported by 73 UN member states, according to a release.

This will be the 27th special session of the council.

In order for a special session to be convened, the support of one-third of the 47 members of the council – 16 or more – is required.
*
Thirty-three member states of the council supported holding of the special session.* The countries are: Albania, *Bangladesh,* Belgium, Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, *Egypt,* El Salvador, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Hungary,* Indonesia, Iraq,* Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Netherlands, *Nigeria, *Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, *Qatar,* Republic of Korea, Rwanda, *Saudi Arabia*, Slovenia, Togo, *Tunisia*,* United Arab Emirates,* United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the United States of America.
*Forty observer countries of the UNHRC also supported holding of the special session. 

The countries are*: *Afghanistan, Algeria*, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, *Iran *(Islamic Republic of), Ireland, Italy, *Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya*, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,* Malaysia, Maldives, *Malta, Norway*, Pakistan, *Poland, Romania, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, *Sudan,* Sweden, *Turkey and State of Palestine.*

Over 6,24,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh, fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25 and November 26.

The ongoing Rohingya influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,44,000 till Sunday, according to estimates by UN agencies.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29689/unhrc-to-hold-special-session-on-rohingya-issue

*Anger in Myanmar social media as Pope pronounces ‘Rohingya’*
Agence France-Presse . Yangon | Published: 01:25, Dec 04,2017 | Updated: 01:37, Dec 04,2017





Pope Francis places his hand on a Rohingya orphan girl during an interreligious meeting in Dhaka on December 1. — AFP photo

Pope Francis’s embrace of the Rohingya during a trip to Bangladesh has sparked some angry comment on social media in Myanmar, where just days earlier he chose not to publicly air their plight.
On Friday the head of the Catholic church met a group of refugees from Myanmar’s stateless Muslim minority in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

He referred to them as ‘Rohingya’ – a term unacceptable to many in Myanmar where they are reviled as alleged ‘Bengali’ illegal immigrants rather than as a distinct ethnic group.

During his public addresses on the previous leg of his trip in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, Francis did not refer to the group by name or directly allude to the crisis in Rakhine state, from where over 623,000 Rohingya have fled since August.

His caution initially won applause from Myanmar’s tiny Catholic minority – who feared a nationalist blowback – as well as from Buddhist hardliners, who are on the defensive after a global outcry about the treatment of the group.

A deadly attack by Rohingya militants on police posts in late August sparked a ferocious crackdown in Rakhine by the Myanmar military, which the US and UN describe as ethnic cleansing.

As he arrived back at the Vatican, the pontiff said he had taken up the Rohingya cause in private in Myanmar, also describing how he wept after meeting the group of refugees.

‘I wept: I tried to do it in a way that it couldn’t be seen,’ he told reporters. ‘They wept too.’
The comments sparked a flurry of online anger in Myanmar, a country locked off from modern communications for five decades but which now has an active social media.

‘He is like a lizard whose colour has changed because of weather,’ said Facebook user Aung Soe Lin of the pope’s strikingly different stances on the crisis.

‘He should be a salesman or broker for using different words even though he is a religious leader,’ said another Facebook user called Soe Soe.

Myanmar’s Catholic church had advised Francis not to stray into the incendiary issue of the status of the Rohingya in Myanmar, in case he worsened tensions and endangered Christians.

In his public addresses he treaded softly on the topic, urging unity, compassion and respect for all ethnic groups – but not naming the Rohingya.

‘The Pope is a holy person... but he said something here (in Myanmar) and he said different in other country,’ another Facebook user Ye Linn Maung posted.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29648/anger-in-myanmar-social-media-as-pope-pronounces-


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## Banglar Bir

*A solution that will not save lives*
by Saira Rahman Khan | Published: 00:05, Dec 02,2017




A Bangladeshi man helps Rohingya refugees to disembark from a boat on the Bangladeshi shoreline of the River Naf after crossing the border from Myanmar in Teknaf on September 30. — Agence France-Presse/Fred Dufour
*I HAVE spent the past two days pouring over the real-life horror stories that have come out from the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. A hundred of them, to be precise. Incidents of young women and girls being carried off to army camps and being found raped and dead later on.*

Of men being slaughtered in front of their families, of families being locked inside homes that were set on fire, of infants being snatched from their mother’s and killed, of homes being searched for arms and ‘terrorists’ and being looted and burnt instead. 

Men and women being separated and ‘selected’ for torture, death, enforced disappearances and rape. Testimonies from young widows, orphaned children, old men and women weeping over dead children and grandchildren. Lamentations of those who left families, husbands and sons behind. 

Much has been written about the tragedy of being born Rohingya. Of being rooted in a state that does not recognise your roots. With Bangladesh bursting at the seams hosting the Rohingyas fleeing further persecution, will the agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, called the ‘Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State’ provide any solace — if the most persecuted of the persecuted even wish to cross back?

Non-refoulement is a fundamental principle of international law which forbids a country receiving victims of human rights violations from returning them to a country in which they would be in likely danger of persecution. 

The principle is found in several international treaties and conventions, including the Convention against Torture, the Convention against Enforced Disappearances and the Refugee Convention. Have any measures been included in the said document that will ensure that the Rohingya wishing to return will not face further persecution? 

The document states that Myanmar will not criminalise returnees for their illegal exit and return unless there are specific cases of their involvement in terrorist or criminal activities. It also states that both governments, Bangladesh and Myanmar, will refrain from implementing any policy that is discriminatory to a particular community and that violates ‘universally agreed principles on human rights as enshrined in the international human rights instruments to which they are parties’. 

Let us tackle the last issue first. Bangladesh and Myanmar have both ratified the Genocide Convention, the latter ratifying it as early as 1956. They have also ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the CEDAW. Neither is state party to the convention dealing with enforced disappearances nor is Myanmar a party to the Convention against Torture, the ICCPR and the ICESCR. 

Despite such shortcomings, Myanmar and Bangladesh are both obliged under the basic principles of international human rights to respect fundamental rights. However, the fact that Myanmar has seemingly very little obligations, as it is not a party to some major conventions, makes it slightly easier for it to argue that it is not bound by any relevant international norms. 

In fact, a majority of the international human rights instruments Myanmar has ratified deal with trafficking, women, children and persons with disabilities. The human rights violations it has committed, as based on the testimonies of the Rohingyas and the investigations carried out by the United Nations all fall under the conventions that Myanmar has not signed or ratified. 

So, where the document between Bangladesh and Myanmar reads that both will refrain from implementing any policy that violates human rights enshrined in international instruments to which they are both a party — it is easy to see the glaring gaps. 

Testimonies and reports have shown that both the Myanmar military and members of the civilian population took part in the burning of houses, torture, looting and rape of the Rohingyas. Given the circumstances of the whole issue, the continuing persecution and the eye-witness accounts, it might be safe to say that none of the civilians who took part in these crimes have been arrested or prosecuted. Furthermore, homes were robbed, vandalised and burnt under false pretexts of ‘arms searches’ and Rohingya men were arrested for being terrorists or for aiding criminals, by soldiers, with no evidence and with obviously ulterior motive. 

The document states that Myanmar will not criminalise returnees for their illegal exit and return unless there are specific cases of their involvement in terrorist or criminal activities. It is obvious that given the persecution faced by the Rohingyas in the name of ‘terrorism’ and the arrests made with no evidence or grounds, as soon as they start returning there is the very real fear that the persecution and witch-hunt will start again. Under a repressive state, there is no need for evidence or proof to persecute the dissenters and the defenceless. 

The criteria for eligibility for return, contained in this document, also raise questions. The first criterion is that the returnees must be residents of Myanmar. When a people have no citizenship they do not have passports or national identity cards either. When they are fleeing in fear, how many are in the frame of mind to remember documents relating to property, home or some form of identification? 

Old or expired citizenship cards, legal documents, might well have gone up in flames as homes and villages were burnt or are in homes now taken over by others. The agreement does mention that other documentation or information indicating residence in Myanmar such as addresses, reference to household or business ownership, school attendance or other relevant information would also be accepted but if the papers/written proof is not there, it will be easy to dismiss claims and not allow entry. 

The document clearly states that ‘bona fide evidence of residence in Myanmar’ is a must. The document does not give any alternative solution if such papers or documentation is unavailable. It does state that UNHCR-issued refugee documents will also be verified but since proof of bona fide evidence is made mandatory, such a UN document does not have much use alone.

Where are the checks and balances and security measures to ensure returning Rohingyas that they will be safe in Myanmar? That the agreement will not be breached? The document states that the UNHCR and other mandated UN agencies as well as ‘interested international partners’ would be invited to participate in the return and resettlement process ‘as appropriate’. 

But nowhere does it state that in order to prevent further human rights violations, there will be in place UN mechanisms or any form of checks and balances to ensure effective implementation of the contents of the ‘arrangement’ that apply to resettlement, return of property and households and legal recognition of Rohingyas in Myanmar. 

The language of this document, on a whole, is disappointing. The fact that it states that ‘Myanmar will not criminalise (ie prosecute or penalise) returnees for illegal exit and return…’ reeks of denial of atrocities perpetrated on the Rohingyas. Did the latter have any other choice but to flee the horrors? Even when they fled and hid in the jungles in Myanmar, they were chased down. 

There is no mention of the persecution. There is no mention of measures to identify, arrest and prosecute those who have committed crimes against the Rohingyas. This is not an agreement to save lives and put an end to atrocities against human rights. It is not an agreement to recognise the Rohingyas as citizens of Myanmar. It is a scheme to push back a terrorised population. 

There are no measures or guarantees in place to prevent further violations against the Rohingyas who return. 

The fact that this document is called an ‘arrangement’ and not an ‘agreement’ shows that it is for a political and not a humanitarian purpose. There is high possibility that Bangladesh might be taking an awful risk and breaching the principle of non-refoulement if, by some miracle, the Rohingyas are convinced into going back based on this arrangement. After hosting a huge number of sacred, defenceless and violated people and giving them shelter and assistance, does the Bangladesh government want to see these people persecuted again and return? 

It will seem as if it is contributing to the human rights violations on the Rohingyas. The United Nations can no longer sit back and let Bangladesh and Myanmar ‘deal’ with the issue. Human rights violations are not regional or ‘cross-border’. 
*They are international. *
*The plight of the Rohingyas has shaken the whole world. *
*They safety, security, dignity and rights must be of international concern too.*

Saira Rahman Khan teaches law at BRAC University.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29561/a-solution-that-will-not-save-lives


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## Bilal9

Banglar Bir said:


> Myanmar’s Catholic church had advised Francis not to stray into the incendiary issue of the status of the Rohingya in Myanmar, in case he worsened tensions and endangered Christians.



They're threatening the Pope!

And threatening repercussions on Myanmar Christians!

That's all we've got left to see...

Reactions: Like Like:
4


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## Banglar Bir

Bilal9 said:


> They're threatening the Pope!
> And threatening repercussions on Myanmar Christians!
> *That's all we've got left to see*...


----------



## Banglar Bir

*A solution that will not save lives
by Saira Rahman Khan | Published: 00:05, Dec 02,2017




A Bangladeshi man helps Rohingya refugees to disembark from a boat on the Bangladeshi shoreline of the River Naf after crossing the border from Myanmar in Teknaf on September 30. — Agence France-Presse/Fred Dufour

I HAVE spent the past two days pouring over the real-life horror stories that have come out from the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. A hundred of them, to be precise. Incidents of young women and girls being carried off to army camps and being found raped and dead later on. Of men being slaughtered in front of their families, of families being locked inside homes that were set on fire, of infants being snatched from their mother’s and killed, of homes being searched for arms and ‘terrorists’ and being looted and burnt instead. 

Men and women being separated and ‘selected’ for torture, death, enforced disappearances and rape. Testimonies from young widows, orphaned children, old men and women weeping over dead children and grandchildren. Lamentations of those who left families, husbands and sons behind. 

Much has been written about the tragedy of being born Rohingya. Of being rooted in a state that does not recognise your roots. With Bangladesh bursting at the seams hosting the Rohingyas fleeing further persecution, will the agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar, called the ‘Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State’ provide any solace — if the most persecuted of the persecuted even wish to cross back?
Non-refoulement is a fundamental principle of international law which forbids a country receiving victims of human rights violations from returning them to a country in which they would be in likely danger of persecution. 

The principle is found in several international treaties and conventions, including the Convention against Torture, the Convention against Enforced Disappearances and the Refugee Convention. Have any measures been included in the said document that will ensure that the Rohingya wishing to return will not face further persecution? 

The document states that Myanmar will not criminalise returnees for their illegal exit and return unless there are specific cases of their involvement in terrorist or criminal activities. It also states that both governments, Bangladesh and Myanmar, will refrain from implementing any policy that is discriminatory to a particular community and that violates ‘universally agreed principles on human rights as enshrined in the international human rights instruments to which they are parties’. 

Let us tackle the last issue first. Bangladesh and Myanmar have both ratified the Genocide Convention, the latter ratifying it as early as 1956. They have also ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the CEDAW. Neither is state party to the convention dealing with enforced disappearances nor is Myanmar a party to the Convention against Torture, the ICCPR and the ICESCR. 

Despite such shortcomings, Myanmar and Bangladesh are both obliged under the basic principles of international human rights to respect fundamental rights. However, the fact that Myanmar has seemingly very little obligations, as it is not a party to some major conventions, makes it slightly easier for it to argue that it is not bound by any relevant international norms. 

In fact, a majority of the international human rights instruments Myanmar has ratified deal with trafficking, women, children and persons with disabilities. The human rights violations it has committed, as based on the testimonies of the Rohingyas and the investigations carried out by the United Nations all fall under the conventions that Myanmar has not signed or ratified. 

So, where the document between Bangladesh and Myanmar reads that both will refrain from implementing any policy that violates human rights enshrined in international instruments to which they are both a party — it is easy to see the glaring gaps. 

Testimonies and reports have shown that both the Myanmar military and members of the civilian population took part in the burning of houses, torture, looting and rape of the Rohingyas. Given the circumstances of the whole issue, the continuing persecution and the eye-witness accounts, it might be safe to say that none of the civilians who took part in these crimes have been arrested or prosecuted. Furthermore, homes were robbed, vandalised and burnt under false pretexts of ‘arms searches’ and Rohingya men were arrested for being terrorists or for aiding criminals, by soldiers, with no evidence and with obviously ulterior motive. 

The document states that Myanmar will not criminalise returnees for their illegal exit and return unless there are specific cases of their involvement in terrorist or criminal activities. It is obvious that given the persecution faced by the Rohingyas in the name of ‘terrorism’ and the arrests made with no evidence or grounds, as soon as they start returning there is the very real fear that the persecution and witch-hunt will start again. Under a repressive state, there is no need for evidence or proof to persecute the dissenters and the defenceless. 

The criteria for eligibility for return, contained in this document, also raise questions. The first criterion is that the returnees must be residents of Myanmar. When a people have no citizenship they do not have passports or national identity cards either. When they are fleeing in fear, how many are in the frame of mind to remember documents relating to property, home or some form of identification? 

Old or expired citizenship cards, legal documents, might well have gone up in flames as homes and villages were burnt or are in homes now taken over by others. The agreement does mention that other documentation or information indicating residence in Myanmar such as addresses, reference to household or business ownership, school attendance or other relevant information would also be accepted but if the papers/written proof is not there, it will be easy to dismiss claims and not allow entry. 

The document clearly states that ‘bona fide evidence of residence in Myanmar’ is a must. The document does not give any alternative solution if such papers or documentation is unavailable. It does state that UNHCR-issued refugee documents will also be verified but since proof of bona fide evidence is made mandatory, such a UN document does not have much use alone.

Where are the checks and balances and security measures to ensure returning Rohingyas that they will be safe in Myanmar? That the agreement will not be breached? The document states that the UNHCR and other mandated UN agencies as well as ‘interested international partners’ would be invited to participate in the return and resettlement process ‘as appropriate’. 

But nowhere does it state that in order to prevent further human rights violations, there will be in place UN mechanisms or any form of checks and balances to ensure effective implementation of the contents of the ‘arrangement’ that apply to resettlement, return of property and households and legal recognition of Rohingyas in Myanmar. 

The language of this document, on a whole, is disappointing. The fact that it states that ‘Myanmar will not criminalise (ie prosecute or penalise) returnees for illegal exit and return…’ reeks of denial of atrocities perpetrated on the Rohingyas. Did the latter have any other choice but to flee the horrors? Even when they fled and hid in the jungles in Myanmar, they were chased down. 

There is no mention of the persecution. There is no mention of measures to identify, arrest and prosecute those who have committed crimes against the Rohingyas. This is not an agreement to save lives and put an end to atrocities against human rights. It is not an agreement to recognise the Rohingyas as citizens of Myanmar. It is a scheme to push back a terrorised population. 

There are no measures or guarantees in place to prevent further violations against the Rohingyas who return. 

The fact that this document is called an ‘arrangement’ and not an ‘agreement’ shows that it is for a political and not a humanitarian purpose. There is high possibility that Bangladesh might be taking an awful risk and breaching the principle of non-refoulement if, by some miracle, the Rohingyas are convinced into going back based on this arrangement. After hosting a huge number of sacred, defenceless and violated people and giving them shelter and assistance, does the Bangladesh government want to see these people persecuted again and return? 

It will seem as if it is contributing to the human rights violations on the Rohingyas. The United Nations can no longer sit back and let Bangladesh and Myanmar ‘deal’ with the issue. Human rights violations are not regional or ‘cross-border’. 
They are international. 
The plight of the Rohingyas has shaken the whole world. 
They safety, security, dignity and rights must be of international concern too.

Saira Rahman Khan teaches law at BRAC University.
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29561/a-solution-that-will-not-save-lives



INDIA’S STAND ON ROHINGYA CRISIS
Such a strange silence*
Published: 00:05, Dec 02,2017 | Updated: 21:49, Dec 01,2017




_India’s reticence on the Rohingya crisis undermines its democracy and global standing,_ writes Suhasini Haidar
*THE Pope has been in South Asia this week, with the focus of his stops in Bangladesh and Myanmar on the reconciliation and rehabilitation of more than 836,000 Rohingya (including 6,23,000 since August, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration) who have fled gruesome violence in Myanmar.

Flurry of diplomatic activity*
THE Pope is by no means alone. In the past month, the US sent secretary of state Rex Tillerson to Myanmar, while a senior State Department team as well as the British and Canadian international development ministers travelled to Rohingya camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar. Singapore’s foreign minister has made trips to Naypyidaw and Dhaka, exploring a role for ASEAN countries to help in the crisis. And earlier this month, Bangladesh foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali took the European Union’s foreign affairs high representative along with the German, Swedish and Japanese foreign ministers for a survey of the refugee camps. No Indian leader has, however, visited them.

In a rare shift of position from not involving itself in the internal politics of another country, China decided to play a mediatory role in the issue, and foreign minister Wang Yi went to Dhaka to meet prime minister Sheikh Hasina on November 18, and then to Naypyidaw to meet president Htin Kyaw.

Within days, Bangladesh and Myanmar announced an agreement to begin the repatriation of Rohingya refugees back to Rakhine province in about two months, as part of what Wang called a three-phase solution. It is significant that within the same week, Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing visited China for more talks on the Rohingya crisis, while the country’s other power centre, State counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, is now headed to Beijing for three days.
*
Biggest nation, smallest voice*
IN THIS flurry of diplomatic activity, it would be natural to ask why India has been so soft-footed and silent in comparison. As the subcontinent’s biggest nation, neighbour to both Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well as the country most likely to be affected if the numbers of Rohingya refugees continue to grow, India in fact should be showing the most initiative in this crisis. Instead, through a series of blunders that began with prime minister Narendra Modi’s own visit to Myanmar, India has allowed its voice to be muffled.

Even as hundreds of thousands were fleeing violence at home, Modi refused to refer to the Rohingya in his press statements in Naypyidaw in early September. Nor did India refer to anything other than the terror strike by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army while discussing the violence in Rakhine.

It wasn’t until two days later, and after some prodding from Hasina, that the Indian foreign office even issued a statement of concern over the refugee crisis that had reached alarming proportions, something the U.S. has now called a clear case of ‘ethnic cleansing’. Moreover, in Bali, India refused to endorse a 50-nation parliamentarian conference’s declaration because it referenced the Rohingya. Every other South Asian country, including Buddhist-majority Bhutan and Sri Lanka, endorsed the Bali declaration.

Later in September, the government began to dispatch humanitarian aid in an operation rather grandly named ‘Operation Insaniyat (Humanity)’, but was only one of several countries including the US, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Malaysia and others to do so.

The government’s consignment to Myanmar of a mere 3,000 ‘family bags’ last week also slipped notice given the large numbers of those displaced inside Rakhine and in desperate need of assistance.

The Indian effort, coupled with foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Bangladesh, where she didn’t even spare time for a trip to the camps, stands out not just in stark contrast to other nations, but to India’s own record.

In every way, the Rohingya crisis is mammoth, with around a million men, women and children in Bangladesh and Myanmar living perilously. India, which has a tradition of rushing humanitarian aid and medical assistance, doctors and volunteers to other nations — for example, after the 2004 tsunami, the 2008 Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar, and the 2015 Nepal earthquake — has been seen to visibly hold back during the Rohingya crisis.
*
Position at the UN*
MEANWHILE, at the UN too, India’s voice has been consistently muted, ceding space to other countries to take the lead on the issue. The UK, for example, hosted a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with Myanmar’s National Security Adviser and Bangladesh’s foreign minister, attended by senior officials from Indonesia, Turkey, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and the US. At the UNGA’s Third Committee vote, India abstained on a resolution calling for an end to military action, one of 26 abstentions on the proposal to send a UN fact-finding mission to Myanmar — 135 countries voted in favour of the resolution.

While India’s vote is consistent with its position on interventionist resolutions, it doesn’t mark itself out for principled leadership of any kind. If anything, the votes have had a bearing on India’s standing in Bangladesh, one of its closest allies in the region, whose leadership is struggling to cope with the flow of refugees as Hasina braces for a tough election next year.
In short, all of India’s actions since the outbreak of this round of violence in Myanmar have negated its position as a regional, subcontinental and Asian leader. Regaining that stature will require a more proactive stance in being part of the solution to the crisis.

To begin with, the impression that the government’s decision to push out nearly 40,000 Rohingya living in India since 2012 is guided by its domestic political compulsions is not conducive to India’s international ambitions.

Therefore, it may be necessary for India to put its own concerns about repatriation on hold until it is able to work with both Bangladesh and Myanmar on the issue, preferably in a trilateral format. This should have been easier for India than for China, given it already works with them on regional issues as a part of BIMSTEC.
*
Spell out the refugee policy*
THE government must also iron out internal contradictions on India’s refugee policy. Even though it is not a signatory to any UN refugee convention, India has a proud tradition of giving a home to neighbours in distress: from Tibetans in 1960s to East Pakistanis in the 1970s, from Sri Lankans in the 1980s to the Afghans in the 1990s.

More recently, the Modi government even changed its long-term visa rules to help minorities fleeing violence from neighbouring Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. If India now says it cannot help Rohingya, who are a minority in Myanmar, it is either saying that Rohingya are not Myanmarese or that Myanmar is not a neighbour, both of which contradict previous positions.

The government’s argument in court that Rohingya refugees pose a terrorist threat wasn’t used for Sri Lankans or Afghans. India also has a unique position as a country that is home to every religion practised in the region and must play to this strength.

For all these reasons, India, which has high stakes in global and regional governance, must ensure its voice is heard on the Rohingya crisis. Mumbling as part of a chorus while one of the biggest human tragedies is unfolding across two of India’s borders does not behove a nation with global leadership aspirations.

Those questioning India’s push for a Security Council seat have often cited its record as a fence sitter at the UN. All those critics must be silenced now by clarity in India’s position on an issue where abstentions cannot suffice.
*
The Hindu.com, December 1.*
http://www.newagebd.net/article/29564/such-a-strange-silence

*Appeasing the neighbour*
Kamal Ahmed | Update: 20:34, Nov 29, 2017




*Bangladesh has signed a document with the Myanmar government for the ‘return of persons displaced from the Rakhine state’. Though it had been referred to as a Memorandum of Understanding, the document used the term ‘bilateral arrangement’. *
It is doubtful whether such an ‘arrangement’ has ever cropped up in international law or diplomatic terminology and so the concerned diplomats of Myanmar and Bangladesh deserve special thanks for coming up with this innovation!

We are also grateful to the foreign minister Abdul Hassan Mahmud Ali for his frank and honest comments to the media after signing the document. After all, honesty is not a common trait when it comes to politics. He said that they had wanted to follow the 1992 agreement and that has more or less had been done. The important issue was to send back the Rohingyas.

Bangladesh won accolades from all over the world for displaying its generosity in providing shelter to one million Rohingyas. Isn’t it only natural that they will display similar largesse of heart towards a neighbour?

According to the foreign minister, the most important matter was to send back the Rohingyas. One cannot disagree. But the fact remains that in keeping with the 1992 agreement, a large section of the Rohingyas did not return to their homeland. So if the 1992 agreement is taken as a model, how could we not realise that this means a large number of Rohingyas will remain back in Bangladesh this time too?

Experience tells us that Myanmar is prone to go back on its word and so they generally don’t even sign the minutes of any bilateral discussions. If the objective of signing this document is to display one’s greatness, then we surely deserve a pat on the back. But there is no reason to believe that Naypyidaw will take the Rohingyas back and provide them with full security and dignity.

The Myanmar army began its operation against the so-called Arakan Salvation Army (ARSA) militants on 25 August. The international community, particularly the UN human rights commission, was alerted about the brutality of the operation and the ethnic cleansing launched against the Rohingyas.

Bangladesh had no alternative but to open its borders to the Rohingyas fleeing for their lives from their own land. And within a very short time the number of Rohingyas seeking refuge crossed 100 thousand.
*
They continued to pour in and on 21 September the prime minister put forward a five-point proposal to resolve the crisis:

1. Myanmar would have to unconditionally, immediately and permanently halt its violence and ethnic cleansing against the Rohingyas;

2. The UN secretary general should immediately send a investigation team to Myanmar;

3. Rules to protect people of all race and religion would have to be drawn up and a safety zone be set up in Myanmar under UN supervision;

4. Ensuring repatriation and rehabilitation of all Rohingyas forcefully driven out of Rakhine back to their own homes;

5. Unconditional, complete and speedy implementation of the Kofi Annan Commission recommendations.*

While presenting the proposals, the prime minister mentioned that according to UN agencies, the number of Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh had totaled 430 thousand. Certain western countries like France, UK, Sweden and the US, stressed that this was a humanitarian crisis.

The Security Council discussed the issue at least thrice and called for an immediate halt to the violence. Though no proposal could be passed due to opposition from Russia and China, everyone had called for an end to the brutality and for the Rohingyas to be returned.

The head of the Security Council would not have been able to make such a statement without the approval of Russia and China. A similar message was strongly issued by the UN human rights commission and the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee. Myanmar, however, has paid little heed to such proposals from the international community.

They continue with their crackdown and in the meantime, another 225 thousand Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh. Various human rights bodies, the UN and representatives of various countries have found evidence and proof of Myanmar’s planned and cruel ethnic cleansing. US secretary of state visited Naypyidaw and talked to the country’s military and civil leaders.

Upon his return to the US, he spoke of the ethnic cleansing being carried out there. Many others in the West are demanding the trial of the military officials who perpetuated the persecution. The UN human rights commission will shortly meet to determine steps against Myanmar.

When the international community is taking stern initiative against a racist government and military, Bangladesh is speaking of friendship with this neighbour and has made no mention of the brutality against the innocent people.

The prime minister appealed in the UN for the brutality against the Rohingyas to be halted. Our permanent representative in the UN repeatedly highlighted the violence against the Rohingyas. Yet none of this was mentioned in the document. It was just mentioned that a large number of Muslims and other communities who resided in Myanmar came and took shelter in Bangladesh after the terrorist attacks on 9 October 2016 and 25 August 2017.

Myanmar is the source of the Rohingya crisis but Bangladesh is bearing the brunt. It is clearly stated that the Muslims and others displaced from Rakhine have come to Bangladesh because of the terrorists, not because of the Myanmar government or the security forces. What a big relief that is for Myanmar! The foreign minister may understand between whether the cries from the outside world about ethnic cleansing and crime against humanity make any difference at all.

Yet just two months ago the foreign ministry had called for a UN inquiry into the matter. We have not reiterated the call for a safe zone within Myanmar. Myanmar can also be elated that the document nowhere mentions Rohingyas or even ‘citizens’ of Myanmar. They are called ‘residents’. There is no timeframe for the repatriation with a specific deadline. The role given to the court in Bangladesh regarding the repatriation may serve to create further delay.

Bangladesh signed the document on lines with the 1992 agreement because that is how Myanmar wanted it. The issue of the Rohingyas who came previously over the past two decades, has been left for discussion at a later date. A country which has suffered the anguish of genocide itself, is so silent about the genocide being carried out in a neighbouring state. All this has been done to maintain good relations with the neighbour. Is this a sign of greatness? Or aiding and abetting crime?

There are many Rohingyas in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps who had come here before and had gone back under UNHCR supervision, with assurance from officials from both countries. They have been driven from their homes and are back in Bangladesh. Some of them have lost family members, have lost their homes. Their grief knows no bounds.

No national or international organization has been able to draw up an estimate of how many people have been killed so far. The spies of the security forces had already identified those who had secretly taken pictures and gathered evidence of the brutality and managed to send this abroad. On 27 November the Guardian reported that these informal reporters had been picked up by the army and they had not returned. It is apprehended that they have been killed.

The UN human rights commission has expressed its fears and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have stated, that the army has used rape as a tool of ethnic cleansing. On 27 November the UK government allocated a separate fund for around 2000 victims of sexual violence. It may take some time for the actual number of rape victims to be determined.

It will not be easy to complete the list of the atrocities committed by the Myanmar army. But it is no secret that they have a propensity for cruelty. Every time the Rohingyas have had to flee, there has been evidence of indiscriminate killing, rape, looting and arson. When you hear a neighbour has been murdered, what do you do? Your first reaction will naturally be to inform the police and ensure that legal action is taken against the killer. Why will this not apply to a country too?

_** Kamal Ahmed is a senior journalist and Consulting Editor of Prothom Alo. This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla print edition, has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir, Consultant (Content) Prothom Alo English Online.*_
http://en.prothom-alo.com/opinion/news/135505/Appeasing-the-neighbour


----------



## Banglar Bir

*Analysis: Face-to-face with Rohingya, pope ditches diplomacy





Pope Francis interacts with a Rohingya Muslim refugee at an interfaith peace meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017. Pope Francis ordained 16 priests during a Mass in Bangladesh on Friday, the start of a busy day that will bring him face-to-face with Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar at an interreligious prayer for peace. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi) 
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
December 3, 2017
Dhaka, Bangladesh -- Pope Francis has gotten into trouble before for ditching diplomatic protocol and calling a spade a spade, most famously when he labeled the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians a "genocide" from the altar of St. Peter's Basilica.
Francis took the hit — Turkey recalled its ambassador to the Vatican in protest — for the sake of standing up for an oppressed people who were nearly wiped off the map a century ago.
Given the opportunity to do the same in Myanmar, where the military has launched what the U.N. says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslim minority, Francis opted instead for diplomatic expediency. He not only avoided the contested term "Rohingya" in his public remarks, he ignored Asia's worst refugee crisis in decades entirely and didn't call out his hosts for launching it.
Human rights groups complained. Rohingya complained. Journalists and pundits asked if Francis' legacy as a fearless crusader for the world's most marginal — the poor, homeless, refugees and prisoners — wasn't now in question.
By Friday, Francis' heart won out.
In an emotional encounter with 16 Rohingya refugees, Francis said what he probably wanted to say from the start. His voice trembling after he greeted the men, women and children who had been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar for wretched camps in Bangladesh, Francis begged them for forgiveness for what they had endured and the "indifference of the world" to their plight.
"The presence of God today also is called 'Rohingya,'" he told them.
And with that one word, Francis erased days of speculation that the tell-it-like-it-is, protocol-be-damned pope had sold out to the professional diplomats at the Vatican who were willing to deny a persecuted minority their very identity for the sake of global and local church politics.
Francis on Saturday explained his strategy: He said he would have never gotten his message across if he had launched into a public critique of the Rohingya offensive while on Burmese soil, saying doing so would have "slammed the door in their face" to any real dialogue.
"It's true I didn't have the pleasure of slamming the door in their face publicly with a denunciation," Francis told reporters en route home to Rome. "But I had the satisfaction of dialogue, and letting the other side dialogue, and in this way the message arrived."
The Vatican had defended Francis' initial silence as necessary for the sake of "building bridges" with Myanmar, which only established diplomatic relations with the Holy See in May.
"Vatican diplomacy is not infallible," spokesman Greg Burke told reporters in Yangon. "You can criticize what's said, what's not said. But the pope is not going to lose moral authority on this question here."
Burke added that the Catholic Church is a minority in Myanmar. The implication was clear: Catholics are already discriminated against in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, and certainly didn't need any blowback from the vast majority of Burmese who recoil at the term "Rohingya" because it implies an official recognition of them as an ethnic group. The local church had urged Francis to refrain from using the term, and Francis obliged.
A pope is first and foremost a shepherd to his flock.
The Vatican also wanted to back its local church in supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, who many Burmese see as their only hope for forging a more democratic, inclusive society where basic rights are guaranteed for all minorities — Christians included.
And so when he arrived in Yangon and joined Suu Kyi at an official welcome ceremony, Francis behaved like a true diplomat.
He called for all ethnic groups in Myanmar to have their basic rights guaranteed — an important message to be sure but one that was clearly written by committee.
Francis upped the ante when he arrived in Bangladesh, where he acknowledged the "immense toll of human suffering" under way in the squalid, overcrowded refugee camps that are now home to more than 620,000 Rohingya who have poured across the border from Myanmar's Rakhine state.
In his official arrival speech, Francis demanded the international community take "decisive measures" to not only help Bangladesh provide for the refugees, but to resolve the underlying political causes in Myanmar that set off the exodus.
But he didn't say "Rohingya." Until he met them.
And when he did, when he clasped their hands in his and listened to their tragedies, he not only acknowledged their identity, he assumed responsibility for all the suffering they had endured.
"In the name of all those who persecute you, who have persecuted you, and those who have hurt you, above all in the indifference of the world, I ask you for forgiveness," he said. He repeated the word: "Forgiveness."
Francis was back.
http://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/12/analysis-face-to-face-with-rohingya.html


Suu Kyi should heed Pope's suggestion on UN role
Pope endorses Suu's peace efforts*
LARRY JAGAN FORMER BBC WORLD SERVICE NEWS EDITOR
4 Dec 2017 at 04:25




Catholic faithful watch a video of Pope Francis' meeting with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, during a mass at Kyite Ka San Football Stadium in Yangon on Friday. (Reuters photo)
*Pope Francis' visit to Myanmar last week was an overwhelming success and may provide the much needed spark to ignite the government's peace process and its efforts to bring reconciliation to the country's violence-torn western region of Rakhine. The Pope's message was loud and clear: the only way forward for Myanmar was "love and peace", the title used for his visit.*

"It's good that the Christian leader has come here and preached peace," said Win Lwin, a 40-year old taxi driver in Yangon, and a staunch supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi. "Pope Francis' visit was a clear endorsement of the government's peace process as defined by Aung San Suu Kyi," Denzil Abel, a Myanmar intellectual, former diplomat and Catholic told the Bangkok Post.

"The Pope's visit is exciting for both Christians and Buddhists," said Nay Aye, a former seaman, now earning his living driving a delivery van. "His words of tolerance and kindness were an inspiration to us all," he added. He was one of 200,000 people who crammed into the Kyaikkasan sports ground to hear his sermon in Yangon, on the penultimate day of his visit.




*Larry Jagan is a Myanmar specialist and former BBC World Service news editor for the region*.

Indeed the Pope's visit was a diplomatic triumph: by both example and words he showed that respect for others, tolerance and compassion should be the way forward. Apart from his speech in the capital Nay Pyi Taw to government officials, foreign diplomats, political parties and civil society, his key sermon in Yangon and a mass for the young people at St Mary's Cathedral, he met separately with the army commander-in-chief, Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the senior leaders of the Buddhist and Christian faiths. He also had a private moment with the country's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

He stressed the similarities between religions, the shared goals and vision. "I know that many in Myanmar bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible," he told his audience in Nay Pyi Taw. Resist the temptation to exact revenge, instead show "forgiveness and compassion" and allow these wounds to heal, he urged.

"He did not come to blame or lecture," Cardinal Charles Bo, the head of Myanmar Catholic Church told the Bangkok Post on the eve of his visit. "He is not here to convert or proselytise," he emphasised. "He doesn't want to anger any community; he is cautious not to divide or polarise."

And indeed the Pope continually stressed unity and diversity. "Even for non-Christians, the Pope's message was like a beacon, and his visit showed strong support for our leader, Aung San Suu Kyi," said Maung Maung Lay, vice-president of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

His visit also helped the people of Myanmar see the country in a positive light, instead of the international condemnation that they have got used to, said a government insider.

But the Pope on this visit also tried to offer practical pointers to help the peace process and national reconciliation. The Pope was keen to stress the role the next generation will play in the country's evolution, saying the future of Myanmar will depend on the young people.




Their education must also be based on "ethical values" including diversity and tolerance and not technical training alone, he suggested, adding that education should teach "the ethical values of honesty, integrity and human solidarity that can ensure the consolidation of democracy and the growth of unity and peace at every level of society." This is an appropriate observation, as it comes at a timely moment for Myanmar's government and educators as they tackle the mammoth task of reforming and rewriting the national curriculum.

One area where the Pope and the Vatican could play a positive role is in fostering interfaith dialogue, a key recommendation of the Kofi Annan Commission for reconciliation in Rakhine. The Church has already laid out a framework for interfaith dialogue, adopted in Rome in 1965, in the Nostrae Aetate. It promotes discussion and sharing between all religions. At the time it was adopted, the synod urged all Catholics and Muslims to forget the hostilities and differences of the past and to work together for mutual understanding and benefit. This could also help in the Myanmar context.

The Vatican has previously intervened quietly in conflict situations in the past, at the request of the antagonists. The "good office" of the Vatican, not unlike the "good offices" of the UN secretary-general, has played an important role in the past, during the Colombian peace talks, and border disputes between Argentina and Chile. The advantage of their involvement is that it is extremely discreet and non-political. Some peace activists have suggested that the Vatican could play a role mediating between Myanmar and Bangladesh, and between the communities in Rakhine.

But the Pope also had some pointed advice for Aung San Suu Kyi. He advised her that she should not forget the UN, and allow them to play a role in Myanmar -- especially in Rakhine. Publicly he drew attention to the importance of the UN in promoting peace, development and human rights.

The UN, he reminded his audience in Myanmar, was formed at the same time as the universal declaration of human rights, in the aftermath of the two world wars. These reflected the "international community's efforts to promote justice, peace, and human development worldwide, and to resolve conflicts through dialogue, not the use of force".

Some analysts believe this was a gentle reminder to the State Counsellor that she should try to mend relations with the UN -- which are at an almost all-time low -- and allow them an important role in repatriation, reconstruction and reconciliation in Rakhine.

This was also the advice the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan -- who headed the Advisory Commission whose recommendations are the basis of the Myanmar government's plans for solving the Rakhine crisis -- recently gave Surakiart Sathirathai, a former Thai foreign minister and chairman of a newly formed international advisory committee expected to be announced later this week.

The overriding importance of the Pope's visit was also the signal it sent to the international community, according to government insiders.

Whereas the West in particular points accusative fingers, is aggressive and threatening, the Pope came to talk and listen, and was supportive. This is an example of how the international community should act.

And if the West wants to maintain any influence with the Myanmar leaders -- which it is in danger of losing -- adopting the Pope's approach would be more helpful, and may even be more beneficial in solving the dilemmas in Rakhine.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1371831/suu-kyi-should-heed-popes-suggestion-on-un-role


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## Banglar Bir

*‘Bangladesh has proved that it has a big heart’*
Tarek Mahmud
Published at 02:58 PM December 04, 2017




Bill Chambers, president and CEO of Save the Children, Canada *Tarek Mahmud/Dhaka Tribune*
*'About 100 agencies, including Bangladeshi, UN and other international agencies, are working to meet the needs of the displaced people'*
In an interview with the Dhaka Tribune’s Tarek Mahmud, Bill Chambers, president and CEO of Save the Children, Canada, talks about the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

*How would you describe your experience of visiting the Rohingya camps here in Bangladesh?*

I saw a large number of people living in terrible and traumatic conditions in the camps. They had arrived in Bangladesh in a terrible physical and mental state but were taken in and given the assistance needed in order to improve their physical and mental state.

It is a huge undertaking to welcome over 600,000 displaced people in three months. While visiting the camps, I realized that a lot of work has been done while more work is needed.

It is an ongoing crisis and we need a long-term solution for it.

*What are the possible risks for children living at the refugee camp?*

Such camps pose many risks for the children living in them. All the children are still suffering from trauma.

The children who came from different small villages of Rakhine are not used to living in such chaotic environment and this puts an adverse effect on them. Besides, a group of people are trying to exploit them. Some are even trying to traffic the children for child labour.

*How do you feel about the support-providing systems at the camps? Are they sufficient?*

It is a very large and complex exercise. About 100 agencies, including Bangladeshi, UN and other international agencies, are working to meet the needs of the displaced people. Some are working to feed them, some are working at the entry points of the borders, and some are conducting surveys and providing medical treatment. So far, they are doing their best, but it is a laborious task to provide aid to such a huge number of people.

The aid providing system in the camps is currently functional and will be improved for smoother functioning, but the credit for all these go to all the aid providers.

*What are your thoughts about the security of the unaccompanied and orphaned children in the camps?*

Almost 60% of the Rohingyas are children. Of them, many are unaccompanied and some of them became orphans after losing their parents or getting separated from their families while fleeing Myanmar. There is a chance of these children being exploited as there are some ill-motivated people who are trying to gain financial benefit from this situation.

There is a need to create children-friendly atmosphere in the camps. These children need a family environment so that they feel secure.

*What kind of steps should be taken to educate the Rohingya children?*

Save the Children believes in educating children all over the world. The right to education is a basic right of the children. We are now working to set up learning centres for them and the people of the community, who have experienced violence year after year.

*How can the basic rights of the displaced children be ensured?*

Save the Children is working with the Bangladesh government to ensure that the rights of all displaced Rohingya children are respected, so that they have access to the level of protection and assistance they need and are entitled to.

We asked the government [of Bangladesh] to work closely with UN agencies and international NGOs, such as Save the Children, to develop a response plan that adheres to humanitarian principles and make sure that human rights law is implemented with sufficient speed, considering the scale of need and worsening conditions of the displaced Rohingyas.

We are working to ensure that unaccompanied children receive the right care and protection, considering their highly vulnerable condition.

*What is Save the Children’s plan for the Rohingya children?*

Save the Children has reached over 250,000 Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar by providing food, shelter and household items, medical care and malnutrition screening and treatment, and child protection activities.

Rohingya children have already suffered so much, with so many of them having witnessed violence and killings. Some children were shot while others had seen their homes being set on fire. Some have watched their parents being killed. The distress and trauma that can arise from experiencing these horrific events needs to be addressed.

Almost all Rohingya children who have fled to Bangladesh have fallen out of the education system because the schools are being used to house the displaced, and also because there is not enough humanitarian funding yet to focus on education, as immediate priorities are food, water, shelter and sanitation. Save the Children is urging all parties to do everything in their power to put an end to the violence in northern Rakhine State and to ensure the protection of all civilians, especially children.

We call for unhindered humanitarian access to northern Rakhine State, where the humanitarian situation will certainly worsen if relief organizations are unable to urgently resume their operations. We also urge the Myanmar authorities to guarantee the safety and security of all humanitarian staff and to allow them to continue their essential work to assist communities in Rakhine State.

We are also pushing members of key UN bodies like Human Rights Council, the Security Council and General Assembly to use their power to tackle the situation at the diplomatic level. We urge the effective implementation of recommendations made by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, coordinated by Kofi Annan, which released its final report on August 23. The commission recommended a number of concrete steps that the Myanmar government can take to improve the situation for the Rohingya.

A long-term solution must be discovered for the displaced Rohingya who wish to return to Myanmar safely and voluntarily.

*What are your observations on the Bangladesh government, the aid providers and the international community members who are supervising the Rohingya camps?*

Bangladesh has proved that it has a big heart. It really is a courageous effort to accommodate thousands of people and feed them three times a day. Bangladesh has created an example across the world by helping others. Besides, the aid providers of Bangladesh and other countries should also be thanked for responding to the recent crisis as soon as it started. The international community, including Canada, is also supporting Bangladesh in this issue which is praiseworthy.

*How can the Canadian government work more with Bangladesh to take care of the displaced people from Myanmar?*

Canada is going to donate $25 million for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is thinking of providing more funds to be spent mostly for the young girls, women and children. We are focusing on the worst victims of the violence to ensure needs and services. We are also focusing on children’s education so that they can connect with the world and raise a voice against the oppression they have been facing.

*How do you think the ethnic community can raise their voice on the global stage to secure their rights?*

To some extent, it is the responsibility of all of us to inform the world about what kind of lives the Rohingyas are leading amid many difficulties. The Rohingya people who are educated and informed, and are living in other countries, have to play a key role and raise their voice.

*Rohingya rehabilitation plan in Bhasan Char at a glance*
Md Shafiqul Islam
Published at 11:38 AM December 03, 2017
*Rohingya rehabilitation plan in Bhasan Char at a glance*
Bhasan Char- a remote island near Hatiya and the site for Rohingya rehabilitation projectBangla Tribune
On November 23, Dhaka signed a Rohingya repatriation deal with Naypyidaw, but the government is moving forward the rehabilitation project for the refugees in Bhasan Char
*Thousands of displaced Rohingya, who entered Bangladesh escaping persecution in Myanmar over the years, are currently living in temporary shelters at Kutupalong and Balukhali refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.*
Many refugees are also living outside of Rohigya camps, and the number of Rohingya people has already exceeded that of the local population in Ukhiya and Teknaf.

On November 23, Dhaka signed a Rohingya repatriation deal with Naypyidaw, but the government of Bangladesh is moving forward with the rehabilitation project for the refugees in Bhasan Char- a remote island near Hatiya of Noakhali district.

In the same month, Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a Tk2,312 crore project to rehabilitate 103,200 displaced Rohingya in 120 cluster villages in that island.
Read Also- Ecnec approves $280m Bhasan Char project for Rohingya relocation Under the repatriation deal, Myanmar has agreed to take back displaced Rohingya that entered Bangladesh during October of 2016 and since August 25 of 2017, after verifying their identity.

However, the repatriation process could take an unspecified amount of time, so it is no longer viable for the Bangladesh government to keep the refugees in makeshift camps.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in an interview with Voice of America last September, revealed that the displaced refugees will be rehabilitated in Bhasan Char, until they could return to their homeland in Rakhine state.
*
Bangladesh Navy was tasked with the rehabilitation efforts in Bhasan Char.*
The aim of the Bhasan Char rehabilitation project is to make the island environment habitable for people, building essential infrastructure and ensure security of its residents.

To this end, the Ecnec on November 28 approved Asrayon 3 – the rehabilitation of 100,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals in Bhasan Char and essential infrastructure construction project.
Sources from the Planning Ministry confirmed that the government exchequer will bear the cost of the project, estimated to be around Tk2,312 crore.

The construction of the project started in July this year, under the supervision of Bangladesh Navy, and is set to be completed by November 30, 2019.
*
Read Also- How habitable is Bhasan Char?*
Under this project, 102 cluster villages will be built for 103,200 Rohingya refugees. Land development and construction of embankment is also planned there, sources said.

1,440 barracks for housing and 120 shelters and several mosques will be built in Bhasan Char, along with an office building and living quarters for Bangladesh Navy officials.

Bhasan Char will also get roads, tube wells, ponds, water supply and sewage infrastructures.
Perimeter fencing and watch towers will be built to ensure security of the rehabilitation project. A fleet of vehicle, comprised of a microbus, 12 motorcycles, 23 human haulers, 40 pushcarts, 43 rickshaw vans, 4 LCUs and 8 speedboats, will be deployed in the project area for monitoring.

There are plans to build warehouses, fuel tanks, helipads, channel markings and mooring buoys, a boat landing site, mobile phone towers, a radar station and a power substation.

A CCTV network, solar panels and backup generators will also be installed there.

Bhasan Char is located 21 nautical miles away from Noakhali, 11 nautical miles from Jahajir Char, 4.2 nautical miles from Sandwip, 28 nautical miles from Patenga Point, and 13.2 nautical miles from Hatiya.
*The impact of Rohingya on Cox’s Bazar*
Sources from the Ministry of Planning and the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief told the Bangla Tribune that the influx of thousands of Rohingya refugees is severely impacting both the national security and the natural environment of Bangladesh.

It is getting more and more difficult to accommodate the ever-increasing number of displaced Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar. The refugees have already destroyed a significant stretch of hilly lands and forests.

According to Cox’s Bazar district administration, the local population of Teknaf and Ukhiya is around 500,000 to 700,000, while more than one million Rohingya have taken shelter in the region.
The tide of forcibly displaced Rohingya is impacting in the economic, social and environmental sectors of Cox’s Bazar, which is a top tourist spot in Bangladesh.

To bring the refugee crisis under control Bangladesh Navy began to work the rehabilitation project in Bhasan Char since September this year.

A firm was tasked with creating a master plan for the project.
*Read Also- Is Bhashan Char off the table?*
To implement the master plan, Bangladesh Navy had recommended that the project construction must be begin in November this year, as the most of the island goes under water during monsoon season.
The Bangladesh Navy proposal also pointed out that if the project construction delayed, the rehabilitation effort may have to be postponed for up to one year.

In could be noted, acting Finance Secretary Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury had sent a project summary to Finance Minister AMA Muhith, asking for Tk25 crore for initial funding of the rehabilitation project.

The summary also mentioned that the prime minister has approved the Bangladesh Navy in principal to carry out project supervision in Bhasan Char. The Ministry of Land also gave its consent regarding the project.

Responding to query, Muhith said: “There are rules and regulations to allocate funds for a project. The Rohingya rehabilitation project will also receive its funding through these regulations.

“There is no room for confusion regarding this issue,” he concluded.
The article was first published on Bangla Tribune
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/12/03/rohingya-plan-bhasan-char-glance/


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## Banglar Bir

2:10 PM, December 04, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:56 PM, December 04, 2017
*Dhaka seeks Phnom Penh's support for ‘durable solution’ to Rohingya crisis*




Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina shakes hands with her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen at his office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Monday, December 4, 2017. Photo: Reuters
BSS, Phnom Penh
*Bangladesh today sought Cambodian support towards a "durable solution" to Rohingya crisis as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held official talks with her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen.*
"As we continue our bilateral negotiations with Myanmar for Rohingyas' safe return back to their homeland, I requested Prime Minister Hun Sen for his support towards a durable solution of the crisis," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said while delivering her joint press statement with the Cambodian premier at the Peace Palace after the official talks between the two countries.

Also read: Dhaka, Phnom Penh sign 10 deals

The Bangladesh prime minister said during the talks they discussed some of the emerging security challenges facing the region and expressed their common resolve to fight terrorism and extremism.

"We've also discussed the Rohingya crisis that threatens peace and stability of our region. Bangladesh continues to shelter more than 1 million Rohingyas, among them around seven lakh Rohingyas fled atrocity in Myanmar and took shelter in Bangladesh recently.

Read more: World treats Bangladesh with respect

The Cambodian prime minister said they discussed the issue of Rohingya people from Myanmar which is really a burden for Bangladesh.

Hun Sen also expressed his hope that both Bangladesh and Myanmar would work together smoothly for the safe return of the refugees back to Myanmar.

"We highly appreciate Bangladesh for giving shelter to the Rohingya people even though Bangladesh has a population of over 160 million. Bangladesh took the issues of refugees on its shoulder," he added.

Describing Cambodia as a close regional neighbour of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh premier said the two countries share common aspirations to promote peace, security and development. "We cooperate closely in many regional and global fora, including at the ARF, ASEM, ACD and the UN," she said.

She termed her visit to Cambodia has been extremely fruitful and said Prime Minister Hun Sen and she remain committed to taking Bangladesh-Cambodia relations to all new heights and dimensions.

The premier commended Hun Sen for the robust growth and development of Cambodia. "During our official talks this morning, we discussed the entire gamut of our bilateral relations in a warm and cordial atmosphere," she said.




Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is given guard of honour when she reached her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen’s office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Monday, December 4, 2017. Photo: BSS

Sheikh Hasina said a major focus for Bangladesh this time was to intensify trade, economic and technical cooperation. "We have signed 10 bilateral agreements and MoUs during this visit," she said.

The prime minister said Bangladesh has proposed holding of the first Joint Commission to be headed by two Foreign Ministers in Dhaka next year. "We have decided to hold the first meeting of the Joint Trade Council (JTC) to be headed by two Commerce Ministers next year," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh and Cambodia are also considering a proposal for opening of resident diplomatic missions in each other's capital. "I believe that signing of the MOUs on the JTC, on investment promotion, and the agreement between our two apex chambers, will contribute to boosting of bilateral trade and investment," she said.

She said the MoUs signed on technical cooperation in the areas of labour and vocational training, ICT, fisheries and aquaculture and tourism will foster multi-dimensional cooperation.

Pointing out that regional cooperation has also received major focus in today's discussions, she said she is happy to receive Prime Minister Hun Sen's assurances of support to Bangladesh's Sectoral Dialogue Partnership aspiration with ASEAN.

"As a Ganges basin country, Bangladesh also looks forward to working with Cambodia towards our membership aspiration at the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Forum," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said the people of two great nations endured similar sufferings of mass atrocities and genocide. "Bangladesh peacekeepers were among the first to stand next to the Cambodian people during their post-conflict peace-building," she said.

The premier said the Bengali and the Khmer nations share ancient cultural linkages, a Sanskrit and Pali inspired script, and a common new year in the month of April.

Mentioning that she paid respects to the Norodom Sihanouk Memorial, she said the King Father of Cambodia is held in high esteem in Bangladesh. "I'm very happy to announce that my government is naming a prominent street in our capital Dhaka as a mark of respect to Late King Norodom Sihanouk."

Extending her sincere thanks to Prime Minister Hun Sen for his hospitality, she said this visit would go a long way in taking Bangladesh-Cambodia relations to new heights. "I offer my very best wishes for his good health, long life and happiness, and continued peace, progress and prosperity of the friendly people of Cambodia," she said.

The Cambodian prime minister said, "In the bilateral discussions, we've a very fruitful result in which we're looking forward to work together to becoming developing countries."

He said that Cambodia supports the request from Bangladesh to be the sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN while Phnom Penh will also work to achieve this goal.

Hun Sen expressed his heartfelt thanks for all the support that Bangladesh extended to the people of Cambodia.

He also noted that through this 2nd official visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Cambodia after her first one in 2001, the bilateral relations of the two countries would be further strengthened.

The Cambodian prime minister also expressed his gratefulness to Sheikh Hasina for the invitation extended to him for the return visit to Bangladesh saying, "I accepted it with pleasure."

The Bangladesh side that took part in the talks included Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak, PM's Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, Chief Coordinator on the SDG Affairs at the Prime Minister's Office Md Abul Kalam Azad, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Huq and PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim.
http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingy...able-solution-myanmar-rohingya-crisis-1499938


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## kingQamaR

This is sadly the awful truth coming out from Myanmar . Dismissing these voices coming from out their as crazy for attacking the pope and others has a constant sad message for you , their way of saying no return for Muslim Royingas to Myanmar ever . They have been refusing to recognise them as a indigenous ethnic group . The whole society is in a agreement their in this 
I see no return for our Muslim brother and sisters to their homeland diplomacy has failed decades ago with this anti Muslim state . There’s only one way to reverse this and we all know what that is ?


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## Skull and Bones

mb444 said:


> BD need to begin arming and training the rohingya.



Pakistan did the same with Afghan Mujahideens, and is paying the price for 2 decades, and will for forseeable future.

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## Centaur

The south Asian countries are champion for erasing history bro, so don't be upset.


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## Indian Jatt

Jacksparrow47 said:


> The south Asian countries are champion for erasing history bro, so don't be upset.


We saved you from getting erased, what do you say about it?


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## Centaur

Indian Jatt said:


> We saved you from getting erased, what do you say about it?


I am truly grateful for such loving act of India. I want to say that please make an idol of yours and 130 crore indians too separately and send to me.
I will worship your idol every day in return of this great lovely favour. 
Please send okay?

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## Indian Jatt

Up


Jacksparrow47 said:


> I am truly grateful for such loving act of India. I want to say that please make an idol of yours and 130 crore indians too separately and send to me.
> I will worship your idol every day in return of this great lovely favour.
> Please send okay?


Here you go....
I'll send 1.3 billion idols to you but make sure you have enough money to pay shipping charges, your foreign reserves too will dry up paying for the idols delivery charges.....


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## Centaur

Indian Jatt said:


> Up
> Here you go....
> I'll send 1.3 billion idols to you but make sure you have enough money to pay shipping charges, your foreign reserves too will dry up paying for the idols delivery charges.....


Give us one more favour please, make idle with gold and pay the shipping charge too. Atleast gods shouldn't ask money from poors.
They should pay instead!

After all those gods' saved our entity.

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## Indian Jatt

Jacksparrow47 said:


> Give us one more favour please, make idle with gold and pay the shipping charge too. Atleast gods shouldn't ask money from poors.
> They should pay instead!
> 
> After all those gods' saved our entity.


How are you poor my friend? 
I think Bangladesh is doing better than Pakistani economy isn't it? 
You people can play your own games as long as it is not hurting Indian interests,we don't grab land but we will not donate our land either....
But I doubt that your kind will not join China pak Nexus thus you people don't deserve to worship us....go worship Chinese they will give you subs and frigates


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## Bilal9

*Angelina Jolie blasts sexual violence of Rohingya Women, Children*



DHAKA, Nov 16, 2017 (BSS) - Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has blasted sexual violence inflicted on Rohingya women in Myanmar and announced plans to visit Bangladesh to see the Rohingyas plight as she joined a UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Canada, officials and reports said today. 

A Special Envoy of the UNHCR and Co-Founder of Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, Jolie joined the event Canada's Vancouver city while a foreign office statement said "she shared with Bangladesh Delegation that she is planning to see the Rohingya victims of sexual violence". 

It said The Hollywood superstar's comments came as Bangladesh's Armed Forces Division's principal staff officer Lieutenant General Mahfuzur Rahman in a close-door meeting on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse sought Jolie's support to voice against the sexual exploitation of Rohingya women and children. 

"Later she mentioned accordingly in her keynote speech about the sexual violence faced by almost each female Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh and condemned the armed conflict in Myanmar," the statement read. 

It added that Jolie deeply applauded Bangladesh's generous humanitarian approach towards the Rohingyas. 

Angelina Jolie also congratulated Bangladesh along with Canada and UK for their leadership role in launching "women, peace and security Chief of Defence network" yesterday morning in Vancouver. 

The New York-based Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, accused today Myanmar security forces of committing widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing, echoing UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict Pramila Patten, who said sexual violence was "being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar". 

Myanmar's army, however, earlier this week issued a statement denying all allegations of rape and killings by its troops.

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## Bilal9



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## Bilal9

Congrats on reaching 100 pages - though it is a tragic circumstance...

EXODUS...

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## The Ronin

*Japan conveys concern over Rohingya to Suu Kyi*
*Reuters, Tokyo

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono conveyed serious concern over Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims to the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in a meeting on Friday in the capital Naypyidaw, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
Separately, the Japanese government announced emergency grant aid of 330 million yen ($2.97 million) to Myanmar to help members of the minority who return to Myanmar from Bangladesh.

Myanmar's army launched a sweeping offensive in the north of the western state of Rakhine in response to Rohingya militant attacks on August 25, triggering an exodus of more than 650,000 Rohingya villagers to Bangladesh.

http://www.thedailystar.net/rohingya-crisis/japan-conveys-concern-over-rohingya-suu-kyi-1518826*

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## The Ronin

*Bangladesh praises OIC for support over Rohingya crisis*
*https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2018/01/19/bangladesh-praises-oic-for-support-over-rohingya-crisis*

*Why Bangladesh Cannot Accept All the Rohingya*
A government adviser explains Dhaka’s approach to the refugee crisis.
https://thediplomat.com/2018/01/why-bangladesh-cannot-accept-all-the-rohingya/

*More Rohingyas flee Myanmar as Bangladesh prepares to start repatriation*

*http://www.dhakatribune.com/world/s...anmar-bangladesh-prepares-start-repatriation/*

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## bluesky

*UN calls on Myanmar for unhindered access to Rohingya camps*> Reuters
Published: 2018-01-24 14:22:51.0 BdST Updated: 2018-01-24 14:22:51.0 BdST






A Myanmar immigration official stands at the door of a building inside the camp set up by Myanmar's Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister to prepare for the repatriation of displaced Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh, outside Maungdaw in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar Jan 24, 2018. Reuters
*The United Nations on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees before they can return after fleeing Myanmar military operations last year.*

An international delegation advising Myanmar toured the Taung Pyo Letwe refugee camp outside the town of Maungdaw near the Bangladesh border. Video of the camp shows long, plywood houses set on a rocky field and surrounded by a wire mesh fence topped with barbed wire.

Bangladesh on Tuesday delayed the repatriation of the largely stateless Rohingyas to Myanmar as the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back was incomplete.

But the United Nations said necessary safeguards for the refugees were still missing.

"Until the safety and wellbeing of any child returning to Myanmar can be guaranteed, talk of repatriation is premature," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said in a statement.

The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR said earlier "there are continued restrictions on access for aid agencies, the media and other independent observers" in Myanmar.

The UNHCR called on Myanmar "to allow the necessary unhindered humanitarian access in Rakhine State and create conditions for a genuine and lasting solution".







A man walks inside the camp set up by Myanmar's Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister to prepare for the repatriation of displaced Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh, outside Maungdaw in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar Jan 24, 2018. Reuters

More than 688,000 Muslim Rohingyas and a few hundred Hindu Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh since Aug 25 last year after the Myanmar military cracked down in the northern part of Rakhine state, amid witness reports of killings, looting and rape, in response to militant attacks on security forces.


Many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar regard the Rohingya community as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The United Nations described Myanmar's crackdown as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies.

*Filling out forms*

Myanmar officials told a news conference on Tuesday that Bangladesh was not ready to send back the refugees as scheduled because the potential returnees hadn't completed the forms Myanmar provided attesting to their former residency in Myanmar.

“They also have to check with the UNHCR about whether it’s voluntary,” Minister of International Cooperation Kyaw Tin told the news conference.

"They need a lot of time to fill out the forms and to determine if they really want to come back."

But a UNHCR spokesperson in Bangladesh told Reuters the agency had not been involved "in the bilateral discussions on repatriations or signed any agreements".







A man walks past the entrance of a camp set up by Myanmar's Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister to prepare for the repatriation of displaced Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh, outside Maungdaw in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar Jan 24, 2018. Reuters

"We would like to be part of the process and discussions to ensure the reparations are voluntary, safe and sustainable and that any returns are in line with international standards," said Caroline Gluck, UNHCR's senior public information officer, in Cox’s Bazar.


Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar says it has set up two reception centres and the temporary Taung Pyo Letwe camp to receive the first arrivals.

The plan has sparked fears in refugee camps in Bangladesh that people may be forced to return despite a lack of guarantees around their security.

Late on Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said the delay in the repatriations was a good idea and Washington was concerned about a lack of access for UN organisations.

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## bête noire



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## Arthur

On this month, 1947, the death sentence of Rohyinga people were decided by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

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## Bilal9

27 January, 2018 09:39:00 PM

*President seeks Indonesia’s support for safe Rohingya return*
Independent Online Desk




Photo: PID

President Abdul Hamid on Saturday sought support from Indonesia for safe, dignified, sustainable return of the Rohingyas to Rakhine state in Myanmar.

He sought for the cooperation while visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo made a curtsey call on him at Bangabhaban in the evening.

Mentioning that Bangladesh is currently hosting more than a million forcibly displaced Rohingyas from the Rakhine State of Myanmar, the President said that Bangladesh on purely humanitarian concerns have sheltered them despite facing many challenges.

The President recalled with appreciation the support of the Indonesian people to Bangladesh’s independence in 1971 and Indonesia’s recognition of the country on 25 February 1972 immediately after the independence.

He also reminisces about the personal acquaintance between Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the founding Father of Indonesia Dr Sukarno.

Terming the existence relations between the two countries as very excellent, President Abdul Hamid said the relation will be further strengthened following the visit of the Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s, said President’s Press Secretary Md Joynal Abedin quoting the President.

He also sought cooperation from the President Joko in removing tariff and none-tariff barriers as well as concessional market access for Bangladeshi selected products to Indonesian markets.

The Indonesian President Joko Widodo expressed his hope that the bilateral agreements, which were signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar for return of Rohingyas, will be fruitful and also expected that the displaced Rohingyas would be returned to the Rakhaine state with dignity and safely.

He also praised the social-economic development of Bangladesh in the meeting.

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, state minister for foreign affairs Md. Shahriar Alam and secretaries concerned to the President were also present during the meeting.

Meanwhile, Indonesian First lady Iriana Widodo also paid a courtesy call on to her counterpart President Abdul Hamid’s wife Rashida Khanam at the Bangabhaban.

During the meeting, the two first ladies talked about mutual interests between the two countries, said Md Joynal Abedin.

Earlier, President Abdul Hamid and his wife Rashida Khanam received President Joko Widodo and First lady Iriana Widodo when they reached at the Bangabhaban.

After the meeting, the Indonesian President and his entourage attended the State dinner hosted by the President Hamid and also enjoy cultural programme.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, acting Chief Justice Md. Abdul Wahhab Miah, several Cabinet members and civil and military senior officials were also attended the dinner.

UNB

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## bluesky

বাংলা সংস্করণ 

 

 

 

 




Friday, February 02, 2018

*US says it is 'deeply troubled' by reports of Myanmar mass graves*
>> Reuters

Published: 2018-02-02 03:50:24.0 BdST Updated: 2018-02-02 03:50:24.0 BdST


*The US State Department said on Thursday it was "deeply, deeply troubled" by new reports of mass graves in Myanmar's Rakhine State, where the military has been accused of atrocities against minority Rohingya Muslims.
*
The Associated Press reported earlier it had confirmed the existence of more than five previously unreported mass graves in the Myanmar village of Gu Dar Pyin through interviews of survivors in refugee camps in Bangladesh and through time-stamped mobile phone videos.






"We are deeply, deeply troubled by those reports of mass graves," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a regular news briefing. "We are watching this very carefully. We remain focused on helping to ensure the accountability for those responsible for human rights abuses and violations."

Nauert said the reports highlighted the need for authorities in Myanmar to cooperate with an independent, credible investigation into allegations of atrocities in northern Rakhine state.

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## Bilal9

Bill Richardson: Myanmar's Suu Kyi 'has changed'

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/storm/bill-richardson-myanmars-suu-kyi-has-changed/vp-BBIK3Gd

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## NEKONEKO

*How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village*

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/

Graphics warning
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42956176

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## Chris Logan

The rohyngia genocide eerily parallels what happened to Bangladesh in 1971:

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## Dot

All thanks to our current administration. 
https://www.jugantor.com/national/17254/রোহিঙ্গাদের-ফেরতে-এখনও-মিয়ানমারের-সাড়া-পাইনি-প্রধানমন্ত্রী

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## wiseone2

The Rohingya Suffer Real Horrors. So Why Are Some of Their Stories Untrue?
By HANNAH BEECHFEB. 1, 2018

A Rohingya child in her family’s tent at dusk in the Kutupalong camp in November. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
LEDA, Bangladesh — The four young sisters sat in a huddle, together but alone.

Their accounts were dramatic: Their mother had died when their home was burned by soldiers in Rakhine State in western Myanmar. Their father was one of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had disappeared into official custody and were feared dead.

Somehow, the sisters — ages 12, 8, 5 and 2 — made their way to refuge in Bangladesh. An uncle, who had been living for years in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, had taken them in, adding the girls to his own collection of hungry children.

“My parents were killed in Myanmar,” said the eldest girl, Januka Begum. “I miss them very much.”

I was reporting on children who had arrived in the camps without their families. An international charity, which had given financial support to the uncle, brought me to meet the girls.

Within an hour, I had a notebook filled with the kind of quotes that pull at heartstrings. Little of it was true.

After three days of reporting, the truth began to emerge. Soyud Hossain, the supposed uncle who had taken the girls in, was actually their father. He had three wives, two in Bangladesh and one in Myanmar, he admitted. The children were from his youngest wife, the one in Myanmar.

In any refugee camp, tragedy is commodified. Aid groups want to help the neediest cases, and people quickly realize that the story of four orphaned sisters holds more value than that of an intact family that merely lost all its possessions.

To compete for relief supplies distributed by aid groups, refugees learn to deploy women with infants in their arms. Crying babies get pushed to the front of the line.

Such strategies are a natural survival tactic. Who wouldn’t do the same to feed a family?

But false narratives devalue the genuine horrors — murder, rape and mass burnings of villages — that have been inflicted upon the Rohingya by Myanmar’s security forces. And such embellished tales only buttress the Myanmar government’s contention that what is happening in Rakhine State is not ethnic cleansing, as the international community suggests, but trickery by foreign invaders.

The official narrative in Myanmar goes like this: Rohingya Muslims are illegal immigrants from an overcrowded Bangladesh. With Muslim men taking multiple wives, the Rohingya are reproducing faster than Myanmar’s majority Buddhists.

Newly arrived Rohingya refugees waiting to be registered in Bangladesh in November. Credit Tomas Munita for The New York Times
There is plenty of evidence to counter this claim. Muslim roots in the region reach back generations. The ratio of Muslims to Buddhists in northern Rakhine has not changed much over the past half-century.

But with the Myanmar government restricting access to the area where the Rohingya once lived, even refusing to let top United Nations officials into the country, it is impossible for investigators and journalists to gather firsthand evidence of atrocities. Local reporters for Reuters who tried to investigate a mass grave now sit in jail.

That’s why in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, victims with physical manifestations of their trauma are simpler to interview. A fresh bullet wound in a child’s body is proof that something terrible happened.

For every person quoted, I’d estimate that at least a dozen others were left in my notebooks. But a reporter’s necessary skepticism — which governs our work in every story — only contributes to the invasion of privacy. How must it feel for a Rohingya woman, who admits to a stranger that she was raped, when she realizes that her story is being doubted?

Yet I have seen Rohingya people quoted in the foreign news media telling stories that I know are not true. Their accounts, in some cases, are too compelling, like a perfect storm of suffering.

That is not to discount the collective trauma that has compelled nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee for Bangladesh over the past five months. Doctors Without Borders estimates that 6,700 Rohingya met violent deaths in a single month last year. Even that number, the medical aid group says, is too low.

For four days, I interviewed a 9-year-old boy named Noorshad, and his story had it all. In my notebook, he drew pictures of his house — and the tree from which his parents were hanged by Myanmar soldiers.

Then he drew the jerrycan he clung to as he crossed the river into Bangladesh. He tied his flip-flops to his waist, he said, with a bit of vine. The sandals were from his dead mother. He glanced at them and sobbed.

But there were inconsistencies. Noorshad said he liked cricket, a sport popular in Bangladesh but not in Myanmar. His grandparents were killed by the military, he told me, but then he admitted they had died of natural causes.

I found locals from the village I believed he was from. It turned out that no one had been killed there, much less hanged from a tree.

So where did Noorshad come from? He had been found crying in the market in the Kutupalong refugee camp. Other refugees took him to a school where a pair of women offered hugs and bowls of curry. Obviously, something bad had happened to him, but to this day, no one has figured out his real story.

The Kutupalong refugee camp now ranks as the world’s largest. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled for Bangladesh over the past five months. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
At times, there is a benign explanation for children telling untruths. Young minds can process lived memories and secondhand ones in remarkably similar ways.

“Even if some children have only heard of atrocities, fear has been instilled in them and it’s very hard for them to separate what they’ve seen from what they’ve heard,” said Benjamin Steinlechner, a spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. “It’s like watching a horror movie. Children experience it very differently from adults.”

I have a better sense of the life of Mr. Hossain, the four girls’ father.

His troubles, he said, began when he was briefly back in Myanmar and saw a 12-year-old girl with fair skin and delicate features.

“She was so beautiful,” Mr. Hossain said. “I needed to marry her.”

Child marriage is distressingly common among the Rohingya, and soon, Mr. Hossain began shuttling among his three wives. Not every wife knew about the other, but Mr. Hossain didn’t think three wives were too many. His own father, he said, had six wives and 42 children.

Yet Mr. Hossain admitted that he was not adept at balancing family relations. When his four daughters sought shelter in Bangladesh after their village had been burned, Sajida, the wife with whom he has been living in the Leda refugee camp, was furious.

“My husband is a bad man,” she announced, after she finally admitted the girls’ true provenance. “I am tired of all his lies.”

Later, when I reached Mr. Hossain by phone, he was seething.

“I beat her when you left,” he said. “I will beat her again tomorrow.”

Mr. Hossain’s sister-in-law had also explained part of the family’s complicated truth. A neighbor later relayed that her candor had earned her a beating from her husband.

Rather than highlight the plight of unaccompanied minors, my reporting had catalyzed domestic violence in two households. I regretted the days of questioning Ms. Sajida, who goes by one name.

I had found her unsympathetic when she said she wished those girls would disappear back to Myanmar. But that night her husband would beat her. As I stood and judged her for not embracing these four girls from her husband’s youngest wife, a cockroach skittered across the floor. A rat followed.

Ms. Sajida began crying.

All around, through the bamboo slats that make up the walls of a Rohingya shelter, children’s eyes followed my movements, wondering what I was doing there and why I had made a grown woman weep.

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## The Ronin

__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10156212253117164

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## Shorisrip

*Rohingya need an 'autonomous region', not repatriation*

UK-based activists, who hail from opposite sides of Myanmar conflict, on why Rohingya repatriation plan is not solution.






About one million Rohingya refugees are in Bangladesh [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

England, United Kingdom - As Myanmar's Rohingya continue to trickle into neighbouring Bangladesh, extending a six-month exodus, talk of repatriation simmers at the diplomatic level.

There are already about one million members of the persecuted, mostly Muslim minority struggling in overcrowded camps in the South Asian country.

They have fled what several international leaders have termed a genocide in Myanmar, their home country where they are not granted the simplest of rights - including citizenship.

Victims and rights groups have provided evidence of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Myanmar security forces are accused of raping Rohingya women, tossing babies into fires, burning down entire villages and slaughtering thousands.

In January, Bangladesh and Myanmar announced a repatriation deal, prompting concerns from rights groups and members of the Rohingya.

The Rohingya were not consulted about the agreement, which does not guarantee safety upon return or basic rights such as full citizenship.

"Some people asked me - how can we return to this place?" says Tun Khin, a Rohingya activist and the head of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, who visited camps in Bangladesh last week.

"It is a joke. It is not the time to talk about repatriation," he adds. 

On Thursday, Tun Khin will address students at the University of Oxford, a symbolic location.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de-facto leader charged with complicity over killings of Rohingya, studied at the university's St Hugh's College. 
Students there, angered that Aung San Suu Kyi remained a revered figure across campus as the crisis unfolded in Myanmar, recently succeeded in removing her portrait from the entrance and name from a common room.

Tun Khin will be joined on the panel by Maung Zarni, a member of Myanmar's Buddhist majority who hails from a military family. The scholar and activist, who is also based in the UK, says he is in "complete opposition to what my own community is doing to Tun Khin's community".

Al Jazeera spoke with Tun Khin and Zarni on plans to repatriate the Rohingya, the West's role in ending persecution and the apparent failure of the UN Security Council to stop the bloodshed.





Tun Khin visited camps in Bangladesh last week [Courtesy: Tun Khin]

Al Jazeera: Earlier this month, Boris Johnson, the UK's foreign secretary, returned from Myanmar and Bangladesh and said there was no doubt "industrial ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims had been taking place. Does this statement from a Western figure mark some kind of a turning point?

Tun Khin: As a Rohingya myself, I am a victim of genocide. This is not something that is happening just right now, it's been happening since 1978 when my mother was pregnant with me. I was born in Burma. My family fled to Bangladesh, and came back without any citizenship.

(Note: In 1978, Myanmar drove out "illegal" residents. Many Rohingya fled to Bangladesh but returned following international pressure. In 1982, Myanmar's Citizenship Law deprived the Rohingya of citizenship.)

The West knows what has been happening. There are well documented UK and US embassies in Yangon - they are all aware of what's been happening over many years to the Rohingya. 

What's been happening since August is clearly a genocide, which they knew about.

It's good to see Boris Johnson visited, but we haven't seen any significant action from the UK government to stop this genocide.

Maung Zarni: The Rohingya and Burmese Buddhists and other ethnic communities - we belong in the same country. Tun Khin's community has been singled out for, essentially, intentional destruction from its very root. This has been going on for 40 years since 1978 [and] the UN and its member states and the UK, US - they know more than enough to determine that this is a classic case of a genocide.

The problem is members states of the UN, particularly the UN Security Council. The Security Council is essentially in a coma in the case of Rohingya, in the case of Syria, in the case of Yemen.

Before this exodus, Yangon was the place every world leader and delegation went - they wanted to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, they wanted to visit her home.

Now, Burma is no longer democratising, Burma is actually going backward and moving in the fascist direction.

Now, every single iconic figure with concerns about refugees is travelling to Bangladesh. Hollywood stars, heads of states, and Boris Johnson. I must say I am a little bit encouraged by the fact Johnson went there, he went strongly in support of the Rohingya and called it "industrial ethnic cleansing".

Now, Burma is no longer democratising, Burma is actually going backward and moving in the fascist direction.
MAUNG ZARNI, MEMBER OF MYANMAR'S BUDDHIST MAJORITY

But I am very concerned [the West continues to] express support for Aung San Suu Kyi and portray her as the only hope and prospect for democratisation.

She is part of this genocide.

Al Jazeera: As you have mentioned, the language used by some international figures refers to "genocide", while rights groups have spoken of an "apartheid". Why does action not match this rhetoric?

Zarni: As much as it sounds impractical, there needs to be a concerted push by four or five major governments. French President Macron called this genocide. Boris Johnson called it industrial ethnic cleansing. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called it ethnic cleansing.

These are three major permanent UN Security Council members. You cannot describe a situation like this and then not consider very forceful options, even if the Burmese government and its neighbours are unprepared to act.

[Then there are] Islamic countries such as Turkey and Egypt recognising this as a major atrocity and crime.

We need a coalition of seriously concerned governments deciding what to do to.





Tun Khin is the head of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK [Courtesy: Tun Khin]

Al Jazeera: What does concrete action look like to you?

Tun Khin: I met refugees who fled Myanmar as recently as last week. It's a joke to talk about repatriation. It is not the time to talk about repatriation from this government. It's time to see how we can use the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try [Myanmar military chief] Min Aung Hlaing and Aung San Suu Kyi. They joined together to commit genocide.

The Rohingya want safety and protection - so we need a UN-protected area for their return.

Zarni: Before we can take any action, we need to accept the reality. The reality is that Burma - the society and military and government of Aung San Suu Kyi - has shown absolutely no indication that it will accept the Rohingya as an ethnic community who deserve full and equal citizenship as well as basic human rights, like everyone else in the country.

When you have a situation where the entire society and entire military and entire political class have rejected an ethnic community, then it is dishonest for any politician and any UN official leader to keep saying they want to see voluntary safe and dignified return.

What the Rohingya need is a piece of earth that they can call their home, where they don't need to worry about being slaughtered or their houses and villages being burned.
MAUNG ZARNI, MEMBER OF MYANMAR'S BUDDHIST MAJORITY

Return is no longer an option. If the Burmese army or Aung San Suu Kyi said they want to receive the Rohingya back, that is simply a deception to try to defuse the international attention and get the international community off its back.

What the Rohingya need is a piece of earth that they can call their home, where they don't need to worry about being slaughtered or their houses and villages being burned.

What we need to see is a small number of genuinely concerned leaders around the world to call a special conference to create an autonomous region for the Rohingya, where they can feel safe and protected by the UN and neighbouring government of Bangladesh and others. I don't think any other solution will work. 

We are not talking about [for example, the] creation of a Jewish state out of Palestine where there were already pre-existing populations that got kicked out. We are simply looking at the land where Rohingya were kicked out from, where Rohingya belong.

Tun Khin: These people have been in trauma - they are not talking about returning. Some people ask me, "How can we return to this place?" There is no way to return.

Some who fled recently told me the military came to their village and told them they needed to go to an immigration office. When they left, the military burned down their homes. When they got back, the military arrested them, claiming they had burned their own houses. They were arrested for 10 days until they could pay the military a big bribe.

The people want UN protection - international protection. Everyone sees Rohingya as illegal immigrants, and says, "Just kill them all."

Nobody will return unless there is forced repatriation.





Bangladesh and Myanmar announced a repatriation deal in January [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]
Al Jazeera: While you both seek an autonomous region for the Rohingya, what other scenarios could be expected regarding repatriation?

Zarni: It's in the interest of the Bangladeshi government to try to get as many Rohingya as possible returned to Burma - this is a large number of humans that Bangladesh is being burdened with. We need to understand frustrations and fears of Bangladesh of shouldering one million people on top of its 166 million.

From the Burmese military's perspective, they would want this process of repatriation to be drawn out as much as possible.

[Repatriation] is like telling Auschwitz survivors to go back and make a living in Auschwitz.

Al Jazeera: In Bangladesh, as well as overcrowding issues in the camps, what other challenges do the Rohingya face?

Zarni: The danger here is that thousands of Rohingya are facing health and existential crises. In the next three to four months, there will be monsoon season. 

They are in a low-lying area and Bangladesh is flood-prone. They are facing the extremely dangerous prospect of being washed away.

The outbreak of infectious diseases, diarrhoea and what not [is also a concern].

And then you have another 500,000 trapped inside Burma, whose lives are squeezed by the Burmese military.

Al Jazeera: In a few days, you will speak at the University of Oxford, where Aung San Suu Kyi is a noted graduate. Why is the location important?

Zarni: Oxford University is playing this bystander role. It is looking on when genocide is happening under the watch of its most famous alumna.

The university maintains official ties with the University of Yangon, where genocidal views are espoused.

Oxford also has an exchange programme for Burmese scholars and researchers. They become more articulate and better educated and use the Oxford training to justify the genocide of the Rohingya and to cover up.

We want students to tell the Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson to cut institutional ties with Yangon, to strip Aung San Suu Kyi of her doctorate. If the university doesn't have precedent, it should make an exception.

Tun Khin: As a Rohingya myself, I want to bring the messages of the victims to the University of Oxford.

_This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

_
Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/rohingya-autonomous-region-repatriation-180220061618141.html

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## Arthur

*Myanmar government 'bulldozing Rohingya mass grave to hide evidence'*

Rights group says site of massacre in Rakhine state is being flattened on government orders after exposés of two other mass graves

Mon 19 Feb 2018 14.10 GMT Last modified on Mon 19 Feb 2018 22.00 GMT





The site, in Maung Nu, nothern Rakine state, was the location of a massacre that rights group report took place in August last year. Photograph: Arakan Project


The government of Myanmar is bulldozing over the site of a Rohingya mass grave in an effort to destroy evidence of a massacre committed last year by the military, according to a rights monitoring group.

The claim follows investigations conducted by the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies, which revealed evidence of other mass graves.

The Arakan Project, which uses on-the-ground networks to document abuses against the Rohingya community in western Rakhine state, Myanmar, provided the Guardian with a video of the grave site before its destruction. The footage shows half-buried tarpaulin bags in a forest clearing, with a decaying leg visibly protruding from one of the bags.

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, said the bulldozing appears to be part of an effort to hide evidence of the grave permanently following the exposés that appeared in the press.

“Two of the mass graves sites we know about have appeared in the media, but on Thursday one of the other mass grave sites was bulldozed. This means that evidence of the killings is being destroyed,” she said.

Squalor and disease await Rohingya babies born in Bangladesh camps
Read more
“Private companies are doing the bulldozing. They come from central Myanmar, not Rakhine,” she said. “It’s clear this is happening under the orders of government.”

The reported site of the mass grave, in Maung Nu, Buthidaung township, in northern Rakhine state, was the location of a massacre that rights groups report took place in August last year. Human Rights Watch said survivors had told them the army had “beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed, and shot villagers who had gathered for safety in a residential compound” in the village. Dozens were said to have been killed. Satellite imagery obtained by Human Rights Watch showed that Maung Nu had been razed in the aftermath.

The Rohingya are a largely stateless Muslim minority primarily located in Rakhine. Rights organisations say they have suffered decades of systematic persecution and three “ethnic cleansing” campaigns since 2012, a charge the government denies. The group are not recognised by the government as a native minority of Myanmar and are often referred to as “Bengalis” in official discourse, a term implying that they are foreigners.

Thousands of Rohingya are estimated to have been killed during a military crackdown which began in August 2017, following an attack on security outposts by an insurgent group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa). Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to nearby Bangladesh during the violence.

Last week, Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, said the crisis had the “hallmarks of genocide”.

The government of Myanmar has denied claims that the military conducted ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. An army investigation into its own conduct during the 2017 crackdown exonerated itself of any blame. However, in a surprise move last month, the military admitted that Rohingya found in a mass grave at the village of Inn Din had been killed by its soldiers.

A UN fact-finding mission has been denied access to Myanmar while the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights has been barred from entering the country.

“We’ve heard about the allegations of the destruction at Maung Nu and we’re concerned that this could be part of broader efforts to conceal the atrocities committed by Burmese security forces,” Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, told the Guardian.

Other parts of Rakhine state appear to have been bulldozed, according to an AFP report last week, which contained aerial photography showing former Rohingya villages completely flattened. The bulldozing appeared to target villages that had been razed during the military crackdown last year, the report said.

“The bulldozers are destroying not just parts of some villages that were burned but also parts where houses were abandoned but still intact,” Lewa observed.

When asked about the reported bulldozing of Rohingya villages, government spokesman Zaw Htay objected to use of the word Rohingya, saying: “No Rohingya – Bengali, please.”

He followed this by saying, “Local government is clearing that area. No villagers there. No housing. Only plain land.”

“We have to construct new villages there,” he said, for the “resettlement” of returning Rohingya.

When asked about reports of the destruction of the mass grave, he said: “I want to know what evidence you are talking about? Was it Arsa terrorist group? Bengali people around the world?

“Please give me the reliable, concrete, strong primary evidence, please – not based on the talking story of Bengali people around the world, Bengali lobbyists,” he added.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-...-bulldozing-rohingya-mass-grave-hide-evidence

---------------------------------------

Home  > World 
*EU set to prepare sanctions on Myanmar generals: Diplomats*
>> Reuters

Published: 2018-02-22 17:38:19.0 BdST Updated: 2018-02-22 22:27:15.0 BdST








Rohingya Muslims wait to cross the border to Bangladesh, in a temporary camp outside Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar November 12, 2017. Reuters
*The European Union will start preparing sanctions against Myanmar generals over killings of Rohingya Muslims by formally calling on the bloc's foreign policy chief next week to draw up a list of possible names, two diplomats said.
*
https://bdnews24.com/world/2018/02/22/eu-set-to-prepare-sanctions-on-myanmar-generals
-------------------------

@Bilal9 @Homo Sapiens @UKBengali

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## UKBengali

Khan saheb said:


> *Myanmar government 'bulldozing Rohingya mass grave to hide evidence'*
> 
> Rights group says site of massacre in Rakhine state is being flattened on government orders after exposés of two other mass graves
> 
> Mon 19 Feb 2018 14.10 GMT Last modified on Mon 19 Feb 2018 22.00 GMT
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The site, in Maung Nu, nothern Rakine state, was the location of a massacre that rights group report took place in August last year. Photograph: Arakan Project
> 
> 
> The government of Myanmar is bulldozing over the site of a Rohingya mass grave in an effort to destroy evidence of a massacre committed last year by the military, according to a rights monitoring group.
> 
> The claim follows investigations conducted by the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies, which revealed evidence of other mass graves.
> 
> The Arakan Project, which uses on-the-ground networks to document abuses against the Rohingya community in western Rakhine state, Myanmar, provided the Guardian with a video of the grave site before its destruction. The footage shows half-buried tarpaulin bags in a forest clearing, with a decaying leg visibly protruding from one of the bags.
> 
> Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, said the bulldozing appears to be part of an effort to hide evidence of the grave permanently following the exposés that appeared in the press.
> 
> “Two of the mass graves sites we know about have appeared in the media, but on Thursday one of the other mass grave sites was bulldozed. This means that evidence of the killings is being destroyed,” she said.
> 
> Squalor and disease await Rohingya babies born in Bangladesh camps
> Read more
> “Private companies are doing the bulldozing. They come from central Myanmar, not Rakhine,” she said. “It’s clear this is happening under the orders of government.”
> 
> The reported site of the mass grave, in Maung Nu, Buthidaung township, in northern Rakhine state, was the location of a massacre that rights groups report took place in August last year. Human Rights Watch said survivors had told them the army had “beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed, and shot villagers who had gathered for safety in a residential compound” in the village. Dozens were said to have been killed. Satellite imagery obtained by Human Rights Watch showed that Maung Nu had been razed in the aftermath.
> 
> The Rohingya are a largely stateless Muslim minority primarily located in Rakhine. Rights organisations say they have suffered decades of systematic persecution and three “ethnic cleansing” campaigns since 2012, a charge the government denies. The group are not recognised by the government as a native minority of Myanmar and are often referred to as “Bengalis” in official discourse, a term implying that they are foreigners.
> 
> Thousands of Rohingya are estimated to have been killed during a military crackdown which began in August 2017, following an attack on security outposts by an insurgent group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa). Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to nearby Bangladesh during the violence.
> 
> Last week, Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, said the crisis had the “hallmarks of genocide”.
> 
> The government of Myanmar has denied claims that the military conducted ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya. An army investigation into its own conduct during the 2017 crackdown exonerated itself of any blame. However, in a surprise move last month, the military admitted that Rohingya found in a mass grave at the village of Inn Din had been killed by its soldiers.
> 
> A UN fact-finding mission has been denied access to Myanmar while the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights has been barred from entering the country.
> 
> “We’ve heard about the allegations of the destruction at Maung Nu and we’re concerned that this could be part of broader efforts to conceal the atrocities committed by Burmese security forces,” Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, told the Guardian.
> 
> Other parts of Rakhine state appear to have been bulldozed, according to an AFP report last week, which contained aerial photography showing former Rohingya villages completely flattened. The bulldozing appeared to target villages that had been razed during the military crackdown last year, the report said.
> 
> “The bulldozers are destroying not just parts of some villages that were burned but also parts where houses were abandoned but still intact,” Lewa observed.
> 
> When asked about the reported bulldozing of Rohingya villages, government spokesman Zaw Htay objected to use of the word Rohingya, saying: “No Rohingya – Bengali, please.”
> 
> He followed this by saying, “Local government is clearing that area. No villagers there. No housing. Only plain land.”
> 
> “We have to construct new villages there,” he said, for the “resettlement” of returning Rohingya.
> 
> When asked about reports of the destruction of the mass grave, he said: “I want to know what evidence you are talking about? Was it Arsa terrorist group? Bengali people around the world?
> 
> “Please give me the reliable, concrete, strong primary evidence, please – not based on the talking story of Bengali people around the world, Bengali lobbyists,” he added.
> 
> https://www.theguardian.com/global-...-bulldozing-rohingya-mass-grave-hide-evidence
> 
> ---------------------------------------
> 
> Home  > World
> *EU set to prepare sanctions on Myanmar generals: Diplomats*
> >> Reuters
> 
> Published: 2018-02-22 17:38:19.0 BdST Updated: 2018-02-22 22:27:15.0 BdST
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rohingya Muslims wait to cross the border to Bangladesh, in a temporary camp outside Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar November 12, 2017. Reuters
> *The European Union will start preparing sanctions against Myanmar generals over killings of Rohingya Muslims by formally calling on the bloc's foreign policy chief next week to draw up a list of possible names, two diplomats said.
> *
> https://bdnews24.com/world/2018/02/22/eu-set-to-prepare-sanctions-on-myanmar-generals
> -------------------------
> 
> @Bilal9 @Homo Sapiens @UKBengali



Scum need to be made to pay.

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## Shorisrip

Some Good news 

*ROHINGYA CRACKDOWN*
*EU prepares new sanctions on Myanmar*







Reuters, Brussels

European Union foreign ministers yesterday agreed to prepare sanctions against Myanmar generals over the killings of Rohingya Muslims and to strengthen the EU arms embargo, accusing state security forces of grave human rights abuses.

As reported by Reuters last week, foreign ministers meeting in Brussels asked the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, to draw up a list of names to be hit with EU travel bans and asset freezes.

In a statement, ministers called for "targeted restrictive measures against senior military officers of the Myanmar armed forces responsible for serious and systematic human rights violations without delay".

The measures would be the EU's toughest yet to try to hold the Myanmar military accountable for the abuses, likely joining US and Canadian sanctions already in place.

Foreign ministers also want to strengthen the bloc's 1990s-era arms embargo on the Southeast Asian country that remains in place, although they did not give details.


Reuters investigations have highlighted the killing of Rohingya Muslim men who were buried in a mass grave in Rakhine state after being hacked to death or shot by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist neighbours and soldiers.

No names of generals to be targeted for sanctions have been yet discussed, two diplomats said, but the United States said in December it was sanctioning Major General Maung Maung Soe, who is accused of a crackdown on the Rohingya minority in Rakhine.

One EU diplomat said the EU's list was likely to include more than just one senior military officer.

The EU's decision to consider sanctions reflects resistance to such measures in the UN Security Council, where veto-wielding powers Russia and China said this month they believe the situation in Rakhine was stable and under control.

The United States, as well as United Nations, have described the military crackdown in Myanmar as "ethnic cleansing". More than 680,000 people, mostly Rohingya, have fled Rakhine for shelter over the border in Bangladesh, the EU said.

Myanmar has denied most allegations of abuses and asked for more evidence of abuses, while denying independent journalists, human rights monitors and UN-appointed investigators access to the conflict zone.

*DEMOLITION OF EVIDENCE*
Myanmar has bulldozed the remains of Rohingya Muslim villages to make way for refugee resettlement, not to destroy evidence of atrocities, an official leading reconstruction efforts in the troubled northern state of Rakhine said yesterday.

Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had analysed satellite imagery showing Myanmar had flattened at least 55 villages in Rakhine, including two that appeared to be intact before heavy machinery arrived.

The group said the demolitions could have erased evidence of atrocities by security forces in what the United Nations and the United States have called an ethnic cleansing campaign against the stateless Rohingya minority.

A military crackdown prompted by Rohingya insurgents' attacks on 30 police posts and an army base on August 25 drove 688,000 people from their villages and across the border into Bangladesh, many of them recounting killings, rape and arson by Myanmar soldiers and police.

Myanmar has denied most allegations and asked for more evidence of abuses, while denying independent journalists, human rights monitors and UN-appointed investigators access to the conflict zone.

De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in October set up the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development (UEHRD) to lead the domestic response.

Veteran economist Aung Tun Thet, who is the chairman of the body, said villages were being bulldozed to make it easier for the government to resettle refugees as near as possible to their former homes.

"There's no desire to get rid of the so-called evidence," he told reporters yesterday, responding to the allegations of demolition of evidence.

"What we have intended (is) to ensure that the buildings for the people that return can be easily built," he added.

Aung Tun Thet also said Myanmar would do its best to make sure repatriation under an agreement signed with Bangladesh in November would be "fair, dignified and safe".

In a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres restated his call for Myanmar to "ensure unfettered humanitarian access in Rakhine State".

The United Nations suspended activities in northern Rakhine and evacuated non-critical staff after the government suggested it had supported Rohingya insurgents last year. The UN refugee agency has been excluded from the repatriation process.

"The Rohingya community desperately needs immediate, life-saving assistance, long-term solutions and justice," Guterres said yesterday.

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## Bilal9



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## Bilal9

Look at these Myanmar Govt. scumbag liers...this Burmese national security advisor guy looks like Saddam's lying spokesman "Comical Ali" and is just as 'comical'........hilarious....







*_________________________________________________

Myanmar says it would like to see ‘clear evidence’ of genocide*

Reuters 
Published: 2018-03-09 02:13:37 BdST





*Ten Rohingya Muslim men with their hands bound kneel in Inn Din village Sept 1, 2017. Reuters*
*Myanmar wants to see clear evidence to support accusations that ethnic cleansing or genocide has been perpetrated against its Muslim minority in Rakhine state, National Security Adviser Thaung Tun said on Thursday.*

"The vast majority of the Muslim community that was living in Rakhine remain," he told reporters in Geneva. "If it was a genocide, they would all be driven out.”

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine into neighbouring Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown in August, joining 200,000 refugees from a previous exodus.

On Wednesday, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said he strongly suspected "acts of genocide", while Myanmar's military published a lengthy response to widespread allegations over its campaign in Rakhine, saying its investigations had cleared troops of almost all alleged abuses.

Zeid told the UN Human Rights Council that reports of bulldozing of alleged mass graves were a "deliberate attempt by the authorities to destroy evidence of potential international crimes, including possible crimes against humanity".

Thaung Tun said charges of ethnic cleansing and genocide were very serious and should not be bandied about lightly.







FILE PHOTO - Myanmar's national security advisor Thaung Tun departs from a meeting to discuss the Rohingya situation during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, US, September 18, 2017. Reuters

"We have often heard many accusations that there is ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Myanmar. And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it is not the policy of the government, and this we can assure you. Although there are accusations, we would like to have clear evidence," he said.


"We should look into that before making a pronouncement on whether there is ethnic cleansing or genocide."

Myanmar has not allowed UN investigators into the country to investigate. A UN fact-finding mission is due to report on Monday on its initial findings, based on interviews with victims and survivors in Bangladesh and other countries.

Thaung Tun added that Myanmar was willing to accept back people who had fled and provide safety and dignity for them, showing that it did not want them out of the country, and that only a minority of Rakhine's population of 3 million had left.

He said the Muslims who fled largely did so because the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) armed group had sowed fear. He accused ARSA of having forced villagers to join their attacks on the security forces and had insisted on a scorched earth policy, burning villages in retreat.

Rohingya trace their presence in Rakhine back centuries. But most people in majority-Buddhist Myanmar consider them to be unwanted Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. The army refers to the Rohingya as "Bengalis," and most lack citizenship.

Thaung Tun said former residents would be welcomed back if they were willing to "participate in the life of the nation", for example by learning the Burmese language.

"Those who want to become citizens of Myanmar, we are happy to welcome them, but they have to go through a process. There cannot be automatic citizenship," he said.

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## wiseone2

It is business as usual with Myanmar
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201803/09/WS5aa27fd1a3106e7dcc140b8c.html


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## TopCat

wiseone2 said:


> It is business as usual with Myanmar
> http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201803/09/WS5aa27fd1a3106e7dcc140b8c.html


No it is not.
Like Indian road to Thailand is on hold for indefinite time after the Rohingya crisis but meeting and sweet word continues.

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## wiseone2

TopCat said:


> No it is not.
> Like Indian road to Thailand is on hold for indefinite time after the Rohingya crisis but meeting and sweet word continues.



how is electric power trading going to work ??

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## Doctor Strange

Dont understand much of the words spoken by the Rohingya lady. But what I gather from above news is Rohingyas are setting up terms they wont return to Myanmar unless they are given full citizenship rights in their lands, paid for their lives and properties lost, etc usual demands upon enquired by International journalists from other side of border, their response came after MM agreed work with UN on Rohingya return. And about ASEAN meeting in Sydney
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-18/asean-malaysia-pm-confronts-aung-san-suu-kyi/9560112
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/myanmar-ready-rohingya-return-53736960
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/292965.aspx

https://sabrangindia.in/article/how...rnalists-jammu-which-two-locals-were-arrested


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## Bilal9

*American Interfaith leaders laud Bangladesh for sheltering Rohingya*

Nawaz Farhin
Published at 03:45 PM March 28, 2018
Last updated at 11:55 PM March 28, 2018



Visiting American interfaith leaders dub the Rohingya crisis genocide*Nawaz Farhin/Dhaka Tribune*
*They emphasized the need to set up a safe zone in the Rakhine state for the Rohingya*

610
3
613SHARES
American interfaith leaders have praised Bangladesh and its citizens for standing by the forcibly displaced Rohingya minority. Members of a delegation of interfaith leaders currently in Dhaka, they dubbed the Myanmar army’s massacre of Rohingyas genocide and emphasized the importance of setting up a safe zone for them in Rakhine state.

The delegation thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her personal attention to the plight of the Rohingyas, mentioning that they are a community that has been the target of state-sanctioned discrimination for decades.

“It is a textbook case of genocide,” Beth Lilach, senior director at the Holocaust Memorial Center on Long Island, told the media in Dhaka. “The persecution of Muslim Rohingya evolved in stages similar to the progression of Nazism suffered first by German Jews and then by all of European Jewry.”

International Interfaith Peace Corps Chairman Imam Mohamed Magid said the Rohingya had repeatedly been forced to flee to Bangladesh. “It makes the need for a safe zone in the Rakhine state very clear,” he added.

“With a safe zone, protected by international peacekeepers, we are more likely to be able to keep the peace and allow safe and just repatriation,” added Magid, also executive Imam of All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling, Virginia.

Rabbi David Saperstein, former US ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom, said that since the 2012 riots in Rakhine state, mosques had been attacked, Quran and other religious books burned, schools offering religious education closed and Muslim scholars assaulted.

“These occurrences were part of the reason that for a number of years, the US government has designated Myanmar as a ‘country of particular concern’, that is, a country that engages in egregious systemic violations of religious freedom,” he added.

*‘Only Solution’*
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya men, women and children fled to Bangladesh since late last August after the Myanmar security forces launched a brutal offensive targeting the predominantly-Muslim minority following militant attack on 30 police posts and an army base.

Bangladesh was already hosting several hundred thousand Rohingya who had crossed the border at various times in the past to escape persecution in Myanmar.

The ‘Interfaith Coalition to stop genocide in Burma’ organized the 14-member delegation that includes two Buddhist leaders, two Jewish leaders, two Imams, and several Christian leaders.

Interfaith Coalition’s spokesperson Nicolee Ambrose said the delegation was comprised of leaders and adherents of the world’s major religions, “who are united in our efforts to address the suffering of the Rohingya people.”

*The delegation visited Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar on March 26 and 27. They returned to the US on Wednesday.*

*Ambrose said the purpose of their visit was to personally observe and witness the atrocities the Rohingya are experiencing, and to meet those who were most affected by the crisis.*

*“The US House of Representatives is the first elected body in the world to pass legislation in support of Rohingya security and citizenship. The Congress is considering additional measures,” she said.*

*Ambrose said the president, secretary of state, and UN ambassador had made powerful statements recognizing the plight of the Rohingya.*

*“We are asking the US Congress to pass a bill to support the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina’s position to create a safe zone for Rohingyas in Burma protected by peacekeeping troops,” she said. “It is the only solution to the Rohingya crisis.”*

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## Doctor Strange

We Spoke To Rohingyas Taking Up Arms Against Myanmar’s Government (HBO)


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## _Bosniak_

Hello,

Can someone briefly explain/reply to me on few points

- How many Rohingya remains in BURMA?
- How is their life their? Are they planning to stay in this country?
- How many Rohingya refugees are in the neighbourhoud countries and do they plan to return one day in Burma?

Once I was a I child i was refugee as well so I know how it when you have absolutely nothing.

I asked above questions because I would like to understand what could be the future for Rohingya. Is their any hope for them to stay in Burma and live normally? 

If not what the alternative could be? 

Presently there is lot of migrant in Bosnia (From Syria, Pakista, Lybia, Maroco...) but as I can see there no Rohingya.

In the case you have no place where to go you should come to Bosnia. There is enough space and free land.

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## 24 Hours

_Bosniak_ said:


> Hello,
> - How many Rohingya remains in BURMA?
> - How is their life their? Are they planning to stay in this country?
> - How many Rohingya refugees are in the neighbourhoud countries and do they plan to return one day in Burma?
> 
> Once I was a I child i was refugee as well so I know how it when you have absolutely nothing.
> 
> I asked above questions because I would like to understand what could be the future for Rohingya. Is their any hope for them to stay in Burma and live normally?
> 
> If not what the alternative could be?
> 
> Presently there is lot of migrant in Bosnia (From Syria, Pakista, Lybia, Maroco...) but as I can see there no Rohingya.
> 
> In the case you have no place where to go you should come to Bosnia. There is enough space and free land.



-Less than 400,000
-In BD the ones without refugee status are doing terrible but they're better off here than Burma. Most have demands before going back, if they aren't met, most of them won't leave.
-5000 in Thailand, 40,000 in India, 150,000 in Malaysia, 1000 in Indonesia, 350,000 in Pakistan, 10,000 in UAE, 400,000 in Saudi Arabia, and 1,000,000+ in BD

They can come back if the Burmese allow it but right now it seems unlikely.

Don't know an alternative at this point, they're screwed.

I don't think it can work with Bosnia, your country's less than 4 million. A huge number of them will surely cause some upheaval.

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## _Bosniak_

Ashes said:


> -Less than 400,000
> -In BD the ones without refugee status are doing terrible but they're better off here than Burma. Most have demands before going back, if they aren't met, most of them won't leave.
> -5000 in Thailand, 40,000 in India, 150,000 in Malaysia, 1000 in Indonesia, 350,000 in Pakistan, 10,000 in UAE, 400,000 in Saudi Arabia, and 1,000,000+ in BD
> 
> They can come back if the Burmese allow it but right now it seems unlikely.
> 
> Don't know an alternative at this point, they're screwed.
> 
> I don't think it can work with Bosnia, your country's less than 4 million. A huge number of them will surely cause some upheaval.




Thank you clear answer

As I can see they represent les than 2% of Burma's population and do not have capacaties to defend themselves. Furthermore they are not helped by some others countries. So should think how to improved their life condition cause what is happening now is horrible. Nobody deserve to live like this. I have the feeling their condition will not be improved in Burma But mybe I am wrong


Bosnia is indeed not so big country and with only 3.2-3.5 millions habitants but there is lot of space. This country could contains easily 5x more habitants. The major parts of the country is without habitants. And the land is fertil, lot of river and there is not major difficulties to set up new buiding/village/cities

Our governement should proceed in that way and accept Rohingya. Several dozens of hundreds thousands will not harm anytning.

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## AfrazulMandal

Hindu Buddhists are bhai bhai. 
Get armed.
Retaliate.


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## Doctor Strange

_Bosniak_ said:


> Thank you clear answer
> 
> As I can see they represent les than 2% of Burma's population and do not have capacaties to defend themselves. Furthermore they are not helped by some others countries. So should think how to improved their life condition cause what is happening now is horrible. Nobody deserve to live like this. I have the feeling their condition will not be improved in Burma But mybe I am wrong
> 
> 
> Bosnia is indeed not so big country and with only 3.2-3.5 millions habitants but there is lot of space. This country could contains easily 5x more habitants. The major parts of the country is without habitants. And the land is fertil, lot of river and there is not major difficulties to set up new buiding/village/cities
> 
> Our governement should proceed in that way and accept Rohingya. Several dozens of hundreds thousands will not harm anytning.



Problem is BD and Rohingya land is sorrounded by big neighbor India and other side Burma. No land connection to closest Muslim lands. If land connection was there, they would seek refuge to Turkey to Bosnia, going through land route. En-route to Pakistan 40,000 Rohingyas are stuck in India. And India is making most of the noise against Rohingyas. Presently they come to BD and from here go to other closest Muslim countries by different measures. Its happening for 70 years. As they have no future in Burma with no citizenship, education, healthcare, jobs and freedom of movement. Jailed in small enclave area, surrounded by hostile Buddhist neighbors and Army. As BD is already over populated country. Wont be bad if Bosnia a less country want to take some burden through Gov and non gov deals.


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## _Bosniak_

The Last Jedi said:


> Problem is BD and Rohingya land is sorrounded by big neighbor India and other side Burma. No land connection to closest Muslim lands. If land connection was there, they would seek refuge to Turkey to Bosnia, going through land route. En-route to Pakistan 40,000 Rohingyas are stuck in India. And India is making most of the noise against Rohingyas. Presently they come to BD and from here go to other closest Muslim countries by different measures. Its happening for 70 years. As they have no future in Burma with no citizenship, education, healthcare, jobs and freedom of movement. Jailed in small enclave area, surrounded by hostile Buddhist neighbors and Army. As BD is already over populated country. Wont be bad if Bosnia a less country want to take some burden through Gov and non gov deals.




I agree with you. This is how I see the situation as well. As I can see there is no normal future for them in Burma and nobody can or will not help them over there.

I would be glad if some dozens of thousands of Rohingya will come in Bosnia. At least they will have a good starting points for normal life. There is no good connection between BA and this part of world and I am not sure they even know Bosnia exist. Presently there is quite a lot of migrants going through Bosnia but I cannot see any Rohignya. There is more and more migrant which initally planned to go to EU(Germany ect) but at the end staying in Bosnia. I know Bangladesh is overpopulated but it's completely the opposit in Bosnia. Will be good if Rohingya people could find somehow the way to us. Once they are here will find a way to help them to stay.

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## UKBengali

_Bosniak_ said:


> I agree with you. This is how I see the situation as well. As I can see there is no normal future for them in Burma and nobody can or will not help them over there.
> 
> I would be glad if some dozens of thousands of Rohingya will come in Bosnia. At least they will have a good starting points for normal life. There is no good connection between BA and this part of world and I am not sure they even know Bosnia exist. Presently there is quite a lot of migrants going through Bosnia but I cannot see any Rohignya. There is more and more migrant which initally planned to go to EU(Germany ect) but at the end staying in Bosnia. I know Bangladesh is overpopulated but it's completely the opposit in Bosnia. Will be good if Rohingya people could find somehow the way to us. Once they are here will find a way to help them to stay.



Thank you for your kind words.
BD has done what it can but is itself poor and overpopulated.
If Bosnia is able to accommodate a few hundred thousand Rohingya, then I am sure that it will both help the Rohingya and Bosnia over the long term.

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## _Bosniak_

There is more of less permanet help actions in Bosnia for Rohingya people. Various humanitarian organisations are doing it. Colecting and delivering help on the place.

Example



























and so on...

But from my point of view this is just a first help and cannot solve the problem. Better to find them a new location where they could live without be affraid for their life.

On the 04th of April 2018 some representatives from Rohingya people came in Bosnia and met with bosnian's highest religious representative.

*Present at this meeting
*
- Myint HLA Rijaz / RICAA
- Ataullah Noorulislam ATA
- Ismail Hakeem, RV
- Muhamed Turan IGMG-a,
- Mesud Gulbehar „Hasene International“
- Edin Salković IGMG Balkans

and bosnian's highest religious representative Husein ef. Kavazović

They discussed regarding the past, present and future actions. In the article that until now it was only humanitarians aids but they are looking for some other directions as well.

I agree that migrants can contribute to the development on any country. You have just to accept and integrate them properly. We have free space in our land

Photos from the meeting

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## Bilal9

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-envoy-calls-violence-against-rohingya-breathtaking-1524166589


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## bluesky

09:30 PM, June 16, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 09:53 PM, June 16, 2018
*Rohingyas stage demo demanding safe, dignified repatriation*

Some 100-150 Rohingya Muslim refugees at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar staged demonstration demanding safe and dignified repatriation to Myanmar on Saturday, June 16, 2018. Photo: Collected

Star Online Report

Rohingya Muslim refugees at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar today staged a demonstration demanding safe and dignified repatriation to Myanmar.

Mohammed Abul Kalam Azad, commissioner of the Rohingya, Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC), told The Daily Star that some 100-150 Rohingya people staged a demonstration at Camp 1 in Kutupalong area demanding safe return to their motherland, citizenship of Myanmar, return of their properties and trial of those who were responsible for atrocities against the religious minorities since August last year.





The Rohingya people staged the demonstration at Camp 1 in Kutupalong area demanding safe return to their motherland, citizenship of Myanmar, return of their properties and trial of those who were responsible for atrocities against the religious minorities since August 2017. Photo: Collected
Rohingya leader Md Elias said, “We are here for our rights and dignity. We are raising our voice to get citizenship of our homeland. This is the only way.”

They, however, left the place without making any untoward incident. 





A banner showing the demands pressed by the Rohingya refugees during a demonstration at Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar on Saturday, June 16, 2018. Photo: Collected
Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner Md Kamal Hossain confirmed the incident to The Daily Star.


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## asgur

*Myanmar is now erasing the Rohingya’s very name*

Editorial BoardJune 16 at 12:27 PM
THE TRAGEDY of the Rohingya Muslims of Burma began with the forced expulsion of more than a half-million Rohingya people from northern Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh, a brutal army operation undertaken in response to an attack from a Rohingya militant group. But this conflict, now a humanitarian disaster as floods and mudslides threaten Rohingya camps, is also being fought with words. The government of Burma, also known as Myanmar, has erased their very name — “Rohingya” — from the news.

The Rohingya have lived in Burma for decades but were regarded by the majority Buddhists as interlopers from Bangladesh and derisively called “Bengalis.” In a nation with dozens of minority ethnic groups, Rohingya have been left stateless and persecuted. The maltreatment did not ease with the arrival of a fragile democracy in recent years, led by the longtime dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now the de facto head of government.

In recent weeks, the Burmese information ministry has detected the word “Rohingya” in television broadcasts by Radio Free Asia, a private, nonprofit news organization, funded by the U.S. government, which brings news to closed societies in Asia, and the BBC. Both organizations used “Rohingya” in shows that were shared with Democratic Voice of Burma, which operates on the state’s MRTV channel. The information ministry said that RFA and BBC could no longer air their content if they continued to use the word “Rohingya,” which is “strictly prohibited.” Both RFA and the BBC refused to censor their programs, and quit their partnership, although both will continue to be available to Burmese by shortwave, social media and websites.

Censorship was absolute under the military dictatorship that ruled Burma from 1962 to 2010. Hope blossomed for change when the shift to democracy began, and especially after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a landslide in the 2015 election. But the past few years have shown that neither the NLD nor the military is making much progress toward press freedom; old laws that allow selective punishment of journalists remain on the books. The unjust detention of two Reuters reporters, Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, and Wa Lone, 32, who were investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys during the crackdown, is only the latest example.

Many people are questioning why Aung San Suu Kyi has let this happen. In her defense, it is often pointed out, correctly, that the military retains significant power in Burma, including in parliament and control over key ministries, and that she can only do so much. It is also true that Aung San Suu Kyi has appealed to people not to use either “Rohingya” or “Bengali,” saying they are emotive terms, which is hardly a courageous response. She must be asked why her government is acting as a censor. Surely she remembers during her long years of house arrest tuning in to RFA and the BBC to hear the truth. It is distressing to see it suppressed on her watch.

*https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.16f7ed4bcce0*


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## asgur

what is wrong with these people!




__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1938335916206332





checkout those comments


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## Bilal9

*UNFPA applauds as Rohingya woman declares her son born of rape in Myanmar*
Nurul Islam Hasib bdnews24.com

Published: 2018-07-03 00:48:21.0 BdST Updated: 2018-07-03 11:08:28.0 BdST










PreviousNext
*The UNFPA executive director has applauded the declaration of a Rohingya woman to the UN secretary-general that her six-month old son is “a result of rape” in the Rakhine State.*


*RELATED STORIES*

Follow Bangladesh: UNFPA on Rohingya



Natalia Kanem told bdnews24.com she was “very pleased” to find that the woman spoke to the UN chief and the World Bank president during their joint visit to the Cox’s Bazar camps on Monday.

Over a million Myanmar nationals are living in Bangladesh after fleeing ‘ethnic cleansing’ back home.

UN chief António Guterres, has asked the international community to “unite” and put pressure “strongly” on Myanmar authorities to resolve the crisis.

The World Bank has announced $480 million in grants, which is “exceptional” for the lending agency to commit for humanitarian assistance to those persecuted people.

The UNFPA is working with sexual and reproductive health and rights in the camps.

Kanem who was traveling with the UN secretary general said their work has started paying off.

“I was very pleased that among the women who spoke to the secretary general and World Bank president was a woman with her baby.

“The baby was six months old and she declared her son was the result of rape and she has treated the son with full love and she was being treated with full respect from her community, which she deserves.

“This showed we made some progress,” she said, “Women should not be victimised twice for what happened to them.”

“We also believe that no matter what has happened to you in the past, the future should be different.”

This was her second time in the Cox’s Bazar camps one month apart.









During her earlier visit in May, she told bdnews24.com that her agency wants the “same type of solidarity Bangladesh has shown” towards Rohingyas from others, and to increase their monetary contributions.


On Monday she said she was “delighted” to be back here.

“It’s inspiring for me to see that how all of the agencies of UN, civil society of Bangladesh, the host community in Cox’s Bazar and the World Bank have come together to assert two things – one is to express gratitude to Bangladesh… this is the country that has opened its heart at a time when there was real crisis.

“The second point was to show full solidarity with Rohingya people who have suffered so much.”

Kanem also lauded the role of Bangladeshi midwives deployed by the UNFPA at the camps to ensure safe birth.

“Already we see that in a conservative culture, women are being treated with respect and women are speaking directly to the powerful figures, to the head of the UN and the head of the World Bank directly.”

She said they are also coming to the centres operated by the UN agencies exclusively for women.

“So I believe that it’s going to be possible and that should be the expectation that the citizens of Myanmar will be protected on the journey back.

“During this medium-term we do have to work very closely to make sure that they have shelter and they find some confidence and peace when they are being hosted by Bangladesh.”

The UNFPA is running 19 women-friendly spaces at the Cox’s Bazar camps.

*Nothing has changed despite efforts on Rohingya crisis: ICRC president*
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com

Published: 2018-07-03 11:43:09.0 BdST Updated: 2018-07-03 11:43:09.0 BdST










PreviousNext
*Nothing has changed for Rohingyas despite the fact that there is no shortage of initiatives to solve the crisis, said Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC.*





“There is a “lose-lose situation for people” as they are suffering in both sides of the border – northern Rakhine State and the camps in Cox’s Bazar,” said Maurer at a press briefing in Dhaka on Tuesday after visiting Myanmar and Cox’s Bazar.

“Conditions to return will require not only humanitarian and mitigating activities, but also effective political steps towards ensuring freedom of movement, access to basic services, freedom to undertake economic activity and access to markets in Rakhine and most importantly trust in security arrangements for returnees.”









Maurer said he was not here to apportion blame. “Both governments are making efforts and I’m convinced of their goodwill.”


He met leaders of both Bangladesh and Myanmar – Sheikh Hasina and Aung San Suu Kyi, apart from meeting Myanmar’s generals.

“We have also seen the excellent recommendations from Kofi Annan’s Commission, which we support. Humanitarian organisations too are doing their best to alleviate the suffering,” Maurer said.

“But so far, despite all the talking and all the efforts, too little has changed for the people here,” the president said without using the word Rohingya for those persecuted people of Myanmar who denied their citizenships.”









The ICRC was the first international body that obtained the access in the Rakhine State following the Myanmar army's brutal crackdown on the country's ethnic Rohingya minority.


Over a million Rohingyas are now living in Bangladesh.

In both countries, ICRC’s activities range from detention visits to healthcare to humanitarian negotiation and diplomacy following the international humanitarian law.

Maurer who travelled both sides of the border—the northern parts of Rakhine State where people had fled violence and the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar—said he was leaving the region with “a sober assessment” of the situation.

“I met those who stayed and those who left and it is clear that people are suffering on both sides. People lack secure housing, electricity, latrines, medicine and healthcare. There are few options for people to earn an income to allow them to move beyond aid and emergency conditions.”

*ICRC chief tells Hasina he is ‘encouraged by positive posture’ of Myanmar army chief*
Senior Correspondent bdnews24.com

Published: 2018-07-03 03:48:15.0 BdST Updated: 2018-07-03 03:48:15.0 BdST










*The International Committee of Red Cross President Peter Maurer has met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and said he is “encouraged by the positive posture of the Myanmar army chief to take back the Rohingyas”.*





Maurer called on Hasina at the Parliament Building on Monday after visiting the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar following a Myanmar tour. 

He told the prime minister that he saw positive attitude of the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar army to take back the refugees when they met, the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Ehsanul Karim told reporters.

“I was moderately encouraged by the positive posture of the army chief,” Karim quoted the Red Cross chief as saying in the meeting.

















Hasina told him that she felt good after hearing this, Karim said.

Over 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since Aug 25 last year when the Myanmar army launched an operation dubbed ‘ethnic cleansing’ by the UN.

As the refugees recounted the horrific operation and gruesome reports including photos were published in the media, the international community is demanding justice for the Rohingyas.

The International Criminal Court recently asked Myanmar to respond to a prosecution request that they consider hearing a case on the alleged deportation of Rohingya minorities to Bangladesh.

Myanmar army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, however, has denied the allegation of atrocities.

He has also hinted that they are not ready to grant citizenship to the Rohingyas as recommended by a commission formed by their government to resolve the crisis permanently.

Myanmar, however, has agreed to take back the recently arrived Rohingyas while Bangladesh has already provided shelter to around 400,000 fresh refugees.

Maurer visited 130 Rohingya villages in Myanmar, where around 250,000 Rohingyas still reside.

Karim said the Red Cross chief told Hasina about the ‘heartbreaking scenario of destruction’ in the Rakhine State.

Maurer emphasised stability in Rakhine to repatriate the Rohingyas and added his organisation would try its best to make it possible.

He also pledged to continue their support to Bangladesh to handle the refugees.


*Rohingyas want justice and a safe return home: Guterres*
Rezaul Bashar and Shankar Badua Rumi, from Cox's Bazar bdnews24.com

Published: 2018-07-02 10:46:56.0 BdST Updated: 2018-07-02 16:39:40.0 BdST










PreviousNext
*Rohingyas at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar have shared their traumatic experiences with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim during their visit to the camp.*





The UN secretary general tweeted on Sunday that he had heard "unimaginable accounts" of murder and rape after meeting the Rohingyas, who have fled to Bangladesh following a crackdown by the Myanmar military.

"They want justice and a safe return home," he wrote.



View image on Twitter





António Guterres

✔@antonioguterres
https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/status/1013659245114318848

In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, I’ve just heard unimaginable accounts of killing and rape from Rohingya refugees who recently fled Myanmar. They want justice and a safe return home.

10:42 PM - Jul 1, 2018 · Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh


1,243

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In a separate tweet, Guterres called the Rohingyas one of the most vulnerable communities and referred to the refugee crisis as a "human rights nightmare."

He also thanked Bangladesh for "its generosity in hosting refugees."

Guterres and Kim flew to Cox’s Bazar from Dhaka on a special flight on Monday, accompanied by Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali.









Upon their arrival in Cox’s Bazar they were taken to the Hotel Sayeman Beach Resort. They then visited the refugee camps in Kutupalong to inspect the situation and speak with the Rohingyas.


At least 700,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh since the Myanmar military began a crackdown in the state of Rakhine last August. Combined with the approximately 400,000 Rohingyas previously living in Bangladesh, the total refugee population has increased to 1.1 million.

The UN has called the military operation ‘ethnic cleansing’. The Rohingya situation has been considered Asia’s largest refugee crisis in recent history.

Though the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments have reached an agreement on the return of the refugees, progress on implementing the plan has been slow.









The UN has emphasised the need for a voluntary, safe and respectful return process that follows international law.


Guterres and Kim are on a two-day visit to Bangladesh in order to see the plight of the Rohingyas. Both have expressed their concern regarding the refugee crisis.

At a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday, the UN secretary general had discussed stepping up the pressure on Myanmar.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim had expressed his gratitude for the humane reception the Bangladeshi people and its government had given the Rohingyas, stating that international organisations had more work to do if the crisis was to be resolved and that this trip was part of those efforts.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and International Red Cross President Peter Maurer accompanied Guterres and Kim on the trip.

*UN will put more pressure on Myanmar to resolve Rohingya crisis, says Guterres*
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com

Published: 2018-07-01 16:17:54.0 BdST Updated: 2018-07-01 17:17:47.0 BdST








World Bank President Jim Yong Kim (L) and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh Awami League/Facebook

PreviousNext
*UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says the UN is pressuring Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya crisis.*





The UN chief and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her offices in Dhaka on Sunday as part of their trip to Bangladesh.

Guterres said there should be more pressure on Myanmar to make them understand what they should do on this issue, according to Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim.

The UN and World Bank officials also gave their assurances that the organisations would continue their support for Bangladesh on the issue.

Kim and Guterres are scheduled to visit the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar on Monday.

At least 700,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh since the Myanmar military began a crackdown in the state of Rakhine last August. Combined with the approximately 400,000 Rohingyas previously living in Bangladesh, the total refugee population has increased to 1.1 million.

The UN has called the military operation ‘ethnic cleansing’. The Rohingya situation has been considered Asia’s largest refugee crisis in recent history.

Though the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments have reached an agreement on the return of the refugees, progress on implementing the plan has been slow.







UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her offices in Dhaka on Sunday. The two officials are in Bangladesh to visit the Rohingya refugee camps. Photo: PID

The UN has emphasised the need for a voluntary, safe and respectful return process that follows international law.


Guterres praised Sheikh Hasina and the Bangladesh government for opening the door to the Rohingya refugees and for giving them refuge.

He also discussed the possibility of providing education to the refugees in Bangladesh.

“Their main concern is that the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh may become involved in extremism,” Karim said.

The UN secretary general also praised the World Bank for stepping forward to provide help on the issue. The World Bank recently announced a $480 million fund for helping the Rohingyas.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim reiterated that Bangladesh was the organisation’s second largest client, saying that it showed the agency’s faith in the current government.

“The World Bank president mentioned that he would discuss offering Bangladesh World Bank loans at a concession rate despite the recent graduation to lower middle-income status,” said Karim.

Both Guterres and Kim also praised Bangladesh’s recent economic development.

*Myanmar rejects citizenship reform at private Rohingya talks*
>> Reuters

Published: 2018-06-27 10:02:46.0 BdST Updated: 2018-06-27 10:02:46.0 BdST










*A senior Myanmar official has told Western diplomats that a proposal to review a citizenship law that effectively renders most Rohingya Muslims stateless could not be implemented, five people present at the meeting in Denmark in early June told Reuters.*





At a meeting in Copenhagen on Jun 8, Myanmar's Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye told a group of diplomats, analysts and members of a commission chaired by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that eight of its recommendations - including one that asks authorities to take steps to amend the 1982 law - were problematic in the current political climate and could not be immediately fulfilled, the people present said.

"He made it very clear that citizenship reform was a non-starter," said one of the people at the meeting. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because Myanmar had requested the talks be confidential.

Win Myat Aye and government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer calls seeking comment.

Amending the law, which largely restricts citizenship to members of what it terms "national races" - the 135 ethnic groups deemed by the state to be indigenous - was a key recommendation of the Annan commission.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group and refers to them as "Bengalis", a term they reject as it implies they are interlopers from Bangladesh, despite a long history in the country.

The Annan commission was created by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2016 to find long-term solutions to deep-seated ethnic and religious divisions in Rakhine. A day after the panel issued its report in August 2017, Rohingya insurgents launched attacks on security forces, provoking a military crackdown the UN has called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

The admission by Win Myat Aye, who is overseeing plans for reconstruction in violence-ravaged Rakhine state, casts further doubt on plans to repatriate the roughly 700,000 Rohingya currently sheltering in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Many Rohingya refugee leaders say they won't return without guarantees of citizenship.

However, Myanmar's National Security Adviser Thaung Tun, who was also at the meeting in Denmark, told Reuters authorities were implementing the Annan commission's recommendations "to the fullest extent possible and as expeditiously as we can".

"Over 80 recommendations have been carried out in less than 10 months," he said in an email.

Referring to the recommendations that had not been implemented, he said they were "also being looked into".

Annan's spokesman referred questions to the Myanmar government.

Refugees have reported killings, burnings, looting and rape by members of the Myanmar security forces and Buddhist vigilantes in Rakhine. Myanmar has rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing, and dismissed most accounts of atrocities.

*"PATH TO CITIZENSHIP"*

In January, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a deal to repatriate the refugees within two years, but disagreements have held up the implementation of the plan.

Many Rohingya refugees say they will not return unless the 1982 law is changed.

People who identified themselves as Rohingya were excluded from Myanmar's last nationwide census in 2014 and many had their identity documents taken or nullified, blocking them from voting in a landmark 2015 election.

Suu Kyi, who before coming to power said the government should have the "courage" to review the law, is now urging Rohingya to accept the National Verification Card, a residency document that falls short of full citizenship.

However, many Rohingya refuse to accept the document, which they say classifies life-long residents as new immigrants and does not allow them to travel freely.

The military, with whom Suu Kyi shares power, flatly rejects Rohingya calls for citizenship. In a speech in March, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said Rohingya "do not have any characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar" and that the current conflict had been "fuelled because the Bengalis demanded citizenship".

*DIPLOMATIC DIFFICULTIES*

At the Copenhagen meeting, diplomats were about to break for lunch when Win Myat Aye said Myanmar had begun implementing only 80 of the 88 recommendations made by the commission, due to political and practical differences with the remaining eight, one of those present said.

According to a second person present, Annan responded: "You said you're having difficulties with eight – which are those? Let's get back to this after the break."

Win Myat Aye then listed the recommendations he said Myanmar was struggling to implement. They included commitments to create an independent body to review complaints about citizenship verification, empower community leaders and civil society, and establish a mechanism for feedback on government performance.

"In diplo-speak when you say that something is difficult it tends to be a rejection," the second source said. "That is how I understood this."

*Secret UN-Myanmar deal on Rohingya offers no guarantees on citizenship*
>> Reuters

Published: 2018-06-30 12:57:02.0 BdST Updated: 2018-06-30 13:04:34.0 BdST








File Photo: A Rohingya refugee child is handed food rations at Jamtoli refugee camp near Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh, Mar 29, 2018. Reuters

*Rohingya refugees returning to Myanmar will have no explicit guarantees of citizenship or freedom of movement throughout the country, under a secret agreement between the government and the United Nations seen by Reuters.*





The UN struck an outline deal with Myanmar at the end of May aimed at eventually allowing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh to return safely and by choice, but did not make the details of the deal public.

Reuters on Friday reviewed a copy of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreed between the UN and Myanmar authorities. The draft also leaked out online.

Citizenship and rights of refugees who return to Myanmar were key points of contention during negotiations over the agreement to restore access to conflict-ravaged Rakhine state for UN agencies that have been barred since last August.

The MoU states "returnees will enjoy the same freedom of movement as all other Myanmar nationals in Rakhine State, in conformity with existing laws and regulations".

However, it does not guarantee freedom of movement beyond the borders of Rakhine or address the laws and regulations that currently prevent Rohingya from travelling freely, according to the text seen by Reuters.

Refugee leaders and human rights groups say the agreement fails to ensure basic rights for the Rohingya, some 700,000 of whom have fled a military crackdown some Western countries have called "ethnic cleansing".

"As it stands, returning Rohingya to Rakhine means returning them to an apartheid state – a place where they can't move around freely and struggle to access schools, hospitals and places they rely on for work," said Laura Haigh, Amnesty International's Myanmar researcher. "Nothing in this document provides any guarantees that this will change."

The UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has previously called the MoU a "first and necessary step to establish a framework for cooperation" with the government.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay and Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye did not answer multiple phone calls seeking comment. The director of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, and Population said he was not authorised to comment and directed enquiries to the permanent secretary, who did not answer the phone.

Reuters confirmed the contents of the MoU with sources at two international non-governmental organisations. The May 30 draft seen by Reuters was written a day before the deal was signed, but the phrasing of key sections was consistent with a background briefing by UNHCR for diplomats and NGOs also seen by Reuters, and a letter from UNHCR explaining the agreement delivered to refugees in Bangladesh.

*"VERY ANGRY"*

Rights groups and aid agencies said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Development Programme, which spent months negotiating the deal, had not won strong concessions from the Myanmar government, especially on the key issues of citizenship and freedom of movement.

A UN spokeswoman said its policy was "not to comment on leaked documents".

"UNDP and UNHCR and the government of Myanmar continue the discussion about publicly releasing the text of the MoU," the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group and so denies citizenship to most. The government refers to them as "Bengalis", a term they reject as it implies they are interlopers from Bangladesh even though many trace their roots in the country back generations.

The MoU, which does not refer to refugees as Rohingya, requires the government to "issue to all returnees the appropriate identification papers and ensure a clear and voluntary pathway to citizenship for those eligible".

But most Rohingya leaders say they will not return without guarantees of citizenship and reject the National Verification Card, an alternative identity document Myanmar has been pushing them to accept, saying it classifies life-long residents as new immigrants and does not allow free travel.

On Monday, Reuters reported a senior Myanmar official told Western diplomats that a proposal to review a citizenship law that effectively renders Rohingya stateless could not be implemented.

"We are very angry with this MoU," said Mohibullah, chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, a Rohingya organisation based in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. "It does not mention the term Rohingya. Also it says free movement within Rakhine state, but that is very difficult for us."

He said Rohingya had been told by UNHCR officials that the agreement was solely about granting access to northern Rakhine for aid agencies. "We will not accept this MoU."

*ICC gives Myanmar deadline over Rohingya case jurisdiction*
>> Reuters

Published: 2018-06-22 03:30:58.0 BdST Updated: 2018-06-22 03:30:58.0 BdST








Demonstrators in front of the European Union headquarters in Brussels call for an end to the genocide of Rohingyas in Myanmar's Rakhine State. File Photo: mostafigur rahman

*Judges at the International Criminal Court have given Myanmar a deadline to respond to a prosecution request that they consider hearing a case on the alleged deportation of Rohingya minorities to Bangladesh.*


*RELATED STORIES*

Bangladesh gives opinion to International Criminal Court on Myanmar’s trial over Rohingya



In a decision published on Thursday, the judges asked Myanmar to reply by July 27 to the request made in April that the ICC should exercise jurisdiction over the alleged crimes.

About 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya have fled largely Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh after a military crackdown in August 2017 that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

"Considering that the crime of deportation is alleged to have commenced on the territory of Myanmar, the chamber deems it appropriate to seek observations from the competent authorities of Myanmar on the prosecutor's request," the decision said.

The world's first permanent war crimes court does not have automatic jurisdiction in Myanmar because it is not a member state.

However, the prosecutor asked the court to look into the Rohingya crisis and a possible prosecution through Bangladesh, which is a member.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has argued that, given the cross-border nature of the crime of deportation, a ruling in favour of ICC jurisdiction would be in line with established legal principles.

However, she acknowledged uncertainty around the definition of the crime of deportation and limits of the court's jurisdiction.

The judges asked Myanmar to respond to the matter of jurisdiction and circumstances surrounding the crossing of the border by members of the Rohingya minority.


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## asgur

__ https://www.facebook.com/




Coming back from the cave which the locals believe was used as the military headquarters by the late 18th century Arakanese resistance leader Chin Byan, who raised an.army of Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu Arakanese and Chittagongnians to retake the fallen Arakanese seat of power at Mrauk-oo. In fact the historically conscious Rakhine Buddhists despise the Bama Buddhist colonizers more than the fellow subjects of the same shared Arakanese kingdom, of Islamic faith. The strategic preoccupation of the Bama and any colonizer has been the Divide-and-rule. Rohingya Genocide cannot be understood without the Bama manipulation of communal prejudices. Rakhine nationalists succumb to their Islamophobia. Both Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya lose in this colonial politics while the Bama military and crony suck Arakan dry. Similar divide and rule Bama colonialist strategy is deployed against Kachins and Shan Ni, Buddhist and Christian Karens, Shan and Han Chinese (Kokant) , ta ang or Pa-o and Shan, Mon and Karen, Tavoyan and Karen, and above all Bama-identified population and the minorities.


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## The Ronin

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Homo Sapiens




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## Bilal9

*Facebook move on Myanmar raises thorny political questions*


This AFP photo taken on February 09, 2017, shows supporters of Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing displaying his portrait during an anti-Rohingya rally by a hardline Buddhist group outside Yangon's Thilawa port as the Malaysian ship carrying relief aid for Rohingya Muslim minority arrives.

AFP, Washington

Facebook's ban of Myanmar's military leaders marks a new step for the leading social network against state "actors" -- and raises thorny questions on how the company deals with repressive regimes using the platform.

The move against Myanmar's army chief and other top military brass on Monday -- which came on the heels of an explosive UN investigation -- was the first time Facebook has barred members of the military or state actors, the company confirmed.

Facebook's actions came after repeated complaints that the platform was being used to spread hate and incite violence against the Rohingya.

*Read More*




*They must face genocide trial*



*Only words, no action*
The UN report, which recommended that military leaders face prosecution for genocide over their crackdown on the Muslim minority, said Facebook had become "a useful instrument" for those seeking to spread hate.

Facebook and other social networks have been under pressure to curb the spread of disinformation, especially when it can be seen as "hate speech" that may incite violence. Governments themselves can be the sources of such false information.


Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University professor who studies social media, said while the move in Myanmar was "a significant development," the company "has a lot more work to do."

She added that Facebook had to "find a balance" between addressing how state entities are using the platform -- and making sure governments do not block the service.

Several countries have already banned Facebook while others use the platform as part of efforts to reinforce control.

Oxford University researchers said in a report this year they found "organized social media manipulation" in 48 countries.

"A range of government agencies and political parties are exploiting social media platforms to spread junk news and disinformation, exercise censorship and control," they said.

*More 'proactive' move*
Irina Raicu, director of the internet ethics program at Santa Clara University, said Facebook appeared to go further than in the past by banning 20 individuals and organizations even if they had no prior presence on the network.

"That seems to be a much more proactive stance than Facebook has taken before -- and it raises the question about what criteria are applied in determining which individuals and groups are prevented from using the platform in the first place, rather than in response to terms of service or community guidelines violations," Raicu said.

Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Institute, a Washington think tank, said Facebook could face more questions on its approach to hate speech.

"Social networks are getting better at enforcing their codes of conduct, but it is harder for them to make these distinctions when it comes to government leaders, since their use of violence may be seen as legitimate under certain circumstances," Castro said.

Castro said it was notable that Facebook relied on the report from the UN Human Rights Council's investigators rather than act on its own because "the average company is not well-suited to investigate each case for themselves," he said.

"However, the downside is that (the Council) likely moves too slow for the digital era. But that suggests the UN, or some other body, should update its processes for the digital era, not that social networks should take on these additional roles."

Facebook said its move Monday was based on exceptional circumstances following the release of the report.

"We've taken this step in Myanmar following findings by international experts, including a recent UN-commissioned report, that many of these officials committed serious human rights abuses in the country," said Ruchika Budhraja, a Facebook spokeswoman.

"And we believe that their use of Facebook may have fueled ethnic and religious tension in Myanmar."

Budhraja said that because so many people rely on Facebook for information in Myanmar, the situation is "fairly unique."

"That said, we recognize that people in other parts of the world face devastating violence on a daily basis, and we will continue to investigate and take action when we have enough facts to do so," she added.

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## Bilal9

*U.S. Vice President Pence calls for release of jailed Reuters journalists*

WORLD
Wednesday, 5 Sep 2018

7:06 AM MYT




By Makini Brice and Matt Spetalnick










WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called on Myanmar's government to reverse a court ruling that imprisoned two Reuters journalists for seven years and to release them immediately.

The journalists were found guilty on Monday on official secrets charges in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in Myanmar, which was ruled by a military junta until 2011.


Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating the killing by security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest last December, and had pleaded not guilty.

"Wa Lone & Kyaw Soe Oo shd be commended—not imprisoned—for their work exposing human rights violations & mass killings. Freedom of religion & freedom of the press are essential to a strong democracy," Pence wrote on Twitter.


Pence is the most senior U.S. official to add his voice to an international outcry against the verdict by a Myanmar judge, who said the two had breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents.

In Yangon earlier on Tuesday, the wives of two journalists insisted that the men were innocent and called for them to be reunited with their families.

"Deeply troubled by the Burmese court ruling sentencing 2 @Reuters journalists to 7 years in jail for doing their job reporting on the atrocities being committed on the Rohingya people," Pence wrote in another tweet.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that the United States would become more vocal about the two journalists' situation.

Speaking at a news conference in New York marking the U.S. assumption of the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council for September, Haley said the reporters were "in prison for telling the truth."

Mark Green, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said "these convictions are an enormous setback for democracy and the rule of law in Burma."

MOUNTING PRESSURE

The verdict came amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in west Myanmar in August 2017.

More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to U.N. agencies. The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine, are widely considered as interlopers by the country's Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.Neither Suu Kyi nor her government have commented publicly on the case since the reporters were convicted.

The journalists were arrested on Dec. 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in the village of Inn Din.

Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities against Rohingya by its security forces, saying it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants.

The military acknowledged the killing of the 10 Rohingya at Inn Din after arresting the Reuters reporters.

A U.N mandated fact-finding mission said last week that Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for top generals to be prosecuted. Myanmar rejected the findings.

The International Criminal Court is considering whether it has jurisdiction over events in Rakhine, while the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Myanmar military and police officers over the crackdown.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Eric Beech, Toni Reinhold)



*Rohingya protesters call for freedom for Reuters reporters in Myanmar*

WORLD
Wednesday, 5 Sep 2018

10:46 PM MYT




By Poppy Mcpherson









COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - About 50 Rohingya Muslim refugees gathered in a muddy sports field in a camp in Bangladesh on Wednesday to protest against the conviction in Myanmar of two Reuters reporters, who were arrested while covering the plight of their community.

A Myanmar judge on Monday found the two journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years, in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country.


The two reporters, Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating the killing by the Myanmar security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest in December.

The pair had pleaded not guilty.


More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims fled from the west of mostly Buddhist Myanmar into Bangladesh from August last year when Rohingya insurgent attacks on the Myanmar security forces triggered a sweeping military crackdown.

Abdu Shakur, the father of Rashid Ahmed, one of the 10 men whose deaths at the hands of the Myanmar military were exposed by the Reuters reporters, was among the crowd protesting in a refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh.

"I felt very upset as my sons and other families were innocent and the reporters were innocent," Shakur told Reuters.

"Why were they sentenced?"

The crowd held signs bearing the reporters faces and chanted "Free!"

"I hope that if we all try for them then the government will release," Shakur said.

After the two reporters were arrested, the military confirmed that the massacre they were investigating, of 10 Rohingya in the village of Inn Din in Rakhine State, had taken place and several soldiers were prosecuted and punished.

Though the Myanmar military acknowledged the killings at Inn Din, the government has denied most allegations of atrocities against Rohingya by the security forces.

It says it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants who started the violence.

Rahama Khatun, the widow of another of the men killed in Inn Din, was also at the protest.

"Our family members have passed away, also these two Buddhists were jailed," she said, clutching a sign that read 'Release Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo'.

"Their families may be facing difficulties to survive. We have sympathy with their families."

(Refiles to correct first name to Abdu, instead of Abdul, paragraph six)

(Editing by Robert Birsel)


*Myanmar court jails Reuters reporters for seven years in landmark secrets case*

WORLD
Monday, 3 Sep 2018

9:02 PM MYT




By Shoon Naing and Aye Min Thant









YANGON (Reuters) - A Myanmar judge on Monday found two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years, in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country.

Yangon northern district judge Ye Lwin said Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents.


"The defendants ... have breached Official Secrets Act section 3.1.c, and are sentenced to seven years," the judge said, adding that the time served since they were detained on Dec. 12 would be taken into account. The defence can appeal the decision to a regional court and then the supreme court.

The verdict comes amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in west Myanmar in August 2017.


More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to U.N. agencies.

The two reporters, who were investigating the killing by the security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest, had pleaded not guilty.

Press freedom advocates, the United Nations, the European Union and countries including the United States, Canada and Australia had called for the journalists' acquittal.

"Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere," Reuters editor in chief Stephen J Adler said in a statement.

"We will not wait while Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo suffer this injustice and will evaluate how to proceed in the coming days, including whether to seek relief in an international forum."

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has urged Myanmar authorities to review their decision, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Monday.

"It is unacceptable that these journalists were prosecuted for reporting on major human rights violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State," he said, adding that Guterres would continue to advocate for their release and for "full respect of freedom of the press and all human rights in Myanmar."

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called for the immediate, unconditional release of the reporters.

"It is clear to all that the Burmese military has committed vast atrocities," Haley said in a statement.

"In a free country, it is the duty of a responsible press to keep people informed and hold leaders accountable. The conviction of two journalists for doing their job is another terrible stain on the Burmese government."

The reporters had told the court two police officials handed them papers at a restaurant in the city of Yangon moments before other officers arrested them.

One police witness testified the restaurant meeting was a set-up to entrap the journalists to block or punish them for their reporting of a mass killing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.

More than 80 people, including senior diplomats, were packed into the court on Monday.

Judge Ye Lwin read a summary of witness testimony for about an hour before delivering his verdict, which had been postponed by a week because he was sick.

The court determined that "confidential documents" found on the two would have been useful "to enemies of the state and terrorist organisations". Documents in their possession and on their phones were "not public information", he said.

'NO FEAR'

Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su Win, burst into tears after the verdict, and family members had to support her as she left the court.

Wa Lone, in handcuffs and flanked by police, told a cluster of friends and reporters after the verdict not to worry.

"We know we did nothing wrong. I have no fear. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom," he said.

Kyaw Soe Oo also said the reporters had committed no crime and that they would maintain their fight for press freedom.

"What I want to say to the government is: you can put us in jail, but do not close the eyes and ears of the people," he said.

Some of the reporters' supporters shouted "let them speak" and jostled with police as they were driven back to prison.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo both have young daughters and have not seen their families outside of prison visits and court hearings for nearly nine months.

Kyaw Soe Oo has a three-year-old daughter and Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, gave birth to their first child last month.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay didn't respond to requests for comment about the verdict. He has mostly declined to comment throughout the proceedings, saying the courts were independent and the case would be conducted according to the law.

'HAMMER BLOW'

U.S. ambassador Scot Marciel said the "deeply troubling" verdict could undermine the confidence the Myanmar people had in the justice system.

"Unbelievable! More and more, responsible journalism is found to be a crime in Myanmar!" Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said on Twitter.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said the verdict "sends a message to all journalists in Myanmar that they cannot operate fearlessly, but must rather make a choice to either self-censor or risk prosecution."

British ambassador Dan Chugg, speaking on behalf of EU members, said the verdict had "dealt a hammer blow for the rule of law".

France said it deplored `the prison sentences and that the convictions represented a serious violation of press freedom and the rule of law.

Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called for more U.S. sanctions in addition to targeted measures already imposed on a handful of Myanmar military and police commanders.

"This unjust verdict reaffirms that the Burmese government is complicit in the military’s atrocities," he said in a statement. "The U.S. should respond with more sanctions and a formal determination of genocide. We must act before it is too late.”

In Bangladesh, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, a media adviser to the prime minister, said it was "an open secret" that anyone exposing "atrocities of the Myanmar army" would be persecuted.

Marianne Hagen, deputy foreign minister of Norway, whose state-controlled firm Telenor is the second largest mobile phone operator in Myanmar, urged the authorities to "protect freedom of the press, respect basic human rights and secure journalists' rights in the court system".

Reuters called the Myanmar military spokesman but an assistant said the spokesman was busy and unable to speak.

INVESTIGATING KILLINGS

The reporters were arrested on Dec. 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in Inn Din, a village in Rakhine State.

Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities made by refugees against its security forces, saying it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants.

But the military acknowledged the killing of the 10 Rohingya at Inn Din after arresting the Reuters reporters.

A U.N mandated fact-finding mission said last week that Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for top generals to be prosecuted. Myanmar rejected the findings.

The International Criminal Court is considering whether it has jurisdiction over events in Rakhine, while the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Myanmar military and police officers over the crackdown.

(Additional reporting by Simon Lewis, Antoni Slodkowski, Thu Thu Aung in YANGON, Ruma Paul in DHAKA, David Shepardson in Washington; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Philip McClellan, Kevin Liffey, Toni Reinhold)


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## Flynn Swagmire

Mates lets have some discussion here:

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/canada-declares-myanmar-rohingya-killings-genocide.578297/


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## Bilal9

Permanent refugee housing for Rohingyas in Bhashan-char Island (In the Ganges Delta), as seen yesterday. Practically a brand-new self-contained town. And I'd say absolutely no worse than how European countries and the US handles refugees...

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## UKBengali

Bilal9 said:


> Permanent refugee housing for Rohingyas in Bhashan-char Island (In the Ganges Delta), as seen yesterday. Practically a brand-new self-contained town. And I'd say absolutely no worse than how European countries and the US handles refugees...



Good. This is much better than the squalor they are currently residing in.

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## bluesky

I think a 3.5m x 4.0m room for a family of four is too inadequate. However, it is better than the bamboo huts the Rohingyas are at present living in. May Allah help these destitute people from Arakan to get a little more peace and less anxiety. It is too unbearable to accept their man-made sufferings. 

Can someone tell if kindergartens, schools, and park/playgrounds are also being set up for the children? They will need these common facilities to get over the sufferings and to restart a new life.

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## M.R.9

okay one question- 

BD got 1 million of rohingyas. What happened to others ?


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## bluesky

*EU delivers on its pledge to support Rohingyas in Bangladesh *
Published: October 23, 2018 14:34:12 




File Photo (Collected)

The European Union has said it is committed to help finding a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis and delivered additional 15 million in support to assist Rohingyas in Bangladesh.

Neven Mimica, Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, said the money will be on the needs of children, young people, female-headed households and families.

He said, "Over half of the Rohingya refugees under 18 years of age and the conflict have left many women having to look after their families alone.”

“So the priority of this €15 million support package will be on the needs of children, young people, female-headed households and families."

The EU has so far made available €65 million in humanitarian assistance, EU Embassy in Dhaka said on Tuesday.

It has been providing substantial political, development and humanitarian support in response to the Rohingya refugee crisis from the outset.

The support will deliver on the medium-term development needs of the refugees and their host communities in the Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh, reports UNB.

It will focus on community development, social cohesion, mitigating risks of tensions, as well as gender equality.

The above-mentioned support measures will help to make these communities more resilient - an approach also recognised by the Global Compact on Refugees (link is external), which is expected to be adopted before the end of 2018 and to be subsequently endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly.

The EU welcomed the World Bank's recent pledge of development support (link is external) and encourages other development donors to follow suit.

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/...to-support-rohingyas-in-bangladesh-1540283652


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## M.R.9

I wish commission will be 50 50


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## Bilal9

*Australia hits five Myanmar generals with sanctions*
International Desk | banglanews24.com
Update: 2018-10-23 12:02:18 PM
Australia's government on Tuesday unveiled sanctions against five officers in Myanmar's powerful military who are accused of overseeing barbaric violence against members of the Rohingya ethnic group.
 




_Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne_

Australia's government on Tuesday unveiled sanctions against five officers in Myanmar's powerful military who are accused of overseeing barbaric violence against members of the Rohingya ethnic group.

Following similar actions by the United States and the European Union, Australia announced it would freeze the assets of officers including a Lieutenant General who commanded a special operations group believed to be behind atrocities.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the officers - Aung Kyaw Zaw, Maung Maung Soe, Aung Aung, Than Oo and Khin Maung Soe were "responsible for human rights violations committed by units under their command".

The five, some of whom are since believed to have stepped down from their posts, will also be banned from travelling to Australia.

Around 700,000 Rohingya have been driven from their homes in Rakhine state, in southwest Myanmar, since 2016.

The campaign has been marked by numerous extrajudicial killings, mass rape and the burning of villages by security forces.

Source: THE BUSINESS TIMES

BDST: 1200 HRS, OCT 23, 2018

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## M.R.9

Bilal9 said:


> Australia hits five Myanmar generals with sanctions



Main criminals now trying to go under the cave. brother .

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## bluesky

*China offers Myanmar support over Rohingya issue after US rebuke*
>> Reuters

Published: 2018-11-16 09:35:34.0 BdST Updated: 2018-11-16 09:35:34.0 BdST






*China supports the Myanmar government's efforts to protect domestic stability and approach to resolving the Rohingya issue, Premier Li Keqiang told the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after US Vice President Mike Pence offered a strong rebuke.
*
Pence on Wednesday voiced Washington's strongest condemnation yet of Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims, telling Suu Kyi that "persecution" by her country's army was "without excuse".

Meeting Suu Kyi on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Singapore, Li said China attaches great importance to its ties with Myanmar and would build on their tradition of friendship, China's Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday.

"The Chinese side supports Myanmar's efforts in maintaining its domestic stability, and supports Myanmar and Bangladesh appropriately resolving the Rakhine state issue via dialogue and consultation," the ministry cited Li as saying.

China is "willing to provide the relevant parties with necessary support in this regard", he added, without elaborating.

More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees crossed into Bangladesh from western Myanmar's Rakhine state, U.N. agencies say, after Rohingya insurgent attacks on Myanmar security forces in August 2017 triggered a sweeping military crackdown.

The two countries agreed on Oct. 30 to begin returning refugees to Myanmar in mid-November. The U.N. refugee agency has said conditions in Rakhine are "not yet conducive for returns".

China has close relations with Myanmar, and backs what Myanmar officials have called a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in Rakhine.

China's statement cited Suu Kyi as expressing thanks to China for the many times it has extended help to Myanmar, especially the constant understanding and support for the Myanmar peace process and the Rakhine issue.

A plan to begin repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar stalled on Thursday, amid protests by refugees at camps in Bangladesh and recriminations between the officials in both countries.


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## Buddhistforlife

TopCat said:


> I am sure BGB is involved. You guys should take drastic measure and attack. I want to see the fireworks.


Who's the kid in your profile picture?


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## TopCat

Buddhistforlife said:


> Who's the kid in your profile picture?


Rohingya


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## Buddhistforlife

bluesky said:


> *China offers Myanmar support over Rohingya issue after US rebuke*
> >> Reuters
> 
> Published: 2018-11-16 09:35:34.0 BdST Updated: 2018-11-16 09:35:34.0 BdST
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *China supports the Myanmar government's efforts to protect domestic stability and approach to resolving the Rohingya issue, Premier Li Keqiang told the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after US Vice President Mike Pence offered a strong rebuke.
> *
> Pence on Wednesday voiced Washington's strongest condemnation yet of Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims, telling Suu Kyi that "persecution" by her country's army was "without excuse".
> 
> Meeting Suu Kyi on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Singapore, Li said China attaches great importance to its ties with Myanmar and would build on their tradition of friendship, China's Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday.
> 
> "The Chinese side supports Myanmar's efforts in maintaining its domestic stability, and supports Myanmar and Bangladesh appropriately resolving the Rakhine state issue via dialogue and consultation," the ministry cited Li as saying.
> 
> China is "willing to provide the relevant parties with necessary support in this regard", he added, without elaborating.
> 
> More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees crossed into Bangladesh from western Myanmar's Rakhine state, U.N. agencies say, after Rohingya insurgent attacks on Myanmar security forces in August 2017 triggered a sweeping military crackdown.
> 
> The two countries agreed on Oct. 30 to begin returning refugees to Myanmar in mid-November. The U.N. refugee agency has said conditions in Rakhine are "not yet conducive for returns".
> 
> China has close relations with Myanmar, and backs what Myanmar officials have called a legitimate counter-insurgency operation in Rakhine.
> 
> China's statement cited Suu Kyi as expressing thanks to China for the many times it has extended help to Myanmar, especially the constant understanding and support for the Myanmar peace process and the Rakhine issue.
> 
> A plan to begin repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar stalled on Thursday, amid protests by refugees at camps in Bangladesh and recriminations between the officials in both countries.


Do you think the rohingyas are living in camps? Lol. Rohingyas are no more in camps, most of them have migrated to other parts of Bangladesh. The international community and NGOs are making a fool out of you. Hardly 50% of the rohingya people are now in camps. Most of them are working as day labourers, rickshawpullers in Chittagong,Noakhali and other parts of Bangladesh. 

How are you gonna repatriate rohingyas when you dont have them in the camps lol.

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## bluesky

*Suu Kyi must fulfill responsibility to Myanmar to resolve Rohingya issue*
8:03 pm, November 26, 2018

The Yomiuri Shimbun. In order to resolve the serious humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, the leadership of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto head of government, is indispensable. The international community, including Japan, also needs to increase its involvement.

Over the issue that the country’s Muslim minority Rohingya have fled to neighbor Bangladesh as refugees, both governments postponed the repatriation plans, originally scheduled to start on Nov. 15. It is expected to be difficult for the plans to be implemented within this year.

The refugees are refusing to be repatriated on the grounds that their safety has not been secured in Myanmar. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had also requested the postponement of their repatriation, saying the will of the refugees should be respected.

After Myanmar’s security authorities launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing in August last year, more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh as refugees. Neither their slipshod return that would have these refugees exposed to dangers, nor any further prolongation of their wretched life as refugees is pardonable.

The U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, established by the U.N. Human Rights Council, said in its report released in August that such crimes as indiscriminate killing, sexual violence, attacking and burning of villages, and others against Rohingya amount to an act of ethnic genocide, and called for prosecuting Myanmar’s top military leaders.

With regards to Suu Kyi, too, the report noted that she “has not used her de facto position as Head of Government.”

*Japan must take stronger stance*

Myanmar is still in the process of becoming a democratic country, with the military still maintaining a strong influence. As the great majority of its people are Buddhists, the sense of discrimination against the Rohingya, a non-Buddhist minority, runs strong.

Isn’t Suu Kyi putting off a fundamental solution to the issue, out of consideration for the military and public opinion? She must take to heart the growing criticism from the international community.

The European Union is considering imposing economic sanctions against Myanmar. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence also told Suu Kyi of U.S. concerns.

The Myanmar government has established a commission to investigate allegations of persecution of Rohingya and to prevent a similar incident from recurring. Four people, including Kenzo Oshima, Japan’s former ambassador to the United Nations, were appointed as members. The Myanmar government and the military are required to actively cooperate with the investigation and strive to regain trust.

Drawing a line from countries in Europe and North America, Japan attaches importance to assistance to Myanmar, while holding in check its criticism about the country. When member countries at the U.N. council adopted a resolution to condemn Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingya, Japan abstained. There may also be such concerns that China could increase its influence there if Japan becomes distanced from Myanmar.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasizes that Myanmar, by accepting the involvement of an international organization, should accelerate the improvement of the environment for the return of Rohingya refugees. Japan, for its part, should not only show its understanding toward Suu Kyi, but also strongly demand her to take action.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 26, 2018)

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005372589


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## M.R.9

bluesky said:


> Suu Kyi must fulfill responsibility to Myanmar to resolve Rohingya issue



it;s insane. Last day - i saw an article. Her Peaceful killer party denied to take them. Now what- Another NObel she wants ?


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## Chinese-Dragon

bluesky said:


> *When member countries at the U.N. council adopted a resolution to condemn Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingya, Japan abstained. There may also be such concerns that China could increase its influence there if Japan becomes distanced from Myanmar.*



Japan is still trying to expand their influence in Myanmar. And so is the West. And so is China.

And so is Bangladesh.

PM: Bangladesh wants a solution to Rohingya crisis keeping relations unharmed - Dhaka Tribune

*Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the government wants to solve the Rohingya crisis keeping “good relations” with neighbouring Myanmar unharmed.

“We want to resolve the crisis keeping the good relations with the neighbour,” she said.*

--------------------

It seems like everyone is fighting to win influence with Myanmar.

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## Nilgiri

Chinese-Dragon said:


> Japan is still trying to expand their influence in Myanmar. And so is the West. And so is China.
> 
> And so is Bangladesh.
> 
> PM: Bangladesh wants a solution to Rohingya crisis keeping relations unharmed - Dhaka Tribune
> 
> *Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the government wants to solve the Rohingya crisis keeping “good relations” with neighbouring Myanmar unharmed.
> 
> “We want to resolve the crisis keeping the good relations with the neighbour,” she said.*
> 
> --------------------
> 
> It seems like everyone is fighting to win influence with Myanmar.



China is clearly the dominant one:

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/china-myanmar-move-ahead-with-sea-port-project.585926/

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## M.R.9

Chinese-Dragon said:


> Japan is still trying to expand their influence in Myanmar. And so is the West. And so is China.



Sorry dear- Disagreed. Japan has another purpose. Don't compare Japan with this issue. But China has Criminal ( Sorry don't want to say this word, but i didnt get any other word ) reasons for this. But i don't think--- They will be succeed. Just lasting-- That's it.



Chinese-Dragon said:


> Japan is still trying to expand their influence in Myanmar. And so is the West. And so is China.
> 
> And so is Bangladesh.
> 
> PM: Bangladesh wants a solution to Rohingya crisis keeping relations unharmed - Dhaka Tribune
> 
> *Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the government wants to solve the Rohingya crisis keeping “good relations” with neighbouring Myanmar unharmed.
> 
> “We want to resolve the crisis keeping the good relations with the neighbour,” she said.*
> 
> --------------------
> 
> It seems like everyone is fighting to win influence with Myanmar.




Onemore thing . This is not a new problem. Since 1080 till today it is going on. And what PM said- That is diplomacy not solution. Let me ask you one thig- If today , by force we push 20 million of BD people , ( Just imagine) to the china border. What will be the reaction ? Our Bloody Foreign policy killed us before our death. That is why some countries are talking 300% interest with the main balance.


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## Chinese-Dragon

M.R.9 said:


> If today , by force we push 20 million of BD people , ( Just imagine) to the china border. What will be the reaction ?



Then there will be a war. Given the geography it will probably be fought on Myanmar's soil, since that is the land link between China and Bangladesh.

But Bangladesh instead decided to close their border with Myanmar to prevent refugees from escaping, why would they do that if they think Myanmar is butchering the Rohingya?

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## M.R.9

Chinese-Dragon said:


> Then there will be a war. Given the geography it will probably be fought on Myanmar's soil, since that is the land link between China and Bangladesh.
> 
> But Bangladesh instead decided to close their border with Myanmar to prevent refugees from escaping, why would they do that if they think Myanmar is butchering the Rohingya?



YEs. That will be war not civil war. Full faze war. Thank you . 
So- if it is ,according 2 u statement it will be a civil war- So why and in which way China can support Myanmar ? yes they are fighting for the soil. u r correctt.

China also has border area with china. escaping >> are they escaping ?? or just for saving their life searching a cave ? What Burma thinks we don't care, but what we think it must be concerned to Burma or her allies.


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## bluesky

Chinese-Dragon said:


> But Bangladesh instead decided to close their border with Myanmar to prevent refugees from escaping, why would they do that if they think Myanmar is butchering the Rohingya?


Where did you get this small piece of news, is it from a Chinese newspaper? No way BD has blocked the roads to and from Arakan for the Rohingyas to come. Truth is, the Rohingyas do not want to reside or go back when their lives are not safe in Arakan. But, bD has also its limit to accept refugees. The only way is that the Burmese govt guarantees of no more bullying and expelling. 

But, you are blaming BD as if it was BD that burned their houses and invited them to BD, but then is not allowing them to cross the border. BD already has sheltered more than one million Burmese refugees.


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## M.R.9

Scheduled Rohingya repatriation did not take place on Thursday as Rohingyas are unwilling to go back to their home.

The Rohingya repatriation has been halted as they don’t want to go back to Mayanmar,” said Mohammad Abul Kalam, Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, while talking to reporters at Ukhia Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar on Thursday afternoon.

“We gave them a time from 2pm to 4pm to take decision and wait there, but no one agreed to go back. The process will resume when the Rohingya people will agree,” said Kalam, a government spokesperson, UNB reports.

Rohingyas in different camps staged demonstrations expressing their unwillingness to return to their homeland although Bangladesh and Myanmar have completed all the necessary preparations to repatriate 150 of them on Thursday afternoon.

Earlier, Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to begin the first batch of repatriation on November 15 with 150 individuals each day until November 30, and a list of 2,260 Rohingyas, including 450 Hindus of 485 families, has been handed over to the Myanmar side.

Source: observerbd.com


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## bluesky

10:17 AM, December 19, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:48 AM, December 19, 2018
*Facebook cancels hundreds of accounts linked to Myanmar military that used platform to attack Rohingya*

A protester holds a placard during protest against Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority in front of Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta in Indonesia on December 5, 2018. Photo: Reuters
" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; cursor: pointer; position: relative; display: table; z-index: 1; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;">




A protester holds a placard during protest against Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority in front of Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta in Indonesia on December 5, 2018. Photo: Reuters
AFP
--Myanmar’s forces last year drove more than 720,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, while dehumanising material about the stateless group spread on the site

--This is Facebook’s third sweeping takedown of pages and accounts for what it calls ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ in Myanmar

Facebook has removed hundreds of pages and accounts in Myanmar with hidden links to the military, the platform said on Wednesday, as the company scrambles to respond to criticism over failures to control hate speech and misinformation.

The social media giant – Myanmar’s most popular and influential site – has been lambasted for years for its ineffective response to malicious posts, particularly against the country’s Rohingya Muslims.

The problem reached new levels of urgency last year as Myanmar’s military drove more than 720,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, while dehumanising material about the stateless group spread on the site.

Facebook said on Wednesday some 425 pages, 17 groups, 135 accounts and 15 Instagram accounts had been removed, which were posing as independent news, entertainment, beauty and lifestyle pages but in reality had links to the military or to pages previously removed.

This is Facebook’s third sweeping takedown of pages and accounts for what it calls “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” in Myanmar following deletions in October and August.

Hardline nationalist monks and even the army’s top generals, accused by UN investigators of genocide, are among the users Facebook blacklisted this year.

Facebook said in a newsroom post that it does not want people or organisations “creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing,” adding that one page had 2.5 million followers.

Some of the deleted pages were called “Down for Anything”, “Let’s Laugh Casually”, and “We Love Myanmar”.

Facebook has been trying to repair its battered reputation, improving the speed with which hate speech is taken down and vowing to strengthen its Myanmar-language reviewers on staff to 100 by the end of 2018. But critics say this is not enough to oversee some 20 million Facebook accounts in the country, many in a patchwork of regional languages.

An independent report commissioned by Facebook concluded last month that the state was ultimately responsible for rights abuses, but the company should have done more to prevent the platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence. It also warned Myanmar’s 2020 election is likely to be a flashpoint for abuse and misinformation.

Most people in Myanmar only came online in the last few years, when smartphone usage soared as the country opened up to the outside world after decades of isolated military rule.

Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government – which is in an uneasy power-sharing agreement with the military – has come under fire for not doing more to stand up for the Rohingya.

https://www.thedailystar.net/rohing...reds-accounts-linked-myanmar-military-1675846

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## Buddhistforlife

bluesky said:


> 10:17 AM, December 19, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:48 AM, December 19, 2018
> *Facebook cancels hundreds of accounts linked to Myanmar military that used platform to attack Rohingya*
> 
> A protester holds a placard during protest against Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority in front of Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta in Indonesia on December 5, 2018. Photo: Reuters
> " style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; cursor: pointer; position: relative; display: table; z-index: 1; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;">
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A protester holds a placard during protest against Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority in front of Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta in Indonesia on December 5, 2018. Photo: Reuters
> AFP
> --Myanmar’s forces last year drove more than 720,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, while dehumanising material about the stateless group spread on the site
> 
> --This is Facebook’s third sweeping takedown of pages and accounts for what it calls ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ in Myanmar
> 
> Facebook has removed hundreds of pages and accounts in Myanmar with hidden links to the military, the platform said on Wednesday, as the company scrambles to respond to criticism over failures to control hate speech and misinformation.
> 
> The social media giant – Myanmar’s most popular and influential site – has been lambasted for years for its ineffective response to malicious posts, particularly against the country’s Rohingya Muslims.
> 
> The problem reached new levels of urgency last year as Myanmar’s military drove more than 720,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, while dehumanising material about the stateless group spread on the site.
> 
> Facebook said on Wednesday some 425 pages, 17 groups, 135 accounts and 15 Instagram accounts had been removed, which were posing as independent news, entertainment, beauty and lifestyle pages but in reality had links to the military or to pages previously removed.
> 
> This is Facebook’s third sweeping takedown of pages and accounts for what it calls “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” in Myanmar following deletions in October and August.
> 
> Hardline nationalist monks and even the army’s top generals, accused by UN investigators of genocide, are among the users Facebook blacklisted this year.
> 
> Facebook said in a newsroom post that it does not want people or organisations “creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing,” adding that one page had 2.5 million followers.
> 
> Some of the deleted pages were called “Down for Anything”, “Let’s Laugh Casually”, and “We Love Myanmar”.
> 
> Facebook has been trying to repair its battered reputation, improving the speed with which hate speech is taken down and vowing to strengthen its Myanmar-language reviewers on staff to 100 by the end of 2018. But critics say this is not enough to oversee some 20 million Facebook accounts in the country, many in a patchwork of regional languages.
> 
> An independent report commissioned by Facebook concluded last month that the state was ultimately responsible for rights abuses, but the company should have done more to prevent the platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence. It also warned Myanmar’s 2020 election is likely to be a flashpoint for abuse and misinformation.
> 
> Most people in Myanmar only came online in the last few years, when smartphone usage soared as the country opened up to the outside world after decades of isolated military rule.
> 
> Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government – which is in an uneasy power-sharing agreement with the military – has come under fire for not doing more to stand up for the Rohingya.
> 
> https://www.thedailystar.net/rohing...reds-accounts-linked-myanmar-military-1675846


Don't care. The West along with Muslim countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Bangladesh can bark all they want but we ain't stopping our Nazi inspired campaigns against the filthy rohingya muslims. 

We are gonna put these rohingya in our concentration camps just like hitler did with the jews.


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## bluesky

Buddhistforlife said:


> Don't care. The West along with Muslim countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Bangladesh can bark all they want but we ain't stopping our Nazi inspired campaigns against the filthy rohingya muslims.
> 
> We are gonna put these rohingya in our concentration camps just like hitler did with the jews.


Burmese do not care because it is a shameless nation. All the big slaps did not change the Burmese attitude towards Rohingyas who are its own citizens. BD or any other country has quite a frew minority groups of people. But, these countries are not shameless like Burma. They do not expell them.


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## Buddhistforlife

bluesky said:


> Burmese do not care because it is a shameless nation. All the big slaps did not change the Burmese attitude towards Rohingyas who are its own citizens. BD or any other country has quite a frew minority groups of people. But, these countries are not shameless like Burma. They do not expell them.


Look. Myanmar has other muslim minority groups like Panthay, Kamein, Indian muslims along with Christians and Hindus. We have no problems with them.

But if you are talking about the rohingya minority group, then im sorry but we dont favour them and they dont deserve to live in this world.

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## UKBengali

Buddhistforlife said:


> Look. Myanmar has other muslim minority groups like Panthay, Kamein, Indian muslims along with Christians and Hindus. We have no problems with them.
> 
> But if you are talking about the rohingya minority group, then im sorry but we dont favour them and they dont deserve to live in this world.




You savages have been fighting all your minority groups since independence.


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## Buddhistforlife

UKBengali said:


> You savages have been fighting all your minority groups since independence.


We will take back all the rohingya hindus who are in the camps in Bangladesh. You guys can keep the rohingya muslims. They are your brothers in religion and also you guys have a commom ethnicity.


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## Sanchez

Burmese are a bunch of aswholes. They had never ruled their Northwest territories, and yet they played tricks as Indians did to have formed a UNION with the minorities in the northwest region through a Banlong treaty. After f*cking 70 years none of these minorities has been given "citizenship". You BDers only care about Rohinyas not the others. Don't you guys have an idea that the NE minorities of Burma have fought against Burmese for decades? And none of these folk groups had taken large scale refuge to other places except for the Rohinyas? Why do you guys cried so loudly as if it were only a Muslim thing?

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## UKBengali

Sanchez said:


> Burmese are a bunch of aswholes. They had never ruled their Northwest territories, and yet they played tricks as Indians did to have formed a UNION with the minorities in the northwest region through a Banlong treaty. After f*cking 70 years none of these minorities has been given "citizenship". You BDers only care about Rohinyas not the others. Don't you guys have an idea that the NE minorities of Burma have fought against Burmese for decades? And none of these folk groups had taken large scale refuge to other places except for the Rohinyas? Why do you guys cried so loudly as if it were only a Muslim thing?




The amount of Chinese butt-hurt at BD brings sheer joy to my heart!



Trying to equate the Rohingyas with other minorities, who were denied citizenship unlike the other ethnic minorities, and also the fact that tens of thousands of them were killed last Autumn is the height of desperation. Now blaming the Rohingyas for fleeing for their very lives! lol

Enjoy China being seen as no better than the US and staying contained in E Asia forever as no-one, apart from Pakistan and one or two other poor and insignificant countries, likes you guys.

Even Taiwan hates your guts and wants nothing to do with you guys and they rule themselves rather than the great CCP!

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## bluesky

*Myanmar's civilian, military leaders meet, vow to ‘crush’ Rakhine rebels*
>> Reuters

Published: 07 Jan 2019 21:01 BdST Updated: 07 Jan 2019 21:01 BdST









Myanmar military Commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (R) looks at Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during Myanmar's top six-party talks at the Presidential palace at Naypyitaw April 10, 2015.
*Myanmar government leader Aung San Suu Kyi discussed insurgent attacks on Myanmar police on Monday in a rare meeting with the military chief, and her administration called for the armed forces to "crush" the rebels, a government spokesman said.*

Fighting between government forces and the rebel Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine has displaced thousands of people since early December, according to the United Nations.

The Arakan Army wants greater autonomy for Rakhine, where the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group makes up the majority of the population.

Rakhine State saw a military-led crackdown in 2017, following attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents that prompted hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee westwards into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other cabinet members met military leaders, including army chief Min Aung Hlaing, his deputy and the military intelligence chief, to discuss "foreign affairs and national security".

"The president's office has instructed the military to launch an operation to crush the terrorists," Zaw Htay told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw.

While Suu Kyi is barred from being president by a military-drafted constitution, Win Myint is a loyalist and she is seen as de facto leader of the civilian government, while the military remains in charge of security.

The insurgents killed 13 policemen and wounded nine in attacks on four police posts on Friday, as Myanmar celebrated Independence Day, state media reported.

An Arakan Army spokesman outside Myanmar told Reuters last week the group attacked the security forces in response to a broad military offensive in northern Rakhine State that also targeted civilians.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that 4,500 people were sheltering in monasteries and communal spaces after being displaced by the fighting in the past month.

*'CYCLE OF VIOLENCE'*

Zaw Htay described the Arakan Army as a "terrorist organization" and said it had surprised security forces on guard against Rohingya insurgents.

He said the Arakan Army could destabilise Rakhine State for years to come and warned people not to give it support.

"Do they want to see a cycle of violence lasting decades?" he said. "I want to tell Rakhine people who are supporting (the Arakan Army): Don't think about yourself, but think about your next generation."

Myanmar governments have battled various ethnic minority insurgent groups since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948, though some have struck ceasefire agreements.

Zaw Htay also accused the Arakan Army of meeting the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a group of Rohingya insurgents that Myanmar also considers terrorists but added that Myanmar was unable to eliminate the groups as they had bases across the border in Bangladesh.

A Bangladeshi foreign ministry official and two Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) officers denied the accusation.

One BGB officer asked Myanmar to provide evidence of militant camps in Bangladesh.

“All the terrorism is taking place on the other side of the border," said Lieutenant Colonel Manzural Hasan Khan, a BGB commander in Cox's Bazar, the district where more than 900,000 Rohingya Muslims are sheltering having fled bouts of violence that have drawn international condemnation against Myanmar.

"The world knows what happened on the other side," he said.

The Myanmar government and military leaders also discussed a temporary ceasefire the military announced last month in other parts of the country, where other insurgent groups operate, Zaw Htay said.

The meeting was held at the request of the president's office, he said.
@Aung Zaya, @UKBengali

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## Buddhistforlife

UKBengali said:


> The amount of Chinese butt-hurt at BD brings sheer joy to my heart!
> 
> 
> 
> Trying to equate the Rohingyas with other minorities, who were denied citizenship unlike the other ethnic minorities, and also the fact that tens of thousands of them were killed last Autumn is the height of desperation. Now blaming the Rohingyas for fleeing for their very lives! lol
> 
> Enjoy China being seen as no better than the US and staying contained in E Asia forever as no-one, apart from Pakistan and one or two other poor and insignificant countries, likes you guys.
> 
> Even Taiwan hates your guts and wants nothing to do with you guys and they rule themselves rather than the great CCP!


The Qur'an says that a Muslim is a brother of another Muslim and pagan buddhists are enemies of Muslims. Then why are rohingya Muslims willing to live in a pagan Buddhist land? Why don't they go to a brotherly Muslim state like Bangladesh, Pakistan or Turkey?


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## UKBengali

Buddhistforlife said:


> The Qur'an says that a Muslim is a brother of another Muslim and pagan buddhists are enemies of Muslims. Then why are rohingya Muslims willing to live in a pagan Buddhist land? Why don't they go to a brotherly Muslim state like Bangladesh, Pakistan or Turkey?



Arakhan belongs to Rohingyas.

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## Buddhistforlife

UKBengali said:


> Arakhan belongs to Rohingyas.


Try all you want but we won't let you cowards create a Kashmir or Palestine like situation in our country. You Muslims have a bad habit of encroaching into other's territory and demanding a separate state for yourself just like you did in India during 1947.

Arakan is a majority Buddhist state with more than 65% of the population being rakhine Buddhist. Arakan belongs to us and we don't need Muslim traitors in our land who wants to break our country. Muslims will never be loyal to a Buddhist state so there is no need to consider rohingyya muslims as citizens of Myanmar. Same can be said for other Buddhist nations like Thailand and Sri Lanka.

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## UKBengali

Buddhistforlife said:


> Try all you want but we won't let you cowards create a Kashmir or Palestine like situation in our country. You Muslims have a bad habit of encroaching into other's territory and demanding a separate state for yourself just like you did in India during 1947.
> 
> Arakan is a majority Buddhist state with more than 65% of the population being rakhine Buddhist. Arakan belongs to us and we don't need Muslim traitors in our land who wants to break our country. Muslims will never be loyal to a Buddhist state so there is no need to consider rohingyya muslims as citizens of Myanmar. Same can be said for other Buddhist nations like Thailand and Sri Lanka.





You aware that BD has 3.5x GDP of Myanmar and it's economy is expected to be the fastest growing large economy in the world to 2030?
BD is also in the middle of a massive military modernisation programme that will be complete by 2030.
Simple military power will make Barmans yield to BD.


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## Buddhistforlife

UKBengali said:


> You aware that BD has 3.5x GDP of Myanmar and it's economy is expected to be the fastest growing large economy in the world to 2030?
> BD is also in the middle of a massive military modernisation programme that will be complete by 2030.
> Simple military power will make Barmans yield to BD.


Listen we ain't concerned about Bangladesh. You are free to live as you wish just like us.

The thing we don't like about you Bangladeshis is your habit of pocking into other's internal affairs. What we do in Arakan is non of your business as it is our territory not yours.



UKBengali said:


> You aware that BD has 3.5x GDP of Myanmar and it's economy is expected to be the fastest growing large economy in the world to 2030?
> BD is also in the middle of a massive military modernisation programme that will be complete by 2030.
> Simple military power will make Barmans yield to BD.


Also it is not our fault if the rohingyas migrate into Bangladeshi territory in bulk. Our military forced them out of Myanmar but we didn't tell them to go to Bangladesh. You should blame the rohingyas for messing up your country.


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## UKBengali

Buddhistforlife said:


> Also it is not our fault if the rohingyas migrate into Bangladeshi territory in bulk. Our military forced them out of Myanmar but we didn't tell them to go to Bangladesh. You should blame the rohingyas for messing up your country.





Where else are they supposed to go? Swim to Australia?
We will deal with you savages as to the time of our choosing.

PS - Rohingyas have not messed up BD as they are all living in refugee camps. They will be hosted till they can go back to their lands in Arakan.


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## Buddhistforlife

UKBengali said:


> Where else are they supposed to go? Swim to Australia?
> We will deal with you savages as to the time of our choosing.
> 
> PS - Rohingyas have not messed up BD as thy are all living in refugee camps. They will be hosted till they can go back to their lands in Arakan.


You want us to accept a community who in the past created jihadi groups and fought our army, killed our people and destroyed our temples?

Also it is a lie that the rohingyas never had any rights in Myanmar. Till 1982 they were considered as citizens of Myanmar but due to their own fault they lost everything.

We had various rohingya politicians in the past but their trecherous nature made them losers. Sultan Mahmud was a rohingya mp and health minister. This man once demanded the Burmese government to hand over parts of Arakan to East Pakistan now Bangladesh. His speeches were condemned and he was eventually ruled out. Like him, there were many rohingya politicians who were like leeches, always hell bent on creating chaos in Myanmar.

Between 1950 to 1980 the rohingya militants were very strong and they conducted mass aritrocities against Buddhists in northern Arakan. They destroyed temples and homes and forced many rakhines to leave northern Arakan.

The rohingyas are terrorists and they are not welcome in our land. We support our army in eradicating terrorism in our land.

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## riasat

Buddhistforlife said:


> You want us to accept a community who in the past created jihadi groups and fought our army, killed our people and destroyed our temples?
> 
> Also it is a lie that the rohingyas never had any rights in Myanmar. Till 1982 they were considered as citizens of Myanmar but due to their own fault they lost everything.
> 
> We had various rohingya politicians in the past but their trecherous nature made them losers. Sultan Mahmud was a rohingya mp and health minister. This man once demanded the Burmese government to hand over parts of Arakan to East Pakistan now Bangladesh. His speeches were condemned and he was eventually ruled out. Like him, there were many rohingya politicians who were like leeches, always hell bent on creating chaos in Myanmar.
> 
> Between 1950 to 1980 the rohingya militants were very strong and they conducted mass aritrocities against Buddhists in northern Arakan. They destroyed temples and homes and forced many rakhines to leave northern Arakan.
> 
> The rohingyas are terrorists and they are not welcome in our land. We support our army in eradicating terrorism in our land.



They are people born inside your territory.. So they are citizens of Burma...

What they study or believe is immaterial. You have the full authority inside your territory to decide what is being taught in schools and colleges. So implement your own educational system in your territory.

You cannot throw people out from their own land because you disagree with their religion. 

More than half of the rohingyas currently in Bangladesh are composed of women and children.. how are women and children terrorists? Anyways, grow up.. dont be a racist...

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## bluesky

*Rohingya "lost generation" struggle to study in Bangladesh camps*
>> Reuters
Published: 18 Mar 2019 12:49 PM BdST Updated: 18 Mar 2019 02:03 PM BdST






Bangladeshi students from the class where Rohingya students were expelled by the authorities are seen at Leda high school, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Feb 9, 2019. Picture taken February 9, 2019. REUTERS/Jiraporn Kuhakan
*Sixteen-year-old Kefayat Ullah walked to his school in southern Bangladesh in late January, as he had done most days for the previous six years, to find that - despite being one of the top students in his class - he had been expelled.*

A government investigation had outed him, along with dozens of his classmates, as a Rohingya refugee, a member of the mostly stateless Muslim minority from neighbouring Myanmar.

"Our headmaster called us into his office and told us that there's an order that Rohingya students have no rights to study here anymore," said the teenager, a small boy with cropped hair and a faint moustache. "We went back home crying."

For years, Bangladeshi schools have quietly admitted some of the Rohingya who live as refugees in sprawling camps on the country's southern coast, and whose numbers have swelled to more than 1 million since violence across the border in 2017. But the new influx has tested the hospitality of the Bangladeshi government, leading them to apply tighter controls on the population.

The recent expulsions highlight the struggle of hundreds of thousands of children desperate to study in the world's largest refugee settlement, but at risk of missing out on crucial years of education and the chance to obtain formal qualifications.

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after a military campaign in late 2017 that the United Nations has said was executed with "genocidal intent". Thousands more, like Kefayat, were born in Bangladesh after their parents fled earlier waves of violence.

Though Myanmar says it is ready to welcome back the refugees, northern Rakhine state, from where they fled, is still riven by ethnic tensions and violence, and the UN has said conditions are not right for them to return.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, meanwhile, has said the country cannot afford to integrate them.

*"HUNGRY FOR EDUCATION"*

In some countries, governments allow refugees to study in local schools, allowing them to gain recognised qualifications, or permit institutions in the camps to teach the national curriculum. But Bangladesh has not recognised the vast majority of the Rohingya as refugees and does not issue birth certificates for those born in the camps, making their legal status unclear.

The government has also forbidden centres in the camps from teaching the Bangladesh curriculum, according to the UN children's agency, UNICEF.

"Many students are depressed and frustrated," said a 21-year-old who asked not to be named because he was continuing to pass as Bangladeshi so he could go to university.

"Yes, we are somehow pretending to be Bangladeshi students. Yes, we have got some education. But now, where will we go? The world should think about this: if we can't study, our future will be damaged. We are hungry for education."

In the headmaster's office at Leda High School, piles of textbooks inscribed with the names of some of the 64 expelled students lay stacked in a corner.

"We are very sorry and disappointed about the decision," said the principal, Jamal Uddin. "The government is providing everything for the Rohingya – why not education?"

But others were relieved. Eighteen months on from the start of the crisis, and with no resolution in sight, some local people are losing patience.

In the grassy playground of the school, its founder, 48-year-old Kamal Uddin Ahmed, said the arrival of the Rohingya had been a massive upheaval for the local area.

"How do you think I feel?" he said. "We don't mind the Rohingya, but we mind our lives."

Intelligence officials who visited said it was "not safe for the country, not safe for our people" to have Rohingya in schools, he said.

Rohingya have been accused by some of bringing drugs and crime to Bangladesh."SHORT TERM"

In a letter to local headmasters dated January, Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission Chief Abul Kalam said that an intelligence report on the situation had been filed with the prime minister's office in November.

"It has been seen the trend of Rohingya children's participation in getting education has been increasing," Kalam said in the letter, seen by Reuters, adding that some Rohingya had obtained fake Bangladeshi identity documents through "dishonest public representatives". "It is advised to monitor strictly so that no Rohingya children can take education outside the camps or elsewhere in Bangladesh," he said.

Asked about his order to expel Rohingya children from local schools, Kalam said they were getting an education from learning centres in the camps.

"They are not allowed to enrol in Bangladeshi schools as they are not Bangladeshi citizens," he said.

But many children and their parents say the hundreds of learning centres operated in the camps by international NGOs and the UN offer mostly unstructured learning and playtime.

Bob Rae, Canada's Special Envoy to Myanmar, who has also travelled to Bangladesh, said Bangladesh authorities including Sheikh Hasina "have emphasised that the refugee camp is supposed to be 'short term' and that to talk about schooling beyond learning centres for very young children would risk giving the impression, to Myanmar and the world, that camps were there to stay".

*SECRET STUDYING*

In the camps, many children study by themselves from tattered textbooks carried from Myanmar or purchased at local markets, where stalls ply a swift trade in copies of the Myanmar curriculum smuggled across the border. Recent fighting in the region has made imports tougher, one stall owner said.

"There are many Rohingya who can't get the Myanmar curriculum – we are doing this so we can help them," said 20-year-old Nurul Ansur, the Bangladeshi proprietor of a print shop which specialises in copies of the textbooks, pulling a copy of 'Grade One Primer, Basic Education' from a filing cabinet.

A makeshift school staffed with Rohingya volunteer teachers opened in February, though the headteacher said they had no official permission to operate.

Karen Reidy, a communications officer at UNICEF, which leads education programming in the camps, said efforts were under way to adapt other countries' curriculums into a "learning framework" for refugee children.

"There's a risk in the camps that we will see a lost generation of children if we don't manage to catch them with education, with skills and training at this critical point in their lives," she said.

At Nayapara camp, the expelled students recounted stories from years of illicit study at the Bangladeshi schools. Some of their classmates were cruel, said Kefayat Ullah.

"They used the word 'Rohingya', 'Burma' to tease us," he said. "Nevertheless, we were happy. We need education."

One 15-year-old, Mohammed Yunus, said he had worked in a brick-field to pay for classes that his parents could not afford.

"Bangladesh wants to see us a good community," he said. "Also the UN wants to see us a good community, but if they block our education, how can we be?"

Kefayat Ullah had dreamed of graduating and becoming a journalist "to help our community". Now, he watches his Bangladeshi former classmates travel to and from class in their crisp white shirts.

"We feel sad when we see the local students studying in a nice place, quietly," he said. "Now we are always worried and thinking – what will we do?"


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## bluesky

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/...safe-zone-for-rohingyas-in-rakhine-1554790207

*BD seeks US support to create safe zone for Rohingyas in Rakhine*
*Rohingya repatriation stressed during Momen-Pompeo talks*
Published: April 09, 2019 12:10:07 | Updated: April 09, 2019 12:52:15




Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen shakes hands with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, DC during a meeting on Monday (local time). Photo courtesy: Press Wing, Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, DC

Bangladesh has sought US support to create a safe zone for Rohingyas in Rakhine state, monitored by international human rights groups, with credible international pressure on Myanmar for their safe return.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, DC on Monday (local time) and discussed the situation.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders since their assumption of office in respective governments, reports UNB.

Issues featuring in the meeting were: repatriation of the Rohingyas and creation of credible international pressure on Myanmar in that respect, deportation of Bangabandhu's killer Rashed Chowdhury from USA to Bangladesh, shared vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, US investments in Bangladesh, duty and quota free access of Bangladesh's garments products to the US market, and US-Bangladesh partnership in multiple sectors.

The minister informed that Bangladesh at its own expense has developed the island "Bhashanchar" into a livable place in which 0.1 million (1 lakh) Rohingyas are planned to be relocated in coordination with UN agencies and different aid groups, according to Bangladesh Embassy in Washington.

The US Secretary of State re-assured that the one million plus forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals have to return to their country without any form of fear and persecution.

He said it is the responsibility of the Myanmar government and military to create conducive environment so that the Rohingyas feel safe to return home.

The US Secretary of State reiterated that US would stand beside Bangladesh (both politically and financially) in finding a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis.

He also lauded the humanitarian gesture of the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for temporarily sheltering the persecuted Rohingyas.

Regarding deportation of Bangabandhu's self-confessed and convicted killer Rashed Chowdhury from the USA, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister pointed out that he is fleeing justice.

He said this is essential to carry out a vital common agenda of both countries pertaining to Counter-terrorism and Countering-Violent Extremism and upholding rule of law.

Both leaders agreed that for greater prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, vital energy and infrastructure projects need to be implemented on regional partnership basis.

In that respect, leaders of the region need to work together on issues such as governance, accountability, rule of law, and maritime security.

Dr. Momen stated that Bangladesh is lauded internationally for its impressive development journey.

He sought more investment from the USA in the oil and gas sector and US presence in the Special Economic Zones.

Foreign Minister Momen sought US support to the candidature of Bangladesh in the upcoming election to the post of Deputy Director General of International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Later in the day, the visiting Bangladesh Minister held meetings with senior officials of the US State Department and Deputy National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman. Bangladesh Ambassador to the USA Ambassador Mohammad Ziauddin accompanied the Minister at the meetings.


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## bluesky

Buddhistforlife said:


> Arakan is a majority Buddhist state with more than 65% of the population being rakhine Buddhist. Arakan belongs to us and we don't need Muslim traitors in our land who wants to break our country.


Rohingyas, as well as the Buddhists, belong to Arakan/Rakhine. Burma has occupied Arakan and so should be expelled by the Arakanese. They do not need any overlord Bamars in their midst. Just get out!!


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## Rahil Ahmed

https://www.medianama.com/2019/06/2...-in-rakhine-and-chin-amid-escalated-tensions/
Could this lead to something bigger?


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## Abu Shaleh Rumi

Heart touching...

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## aziqbal

Rest of the Muslim world is sleeping 

The princes are living in big mansions 

Abandoned their religion and the ummah 

As Pakistani I hope we never abandon our religion and the ummah, if we have a army of 1,000 left still we should fight 

Because Pakistan was a country made for Muslims by Muslims, if there was no Islam we would never have made a Pakistan 

As long as one person stands there is hope, and I hope that change comes from Pakistan only by the will of Allah swt 

Arabs used to look down on Kurds and when Saladin wanted to free Jerusalem they used to laugh, a Kurd freeing the holy lands they used to say 

Saladin wiped out the entire combined army’s of Europe while Arabs watched on 

After 1,000 years everyone knows Saladin no one remembers the caliphs of that time 

It’s happened before and I hope after 1,000 people remember Pakistan

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## The Ronin



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## Bilal9

*Amnesty International takes back its highest honor from Aung San Suu Kyi*
London-based global human rights organization Amnesty International has stripped Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of its Ambassador of Conscience Award. The cause is her apparent indifference to atrocities.









Amnesty International stripped Aung San Suu Kyi of its highest honor on Monday over the de facto Myanmar leader's "indifference" to the atrocities committed by the country's military against Rohingya Muslims.

The London-based human rights organization said it was revoking the Ambassador of Conscience Award it gave Suu Kyi in 2009 while she was still under house arrest.

"Today, we are profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defense of human rights," Amnesty International chief Kumi Naidoo said in a letter to Suu Kyi which was released by the global group.

"Amnesty International cannot justify your continued status as a recipient of the Ambassador of Conscience award and so with great sadness we are hereby withdrawing it from you."

The group said it had informed Suu Kyi of the decision on Sunday. She has not issued a public response so far.

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept to power in 2015 in a landslide victory that ended decades of military rule in the southeast Asian country.

Silence on Rohingyas

Her tenure has been marred by a failure to speak up for Rohingya Muslims who were driven out of the country by the army in what the United Nations has called an ethnic cleansing campaign.




Myanmar has been accused of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya muslims

Along with the award from Amnesty International, Suu Kyi has also lost numerous smaller awards from individual universities and local and regional governments.

Last month, the 73-year-old was stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship over her failure to speak up for the Rohingyas.

_Read more: Rohingya people in Myanmar: What you need to know_

Suu Kyi was hailed globally as a freedom fighter who stood up to her country's feared military dictatorship while spending 15 years under house arrest. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

More than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the Buddhist majority's western Rakhine state in a military crackdown beginning in August of last year.

Many are believed to have been either murdered or tortured and raped.

av/jm (AFP, Reuters)

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## Bilal9

*Suu Kyi to defend Myanmar in Rohingya genocide case at world court*
Reuters | Published: November 21, 2019 12:02:42 | Updated: November 21, 2019 13:10:05





State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 22nd ASEAN Plus Three Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, November 4, 2019 — Reuters/Files

Aung San Suu Kyi will appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to contest a case filed by Gambia accusing Myanmar of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority, her government said on Wednesday.

More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which UN investigators say was carried out with “genocidal intent”. Buddhist majority Myanmar denies accusations of genocide.

Gambia, a tiny, mainly Muslim West African state, lodged its lawsuit after winning the support of the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Only a state can file a case against another state at the ICJ.




“Myanmar has retained prominent international lawyers to contest the case submitted by Gambia,” the ministry for state counselor Suu Kyi’s office said in a Facebook post.

“The State Counselor, in her capacity as Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, will lead a team to the Hague, Netherlands, to defend the national interest of Myanmar at the ICJ,” it said, giving no further details.

Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told Reuters the decision was made after the army consulted with the government. “We, the military, will fully cooperate with the government and we will follow the instruction of the government,” he said.

A spokesman for Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, said she had decided to take on the case herself.

“They accused () Aung San Suu Kyi of failing to speak out about human rights violations,” spokesman Myo Nyunt said. “She decided to face the lawsuit by herself.”

Both Gambia and Myanmar are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, which not only prohibits states from committing genocide but also compels all signatory states to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.

The ICJ has said it will hold the first public hearings in the case on December 10 to 12. The court has no means to enforce any of its rulings.

*Nobel Laureate*
Suu Kyi, a longtime democracy activist who won the Nobel peace prize for her defiance of the military junta, swept to power in Myanmar after a landslide election win in 2015 that ushered in the country’s first fully civilian government in half a century.

But her reputation has been sullied by her response to the plight of the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority living in the western Rakhine state.

While almost a million now live in squalor in Bangladeshi refugee camps, several hundred thousand remain inside Myanmar, confined to camps and villages in apartheid-like conditions.

She has publicly blamed the crisis on Rohingya “terrorists”, referring to militants who attacked security posts in August 2017, prompting the army crackdown, and has branded reports of atrocities, including gang-rapes and mass killings, as fake news.

“Aung San Suu Kyi has continued to deny the atrocities committed by the Myanmar government against the Rohingya,” said John Quinley, human rights specialist at Fortify Rights.

“Rohingya globally, including refugees in Bangladesh, support the case at the ICJ and want justice for their people.”

*Wave Of Pressure*
The ICJ, established in 1946, settles disputes between states, and individuals cannot sue or be sued there.

But Myanmar is facing a wave of international pressure from courts across the world, and other cases involve individual criminal responsibility.

Days after Gambia filed its case at the ICJ, Rohingya and Latin American human rights groups submitted a lawsuit in Argentina under “universal jurisdiction”, a legal premise that deems some crimes as so horrific that they can be tried anywhere in the world.

Suu Kyi was named in that lawsuit, which demands that top military and civilian leaders be sanctioned over the “existential threat” faced by the Rohingya minority.

Separately, the International Criminal Court has authorised a full investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya in neighbouring Bangladesh. Myanmar does not recognize the ICC but Bangladesh accepts its jurisdiction.


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## Buddhistforlife

Bilal9 said:


> *Suu Kyi to defend Myanmar in Rohingya genocide case at world court*
> Reuters | Published: November 21, 2019 12:02:42 | Updated: November 21, 2019 13:10:05
> 
> 
> 
> 
> State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 22nd ASEAN Plus Three Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, November 4, 2019 — Reuters/Files
> 
> Aung San Suu Kyi will appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to contest a case filed by Gambia accusing Myanmar of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority, her government said on Wednesday.
> 
> More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which UN investigators say was carried out with “genocidal intent”. Buddhist majority Myanmar denies accusations of genocide.
> 
> Gambia, a tiny, mainly Muslim West African state, lodged its lawsuit after winning the support of the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Only a state can file a case against another state at the ICJ.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> “Myanmar has retained prominent international lawyers to contest the case submitted by Gambia,” the ministry for state counselor Suu Kyi’s office said in a Facebook post.
> 
> “The State Counselor, in her capacity as Union Minister for Foreign Affairs, will lead a team to the Hague, Netherlands, to defend the national interest of Myanmar at the ICJ,” it said, giving no further details.
> 
> Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told Reuters the decision was made after the army consulted with the government. “We, the military, will fully cooperate with the government and we will follow the instruction of the government,” he said.
> 
> A spokesman for Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, said she had decided to take on the case herself.
> 
> “They accused () Aung San Suu Kyi of failing to speak out about human rights violations,” spokesman Myo Nyunt said. “She decided to face the lawsuit by herself.”
> 
> Both Gambia and Myanmar are signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, which not only prohibits states from committing genocide but also compels all signatory states to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
> 
> The ICJ has said it will hold the first public hearings in the case on December 10 to 12. The court has no means to enforce any of its rulings.
> 
> *Nobel Laureate*
> Suu Kyi, a longtime democracy activist who won the Nobel peace prize for her defiance of the military junta, swept to power in Myanmar after a landslide election win in 2015 that ushered in the country’s first fully civilian government in half a century.
> 
> But her reputation has been sullied by her response to the plight of the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority living in the western Rakhine state.
> 
> While almost a million now live in squalor in Bangladeshi refugee camps, several hundred thousand remain inside Myanmar, confined to camps and villages in apartheid-like conditions.
> 
> She has publicly blamed the crisis on Rohingya “terrorists”, referring to militants who attacked security posts in August 2017, prompting the army crackdown, and has branded reports of atrocities, including gang-rapes and mass killings, as fake news.
> 
> “Aung San Suu Kyi has continued to deny the atrocities committed by the Myanmar government against the Rohingya,” said John Quinley, human rights specialist at Fortify Rights.
> 
> “Rohingya globally, including refugees in Bangladesh, support the case at the ICJ and want justice for their people.”
> 
> *Wave Of Pressure*
> The ICJ, established in 1946, settles disputes between states, and individuals cannot sue or be sued there.
> 
> But Myanmar is facing a wave of international pressure from courts across the world, and other cases involve individual criminal responsibility.
> 
> Days after Gambia filed its case at the ICJ, Rohingya and Latin American human rights groups submitted a lawsuit in Argentina under “universal jurisdiction”, a legal premise that deems some crimes as so horrific that they can be tried anywhere in the world.
> 
> Suu Kyi was named in that lawsuit, which demands that top military and civilian leaders be sanctioned over the “existential threat” faced by the Rohingya minority.
> 
> Separately, the International Criminal Court has authorised a full investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya in neighbouring Bangladesh. Myanmar does not recognize the ICC but Bangladesh accepts its jurisdiction.


Also be ready to receive more people from India. Already the process is going on in India.


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## Bilal9

*Myanmar's Suu Kyi to take the stand in genocide case*
AFP

Published at 10:01 am December 11th, 2019





Suu Kyi's defence of the same military that once kept her locked up has since caused international condemnation AFP

The small African state of Gambia has taken Myanmar to court over a bloody 2017 military crackdown

Aung San Suu Kyi is set to speak out in Myanmar's defence at the UN's top court on Wednesday, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims.

Once hailed internationally for her defiance of Myanmar's junta, the Nobel peace laureate will this time be on the side of the southeast Asian nation's military when she takes the stand at the International Court of Justice.

The small African state of Gambia has taken Myanmar to court over a bloody 2017 military crackdown in which thousands of people were killed and around 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi is expected to tell ICJ judges that Myanmar was conducting legitimate operations against Rohingya militants, that it has carried out its own investigations into the bloodshed and that the court has no jurisdiction in the case.




Kaamil Ahmed

✔@KaamilAhmed

Rohingya refugees gather in the camps of Bangladesh chanting “Gambia, Gambia” as the country takes its case accusing Myanmar of genocide to the International Court of Justice.

Aung San Suu Kyi will defend Myanmar herself.





1,586
11:34 PM - Dec 9, 2019
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Huge crowds are expected to turn out in Yangon to watch Suu Kyi speak via livestream amid a groundswell of support in Myanmar, where the woman dubbed "The Lady" is still widely loved.

Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said it would be "extremely disappointing" if Suu Kyi repeated her previous denials of wrongdoing by Myanmar.

'Stain on our conscience'

Mostly-Muslim Gambia accuses Myanmar of breaching the 1948 genocide convention and has asked the court, set up in 1946 to rule on disputes between UN member states, to take emergency measures to stop further violence.

The 74-year-old Suu Kyi sat impassively through graphic accounts of mass murder and rape on Tuesday as Gambia set out its case against Myanmar.

Tambadou, who said he was inspired to act after visiting Bangladesh in 2018, told the judges on Tuesday that the world's failure to help the Rohingya was a "stain on our collective conscience."

ICJ judges have only once before ruled that genocide was committed, in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.




Kenneth Roth

✔@KenRoth

Bad enough that Aung San Suu Kyi leads the defense of Myanmar for the genocide it is accused of committing against Rohingya Muslims. She's also opposing protections for the 500,000 Rohingya who remain in Myanmar, effectively greenlighting more atrocities. https://trib.al/0X2IDQZ 





59
3:57 PM - Dec 10, 2019
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The Gambia's lawyers sought to tie Suu Kyi directly into the case.

They said the appearance of huge billboards across Myanmar in recent weeks featuring pictures of Suu Kyi with three smiling generals showed she was "in it together" with the army, whose half century in power was characterised by brutal civil conflicts, biting poverty and isolation.

Suu Kyi's decision to personally lead her country's case at the court has proved popular at home, where the Rohingya are widely regarded as illegal immigrants.

Flag-waving supporters joined rallies in support of Suu Kyi in several Myanmar cities on Tuesday and rally organizers in Yangon told AFP they have permission from authorities to live stream Wednesday's ICJ hearing on a big screen outside the City Hall.

US sanctions

The United States stiffened sanctions against Myanmar's army chief Min Aung Hlaing and three other senior commanders on Tuesday over the killings of Rohingya, to mark International Human Rights Day.

"The United States will not tolerate torture, kidnapping, sexual violence, murder or brutality against innocent civilians," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.




Frontier Myanmar

✔@FrontierMM

Aung San Suu Kyi is set to speak out in Myanmar's defence at the UN's top court today, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims. https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/aung-san-suu-kyi-to-take-the-stand-in-genocide-case …





*Aung San Suu Kyi to take the stand in genocide case*
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is set to speak out in Myanmar's defence at the UN's top court today, a day after she was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims.

frontiermyanmar.net

17
7:06 PM - Dec 10, 2019
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Aung San Suu Kyi was once mentioned in the same breath as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, having won the Nobel in 1991 for her resistance to Myanmar's brutal junta.

After 15 years under house arrest she was freed in 2010 and led her party to victory in elections in 2015.

But her defence of the same military that once kept her locked up has since caused international condemnation.

Myanmar meanwhile faces a number of legal challenges over the fate of the Rohingya, including a probe by the International Criminal Court -- a separate war crimes tribunal in The Hague -- and a lawsuit in Argentina personally mentioning Suu Kyi.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Rohingya call for Suu Kyi to acknowledge atrocities*
AFP

Published at 05:44 pm December 10th, 2019





Rohingya survivors stand outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands on December 10, 2019 Reuters

The case brought by the tiny west African nation of Gambia is the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over the crisis

From squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh, Rohingya who fled a brutal Myanmar military crackdown are calling on Aung San Suu Kyi to acknowledge the mass atrocities as she defends her country against genocide charges at the UN's top court.

The Nobel peace laureate arrived on Tuesday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to lead the defence against claims brought by the Gambia that Myanmar's military tried to systematically wipe out the Rohingya minority in 2017.

The violence sparked a mass exodus of some 740,000 Rohingya to refugee settlements in Bangladesh border towns, where survivors are still haunted by the rape and murder of loved ones by soldiers and vigilante mobs.

"Suu Kyi cannot deny anything. The international community must listen to our voice because we are the real victims," Sayed Ulla, a Rohingya leader, told AFP at one of the camps.

"I want to see the convicts go to the gallows. They killed us mercilessly. I won't get back my family," added widow Saida Khatun, who witnessed her parents, husband and three children being slaughtered.

"Only seeing them perpetrators being punished for their deeds will make me happy."

Widow Dildar Begum told AFP her village of Tula Toli was razed and two of her children killed.

Revealing scars she said were caused by soldiers smashing her head with boots and rifle butts after raping her, Begum recalled how her husband and two sons, aged one and five, were hacked to pieces.

"I still can hear my sons' voices in my dreams cursing me as I failed to save them," the 35-year-old said, breaking down in tears.

UN investigators have concluded that the 2017 violence amounted to genocide, with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) estimating that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the crackdown alone.

The case brought by the tiny west African nation of Gambia is the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over the crisis.

The Gambia, acting on behalf of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, on Tuesday will ask the ICJ to take emergency measures to halt Myanmar's "ongoing genocidal actions" against the Rohingya.

Myanmar's military has insisted its crackdown was needed to root out Rohingya militants who attacked border police posts in 2017.

Suu Kyi has kept silent over the plight of the minority and defended the same generals who once kept her under house arrest for 15 years.

The hearing comes amid growing impatience in Dhaka over the presence of the refugees, who now number nearly one million, after two failed attempts to voluntarily repatriate them back to Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Ahead of Suu Kyi's ICJ appearance, hundreds of refugees gathered at one of the camps on Tuesday morning, chanting "Gambia, Gambia" and raising their fists.

"We prayed and chanted slogans for Gambia for filing the case against Myanmar," one refugee, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP after the rally.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Dr Yunus, 7 other Nobel peace laureates: Suu Kyi must be held criminally accountable at ICJ*
Tribune Desk

Published at 11:26 am December 10th, 2019





Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the 10th Asean-UN Summit in Bangkok on November 3, 2019 AFP

They called on Suu Kyi to publicly acknowledge at ICJ the crimes committed against the Rohingyas

Eight Nobel peace laureates including Dr Muhammad Yunus have demanded that Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's state counsellor and its de facto president, must be held criminally accountable, along with her army commanders, for crimes committed against the Rohingyas.

They called on Suu Kyi, also a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, to publicly acknowledge the crimes, including genocide, committed against the Rohingyas at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Nobel Women's Initiative reported on Monday.

"We are deeply concerned that instead of condemning these crimes, Aung San Suu Kyi is actively denying that these atrocities even occurred." 

Also Read- Myanmar faces the music

The west African country Gambia filed a lawsuit in November 2019 with the ICJ -- the United Nations' highest court -- over the atrocities, accusing Myanmar of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention. 

Myanmar's civilian leader Suu Kyi will appear before the court on Tuesday as the Buddhist state disputes claims that it tried to exterminate the minority Rohingya Muslims in a 2017 military crackdown.

The Nobel peace laureates commended the Gambia for taking step to hold Myanmar responsible for the genocide and advancing justice for the victims of these crimes.

They said: "As people of peace, we urge Aung San Suu Kyi to address the systematic discrimination of the Rohingya in Rakhine State, and ensure the Rohingya's right to nationality, land ownership, freedom of movement, and other fundamental rights."

"We also urge her to exercise her personal and moral responsibility towards the Rohingya and acknowledge and condemn the genocide committed under her watch."





File photo of Rohingya women and children in a camp in Cox Bazar | Mahmud Hossain Opu/ Dhaka Tribune

The eight Nobel Peace Laureates are -- Shirin Ebadi, (2003) – Iran; Leymah Gbowee, (2011) – Liberia; Tawakkol Karman, (2011) – Yemen; Mairead Maguire, (1976) – Northern Ireland; Rigoberta Menchú Tum, (1992) – Guatemala; Jody Williams, (1997) – USA; Kailash Satyarthi, (2014) – India and Dr Muhammad Yunus, (2006) — Bangladesh.

In February 2018, Shirin Ebadi, Tawakkol Karman, and Mairead Maguire visited the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar.

They spent time with and listened to the stories of over 100 women refugees. After hearing testimonies describing how security forces burned villages, tortured, killed and systematically raped women and girls -- as well as reports from humanitarian organizations and UN officials -- the laureates concluded that the attacks on the Rohingyas in Rakhine State amounted to crimes against humanity and genocide.

Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingya refugees, most of whom entered Cox's Bazar from August 25, 2017, amid a military crackdown on the Rohingyas in Rakhine.

Not a single Rohingya was repatriated over the last two years due to Myanmar's "failure" to build confidence among the Rohingya and a conducive environment in Rakhine.

Bangladesh has so far handed over names of over one lakh Rohingyas to Myanmar authorities for verification and to subsequently expedite their repatriation efforts, but Myanmar is yet to take back its nationals from Bangladesh, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Aung San Suu Kyi: I know nothing*
Shafiur Rahman

Published at 01:18 am December 9th, 2019





FIle photo: Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attends the joint news conference of the Japan-Mekong Summit Meeting at the Akasaka Palace State Guest House in Tokyo, Japan October 9, 2018 Reuters

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s state counsellor, once said: “Some people have been saying that I know nothing of Burmese politics. The trouble is that I know too much.” Those words were uttered in another era when Aung San Suu Kyi was the focal point of democratic efforts in Myanmar. Now, three decades later, Aung San Suu Kyi claims to know nothing about the alleged ongoing genocide in her country. Such is her assuredness that she has decided to lead the delegation to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in defence of Myanmar in a landmark case, brought by Gambia, which alleges that Myanmar has been violating the Genocide Convention. DhakaTribune asked some of the world’s foremost experts and also Rohingya activists on what they think about Aung San Suu Ky’s decision to go to The Hague.

Professor Penny Green, Queen Mary University of London, one of the first academics to analyze the Rohingya crisis as one of genocide.





Aung San Suu Kyi will go to the Hague to defend her political class and Myanmar’s generals against the charge of genocide with a well-rehearsed repertoire of denial. And in denial, both material and rhetorical, she is particularly well practiced. Since her rise to power she has denied the right of Rohingya to self-identify, she has denied them the most basic human rights, she has denied that they are held in concentration camps in Rakhine state at the same time as denying them adequate food, health care, freedom of movement and access to livelihood in those very camps. When the military launched its final assault on the Rohingya in Northern Rakhine State in 2016-17 Aung San Suu Kyi was quick to deny well proven accusations of mass killings and mass rape.

And she defended the military in their denial of the worst human right violations imaginable. The Hague will provide yet another forum for genocide denial. Her leadership of Myanmar’s delegation is a clear illustration of the intimate relationship she and her government have with the military. They have spoken with one voice and acted with one barbarous intention – to eliminate the Rohingya from Myanmar soil, polity and history. Claims that Suu Kyi had no alternative but to acquiesce in the face of Tatmadaw (official name of the Armed Forces of Myanmar) power hold no water given her record of human rights violations, while her decision to lead Myanmar’s defence of its indefensible brutality at the ICJ demonstrates her iron-clad complicity and belief in the crimes that she and her co-conspirators perpetrated. The evidence is incontrovertible, Aung San Suu Kyi is a genocidaire who both supported, assisted in engineering and participated in the coordinated destruction of the Myanmar Rohingya people.

Laetitia van den Assum, Dutch diplomat and former member of Kofi Annan’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Myanmar.





First of all, I think it is good that Myanmar is engaging with Gambia and the ICJ. And it is not at all unusual that foreign ministers lead missions to the Court. Remember, for example, Thailand v. Cambodia about a border dispute which related to the ancient Preah Vihear temple a few years ago.

What is different though, is that in this case the Court is asked to establish whether or not the state of Myanmar can be held accountable for genocide, the crime of crimes. And even though the case is not about individual criminal responsibility but about state responsibility, the person who has been the de facto head of government since early 2016 will come into strong focus.

Of course, Myanmar has the right to obtain the best international law experts it can find. I hope that the Myanmar team will listen to them and that a sound legal strategy is developed. The political arguments we continue to hear may satisfy a domestic audience but not the court

More generally, the three legal cases (International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice and the Universal Jurisdiction case in Argentina) are welcome if they can halt impunity and obtain justice for the Rohingya. But accountability is only one element of a much broader strategy to achieve peace, stability, justice and development for all who call Rakhine state their home. Security sector reform, judiciary reform as well as ensuring the equality of all before the law should be part of the mix. At present they are not.

Professor John Packer, Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.





The appearance of Aung San Suu Kyi leading the defence in The Hague is certainly striking - unusual to say the least for a Head of Government and even Foreign Minister to appear, especially without legal education or training. This indicates it is almost entirely about politics... and likely more about the domestic effect in Myanmar where she may enhance her position in "defending the nation". But internationally her participation has raised considerably attention to the case, and inescapably adds legitimacy to the process which can hardly later be condemned. In addition, the Lady's choice to lead the defence erases the idea of a bright red line between her and the civilian Government, on the one hand, and the Tatmadaw and security forces on the other hand: before the Court, they are one and the same. And the exercise of her choice indicates either concurrence with the attributed actions (and shared responsibility) or an extraordinary absence of judgement (or both).

Wai Wai Nu, Rohingya lawyer and activist.




At the age of 18, she and her family were imprisoned by Myanmar authorities for seven years. She is currently a visiting scholar at Columbia University and also runs the Women’s Peace Network in Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi is receiving increasing public support as she might have calculated. However, her decision has also created a severe division among the people. She would do well to remember that at the end of the day, the public will come to realize the truth, and then the people of Myanmar will blame her. Internationally, she will be losing more credibility for her continuous denial and defence of the military. Things are much more serious than she is assuming. Many actors, including UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, are monitoring all her and her government’s actions.

Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. He campaigned for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2012, he personally discussed Rohingya issues with her.





At the end of the day the only beneficiary will be the military. They can sit back and watch Aung San Suu Kyi, whom they see as one of their greatest threats, having her reputation with the international community and ethnic people in Burma even further damaged defending the Tatmadaw’s crimes. The real problem with Aung San Suu Kyi is not just that she defends the actions of the military. As leader of the civilian government she is also pursuing racist genocidal policies against the Rohingya denying them rights, access to education, food, and healthcare. Her policies are killing people on a weekly basis.

Politically this case is a good opportunity for her. Ahead of an election year she can play the nationalist card defending the country against foreign attacks, and by defending the military she can use this in her attempts to try to win round the military into accepting democratic reforms. One motivation is that Aung San Suu Kyi genuinely does not believe that genocide is being committed. Like many people in Burma, she seems to believe that, as they think, Rohingya are illegal immigrants and therefore human rights violations against them don't count. They are less than human.

Even before the Rohingya issue came to the fore, Aung San Suu Kyi has always opposed international justice mechanisms. She calls it revenge rather than justice.


Sareta Ashraph, International criminal lawyer working on accountability for ISIS genocidal crimes against the Yazidis.





Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in the proceedings - an agent - is a specific one. While the agent has the same rights and obligations as a solicitor in a national court, she or he also serves, effectively, as the head of a special diplomatic mission with powers to commit a sovereign State. For Aung San Suu Kyi, her decision to act as Myanmar’s agent in the ICJ hearings is significant. The Gambia alleges that Myanmar has violated the Genocide Convention as a result of its campaign of killing, sexual violence and other atrocities against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim community. Aung San Suu Kyi consistent refusal to criticise Myanmar’s army for its attacks on the Rohingya has been described as “a sustained exercise in moral equivalence.” As she rises to her feet before the Court, any lingering hopes one may have for this former human rights icon and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize are likely to be extinguished.

Dr Hla Kyaw Khubybe is a Rohingya and chairman of the European Rohingya Council. He is based in the Netherlands and will be organizing demonstrations against Aung San Suu Kyi.





There are two big reasons behind Aung San Suu Kyi's intention to lead the Myanmar delegation, I believe. Firstly, she still believes that her popularity in the West is still present to some extent. Therefore, she might think that her presence could influence the ICJ process to an extent. She might also believe that her words of denials of genocidal crimes committed by the military and other governmental institutions under her watch would be taken as the truth. As a con artist with a Nobel prize, she excels in lying and denying empirical truths concerning her government and military and the heinous crimes they committed against our people.

Secondly, she is preparing for the upcoming election. Due to her incompetence and failure to bring Myanmar forward, her popularity is gradually fading away in Myanmar. However, ICJ case is bringing Burmese people out in support of her. She is mobilizing Burmese nationalism in order to stay in power.


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## Bilal9

*US blacklists head of Myanmar military, 3 generals*
Reuters, Washington

 Published at 12:37 am December 11th, 2019





File photo of Myanmar’s Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces AFP

The sanctions come the same day Aung San Suu Kyi attended the first day of hearings in a genocide case against Myanmar at the UN’s highest court

The United States on Tuesday blacklisted four Myanmar military leaders, including the commander-in-chief, in the toughest action taken yet by Washington for alleged human rights abuses against the Rohingya and other minorities.

The sanctions targeted the commander-in-chief of the Burmese military, Min Aung Hlaing, on the same day that Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended the first day of hearings in a genocide case against Myanmar at the UN’s highest court.

A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. United Nations investigators have said Myanmar’s operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent.”

The military in Myanmar has denied accusations of widespread abuses and said its actions were part of a fight against terrorism.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Tuesday Burmese military forces had committed “serious human rights abuse” against ethnic minority groups in Myanmar and that Min Aung Hlaing’s forces were responsible for the 2017 military crackdown.

“During this time, members of ethnic minority groups were killed or injured by gunshot, often while fleeing, or by soldiers using large-bladed weapons; others were burned to death in their own houses,” the statement said.

Washington’s sanctions also targeted Min Aung Hlaing’s deputy, Soe Win, and two brigadier generals, Than Oo and Aung Aung, freezing any US assets they have and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.

The four generals, who were previously barred from entering the US in July, are not known to have assets in the United States.

The US action falls short of re-imposing economic sanctions on Myanmar lifted after a transition from full military rule that began in 2011. It does not target military-owned companies that dominate some sectors of Myanmar’s economy.

Some analysts and diplomats have tipped Min Aung Hlaing as a potential presidential candidate in the next election in 2020, when Nobel laureate Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is likely to face opposition from nationalists aligned with the military.

His political ambitions could be damaged by the sanctions, as well as an earlier US travel ban and Facebook’s decision in August 2018 to remove the army chief’s page that had been his main channel of communication with the public.

The sanctions Tuesday were among a round of targets announced on International Human Rights Day.

*Can Suu Kyi stand up to the lawsuit avalanche?*
Bangkok Post

 Published at 12:02 am December 2nd, 2019





Photo: AFP

International pressure to rehabilitate the Rohingya and reform Rakhine is unlikely to dissipate

Myanmar’s top leaders -- both military and civilian -- have been shell-shocked by the avalanche of international legal cases they are now facing. In the space of days, three cases have been lodged in separate courts, all intended to make the Myanmar government and the country’s military leaders accountable for the horrendous events that unfolded in strife-torn western Rakhine state during military operations over the last three years.

But the key case -- at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by Gambia on behalf of the 57-nation member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) -- has finally propelled the Myanmar government to take decisive action. The State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, announced late last week that she will lead the country’s defense team, supported by a panel of prominent international lawyers to contest the case submitted by Gambia.

“The Myanmar government is taking this case very seriously,” the minister for international cooperation and deputy foreign minister, Kyaw Tin told the Bangkok Post in the sidelines of a major economic conference in the capital Naypitaw on Friday. In fact, as Myanmar is a signatory to this convention -- which the democratic government of U Nu’s signed in 1956 -- it cannot ignore the process.

This move on the part of the government came as a complete surprise to most diplomats and international observers, as most had expected Suu Kyi and her government to ignore this move at the ICJ, much in the same way as they have ignored the plethora of UN reports alleging forced evictions, the razing of Muslim villagers’ homes, rape and summary executions. But mounting a vigorous defense at the court in the Hague will not be enough to win the case nor sway international public opinion, according to many diplomats and legal experts.

“The State Counsellor, as foreign minister, will defend Myanmar’s interests,” he said. “Myanmar is looking forward to appearing in the court and using the opportunity to fully explain the country’s position.”

The minister, Kyaw Tin, went on to say that it is crucial for the international community to understand that Myanmar was only defending itself against terrorist attacks. This was not a premeditated campaign to expel the Muslims from Rakhine. “It was a matter of self-defense,” he stressed.

The major exodus of refugees started in October 2016, after an unexpected attack by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) on several border checkpoints left several security personnel dead. Some 70,000 Muslims fled across the border into Bangladesh in the wake of a draconian military “clean up”, in which thousands of houses were razed and civilian villagers forced to flee. In August 2017, another Arsa attack -- which left a score of policemen and border guards dead -- saw a similar pattern of military operations and even more refugees fleeing and accusing the military of intimidation, rape, and summary executions.

Successive UN reports accused the military of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing with genocidal intent. The Myanmar government and the military have persistently denied these accusations.

Earlier this month the ICJ accepted a case filed by Gambia -- a largely Muslim country in West Africa and a member of the OIC -- intended to bring the Myanmar government to book for the army’s atrocities against the Muslim population in Rakhine. It asks the ICJ to investigate whether Myanmar’s government has violated the Geneva Convention, which prohibits genocide. In particular, it charges that Myanmar is responsible for “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions that are calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcible transfers, [which] are genocidal in character because they are intended to destroy the Rohingya group in whole or in part”.

Gambia has also called for the court to impose precautionary measures to prevent further genocide. It requested that the ICJ issue an urgent temporary injunction ordering Myanmar to halt all actions that could aggravate or expand the existing situation. That could involve demands to stop further extrajudicial killings, rape, and levelling of the homes where the Rohingya once lived in Rakhine state.

“It is clear that Myanmar has no intention of ending these genocidal acts and continues to pursue the destruction of the group within its territory,” the lawsuit said. The government “is deliberately destroying evidence of its wrongdoings to cover up the crimes,” it added. 

The first public hearing is set to open in the Hague on December 10, at which Suu Kyi will appear, leading a legal team under Attorney General Htun Htun Oo. Three international barristers are included as part of the panel. At the moment, the state counsellor’s office is working overtime to gather evidence, testimonies, and arguments to bring to the court, according to a government insider.

“This is the highest sanction the government can level against Myanmar, with both the civilian government and the army implicated,” a diplomat told the Bangkok Post, on condition of anonymity. As the case is likely to drag on for 10-15 years, it gives Myanmar time to get things right, they suggested. “They can soften the blow with mitigating circumstances, but they need to act now,” said a legal expert, who declined to be identified. “The government needs to tackle the root causes of the conflict in Rakhine, and initiate a number of administrative reforms.”

Pressure will mount on the army to straighten their act, and there is increasing pressure on the civilian authority to ensure the army acts professionally. In due course, the army will have to carry out internal reforms, giving a greater impetus to bring the military under direct civilian rule.

“Myanmar is in the dock, so it’s time to put ‘substance to the rhetoric’” said an Asian diplomat. “Start with giving unfettered access to Rakhine, especially for the UN and NGOs -- both local and international.”

What is needed is an agreed, credible, consistent, and coordinated strategy to improve the situation on the ground. Creating conditions which are conducive for the refugees to return from Bangladesh in the future must also be prioritized.

While this is an essential starting point for any long-term development and reconciliation in Rakhine, some form of credible accountability and justice for the Rohingya’s suffering is also needed, whether through an international mechanism or a local process. 

_Larry Jagan is a specialist on Myanmar and a former BBC World Service News editor for the region. A version of this article was previously printed in the Bangkok Post. This is being reprinted under special arrangement._



Buddhistforlife said:


> Also be ready to receive more people from India. Already the process is going on in India.



Please don't post off topic comments.


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## bluesky

https://www.thedailystar.net/rohing...-suu-kyi-take-the-stand-genocide-case-1838821

10:52 AM, December 11, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:57 PM, December 11, 2019
*Suu Kyi rules out ongoing genocide in Myanmar’s Rakhine*

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at the UN's International Court of Justice on December 11, 2019 in the Peace Palace of The Hague, on the second day of her hearing on the Rohingya genocide case. Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN's top court on Wednesday, December 11, 2019, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims. Photo: AFP
" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; cursor: pointer; position: relative; display: table; z-index: 1; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;">




Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at the UN's International Court of Justice on December 11, 2019 in the Peace Palace of The Hague, on the second day of her hearing on the Rohingya genocide case. Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN's top court on Wednesday, December 11, 2019, a day after the former democracy icon was urged to "stop the genocide" against Rohingya Muslims. Photo: AFP

Star Online Report

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi today ruled out the allegation of ongoing genocide or genocidal intent at Rohingya villages in Rakhine of Myanmar.

She was speaking in Myanmar's defence at the UN's top court, a day after the Gambia urged her urged to stop the ongoing genocide against Rohingyas.

“How can there be an ongoing genocide or genocidal intent as concrete steps are being taken in Rakhine? Rakhine today suffers an internal arm conflict between the Buddhist Arakan army and Myanmar defence forces. Muslims are not the part of this conflict,” she told the court.

Earlier defending her country, she said Myanmar country has own justice system for trial of any crime if committed in the Rakhine state.

Suu Kyi also criticised the Gambia for taking the issue to the International Court of Justice.

A 17-member panel of judges of ICJ was hearing a case, the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over alleged mass killings of the Rohingya minorities in 2017, filed by the Gambia on November 11.

Yesterday, the Gambia accused Myanmar of breaching the 1948 genocide convention and urged the UN top court to order Myanmar to stop genocide against the Rohingya minority.

The African country unfolded the evidence of genocide against Rohingyas before the International Court of Justice and urged the court to prosecute the Myanmar generals responsible for the bloody crackdown.


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## bluesky

https://www.thedailystar.net/rohing...put-end-horrific-rohingya-abuse-asean-1838857

03:02 PM, December 11, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 03:15 PM, December 11, 2019
*Myanmar genocide hearing may put an end to horrific Rohingya abuse: ASEAN*
Shares
Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. AFP file photo
" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; cursor: pointer; position: relative; display: table; z-index: 1; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;">




Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. AFP file photo

Star Online Report

It is saddening and still bewildering that Aung San Suu Kyi, a former democracy champion, has sought to stall and subvert any genuine efforts to address accusations of serious human rights violations against the Rohingyas, said ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

The remarks come as the state counsellor of Myanmar is set to defend her country at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Peace Palace at The Hague at 3:00pm today.

The Gambia, which filed the case against Myanmar accusing it of genocide against the Rohingya, presented its arguments.

Parliamentarians from across Southeast Asia yesterday welcomed the first hearing in the case against Myanmar at the UN’s highest court as an initial step towards justice and possible recognition of the crime of genocide committed against the Rohingya.

“This marks the start of a monumental effort for justice that could put an end to some of the horrific abuses that the Rohingya are facing,” said Kasit Piromya, former Member of Parliament (MP) of Thailand and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) Board Member.

“It is saddening and still a little bewildering for many of us across this region that a former democracy champion, and someone we spent years defending the rights of, has sought to stall and subvert any genuine efforts to address accusations of serious human rights violations under her government and is now herself defending allegations of genocide at the ICJ,” said Mu Sochua, former Cambodian MP and APHR Board Member.

“Without accountability for the systematic killings, rape, sexual violence and other atrocities committed against the Rohingya, the cycle of violence against ethnic and religious groups in Myanmar will never end,” said Kasit Piromya.

Backed by 57-member states of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Gambia filed a case last month at the ICJ against Myanmar for violating provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to which Myanmar has been a party to since 1956.

The Gambia case follows findings from the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar which recommended Myanmar be brought before the ICJ after it found that Myanmar had committed “genocidal acts” during the 2017 “clearance operations” that killed thousands and caused more than 740,000 Rohingya to flee for their lives to Bangladesh. Approximately one million Rohingya refugees are currently living in the Cox’s Bazar camps in Bangladesh.

“…we emphasize that ensuring accountability is a critical move, but not the only one that Myanmar must take.

“We have consistently supported the calls from the Rohingya themselves for the Myanmar authorities to lift all restrictions against them, restore their basic rights, including citizenship rights, and ensure their safety and security so that they can return to their homes and live normal lives,” said Charles Santiago, a Member of Parliament of Malaysia, and APHR Board Chair.

Numerous restrictions, including those on citizenship rights, freedom of movement, and access to education and healthcare, continue to be placed upon the Rohingya in Myanmar.

APHR urges Myanmar to take immediate action to guarantee these rights for the Rohingya and again called on the international community to do all in its power to ensure the Rohingya living in Myanmar have their rights restored and that those in Bangladesh are able to return to their homes free from persecution or threats, and with their rights fully restored.


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## bluesky

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/world/america/us-blacklists-head-of-myanmar-military-1575996525

*US blacklists head of Myanmar military*
Published: December 10, 2019 22:48:45 | Updated: December 11, 2019 13:03:27






The United States (US) on Tuesday blacklisted four Myanmar military leaders, including the commander-in-chief, in the toughest action taken yet by Washington for alleged human rights abuses against the Rohingya and other minorities, said the US Treasury Department.

The sanctions targeted Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese military forces Min Aung Hlaing, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Soe Win, Than Oo, a leader of the 99th Light Infantry Division, and Aung Aung, a leader of the 33rd Light Infantry Division, the Treasury said in a statement.

The military in Myanmar has denied accusations of widespread abuses and says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism, reports Reuters.

Some analysts and diplomats have tipped Min Aung Hlaing as a potential presidential candidate at the next election in 2020, when Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is likely to face opposition from nationalists aligned with the military.

His political ambitions could be damaged by the sanctions, as well as an earlier US travel ban and Facebook's decision in August 2018 to remove the army chief's page that had been his main channel of communication with the public.

The latest sanctions freeze the US assets of the military leaders and prohibit Americans from doing business with them. They were previously barred in July from entering the United States.


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## bluesky

https://www.thedailystar.net/rohing...u-kyi-representing-militarys-interest-1839718
01:01 AM, December 13, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:22 AM, December 13, 2019
*10 US senators criticise Suu Kyi for representing military’s interest*
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Star Online Report

Ten US Senators have severely criticized Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi for representing the military’s interest before the International Court of Justice and defending the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingyas and other ethnic minorities.

“Representing the Burmese military’s interest before The Hague and defending the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities would undermine what remaining credibility you have before the international community, including in the US Congress,” said a letter to Suu Kyi issued on December 9.

The Senators said a defense of the Burmese military at this high-profile international forum is also an affront to the inclusive, multi-cultural and democratic Burma that she claims to champion.

They said when Buddhist nationalism is on the rise in Myanmar, shielding military’s criminal acts sends a signal that Suu Kyi stands alongside human rights violators.

On December 10, the International Court of Justice (ICJ)at The Hague began a three-day hearing of the case that The Gambia filed on November 11, accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya. 

At the ICJ, Suu Kyi denied that the Myanmar military committed genocide, arguing that the crackdown was a response to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks on the police posts in Rakhine and that it was merely an internal conflict.

The Gambia made strong arguments to prove that Myanmar committed genocide and that it is ongoing and sought provisional measures to protect the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Myanmar’s handling of brutal “clearance operations” that killed thousands and caused more than 740,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh since August 2017 is inexcusable, said the 10 US Senators. 

They said while it is ultimately up to the court to determine the criminal accountability, evidence of crimes committed by the Burmese military is overwhelming. 

“We are also concerned about the estimated 600,000 Rohigya who remain in Burma, whose living conditions have worsened. They continue to face persecution and are at risk of genocide,” the letter said.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar makes it clear that Myanmar government incurs “state responsibility” under the prohibition against genocide and crimes against humanity, which will be important for the ICJ to consider.

“We urge you to fully cooperate with the ICJ. This should include moving forward with any provisional actions that might be recommended or discussed at the ICJ.

“Your government must also provide complete and unfettered access throughout the county to the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar so that they may investigate all allegations of crimes under international law and other human rights violations and abuses.”

They said they stand ready to support Myanmar if Suu Kyi chooses to take the crucial moment on the international stage to defend the human rights of the Rohingyas and other ethnic minorities in Burma.

“However, a failure to do so means we will continue to use instruments of US diplomatic power to bring the Burmese military to account for the injustices committed. A democratic and rights-respecting, inclusive Burma is the only successful path forward,” the US Senators said.

The Senators include Marsha Blackburn, Richard J Durbin, Todd Young, Tammy Baldwin, Brian Schatz, Jeffrey A Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, Robert P Casey Jr, Benjamin L Cardin, and Ron Wyden.


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## bluesky

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://bdnews24.com/rohingya/2019/...nsibility-over-education-of-rohingya-children

*Amnesty urges international community to share responsibility for education of Rohingya children*
News Desk, bdnews24.com

Published: 15 Dec 2019 12:11 PM BdST Updated: 15 Dec 2019 02:49 PM BdST








File Photo: A boy holds a placard as hundreds of Rohingya refugees protest against their repatriation at the Unchiprang camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh November 15, 2018. Reuters
*The international community must not shirk its responsibility when it comes to the education of Rohingya children in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, Amnesty International said ahead of the first Global Refugee Forum.*

More than half a million children have yet to the see the inside of a classroom since they arrived in the refugee camps more than two years ago.

The Global Refugee Forum, which is being hosted by the UN’s refugee agency in Geneva and takes place from 16-18 December, has made education of one its six key themes.

“The Rohingya children in the camps in Cox’s Bazar must not become a lost generation. The international community must accept that they will not be able to return home to Myanmar any time soon. And they cannot continue to see their futures slowly stolen from them in conditions where they are being denied their right to education,” said Saad Hammadi, South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty International.

“When a child receives an education, everyone benefits. Both Bangladesh and the international community must step up and share the responsibility of educating all children in Cox’s Bazar, Rohingya refugees and the host community as well. The Bangladesh government can start by lifting the restrictions on education for refugees currently in place.”

The host community in Cox’s Bazar suffers both from a shortage of teachers as they seek better paying jobs often in humanitarian agencies and high student dropout rates due in part to pressure on children to enter the workforce early to meet the higher cost of living as household incomes continue to fall.

According to a multi-sector needs assessment released by the Inter Sector Coordination Group in October 2019, nearly third of 1,311 households surveyed in Cox’s Bazar have at least one primary or secondary school aged child who was not attending school.

Access to appropriate accredited quality education is fundamental to equip the Rohingya children with knowledge that they can use to enjoy and claim their rights while also contributing to the economy irrespective of where they are.

“It is in everyone’s interests to see that all children in Cox’s Bazar receive a quality education as is their right. Education can lift entire communities. Far from being a burden on a national economy, it should be seen as an investment that will yield great dividends. But the denial of education can have very negative consequences,” said Saad.


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## Indos

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1206553848908791808

Reactions: Like Like:
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## Bilal9

__ https://www.facebook.com/


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## Bilal9

*Lives of Rohingya ‘Better’ in Bangladesh Camps than Myanmar, UN Official Says*
Mahbub Leelen and Kate Beddall
Washington
2020-03-11







_Rohingya refugee girl Azida plays on a makeshift swing tied to World Food Program (WFP) containers inside Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov. 17, 2018._


 

_The largest refugee settlement in the world is a “vibrant” place where the lives of Rohingya Muslims are “in some ways better” than they were in Myanmar, the World Food Program’s representative in Bangladesh told BenarNews in a recent interview._

_Richard Ragan heads an operation that supplies all food delivered to Rohingya refugees in southeastern Bangladesh, spending about $11 million per month on the effort._

_WFP fed 878,032 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in January, according to its most recent country brief. It also pays thousands of refugees daily to provide services in what Ragan described as “one of the most sophisticated camp structures I’ve ever seen.”_

_“It’s very vibrant. It’s alive,” Ragan said of Kutupalong Refugee Camp._

_“Rohingya will tell you, for the first time in their life, they feel free, they are able to worship, they are able to move … the situations that brought them there are clearly not good, but the end state of it is, their life in some ways is better,” he said._

_Ragan, who lives in Dhaka, was in Washington last week to discuss budgeting, policy and programming with officials in the United States, the biggest donor to the WFP and Bangladesh for the Rohingya operation._

_The United Nations last week launched an appeal for more than $800 million this year to support some 855,000 Rohingya refugees and 444,000 Bangladeshis in host communities in southeastern Bangladesh._

_On March 3, Washington donated $59 million, bringing its total humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees and related communities in Bangladesh to almost $820 million since August 2017, when an outbreak of violence by Myanmar security forces sent around 800,000 fleeing across the border, the State Department said._

_In his March 4 interview with BenarNews, Ragan provided a close look at how that money is spent, and an unusually positive depiction of life in the refugee camps._

*BenarNews*: What are the top concerns of WFP Bangladesh?

*Richard Ragan:* My top concerns are trying to get people to go back home … to try to work to create conditions on the other side of the border which will attract people to return home …

We take care of a quarter million people on the Rakhine side as well, we are one of the biggest humanitarian actors on the other side of the border, so we have a good sense of what’s happening in Myanmar as well as what I see in Bangladesh.

*BN: *What is your assessment?

*RR:* Conditions aren’t ripe for people to return. There’s been an uptick in violence over the last couple of months … people don’t see the stability that they need to make decisions to go home.

The Rohingya crisis has been with Bangladesh since its independence, it’s not a new crisis. … There’s been a consistent effort on the Myanmar side to push people out. And there remain 600,000 Rohingya still, on the other side of the border, which we are obviously concerned about – their welfare, the security issues they face, the potential that they might be pushed out to Bangladesh in the future.

*BN: *How do you feed the Rohingya in Bangladesh?

*RR:* If you look back at big refugee crises of 20 years ago, you provided [on site] handouts of grain, pulses, oil … [in a] crisis-like environment, with big queues of people lining up.

What we are doing in Bangladesh is different. … We have, basically, stores where we give Rohingyas a digital entitlement of the equivalent to $7 per person ... per month. Then they can go to shops and they can purchase one of 19 different food items; fresh vegetables, fish, eggs, things that you normally wouldn’t see in a traditional refugee environment.

The other benefit about this is, these are Bangladeshi business people that are managing the supply chain. We have contracts with businesses based locally in the Cox’s Bazar area and some of the other contractors are in Chittagong and from Dhaka. They are providing the commodities.

We are transacting roughly the equivalent of $6 million per month through these stores, so it’s a big business opportunity for people who are involved in this.

*BN: *All of this food is being produced by Bangladeshi farmers?

*RR:* Yes.





Richard Ragan, the resident representative for World Food Program Bangladesh, gestures during an interview with BenarNews in Washington, March 4, 2020. [Ashif Entaz Rabi/BenarNews]




*BN: *Do you have a plan for food production inside the camps?

*RR:* The [Bangladesh] government has restricted work and employment, because there is desire to not hurt the competitive market for the host community, so officially, jobs aren’t allowed.

But you have to manage the camps. This is a city of a million people, basically … you have to have all the different structures in place to manage the city, which means drainage of the roads, cleaning out the toilets, slope stabilization of land...

So the way we have done that is, rather than call them employees, they are volunteers. They get a volunteer stipend ….

In WFP, we probably have around 10 to 12 thousand volunteers doing labor for us on a daily basis, so we manage a pretty big work force ... both men and women.

Rohingya will tell you, for the first time in their life they feel free, they are able to worship, they are able to move, they are able to go into these stores and shop, which is something that they weren’t allowed to do in Rakhine. So, they’re stateless, pushed out of their home, and suffered genocide. The situations that brought them there are clearly not good, but the end state of it is, their life in some ways is better.

There isn’t a Rohingya that you speak to who doesn’t want to go home. I think if given the choice of saying, stay in the camp and go to the e-voucher shop versus go home, they are going to all say ‘I want to go home.’ But those conditions don’t exist yet. So you do the best with what you’ve got.

*BN:* What is your opinion about relocating Rohingya to Bhasan Char Island?

*RR:* It is going to be more expensive, because anytime you divide the population, you put a population on an island, for us to manage it, it’s going to be more costly.

*BN:* Are you seeing hunger in communities around the refugee camps?

*RR:* Yes.

*BN:* What are the impacts of the Rohingya presence on the host community?

*RR:* It’s crowded. There’s a whole lot of new people, the size of two districts [where the camps are located] quadrupled. It’s in an environment that has always been under-developed, under-invested in. … I view it really as an opportunity in a lot of ways, because there’s a lot of investment being made into these two districts’ infrastructure, a lot more attention being made on some of the longer-term development challenges.

*BN:* With all these things in place, isn’t it a disincentive for repatriation?

*RR:* You know, the pull to go to your place of origin is strong and there’s still 600,000 people on the other side of the border. This has been historically where these people are from. I think they’d go back if the conditions were safe enough, and they were given the kind of liberties to live the kind of life that they would want to live.

*BN:* In your assessment, when will they be going back?

*RR:* I don’t see a lot of daylight at this point.

One of the things that’s really important is to hold Myanmar accountable. We, the international community, can’t let people forget what happened. … There’s nobody in these camps that doesn’t have a story of something terrible happening to them.

_Ashif Entaz Rabi contributed to this report._

*Related Stories*


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## leonblack08

https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/rohingya-influx-feared-again-border-on-alert

*Rohingya influx feared again, border on alert*

Fears have arisen of yet another influx of Rohingya from Myanmar into Bangladesh. Local residents and people’s representatives said that there are over 150 Rohingyas positioned at the borders of Teknaf and Ukhia. The Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) is on alert.

Announcements to this end were made over loudspeaker along the border on Thursday night.

Union Parishad (UP) member of Palongkhali union, Ukhia, Sultan Ahmed, said that they were contacted on Thursday night by a government agency on duty at the border. They were told that quite a few Rohingyas might be attempting to cross over the border into Bangladesh.

Upon hearing this, the UP member along with others took position at the Paishkhali border towards 11 in the night. They could hear noises of people in the forest on the other side of the border. It confirmed their suspicions of a possible attempt by Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh.

The local people learnt that a certain terrorist group was trying to bring these Rohingyas into Bangladesh. However, after being tipped off, everyone in the area was on alert. The people were cautioned over loudspeaker at night in this regard. It was learnt that many of the Rohingyas who had gathered at the border were infected with coronavirus.

Palongkhali UP chairman Gafur Uddin Chowdhury, speaking to Prothom Alo, said that he had learnt that over 150 Rohingyas were attempting to enter Bangladesh through Medhir Khal border at Anjumanpara. About the matter, he had spoken to the BGB personnel deployed at the border. They were on alert. No Rohingyas would be allowed to enter illegally.

Learning that many of the Rohingyas may be infected with coronavirus, the UP chairman said they had learnt that they were trying to come to Bangladesh for treatment.

After 25 August 2017, hordes of Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh through the Teknaf and Ukhia borders. Around 1.15 million Rohingyas had settled in Teknaf and Ukhia since then. Myanmar has spoken about taking them back at various times, but till now has not done so.

Commander of BGB’s 34 battalion in Cox’s Bazar, Lt Col Ali Haider Azad Ahmed, told Prothom Alo that BGB men had been sent to the border at Anjumanpara and Ulubania and that no one would be allowed to enter. BGB is keeping sharp watch at these areas. No one has been spotted in these areas.

Ukhia upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Mohammed Nikaruzzaman Chowdhury and Teknaf UNO Mohammed Saiful Islam, said that at night there had suddenly been reports that Rohingyas were trying to enter Bangladesh at the borders of the two upazilas. However, the border guards were in alert and so, they hoped, no one would be able to enter.


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## ebr77

Not again !! BGB should stop them coming into BD all together .

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## bluesky

ebr77 said:


> Not again !! BGB should stop them coming into BD all together .


Only Indian BSF can stop entering into India. BGB or the GoB just cannot do so. It is inhumane.

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## Ababeel

Muslim blood is the most cheapest thing in this world. 
Munafiq/Hypocrite/Athiest rulers, Secular/Liberal dictators and rulers sold out to Zionists n Crusaders are ruling the Muslim Ummah divided into Un-Islamic Nation States.
Only a true Khilafah as dictated in Islamic teachings and o erthrow of above mention Ed rulers is the only solution and can save Muslim from these atrocities worldwide.

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## bluesky

Ababeel said:


> Muslim blood is the most cheapest thing in this world.
> Munafiq/Hypocrite/Athiest rulers, Secular/Liberal dictators and rulers sold out to Zionists n Crusaders are ruling the Muslim Ummah divided into Un-Islamic Nation States.
> Only a true Khilafah as dictated in Islamic teachings and o erthrow of above mention Ed rulers is the only solution and can save Muslim from these atrocities worldwide.


Your proposed remedy could have not been good even a thousand years ago. Today, Muslim countries must salvage themselves by *learning knowledge/technology* from the Christians, *industrializing and doing economic development*. 

Christians do not want this to happen and this is the reason they have been propagating some fancy Khilafat ideas through ignoramus Muslims. They have been doing it for the last few centuries because they know religious dogma is an effective medicine for the Muslims to keep themselves asleep.

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## Ababeel

bluesky said:


> Your proposed remedy could have not been good even a thousand years ago. Today, Muslim countries must salvage themselves by *learning knowledge/technology* from the Christians, *industrializing and doing economic development*.
> 
> Christians do not want this to happen and this is the reason they have been propagating some fancy Khilafat ideas through ignoramus Muslims. They have been doing it for the last few centuries because they know religious dogma is an effective medicine for the Muslims to keep themselves asleep.


Khilafah was there till 1924 though not in its pure form but to some extent it was the protector of Muslim Ummah as a whole from Crusaders, Muslims could have moved and settled anywhere in that land from any other part of the world, nobody dared to create Israel or a Jewish homeland even Sultan Abdul Hamid's period who was the last Sultan of Ottoman and the weakest one.
Thousand years ago it was much stronger though it kept changing hands and the rulers were not fully following the footsteps of an Islamic Khilafah as it should have been followed.
As per scholars its wajib for a Muslim to live in a Khilafa instead of in Dar al Harb. Khilafah is not formed by any Muslim king or Dictator. It was from Allah as Islam is the way of life. Otherwise Corrupt, Faasiq, Faajirs and Munaafiq rulers as likes of Hasina in Bangladesh, likes of Nawaz & Zardari in Pakistan, Secular, Atheist or Munafiq ruler prior to Erdogan in Turkey and many more around the world will keep appearing.
Secondly only a believing Muslim will like and hope of living in Khilafah and not an unbeliever or Atheist among Muslims.
A real Khalifah will definitely take the Ummah towards achieving knowledge n technology as he will not be any sold out person but follower of Quranic commands and Sunnah.
BTW, In sha Allah the final Khilafah will emerge soon as we are in the period of End Times and the prophecy in a hadith of 5 eras nearing.


قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَكُونُ النُّبُوَّةُ فِيكُمْ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةٌ عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ فَتَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ مُلْكًا عَاضًّا فَيَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ مُلْكًا جَبْرِيَّةً فَتَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ ثُمَّ سَكَتَ مسند أحمد (30/ 355).

“_On the authority of Hudhayfa, the Prophet said: ‘There will be (an era of) Prophethood, so long as Allah wills. Then Allah will withdraw it, when He wills to withdraw it, to be followed by (an era of) Khilafah on the lines of Prophethood. It will last as long as Allah wills; then Allah will withdraw it when He wills to withdraw it. Then there will be despotic monarchy and stay as long as Allah wills. Then Allah will withdraw it when He wishes to withdraw it. That will be followed by a tyrannous monarchy which will last as long as Allah wills. Then Allah will withdraw it when He wills to withdraw it. That will be followed by (an era of) Khilafah on the lines of Prophethood. Thereafter he did not speak any further_.’


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## bluesky

Ababeel said:


> Khilafah was there till 1924 though not in its pure form but to some extent it was the protector of Muslim Ummah as a whole from Crusaders, Muslims could have moved and settled anywhere in that land from any other part of the world, nobody dared to create Israel or a Jewish homeland even Sultan Abdul Hamid's period who was the last Sultan of Ottoman and the weakest one.
> Thousand years ago it was much stronger though it kept changing hands and the rulers were not fully following the footsteps of an Islamic Khilafah as it should have been followed.
> As per scholars its wajib for a Muslim to live in a Khilafa instead of in Dar al Harb. Khilafah is not formed by any Muslim king or Dictator. It was from Allah as Islam is the way of life. Otherwise Corrupt, Faasiq, Faajirs and Munaafiq rulers as likes of Hasina in Bangladesh, likes of Nawaz & Zardari in Pakistan, Secular, Atheist or Munafiq ruler prior to Erdogan in Turkey and many more around the world will keep appearing.
> Secondly only a believing Muslim will like and hope of living in Khilafah and not an unbeliever or Atheist among Muslims.
> A real Khalifah will definitely take the Ummah towards achieving knowledge n technology as he will not be any sold out person but follower of Quranic commands and Sunnah.
> BTW, In sha Allah the final Khilafah will emerge soon as we are in the period of End Times and the prophecy in a hadith of 5 eras nearing.
> 
> 
> قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَكُونُ النُّبُوَّةُ فِيكُمْ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةٌ عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ فَتَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ مُلْكًا عَاضًّا فَيَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ مُلْكًا جَبْرِيَّةً فَتَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ ثُمَّ سَكَتَ مسند أحمد (30/ 355).
> 
> “_On the authority of Hudhayfa, the Prophet said: ‘There will be (an era of) Prophethood, so long as Allah wills. Then Allah will withdraw it, when He wills to withdraw it, to be followed by (an era of) Khilafah on the lines of Prophethood. It will last as long as Allah wills; then Allah will withdraw it when He wills to withdraw it. Then there will be despotic monarchy and stay as long as Allah wills. Then Allah will withdraw it when He wishes to withdraw it. That will be followed by a tyrannous monarchy which will last as long as Allah wills. Then Allah will withdraw it when He wills to withdraw it. That will be followed by (an era of) Khilafah on the lines of Prophethood. Thereafter he did not speak any further_.’


You better join ISIS and establish a Khilafat. Do not forget Israel and America are behind the funding of that criminal organization. That ISIS Khelafat never sent a bullet towards Israel but killed many thousand Muslims. So, why are you sending trash message in the PDF instead of joining your Khilafat?

Long Live ISIS Khilafat.


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## DalalErMaNodi

Ummah strong!


Bangladeshis who believe in ummah chummah should be ashamed of themselves, we bangalis should be the last persons to believe in that delusional ideology. 


Ummah this, Ummah that, pffffft.

Grow up folks, we got enough ummah ummah in 71.

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## bluesky

DalalErMaNodi said:


> Ummah strong!
> 
> 
> Bangladeshis who believe in ummah chummah should be ashamed of themselves, we bangalis should be the last persons to believe in that delusional ideology.
> 
> 
> Ummah this, Ummah that, pffffft.
> 
> Grow up folks, we got enough ummah ummah in 71.


Die hard Ummahs will love to remain an ignoramus mass for all time to come. Muslims remain backward because of their stupid mindset. However you tell or teach them, they are not to learn how to progress to the future. You can watch hundreds of videos talking backdated Mojezas, and many hundreds clapping by seeing these.


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## Ababeel

bluesky said:


> You better join ISIS and establish a Khilafat. Do not forget Israel and America are behind the funding of that criminal organization. That ISIS Khelafat never sent a bullet towards Israel but killed many thousand Muslims. So, why are you sending trash message in the PDF instead of joining your Khilafat?
> 
> Long Live ISIS Khilafat.


Do you have brain or not. Why you are mixing Khilafah with Khawarij of ISIS?
Did I talked about or supported ISIS Khilafah. I just talked about institution of Islamic Khilafah which is a requirement of Ummah as per Quran n Sunnah.
Better you join ISIS or any hypocrite or atheist ideology gang.


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## Buddhistforlife

Look even Malaysian Muslims are now against Rohingyas because of their alleged criminal nature.

@Michael Corleone @TopCat @DalalErMaNodi @Homo Sapiens @bluesky

@X-ray Papa

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## Michael Corleone

Buddhistforlife said:


> View attachment 655670
> 
> 
> Look even Malaysian Muslims are now against Rohingyas because of their alleged criminal nature.
> 
> @Michael Corleone @TopCat @DalalErMaNodi @Homo Sapiens @bluesky
> 
> @X-ray Papa


Scums should be thrown into that island ASAP before they completely destroy the touristic nature of cox bazar


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## Buddhistforlife

Michael Corleone said:


> Scums should be thrown into that island ASAP before they completely destroy the touristic nature of cox bazar


Rohingya is a lost cause. No one wants to fight on their behalf. They are acting like the Afghan refugees who came to Pakistan.


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## TopCat

Buddhistforlife said:


> View attachment 655670
> 
> 
> Look even Malaysian Muslims are now against Rohingyas because of their alleged criminal nature.
> 
> @Michael Corleone @TopCat @DalalErMaNodi @Homo Sapiens @bluesky
> 
> @X-ray Papa


Krishna Thapa (the commentor) was an Indian plantation slaves in Malaysia.. I am sure Rohingyas are creating hard competition for those lowest throng in Malaysia.


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## TopCat

Buddhistforlife said:


> Rohingya is a lost cause. No one wants to fight on their behalf. They are acting like the Afghan refugees who came to Pakistan.


Not sure about that... Looks like deals were made with Arakan Army. Nobody wants any ethnic friction in Arakan which will benefit MM army thugs. So the support will go to Arakan Army in return they will live peacefully with Rohingyas.


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## Buddhistforlife

TopCat said:


> Krishna Thapa (the commentor) was an Indian plantation slaves in Malaysia.. I am sure Rohingyas are creating hard competition for those lowest throng in Malaysia.


Krishna thappa is not the commentator.

The man who commented is a Malaysian muslim and he was replying to Krishna thappa so he tagged him. 

As you can see I blurred the commentators name.

@TopCat


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## X-ray Papa

Buddhistforlife said:


> View attachment 655670
> 
> 
> Look even Malaysian Muslims are now against Rohingyas because of their alleged criminal nature.
> 
> @Michael Corleone @TopCat @DalalErMaNodi @Homo Sapiens @bluesky
> 
> @X-ray Papa


Malaysian Hindus are just jealous that rohingyas are getting better treatment than them.


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## Buddhistforlife

X-ray Papa said:


> Malaysian Hindus are just jealous that rohingyas are getting better treatment than them.


As I mentioned above that Krishna Thappa is not the commentator. I blurred the commentators name.


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## TopCat

Buddhistforlife said:


> As I mentioned above that Krishna Thappa is not the commentator. I blurred the commentators name.


If not then they are Burmese or Indian bots taking a muslim name to create disturbances. Huge Indian BJP whatsapp university bots are all over in the commenting sections in youtube and other news site.


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## saif

* UN warns of ‘further war crimes’ in Rakhine *
Agence France-Presse . Geneva 
Published: 19:29, Sep 14,2020 
| Updated: 00:43, Sep 15,2020 












In this file photo taken on September 7, 2017, a house burns in Gawdu Tharya village near Maungdaw in Rakhine state in northern Myanmar. - AFP photo 
Myanmar’s apparent continued targeting of civilians in the country’s Rakhine and Chin states could constitute additional war crimes and crimes against humanity, the UN rights chief said Monday.
Michelle Bachelet demanded action to remedy the serious rights violations suffered by Myanmar’s Rohingya minority in particular.

Military operations in 2017 forced some 7,50,000 Rohingya to flee from conflict-torn Rakhine state to Bangladesh in violence that now sees Myanmar facing genocide charges at the UN’s top court.
Speaking at the opening of the 45th Human Rights Council in Geneva, Bachelet decried that the abuses against the Rohingya and other minorities in the country were on-going.

‘People from the Rakhine, Chin, Mro, Daignet and Rohingya communities are increasingly affected by the armed conflict in Rakhine and Chin States,’ Bachelet said.

She pointed to ‘disappearances and extra-judicial killings of civilians; massive civilian displacement; arbitrary arrests, torture and deaths in custody; and the destruction of civilian property.’
‘Civilian casualties have also been increasing. In some cases, they appear to have been targeted or attacked indiscriminately, which may constitute further war crimes or even crimes against humanity,’ she said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights lamented that no concrete measures had been taken by the government towards accountability for the ‘terrible human rights crisis’ inflicted upon the Rohingya by the military operations in Rakhine which started three years ago.

Bachelet said government administrators were now reclassifying areas where Rohingya villages were previously located, removing the names of villages from official maps and potentially altering how the land may be used.

‘This should end immediately, and the prior situation should be restored,’ she said.

Satellite images and eye-witness accounts indicate that areas in northern Rakhine have been burnt in recent months — something contested by the government, Bachelet added.

‘This only underscores the need for independent, on-the-ground investigation,’ she said.
Myanmar’s military has always justified its 2017 operations as a means to root out Rohingya militants after attacks against around a dozen security posts and police stations.

The Rohingya are widely seen as illegal immigrants in Myanmar, denied citizenship and rights.
Bachelet highlighted that most Rohingya will not be able to vote in the forthcoming November elections, branding the situation as ‘disappointing’.

‘The vast majority of Rohingya will be prevented from participating in the elections, since they have effectively been stripped of their previously recognised rights to vote and stand for office,’ she said.
‘Action must now be taken to properly remedy the serious violations the Rohingya have suffered, and include them into the life of their country.

‘I also encourage the government to remove the barriers that impede democratic freedoms and undermine the equal enjoyment of human rights by all in Myanmar.’









UN warns of ‘further war crimes’ in Rakhine


Myanmar’s apparent continued targeting of civilians in the country’s Rakhine and Chin states could constitute additional war crimes and crimes against humanity, the UN rights chief said...




www.newagebd.net


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## saif

* BGB on alert *
Shahidul Islam Chowdhury | 
Published: 00:51, Sep 16,2020 

Myanmar military has resumed crackdown in villages of Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine adjacent to south-eastern border with Bangladesh spreading panic across the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.


At least 400 Myanmar troops, on early Tuesday, launched an operation in village Gwa Son of Maungdaw township and arrested five Rohingya men, officials with knowledge of the matter told New Age.

The troops searched houses of Rohingya Muslim families of village Tha Yet Oke of Maungdaw township.

In absence of the male members of the family in the houses at Gwa Son, the troops on Sunday took away three Rohingya women to unknown places.

The locations of the operations were opposite the bordering Domdomia and Jadipara areas in Teknaf of Cox’s bazar in Bangladesh, said an official.

Border Guard Bangladesh has kept troops on alert along the border sensing troops’ movement inside Rakhine and risk of resumption of intrusions of people from the Myanmar side. 

‘We are absolutely ready in all border outposts and our patrolling has also been intensified,’ Lieutenant Colonel Ali Haider Azad Ahmed, commanding officer of BGB 34 Battalion, told New Age on Tuesday evening. 

‘We will not allow any new intrusion,’ he said.

Several Bangladesh officials deployed in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar said on Tuesday that members of the Rohingya community, who had been forcibly displaced by Myanmar military since August 2017 were now living in temporary shelters inside Bangladesh, were worried after getting news from their relatives still staying in Rakhine about the resumption of crackdown on the minority community living in different villages.

The camp managements have asked camp leaders, who are Rohingyas themselves, to stay alert about the activities and movements essential for maintaining calmness in the camps.

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters on Tuesday that the government ‘is at the ready to tackle any situation’. 

Myanmar’s military set a village on fire in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw township and killed two civilians in the evening on September 3, according to Irrawaddy.com

Troops shelled village Phayapaung on the Yangon-Sittwe road before torching houses and killing two villagers, according to relatives of the victims.

‘My son was returning from work in Kyauktaw by bike at around 5:00pm when he encountered Tatmadaw [military] troops. They told him to lead them to the village. An explosion occurred near the village following which the troops attacked,’ said Nyo Maung Hla, father of 27-year-old victim Ko Maung Nyunt Win.

Military trucks came from the direction of Kyauktaw and surrounded the village. Villagers were told to leave their homes as soldiers looted their belongings before setting their houses ablaze, said Nyo Maung Hla.

The Bangladesh government on September 13 summoned Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh Aung Kyaw Moe and protested at the visible movement of Myanmar military fishing trawlers at places very close to the border of the two countries.

Foreign minister director general for Myanmar wing Delwar Hossain confirmed that ambassador Moe was called to the foreign ministry for handing over a diplomatic note protesting against the suspicious movements of Myanmar troops.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on September 14 that recent civilian casualties in Myanmar may amount to ‘further war crimes’ and that three years after an exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, no concrete measures to hold Myanmar accountable had been taken.

Satellite images and eyewitness accounts indicated that areas of northern Rakhine were burnt in recent months and called for an independent investigation, Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to AFP.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed instruments to send some 860,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, to their home in Rakhine, as most of them entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017.

The latest Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 1.2 million, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.









BGB on alert


Myanmar military has resumed crackdown in villages of Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine adjacent to south-eastern border with Bangladesh spreading panic across the Rohingya camps...




www.newagebd.net

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## PakFactor

saif said:


> * BGB on alert *
> Shahidul Islam Chowdhury |
> Published: 00:51, Sep 16,2020
> 
> Myanmar military has resumed crackdown in villages of Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine adjacent to south-eastern border with Bangladesh spreading panic across the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.
> 
> 
> At least 400 Myanmar troops, on early Tuesday, launched an operation in village Gwa Son of Maungdaw township and arrested five Rohingya men, officials with knowledge of the matter told New Age.
> 
> The troops searched houses of Rohingya Muslim families of village Tha Yet Oke of Maungdaw township.
> 
> In absence of the male members of the family in the houses at Gwa Son, the troops on Sunday took away three Rohingya women to unknown places.
> 
> The locations of the operations were opposite the bordering Domdomia and Jadipara areas in Teknaf of Cox’s bazar in Bangladesh, said an official.
> 
> Border Guard Bangladesh has kept troops on alert along the border sensing troops’ movement inside Rakhine and risk of resumption of intrusions of people from the Myanmar side.
> 
> ‘We are absolutely ready in all border outposts and our patrolling has also been intensified,’ Lieutenant Colonel Ali Haider Azad Ahmed, commanding officer of BGB 34 Battalion, told New Age on Tuesday evening.
> 
> ‘We will not allow any new intrusion,’ he said.
> 
> Several Bangladesh officials deployed in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar said on Tuesday that members of the Rohingya community, who had been forcibly displaced by Myanmar military since August 2017 were now living in temporary shelters inside Bangladesh, were worried after getting news from their relatives still staying in Rakhine about the resumption of crackdown on the minority community living in different villages.
> 
> The camp managements have asked camp leaders, who are Rohingyas themselves, to stay alert about the activities and movements essential for maintaining calmness in the camps.
> 
> Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters on Tuesday that the government ‘is at the ready to tackle any situation’.
> 
> Myanmar’s military set a village on fire in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw township and killed two civilians in the evening on September 3, according to Irrawaddy.com
> 
> Troops shelled village Phayapaung on the Yangon-Sittwe road before torching houses and killing two villagers, according to relatives of the victims.
> 
> ‘My son was returning from work in Kyauktaw by bike at around 5:00pm when he encountered Tatmadaw [military] troops. They told him to lead them to the village. An explosion occurred near the village following which the troops attacked,’ said Nyo Maung Hla, father of 27-year-old victim Ko Maung Nyunt Win.
> 
> Military trucks came from the direction of Kyauktaw and surrounded the village. Villagers were told to leave their homes as soldiers looted their belongings before setting their houses ablaze, said Nyo Maung Hla.
> 
> The Bangladesh government on September 13 summoned Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh Aung Kyaw Moe and protested at the visible movement of Myanmar military fishing trawlers at places very close to the border of the two countries.
> 
> Foreign minister director general for Myanmar wing Delwar Hossain confirmed that ambassador Moe was called to the foreign ministry for handing over a diplomatic note protesting against the suspicious movements of Myanmar troops.
> 
> UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on September 14 that recent civilian casualties in Myanmar may amount to ‘further war crimes’ and that three years after an exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, no concrete measures to hold Myanmar accountable had been taken.
> 
> Satellite images and eyewitness accounts indicated that areas of northern Rakhine were burnt in recent months and called for an independent investigation, Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to AFP.
> 
> Bangladesh and Myanmar signed instruments to send some 860,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, to their home in Rakhine, as most of them entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017.
> 
> The latest Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 1.2 million, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BGB on alert
> 
> 
> Myanmar military has resumed crackdown in villages of Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine adjacent to south-eastern border with Bangladesh spreading panic across the Rohingya camps...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.newagebd.net



Hope Myanmar burns and corona take overs for that shit land.

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## The Ronin




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## The Ronin




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## saif

The Ronin said:


>


Aung San Su Kyi is a puppet of Burmese army. She has no power to make decision on her own.


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## The Ronin




----------



## nahtanbob

aziqbal said:


> Rest of the Muslim world is sleeping
> 
> The princes are living in big mansions
> 
> Abandoned their religion and the ummah
> 
> As Pakistani I hope we never abandon our religion and the ummah, if we have a army of 1,000 left still we should fight
> 
> Because Pakistan was a country made for Muslims by Muslims, if there was no Islam we would never have made a Pakistan
> 
> As long as one person stands there is hope, and I hope that change comes from Pakistan only by the will of Allah swt
> 
> Arabs used to look down on Kurds and when Saladin wanted to free Jerusalem they used to laugh, a Kurd freeing the holy lands they used to say
> 
> Saladin wiped out the entire combined army’s of Europe while Arabs watched on
> 
> After 1,000 years everyone knows Saladin no one remembers the caliphs of that time
> 
> It’s happened before and I hope after 1,000 people remember Pakistan



Didn't the dream die partly in 1971 when you could not accomodate East Pakistanis ?


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## SpaceMan18

China decided to help us in this crisis by offering us to return the Royhinga's to Myanmar fully


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## DalalErMaNodi

SpaceMan18 said:


> China decided to help us in this crisis by offering us to return the Royhinga's to Myanmar fully




When ? Where ? 



They have never expressly expressed the above, it's always semantical gymnastics and smoke and mirrors.

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## SpaceMan18

DalalErMaNodi said:


> When ? Where ?
> 
> 
> 
> They have never expressly expressed the above, it's always semantical gymnastics and smoke and mirrors.



Some guy name Hasnat Khan on YouTube just posted a video on it


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## DalalErMaNodi

SpaceMan18 said:


> Some guy name Hasnat Khan on YouTube just posted a video on it





Right, YouTube.

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## Bilal9

2nd batch of Rohingyas transferred to Bhashan Char Island, 1804 souls altogether.









1,804 Rohingyas reach Bhasan Char from Ctg


A total of 1,804 Rohingyas reached Bhasan Char in Hatiya upazila of Noakhali from Chattogram this morning.




www.thedailystar.net


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## fallstuff

DalalErMaNodi said:


> Right, YouTube.



Whats up , you keep going pink !!!


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## DalalErMaNodi

fallstuff said:


> Whats up , you keep going pink !!!




I was spreading awareness about polio eradication and the need to get vaccinated.

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## VikingRaider

So the latest news is the Divine tatmadaw take control of Myanmar.

I am interested to know the feelings of Burmese folks.

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## Shorisrip

Atlas said:


> So the latest news is the Divine tatmadaw take control of Myanmar.
> 
> I am interested to know the feelings of Burmese folks.



Some good news coming from there finally. That Su kyi got paid a visit by Dr. karma. A dictatorship will also lead to harsher reactions from the west, and even some loss of support from fellow authoritarian states. The Rohingya repatriation will likely be delayed (but let's be honest it was going to be delayed anyway).

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## VikingRaider

Shorisrip said:


> Some good news coming from there finally. That Su kyi got paid a visit by Dr. karma. A dictatorship will also lead to harsher reactions from the west, and even some loss of support from fellow authoritarian states. The Rohingya repatriation will likely be delayed (but let's be honest it was going to be delayed anyway).


Agree . But I am wondering how powerful actually Su Kyi was ? I never feel that she held any type of power in her own country , she was always just a puppet of the savage Burmese military, and also sort of hostage.

However I feel that if that's the case ,she at least would raise her voice against the junta , so if she was arrested because of taking Rohingya side , she would get lots of sympathy from Bangladesh and other countries.

But now no one will be sympathetic to her because she openly advocated and justified Rohingya ethnic cleansing.

She justified ethnic cleansing for her power; she had to realize that in Myanmar civil power is actually nothing.

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## Bilal9

Atlas said:


> Agree . But I am wondering how powerful actually Su Kyi was ? I never feel that she held any type of power in her own country , she was always just a puppet of the savage Burmese military, and also sort of hostage.
> 
> However I feel that if that's the case ,she at least would raise her voice against the junta , so if she was arrested because of taking Rohingya side , she would get lots of sympathy from Bangladesh and other countries.
> 
> But now no one will be sympathetic to her because she openly advocated and justified Rohingya ethnic cleansing.
> 
> She justified ethnic cleansing for her power; she had to realize that in Myanmar civil power is actually nothing.



Well guys, the repercussions of the Tatmadaw takeover are starting to take effect, Australia has now cut defence cooperation with Myanmar.

https://www.manisteenews.com/news/a...defense-cooperation-with-Myanmar-16007902.php

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## VikingRaider

Bilal9 said:


> Well guys, the repercussions of the Tatmadaw takeover are starting to take effect, Australia has now cut defence cooperation with Myanmar.
> 
> https://www.manisteenews.com/news/a...defense-cooperation-with-Myanmar-16007902.php



But brother , *west didn't take strong steps against Myanmar* *when su skyi was in power* .

So I think if now they are taking action against Myanmar, that's actually *neither* for us ,*nor* for Rohingyas ,but for their ( western block ) own interest.

Now let's see if Myanmar junta want Rohingya repatriation or not.

I think this military takeover is actually a new cold war between China and western block, as China is supporting military takeover and west is not, because west can't use this junta against China.

Su Kyi was responsible for the Rohingya issue and now if Myanmar junta want to take them back , I think west will create an issue to *prevent Rohingya repatriation*, not sure though.

*Zodi* tara seta kore ,koushole korbe. Zeno dekhe mone hoy ze Tara Rohingya punorbason chay ,tobe vitore vitore ulta chal dibe ,zemon India dicche amader desher vitor. This is called "সর্প হইয়া কাটো তুমি, ওঝা হইয়া ঝাড়ো" .

Bhaijan apni obosshoi bujhen ze paka kheloyar ra evabei khele , etake bola hoy *idur biral* khela ( tom and jerry game).

It's also time for us to observe closely, and perhaps it's time to join Chinese block at least secretely.

I am sure now west is playing trick because they lost control over democratic govt of Myanmar ,so can no longer use Myanmar against China.

Now only time will tell what's going to happen.

I believe ( since few days) Bangladesh is closely observing it.

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## Bilal9

Atlas said:


> But brother , *west didn't take strong steps against Myanmar* *when su skyi was in power* .
> 
> So I think if now they are taking action against Myanmar, that's actually *neither* for us ,not for Rohingyas ,but for their ( western block ) own interest.
> 
> Now let's see if Myanmar junta want Rohingya repatriation or not.
> 
> I think this military takeover is actually a new cold war between China and western block, as China is supporting military takeover and west is not, because west can't use this junta against China.
> 
> Su Kyi was responsible for the Rohingya issue and now if Myanmar junta want to take them back , I think west will create an issue to *prevent Rohingya repatriation*, not sure though.
> 
> *Zodi* tara seta kore ,koushole korbe. Zeno dekhe mone hoy ze Tara Rohingya punorbason chay ,tobe vitore vitore ulta chal dibe ,zemon India dicche amader desher vitor. This is called "সর্প হইয়া কাটো তুমি, ওঝা হইয়া ঝাড়ো" .
> 
> Bhaijan apni obosshoi bujhen ze paka kheloyar ra evabei khele , etake bola hoy *idur biral* khela ( tom and jerry game).
> 
> It's also time for us to observe closely, and perhaps it's time to join Chinese block at least secretely.
> 
> I am sure now west is playing trick because they lost control over democratic govt of Myanmar ,so can no longer use Myanmar against China.
> 
> Now only time will tell what's going to happen.
> 
> I believe ( since few days) Bangladesh is closely observing it.



All valid points of course. But like you said let's see what happens.

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## Shorisrip

Things are getting really feisty in Myanmar. The coup has been positive for Bangladesh so far, no matter how you look at it. If the Junta prevails and manages to hold onto power, then it'll become an isolated pariah state again, possibly met with severe economic sanctions and military embargos again. If the democratic forces prevail, then due to loss in public trust in the military, a) the military infrastructure, expenditure and overall power will be severely curtailed and/or b) the military will be heavily restructured, effectively losing the least bit of "effectiveness" it had. Additionally, it looks like if the democratic movement holds out, future Burma will be federal, and may even see the creation of 'Rohang' state, modelled on the erstwhile Mayu Frontier District for the Rohingyas. The recent burning down of Chinese factories is the most important aspect. The military is blaming the protesters while those protesting blaming the junta. Ultimately, even China and Russia will have to cave in if atrocities continue.

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## Shorisrip

Read the comments, didn't know we were so xenophobic. Rohingya repatriation is definitely a concern of course.

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## shanlung

Something I got from my WhatsApp that will give folks here food for thought.

WHY THE UIGHURS AND ROHINGYAS

By Norman Fernandez.

Here’s just a short post.

In China, there are 10 ethnic Muslim Minorities and in descending order they are:-
1. Hui
2. Uighur
3. Kazakh
4. Dongxiang
5. Kyrgyz
6. Salar
7. Tazik
8. Uzbek
9. Bonam
10. Tatar.

Only the Uighurs are a problem. Why? Because they are in truth fighting a separatist war. The Western countries are encouraging a separatist war claiming that the Uighurs are facing religious persecution and the Western countries are fighting hard to see a breakup of China.

The Western countries are hoping that should the Uighurs, get a separate country, all the other ethnic groups( probably with the exception of Hui Muslims) will also start demanding for a separate country.

So if anyone claim that the Uighurs are discriminated and persecuted, ask why the other nine are not discriminated or persecuted. None of the other nine ethnic Muslim groups are engaged in any conflict or war with the Chinese government.

It’s just like the same in Myanmar. There are:-
1. Rohingyas ( Muslims tracing the ancestry to Bangladesh or rightfully referred as Benggali Muslims)
2. Panthays ( Burmese Chinese Muslims)
3. Pishus ( Muslims of Malay ancestry)
5. Zerbadi Muslims ( community descended from marriage between Indian-Muslim males and Burmese females). Incidentally, they are the largest ethnic Muslim group in Myanmar and form half of the total Muslim population.

In Myanmar, only the Rohingya Muslims claim that they are being discriminated and persecuted. Why? Because, only Rohingya Muslims have been fighting for a separate state. First, they wanted their Rakhine region to separate and join Bangladesh and when that failed, the Rohingyas began demanding a separate state. The atrocities of the Rohingyas against the Burmese and Buddhist are well documented. Once again, the Western powers are hard at work, trying to break up Myanmar.

So, if anyone claims that the Rohingyas are being discriminated and persecuted, why the other three are not being discriminated or persecuted.

(normanfernandez)


----------



## X-ray Papa

shanlung said:


> Something I got from my WhatsApp that will give folks here food for thought.
> 
> WHY THE UIGHURS AND ROHINGYAS
> 
> By Norman Fernandez.
> 
> Here’s just a short post.
> 
> In China, there are 10 ethnic Muslim Minorities and in descending order they are:-
> 1. Hui
> 2. Uighur
> 3. Kazakh
> 4. Dongxiang
> 5. Kyrgyz
> 6. Salar
> 7. Tazik
> 8. Uzbek
> 9. Bonam
> 10. Tatar.
> 
> Only the Uighurs are a problem. Why? Because they are in truth fighting a separatist war. The Western countries are encouraging a separatist war claiming that the Uighurs are facing religious persecution and the Western countries are fighting hard to see a breakup of China.
> 
> The Western countries are hoping that should the Uighurs, get a separate country, all the other ethnic groups( probably with the exception of Hui Muslims) will also start demanding for a separate country.
> 
> So if anyone claim that the Uighurs are discriminated and persecuted, ask why the other nine are not discriminated or persecuted. None of the other nine ethnic Muslim groups are engaged in any conflict or war with the Chinese government.
> 
> It’s just like the same in Myanmar. There are:-
> 1. Rohingyas ( Muslims tracing the ancestry to Bangladesh or rightfully referred as Benggali Muslims)
> 2. Panthays ( Burmese Chinese Muslims)
> 3. Pishus ( Muslims of Malay ancestry)
> 5. Zerbadi Muslims ( community descended from marriage between Indian-Muslim males and Burmese females). Incidentally, they are the largest ethnic Muslim group in Myanmar and form half of the total Muslim population.
> 
> In Myanmar, only the Rohingya Muslims claim that they are being discriminated and persecuted. Why? Because, only Rohingya Muslims have been fighting for a separate state. First, they wanted their Rakhine region to separate and join Bangladesh and when that failed, the Rohingyas began demanding a separate state. The atrocities of the Rohingyas against the Burmese and Buddhist are well documented. Once again, the Western powers are hard at work, trying to break up Myanmar.
> 
> So, if anyone claims that the Rohingyas are being discriminated and persecuted, why the other three are not being discriminated or persecuted.
> 
> (normanfernandez)


So what, 
does it means it ok to burn their homes and kill them?


----------



## shanlung

X-ray Papa said:


> So what,
> does it means it ok to burn their homes and kill them?




You tell me! since you believe yourself to be so full of compassion and brilliance


----------



## SpaceMan18

shanlung said:


> Something I got from my WhatsApp that will give folks here food for thought.
> 
> WHY THE UIGHURS AND ROHINGYAS
> 
> By Norman Fernandez.
> 
> Here’s just a short post.
> 
> In China, there are 10 ethnic Muslim Minorities and in descending order they are:-
> 1. Hui
> 2. Uighur
> 3. Kazakh
> 4. Dongxiang
> 5. Kyrgyz
> 6. Salar
> 7. Tazik
> 8. Uzbek
> 9. Bonam
> 10. Tatar.
> 
> Only the Uighurs are a problem. Why? Because they are in truth fighting a separatist war. The Western countries are encouraging a separatist war claiming that the Uighurs are facing religious persecution and the Western countries are fighting hard to see a breakup of China.
> 
> The Western countries are hoping that should the Uighurs, get a separate country, all the other ethnic groups( probably with the exception of Hui Muslims) will also start demanding for a separate country.
> 
> So if anyone claim that the Uighurs are discriminated and persecuted, ask why the other nine are not discriminated or persecuted. None of the other nine ethnic Muslim groups are engaged in any conflict or war with the Chinese government.
> 
> It’s just like the same in Myanmar. There are:-
> 1. Rohingyas ( Muslims tracing the ancestry to Bangladesh or rightfully referred as Benggali Muslims)
> 2. Panthays ( Burmese Chinese Muslims)
> 3. Pishus ( Muslims of Malay ancestry)
> 5. Zerbadi Muslims ( community descended from marriage between Indian-Muslim males and Burmese females). Incidentally, they are the largest ethnic Muslim group in Myanmar and form half of the total Muslim population.
> 
> In Myanmar, only the Rohingya Muslims claim that they are being discriminated and persecuted. Why? Because, only Rohingya Muslims have been fighting for a separate state. First, they wanted their Rakhine region to separate and join Bangladesh and when that failed, the Rohingyas began demanding a separate state. The atrocities of the Rohingyas against the Burmese and Buddhist are well documented. Once again, the Western powers are hard at work, trying to break up Myanmar.
> 
> So, if anyone claims that the Rohingyas are being discriminated and persecuted, why the other three are not being discriminated or persecuted.
> 
> (normanfernandez)



Good , if Myanmar breaks up at least the government will learn a hard lesson not to mess around


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## X-ray Papa

shanlung said:


> You tell me! since you believe yourself to be so full of compassion and brilliance


With that mindset, lets not complain about the world.


----------



## Shorisrip

shanlung said:


> Something I got from my WhatsApp that will give folks here food for thought.
> 
> WHY THE UIGHURS AND ROHINGYAS
> 
> By Norman Fernandez.
> 
> Here’s just a short post.
> 
> In China, there are 10 ethnic Muslim Minorities and in descending order they are:-
> 1. Hui
> 2. Uighur
> 3. Kazakh
> 4. Dongxiang
> 5. Kyrgyz
> 6. Salar
> 7. Tazik
> 8. Uzbek
> 9. Bonam
> 10. Tatar.
> 
> Only the Uighurs are a problem. Why? Because they are in truth fighting a separatist war. The Western countries are encouraging a separatist war claiming that the Uighurs are facing religious persecution and the Western countries are fighting hard to see a breakup of China.
> 
> The Western countries are hoping that should the Uighurs, get a separate country, all the other ethnic groups( probably with the exception of Hui Muslims) will also start demanding for a separate country.
> 
> So if anyone claim that the Uighurs are discriminated and persecuted, ask why the other nine are not discriminated or persecuted. None of the other nine ethnic Muslim groups are engaged in any conflict or war with the Chinese government.
> 
> It’s just like the same in Myanmar. There are:-
> 1. Rohingyas ( Muslims tracing the ancestry to Bangladesh or rightfully referred as Benggali Muslims)
> 2. Panthays ( Burmese Chinese Muslims)
> 3. Pishus ( Muslims of Malay ancestry)
> 5. Zerbadi Muslims ( community descended from marriage between Indian-Muslim males and Burmese females). Incidentally, they are the largest ethnic Muslim group in Myanmar and form half of the total Muslim population.
> 
> In Myanmar, only the Rohingya Muslims claim that they are being discriminated and persecuted. Why? Because, only Rohingya Muslims have been fighting for a separate state. First, they wanted their Rakhine region to separate and join Bangladesh and when that failed, the Rohingyas began demanding a separate state. The atrocities of the Rohingyas against the Burmese and Buddhist are well documented. Once again, the Western powers are hard at work, trying to break up Myanmar.
> 
> So, if anyone claims that the Rohingyas are being discriminated and persecuted, why the other three are not being discriminated or persecuted.
> 
> (normanfernandez)



In Myanmar, everyone but the Bamars have been literally waging wars (from Karens to Kachins to Shan to Rakhine to Wa to Chin etc) against the state. The country has been literally embroiled in civil war since World war 2 and has not seen a moment of peace since. IDK if that's normal in your country, but from where I come from, we call those failed states.

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## SpaceMan18

Video shows massive fire sweeping through Rohingya camp in Bangladesh


The giant blaze destroyed thousands of homes and killed several people, officials and witnesses said.




www.nbcnews.com





Hmmmm


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## Shorisrip

Not a bad interview, especially coming from Momen.

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## F-6 enthusiast

*Allegations *MyAF conducting Airstrikes on Karen using Thai Airspace.


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## Bilal9

The NUG’s Rohingya policy: ‘Campaign statement’ or genuine reform?


The National Unity Government’s plan to end discrimination against the Rohingya and replace the 1982 Citizenship Law could face opposition from among its own supporters – if the parallel government gets the chance to implement it.




www.frontiermyanmar.net


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## Bilal9

Rohingyas have been given training and seeds to produce their own fruits and vegetables using the land in the refugee camps. They can eat the produce and even make money selling the produce to nearby kitchen markets in Bangladesh/

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## F-6 enthusiast

Look at the state of these losers 

Burma Army Uses Farmers As Human Shields In Pekon Township - Shan Herald Agency for News (shannews.org) 

This is what they learnt in training ? 



@DalalErMaNodi @ghost250 @Atlas these will take on BA ?


----------



## Maula Jatt

Bradman said:


> Corrupt Bangladeshi officials issued Bangladeshi passport to 54,000 Rohingya refugees.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why Bangladesh is in a fix over Rohingya repatriation – DW – 01/15/2021
> 
> 
> Riyadh has urged Bangladesh to take back some 54,000 Rohingya that are currently in Saudi Arabia. But agreeing to this would complicate Bangladesh's Rohingya repatriation talks with Myanmar.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.dw.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Bangladesh seeks Saudi Arabia's help in repatriation of Rohingya
> 
> 
> Bangladesh has sought the cooperation of Saudi Arabia for a sustainable repatriation of Rohingya Muslims to their home country, Myanmar, reports Anadolu Agency. Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A. K. A...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.middleeastmonitor.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Issue passports to Rohingya or face 'consequences', says Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh
> 
> 
> Saudi Arabia has asked Bangladesh to either issue passports to Rohingya or face ''consequences''. For Riyadh, the Rohingya refugees on the Saudi soil are still ‘undesirables,’ a burden to be dumped on Bangladesh. The move comes amid rising concerns that their welcome in Saudi Arabia may have...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.wionews.com


Lol same happened to Afghans here 

Now there's no way to tell who is a pakistani and who is an Afghan


----------



## F-6 enthusiast

Things are not looking good for myanmar

anyway here's part 3 @DalalErMaNodi @ghost250 @Atlas

Myanmar guerillas capture army base as government-in-exile calls for direct engagement with ASEAN - ABC News

Rockets fired at two Myanmar air bases | The West Australian






Myanmar Junta Troops Die in Chin State Clashes (irrawaddy.com)

Chin Resistance Fighters Kill Nine Myanmar Junta Soldiers (irrawaddy.com)

Bomb Blast in Pyinmana Injures Myanmar Junta Policeman (irrawaddy.com)

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## VikingRaider

F-6 enthusiast said:


> Things are not looking good for myanmar
> 
> anyway here's part 3 @DalalErMaNodi @ghost250 @Atlas
> 
> Myanmar guerillas capture army base as government-in-exile calls for direct engagement with ASEAN - ABC News
> 
> Rockets fired at two Myanmar air bases | The West Australian
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Myanmar Junta Troops Die in Chin State Clashes (irrawaddy.com)
> 
> Chin Resistance Fighters Kill Nine Myanmar Junta Soldiers (irrawaddy.com)
> 
> Bomb Blast in Pyinmana Injures Myanmar Junta Policeman (irrawaddy.com)


Zoto paren part by part dite thaken bhai. Pore kaje lagbe .

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## Avicenna

Bradman said:


> Bangladesh will pay hefty price for sheltering Rohingya. Here is what Pakistan is paying price for sheltering Afghan terrorist. China will soon pay price for shaking hands with Taliban. Taliban and Rohingya's are freind to none and malice to all.



Fook off.

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## F-6 enthusiast

Atlas said:


> Zoto paren part by part dite thaken bhai. Pore kaje lagbe .


thik ase bhai
*Over 1,700 Myanmar Junta Soldiers Killed in Past Three Months, Civilian Govt Says (irrawaddy.com)*

wonder what happened to the Burmese members who used to threaten BD ?
1. Some of them probably displaced , no internet ? ( they can find refuge in Rohingya camps in BD)
2. Some of them probably playing realistic call of duty (on both sides) after being conscripted.

Another day in failed states. @Michael Corleone


Tara naki BA shathe fight korbe @Atlas ? Burma Army Uses Farmers As Human Shields In Pekon Township - Shan Herald Agency for News (shannews.org)

Hotath kore chup hoye gelo tara . Kono awaj nai ? ki bepar ?

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## Michael Corleone

F-6 enthusiast said:


> thik ase bhai
> *Over 1,700 Myanmar Junta Soldiers Killed in Past Three Months, Civilian Govt Says (irrawaddy.com)*
> 
> wonder what happened to the Burmese members who used to threaten BD ?
> 1. Some of them probably displaced , no internet ? ( they can find refuge in Rohingya camps in BD)
> 2. Some of them probably playing realistic call of duty (on both sides) after being conscripted.
> 
> Another day in failed states. @Michael Corleone
> 
> 
> Tara naki BA shathe fight korbe @Atlas ? Burma Army Uses Farmers As Human Shields In Pekon Township - Shan Herald Agency for News (shannews.org)
> 
> Hotath kore chup hoye gelo tara . Kono awaj nai ? ki bepar ?


Probably busy running away from getting bombed 😂

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## Bilal9

These uneducated Rohingya idiots are going to become a bigger headache than they are now. They are sitting around getting housed, clothed and fed, and they still want more. Now they are running away from the Island.









9 Rohingyas fleeing Bhashan Char detained in Mirsharai


Among those fleeing three were children




www.dhakatribune.com













Police detain 19 Rohingyas in Chittagong


They had run away from Bhashan Char to go to the Rohingya camp in Teknaf




www.dhakatribune.com


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## Bilal9

https://www.dhakatribune.com/southe...ses-excluding-myanmar-junta-chief-from-summit

*ASEAN discusses excluding Myanmar junta chief from summit*

Published at 03:34 pm October 6th, 2021





Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing delivers his speech at the IX Moscow conference on international security in Moscow on June 23, 2021 *Reuters*

Over 1,100 people have been killed since the coup, according to UN, many during a crackdown by security forces on pro-democracy strikes and protests.

Southeast Asian countries are discussing not inviting the head of Myanmar's junta to a summit later this month, due to a lack of progress on an agreed roadmap to restore peace in the strife-torn country, a regional envoy said on Wednesday.

The junta's inaction on a five-point plan it agreed in April with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was "tantamount to backtracking," Erywan Yusof, the bloc's special envoy to Myanmar, told a news conference.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since a February 1 coup led by military chief Min Aung Hlaing that ended a decade of tentative democracy and the return of military rule has prompted outrage at home and abroad.

Erywan, the second foreign minister of Asean chair Brunei, said the bloc was in "deep in discussions" about not inviting the junta to participate in a virtual summit on October 26-28, after the issue was raised by Malaysia and some other member countries.

"Up until today there has been no progress on the implementation of the five-point consensus, and this has raised a concern," Erywan said.

Myanmar junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not respond to calls from Reuters on Wednesday. Last week he told a news conference that Myanmar was cooperating with Asean "without compromising the country's sovereignty."

The bloc's effort to engage with Myanmar's military has been criticised by supporters of democracy, with a committee of ousted Myanmar lawmakers declaring the junta a terrorist group and saying Asean's engagement would give it legitimacy.

Still, excluding a leader from the summit would be a big step for Asean, which operates under consensus decision-making principles and prefers engagement, rather than confrontation, with member countries.

Erywan said the junta had not directly responded to his requests to meet detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was overthrown in the coup.

He added that he had proposed a programme for his visit to Myanmar to the military appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin last week, but the junta has not yet responded.
A source close to the Malaysian government said the Asean envoy was unlikely to visit Myanmar before the summit as the bloc had initially targeted.

More than 1,100 people have been killed since the coup, according to the United Nations, many during a crackdown by security forces on pro-democracy strikes and protests, during which thousands have been arrested. The junta says that estimate is exaggerated and members of its security forces have also been killed.

The Asean roadmap included a commitment to dialogue with all parties, allowing humanitarian access and ceasing hostilities.

Myanmar's long history of military dictatorship and alleged human rights abuses has been Asean's most tricky issue, testing the limits of its unity and its policy of non-interference.

But the foreign ministers meeting virtually on Monday voiced disappointment about the lack of progress made by the State Administrative Council (SAC), as Myanmar's junta is known.
On Monday, Malaysia's top diplomat Saifuddin Abdullah on Twitter said that without progress, "it would be difficult to have the chairman of the SAC at the Asean summit."

He reiterated this stance in parliament on Wednesday and said the ASEAN envoy was doing "whatever is humanly possible" to make progress on the roadmap.

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## Shorisrip

Interview with ARSA chief Ataullah. Rohingyas would have more support from the people in Bangladesh if they were to identify as a Bengali subgroup. You can be both Bengali and have civil rights in another state. We Chatgaiyas are historically the same as Rohingyas except we have fallen under the Bengali identity forever while Rohingyas being located in the fringes of Bengal have not been under the influence of the Bengali identity when ideas of nationalism were solidified in this region (late 19th to early 20th centuries). LARPing as descendants of seafaring Arabs is laughable. If Myanmar ever comes under a democratic government, a future Rohingya autonomous region comprised of the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung needs to be established as in the erstwhile Mayu Frontier District.

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## Bilal9

Bilal9 said:


> https://www.dhakatribune.com/southe...ses-excluding-myanmar-junta-chief-from-summit
> 
> *ASEAN discusses excluding Myanmar junta chief from summit*
> 
> Published at 03:34 pm October 6th, 2021
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing delivers his speech at the IX Moscow conference on international security in Moscow on June 23, 2021 *Reuters*
> 
> Over 1,100 people have been killed since the coup, according to UN, many during a crackdown by security forces on pro-democracy strikes and protests.
> 
> Southeast Asian countries are discussing not inviting the head of Myanmar's junta to a summit later this month, due to a lack of progress on an agreed roadmap to restore peace in the strife-torn country, a regional envoy said on Wednesday.
> 
> The junta's inaction on a five-point plan it agreed in April with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was "tantamount to backtracking," Erywan Yusof, the bloc's special envoy to Myanmar, told a news conference.
> 
> Myanmar has been in turmoil since a February 1 coup led by military chief Min Aung Hlaing that ended a decade of tentative democracy and the return of military rule has prompted outrage at home and abroad.
> 
> Erywan, the second foreign minister of Asean chair Brunei, said the bloc was in "deep in discussions" about not inviting the junta to participate in a virtual summit on October 26-28, after the issue was raised by Malaysia and some other member countries.
> 
> "Up until today there has been no progress on the implementation of the five-point consensus, and this has raised a concern," Erywan said.
> 
> Myanmar junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not respond to calls from Reuters on Wednesday. Last week he told a news conference that Myanmar was cooperating with Asean "without compromising the country's sovereignty."
> 
> The bloc's effort to engage with Myanmar's military has been criticised by supporters of democracy, with a committee of ousted Myanmar lawmakers declaring the junta a terrorist group and saying Asean's engagement would give it legitimacy.
> 
> Still, excluding a leader from the summit would be a big step for Asean, which operates under consensus decision-making principles and prefers engagement, rather than confrontation, with member countries.
> 
> Erywan said the junta had not directly responded to his requests to meet detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was overthrown in the coup.
> 
> He added that he had proposed a programme for his visit to Myanmar to the military appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin last week, but the junta has not yet responded.
> A source close to the Malaysian government said the Asean envoy was unlikely to visit Myanmar before the summit as the bloc had initially targeted.
> 
> More than 1,100 people have been killed since the coup, according to the United Nations, many during a crackdown by security forces on pro-democracy strikes and protests, during which thousands have been arrested. The junta says that estimate is exaggerated and members of its security forces have also been killed.
> 
> The Asean roadmap included a commitment to dialogue with all parties, allowing humanitarian access and ceasing hostilities.
> 
> Myanmar's long history of military dictatorship and alleged human rights abuses has been Asean's most tricky issue, testing the limits of its unity and its policy of non-interference.
> 
> But the foreign ministers meeting virtually on Monday voiced disappointment about the lack of progress made by the State Administrative Council (SAC), as Myanmar's junta is known.
> On Monday, Malaysia's top diplomat Saifuddin Abdullah on Twitter said that without progress, "it would be difficult to have the chairman of the SAC at the Asean summit."
> 
> He reiterated this stance in parliament on Wednesday and said the ASEAN envoy was doing "whatever is humanly possible" to make progress on the roadmap.



ASEAN countries as a group don't know when to give up.

These selfish Myanmarese junta idiots (only intent on keeping their status quo meaning personal fortunes and looting opportunity) will never prioritize loosening their grip on Myanmar politics to let Myanmarese improve their economy in a normalized environment.

Meanwhile idiots like people from Singapore and other parts of Asia investing in Myanmar stand to lose their existing investments further as Myanmar devolves into the hopeless Banana republic situation, "circling the drain" deeper into crisis. Better sell out and get out while you still can.

At some point sanctions will extend to stuff made or assembled in Myanmar.

Unless ASEAN politicians distance themselves from these junta murderers - they themselves will be complicit with these Junta people for war crimes.




Shorisrip said:


> Interview with ARSA chief Ataullah. Rohingyas would have more support from the people in Bangladesh if they were to identify as a Bengali subgroup. You can be both Bengali and have civil rights in another state. We Chatgaiyas are historically the same as Rohingyas except we have fallen under the Bengali identity forever while Rohingyas being located in the fringes of Bengal have not been under the influence of the Bengali identity when ideas of nationalism were solidified in this region (late 19th to early 20th centuries). LARPing as descendants of seafaring Arabs is laughable. If Myanmar ever comes under a democratic government, a future Rohingya autonomous region comprised of the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung needs to be established as in the erstwhile Mayu Frontier District.



He looks like Che Guevara in the new age. Should get a floppy hat like Che....

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## Zabaniyah

Shorisrip said:


> Interview with ARSA chief Ataullah. Rohingyas would have more support from the people in Bangladesh if they were to identify as a Bengali subgroup. You can be both Bengali and have civil rights in another state. We Chatgaiyas are historically the same as Rohingyas except we have fallen under the Bengali identity forever while Rohingyas being located in the fringes of Bengal have not been under the influence of the Bengali identity when ideas of nationalism were solidified in this region (late 19th to early 20th centuries). LARPing as descendants of seafaring Arabs is laughable. If Myanmar ever comes under a democratic government, a future Rohingya autonomous region comprised of the townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung needs to be established as in the erstwhile Mayu Frontier District.



While they may look similar to us, the Rohingyas are culturally very distinct from Bengalis (Chittagongians included). Even their names are very different and speak a raspy accent and they do speak and write their language.

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## Shorisrip

Zabaniyah said:


> While they may look similar to us, the Rohingyas are culturally very distinct from Bengalis (Chittagongians included). Even their names are very different and speak a raspy accent and they do speak and write their language.



True to some extent but this is due to being outside of the grasp of Bengal since the 19th or so century. I can understand their language very clearly but of course there's a very slight difference and they use a lot of Burmese and more Arabic words than Chittagonian speakers by far. I've asked some relatives if they understand online Rohingya news and they do as well. But, keep in mind that the Chittagonian from Chittagong district proper and Cox's Bazar also has some dialectal variation (the latter being more singy-songy and people from rural parts all over also use excessive Persian/Arabic words not used nowadays by city dwellers). People in Chittagong used the Arabic script in the past to write Chittagonian (though most literature was done in Bangla proper and Persian) as well. It's a fact of being on the periphery of the Bengali culture and literary movement, that a new identity has been invented. This is in no way saying that they aren't native to the region or deserve any rights however.


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## Zabaniyah

Shorisrip said:


> True to some extent but this is due to being outside of the grasp of Bengal since the 19th or so century. I can understand their language very clearly but of course there's a very slight difference and they use a lot of Burmese and more Arabic words than Chittagonian speakers by far. I've asked some relatives if they understand online Rohingya news and they do as well. But, keep in mind that the Chittagonian from Chittagong district proper and Cox's Bazar also has some dialectal variation (the latter being more singy-songy and people from rural parts all over also use excessive Persian/Arabic words not used nowadays by city dwellers). People in Chittagong used the Arabic script in the past to write Chittagonian (though most literature was done in Bangla proper and Persian) as well. It's a fact of being on the periphery of the Bengali culture and literary movement, that a new identity has been invented. This is in no way saying that they aren't native to the region or deserve any rights however.



I recently visited the delightful beaches of Cox's Bazar. The roadside seafood was delightful too. I have noticed a different dialect in Cox's Bazar from that of Chittagong. No doubt, we do have cultural links with the Rohingyas. They are that missing link we were yearning for. If anything, the Muslim League failed to represent Muslims fully in the sub-continent.

It is a shame that millennial Bangladeshis and even older ones today view them with such disdain and apathy. Too often we become the very things we struggle against. That is the attitude that must be overcome.

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## rainbowrascal



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## Bilal9

Zabaniyah said:


> While they may look similar to us, the Rohingyas are culturally very distinct from Bengalis (Chittagongians included). Even their names are very different and speak a raspy accent and they do speak and write their language.



I wonder if they can write Bangla - most of them probably not. Their alphabet is based on Arabic or more recently, Latin characters.








rainbowrascal said:


> View attachment 840266



This is not going to go well if true. This could also be anti-Rohingya propaganda by Indian sources or their shills in Bangladesh. Another shanti Bahini stuff in the making - Thanks Modi.

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## Bilal9

How Rohingya issue could cause far bigger problems in Bangladesh. Good discussion but in Bengali only. Too alarmist? You decide.

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## Shorisrip

Bilal9 said:


> How Rohingya issue could cause far bigger problems in Bangladesh. Good discussion but in Bengali only. Too alarmist? You decide.



The second guy doesn't know anything about history. This rhetoric is definitely too alarmist. The Myanmar junta government did send Rohingyas here to never take them back but our government has to actively pressure them to repatriate them. The economic difference between the two countries is only likely to grow within the next decade, and with it the Bangladesh's military capability too. If all diplomatic means fail, the military option is also available. Aside from the daunting Naf river crossing, we are at an advantage tactically due to a variety of reasons in the North Arakan area.

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## UKBengali

Shorisrip said:


> The second guy doesn't know anything about history. This rhetoric is definitely too alarmist. The Myanmar junta government did send Rohingyas here to never take them back but our government has to actively pressure them to repatriate them. The economic difference between the two countries is only likely to grow within the next decade, and with it the Bangladesh's military capability too. If all diplomatic means fail, the military option is also available. Aside from the daunting Naf river crossing, we are at an advantage tactically due to a variety of reasons in the North Arakan area.





Yes, I think the only thing that will solve this is BD actively telling Myanmar that it will occupy North Arakhan to allow the Rohingyas to return to their lands, unless the Barmans take them back and guarantee their safety and security.

I somehow think that BD may in the end will end up occupying that area and de-facto annexing it without saying it publicly. Barmans are beyond reason and logic it seems.

Time is on BD's side and it is an overwhelming more powerful state than Mynamar and so can impose its will on it.

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## Bilal9

"Gaye manena apni morol" attitude of Indian Bengali media getting involved in Rohingya issue (when we all know Indian govt. is more or less strategically behind the whole Rohingya debacle by their tacit support of the Tatmadaw).


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## nahtanbob

Shorisrip said:


> The second guy doesn't know anything about history. This rhetoric is definitely too alarmist. The Myanmar junta government did send Rohingyas here to never take them back but our government has to actively pressure them to repatriate them. The economic difference between the two countries is only likely to grow within the next decade, and with it the Bangladesh's military capability too. If all diplomatic means fail, the military option is also available. Aside from the daunting Naf river crossing, we are at an advantage tactically due to a variety of reasons in the North Arakan area.


India and China will not allow the military option. Move on dude



Bilal9 said:


> ASEAN countries as a group don't know when to give up.
> 
> These selfish Myanmarese junta idiots (only intent on keeping their status quo meaning personal fortunes and looting opportunity) will never prioritize loosening their grip on Myanmar politics to let Myanmarese improve their economy in a normalized environment.
> 
> Meanwhile idiots like people from Singapore and other parts of Asia investing in Myanmar stand to lose their existing investments further as Myanmar devolves into the hopeless Banana republic situation, "circling the drain" deeper into crisis. Better sell out and get out while you still can.
> 
> At some point sanctions will extend to stuff made or assembled in Myanmar.
> 
> Unless ASEAN politicians distance themselves from these junta murderers - they themselves will be complicit with these Junta people for war crimes.



ASEAN is intact precisely because they do not interfere in each other affairs


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## Bilal9

FM says Rohingyas are going back after Bangladesh involved Chinese Ambassador. No date set yet - don't get your hopes up too soon but Myanmar Junta is "ready in principle" to take back its citizens. Good discussions but in Bengali only.

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## Bilal9




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## Bilal9

Bangladesh-MyanmarPhoto: Collected BGB-BGP flag meeting
Bangladesh protests strongly at flag meeting, Myanmar expressed sorrow​Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 31 Oct 2022, 01:49 pm

#BangladeshMyanmar, #BangladeshMyanmarBorder, #MyanmarConflict, #BGB, #BGPMyanmar

Own Correspondent, Dhaka, Oct 31: A flag meeting was held at the level of the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) and Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) captains at Teknaf in Cox's Bazar. At this time, the battalion commander of the country's border guard force (BGP) expressed sorrow over the recent incidents including the firing of mortal shells and bullets on the Bangladesh border amid the ongoing conflict inside Myanmar.

BGB Ramu Sector Commander Col. Md. Azizur Rauf said this at a press conference on Sunday (October 30) afternoon. The meeting was held at the captain's level at Southern Point, adjacent to Shahparirdwip BOP, Teknaf from 10 am to 3:30 pm.

In the meeting, Teknaf 2 BGB Battalion Captain Lt. Col. Sheikh Khalid Mohammad Iftekhar led seven delegations on behalf of Bangladesh and seven BGP delegations were led by No. 1 Border Guard Police Branch, Pien Fur Police Lt. Col. Yee Wai Sho.

Ramu Sector Commander Azizur Rauf said that besides the situation arising in the border area of Bangladesh-Myanmar, there was a fruitful discussion about the illegal infiltration of the country's citizens and the prevention of drug trafficking in the flag meeting. Mutual communication between the border security forces of the two friendly nations is emphasized for taking necessary steps in the future to create an atmosphere of trust and interdependence.

He also said that the head of the Bangladesh delegation expressed strong protest in the meeting regarding the flight of Myanmar security forces' helicopters over the border area of Bangladesh-Myanmar, the firing of small arms and heavy weapons in the border area, and damage to property. BGP has been called upon to maintain a peaceful stand on the border, to ensure that there are no future firings inside Bangladesh due to the ongoing conflict as a result of internal strife in Myanmar. The BGP delegation expressed formal sorrow over the recent incidents on the border.

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## bluesky

Bilal9 said:


> Bangladesh-MyanmarPhoto: Collected BGB-BGP flag meeting
> Bangladesh protests strongly at flag meeting, Myanmar expressed sorrow​


I think the Myanmar Army was fighting against the Arakan Army troops and a few shells and bullets crossed the border and landed in the BD land.

This panicked us. Now, the MM govt has clarified its position and I think the cloud of doubts has moved away. MM has no reason to invade BD.

However, BD must press for the Rohingya to return to their homes in Arakan.

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