Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Individual Documents
Description:
"The Rohingya have been systematically driven out by the Myanmar government leading to the fastest growing humanitarian crisis in recent years".
Source/publisher:
Vox
Date of publication:
2017-12-25
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"The BBC?s Sanjoy Majumder treks through difficult terrain with people fleeing Myanmar."
Source/publisher:
BBC News
Date of publication:
2017-09-04
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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Rohingyas are a Muslim minority who reside in Myanmar. They have stayed here for several generations and account for 7% of "Myanmar?s population. However, the 1982 citizenship law of Myanmar prohibits Rohingyas from being citizens. This has made nearly 1 million Rohingyas stateless. Know about the Rohingya crisis in 2 minutes by watching the below video..."
Source/publisher:
LawPith
Date of publication:
2016-07-03
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"Who are the Rohingyas? What is the Rohingya crisis? Watch this video to learn more about them and as to what is India?s role in the entire situation."
Source/publisher:
India Today
Date of publication:
2017-09-13
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"These are the harrowing accounts of villagers of Tula Toli where Rohingya Muslims were massacred - a special investigation by BBC Newsnight, Reporter Gabriel Gatehouse, Producer James Clayton; Filmed and Edited by Jack Garland..."
Source/publisher:
BBC News
Date of publication:
2017-11-14
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"As thousands of Rohingya refugees continue to pour into Bangladesh, Clive Myrie reports on the world?s fastest growing humanitarian crisis. The plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people is said to be the world?s fastest growing refugee crisis. Risking death by sea or on foot, more than half a million have fled the destruction of their homes and persecution in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar (Burma) for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017. The United Nations described the military offensive in Rakhine, which provoked the exodus, as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Myanmar?s military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians..."
Source/publisher:
BBC News
Date of publication:
2017-10-19
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has a population of around 51 million people. The Burman ethnic group constitutes around two-thirds of this figure and controls the military and the government. But there are also more than 135 ethnic groups in the country, each with their own culture. Many of them have become internally displaced by government moves to exploit land, provoking long-standing friction. In fact, the conflict between Myanmar?s ethnic minorities and the ruling Burmese majority represent one of the world?s longest ongoing conflicts. One group, the Muslim Rohingya, are not recognised as an ethnic nationality of Myanmar, so they suffer from arguably the worst discrimination and human rights abuses of all. The Rohingya population is somewhere between one and two million and they are living mainly in Rakhine State in the north of the country. In this film, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Salam Hindawi goes to Myanmar to investigate the situation surrounding the Rohingya. Myanmar has been tightly controlled for decades and Hindawi has enormous difficulties gaining access to certain areas of the country that the government simply doesn?t want anyone from outside to see."
Source/publisher:
Al Jazeera World
Date of publication:
2017-08-13
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"The Rohingya are an ethnic minority who have lived in Myanmar for generations ? and according to Human Rights Watch, they?re victims of an ongoing ethnic cleansing. Myanmar recently emerged from half a century of military dictatorship, but democracy hasn?t come for all of its citizens. The Rohingya have been burned out of their homes, massacred, held in de facto open-air prisons and were recently excluded from the country?s first census in 30 years..."
Source/publisher:
AJ+
Date of publication:
2014-11-13
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"About 294,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since violence erupted last month. Rohingyas say the military is waging a brutal campaign against them, burning their villages. Myanmar rejects this, saying its military is fighting against Rohingya "terrorists". The BBC?s Jonathan Head investigates..."
Source/publisher:
BBC News
Date of publication:
2017-09-11
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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Description:
"They have been persecuted and discriminated against for decades but few can even pronounce their name let alone know their plight. The UN describes them as one of the most persecuted minorities, yet the suffering of Myanmar?s Rohingya population increases..."
Source/publisher:
Al Jazeera English
Date of publication:
2012-07-23
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-20
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"The UN says the March monsoon season poses a serious threat to thousands living in Bangladeshi refugee camps...To date roughly 670,000 Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar, to Bangladesh, in an effort to escape violence. More than 1,500 refugees have fled this month alone and thousands more are expected.
The mass exodus began back in August when the Myanmar military began attacking the Rohingya and torching their villages after a small Rohingya armed group attached an army checkpoint. The United Nations and human rights groups have said the campaign amounts to ethnic cleansing.
The UN estimates 107,000 refugees are living in areas of Bangladesh prone to flooding or landslides.
"We are now in a race against time," says Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"The [Bangladeshi] Government is steering a massive emergency preparedness effort, but international support must be stepped up to avert a catastrophe," he said in a statement to the U.N. Security Council .
Meanwhile, an explosive expose by Reuters about a massacre in a Rohingya village has landed two Reuters journalists in jail. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo investigated the killing of 10 Rohingya muslims in Northern Rakhine state who were reportedly were shot and hacked to death by a group that included their Buddhist neighbors and Myanmar soldiers. The journalists are charged with receiving government secrets and face up to 14 years in prison. They appeared in court Wednesday, just one day after receiving a major press award for their investigation..."
Source/publisher:
The Stream (Aljazeera)
Date of publication:
2018-02-15
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-16
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"LAST WEEK?S explosive Reuters investigation into the killings of 10 Rohingya at Inn Din in northern Rakhine State in September made for grim reading.
In what is one of the best, most detailed reports on the crisis, the Reuters team ? including journalists Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo who were arrested in December while researching the story and remain in jail ? documented how government troops and Buddhist villagers carried out the killings and buried the victims in a single grave.
Few who have seen it will forget the haunting photograph of the kneeling men surrounded by security forces shortly before their death. In this case, the ?picture tells a thousand words” cliché rang true. But the text was just as powerful; a 4,500-word indictment of the authorities? brazen denials that its forces have been responsible for systematic human rights abuses.
Of course, the military has already admitted that its forces, together with Buddhist villagers, killed the 10 men. It did this to pre-empt the release of the Reuters report, and after its own investigation had claimed that no such killings took place...".....This editorial appears in the February 15 edition of Frontier. Tags:
Rakhine State Inn Din Rohingya Tatmadaw refugees
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" This editorial appears in the February 15 edition of Frontier.
Date of publication:
2018-02-14
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-15
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"How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village...
On Sept. 2, Buddhist villagers and Myanmar troops killed 10 Rohingya men in Myanmar?s restive Rakhine state. Reuters uncovered the massacre and has pieced together how it unfolded. During the reporting of this article, two Reuters journalists were arrested by Myanmar police.NN DIN, Myanmar ? Bound together, the 10 Rohingya Muslim captives watched their Buddhist neighbors dig a shallow grave. Soon afterwards, on the morning of Sept. 2, all 10 lay dead. At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist villagers. The rest were shot by Myanmar troops, two of the gravediggers said.
?One grave for 10 people,” said Soe Chay, 55, a retired soldier from Inn Din?s Rakhine Buddhist community who said he helped dig the pit and saw the killings. The soldiers shot each man two or three times, he said. ?When they were being buried, some were still making noises. Others were already dead.”
The killings in the coastal village of Inn Din marked another bloody episode in the ethnic violence sweeping northern Rakhine state, on Myanmar?s western fringe. Nearly 690,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled their villages and crossed the border into Bangladesh since August. None of Inn Din?s 6,000 Rohingya remained in the village as of October..."
Source/publisher:
Reuters
Date of publication:
2018-02-08
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-15
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"Rohingya refugees are still not allowed to return to Myanmar, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees has told the UN Security Council.
According to Filippo Grandi, "conditions in Myanmar are not yet conducive" for the 668,000 Rohingya to return home.
The refugees fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the Myanmar authorities launched a violent crackdown in northern Rakhine state last August.
"The causes of their flight have not been addressed, and we have yet to see substantive progress on addressing the exclusion and denial of rights that has deepened over the last decades, rooted in their lack of citizenship," he said.
Grandi also said the office of the UNHCR lacks access to Rakhine, where hundreds of villages have been burned down by the Myanmar military.
"Humanitarian access, as you have heard, remains extremely restricted. UNHCR has not had access to affected areas of the northern part of Rakhine state, beyond Maungdaw town, since August 2017, and our access in central Rakhine has also been curtailed," he said.
READ MORE
Myanmar: Who are the Rohingya?
"UNHCR presence and access throughout the state are essential to monitor protection conditions, provide independent information to refugees, and accompany returns as and when they take place."..."
Source/publisher:
Aljazeera
Date of publication:
2018-02-13
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-13
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"Are there crimes against humanity taking place in Myanmar? And is Aung San Suu Kyi turning a blind eye? Newsnight and BBC Our World?s joint investigation reveals the extent of the appalling treatment of the minority Rohingya Muslim community. Jonah Fisher has this report - which contains some shocking images..."
Source/publisher:
BBC Newsnight
Date of publication:
2017-03-10
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-11
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"Abdu Salam stayed in his village as Myanmar soldiers and local vigilantes burned down dozens of homes there last August. He stayed as news spread of atrocities that soldiers had committed in other Rohingya villages across northern Rakhine State. He stayed because Hpon Nyo Leik village was his home, the only home he?d known, and he wanted to protect his family?s property and right to live there.
But when, at the end of 2017, the Myanmar military?s starvation tactics left Abdu Salam?s family struggling to find food, they were forced to join the exodus to Bangladesh.
On 13 February, the UN Security Council will be briefed again on the situation in Myanmar. The briefing comes as the Myanmar government says it?s ready to start repatriating people from Bangladesh. But the military?s efforts to drive the Rohingya population out of the country haven?t even ground to a halt. The Security Council?s inaction, amid a weak international response to the ongoing crimes against humanity, has been a key part of the problem..."
Source/publisher:
Inter Press Service (IPS)
Date of publication:
2018-02-09
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-11
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"BURMA?S MUSLIM BORDERLAND...
Arakan State, in western Burma, was the scene in 1978 of a mass exodus of some 200,000 Muslims into Bangladesh. Though most of the refugees were subsequently allowed back, Muslims in Arakan still suffer harassment from the authorities. Martin Smith examines recent developments in Arakan, and the plethora of groups there opposing the central government."
Source/publisher:
"Inside Asia" February-March 1986
Date of publication:
1986-03-00
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakanese/Rakhine/Rohingya history
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Description:
"The following
monograph
is
a draft background paper from
a presentation delivered
at a conference, ?The Muslim ?Rohingyas? of Burma”, organised
by the Burma
Centrum Nederland
in Amsterdam in December 1995. Given the paucity of available
data
at the time, the paper did not seek to be definitive. Rather, it was intended as a
draft for discussion, explaining dilemmas that the author had come across during the
previous decade when researching about ethnic politics in the country. The hope was
that, with the door to
Burma
gradually opening, other
analysts
and researchers would
be able to develop understanding about the sensitive ethnic
and political issues
involved.
Since this time,
the crisis in the Arakan-Bangladesh borderlands has further worsened,
with new violence, refugee outflows and a broader spread of ethnic nationality and
Buddhist-Muslim tensions within the country. In response, there has been greater
international awareness and research inter
est, but the divisions in local society and
politics have only become deeper.
This
monograph,
still
as a background draft for consultation, was published by the
Burma Centrum Nederland in a ?Rohingya Reader II” in October 1996. Scanned
versions have also
appeared on the Internet.
This version is a 2017-generated
document in
PDF. The original text has been maintained, and there are no updates. It
is intended that the text should be read in the context of the understandings and
landscape of the
Arakan-Bangladesh
borderlands in 1995."
Source/publisher:
Burma Centrum Nederland, Author
Date of publication:
1995-12-11
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Arakanese/Rakhine/Rohingya history
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Description:
"Crisis Group?s early-warning Watch List identifies up to ten countries and regions at risk of conflict or escalation of violence. In these situations, early action, driven or supported by the EU and its member states, would generate stronger prospects for peace. It includes a global overview, regional summaries, and detailed analysis on select countries and conflicts.
The Watch List 2018 includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh/Myanmar, Cameroon, Colombia, Egypt, Iraq, Sahel, Tunisia, Ukraine and Zimbabwe".....
Myanmar/Bangladesh section of ICG?s "Watchlist 2018": "Violent operations by the military, border police and vigilante groups in Myanmar have forced some 750,000 Rohingya to flee northern Rakhine for Bangladesh over the last twelve months. These numbers represent more than 85 per cent of the Rohingya population in the three affected townships. Significant bilateral and multilateral criticism ? in the UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council ? has failed to temper the approach of the Myanmar government and military. The UN, as well as the U.S. and other governments, have declared the 2017 campaign against the Rohingya ?ethnic cleansing” and likely crimes against humanity; some have raised the possibility that it may constitute genocide....While relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar are tense, there appears to be little risk of direct conflict between the two countries? armies. Likewise, in the view of Bangladeshi security forces, the possibility of the displaced Rohingya being recruited or used by Bangladeshi or transnational jihadist groups is low. Perhaps more dangerous, ahead of national elections to be held near the end of 2018, is that the presence of a large refugee population could ignite the simmering communal conflict among Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus as well as ethnic minorities, especially in the highly militarised Chittagong Hill Tracts. It also is worth noting that these refugees ? whose presence Bangladeshi politicians privately suggest could well be permanent ? are located in a part of the country where the influence of Hefazat-e-Islam (Protectors of Islam), a hardline coalition of government-allied Islamist organisations, is strongest. The Hefazat was first to respond to the refugee crisis. It has since threatened to launch a jihad against Myanmar unless it stops persecuting the Rohingya. Hefazat has in recent years gained significant influence over the nominally secular Awami League, the ruling party, and now holds effective veto power over the government?s social and religious policies..."
Source/publisher:
International Crisis group (ICG)
Date of publication:
2018-01-31
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-03
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"BALUKHALI REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh (AP) — The faces of the men half-buried in the mass graves had been burned away by acid or blasted by bullets. Noor Kadir finally recognized his friends only by the colors of their shorts.
Kadir and 14 others, all Rohingya Muslims in the Myanmar village of Gu Dar Pyin, had been choosing players for the soccer-like game of chinlone when the gunfire began. They scattered from what sounded like hard rain on a tin roof. By the time the Myanmar military stopped shooting, only Kadir and two teammates were left alive. Days later, Kadir found six of his friends among the bodies in two graves.
They are among at least five mass graves, all previously unreported, that have been confirmed by The Associated Press through multiple interviews with more than two dozen survivors in Bangladesh refugee camps and through time-stamped cellphone videos. The Myanmar government regularly claims such massacres of the Rohingya never happened, and has acknowledged only one mass grave containing 10 ?terrorists” in the village of Inn Din. However, the AP?s reporting shows a systematic slaughter of Rohingya Muslim civilians by the military, with help from Buddhist neighbors — and suggests many more graves hold many more people..."
Source/publisher:
Associated Press (AP)
Date of publication:
2018-02-01
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-02
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"The AP uncovered evidence of at least five mass graves at one location, Gu Dar Pyin, that bolster charges leveled by the U.S. and United Nations of ethnic cleansing in the country?s northern Rakhine state.
About 200 soldiers, known as Tatmadaw, swept into the area on Aug. 27, according to witnesses. One of them, Mohammad Sha, 37, a shop owner and farmer, told the news agency that he "hid in a grove of coconut trees near a river with more than 100 others. They watched as the military searched Muslim homes and dozens of Buddhist neighbors, their faces partly covered with scarves, loaded the possessions they found into about 10 pushcarts. Then the soldiers burned down the homes, shooting anyone who couldn?t flee, Sha said."..."
Source/publisher:
Associated Press (AP)
Date of publication:
2018-02-01
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-02
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"At least five previously unreported mass graves have been uncovered in Burma, in the newest piece of evidence for what looks increasingly like genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
The Associated Press confirmed the existence of the graves around the village of Gu Dar Pyin, through interviews with more than two dozen survivors in Bangladesh refugee camps and time-stamped mobile phone videos.
The government regularly claims massacres like Gu Dar Pyin never happened, and has acknowledged only one mass grave containing 10 ?terrorists” in the village of Inn Din.
The AP findings suggest not only the military?s slaughter of civilians but the presence of many more graves with many more people...The UN special envoy on human rights in Burma [Yanghee Lee] said the military?s violent operations against Rohingya Muslims bear ?the hallmarks of a genocide”..."
Source/publisher:
AP via "Daily Mail"
Date of publication:
2018-02-01
Date of entry/update:
2018-02-02
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"For the past two months, I have served on an international panel designed to help the Myanmar government arrive at just and reasonable policies for its conflict in Rakhine state, including its long-suffering Rohingya minority. This week I resigned. The reason: I have little confidence in the body?s ability to address the critical challenges facing the region and the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the country?s effective leader, is isolated and unwilling to listen to constructive criticism. Her government is focused on getting things done quickly instead of getting them done right. If Myanmar, also known as Burma, is to have any hope of preventing a further downward spiral to the crisis in Rakhine state and restoring its international reputation, immediate and dramatic changes are required. A continuation of the current approach is likely to lead to a dangerous cycle of violence that threatens both Myanmar?s hopes for peace and democracy and broader regional stability..."
Source/publisher:
"Washington Post"
Date of publication:
2018-01-26
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-28
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"Frustration over Myanmar?s handling of the Rohingya crisis has boiled over into an argument between Aung San Suu Kyi and her former friend, now critic, Bill Richardson.
The former US ambassador to the UN resigned from an advisory panel set-up by the government after accusing members of trying to ?whitewash? the crisis.
And in his resignation letter, Richardson accused members of being a ?cheerleading squad? for the government.
Officials reacted by accusing Richardson of having his own agenda.
His criticisms raise further doubts about a deal to repatriate nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees stuck in Bangladesh...
Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom
Guests:
Tun Khin - President, Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the UK
Matthew Smith - Chief executive, Fortify Rights
Phil Robertson - Deputy director, Human Rights Watch Asia Division
Source/publisher:
Aljazeera (Inside Story)
Date of publication:
2018-01-26
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Source/publisher:
Channel News Asia
Date of publication:
2018-01-25
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-25
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Individual Documents
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Description:
"Bangkok: Myanmar?s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is living in a ?bubble” and blames her country?s woes on the media, United Nations, human rights groups and other countries, according to one of her most powerful international allies.
US diplomat Bill Richardson quit a 10-member international panel set up to advise Myanmar on the Rohingya crisis, saying it was conducting a ?whitewash” and accusing Suu Kyi of lacking ?moral leadership"..."
Source/publisher:
"The Sydney Morning Herald"
Date of publication:
2018-01-25
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-25
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Description:
"The Rohingya have been systematically driven out by the Myanmar government leading to the fastest growing humanitarian crisis in recent years."
Source/publisher:
Vox via Youtube
Date of publication:
2017-09-17
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-24
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"Like 90% of countries around the world, every year Burma (now Myanmar) marks the day its corner of the world was supposed to have changed for the better. Here it?s January 4th, when the country gained its independence from Britain. As arbitrary as it can sometimes feel, Independence Day is at least a good opportunity for reflection. Even more so when it?s a nice round number like 2018, which marks exactly 70 years of independence for Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2018-01-08
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Inter-Communal violence and discrimination - Myanmar - General articles and analysis, NLD Government 2016-, Multiple periods of Burmese history
Language:
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Description:
"It?s difficult to imagine a more dramatic drop in public stature than the one Aung San Suu Kyi has experienced these past few weeks. No doubt due in large part to the overwhelming sense of betrayal felt by many, the Nobel Laureate has been harshly criticized for her country?s recent treatment of the Rohingya. Words like ?Genocide” and ?Ethnic Cleansing” have, to my mind, been aptly used to define the situation in Rakhine State. With hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, it?s difficult to imagine a more systematic and purposeful deprivation of life and human rights currently unfolding. In the bloody corpus of human suffering, this chapter should without a doubt serve as the stereotypical example of ethnic cleansing.
To a large extent, the international media agrees with that statement. And yet, though their denunciation of recent events has been forceful, the condemnation of Aung San Suu Kyi has proved a qualified one especially in more analytically minded circles. As it turns out, holding a Nobel prize inclines people, specifically those who consider themselves thoughtful, towards leniency. This is why you?ll hear arguments claiming that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has no good options, that she must appease the military leaders who are truly behind this massacre, that she risks damaging Myanmar?s fledgling democracy with too strong a denunciation of violence, and that the majority Bamar would turn against her should she speak out too strongly in defense of the Rohingya. Suu Kyi?s chief moral failing, by these accounts, is one of inaction. Her silence, rather than any active effort to tangibly harm people, is the main cause for disappointment..."
Haroon Atcha
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-09-25
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Ethnic Cleansing, About Aung San Suu Kyi
Language:
English
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Description:
"Critiques of (neo)liberalism broadly aim to reveal the insidious ways that dispossession is depoliticized and justified qua economies and arts of government. Yet the recent scramble among scholars and journalists to understand the role of state power and (neo)liberal ideology in shaping Rohingya displacement has revealed few surprising insights about the mechanisms underpinning violence in Myanmar, nor has it revealed any new possibilities for undermining the structures and discourses that frame this violence as inevitable. Of course, this is not to say that (neo)liberal ideology does not harm minorities and the poor. It most certainly does.
Drawing on James Ferguson, I argue that a myopic focus on (neo)liberal ideology belies its polyvalence and overlooks its uses for radical and subversive ends. Here neoliberalism is understood as the particularly insidious refusal to see liberalism as a political rather than economic project (Brown, 2010). This piece engages with current debates over analyses of Rohingya displacement and the controversial positioning of well-known Burma studies scholar, Dr. Jacques Leider. The aim is to identify a productive politics of scholarly engagement with Rohingyas and violence in Myanmar. I argue that radical feminisms and feminist methods decenter (neo)liberalism as an organizing principle of intellectual life, enable the (co)production of knowledge that resists co-optation, and subvert narratives that render vulnerable people less than human..."
Shae A. Frydenlund
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-10-25
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"The liberal analyst always works in the best interests of ?the people”. He himself has no stake in the issue at hand ? he merely offers the world his insights. His crisp analysis carefully rummages through events sorting fact from fiction? each false claim uncovered elevating his writing above the humdrum. He weighs up one side against the other. He never takes sides- centrism is his sanctuary. He is always careful to avoid strong sentiments. He always has the long term in mind. His game is truth and objectivity ? as long as he is the one producing that truth and policing objectivity. He can always see the entire field where others are blinded or led astray by passions and politics. He determines who?s to blame, who took the wrong path and who is acting short sightedly. But above all he is pragmatic. He knows what must be done to achieve the best outcome for all involved ? or the least worse. But his pragmatism is always confined to the safe limits of the liberal worldview. As a man who has been nurtured by state thinking, he naturally tends toward the state as the ultimate fixer and either ignores or looks on with disdain at the struggles of people who have real stakes in an issue..."
Tim Frewer
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-10-19
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"By now, the main contours of the recent events in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar, are well-known. On August 25, an insurgent group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) (previously Harakah al-Yaqin) attacked police posts in northern Rakhine, eliciting a broad counterinsurgency response from the Myanmar military that has displaced over 400,000 Rohingya people into Bangladesh. As in previous cycles of violence, the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, has reportedly targeted civilians in its ?clearance operations,” leading to allegations of killings, rape, and the burning of villages. The UN?s human rights body has referred to this latest outbreak of violence as ?a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
The crisis in, and now, beyond, Rakhine is part of a much longer story of Rohingya oppression and persecution in Myanmar. This history has almost certainly contributed to the growth of the ARSA insurgency. In contrast to its own claims and those of the Myanmar government and media, ARSA comes across as a poor, small, and desperate movement, staging its attacks in a haphazard manner with homemade weapons like knives, swords, and sticks. The Myanmar government and Burmese media, however, have painted ARSA— and in many ways, Rohingya people more broadly— as part of global Islamist networks. In government communications, ?extremist Bengali terrorists” is the favored term for the military?s current foe in Rakhine. Notably, the current crisis is unfolding under the government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. She is Myanmar?s long-time opposition leader, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD swept into power in the country?s nationwide elections of late 2015, the first open national elections in generations..."
Soe Lin Aung
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Ethnic Cleansing, Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups
Language:
English
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Description:
"The High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra?ad al-Hussein announced on December 20, 2017 that he wouldn?t be seeking a second mandate, due to the ?appalling climate for advocacy” in the current geopolitical system. This comes as a worrying warning regarding the inability of the UN system to respond to multiplying conflicts across the globe, from Syria to Yemen, and from Myanmar to Iraq, with acts amounting to crimes against humanity.
His nomination in 2014— which was unanimously approved by all 193 member states of the UN General Assembly— was at the time perceived as a positive sign, showing a political will to strengthen human rights within the UN system.
The former professional diplomat, who has acquired a strong reputation as a fierce defender of human rights, never shied away from speaking truth even to the most powerful states within the UN. He was especially vocal in his criticism of Russian support to the Syrian government, and regularly denounced the Trump administration?s faux pas, from the travel bans against citizens from Muslim majority countries to the administration?s reaction to the demonstrations organized by white supremacists in Virginia..."
Morgane Dussud
Source/publisher:
Teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2018-01-05
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Ethnic Cleansing, Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Most went back home from Bangladesh in two earlier exoduses, but this time is different... The signing of a repatriation agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh on 23 November has raised expectations — and concerns — of an imminent return of Rohingya refugees to northern Rakhine state. But the reality is that no repatriation is likely in the foreseeable future.
Many of the 700,000 Rohingya who fled over the past year would choose to return under the right circumstances — Myanmar is their home, where they have lived for generations, and they see no future for themselves and their children in the Bangladesh camps. But much would need to change.
First and foremost is physical security. This is a deeply traumatized population, many of whom suffered or witnessed acts of horrific violence. They will not be ready to return unless they are assured of their safety. This seems an unlikely prospect, given that the government and military both deny the extent of the abuses that occurred — the military exonerated itself through an internal investigation that found not a single shot had been fired at civilians and state media regularly denies allegations of abuses reported by human rights organizations and the international media. Many of the abuses, including sexual violence, were perpetrated by military-backed vigilante groups made up of non-Muslim villagers in the area, who operate with considerable impunity.
Second is the ability to sustain livelihoods. The repatriation agreement provides that people will be able to return to their places of origin. If this is allowed in practice, and they are able to reclaim their land, they fundamentally require freedom of movement, to reach their farms and fishing grounds, to go where their day labor is needed and to access markets. This requires reassurance on physical security, as well as lifting the onerous movement restrictions and curfews put in place following attacks in late 2016 and August 2017 by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militants..."
Richard Horsey
Source/publisher:
"Nikkei Asian Review", Crisis Group
Date of publication:
2017-12-22
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"Nine months ago, the first of more than 74,000 ethnic minority Rohingya streamed into Bangladesh, seeking refuge from abuses in Myanmar. The influx of refugees and the harrowing stories they carried brought needed international attention to the abuses taking place in Myanmar. But less focus has been given to the humanitarian crisis and inadequate support the situation exposed not only for the new arrivals, but also for the 33,000 Rohingya officially recognized as refugees and as many as 500,000 undocumented Rohingya already living in Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh has long refused to recognize the vast majority of Rohingya in the country as refugees and has been reluctant to do more to address their humanitarian needs or to accept international assistance to do so. The response has improved in recent months, but significant gaps remain, particularly regarding needs for food, adequate shelter, and protections against gender-based violence and trafficking risks. Many Rohingya continue to live in crowded conditions in makeshift shelters vulnerable to the high winds and heavy rains of the ongoing monsoon season, some within heartbreaking sight of their homeland. Recent pledges by the Government of Bangladesh on the global stage are encouraging and should be implemented along with ideas for better coordination being discussed by international humanitarian agencies. For more durable solutions, bilateral and multilateral engagement along with pressure when necessary on the Government of Myanmar on issues of safe returns, accountability, and citizenship will be crucial for addressing the root causes of the plight of the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher:
reliefweb
Date of publication:
2017-07-12
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
10.05 MB
Local URL:
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Description:
"Ending Myanmar?s ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya will require confronting both local elites and foreign capital...In Myanmar?s ongoing massacre of the Rohingya — a two-million person strong Muslim minority — the country?s military has burned hundreds of villages, destroyed thousands of homes, and slaughtered 6,700 people. Gang rape, torture, and infanticide have punctuated the egress of the Rohingya, more than 660,000 of whom have fled from northwestern Rakhine state into Bangladesh. These obscenities have not been occasional excesses but rather, according to a United Nations Human Rights investigation, part of a ?consistent, methodical pattern” — an ethnic cleansing.
The horror, in its seeming boundlessness, feels alien. And yet, in its popular renderings, there is also something all too familiar about it. The images of Rohingya enduring injustice blur with images of other groups, enduring other injustices in other places..."
Elliott Prasse-Freeman
Source/publisher:
Jacobin
Date of publication:
2017-12-28
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The Rohingya, a Muslim minority of Burma of approximately two million people, are enduring a protracted and ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign. In September alone the Myanmar military burned hundreds of villages and forced nearly half a million to flee to Bangladesh. Journalist Francis Wade, the author of Myanmar?s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ?Other? (2017), joins James C. Scott, Kyaw Hsan Hlaing, and Myo Win in an panel moderated by Elliott Prasse-Freeman to explore the deep roots of these events, examining how violent prejudices were nurtured by the military and activated during the democratic transition and what potential there is for peace and security in Burma not only for the Rohingya but for the country?s other minorities."
FRANCIS WADE, James C. Scott, Elliott Prasse-Freeman, Kyaw Hsan Hlaing, Myo Win
Source/publisher:
Yale University
Date of publication:
2017-11-14
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"This policy brief draws on many years of Refugees International (RI) reporting on the Rohingya, as well as a recent RI mission to Bangladesh, where RI Senior Advocate for Human Rights Daniel Sullivan interviewed recent Rohingya arrivals who fled Myanmar beginning in late 2016. This policy brief is being issued in advance of a separate report on the situation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which will be issued on July 13, 2017.
RI is issuing this policy brief out of concern that Myanmar?s political reforms have not benefitted the Rohingya. In fact, the Government of Myanmar, and the military in particular, has engaged in, supported or condoned widespread, egregious, and systematic human rights abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity. And while we note statements by the government expressing an intention to address the well-being of all communities in Rakhine State (home to the vast majority of Rohingya in Myanmar), governments and international organizations must not confuse talk with action..."
Source/publisher:
Refugees International
Date of publication:
2017-07-11
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
494.79 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
"The exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar?s western Rakhine state has created one of the world?s most urgent refugee crises and perhaps the most pressing humanitarian challenge to face Asia over recent decades. Estimates suggest that as many as 600,000 have left Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh over recent months, following a military crack-down in the aftermath of attacks by Rohingya militant groups. Media commentary of the crisis has focused on allegations of ethnic cleansing, which have been strongly denied by Myanmar?s government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi?s National League for Democracy. However, both the deeper causes of the current problems and what now needs to happen to resolve the crisis remains little understood. This event will focus on both of these issues — what caused the current events, and what now needs to be done to bring it to an end? — with together an expert panel with direct experience of Myanmar and attempts to resolve similar humanitarian crises in other parts of the world..... The panelists consist of: ## Mr Adam Cooper, Myanmar Country Representative, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue ## Assoc Prof Francesco Mancini, Associate Dean and Visiting Associate Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy ## Ms Moe Thuzar, Coordinator, Myanmar Studies Programme, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies ## Ms Emma Hogan, South-East Asia Correspondent, The Economist This event is moderated by: Mr James Crabtree, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy".....It is not quite clear when the discussion took place. The page states that the video was "published" on 26 December 2017, but is this the actual date of the discussion?
Panel discussion with: Mr James Crabtree, Ms Moe Thuzar, Ms Emma Hogan, Prof Francesco Mancini
Source/publisher:
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore)
Date of publication:
2017-12-26
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
It had been several years since I had seen my Burmese friends, and I knew the Rohingya crisis would come up. When it did, they looked at each other apprehensively, then one of them spoke up: ?You might not like what we have to say.”
"My friends are Burman Buddhists. I got to know them in the early 2000s in the context of the pro-democracy struggle, which they enthusiastically supported. In those days, Aung San Suu Kyi was considered beyond criticism by many people in the opposition movement. In the Western media, Suu Kyi was practically deified..."
Rosalie Metro
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-12-15
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Not only is a continuation of humanitarian support of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees badly needed in Burma, but a change of strategy by the international community is required to get the Burmese government and military to abide by international law and respect the human rights of all its peoples.
Burma has to be seen in the context of not just the horrific events in Rakhine State but also in light of the Aung San Suu Kyi-led government?s policies leading up to, and its reaction to, those events..."
Paul Sztumpf
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-12-12
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"On November 22, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a Chinese-brokered accord for the tentative repatriation of hundreds of thousands of refugees currently living in Bangladesh. The agreement will in principle allow for the return of over 620,000 Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled Myanmar in the wake of a recent military government-backed crackdown under circumstances that many, including myself, have dubbed genocide.
News of the repatriation agreement has been generally well received by the international community. The majority of States undoubtedly breathed a sigh of relief that they would not be forced to wrestle with the intricacies and international legal implications of—as French President Macron uniquely dubbed the crisis—?this genocide which is unfolding.” After all, under international law, for one State to acknowledge that a genocide is occurring in another obliges the recognizing State to act to stop the atrocities.
Yet for all the world?s lofty ?never again” rhetoric in the aftermath of the Holocaust (when the Genocide Convention was enacted), what nations would wish to embroil themselves in yet another far-flung conflict—this time in Rakhine State, a location of little geopolitical or economic significance to most outside players? And what chance is there that the United Nations would take any action, particularly with China—one of the few players with important ties to Myanmar and major investments in Rakhine—holding veto rights on the Security Council?..."
Ashley Starr Kinseth
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2017-12-13
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"In August 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked police posts and an army base in western Rakhine state, Myanmar, claiming to fight for the rights of Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority living in western Myanmar. Within a few weeks, under the pretext of ?clearance operations”, more than 600,000 Rohingya people fled across the border into neighbouring Bangladesh amidst reports of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and arson by Myanmar?s state military, the Tatmadaw. The United Nations has declared this to be ?a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. This categorisation is only strengthened in private conversations with humanitarian actors working in Bangladesh, who describe the sheer scale of war crimes that have been committed against civilian populations since August.
And yet the Tatmadaw?s campaign has been disturbingly popular within Myanmar. Many of my friends from fieldwork, including members of other long-oppressed ethnic minorities, have posted in support of what they consider to be a mission to rid the country of illegal immigrants and terrorists. In the midst of the horror, I have been left wondering what my role as a researcher is. Indeed, while the anthropologist in my head cautions me to maintain reflexivity and consider the events more critically, this perspective and my pedagogical training seem inadequate right now..."
Justine Chambers
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anthropological literature on refugees and migrants, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
English
more
Description:
Myanmar (Burma)
The government of Myanmar has been carrying out ?clearance operations” in Rakhine State since Friday, 25 August, after an armed group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) carried out coordinated attacks on multiple police posts and an army base. At least 109 people have been killed since 25 August, including civilians, members of the security forces and ARSA militants.
There have been reports of widespread burning of villages, large-scale displacement, extrajudicial killings and attacks on ethnic Rohingya communities in northern Rakhine by the security forces.
Government authorities evacuated civilians from some areas of Rakhine State during the weekend, but reportedly only provided assistance to non-Muslims. In response, thousands of Rohingya have fled towards the border with Bangladesh, with eyewitness reports stating that the security forces were firing on civilians as they attempted to escape.
The government has denounced the ARSA as ?Bengali terrorists” and on 27 August the Office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi accused international non-governmental organizations of helping the ?extremist terrorists” who staged the 25 August attacks. There is no evidence to support this claim, which the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and other human rights organizations have described as profoundly irresponsible and dangerous.
The Myanmar government?s latest ?clearance operations” come less than a year after a major counterinsurgency operation was launched in response to October 2016 attacks by Rohingya militants on three border guard posts. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the ?widespread and systematic” attacks against Rohingya civilians during those operations may amount to crimes against humanity. The Myanmar authorities have repeatedly denied any atrocities have taken place and no perpetrators have been brought to justice.
The government refuses to acknowledge the plight of more than 1.1 million ethnic Rohingya in Myanmar, who are subjected to systematic discrimination and statelessness. The latest ?clearance operations” mean that Rohingya civilians are again facing potential mass atrocity crimes as the security forces attack Rohingya communities that they presume support the ARSA.
Such an approach will not end inter-communal conflict in Rakhine, nor assist Myanmar in its transition to democracy. The security forces have a responsibility to protect all populations in Myanmar, regardless of their citizenship status, religious affiliation or ethnic identity. All counter-insurgency operations directed against the ARSA must strictly adhere to international humanitarian and human rights law.
The Myanmar government should also expeditiously implement the Final Report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which was submitted to the government on 23 August. Led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Advisory Commission?s report offers practical recommendations that address the root causes of conflict in Rakhine, including through reforming the 1982 Citizenship Law.
Today, 30 August, the UN Security Council (UNSC) will receive a briefing on the situation in Myanmar under "any other business" at the request of the United Kingdom. The UNSC must end its silence on the crisis confronting one of the largest stateless populations in the world. The UNSC and the international community should make it clear to the government of Myanmar that it must immediately end atrocities and protect the human rights of all of the diverse populations in Myanmar, including the Rohingya.
Source/publisher:
reliefweb
Date of publication:
2017-08-30
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has been labeled a terrorist organisation. It has caused a number of deaths—local civilian as well as security personnel. It is to be condemned and rooted out—no doubt about that at all. Indeed, since over two years ago, think tanks and diplomats in neighbouring countries have warned me personally about Islamist terrorist groups making their advent in Myanmar and I had passed this information on. The violence erupted as these friends had foretold, and we are now seeing the nature and the extent of the Myanmar state?s response. At this point we need to deeply consider one fundamental question: is ARSA and its attacks the cause or the consequence?
The Rohingya issue has a long provenance, but beginning from the first military junta period (also known as the Burma Socialist Programme Party regime) that community began to be regarded as a problem from at least the 1970s. Immigration operations were carried out in the northern Rakhine border townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw. At least on two occasions, hundreds of thousands of Muslims (mostly Rohingya) fled into neighbouring Bangladesh. Official negotiations had to be held and most of those who had fled were taken back.
The Myanmar government?s next response was to bottle up the Rohingya in those and adjacent townships, in the process stripping them of many basic rights. That region became a ghetto or quarantined area, and the situation festered for decades. The communal violence that erupted in 2012 started in another area of Rakhine state, and quickly spread to central Myanmar and also to north Rakhine. There were burnings and counter-burnings of homes and entire villages, in addition to other atrocities. As a result many Muslim communities were moved into IDP camps ?for their own safety?, these became in actuality 21st century concentration camps. Rakhine Buddhists have been displaced too, and there are a number of Buddhists from Bangladesh who have sought refuge in Rakhine..."
Khin Zaw Win
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-09-18
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"International media were overwhelmed at the end of August 2017 by reports of widespread attacks by Myanmar?s military forces against elements of the Rohingya population. This occurred once again in northern Rakhine state, near Myanmar?s border with Bangladesh.
More than 160,000 Rohingya were reported to have fled to Bangladesh to avoid getting caught up in the violence [at time of posting, UNHCR estimates 313,000—Editor], but were reportedly turned back by the Bangladesh security authorities, or arrested. More than 100 are reported to have been killed in the various military operations that took place.
Such fighting has occurred in the past, sometimes resulting in mass illegal movements of Rohingya into Bangladesh border areas, but this may have been the first time such violence was witnessed first hand by international media..."
Trevor Wilson
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-09-12
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Sitagu Sayadaw is one of the most respected religious leaders in Myanmar. He is very well known for his teachings and for his philanthropic work. He has considerable influence. It therefore surprised many in his native Myanmar and worldwide when he gave a sermon in Kayin State on 30 October with a particularly striking message. The sermon appeared to suggest that the killing of those who are not Buddhist could be justified on the grounds that they were not complete humans, or indeed humans at all.
A photo of Sitagu Sayadaw with Barack Obama in 2012 (via Burma Dhamma blog)
There has been much online discussion about the passage. In its extreme form, there is the idea that Sitagu Sayadaw argued that non-Buddhists are less than human, and that on this basis it is permissible to cause them harm. How could such a revered teacher as Sitagu Sayadaw preach such a message? Particularly troubling was that the sermon was given to a group of army officers likely to be involved in the conflict against Muslim Rohingyas. The interpretation could be that this was a Buddhist justification for the killing of Rohingyas.
The sermon was indeed delivered to army officers at the Bayintnaung garrison and military training school in Kayin State. In reflecting on the relationship between the actions of the Burmese military and the consequences of a soldier?s duty to protect the Myanmar nation, Sitagu Sayadaw used the 5th Century CE Sri Lankan chronicle, the Mahavamsa. He also chose to quote from a notorious passage from the 25th chapter of the Mahavamsa, ?The Victory of Dutthagamani”. The passage in question appears to go against many of what most people would understand to be the key ideas of Buddhism. One possible way to interpret it is simply to suggest that ?Buddhists are as capable of hypocrisy, double standards and special pleading as anyone.”
I would suggest that the primary intention of the Dutthagamani passage is not to justify the killing of living beings who are not Buddhist per se. The point of the passage—however much we might disagree with its logic—is the idea that actions performed with the idea of protecting and defending Buddhism, or ?bringing glory to the doctrine of the Buddha”, overrides more accepted ethical norms such as the precept of not killing living beings. Protecting the Dhamma circumvents the usual operation of karma. All actions have consequences, but the effects of these actions can be lessened if the motivation for them is a noble one.
In case I am misunderstood, I would like to state clearly that the use of the passage was unwise in the extreme by the revered Sayadaw. It is also a passage which sits very uneasily with mainstream Buddhist thinking on the use of violence. However, it can, has, and is being used by Buddhists to describe how ?unwholesome actions” (Burmese: arkhutho Pali: akusala-kamma) can be used to defend and preserve Buddhism.
In the famous episode recounted in the Mahavamsa, Dutthagamani, having waged a long and bloody war in which millions were killed, suffers from extreme unease and remorse. Through their supernatural powers, a group of eight Arahants become aware of this remorse and travel to see Dutthagamani. Using their supernatural powers, they travel through the air from the Island of Piyangudipa to comfort him. However, Dutthagamani tells the Arahants:
How shall there be any comfort for me, O venerable sirs, since by me was caused the slaughter of a great host numbering millions?
He is then famously advised:
From this deed arises no hindrance in thy way to heaven. Only one and a half human beings have been slain here by thee, O lord of men. The one had come unto the (three) refuges, the other had taken on himself the five precepts. Unbelievers [they have ?wrong-views”, micchādiṭṭhi] and men of evil life were the rest, not more to be esteemed than beasts. But as for thee, thou wilt bring glory to the doctrine of the Buddha in manifold ways; therefore cast away care from thy heart, O ruler of men!..."
Paul Fuller
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-11-13
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese Buddhism and Society
Language:
English
more
Description:
"There has long been a lively debate about the origins of the Rohingya Muslims—and it?s far from clear-cut. Active Rohingya campaigning is a relatively recent phenomenon, aiming to establish a separate state in Myanmar rather than seek outright independence.
Yet throughout time, the Rohingya and their political goals have not been taken seriously. When Burma progressed towards independence in 1948, the Rohingya failed to efficiently collectivise and represent their political aspirations, instead seeking ambiguous terms such as ?social and economic development”, or even expressing their aims in conjunction with other political organisations.
In fact, Myanmar?s political consensus on the Rohingya has always been questionable. The attitudes of Buddhist authorities have been inconsistent—sometimes appearing to recognise the Rohingya as citizens in specific practical cases, such as paying taxes, voting in elections before 2015, etc—while at other times, denying the Rohingya temporary residence claims outright..."
Trevor Wilson
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-10-20
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Myanmar (Burma)
After almost four weeks of so-called ?clearance operations” by the security forces, nearly half of Myanmar?s ethnic Rohingya population has fled the country, with more than 420,0000 people, including 250,000 children, arriving in Bangladesh since 25 August.
Satellite imagery obtained by Human Rights Watch shows that at least 210 Rohingya villages in Rakhine State have been burned and destroyed. Actions taken by the Myanmar security forces indicate a clear, targeted and sustained policy of ethnic cleansing aimed at expelling the Rohingya minority from the country.
In her first major televised address on the crisis, on 19 September State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi spoke of the need to uphold human rights in Myanmar. She also raised the plight of other ethnic minorities who had been affected by violence unleashed since 25 August. However, the State Counsellor?s speech failed to specifically address the reality of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State and the security forces? campaign of extrajudicial killings and forced displacement.
The State Counsellor also asserted that the government was prepared to repatriate refugees who can establish that they are Myanmar nationals, ignoring the fact that the overwhelming majority of Rohingya lack such documentation as a result of previously being denied citizenship due to discriminatory laws.
Yesterday, 19 September, the government of the United Kingdom announced that it was suspending financial aid and training programs with Myanmar?s military. All UN member states with significant ties to Myanmar?s security forces should immediately take similar action.
As world leaders gather at the annual UN General Assembly in New York this week, they have a responsibility to draw attention to the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and put pressure on the Myanmar authorities ? particularly State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing ? to immediately stop the violence and facilitate the voluntary return of Rohingya refugees.
The UN Security Council should also impose an arms embargo on the Myanmar military and targeted sanctions directed at senior officers with command responsibility for forces engaged in ongoing ethnic cleansing.
Central African Republic
Friday, 15 September 2017, marked three years since the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) began its operations. Despite political advances made in the Central African Republic (CAR), such as President Faustin Archange Touadéra taking office on 30 March 2016 following relatively peaceful elections, recent fighting between armed groups from the anti-balaka, the Front Populaire pour la Renaissance de la Centrafrique (FPRC) and the Union pour la Paix en Centrafrique (UPC) has reached levels not seen since the height of the conflict during 2014.
In a climate of growing insecurity, impunity and lawlessness, armed groups continue to fight over resources and trade routes in CAR, targeting ethnic and religious communities in the process. An estimated 1.1 million people remain displaced by violence in CAR, with a 37 percent increase in the past three months in the number of displaced civilians.
Due to the deteriorating security situation, MINUSCA is no longer fit for purpose. Armed groups still control nearly 70 percent of the country and the CAR government is unable to provide adequate protection to civilians who live outside of Bangui, the country?s capital.
A leaked report reveals that MINUSCA?s leadership has appealed for the authorization of 750 additional troops to help fill a ?security vacuum” in the southeast of the country. As the UN Security Council prepares to review MINUSCA?s mandate, it should authorize an immediate increase in troops and help improve the protective capacity of the peacekeeping mission. The Council should also authorize the establishment of an additional Quick Reaction Force within MINUSCA and continue to support the CAR government?s efforts to uphold its responsibility to protect all its people.
Source/publisher:
reliefweb
Date of publication:
2017-09-20
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
(New York) ? New analysis of satellite imagery from Burma?s Rakhine State shows the near total destruction of 214 villages, Human Rights Watch said today. World leaders meeting at the United Nations should urgently adopt a General Assembly resolution condemning the Burmese military?s ethnic cleansing, while the UN Security Council should impose targeted sanctions and an arms embargo.
The detailed satellite images, made possible due to a clearing of monsoon cloud on September 16, 2017, reveal destruction from burning much greater than previously known. They show the destruction of tens of thousands of homes across Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships, part of the Burmese security forces? campaign of ethnic cleansing that has forced over 400,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
?These images provide shocking evidence of massive destruction in an apparent attempt by Burmese security forces to prevent the Rohingya from returning to their villages,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ?World leaders meeting at the UN should act to end this mounting crisis and show Burma?s military leaders they will pay a price for such atrocities.”
New maps of the damage show near-total destruction of the 214 villages seen in satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch, with more than 90 percent of the structures in each village damaged. The images corroborate accounts gathered by Human Rights Watch from refugees who have described arson, killing, and looting by the Burmese military, police, and ethnic Rakhine mobs.
World leaders meeting at the UN should act to end this mounting crisis and show Burma?s military leaders they will pay a price for such atrocities.
Phil Robertson
Human Rights Watch
The Burmese military has rejected credible accounts of widespread abuses and said it is conducting operations against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant group that attacked about 30 police posts and an army base on August 25, 2017, killing about a dozen members of the security forces. The Burmese military alleges that ARSA militants and Rohingya villagers have burned down their own homes but has provided no evidence to substantiate this claim. The scale, scope, and timing of the burnings, many of which occurred after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya had already fled, is inconsistent with this claim.
Burmese army commander Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing recently linked Rohingya demands to be recognized as an ethnic group under Burmese law with the army?s actions. Using ?Bengali,” a Burmese ethnic slur for Rohingya, he stated in a Facebook post that, ?They have demanded recognition as Rohingya, which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar. [The] Bengali issue is a national cause and we need to be united in establishing the truth.”
On September 15, the Burmese Government Information Committee stated that, ?Those who fled the villages made their way to the other country for fear of being arrested as they got involved in the violent attacks” ? implying that the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who fled to Burma were responsible for militant attacks against the government.
Although ?ethnic cleansing” is not formally defined under international law, a UN Commission of Experts has described ethnic cleansing as a ?purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas? This purpose appears to be the occupation of territory to the exclusion of the purged group or groups.”
On September 19, Burma?s Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi is scheduled to deliver a speech on the state of the nation, including the situation in Rakhine State.
Rohingya Crisis
Rohingya Crisis
Human Rights Watch reporting on the Burmese military?s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Read More
?While Aung San Suu Kyi may not have the power or authority to rein in the Burmese military, she can speak out and also ensure the UN Fact-Finding Mission is able to enter Burma,” Robertson said. ?Concerned governments should not wait for her to act. They should impose targeted sanctions on those most responsible for the terrible atrocities taking place.”
Source/publisher:
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Date of publication:
2017-09-19
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Note by the Secretary-General
The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the members of the General Assembly the joint report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, submitted in accordance with General Assembly resolution 71/177 and Human Rights Council resolutions 34/16 and 35/5.
Joint report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children
Summary
The present report is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/177 and Human Rights Council resolutions 34/16 and 35/5. The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material have described herein their activities undertaken in accordance with their respective mandates since their previous reports to the Assembly (A/71/303 and A/71/261, respectively).
They also provide a study on the vulnerabilities of children to sale, trafficking, and other forms of exploitation in situations of conflict and humanitarian crisis. Their recommendations, at the end of the report, are aimed at reducing the vulnerabilities of those children and enhancing their protection.
Source/publisher:
reliefweb
Date of publication:
2017-07-18
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Source/publisher:
International Federation for Human Rights
Date of publication:
2017-09-00
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Progress Achieved to Protect Children in Past 20-Years Threaten by Ongoing Crisis - UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Annual Report to General Assembly
Attacks on Schools and Denial of Humanitarian Access Particularly Worrisome in 2016
New York 29 August 2017 ? The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Virginia Gamba, released today her annual report to the General Assembly. The 16-page document outlines immediate priorities as well as a longer-term vision for improving the protection of children affected by armed conflict, with a reflection on the achievements of the children and armed conflict agenda over the past two decades.
?The UN engagement with governments and armed groups has enabled positive achievement over the past two decades benefiting children affected by conflict; but lasting wars and complex conflicts could reverse the positive gains, as we keep seeing occurrences of all six grave violations including re-recruitment of freed children, abduction, sexual violence and killing and maiming,” highlights Ms. Gamba.
Covering the period from August 2016 to July 2017, the report also depicts emerging issues and challenges including alarmingly high numbers of attacks on schools and protected personnel and cases of military use of schools. With over 245 million children estimated to be living in conflict zones, a whole generation is at risk of missing out on education due to the effects of conflict, with dramatic consequences for the personal development of children but also for long term peace and security.
The Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict also condemns the increasing politicization of the provision of humanitarian access for aid delivery, even when it is intended for children. ?Besiegement as a method of warfare has dramatic consequences, especially for children. In 2016, 994 incidents of denial of humanitarian access were verified by the United Nations, almost half of them in South Sudan; in Syria, nearly 650,000 people have been deprived from food and life-saving items like medicine; this is unacceptable,” Ms. Gamba adds.
The report thus highlights the necessity of depoliticizing the delivery of humanitarian aid to children and of protecting education in situations of armed conflict, including through the deterrence of the military use of schools and the endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration. Other recommendations include the necessary political, technical and financial support to reintegration programmes for children formerly associated with armed forces or armed groups, giving special attention to the needs of girls, and enhancing legal protection frameworks.
20 Years of Work for Children Affected by Armed Conflict
The report also provides an opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the mandate since its inception 20 years ago, and the Special Representative looks forward to building on the gains made since to end and prevent grave violations against children in conflict. Among the accomplishments, the report underlines the signature of 28 action plans by parties to conflict; the delisting of nine parties to conflict; and the success of the Campaign ?Children, Not Soldiers” as a catalyst for strengthening the overall child protection architecture.
All eight countries that were initially part of the ?Children, Not Soldiers” campaign have signed an action plan with the United Nations and thousands of children have been released and reintegrated. Chad has met the benchmarks set out in its action plan on the recruitment and use of children. Solid progress has been observed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, although other violations remain of concern in the country, including cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence and killing and maiming.
In addition, the engagement by the United Nations with non-State armed groups has resulted in the signing of two new action plans to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children during the reporting period; in Sudan with the Sudan People?s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM/N) and in Mali with the Coordination des Mouvements de l?Azawad (CMA).
Sadly, ongoing crisis have hampered the progress in implementing action plans in Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Reflecting on more recent trends, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General is very concerned at the many violations attributed to non-State actors in general, and violent extremists in particular, and notes a rise in the use of children and their abduction by these groups.
Building on lessons-learned, a new campaign to increase public awareness on the six grave violations is currently under development. The Special Representative also intends to engage additional actors and enhance engagement with its current partners, including UN agencies, international, sub-regional and regional organizations, as well as civil society, to pursuing best practices in strengthening the protection of children affected by armed conflict.
Read the full report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to the General Assembly.
Source/publisher:
reliefweb
Date of publication:
2017-08-02
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"The Policy and Advocacy Task Team of the Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR)[1] recognizes the continuing generosity of the Government and people of Bangladesh in keeping their borders open to the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict and violence in Myanmar.
The GBV AoR, in support of the Bangladesh GBV Sub-Sector, calls upon donors and states to:
Release funds immediately to cover Gender-based Violence (GBV) needs for at least one year. The GBV needs of this crisis are too large and too complex to be responded to with smaller, short-term funding. The Response Plan estimates that the funding required to meet the affected population?s needs currently stands at US$434,000,000, with $13,400,000 requested by the GBV Sub-sector to meet humanitarian need until February 2018 alone. Further, the Response Plan estimates that there are currently at least 448,000 people [2] in need under the GBV sector ? 92% of whom are female, and 58% are under the age of 18.[3]
Work with the Bangladesh government to ensure that humanitarian space and access is secured and that clearance for agencies to provide humanitarian assistance is granted swiftly for new partners.
Use the 2015 Interagency GBV Guidelines and the 2006 Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action as a criteria on which the release of all humanitarian funding is based. Agencies failing to meet these minimum standards of humanitarian action should not receive funding in line with the humanitarian principle of do-no-harm. Donor assistance is requested by the GBV AoR in requiring that the above guidelines are incorporated into humanitarian agencies? response plans and strategies.
Immediately fund: (1) the expansion of scaled-up life-saving interventions, in particular clinical management of rape survivors, using mobile and facility based approaches in existing settlements and establishment of these services in new settlements; (2) integrated sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence response services for survivors; (3) interventions which seek to mitigate risk and support a protective environment through mainstreaming approaches in other sectors; (4) Safe Space Centres for women and adolescent girls which provide case management and other psychosocial support programming.
Put in place funding mechanisms to support interventions which prevent and respond to intimate partner violence and child, early and forced marriage..."
Source/publisher:
Refugees International et al
Date of publication:
2017-10-23
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Executive Summary
Major developments in Myanmar?s peace process have brought to the fore a critical debate about the future of the country?s security sector. In October 2015, the Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw), which ruled the country for decades and retains significant political powers, signed a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with eight ethnic armed organisations (EAOs).
The NCA is yet to be signed by more than ten other EAOs and so is still far from ?nationwide? in practice. Nonetheless, the deal is significant because it has committed all sides to undertaking political dialogue towards the establishment of a federal system of government, as long demanded by most EAOs but resisted by the Tatmadaw.
Additionally, an agreement has been made regarding a dual process of security sector reform (SSR) and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR), referred to in the NCA as ?security re-integration?. This raises important questions about what a transition from a de facto unitary structure to a more federal security structure in Myanmar would look like, and how EAOs might be incorporated into it.
This discussion paper aims to support an inclusive and evidence-based approach to SSR in Myanmar and to help contextualise the ongoing discourse and upcoming negotiations. It is based on desk-research of existing open-source materials, supplemented by the authors? many years experience of researching security issues in Myanmar. The paper was written to inform all stakeholders involved in, or supporting, the peace process about Myanmar?s previous experiences with SSR and future visions among the major stakeholders: the National League for Democracy (NLD), the Tatmadaw and Myanmar?s multiple EAOs. It examines previous attempts at security integration, considers the current state of play in relation to the political context and peace process, and reflects on the positions and perspectives of key stakeholders regarding the future structure and governance of Myanmar?s security sector.
From the 1960s through the late 2000s, the Tatmadaw initiated multiple programmes to convert EAOs into paramilitary forces under its command, typically offering EAO leaders security and business concessions in return for their military cooperation.i While dozens of units have been formed over the decades, such programmes have also often led to new conflicts, EAOs have splintered or tensions have arisen between EAOs and the Tatmadaw. In 2009 while still in power, the Tatmadaw demanded all of the country?s 40 ceasefire EAOs to form Border Guard Forces (BGFs), under direct Tatmadaw control, which led to a wave of new and renewed conflicts that still persist today. Furthermore, BGFs and other paramilitaries have poorly-defined roles and are often primarily focused on business activities.
The concept of integrating EAOs into the state security forces is therefore not new and has a complex history. Nevertheless, there are hopes that the current peace process will achieve better negotiated and more sustainable arrangements.
Since signing the NCA, political dialogue has been broadly structured around a threeway discourse between the Tatmadaw, EAOs and the National League for Democracy (NLD) ? led by Aung San Suu Kyi ? which has been in power since March 2016. Each of these stakeholders have widely divergent positions on what forms ?federalism? and ?security integration? should take.
The Tatmadaw ? a powerful and well-established institution, deeply entrenched in Myanmar?s political and economic life ? holds firm to its perceived role as defender of the nation?s sovereignty and integrity. Its vision for the future of the armed forces is primarily focused on the accelerated modernisation of its capabilities, and it has often emphasised the need for EAOs to enter a process of DDR or simply to come under the command of the existing Tatmadaw.
The NLD has been long focused on the need for democratic reform of the Tatmadaw, for it to relinquish its political role and come under civilian control, and for it to rebuild trust with the people. Nevertheless, Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly voiced a personal commitment to the Tatmadaw, as it was founded by her father,ii and has indicated it remains a crucial institution of the state.iii While Aung San Suu Kyi has loosely given support for the EAOs? long-held demand of a Federal Union Armed Forces, the NLD has given little indication of if and how it envisages the integration of Myanmar?s numerous EAOs into a reformed Tatmadaw.
EAOs vary greatly in their size, history, and interests, and in their positions on SSR. For a core bloc of pro-federal EAOs, the demand for the reform of the armed forces along federal lines has been of paramount importance since at least the late 2000s, and remains their central SSR principle. Informed by the experience of the state?s previous attempts to convert EAOs into BGFs, the EAOs will continue to be sceptical of any SSR process that they regard to be redeploying their capacities to serve the Tatmadaw, unless there is comprehensive decentralisation of the state, including the military.
To develop a lasting solution to the interlinked political and security complexes that drive armed conflict in Myanmar, all three of the main stakeholder groups ? the Tatmadaw, NLD and EAOs ? will need to develop a shared vision of security integration. Reconciling the divergent perspectives outlined above ? or even identifying where there is common ground ? will be far from easy, and will likely become a long-term and incremental endeavour.
While much more research is needed to fully understand these dynamics and to make well-informed policy recommendations, this report concludes with some broad reflections on what the major challenges and key questions will be going forward. It also recommends some particular topics on which further research and learning work could be carried out.
Saferworld will publish a companion paper that focuses on comparative models and experience of federal models of security and security integration to equip Myanmar?s stakeholders with knowledge that will help them to participate constructively in discussions about the future of Myanmar?s security sector.
Source/publisher:
reliefweb
Date of publication:
2017-05-31
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Source/publisher:
UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
Date of publication:
2017-09-19
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Statement following government-organized visit to northern-
Rakhine 2 October 2017The UN appreciates the Government of Myanmar?s invitation to participate in the visit to northern Rakhine organized by national authorities for diplomatic community and the UN. This was a positive step and such visits, under appropriate conditions, could help in our efforts to explore potential areas where the UN could cooperate with the Myanmar authorities in alleviating the dire situation in northern Rakhine.
Three UN representatives participated in the field visit --
the UN Resident Coordinator Ms. Renata Lok-Dessallien; the WFP representative and Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Domenico Scalpelli, and senior UNHCR official Ms. Cécile Fradot.
Thescale of human sufferingis unimaginable and the UNextends
its deepest condolences to all those affected.
The UN advocatesfor the end to the cycle of violence and for establishing law and order and the rule of law; to
allow unfettered access for humanitarian support; and to ensure the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable
return of the refugees to their areas of origin.
The UN used the field visit also to send a signal of hope to the people in the affected areas, as well as to connect
with its staff in northern Rakhine.
The UN delegation reiterated the need for a greater access for humanitarian and human rights actors to conduct
comprehensive assessments of the situation on the ground in order to address the concerns and needs of all
communities in affected areas. The UN called also for access for the media. Building on this visit, the UN looks forward to strengthening trust and cooperation with all communities and the Myanmar Government. This will be critical in addressing the root causes and setting a sustainable path towards peace and prosperity of all people in Rakhine State, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or citizenship status.
The UN stands ready to provide its full support to the authorities in responding to the humanitarian and human
rights crisis in northern Rakhine, as well as the implementation of the recommendations of the Advisory
Commission on Rakhine State.
Contact Stanislav Saling from the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar for more information at [email protected] or +95-942 651 9871.
Source/publisher:
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2017-10-02
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
STATEMENT ON THE DIPLOMATIC TRIP TO NORTHERN RAKHINE ON 2 OCTOBER 2017
At the invitation of the Myanmar Government, we visited Northern Rakhine today. We went to a number of villages in Maungdaw and Rathedaung districts and met a mixture of local communities.
This initiative by the Government of Myanmar allowed us to show support for the many people of all communities in northern Rakhine who have suffered and still feel great insecurity.
We reiterate our condemnation of the ARSA attacks of 25 August and our deep concern about violence and mass displacement since. This was not an investigation mission and could not be in the circumstances. Investigation of allegations of human rights violations needs to be carried out by experts. We welcome the commitment of the State Counsellor to address human rights violations in accordance with strict norms of justice and call again on the Myanmar authorities to fully investigate allegations of human rights violations and bring prosecutions against those responsible. We also urge them to allow the UN Fact-Finding Mission to visit Rakhine.
We saw villages which had been burned to the ground and emptied of inhabitants. The violence must stop. The security forces have an obligation to protect all people in Rakhine without discrimination and to take measures to prevent acts of arson. We welcome the State Counsellor?s statement that the security forces have been instructed to adhere strictly to a code of conduct, to exercise all due restraint and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians. 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.
We saw on our visit the dire humanitarian need. We call once more for unimpeded humanitarian access to northern Rakhine and resumption of life-saving services without discrimination throughout the state. We welcome the media access that has already been allowed but call once more for journalists to be allowed full, unimpeded access to all parts of Rakhine.
We have stressed to the Union and State Government and to local authorities in Rakhine that the people we saw during this visit must not be subject to, and should be protected from, any reprisals, such as physical attacks or arbitrary arrest.
As friends of Myanmar we remain ready to work with the Myanmar Government to help Rakhine reach its potential. The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State has 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 report.
We sincerely hope that our visit is only the very first step in an urgently needed opening up of access for all, including the media, to all parts of Northern Rakhine.
This statement is issued by the following diplomats in Myanmar who all took part in a government arranged trip to northern Rakhine state on 2 October 2017: Ambassador Nicholas Coppel, Australia; Ambassador Karen MacArthur, Canada; Ambassador Jaroslav Dolecek, Czech Republic; Ambassador Peter Lysholt Hansen, Denmark; Ambassador Olivier Richard, France; Ambassador Ito Sumardi, Indonesia; Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti, Italy; Ambassador Wouters Jurgens, the Netherlands; Ambassador Steve Marshall, New Zealand; Ambassador Tone Tinnes, Norway; Ambassador Miodrag Nikolin, Serbia; Ambassador Paul Seger, Switzerland; Ambassador Kerem Divanlioglu, Turkey; Ambassador Scot Marciel, the United States; Ambassador-designate Kristian Schmidt, the European Union; Ambassador-designate Dorothee Janetzke-Wenzel, Germany; Mr. Bibian Zamora Giménez, Chargée d?Affaires a.i. Spain; Mr. Johan Hallenborg, Head of the Swedish Section Office; Mr. David Hall, Deputy Head of Mission, the United Kingdom; Ms. Silja Rajander, Deputy Head of Mission, Finland.
Source/publisher:
U.S.Embassy in Burma
Date of publication:
2017-10-02
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"The UN independent investigator into human rights in Myanmar is calling for stronger international pressure to be exerted on Myanmar?s military commanders after she was barred from visiting the country for the rest of her tenure.
Yanghee Lee said she had been due to visit in January to assess human rights across Myanmar — including alleged abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.
But Myanmar told her she was no longer welcome.
"From what I see right now, I?m not sure if they are feeling pressured. I?m not sure if there is the right kind of pressure placed on the military commanders and the generals," she later told Reuters by phone from Seoul.
Myanmar security forces may be guilty of genocide against Rohingya: UN
Destruction of Rohingya villages continues: Human Rights Watch
She said it was alarming that Myanmar was strongly supported by China, which has a veto at the UN?s top table in New York. Other countries, including the United States, and human groups were advocating targeted sanctions on the military, she said..."
Source/publisher:
CBC News
Date of publication:
2017-12-20
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"SOUTHEAST BANGLADESH, NEAR THE MYANMAR BORDER — ?Ethnic cleansing” and even ?genocide” are antiseptic and abstract terms. What they mean in the flesh is a soldier grabbing a crying baby girl named Suhaifa by the leg and flinging her into a bonfire. Or troops locking a 15-year-old girl in a hut and setting it on fire.
The children who survive are left haunted: Noor Kalima, age 10, struggles in class in a makeshift refugee camp. Her mind drifts to her memory of seeing her father and little brother shot dead, her baby sister?s and infant brother?s throats cut, the machete coming down on her own head, her hut burning around her ? and it?s difficult to focus on multiplication tables.
?Sometimes I can?t concentrate on my class,” Noor explained. ?I want to throw up.”
In the past I?ve referred to Myanmar?s atrocities against its Rohingya Muslim minority as ?ethnic cleansing,” but increasingly there are indications that the carnage may amount to genocide. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, backed by a Myanmar-focused human rights organization called Fortify Rights, argues that there is ?growing evidence of genocide,” and Yale scholars made a similar argument even before the latest spasms of violence.
Romeo Dallaire, a legendary former United Nations general, describes it as ?very deliberate genocide.” The U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra?ad al-Hussein, told me, ?It would not surprise me at all if a court in the future were to judge that acts of genocide had taken place.”..."
Nicholas Kristof
Source/publisher:
"The New York Times"
Date of publication:
2017-12-15
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"Surveys conducted by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in refugee settlement camps in Bangladesh estimate that at least 9,000 Rohingya died in Myanmar, in Rakhine state, between 25 August and 24 September. As 71.7% of the reported deaths were caused by violence, at least 6,700 Rohingya, in the most conservative estimations, are estimated to have been killed, including at least 730 children below the age of five years..."
Source/publisher:
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), (Doctors Without Borders
Date of publication:
2017-12-12
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Policy
summary:
3.1.1
"Official
and societal
discrimination against Rohingya in
Burma
is
widespread.
Denial
of citizenship
severely restricts
their rights to study, work,
move
freely, marry, practise their religion and
access health services.
In security
operations,
there have been consistent allegations
of
Rohingya been victims
of
torture, indiscriminate killings, burning of houses and rape
by the security
forces
and other state actors.
3.1.2
In
general,
the level and cumulative
effect
of the denial of rights and state
discrimination against the Rohingya population in Rakhine State is such that
it amounts
to persecution.
3.1.3
Rohingya who live outside of Rakhine State may also be able to
demonstrate a need for international protection depending on their personal
circumstances.
3.1.4
Where a claim
is
refused, it is unlikely to be certifiable as ?clearly unfounded?..."
Source/publisher:
Home Office (UK)
Date of publication:
2017-11-17
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
This dossier contains the text of the resolution, the Statement by the Myanmar Permanent Representative in Geneva, commentary by Amnesty International and the UN press report on the session.
Source/publisher:
United Nations Human Rights Council
Date of publication:
2017-12-05
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Renaud Egreteau asks how the legislature could provide more oversight on the recent Rakhine State crisis...When the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) launched attacks against military and police outposts in Myanmar?s northern Rakhine State on August 25, the fifth session of the Union parliament was about to go into recess. Minister of Home Affairs Lt-Gen. Kyaw Swe and his deputy, Maj-Gen. Aung Soe, quickly provided details about the response of the armed forces and police to lawmakers in both parliamentary houses, which have been controlled by the National League for Democracy since the 2015 elections.
They explained at length how the country?s constitution and laws, particularly the counter-terrorism legislation passed in 2014, governed the actions of the security forces. The military-appointed lawmakers seconded their report, stressing the commitment of the armed forces, or Tatmadaw, to protect the nation and safeguard its territorial integrity. Little was said, however, about the brutal operations that subsequently triggered the exodus of more than 650,000 refugees into neighbouring Bangladesh.
The regular session then adjourned on August 31 and no extraordinary session was convened in response to the crisis. No state of emergency was declared either. Instead, the Union legislature simply went into a six-week recess, reconvening on October 17 for its sixth plenary session.
"Could Union lawmakers raise their voices and become meaningfully involved in policy discussions regarding security-related events in Rakhine State? For a country with a relatively young but once active parliament, it is a moment for the legislature to seize the opportunity to assert itself and play a central role in conflict oversight and crisis management..."
Renaud Egreteau
Source/publisher:
teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2017-12-07
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Conclusion:
"The actions of the Myanmar military in northern Rakhine State have created a major humanitarian catastrophe, a crisis for the country and a security threat to the region. It has strengthened an ugly strand of nationalism that will be long-lasting and could lead to the targeting of other minorities in the future. The crisis will define Myanmar in the eyes of much of the world for years to come, with hugely negative consequences across the board on trade, investment, tourism. The country has squandered its considerable reserves of global good-will just when it needed them most, as it was emerging from decades of isolation from the West. Myanmar has also put itself at much greater risk of attack by transnational jihadist groups. Priority long-term aims of balancing China?s geostrategic influence and economic dominance in the country and rehabilitating the military?s international image have been significantly set back.
The abuses against the Rohingya minority have captured global public opinion, and the uncompromising posture of the government has exacerbated the situation. Western countries almost certainly will re-impose some of the sanctions that had been lifted in recent years. As they do so, they should acknowledge their inherent limitations and approach them in a manner that can maximise leverage while minimising collateral damage on Myanmar?s long-suffering population."
Source/publisher:
International Crisis Group (ICG)
Date of publication:
2017-12-07
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Bangladesh-Burma relations
Language:
English
Format :
htm
Size:
863.56 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
"...Everyone wants the Rohingya problem to just disappear. So the news that Burma and Bangladesh have agreed on a framework to begin returning the Rohingya — without referring to the continuing violence that is driving their exodus, and without any clear role for international human rights monitoring bodies — is as expected as it is depressing.
For this is the third Rohingya refugee crisis in 40 years, and the third precipitous return of refugees to a state unwilling to recognize the Rohingya minority?s right to citizenship. In these refugee crises, the international community chose repatriation as an expedient solution rather than trying to impose real change within Burma to end the persecution. If there is to be any hope that these coming returns will not end in disaster — in starvation, in violence, in repatriation while staring down the barrel of a gun — then the disastrous histories of the Rohingya repatriations in 1978 and 1992 must be exposed to critical scrutiny..."
Katy Long
Source/publisher:
"Washington Post"
Date of publication:
2017-12-04
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Fighting malnutrition in Bangladesh
"A former member of the US Navy, Lucas Alamprese became a nutritionist as he wanted to do something that would make a difference in people?s lives. As Emergency Surge Nutritionist for the World Food Programme (WFP), he is now at the forefront of efforts to fight malnutrition among Rohingya refugees..."
Shelley Thakral
Source/publisher:
World Food Programme (WFP)
Date of publication:
2017-11-24
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
FOOD SECURITY: "In line with the previous remote emergency assessments, the survey confirmed a worsening of the food security situation in already highly vulnerable areas after the October 2016 incidents and subsequent security operations. Nearly one third of the population was severely food-insecure and in need of humanitarian assistance. Only 14 percent of women achieved minimum dietary diversity and none of the children met the minimum adequate diet. Income opportunities were scarce and households could not access sufficient food to cover their needs. About half of the markets were not functioning or were only partially operational, food prices were highly volatile and supply of affordable foods in many markets was scarce...OVERALL SITUATION:
Maungdaw district is among the most vulnerable and chronically food-insecure areas in Myanmar and the assessment confirmed a further deterioration of the food security situation.
Measured by the food consumption score, about two third of the households could not meet an adequate diet and 28 percent of them had a poor food intake the week prior to the survey. With respect to previous surveys (2014-16), an increase was registered in diet inadequacy rates, from 43 to 62 percent, and in the share of households with poor food consumption, from 9 to 29 percent . During thirty days prior to the survey, about one third of the households faced extreme experiences of food insecurity, such as no food of any kind in the household (28 percent), went to bed hungry (34 percent), or went for the whole day and night without eating (28 percent).
Income opportunities were scarce, households could not access sufficient food to cover their needs, and were employing disruptive coping strategies to manage the food gaps. Compared to the period of January-April 2016, food prices have increased on average by 7.4 percent while the purchasing power of households has dropped by 44 percent. Nearly half of the markets were not or only partially functioning. Food prices were highly volatile, and supply of affordable dried fish, a main source of proteins for the population, was scarce.
High food insecurity, limited access to essential services including health care, and poor ac-cess to safe water and sanitation may have exacerbated an already serious malnutrition situ-ation (based on DHS 2015-16 for Rakhine State, the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) was at 13.9 percent while the Severe Acute malnutrition (SAM) - 3.7 percent). None of the children from 6 to 23 months met the minimum adequate diet, only 2.5 percent reached minimum dietary diversity and 8.5 percent met the minimum meal frequency.
It was observed that 24 percent of the households in Maungdaw and 17 percent in Buthidaung were composed of female adult members only. This was in line with focus group discussions findings indicating that many male adults had to leave their household due to the security operations. With the highest frequency of episodes of severe hunger, this group was the most vulnerable to food insecurity (Figure 2).
Under these circumstances and with the upcoming rainy season that may aggravate an already fragile situation, the capacity of the most vulnerable population to access sufficient food in the long-term is severally undermined and will depend on the humanitarian assistance in the near future. It is estimated that about 38,000 households corresponding to 225,800 people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Preliminary data of early 2017 shows an increase in children requiring treatment of acute malnutrition, and it is estimated that 80,500 children under the age of five are expected to be in need of treatment for acute malnutrition over the next twelve months.
Source/publisher:
World Food Programme (WFP)
Date of publication:
2017-07-00
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Food Security in Burma/Myanmar - web searches, specialised groups, reports and statistics, WFP (World Food Programme)
Language:
English
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Description:
"The furious debate over when the ethnic group first arrived in Rakhine state will not easily be resolved ...he recent visit of Pope Francis to Myanmar provoked a storm of controversy over his decision to avoid using the term ?Rohingya”, with some accusing the pontiff of unwittingly emboldening ultra-nationalist forces who refuse to accept the term. Others defended the pope?s blatant omission of the word as sound diplomacy at a delicate juncture.
The highest authority of the Catholic Church eventually used the word ?Rohingya” during his visit to Bangladesh, where over 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar military-led ?clearance operations” the United Nations has said represent a textbook example of ?ethnic cleansing.”
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The controversy over the Pope?s use of the term in Bangladesh but not in Myanmar speaks volumes about the gap between how the spiraling humanitarian crisis emanating from western Rakhine state is being viewed inside and outside of Myanmar. And the debate over the use of the word ?Rohingya” will intensify in the weeks ahead as the two sides begin a repatriation program that will again put the term in a spotlight.
Myanmar?s citizenship criterion is based on the taingyintha, or ?national races”, concept. It is defined somewhat arbitrarily as those ethnic groups that were settled in Myanmar in 1823, a year before the first Anglo-Burmese war in which the British conquered Arakan (as Rakhine was officially known until 1989) and other regions of the country.
The Citizenship Law passed in 1982 made belonging to one of the national races the primary, though not only, criterion for full citizenship. Nine years later, the government issued a list of 135 official national races, and the Rohingya were notably not on it. Arguably, Myanmar?s military-led state erased them from its national history..."
Carlos Sardina Galache
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times"
Date of publication:
2017-12-04
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Kim Jolliffe highlights impacts of the Rakhine State conflict on Myanmar?s international relations in a two-part post...
On October 12, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi delivered a ?report to the people” on the recent crisis in Rakhine State. She explained, ?just as no one can fully understand the situation in our country as we do, no one can desire peace and development for our country more than us”. This and other comments in the speech reflect two positions widely held in Myanmar: that criticism of the government from overseas is unfair and patronising, and that the country needs to remain patriotic and stay focused on its broader political and economic agenda.
Unavoidably, however, Myanmar?s journey towards ?peace and development” will be deeply impacted by its relations with other countries. In today?s globalised world, the reactions of other countries have real consequences; managing them is a crucial responsibility of good government. Dismissing international relations and relying only on internal ?unity” is a risky strategy for any government, even in times of hardship. This includes cooperating on international humanitarian and security norms and preventing transnational crises.
In this two-part blog series, I explore three sets of foreign relations challenges that Myanmar could face as a result of the Rakhine crisis. This post, Part I, looks at impacts on Myanmar?s high-level strategic relations. Part II will look at, first, the relations with majority Muslim countries and, second, the increased threat from transnational Islamist terrorists. Whoever we choose to blame for recent events, Myanmar?s handling of these risks going forward will have significant ramifications for the country as a whole. Self-isolation could only make things worse..."
Kim Jolliffe
Source/publisher:
teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2017-11-01
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"... Kim Jolliffe continues looking at impacts of the Rakhine State crisis on Myanmar?s international relations. Part I of this series can be found here...
As I introduced in Part I, much of Myanmar?s population has shown unwavering support for Aung San Suu Kyi and her government?s handling of the Rakhine State crisis. This has given rise to a popular narrative that criticism from the international community is unfounded and unfair, and that Myanmar just needs to focus on building unity and moving forward its agenda of political and economic reform.
In these two posts, I argue that ? whoever we blame for events in Rakhine State ? in today?s globalised world, Myanmar cannot simply dismiss international responses and focus on its own vision. Actions have reactions, and any good government needs to manage international relations in a way that suits its people?s long-term interests. In other words, Myanmar?s peace and development will require efforts to maintain good relations with other countries..."
Kim Jolliffe
Source/publisher:
teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2017-11-02
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Watch the meeting...
Members
present:
Stephen
Twigg
(Chair);
Richard
Burden;
James
Duddridge;
Mr
Nigel
Evans;
Mrs
Pauline
Latham;
Chris
Law;
Mr
Ivan
Lewis;
Lloyd Russell-Moyle;
Paul
Scully;
Mr Virendra
Sharma.
Questions
1 ? 48
Witnesses
I:
David
Mepham,
UK
Director,
Human
Rights
Watch;
Dr Champa Patel,
Head
of
Asia
Programme,
Chatham House;
Mark Farmaner,
Director,
Burma
Campaign
UK; Tun Khin, President,
Burmese
Rohingya Organisation UK
.
II:
Matthew
Saltmarsh,
Senior
Communications
Officer,
UNHCR;
Daphne Jayasinghe,
Senior
Policy
and
Advocacy
Adviser,
International
Rescue
Committee;
Ian Mowatt, Regional
Portfolio Manager, World Vision.
Source/publisher:
UK Parliament
Date of publication:
2017-11-14
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The Permanent People?s Tribunal (PPT) on Myanmar last week found the Myanmar government guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The tribunal?s seven judges, comprising legal and human rights experts, handed down the preliminary judgement after hearings took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from September 18-22, announcing that: ?The State of Myanmar is fully responsible for genocide against the Rohingya people.
?It is further responsible not only for genocidal intent against the Kachin and the Muslim minority, but also and more specifically for crimes of war against the Kachins and crimes against humanity against the Kachins and the Muslim groups,” it added.
The tribunal based its judgement off witness testimonies both in person in Kuala Lumpur and over video from London, as well as a long list of well documented atrocities including systemic rape, murder and eradication of identity and culture, presented by a team of prosecution lawyers.
?The qualification of genocide corresponds to the highest level of criminal responsibility and its foundations are analysed and documented in all its aspects: in the systematic policies of discrimination and physical elimination, in the active denial of identity and culture, including even the prohibition from using the term Rohingya,” the tribunal said..."
Mark Tilly
Source/publisher:
"Khmer Times"
Date of publication:
2017-09-29
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
Introduction:
"More than 600,000 inhabitants of northern Rakhine State have been displaced since 25
August 2017 as a result of security operations commanded by Myanmar?s military, the
Tatmadaw, which followed attacks on police posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation
Army (ARSA). This mass movement of people has substantially added to the pre-existing
populations of displaced persons from Myanmar both in Rakhine State and in
neighboring Bangladesh, resulting in a major humanitarian crisis, amid reports of
widespread human rights violations by security forces and human rights abuses by ARSA
and non-state actors. The vast majority of persons displaced are Rohingya Muslims,
most of whom have crossed to Bangladesh, while tens of thousands remain displaced in
Myanmar.
Statements and reporting on this crisis have included the use of both legal and non-legal
terminology to assess and describe the situation. The following Questions & Answers
briefing note from the International Commission of Jurists clarifies some of the
applicable national and international law and standards.
This briefing note is based upon both independent legal research and a review of public
information and reporting on Rakhine State and neighboring Bangladesh, which is a
situation that is evolving on a daily basis. A draft advance version of this briefing was
prepared on 18 October 2017, and subsequently updated with minor revisions. The
below analysis is based upon information publicly available at the time of finalization on
7 November 2017. This briefing is available in Burmese language; the original version is
in English language. The authors of this briefing note appreciate the advice and
information shared by those who helped inform the development of this briefing note...".....မိတ်ဆက်
၂ဝ၁၇ ခုနှစ်၊ သြဂုတ်လ ၂၅ ရက်မှစ၍ မြန်မာ့တပ်မတော်မှ ဦးစီးကွပ်ကဲသည့် လုံခြုံရေးဆိုင်ရာ
ဆောင်ရွက်ချက်များ၏ ရလဒ်တစ်ရပ်အနေဖြင့် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်မြောက်ပိုင်း၌ နေထိုင်သူပေါင်း ၆ဝဝဝဝဝ ကျော်တို့သည်
ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ခဲ့ကြရပါသည်။ ပြီးနောက် အာရကန်ကယ်တင်ရေးတပ် (ARSA) မှ ရဲစခန်းများကို တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ
ပြုခဲ့သည်။ ဤသို့သော ပြည်သူများ အစုလိုက်၊ အပြုံလိုက်လှုပ်ရှားမှုသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ ယခင်တည်ရှိပြီး ရွှေ့ပြောင်း
ဒုက္ခသည် လူဦးရေကို ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်နှင့် အိမ်နီးချင်းဖြစ်သည့် ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံတို့တွင် ပို၍တိုးများစေပြီး၊ ကြီးမားသော
လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကြပ်အတည်းကိုသော်လည်းကောင်း၊ လုံခြုံရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့များ၏ ကျယ်ပြန့်သော
လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ၊ ARSA နှင့် အစိုးရမဟုတ်သည့် ပုဂ္ဂိုလ်၊ သို့မဟုတ် အဖွဲ့များ၏ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှု
များကိုသော်လည်းကောင်း ဖြစ်ပွားစေပါသည်။ ရွှေ့ပြောင်းဒုက္ခသည်အများစုမှာ ရိုဟင်ဂျာမွတ်ဆလင်များဖြစ်ကြပြီး၊
၎င်းတို့မှအများစုသည် ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံသို့ ဖြတ်ကျော်ခဲ့ကြကာ ထောင်ပေါင်းများစွာသော သူများသည်လည်း မြန်မာ
နိုင်ငံတွင်း၌ပင် ရွှေ့ပြောင်းဒုက္ခသည် ဖြစ်နေကြရပါသည်။
ယင်းအကြပ်အတည်းဆိုင်ရာ သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက်များနှင့် အစီရင်ခံမှုများတွင် ဖြစ်ပျက်သည့်အခြေအနေကို
အကဲဖြတ်သုံးသပ်ရန်နှင့် ဖော်ထုတ်မှုပြုရန် တရားဝင်အသုံးအနှုန်းနှင့် တရားဝင်မဟုတ်သည့် အသုံးအနှုန်းတို့အား
အသုံးပြုထားလေသည်။ ဆက်လက်ဖော်ပြမည့် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ဥပဒေပညာရှင်များကော်မရှင်မှ အမေး၊ အဖြေ
ဆိုင်ရာရှင်းလင်းမှတ်ချက်သည် အောက်ပါမေးခွန်းများကို လွှမ်းခြုံသည့် အချို့သောသက်ဆိုင်ရာပြည်တွင်း၊ နိုင်ငံတကာ
ဥပဒေနှင့် စံချိန်စံညွှန်းများကို ရှင်းလင်းစေပါမည်။
၁။
လုံခြုံရေးဆိုင်ရာ ဆောင်ရွက်ချက်များအတွက် မည်သူက တာဝန်ရှိပါသလဲ။ တပ်မတော်သည် ဥပဒေနှင့်
လက်တွေ့ကျင့်သုံးမှုအပေါ် မည်မျှသြဇာအာဏာ ရှိပါသလဲ။ နိုင်ငံတော်မှလိုက်နာရမည့် နိုင်ငံတကာ
ဥပဒေဆိုင်ရာ တာဝန်များမှာ အဘယ်နည်း။ မကြာသေးမီက တပ်မတော်၏ စစ်ဆင်ရေးများကို သမ္မတမှ
အခွင့်အာဏာ ပေးခဲ့ပါသလား။
၂။
ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်သည် အရေးပေါ်အခြေအနေတစ်ခုအောက် ကျရောက်နေပါသလား။ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံ
ဥပဒေဆိုင်ရာ အရေးပေါ်အခြေအနေတစ်ရပ်သည် မည်သို့ဖြစ်ပါမည်နည်း။
၃။
လုံခြုံရေးဆိုင်ရာဆောင်ရွက်ချက်များ၏ ပြုမူချက်ကို မည်သည့်စည်းမျဉ်းများက ထိန်းကျောင်းမှုပြုသလဲ။
နိုင်ငံတကာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေသည် အကျိုးသက်ရောက်မှု ရှိပါသလား။
နယ်မြေ ?ရှင်းလင်းရေးစီမံချက်? အတွက် ဥပဒေရေးရာ အခြေခံတစ်ရပ်ရှိပါသလား။ အင်အားအသုံးပြုမှု
ဆိုင်ရာ နိုင်ငံတကာစံချိန်စံည?
Source/publisher:
International Commission of Jurists
Date of publication:
2017-11-20
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format :
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Size:
330.47 KB 2.3 MB
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Description:
"The Rohingya people in Myanmar are trapped in a vicious system of state-sponsored, institutionalised discrimination that amounts to apartheid, said Amnesty International today as it publishes a major new analysis into the root causes of the current crisis in Rakhine State.
?Caged without a roof” puts into context the recent wave of violence in Myanmar, when the security forces killed Rohingya people, torched whole villages to the ground, and drove more than 600,000 to flee across the border into Bangladesh.
The two-year investigation reveals how authorities severely restrict virtually all aspects of Rohingyas? lives in Rakhine State and have confined them to what amounts to a ghetto-like existence where they struggle to access healthcare, education or in some areas even to leave their villages. The current situation meets every requirement of the legal definition of the crime against humanity of apartheid.
?The Myanmar authorities are keeping Rohingya women, men and children segregated and cowed in a dehumanising system of apartheid. Their rights are violated daily and the repression has only intensified in recent years,” said Anna Neistat, Amnesty International?s Senior Director for Research.
?This system appears designed to make Rohingyas? lives as hopeless and humiliating as possible. The security forces? brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in the past three months is just another extreme manifestation of this appalling attitude.
?Although these rights violations may not be as visible as those that have hit the headlines in recent months, they are just as horrific. The root causes of the current crisis must be addressed to end the cycle of abuse and make it possible for Rohingya refugees to return to a situation where their rights and dignity are respected.”..."
Source/publisher:
Amnesty International (ASA 16/7436/2017)
Date of publication:
2017-11-21
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
2.96 MB 107.86 KB
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Description:
"On October 9, 2016, a previously unknown Rohingya militant group
calling itself Harakah al-Yaqin attacked three police
outposts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung Townships in
Myanmar?s northern Rakhine State. Armed mostly with
sticks, knives, and improvised explosive devices, the group
killed nine state security officials. After renaming itself
the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in March
2017, the group waged a second attack on 30 police outposts
and an army base on August 25, 2017, killing 12 officials.
ARSA claimed the attacks were a response to protracted
discriminatory treatment and persecution of the Rohingya
Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Immediately following both of those attacks, the Myanmar
Army launched clearance operations—a term the military
uses to describe ongoing multiagency efforts to combat and
apprehend Rohingya militants.
In practice, the military and the Government of Myanmar
used such operations as a mechanism to commit mass
atrocities against Rohingya men, women, and children.
Over the past year, Fortify Rights and the Simon-Skjodt
Center documented how the Myanmar Army, Air
Force, Police Force, and armed civilians carried out an
unprecedented, widespread, and systematic attack on
Rohingya civilians throughout northern Rakhine State
with brutal efficiency. Eyewitness testimony documented in
this report reveals how Myanmar state security forces and
civilian perpetrators committed mass killings. State security
forces opened fire on Rohingya civilians from the land and
sky. Soldiers and knife-wielding civilians hacked to death
and slit the throats of Rohingya men, women, and children,
and Rohingya civilians were burned alive. Soldiers raped
and gang-raped Rohingya women and girls and arbitrarily
arrested men and boys en masse..."
Source/publisher:
Fortify Rights, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Date of publication:
2017-11-15
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.06 MB
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Description:
There are two main reports plus a video - See the main and Alternate URLs...."Since August 25, 2017, Burmese security forces have committed widespread rape against women and girls as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Burma?s Rakhine State.
Killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests, and mass arson of homes by Burmese security forces in hundreds of predominantly Rohingya villages have forced more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Rohingya women, men, and children have arrived in Bangladesh in desperate condition—hungry, exhausted, and sometimes with rape, bullet, or burn injuries. The humanitarian crisis caused by Burma?s atrocities against the Rohingya has been staggering in both scale and speed.
The Burmese military?s brutal campaign follows attacks on 30 police posts and an army base by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on the morning of August 25, 2017 in northern Rakhine State. The government reported that 11 security force personnel were killed. While the government had a duty to respond to the attacks, the Burmese military, supported by Border Police and armed ethnic Rakhine villagers, not only pursued those responsible, but immediately launched large-scale attacks against scores of Rohingya villages under the guise of counter-insurgency operations. Human Rights Watch has found that the violations committed by members of Burma?s security forces against the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State since August 25 amount to crimes against humanity under international law..."
Source/publisher:
Human Rights Watch via Google (HRW)
Date of publication:
2017-11-16
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"Depending on who you ask, the Rohingya people in Myanmar are facing ethnic cleansing, genocide, or simply a complicated situation.
Myanmar?s government has exonerated itself and says accusations against the military are completely false. Many people across the world disagree.
Canada?s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls the plight of the Rohingya a "tremendous concern".
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has also visited Myanmar and denounced "horrific" violence.
What now for the persecuted minority?.."
Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom. Guests: Matthew Smith - Fortify Rights; Phil Robertson - Human Rights Watch; Simon Billenness - International Campaign for the Rohingya
Source/publisher:
Aljazeera (Inside Story)
Date of publication:
2017-11-16
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Information released by the Tatmadaw True News Information Team on the findings of the
Investigation Team in connection with the performances of the security troops during the
terrorist attacks in Maungtaw region, Rakhine State..."
Source/publisher:
Tatmadaw True News Information Team
Date of publication:
2017-11-13
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
31.52 KB
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Description:
"Myanmar?s most revered Buddhist leader gave a speech on Monday in which he urged hundreds of military officers to not to fear the sinfulness of taking human life. Despite building a reputation on his interfaith and humanitarian activities, Sitagu Sayadaw has long made excuses for the military?s abuses against Rohingya Muslims. This week, critics said the monk veered into promoting genocide.
During his speech, which was delivered at a military base in Kayin State and broadcast live in Myanmar to over 250,000 viewers, Sitagu Sayadaw shared a parable about an ancient Sri Lankan king who was assured by Buddhist clerics that the countless Hindus he had killed only added up to one and a half lives.
?Don?t worry King, it?s a little bit of sin. Don?t worry,” Sitagu Sayadaw said. ?Even though you killed millions of people, they were only one and a half real human beings.”..."
Jacob Goldberg
Source/publisher:
Coconuts Yangon
Date of publication:
2017-11-02
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"Early on the morning of August 25, armed militants from a Rohingya insurgent group in Myanmar mounted coordinated attacks on 30 government targets, including police outposts and an army base, in the northern part of Myanmar?s Rakhine State. Equipped with small arms, machetes, and hand-held explosives, the insurgents killed 10 police officers, a soldier, and an immigration official. Seventy-seven insurgents were killed, with one insurgent captured in the attacks. In response, the Myanmar military has begun conducting ?clearance operations” across Rakhine state. Over the past week, this crackdown has forced many Rohingya from their homes, some fleeing across the border to Bangladesh..."
Maxwell B. Markusen, Thomas M. Sanderson
Source/publisher:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Date of publication:
2017-09-07
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"Less than two weeks after coordinated attacks by Muslim insurgents in Rakhine State, the Myanmar military has responded with a campaign of violence that the UN secretary general has said is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. On Wednesday, Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an end to the violence that has resulted in nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims to be uprooted from their homes in Rakhine State and forced across the border into Bangladesh.
The day before the secretary general?s statement, on September 12, al Qaeda leadership released a statement, calling ?upon all Mujahid brothers in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines to set out for [Myanmar] to help their Muslim brothers, and to make the necessary preparations—training and the like—to resist this oppression against their Muslim brothers, and to secure their rights, which will only be returned to them by use of force.”..."
Maxwell B. Markusen, Thomas M. Sanderson
Source/publisher:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Date of publication:
2017-09-17
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"What does the future hold for the Rohingya in Bangladesh, one of the world?s poorest countries?...The UN calls it a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" - more than 600,000 Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar, seeking sanctuary in Bangladesh.
They?ve brought stories of burning villages, murder, rape and babies being thrown into fires. This human catastrophe is happening under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Those who?ve made it to the squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh may have escaped with their lives, but they now face an uncertain future in one of the world?s poorest countries.
101 East investigates the plight of the Rohingya.
Source/publisher:
Aljazeera (101 East)
Date of publication:
2017-11-09
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English, English subtitles, spoken Rohingya.
more
Description:
"The international community?s failure to address Myanmar?s Rohingya crisis has resulted in massive displacement from Rakhine state. The crisis poses a clear threat to Myanmar?s democratic transition. In this excerpt from the Watch List 2017 ? Third Update early warning report for European policy makers, Crisis Group urges the European Union and its member states to support strong Security Council action and push for multilateral and bilateral engagement with Myanmar?s civilian and military leaders... Since Crisis Group?s warning in its February Watch List, Rakhine state?s ?alarming trajectory” has deteriorated further. The views of most people in Myanmar and those of much of the international community on the crisis are diametrically opposed. Domestically, the situation is seen to stem from terrorist attacks and a legitimate security response to them; internationally, the focus is on the disproportionate military response to those attacks involving serious abuses characterised as possible crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar?s political direction in relation to the crisis has now been set and is very unlikely to be altered. Views domestically and internationally are hardening in different directions, with huge implications for domestic politics and Myanmar?s standing in the world..."
Source/publisher:
International Crisis Group (ICG)
Date of publication:
2017-10-27
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"Following the violent expulsion of some 400,000 Rohingya in Myanmar in the course of three weeks (now more
than 500,000), Refugees International (RI) President Eric Schwartz and Senior Advocate for Human Rights Daniel
Sullivan traveled to Bangladesh to assess the situation and bear witness. This policy brief is based on that mission,
which involved interviews with Rohingya refugees who recently arrived from Myanmar as well as with United
Nations and Bangladesh government officials and international aid workers in Bangladesh. Schwartz and Sullivan
visited a hospital in Cox?s Bazar which treats recently arrived Rohingya from Myanmar, four makeshift settlements
for Rohingya (Kutupalong, Balukhali, Thaingkhali, and Unchiprang) as well as border crossing areas and a ?no-
man?s land” where many Rohingya have gathered between the borders of Myanmar and Bangladesh. This policy
brief is largely adapted from testimony given by Sullivan before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia
and the Pacific on September 27, 2017...he Myanmar military has been executing a campaign
of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people of
Myanmar, marked by abuses that constitute crimes
against humanity.
More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled their homes
in the course of a month, approaching half of the
entire Rohingya population that had been living in
Myanmar up to a month ago. Vast swaths of villages
have been burned by the Myanmar security forces
and Rakhine Buddhist mobs. Rohingya refugees who
have arrived in Bangladesh share consistent accounts
of Myanmar soldiers surrounding villages, burning
homes to the ground, stabbing, shooting, and raping
the inhabitants, leaving the survivors to flee for their
lives.
The Rohingya have faced decades of persecution,
but the violence and large-scale displacement have
intensified in recent years. The current crisis that
began just over a month ago is of an entirely new
scale and level of inhumanity. The current campaign
began after attacks on 30 security posts in Rakhine
State in western Myanmar and the killing of 12
Myanmar security officials by poorly armed Rohingya
insurgents, but the military?s response to those attacks
has been grossly disproportionate and has broadly
targeted the Rohingya civilian population. Many
people from other ethnic groups, including Rakhine
Buddhists and Hindus have been displaced and killed
as well, reportedly in attacks by Rohingya insurgents,
but the attacks on other groups has been nowhere on
the scale of the attacks on the Rohingya.
The outflow of half a million Rohingya has also
created a humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh as existing
capabilities have been overwhelmed. To its credit,
the Bangladesh government has generally welcomed
the Rohingya refugees, but much more international
assistance is needed to address the still growing
humanitarian crisis. Ultimately, the root causes of the
crisis will have to be addressed by bringing pressure
on the Myanmar government that has continued
policies of persecution and on the Myanmar military
that has carried out egregious human rights abuses."
Eric Schwartz, Daniel Sullivan
Source/publisher:
Refugees International
Date of publication:
2017-10-00
Date of entry/update:
2017-11-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
566.03 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
(New York, 19 October 2017) " The United Nations Special Adviser on the
Prevention of
Genocide, Adama Dieng, and the Special Adviser of the Responsibil
ity to Protect, Ivan
Simonovic, call on the Government of Myanmar to take immediate action to stop and addres
s the
commission of atrocity crimes that are reportedly taking place in nort
hern Rakhine state.
The Special Advisers have been following the situation in northern Ra
khine state for several
years and have warned that there was a risk that atrocity cri
mes could be committed there. Risk
factors they identified included very deeply rooted and long-standin
g discriminatory practices
and policies against the Rohingya Muslims population, a failure to
stop acts of violence against
that group and a failure to put in place conditions that would support
the peaceful coexistence of
different communities in Rakhine state. ?Despite warnings issued
by us and by many other
officials, the Government of Myanmar has failed to meet its o
bligations under international law
and primary responsibility to protect the Rohingya population fr
om atrocity crimes. The
international community has equally failed its responsibilities
in this regard”, the Special
Advisers stated..."
Source/publisher:
UNITED NATIONS PRESS RELEASE
Date of publication:
2017-10-19
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - inter-governmental and other international sources
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Experts of the Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar conclude visit to Bangladesh.....The Human Rights Council on 24 March 2017 decided (through Resolution A/HRC/RES/34/22) to dispatch urgently an independent international fact-finding mission, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State, including but not limited to arbitrary detention, torture and inhuman treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings, enforced disappearances, forced displacement and unlawful destruction of property, with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims, and requests the fact-finding mission to present to the Council an oral update at its thirty-sixth session and a full report at its thirty-seventh session"
Source/publisher:
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Date of publication:
2017-10-27
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - inter-governmental and other international sources, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
English
more
Description:
"An overwhelming body of published accounts has detailed the Myanmar Army?s campaign of killing, rape and arson in Rakhine, which has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the country since late August, in what the United Nations says is the fastest displacement of a people since the Rwanda genocide.
But in Myanmar, and even in Rakhine itself, there is stark denial that any ethnic cleansing is taking place.
The divergence between how Myanmar and much of the outside world see the Rohingya is not limited to one segment of local society. Nor can hatred in Myanmar of the largely stateless Muslim group be dismissed as a fringe attitude.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage
THE INTERPRETER
Myanmar, Once a Hope for Democracy, Is Now a Study in How It Fails OCT. 19, 2017
NEWS ANALYSIS
Hands Tied by Old Hope, Diplomats in Myanmar Stay Silent OCT. 12, 2017
Rohingya Recount Atrocities: ?They Threw My Baby Into a Fire? OCT. 11, 2017
New Surge of Rohingya Puts Aid Workers Back on ?Full Alert? OCT. 10, 2017
In Grim Camps, Rohingya Suffer on ?Scale That We Couldn?t Imagine? SEPT. 29, 2017
Government officials, opposition politicians, religious leaders and even local human-rights activists have become unified behind this narrative: The Rohingya are not rightful citizens of Buddhist-majority Myanmar, and now, through the power of a globally resurgent Islam, the minority is falsely trying to hijack the world?s sympathy..."
HANNAH BEECH
Source/publisher:
"New York Times"
Date of publication:
2017-10-24
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"On 25 August
2017
, violence dramatically escalated in
northern
Arakan/Rakhine State, after
insurgents staged a major coordinated attack against
security forces outposts.
The Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for the offensive,
in order to
?liberate our people from
dehumanized oppression perpetrated by all successive Burmese regimes”.
The
ensuing military
clearance
operations
killed
hundreds
of
people
and
forced
over
507,000
civilians
from
all
communities
to
flee
their
homes.
Independent
reports
documented
that
"operations"
mostly
involved
the
Tatmadaw
indiscriminately
burning
Rohingya
villages
and
opening
fire
on
their
residents,
with
some
instances
of
villagers
joining
the
militants
to
fight
the
security
forces.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra?ad Al
Hussein declared
?[t]his turn of events is
deplorable. It was
predicted and could have been prevented”. He noted that
?decades of persistent and systematic human rights
violations, including the very violent security responses to
the attacks since October 2016 [see
Escalation of violence],
have almost certainly contributed to the nurturing of violent
extremism, with everyone ultimately losing”.
The latest wave of deadly violence in Arakan State did not
happen overnight. Independent
accounts, including a flash
report issued by the Office of the UN
High Commissioner
on Human Rights (OHCHR) on 3 February 2017, showed
that,
since 9 October 2016, the Tatmadaw has targeted
Rohingya
with
?unprecedented”
violence.
Burmese
authorities, including military
Commander-in-Chief Sr Gen Min Aung Hlaing and
State Counsellor Aung
San Suu Kyi, have repeatedly
denied
the
accusations of
human rights violations [see Government "terrorist ”
narrative].
The outbreak of violence took place just hours after the Advisory Commission
on Rakhine State ?
also
known as Annan Commission ?
released its final report, jeopardizing the
implementation of its
recommendations.
The Annan Commission -
inaugurated on 5 September 2016 at the behest of Aung San Suu Kyi and chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
?
was mandated
with
providing recommendations to secure peace and prosperity in Arakan State.
Its final report, which did
not name the Rohingya at Aung San Suu Kyi?s request, urged
Burma
to eliminate all restrictions on
the
people?s ability to gain citizenship, move free
ly and participate in politics..."
Source/publisher:
ALTSEAN-Burma
Date of publication:
2017-10-13
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - NGO sources
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
650.79 KB
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Description:
"United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman visited Myanmar from October 13 to October 17 at the invitation of the Government. In Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw, he met with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, among other officials, as well as with representatives of Myanmar?s civil society. He attended the ceremony commemorating the signing of Myanmar?s historic National Ceasefire Agreement and met with the signatory ethnic organizations. He also met with the resident diplomatic community and representatives of international NGOs.
Most of Under-Secretary-General Feltman?s discussions focused on the situation in Rakhine State and the plight of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled to Bangladesh in the aftermath of the 25 August attacks on security positions and subsequent military action. He reiterated Secretary-General Antonio Guterres? call that humanitarian actors be given full and unhindered access to northern Rakhine State and that refugees be allowed voluntary, safe and dignified return to their place of origin..."
Jeffrey Feltman
Source/publisher:
United Nations
Date of publication:
2017-10-17
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
" 11 October 2017 ? Brutal, well-organized, coordinated and systematic attacks have been carried out against the minority Muslim Rohingya community in Myanmar, with the intention of not just driving them away but also preventing their return, a new United Nations human rights report has revealed.
Based on on-the-ground interviews in Cox?s Bazar, in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have sought refuge, the report also draws attention to a strategy to ?instil deep and widespread fear and trauma ? physical, emotional and psychological” among the Rohingya population.
?The [UN human rights] team documented consistent accounts of the Myanmar security forces surrounding or entering villages or settlements, sometimes accompanied by Rakhine Buddhist individuals firing indiscriminately at Rohingya villagers, injuring some and killing other innocent victims, setting houses on fire, and announcing in other villages that the same would befall them if they did not comply with the order to immediately abandon their homes,” notes the report, issued Wednesday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)..."
Source/publisher:
UN News Centre
Date of publication:
2017-10-11
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Early in the morning of 25 August 2017, members of a Rohingya armed group, the Arakan Rohingya
Salvation Army (ARSA), attacked approximately 30 security force outposts in northern Rakhine State.1 In its
response, the Myanmar Army, rather than targeting ARSA, launched an attack on the Rohingya population
in northern Rakhine State as a whole. Often working with Border Guard Police (BGP) and local vigilantes, the
military has carried out a campaign of violence that has been systematic, organized, and ruthless.
In this briefing, Amnesty International presents evidence that the Myanmar military has killed at least
hundreds of Rohingya women, men, and children; raped and perpetrated other forms of sexual violence on
Rohingya women and girls; and carried out organized, targeted burning of entire Rohingya villages. This
briefing builds on Amnesty International?s published findings since the crisis began, including on the
Myanmar military?s use of anti-personnel landmines. In seven weeks, the relentless human rights violations
have forced more than 520,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. More cross the border daily.
The attack on the Rohingya population has been both systematic and widespread, constituting serious
human rights violations and crimes against humanity under international law (see text box below). The
violations and crimes have been committed within a context of decades of systematic, state-led
discrimination and persecution of the Rohingya population and occasional large-scale outbursts of violence.
After ARSA attacks on security force outposts in October 2016, the Myanmar military carried out ?clearance
operations” marked by widespread and systematic human rights violations, including unlawful killings,
sexual violence and other forms of torture, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests, which Amnesty
International concluded may have amounted to crimes against humanity. The current campaign is an
escalation, with the targeted burning of villages on a massive scale seemingly designed to push the Rohingya
population in northern Rakhine State out of the country and make it incredibly difficult for them to return..."
Source/publisher:
Amnesty International (ASA 16/7288/2017)
Date of publication:
2017-10-18
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
English
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
4.06 MB 4.84 MB
more
Description:
"Since August 25, Burmese security forces have been carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. Over half a million Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape killings, arson, and other mass atrocities. The Rohingya, effectively denied citizenship under Burmese law, have faced decades of repression and discrimination. About 120,000 remain internally displaced from waves of violence in 2012 and 2016, in dire humanitarian conditions. Human Rights Watch researchers are reporting from the field on the crisis and its global impact.....Children?s Rights ...Refugees and Migrants ...Refugee Rights... Asylum Seekers ...Internally Displaced People... United Nations... Women?s Rights... Sexual Violence and Rape ...
Source/publisher:
Human Rights Watch
Date of publication:
2017-10-04
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - NGO sources, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
English
more
Description:
"YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar?s government will manage the redevelopment of villages torched during violence in Rakhine state that has sent nearly half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, a minister was reported on Wednesday as saying. The plan for the redevelopment of areas destroyed by fires, which the government has blamed on Rohingya insurgents, is likely to raise concern about prospects for the return of the 480,000 refugees, and compound fears of ethnic cleansing.
?According to the law, burnt land becomes government-managed land,” Minister for Social Development, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye told a meeting in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said..."
Simon Lewis
Source/publisher:
Reuters
Date of publication:
2017-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
138 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
"Horrendous bloodshed would result should the notion of ethnic cleansing take hold in Asia...HONG KONG ? The real significance of the crisis of the Rohingya minority of Myanmar extends far beyond the two issues currently at the center of global attention.
Yes, it is a humanitarian crisis of huge dimension, and true as well that it has revealed the fragility of Aung San Suu Kyi?s status as a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
But what is not properly appreciated yet is that, unless handled with much greater care than seen to date, this issue will long reverberate through all of Southeast Asia, far beyond Bangladesh..."
Philip Bowring
Source/publisher:
"Japan Times"
Date of publication:
2017-09-18
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - Media sources
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Region?s head of human rights calls on Aung San Suu Kyi to stop violence as report says ?clearance operations? include killings, torture and rape...Myanmar security forces have driven out half a million Muslim Rohingya from northern Rakhine state, torching their homes, crops and villages to prevent them from returning, the UN human rights office said on Wednesday.
Jyoti Sanghera, head of the Asia and Pacific region of the UN human rights office, called on the Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to ?stop the violence” and voiced fear that if the stateless Rohingya refugees return from Bangladesh they may be interned.
?If villages have been completely destroyed and livelihood possibilities have been destroyed, what we fear is that they may be incarcerated or detained in camps,” she told a news briefing.
?We die or they die?: Rohingya insurgency sparks fresh violence in Myanmar
Read more
The UN political affairs chief, Jeffrey Feltman, is due to visit Myanmar on Friday, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
In a report based on 65 interviews with Rohingya who have arrived in Bangladesh in the past month, the UN human rights office said that ?clearance operations” had begun before insurgent attacks on police posts on 25 August and included killings, torture and rape of children.
The UN?s Jyoti Sanghera: ?If villages have been completely destroyed ... what we fear is that they may be incarcerated or detained in camps.?
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The UN?s Jyoti Sanghera: ?If villages have been completely destroyed ? what we fear is that they may be incarcerated or detained in camps.? Photograph: Martial Trezzini/EPA
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra?ad al-Hussein ? who has described the government operations as ?a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” ? said in a statement that the actions appeared to be ?a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return”..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian"
Date of publication:
2017-10-11
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - inter-governmental and other international sources
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Despite Myanmar?s recent transition to civilian leadership, the military has retained significant power and is most to blame for the sectarian violence against the Rohingya...State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has faced the brunt of international criticism for what has been described as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, but Myanmar?s military, which has executed the crackdown in Rakhine State, is largely to blame, says Francis Wade, a journalist and author of Myanmar?s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ?Other.? The military still retains a great deal of political and economic power despite the country?s recent transition to a civilian-led government, explains Wade. Still, he says that in echoing the military?s rhetoric against the Muslim minority group, Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government have only fueled the sectarian violence..."
Interview by Eleanor Albert; Francis Wade, Interviewee
Source/publisher:
[US] Council on Foreign Relations
Date of publication:
2017-10-02
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - academic, library and think-tank sources and individual scholars, Political role of the Tatmadaw
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group, are fleeing persecution in Myanmar?s western Rakhine State, fueling a historic migration crisis...Discriminatory policies of Myanmar?s government since the late 1970s have compelled hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya to flee their homes in the predominantly Buddhist country. Most have crossed by land into Bangladesh, while others have taken to the sea to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Renewed violence, including reported rape, murder, and arson in 2017, triggered a massive exodus of Rohingya amid charges of ethnic cleansing against Myanmar?s security forces. Those forces claim to be carrying out a campaign to reinstate stability in the western region of Myanmar..."
Backgrounder by Eleanor Albert
Eleanor Albert
Source/publisher:
Council on Foreign Relations
Date of publication:
2017-10-04
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - academic, library and think-tank sources and individual scholars, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
English
more
Description:
"...Credible information indicates that the Myanmar security forces purposely destroyed the
property of the Rohingyas, scorched their dwellings and entire villages in northern Rakhine
State, not only to drive the population out in droves but also to prevent the fleeing Rohingya
victims from returning to their homes. The destruction by the Tatmadaw of houses, fields,
food-stocks, crops, livestock and even trees, render the possibility of the Rohingya returning
to normal lives and livelihoods in the future in northern Rakhine almost impossible. It also
indicates an effort to effectively erase all signs of memorable landmarks in the geography of
the Rohingya landscape and memory in such a way that a return to their lands would yield
nothing but a desolate and unrecognizable terrain. Information received also indicates that the
Myanmar security forces targeted teachers, the cultural and religious leadership, and other
people of influence in the Rohingya community in an effort to diminish Rohingya history,
culture and knowledge..."
Source/publisher:
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Date of publication:
2017-10-11
Date of entry/update:
2017-10-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. - inter-governmental and other international sources, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
124.93 KB
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Description:
"In the last few weeks, over 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a bloody pogrom in Myanmar?s Rakhine state, crossing into Bangladesh. Among the horrified and largely moralistic reactions in the West, some have pointed to economic factors supposedly behind these events. They are right to highlight the importance of political economy drivers of conflict, but their analysis is disappointingly superficial and crude. This post critiques their approaches and briefly outlines a better one...In short, while simple pecuniary motives can never be entirely discounted, particularly in Myanmar?s borderlands, the political economy underpinning the current Rohingya crisis is far more complicated than is suggested in articles making a few sloppy references to megaprojects and land grabs. Ultimately, like Myanmar?s other ethnic conflicts, it reflects the crisis-ridden nature of the Burmese state since its inception.
Burma was founded with no real meaningful consensus among its population groups over the nature of the state or nation, or the extent of power and resource sharing. Bamar-Buddhist chauvinists, unprepared to make the concessions needed to secure others? consensual participation in nation-building, have instead sought to impose their vision by force, leading to brutality across the borderlands. However, the Rohingya have suffered particularly harshly because their claim to ethnic-minority status is not even recognised. While the Bamar state seeks to coercively incorporate recognised ethnic minority groups into the Union, it seeks to coercively exclude the unrecognised Rohingya. That is, ultimately, traceable to British colonialism and its legacy..."
Lee Jones
Source/publisher:
"New Mandala"
Date of publication:
2017-09-26
Date of entry/update:
2017-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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