Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing - Updates & Discussions

[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.

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?

 

[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/

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[asad71]

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".

 

[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."

 

[TopCat]

Interesting

@Aung Zaya

 

[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/

 

[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.

 

[Banglar Bir]

China offers help for Myanmar peace process

• ReutersMay 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”.