Canada imposes sanctions on Myanmar general

[Homo Sapiens]

News
Canada imposes sanctions on Myanmar general
By Janice Dickson. Published on Feb 16, 2018 3:50pm

Mohsena Begum, a Rohingya who escaped to Bangladesh from Myanmar, holds her child and sits at the entrance of a room of an unregistered refugee camp in Teknaf, Dec. 2, 2016. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad, File)
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Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Friday that the federal government has imposed sanctions against a high-ranking Myanmar general for his role in committing atrocities against the Rohingya people.

The sanctions target Major-General Maung Maung Soe, under Canada’s new foreign human rights legislation, the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act.

“Canada will not stand by silently as crimes against humanity are committed against the Rohingya,” said Freeland in a statement.

“We stand in solidarity with the Rohingya people and other ethnic minorities as they struggle to see their rights respected. Myanmar’s military and civilian leaders have an obligation to respect the human rights of all people and those responsible for these atrocities must be held to account,” said Freeland.

According to a United Nations estimate, 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since August 25. The Myanmar military has been accused of raping Rohingya people and burning their homes, forcing thousands to brave the elements in their flight to safety in Bangladesh.

“The [general] is in the opinion of the Governor in Council, responsible for, or complicit in, gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State,” said a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada.

The new human rights legislation is also known the Sergei Magnitsky Law, which was named after a young Russian tax accountant who was jailed, tortured and died in prison after exposing government officials who were involved in a massive tax scheme. The law passed in October, 2017, and just one month later the government slapped sanctions against fifty-two high-ranking officials from South Sudan, Venezuela and Russia.

While imposing sanctions against the Myanmar general is a good first step, it doesn’t go far enough, according to a Rohingya human rights activist Fareed Khan.

Khan said members of the Rohingya Human Rights Network are calling for strong and decisive action from the government that goes beyond targeting one person.

“There’s a network of military leaders who have been either directly involved or were in some way complicit. We are calling for targeted sanctions against, not only military leaders, but their families as well.”

Khan would also like to see sanctions imposed against the military’s leader Min Aung Hlaing.

“I’d like the prime minister to move beyond this first step and start targeting the military leader and start taking action on the international stage and create a safe space for the Rohingya,” said Khan.

“They want to return, they’re not people who want to get refugee status in other countries. They want to live the lives they had, but they don’t want to go back to Myanmar under current conditions.”

Khan added that even if the Myanmar government vows its safe to return, their word is not to be trusted.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

• NEWS, POLITICS, VIRAL

Football star Cristiano Ronaldo tweets to raise funds for Rohingya refugees
By Coconuts Yangon Feb. 16, 2018

Photos via Save the Children / Cristiano Ronaldo
Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo shared a series of photos on Twitter yesterday to express his support for Rohingya refugees. The tweet has received over 70,000 responses, including some from Rohingya activists and rights groups.

Attached to his tweet are a photo showing a Rohingya man holding his small child at a health clinic in a Bangladesh refugee camp beside another photo showing Ronaldo surrounded by his four children.

The footballer’s tweet also included a link to a page where people can donate to the Rohingya Crisis Children’s Relief Fund, a project of the nonprofit Save the Children, which runs the health clinic depicted in the photo. The fund provides refugee children and families with water, food, and shelter.

Since Aug. 25, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled military violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State into Bangladesh, according to the UN, joining hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled to the neighboring country over the last several decades.

Around half of the almost one million Rohingyas in Bangladeshi refugee camps are children, many of whom are vulnerable to malnutrition and disease.

 

[Shorisrip]

Was going to post this, but got lazy.

 

[Flynn Swagmire]

• NEWS, POLITICS, VIRAL

Football star Cristiano Ronaldo tweets to raise funds for Rohingya refugees
By Coconuts Yangon Feb. 16, 2018

Photos via Save the Children / Cristiano Ronaldo
Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo shared a series of photos on Twitter yesterday to express his support for Rohingya refugees. The tweet has received over 70,000 responses, including some from Rohingya activists and rights groups.

Attached to his tweet are a photo showing a Rohingya man holding his small child at a health clinic in a Bangladesh refugee camp beside another photo showing Ronaldo surrounded by his four children.

The footballer’s tweet also included a link to a page where people can donate to the Rohingya Crisis Children’s Relief Fund, a project of the nonprofit Save the Children, which runs the health clinic depicted in the photo. The fund provides refugee children and families with water, food, and shelter.

Since Aug. 25, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled military violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State into Bangladesh, according to the UN, joining hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled to the neighboring country over the last several decades.

Around half of the almost one million Rohingyas in Bangladeshi refugee camps are children, many of whom are vulnerable to malnutrition and disease.

I just loved the comment section...

burmese genocidal monkeys were jumping up and down...