Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing - Updates & Discussions

[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

 

[Indus Pakistan]

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

 

[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/

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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)
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