Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Individual Documents
Sub-title:
Seventy-three village and ward administrators have resigned in Myebon township in Rakhine State after three colleagues were arrested and charged with associating with the Arakan Army, a Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) MP said on June 17.
Description:
"U Pe Than, MP for Myebon township, said the local leaders quit last week after police charged three of their colleagues under the anti-terrorism law with aiding AA fighters.
"They resigned out of concern that they could be arrested too," he said. The three village administrators charged in a Myebon court in early June were identified as U Maung Zaw of Ange Thit village, U Kyaw Myint of Ywar Thit Kay village, and U Aung Than of Myauk Kyein village.
They face up to seven years in prison if found guilty.
Fighting between the Tatmadaw (military) and AA erupted in November 2018, when the ethnic armed group tried to establish a base in Mrauk-U township. The fighting grew throughout 2019, and the AA has killed and captured soldiers and police at remote government outposts in several attacks.
Paletwa township in nearby Chin State was also the scene of intense fighting, which cut all transportation routes to the township for four months, sparking a severe food shortage.
The government and United Nations’ World Food Programme finally succeeded in delivering food to Paletwa in April and early May.
The fighting has forced more than 140,000 people to flee their homes in Rakhine and Chin.
U Tin Myint, deputy minister of the Union Government Office, said the government has warned village administrators not to aid the AA, which it declared a terrorist group on March 23.
"Police are now charging village administrators under the anti-terrorism law with supporting a terrorist group," he said.
"If the police suspect us of supporting the AA, we will be arrested," a village administrator, who refused to be named for safety reasons, said on June 16. “So we are resigning."
Thazin, a Rakhine-based aid group, said the government has prosecuted about 700 civilians, including village administrators, under the anti-terrorism law..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-18
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State
Language:
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Sub-title:
The Arakan Army (AA) has released an interview with a captive Tatmadaw (military) officer who claimed to have killed three Muslim men suspected of belonging to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) during the Tatmadaw’s massive crackdown in northern Rakhine State in 2017.
Description:
"ARSA launched deadly attacks on more than 30 military outposts in northern Rakhine in August 2017, sparking the crackdown and the exodus of more than 740,000 Muslims across the border to Bangladesh, where they continue to live in crowded refugee camps.
International organisations accused the Tatmadaw of killing thousands of Muslims and committing mass rape and other human rights abuses during the crackdown, and Gambia, acting on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, filed a genocide lawsuit against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice last November. In the interview, the Tatmadaw officer, identified as Captain Nyi Nyi Zaw, said Tatmadaw troops shot dead three Muslim men suspected of belonging to ARSA near Zin Pai Nyar village in Maungdaw townsCapt Nyi Nyi Zaw, of the 345th Light Infantry Battalion under the 15th Military Operation Command in Buthidaung township, was among several people the AA seized aboard a passenger ferry in October 2019.
AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha denied that the AA forced the officer to make the accusations.hip in September 2017.
Tatmadaw spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun denied the claims and accused the AA of forcing the officer to make the confession..."
“He has been held captive for months, so he will have to do as the AA tells him,” he said. “It’s untrue. We carry out all our missions according to military rules.”
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-18
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, The Military's political role
Language:
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Sub-title:
The regional body has been notably silent on genocide in Myanmar, ducking behind the myth of non-interference.
Description:
"On 26 June, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet virtually for their 36th semi-annual summit. The meeting is expected to include a focus on the re-opening of borders and economies post-pandemic, as well as discussions about the continuing tensions in the South China Sea and progress against the ASEAN 2015–2025 Community Building Blueprints.
For ASEAN, the summit comes at a critical time. Since the mid 1970s, ASEAN has progressively increased its clout as a credible regional organisation, but today this centrality is threatened by shifting regional dynamics. Major powers within and outside the region have proposed the establishment of alternative regional frameworks: Australia’s proposal for an Asia-Pacific Community, the notion of the Indo-Pacific region, and what became the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, involving some ASEAN member states but not ASEAN as a regional organisation. With ASEAN members interacting more independently with external partners and trading regimes, the importance of a Southeast Asian regional association is arguably diminished.
And now, as ASEAN leaders prepare for next week’s summit, one of its member states – Myanmar – is preparing its defence against allegations of genocide brought by the state of Gambia before the International Court of Justice. Simultaneously, the International Criminal Court is investigating allegations that Myanmar’s senior authorities forcibly deported and persecuted the Rohingya people.
In explaining the ASEAN stance on the Rohingya crisis, much has been made of the “ASEAN Way” – the principles of sovereignty, non-interference and consensus decision-making enshrined in numerous ASEAN agreements and declarations.
Running in parallel with these developments in international justice has been a tide of international condemnation and sanctions against Myanmar, related to its violence against the Rohingya ethnic minority. The UN Secretary General, the Security Council and the General Assembly have all expressed concern, and the US, Canada and the EU have imposed sanctions..."
Source/publisher:
"The Independent" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-06-17
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), ASEAN-Burma relations, Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
more
Description:
"The lawyers prosecuting Myanmar for the alleged genocide against the Rohingya are once again breaking new legal ground. The International Court of Justice action by the Gambia was unprecedented, and long overdue, when initiated last year. But the received wisdom is that genocide accountability is particularly difficult because the plaintiff has to prove genocidal intent. And proving intent is taken to be one of the hardest standards to clear in legal proceedings.
But in a logical, if unprecedented, move, the Gambian legal team, led by the formidable Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou, have asked a US court to force Facebook to hand over the data they have relating to the leading Myanmar army officials who ordered the “clearance operations” against the Rohingya, chief among them Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s armed forces.
If there is anywhere the prosecution might find records of the thinking that went into the actions by the Myanmar military before and during the operations against the Rohingya, Facebook is going to be the place. In 2017, I wrote about the ways in which Facebook was the principal medium through which anti-Rohingya hatred and propaganda was being stoked up for years, leading to the “clearing operations.” And, while at that time I was referring mainly to the crazed rants of extremist nationalists and Buddhist fundamentalists from Myanmar’s civil society, many senior officials, including the military leadership of the country, also weighed in on the issue on Facebook.
Without wanting to pre-judge the proceedings, those statements by leading government and military officials were never to condemn the worst excesses of hate-baiting against the Rohingya, but instead had the general intent and purpose of moderating and rationalizing antagonism toward the minority group. On those grounds alone, it may be possible to make inferences about intent. But perhaps a bigger prize is possible: It would be of genuine public interest to see what the communications between leading military officials looked like at the time, and to what extent their hostility to the Rohingya might have been expressed in genocidal language in private..."
Source/publisher:
"Arab News" (Saudi Arabia)
Date of publication:
2020-06-16
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is taking a rising toll. It will hinder any effort to contain COVID-19 or resolve the Rohingya crisis. Rather than trying to defeat the Arakan Army, Naypyitaw should negotiate with ethnic Rakhine, endeavouring to convince them of electoral democracy’s benefits.
Description:
"The armed conflict being waged between government forces and the ethnic Rakhine Arakan Army in western Myanmar is currently the most serious by far of the country’s multiple, decades-old internal wars, with some of the most sustained and intense fighting seen in many years. After the conflict escalated significantly in early 2019, the government ordered a tough military response and on 23 March designated the Arakan Army as a terrorist organisation. These measures have exacerbated the grievances underlying the conflict and made a negotiated end to the fighting more difficult to attain. At the same time, neither side will be able to achieve their military objectives. The government needs a political strategy, now missing, to negotiate with Rakhine leaders, address their community’s grievances, and demonstrate that electoral democracy and political negotiation offer a realistic and effective path to realising their aspirations. The trajectory of the armed conflict is alarming, complicating problems in a state already traumatised by the separate crisis that resulted in the violent expulsion of more than 700,000 minority Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2016-2017. Over the last eighteen months, clashes have increased in regularity and intensity, their geographical scope has expanded and the civilian toll has grown. Despite the significant loss of life on both sides, nothing suggests that Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, is wearing down the Arakan Army or degrading its ability to operate. But nor is there reason to believe that the Arakan Army can achieve its aim of greater political autonomy on the battlefield. Civilians are paying a heavy price, caught in the crossfire or targeted as Arakan Army partisans or for harbouring fighters in their villages. Schools and medical facilities have been hit with alarming regularity, with each side usually blaming the other. It is difficult to see how general elections, which were provisionally slated for November, could be held in many parts of Rakhine State, the conflict’s locus..."
Source/publisher:
"International Crisis Group (ICG)" (Belgium)
Date of publication:
2020-06-09
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Several hundred Rohingya stranded since February after countries sealed borders to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Description:
"People traffickers holding hundreds of Rohingya refugees at sea are demanding payments from their families to release them from boats off the shores of Southeast Asia, relatives and rights groups say.
Several hundred Rohingya, members of a largely Muslim minority from Myanmar fleeing persecution at home and refugee camps in Bangladesh, have been stranded for months after countries sealed their borders to block the spread of the coronavirus.
More:
'Desperate journeys': Rohingya children recall ordeal at sea
Lawyers seek Facebook posts of Myanmar leaders in Rohingya case
Rohingya crisis through the eyes of Al Jazeera's journalists
Three people who said their relatives were at sea told the Reuters news agency that traffickers had demanded money to release them from boats that have been off Southeast Asia since February, trying to find a place to land.
"Before, the deal was that if they were able to reach the Malaysian shore then they will take the money, but they're asking for it now," said Mohammed Ayas, who said his 16-year-old brother left a refugee camp in Bangladesh in February.
Since then, the family has heard nothing from him, Ayas said.
Musha, whose two sisters are also at sea after leaving camps in Bangladesh in February, said brokers acting for the traffickers asked the family to pay 12,000 ringgit ($2,800) via a mobile banking service for their transfer to Malaysia.
He said the family paid the sum but did not know the fate of the two teenaged girls.
For years, Rohingya have boarded boats between November and April, when the seas are calm, to get to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. But coronavirus lockdowns have left boats stranded at sea.
Dozens of people died on board a boat that had to return to Bangladesh in April after running out of food and water, survivors told Reuters..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-16
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Trafficking: global, regional and national reports
Language:
more
Description:
"Thehall mark of the Myanmar Tatmadaw (armed forces) on embarking the ethnic cleansing policy has been rooted in the Myanmar philosophy of “The policy of a great nation” where one race could completely wiped out the other and in its place a new race appeared either by killing the other ethnic and by intermarrying the latter.
No doubt this policy of a great nation was the carbon copy from the Anglo-Americans, where history has it that when William the Conquerer of Normandy of France (1066-1087) conquered the Saxons of England, they not only killed the men but married their women and become a strong nation, England, in as much as the European Caucasians killed the aborigines (Red Indians) married their women and become a great nation of America and Canada. So also now the Myanmar are doing the same to the other non-Myanmar ethnic nationalities of Shan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon and Arakanese (Rakhine) including several smaller ethnics and tribes and what more prove is wanted, when every non Myanmar ethnic race have no choice but is being forced to rebel against the marauding Tatmadaw. The atrocities of the Myanmar Tatmadaw implementing on the Rohingya is the carbon copy of what the Myanmar king Bodawpaya (1782-1819) has done to the Arakanese as one can enquire in any old Arakanese records or read the Arakanese history.
No doubt, the Union of Burma was founded by consensus in 1947, in a small Shan village of Panglong (Myanmar endeavour to replace with the Burmese word of Pinlon) next to Loilem in Southern Shan States. Even in that historical agreement, the Arakanese and the Mon representatives were not invited, being treated as a conquered race, which is a small part of the Mahar Myanmar race..."
Source/publisher:
"Eurasia Review"
Date of publication:
2020-06-13
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Arakanese/Rakhine/Rohingya history
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Earlier, a 71-year old man died at isolation centre of Rohingya camp on June 1
Description:
"Two more Rohingya men died from coronavirus on Monday, taking total death in the Rohingya camp to three.
One of them was 58 years old and a resident of camp-10 while another was 70 years and a resident of camp-7 in Ukhiya, said Dr Abu Toha MRH Bhuiyan, health coordinator of the Refugee, Relief and Rehabilitation Commission.
Besides, five more Rohingyas were diagnosed with coronavirus on Monday, he said adding that total number coronavirus cases rose to 35 till Monday.
Meanwhile, two Rohingya men made recovery from coronavirus. Earlier, a 71-year old man died at isolation centre of Rohingya camp on June 1.
Earlier on May 16, two more Rohingyas were diagnosed with coronavirus at Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar, forcing the local administration to put some 5,000 Rohingyas at the camp under complete lockdown.
Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas, most of them entered Bangladesh since August 25, 2017..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-06-09
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
End Pushbacks, Grant Access to Aid and Asylum
Description:
"Malaysia and Thailand should urgently rescue Rohingya refugees stranded at sea and provide them with assistance and access to asylum, Human Rights Watch said today. On June 8, 2020, Malaysian authorities detained 269 Rohingya refugees who arrived on a damaged boat off Malaysia’s coast at Langkawi. A second boat with an estimated 300 Rohingya remains at sea near Thailand’s Koh Adang island, according to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
Both boats left from Bangladesh in February, meaning that the hundreds of ethnic Rohingya on board have been at sea for four months without access to adequate food and water. On a previous boat of Rohingya bound for Malaysia that was rescued by the Bangladesh coast guard, as many as 100 may have died on board as a result of the deplorable conditions.
“Southeast Asian governments are callously passing the buck on protecting Rohingya refugees desperate for sanctuary and a future after Myanmar’s military drove them from their homes with mass atrocities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “While Myanmar remains ultimately responsible for the Rohingya refugees’ plight, Malaysia and Thailand should stop wearing blinders about the immediate risks and suffering that they face at sea.”
Malaysian officials who intercepted the boat carrying Rohingya on June 8 intended to return it to international waters, but a damaged engine prevented the pushback. Approximately 50 refugees jumped off the boat and swam to shore, where they were detained, while the boat with the remaining passengers was towed to Langkawi. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency arrested them on arrival and has detained them at the Nation Building Camp center..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-06-12
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Karen and other refugees from Burma in Thailand - general reports and articles
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Especially since the internet was cut off in Rohingya refugee camps, bicycles and rickshaws play a vital role in sending messages
Description:
"Social distancing is a crucial aspect of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. But that poses challenges to the flow of key information during a time when being well-informed is also critical to public health.
Especially since the internet was cut off in Rohingya refugee camps, bicycles and rickshaws play a vital role in sending messages far and wide.
In Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) continues to explore new ways to bring key messages to Rohingya and host community members throughout the district.
Initiatives like passing on messages via rickshaws and IOM’s Interactive Voice Response system are making huge contributions in ensuring that the public is kept informed.
However, gaps remain where phone and road access are limited.
To amplify key messaging and ensure that no one is left without access to lifesaving information, IOM’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) unit in Cox’s Bazar began delivering information throughout the Rohingya settlements by bicycle.
In line with the 2030 Agenda and the United Nations “green recovery” recommendations to encourage a culture of cycling, IOM is supporting Rohingya participants to use bicycles procured and painted locally to ride throughout pre-identified sections of the camp. Thye cyclists use megaphones to deliver pre-recorded messages to each area.
The initiative is conducted by Rohingya refugees, for Rohingya refugees, and has already reached approximately 67,000 beneficiaries across the camp. Scaled-up messaging will continue as Covid-19 numbers rise..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-06-12
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Human rights lawyers: Facebook posts of officials 'may constitute evidence of genocidal intent' against Muslim minority.
Description:
"Lawyers bringing a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Myanmar of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority have asked a United States district court to order Facebook to release posts and communications from the country's military and police.
The ICJ, based in the Hague, has agreed to hear a case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya in violation of a 1948 convention.
More:
UN's Guterres asks Bangladesh to move Rohingya to refugee camps
First coronavirus case found in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps
Bangladesh quarantines hundreds of Rohingya rescued from sea
The ICJ, a United Nations court commonly known as the World Court, accepts cases between states, and the case against Myanmar was brought by the Gambia with the backing of a group of Muslim countries.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have fled a crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, which considers members of its Rohingya minority to be foreigners. Rights groups have documented killings of civilians and burning of villages. Myanmar authorities say they have been battling an insurgency and deny carrying out systematic atrocities.
In 2018 UN human rights investigators said that Facebook had played a key role in spreading hate speech that fuelled violence in Myanmar. Facebook has said it is working to block hate speech.
A request, filed on behalf of the Gambia on June 8 with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, calls on Facebook to release "all documents and communications produced, drafted, posted or published on the Facebook page" of Myanmar military officials and police forces..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-11
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide
Language:
more
Sub-title:
A new report has detailed how movement restrictions are devastating the lives of Rohingya in Rakhine and helping to maintain their enforced segregation from the state’s other ethnic groups.
Description:
"On May 25, the government published a report in The Global New Light of Myanmar that detailed progress made in Rakhine State implementing recommendations of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission.
One of the items that drew my particular attention showed the discrepancy in access to tertiary health care between Muslims and other ethnicities. Of 26,860 patients treated between September and December last year at Sittwe General Hospital, the state’s only tertiary medical institution, only 814 – or just 3 percent – were Muslim.
Since the flight of hundreds of thousands Rohingya to Bangladesh in 2017, Muslims (Rohingya and Kaman) probably comprise between 20pc and 25pc of the state’s population. This puts the fact that they accounted for only 3pc of admissions to Sittwe General Hospital in a stark light.
This new information is welcome because acknowledging such discrepancies should spark efforts to understand and address them. A new report does just that. Support independent journalism in Myanmar. Sign up to be a Frontier member.
The report, Freedom of Movement in Rakhine State, by the Independent Rakhine Initiative, an evidence-based advocacy project, sheds light on reasons for this particular discrepancy, and much more. The study was conducted between March 2019 and January 2020 and used a qualitative methodology consisting of a literature review and interviews and focus group discussions with 211 individuals. It builds on an evidence base of 1,056 interviews conducted for IRI’s earlier reports on access to health, education and livelihoods.
It shows that perhaps more than any other human right, freedom of movement does not stand on its own. It “underpins the ability of individuals to live free and dignified lives, and is instrumental for the enjoyment of other rights, including access to health care, education and livelihoods”. IRI researched one of the key recommendations of the final report in August 2017 of the Rakhine State Advisory Commission, led by the late Mr Kofi Annan: to undertake a mapping exercise to identify all existing restrictions on movement in Rakhine affecting the state’s diverse ethnic communities and to develop a roadmap for the lifting of restrictions..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-10
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"Bangladesh and Myanmar are at odds over the origin of two coronavirus cases confirmed among the latter’s Rohingya community.
The dispute started when Myanmar’s Health Ministry confirmed that two Rohingya men -- a Muslim and a Hindu -- had tested positive for COVID-19 in the country.
Some media outlets in Myanmar, citing local lawmakers, reported that both men had recently returned from the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh, home to more than 1 million Rohingya refugees.
However, on Tuesday, Dhaka rejected the reports as “totally false and baseless.”
Mahbub Alam Talukder, Bangladesh's commissioner for refugees, relief, and repatriation, said the claim was a continuation of Myanmar’s “fabricated speeches.”
“This is completely wrong and inaccurate information. No Rohingya has returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh in the past few years,” he told Anadolu Agency.
He said such a journey would be particularly hard right now due to the coronavirus restrictions imposed in Rohingya camps.
“It’s quite impossible for any Rohingya person to go from Bangladesh to Myanmar amid the virus restrictions,” said Talukder.
On June 4, Myanmar said a Rohingya man who tested positive for COVID-19 was admitted to a hospital in Maungdaw, a town near its western border with Bangladesh.
Soe Aung, district administrator for Maungdaw, said the 38-year-old patient was among five Rohingya people who returned to Rakhine state from Bangladesh on May 30, according to local online website Narinjara.
Then, late on Monday, the Health Ministry said a 25-year-old Rohingya Hindu man was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19.
“Villagers said he arrived alone on June 3. Some people who have come into contact with him have also been shifted to a quarantine site for 21 days,” Aung told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.
Myanmar has a total of 244 cases, including six deaths and 159 recoveries, while Bangladesh’s overall count is at 71,675, with 975 deaths and over 15,300 recoveries.
According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a brutal crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, bringing the number of the persecuted people in Bangladesh to above 1.2 million.
Although a plan to repatriate Rohingya refugees has stalled, Myanmar in April claimed that more than 600 Rohingya had returned from Bangladesh of their own volition.
In a statement last week, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen accused Myanmar of not accepting a single Rohingya person in the last three years since the community’s August 2017 exodus..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-06-10
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Testimonies reveal harrowing details of life on ships, as Malaysia detains more than 200 Rohingya found off Langkawi.
Description:
"Left to starve for months at sea, Rohingya children who escaped Bangladesh's refugee camps took "desperate" journeys to reach Malaysia on flimsy smuggling boats, according to a new report released as it emerged Malaysian authorities had detained nearly 300 Rohingya trying to reach the country by sea.
Testimonies by refugee children, who were rescued from a boat found adrift in the Bay of Bengal in April, revealed how they were beaten and forced to watch their parents' bodies thrown overboard. UN's Guterres asks Bangladesh to move Rohingya to refugee camps
First coronavirus case found in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps
Bangladesh quarantines hundreds of Rohingya rescued from sea
"It is clear that Rohingya families are still so desperate that they are ready to make dangerous journeys, often at the mercy of criminal organisations," Hassan Saadi Noor, Asia Regional Director of Save the Children, which compiled the report, said in a statement.
Hassan is urging countries across the region "to share the responsibility" of both protecting and providing for the Rohingya, while also working with Myanmar to find a long-term solution to this crisis.
"As long as Rohingya do not see a future for themselves, families will continue to make dangerous journeys and put themselves in harm's way in search of a better life," Hassan said..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-09
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Children, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
more
Description:
"Malaysia on Monday (Jun 8) detained 269 Rohingya migrants when they tried to enter the country on a damaged boat off the holiday island of Langkawi, authorities said.
The Southeast Asian country, which does not recognise refugee status, has been a favoured destination for ethnic Rohingya who fled a 2017 military-led crackdown in Myanmar and more recently squalid conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Acting on a tip-off received a day earlier, Malaysian authorities intercepted a boat ferrying the Rohingya in the pre-dawn hours of Monday off Langkawi off the northwestern corner of the Malaysian peninsula.
A coastguard vessel spotted the suspected migrant boat off the island, and was set to push it out to international waters, authorities said.
But as the coastguards approached, 53 Rohingya jumped into the sea and were detained.
"An inspection of their boat found 216 Rohingya migrants and the body of one female illegal immigrant. Further inspections found that the boat was deliberately damaged ... making it unfit to be turned back," Malaysia's National Task Force (NTF) on border patrol said in a statement.
According to the statement, a Marine Police Team boat and the KM Kimanis from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) were sent to the scene to carry out surveillance and deportation operations.
"When the KM Kimanis approached the boat, 53 of the Rohingya jumped off the boat and swam ashore, but they were all arrested by MMEA personnel who were standing by on land," said the statement.
The KM Kimanis also provided food and fresh water to them. The National Security Council allowed the boat to be towed to the Teluk Ewa Jetty in Langkawi..."
Source/publisher:
"CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of publication:
2020-06-09
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Malaysia-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"As conflict escalates in western Myanmar amid the rise of coronavirus cases in the country, there is growing concern of a deepening humanitarian crisis. As of May 26, Myanmar has recorded 206 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6 deaths. Clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), an armed group seeking greater autonomy for ethnic Rohingya people, have displaced hundred thousand people since conflicts started over a year ago.
Recent spike in conflicts since late March have left 32 deaths, 71 injuries and forced more people to flee their homes. Last month, former UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee accused the Myanmar army of new atrocities and called for investigation into “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the country’s Rakhine and Chin states. Developments in the past month suggest that the situation in conflict-affected areas may further deteriorate and put vulnerable people at risk during the pandemic.
On May 10, the Myanmar military announced a unilateral “ceasefire” with the objective it claimed was to help contain and prevent the spread of the global pandemic. However, the ceasefire left out Rakhine state and Paletwa township of Chin state, where clashes between the AA and the Myanmar military have been intensifying in recent weeks. Earlier in March, the Myanmar government designated the AA as a terrorist group.
The Myanmar military’s decision to keep Rakhine and Chin states out of the ceasefire seems to be driven by its calculation that the pandemic provides an opportunity for it to focus on the AA, as the ceasefire allow it to keep the peace with other ethnic armed organizations in different parts of the country and even explore ways to work together in the fight against the pandemic.
A recent reshuffle of the Myanmar military’s top brass, a report suggests, was primarily aimed at concentrating on the Rakhine conflict. Citing “insiders”, the report claims that “moderate” officers have been replaced in key positions with direct implications on the Rakhine conflict. The visit of Myanmar commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to Shan state and his meetings with leaders of ethnic armed groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) are also believed to have links with the development in Rakhine state..."
Source/publisher:
"Observer Research Foundation (ORF)" (India)
Date of publication:
2020-05-30
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
more
Description:
"In what the United Nations (UN) has referred to as a risky ‘sport of human ping pong’, the displaced Rohingyas at sea are oscillating from one country to another in hopes of gaining entry to Malaysia or Thailand since February this year. While some were rescued by the coast guard when the boats had returned to Bangladesh in mid-April and early May, the apprehensions remained that more such trawlers are still at sea being denied access owing to the COVID19 scare.
The few hundreds of displaced Rohingyas rescued were severely emaciated, dehydrated and could barely walk due to a shortage of food and water. Several of them had died in the boat and their bodies were disposed off at sea. Such abysmal conditions has forced us to ponder that what propels these displaced people to venture out on such dangerous expedition and what happens to most of them eventually? For quite some time now, Malaysia and Thailand appear to be lucrative destinations for these hapless people. They believe that once they arrive there, it will put an end to their ongoing anguish of being in caged like circumstances with next to no economic or social engagements. Thus, they agree to commence unsafe sea journeys in search for better prospects.
However, behind these anticipated aspirations, a ruthless trafficking network lurks that preys on such vulnerable conditions. According to latest reports, the blight of human trafficking affects some 40 million people in South and South East Asia. Women and girls account for 71 percent of modern slavery numbers. Women and children particularly are enmeshed in an atrocious network of sexual exploitation, forced labour and coerced marriage.
The population of around 885, 000 Rohingyas currently reside in Bangladesh, and their stateless status and displacement has eroded their financial capabilities. Restriction of movement, the stalled repatriation efforts between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar coupled with isolation and desperation has heightened crimes like human trafficking to flow smoothly. Thus, men, women, and children are enticed either with false work assurance or are simply abducted. Once an offer is accepted, individuals are often trapped, abused, and not paid the agreed amount and even sometimes held for ransom until their family pays an exorbitant sum to rescue them. Physical and sexual form of abuse is common for women and children who are frequently forced into prostitution after accepting jobs as domestic workers. Men are coerced to work within inhuman conditions as bonded labourers. Ironically, the current COVID-19 pandemic may have saved these people from a fatal future ahead..."
Source/publisher:
"Observer Research Foundation (ORF)" (India)
Date of publication:
2020-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar has sidelined an international court order to improve conditions for its long-embattled Rohingya minority, despite fears that the Southeast Asian government is trying to commit genocide against the group, observers say.
The U.N.’s International Court of Justice in January ordered Myanmar to "take all measures within its power" to prevent any acts of genocide against ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who fled the country amid a bloody military crackdown in 2017. The ICJ ordered Myanmar to submit a report within four months on what actions it is taking to comply with the court's decision, and to submit follow-up reports every six months after that.
The court last month accepted the first of the required reports, but its contents have not been released.
Nevertheless, observers contacted say there has been little change.
“The situation to me seems like it’s more of the same,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “There has not been any major deterioration, but also no major new measures.”
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Myanmar to control people’s movement in Rakhine state in western Myanmar where about 400,000 Rohingya live, Thitinan said. Legislative elections set for November will embolden the government to stiffen its stance toward the Rohingya, he added. Voters of other groups see the Muslim minority as uninvited people allowed in during British colonial rule over Myanmar. “The Rohingya is a very paradoxical issue,” Thitinan said. “To the outside world, there’s a lot of sympathy and outcry. Within Myanmar, it’s the opposite.”
The Rohingya crisis has tarnished the international reputation of Myanmar’s de facto head of state, former opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar has targeted the Rohingya in a “systematic” way, a court news release said. “Genocidal acts” including mass murder, rape and setting fires were intended to wipe out the group, the release said. It pointed to an increase in those acts starting from August 2017..."
Source/publisher:
"VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication:
2020-06-06
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide
Language:
more
Description:
"This year, Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) partners – UN agencies and NGOs, together with the Government of Bangladesh, mark World Environment Day and its 2020 theme of biodiversity amidst a COVID-19 pandemic in the Rohingya refugee camps and host communities. Humanitarian partners renew their commitment to safeguard the environment and biodiversity in Cox’s Bazar District, which hosts the world’s largest refugee settlements and is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Since the Rohingya influx in August 2017 and under the leadership of the Government, UN agencies and NGOs have made collective strides in restoring the unique forest reserves and conserving endangered species including elephants, in Ukhiya and Teknaf, and the wider district. Humanitarian actors have reforested over 1,000 hectaresin the camps and surrounding host communities, including through the planting of indigenous species to stabilize land against erosion, which helps to protect Rohingya and Bangladeshi families from the dangers of slope failures and flooding.
The humanitarian community has also implemented watershed management strategies that are safeguarding streams, canals, banks, reservoirs, and ponds, and simultaneously reducing landslide vulnerability to protect the lives and property of Bangladeshi and Rohingya people living Cox’s Bazar District. Furthermore, UN agencies and NGOs have provided livelihoods support in sustainable climate-smart agriculture. Furthermore, efforts have been made to install solar powered lighting within the camps including in public areas and at the household level..."
Source/publisher:
ISCG via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2020-06-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
117.26 KB 161.21 KB
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Sub-title:
Bangladesh has urged the European Union to put more pressure on Myanmar to take back Rohingya refugees living in makeshift camps in Cox's Bazar.
Description:
"Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen made the appeal during a courtesy phone call with Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney yesterday, said a press statement issued by the foreign ministry.
Momen thanked his Irish counterpart for the continued support on the Rohingya issue but also expressed deep concern over the lack of progress in the repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar.
To date, Myanmar has not taken back a single Rohingya refugee since some 750,000 Rohingya refugees fled brutal military crackdown in the Rakhine state of Myanmar from August 2017.
The foreign minister hoped that if elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Ireland will play a more robust role in the Council. Simon Coveney told Momen that Bangladesh has shown extraordinary generosity in hosting a huge number of persecuted Rohingyas from Myanmar.
"Bangladesh has played a very significant role in extending temporary shelter to this huge number of Rohingyas, a number almost equivalent to a quarter of the population of Ireland," he added.
The Irish minister applauded the leadership role of Bangladesh in UN Peacekeeping and expressed willingness to work jointly in this area.
Dr Momen informed his counterpart about the availability of a huge pool of IT experts (6,00,000) whose expertise could be used by Ireland.
He also requested the Irish government to ease and facilitate visa procedures for Bangladesh nationals.
Momen also expressed concern that many foreign buyers are dishonouring their contracts during this pandemic..."
Source/publisher:
"The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-06-04
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
" Two alleged Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) fighters died in a clash with security forces on Thursday evening on the Bangladesh border, according to Myanmar’s military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun.
“Troops undertaking border security duties clashed with around 30 ARSA troops at around 4 pm on Thursday. We found two bodies and two guns with them,” said Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun.
Border police on patrol engaged with alleged ARSA personnel near Mee Dike Village between border posts 34 and 35. After 30 minutes of fighting, the ARSA personnel retreated to the southeast, according to Myanmar’s military.
Two ARSA fighters in uniforms were found dead along with firearms and ammunition. Some police were injured, said Myanmar’s military.
Several clashes have been reported by government troops in recent years with ARSA in northern Rakhine State near the Bangladesh border. Myanmar’s military is also engaged in ongoing, heavy fighting with the Arakan Army in northern Rakhine State.
Two policemen were wounded in an alleged ARSA ambush on a Border Guard Police patrol on the border in early May.
According to the military, ARSA – which the government has labeled a terrorist organization – launched a series of attacks on security outposts in northern Rakhine on Aug. 25, 2017, killing 12 personnel.
The attacks prompted Myanmar’s military to carry out clearance operations that have driven around 730,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh.
The Gambia, a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, filed a case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya at the International Court of Justice. The UN court in January ordered Myanmar to comply with four provisional measures as requested by The Gambia..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2020-06-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The Ministry of Education is having problems getting schools ready to reopen because some are being used as COVID-19 quarantine facilities or temporary shelters for villagers fleeing fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and Tatmadaw (military).
Description:
"In Shan State, 13 basic education schools serving as quarantine centres have still not been returned to the authorities, said U Win Maung, Shan State’s education officer.
He said the schools are being used to quarantine migrant workers who have returned from China or Thailand. “It’s the government’s responsibility to arrange for suitable alternative quarantine sites,” he said. “Township education officers will inform them about it on June 15. There should not be any delay.”
U Sai Phoe Phyat, a state legislator for Muse, said schools in his township are being used as quarantine facilities. In Rakhine State, which has only one confirmed COVID-19 case, several schools are being used as temporary shelters for villagers displaced by fighting between the AA and Tatmadaw.
Most of the 7000 displaced villagers in Kyauktaw township are staying in nine schools, said U Maung Than Sein, a Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) MP for Kyauktaw. “We can’t just tell them to move,” he said. “The authorities should find them suitable accommodation elsewhere.”
On May 26, the government announced that high school classes would resume first, followed by primary and middle schools two weeks later.
But there is a strong possibility that some schools in Rakhine would not be able to reopen due to the fighting.
On May 13, the Union Government Office ordered the return of 6021 school buildings being used as quarantine centres or temporary refugee camps by June 15 so that the Ministry of Education could prepare them for the reopening of classes..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Education in Burma/Myanmar - general, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State
Language:
more
Description:
"COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Rohingya refugees infected with coronavirus are fleeing quarantine in their Bangladesh camps because they fear being transferred to an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal, community leaders said on Thursday (Jun 4).
At least two infected refugees have gone missing since testing positive for the virus after the first COVID-19 death was reported on Tuesday, they said.
About one million Rohingya - most of whom fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 - are packed into camps along the Bangladesh border, and the coronavirus has become the latest cause of misery.
Aid agencies have long warned that the virus could cause chaos in the overcrowded camps, where social distancing is virtually impossible.
So far only 29 infections have been detected, although 16,000 Rohingya are in quarantine zones within the camps.
It was not immediately clear how many tests have been conducted in the camps, but a senior health official said two people who proved positive had "fled the isolation hospital". He added that only 20 refugees agreed to be tested in the past two days because they believe those infected will be sent to Bhashan Char island in the Bay of Bengal.
"It has created mass panic," Nurul Islam, a community leader, told AFP.
Bangladesh authorities have long wanted to establish a camp for 100,000 people on the isolated island, and have already sent 306 Rohingya there..."
Source/publisher:
"CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of publication:
2020-06-04
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
38-year-old man is among 5 Rohingya who reportedly returned to Myanmar's Rakhine state from Bangladesh
Description:
"A Rohingya man in Myanmar tested positive for the novel coronavirus, authorities said on Thursday, the first confirmed case in the persecuted Muslim minority in the country's western Rakhine state.
The Rohingya man is being treated at a public hospital in Maungdaw, a town near Myanmar’s western border with neighboring Bangladesh, the Health and Sports Ministry announced.
The 38-year-old man was among five Rohingya people who returned to Rakhine from Bangladesh on May 30, according to Narinjara, an online news outlet based in the state capital Sittwe.
Citing Maungdaw district administrator Soe Aung, it said a five-member family of returnees from Bangladesh to Myanmar has been quarantined at a transition camp since May 31.
Maung Ohme, a lawmaker from Maungdaw, confirmed the return of a Rohingya family on May 30.
"Swab samples of five people who returned from Bangladesh were sent to Yangon for testing, and one tested positive," he told Anadolu Agency by phone on Thursday.
"He is now in hospital, but his four fellow family members, who tested negative, are still at Hla Phoe Kaung transition camp," he added..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-06-04
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"29 confirmed cases of COVID19 in the Rohingya refugee camps, of a total 798 confirmed cases in the District – see IEDCR
6,514 older persons in the camps and host communities received COVID-19 awareness messages through community engagement activities
21,913 Bangladeshi households in Ukhiya and Teknaf received agricultural inputs (12,135 HH) and cash support (9,778 HH) to support livelihoods impacted by COVID-19
5,641 hand-washing stations installed in public places in the camps as well as at 80 entry points to the camps
20,000 Rohingya mothers trained on how to check the nutritional status of their children for referral to integrated nutrition facilities
33,091 Rohingya learners received COVID19 education guidelines in their households from 376 Burmese Language Instructors..."
Source/publisher:
ISCG via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2020-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
272.49 KB - reduce version
more
Sub-title:
Aid workers warn of a humanitarian disaster if the outbreak is not checked in the world's largest cluster of camps.
Description:
"An elderly Rohingya refugee has become the first person to die from the novel coronavirus in the camps in southern Bangladesh, officials said.
The man, aged 71, died on May 31 while undergoing treatment at the camp's isolation centre, said Bimal Chakma, a senior official of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission, on Tuesday.
More:
Coronavirus: In dense Bangladesh, social distancing a tough task
Coronavirus pandemic threatens Bangladesh garment industry
Bangladesh scientists create $3 kit. Can it help detect COVID-19?
"Today we got the confirmation that he tested positive for COVID-19," he said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are members of a mostly Muslim minority who fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. More than a million of them live in camps in Cox's Bazar, a coastal district in southeast Bangladesh.
The death was in the Kutupalong shelter - the biggest refugee camp in the world - which alone is home to roughly 600,000 people..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"The Myanmar military has rejected a proposal by three ethnic armies to begin cease-fire talks in a bid to kick-start the country’s stalled peace process, instead vowing further retaliation for armed offensives and ambushes, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
The Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armies — the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) — extended the invitation to begin peace talks in a statement issued Monday.
De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s four-year-old government has long sought to end Myanmar’s multiple ethnic wars with historic peace talks. But those talks have sputtered, while only 10 of the country’s 20-some ethnic armies have signed a 2015 nationwide cease-fire pact that is seen as the foundation of peace talks.
The Brotherhood Alliance trio, which has not signed the agreement, also announced Monday that it was extending a current unilateral cease-fire from June 1 to Aug. 31, and issued an appeal for both sides to protect civilians, end the civil war, and assist with coronavirus prevention activities.
The announcement came three days after the AA launched a retaliatory attack on a border guard outpost in Rakhine state, killing four policemen and capturing six others. The AA also seized three family members of the officers, but later released them.
The AA ambushed the outpost to strike back at government soldiers for an attack on the AA in Paletwa township of abutting Chin state, which the AA also claims as its territory.
In March, the Myanmar government declared the AA, a predominantly Buddhist force that seeks greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhine people in the state, an illegal association and terrorist group — raising the stakes in a conflict that begin with AA attacks on government border posts in late 2018 and early 2019..."
Source/publisher:
"Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-06-02
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Armed conflict and peace-building in Burma - theoretical, strategic and general
Language:
more
Sub-title:
A public reassessment of the Rohingya crisis will require deeply uncomfortable conversations to be held in the open, and great courage and humility on the part of many prominent figures.
Description:
"As the wheels of justice slowly turn at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, it’s easy to forget the hysteria that took over Myanmar in late 2017.
Newspapers across the world ran images of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing a military crackdown in Rakhine State, which had been launched in response to attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts. As international condemnation followed, the pages of Myanmar social media were filled with defiance. The popular narrative went that the largely stateless Rohingya had attacked their hosts, the Myanmar citizenry, in a campaign of Islamist terror that the world was intent on denying. Faced with this apparent threat, members of the public felt they had a duty to rally behind their government. Pressured to conform, and fired by fear and anger at what they perceived to be blatant lies in international media, many people said things they probably now regret. One of them might be Ko Zayar Lwin, the jailed member of the Peacock Generation thangyat troupe. As Frontier reported on May 24, the young dissident wrote a series of Facebook posts at the height of the crisis that included claims that the Rohingya – whom he called by the derogatory labels “kalar” and “Bengali” – were burning down their homes before fleeing to Bangladesh, and that it was difficult to distinguish ordinary Rohingya from “terrorists”.
“The situation has turned these people whom we regard as terrorists into poor things in the eyes of the world,” he wrote in a post dated September 8, 2017, showing what many would regard as a shocking lack of empathy.
“These people” had been denied citizenship and confined for years to camps and villages without freedom of movement, and with extremely limited access to health and schooling. They were now in the crosshairs of a military whose history of violence against civilians is well documented..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
more
Description:
"An Argentine court has moved one step closer to opening a historic investigation against Myanmar's military and civilian leadership over genocide against the Rohingya people, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) said today.
The court in Buenos Aires on Friday overturned a previous decision not to pursue a case against State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and senior officers in the Myanmar military. Instead, it has requested more information from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure that a case in Argentina would not duplicate other justice efforts, BROUK said in a statement. The Argentine court's progress comes in addition to the ICC investigation and the Gambia's case filed in November, 2019 against Myanmar for violating the Genocide Convention with the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
On November 13, last year, BROUK filed a petition with the Argentinian court to open an investigation into the role of Myanmar's civilian and military leaders in committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingyas. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, such crimes can be investigated anywhere in the world regardless of where they were committed.
"For decades, Myanmar authorities have tried to wipe the Rohingya out as a people. Today, the Argentinean judiciary has sent a clear signal that it is taking seriously the pursuit of justice for some of the worst crimes of our time, and we are grateful for this display of leadership and respect for international law," said Tun Khin, President of BROUK. "Today's ruling brings us closer to what victims most want to see -- that the architects of the genocide against the Rohingya face a court of law. We are convinced that a universal jurisdiction case in Argentina will only complement and strengthen other international justice efforts, not undermine them," he said..."
Source/publisher:
"The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-06-02
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
In a significant development, Buenos Aires court admits petition to probe Myanmar leaders’ role in Rohingya genocide
Description:
"A court in South American country of Argentina has decided to pursue a case against Myanmar's leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi and senior officers in the military over the genocide and persecution against Rohingya community.
In a statement issued on Monday, Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK) said that Argentina’s Federal Criminal Chamber No. 1 has accepted its petition and asked to collect more information on the Rohingya genocide.
The court, in its decision on May 29, overturned a previous order when it had rejected to admit a similar petition seeking to probe the role of Myanmar leadership in the acts of genocide.
“A court in Buenos Aires on Friday overturned a previous order of not to pursue a case against [Myanmar’s] State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and senior officers in the Tatmadaw [the Myanmar military],” the statement said.
“The court has now requested more information from the International Criminal Court (ICC), to ensure that the case in Argentina would not duplicate other efforts of justice,” the statement added.
An Argentinian court on Dec. 9, 2019, had rejected the lawsuit filed by BROUK seeking to open an investigation into the role of Myanmar’s civilian and military leaders in committing genocide and crimes against the Rohingya.
Citing the principle of “universal jurisdiction”, the BROUK pleaded that the cases of genocide and extreme crimes against humanity can be tried in any court across the globe.
Earlier the court had pointed out that admission of the petition would amount duplicating the investigation launched by the ICC.
The ICC on Nov. 14, 2019, approved a full investigation into Myanmar's alleged crimes against the minority Rohingya Muslims..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-06-02
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Residents fled Lekkar village last April, when fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army came to town
Description:
"More than 190 homes in an abandoned village in northern Rakhine state were set ablaze Saturday, locals told Myanmar Now.
Villagers fled Lekkar village, in Mrauk-U township, for nearby monasteries and displaced persons camps more than a year ago, when fighting between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) intensified there.
Residents in Pi Pin Yin village, about a mile and a half from Lekkar, heard gunshots and an explosion around 2pm Saturday, then saw smoke rising from the village, a local monk who requested anonymity told Myanmar Now.
The monk is a native of Lekkar but is currently living in Pi Pin Yin. He said his relatives’ homes were lost in the fire.
The residents of nearby villages, including Pi Pin Yin and Bu Ywat Ma Nyo, told Myanmar Now they saw Tatmadaw troops entering the village around the time the fires began and the monk in Pi Pin Yin said he saw the same troops leaving around 5pm.
Nearby villagers also told the Sittwe-based Development Media Group they saw about 50 Tatmadaw soldiers enter the village just before the gunshots and fires began.
The military’s commander-in-chief said in a statement released on Sunday that Tatmadaw troops entered the village Saturday afternoon while patrolling the area and were attacked by the AA. When Tatmadaw troops fired back, it said, AA soldiers began setting the homes on fire before retreating into the mountains east of the village..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-18
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State
Language:
more
Sub-title:
NLD members are in hiding and Rakhine nationalists from the ANP have gone off the radar after being released on bail as rivalries turn ugly in Taungup
Description:
"In 2012, 12 Muslim men were dragged off a bus and murdered by a mob while travelling through Taungup in southern Rakhine. It was the start of a bout of sectarian riots that helped plunge the state into the chaos it faces today.
But despite this grim mob killing, the township has since been largely peaceful and stable compared to other parts of Rakhine.
The armed conflict and hostile nationalist politics that have scarred the north - where the Arakan Army (AA) is battling the Myanmar military for greater autonomy - have mostly spared the state’s south.
But events in recent weeks suggest this is changing.
It started on May 5 when 53-year-old Than Shwe, who worked closely with the NLD and served his village’s Covid-19 prevention committee, was abducted in the early hours of the morning.
A military statement later that afternoon claimed that he had been snatched by “knife-wielding” AA members as he slept in his home in Bu Shwe Maw village.
Two days after the abduction, the Sittwe-based Development Media Group reported that several NLD members in Taungup had gone into hiding after a group of people posing as police officers tried to arrest them.
“Who else will have to run?” asked former Rakhine municipal affairs minister Min Aung, who lives in Taungup and is an NLD member, in a Facebook post. “They’ve abducted U Than Shwe and he’s just a normal civilian in Bu Shwe Maw. We don’t know if he’s been killed or not.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-29
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
Language:
more
Sub-title:
"Nobody knows how many people have died. It could be 50 or even more," recalls Khadiza Begum.
Description:
"The 50-year-old was among 396 Rohingya Muslims who had tried to reach Malaysia but who finally returned to the Bangladeshi shore after the boat carrying them was stranded at sea for two months.
Her estimate on the number of deaths comes from the funerals her son officiated as an imam, a Muslim preacher, on the same boat.
The human smugglers never delivered them to their longed-for destination.
Khadiza had to run away from her home in Myanmar because of violence that UN investigators described as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
Neighbouring Bangladesh gave her shelter, settling the fleeing Rohingya Muslims in what has now become the world's largest refugee camp.
Around one million Rohingya are housed in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, and some among them, like Khadiza, hold dreams of a better life in Malaysia, lying across the Bay of Bengal..."
Source/publisher:
"BBC News" (London)
Date of publication:
2020-05-29
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Military says it will “take action” against soldiers who beat civilians in videos that went viral on Sunday
Description:
"The Myanmar military has admitted its soldiers beat a group of civilian detainees in Rakhine state after videos of the incident went viral on social media this weekend.
Five Rakhine villagers, all in their early 20s, were arrested in their hometown of Ponnagyun and charged under anti-terrorism laws in late April. They’ve been in Tatmadaw and police custody since.
In three separate videos that went viral on Sunday, Tatmadaw soldiers are seen repeatedly beating the blindfolded and handcuffed young men on a boat on the way to Sittwe, the state capital, on April 27.
“Some members of the security forces performed unlawful interrogations against them,” the military said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
In the video, a man in a Tatmadaw hat shouts “we’ll kill all of you” as he steps on the detainees’ faces and stomps on their chests.
After their initial arrest, a Tatmadaw spokesperson told reporters the men were arrested on suspicion of harboring ties to the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine armed group the government has deemed a terrorist organisation..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-12
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Discrimination against the Rakhine
Language:
more
Topic:
Civil War, International Court Of Justice (ICJ), Rohingya
Topic:
Civil War, International Court Of Justice (ICJ), Rohingya
Description:
"Myanmar recently sent its first report to the International Criminal Court on the steps it’s taking to protect the Rohingya. The report isn’t public, but Rohingya activists and rights advocates say ongoing violence and human rights abuses show Myanmar hasn’t complied with the court’s orders.
Editorial
Rights advocates and ethnic Rohingya activists say Myanmar is failing to comply with orders from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take steps to protect the Muslim minority from ongoing genocide.
On May 23, Myanmar submitted its first report to the ICJ outlining how the government and military are complying with the court’s orders to prevent genocide and preserve evidence. The court issued the orders in January after the first hearings in the case brought by The Gambia charging Myanmar with genocide, as the case could take years to resolve.
Though the report is not yet public, ALTSEAN Burma (the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma) and other groups claim Myanmar has done little to end violence against ethnic minorities, prevent discrimination or stop hate speech and violence.
Following the ICJ hearing, there have been at least five cases in which Rohingya civilians were killed by the Myanmar military or in fighting between the military and ethnic armed group the Arakan Army (AA).
In an op-ed in Frontier Myanmar, three Rohingya youth leaders—Zahidullah, Shohid and Abdullah Zubair—say Myanmar hasn’t changed its course since the ICJ hearing in January.
“If we had an opportunity to respond to Myanmar’s report, the following is what we would say.
In the four months since the ICJ issued the provisional measures ruling, our lives in Bangladesh and Myanmar have become worse,” the three wrote. They say that Rohingya groups have documented at least 54 cases of rights abuses against Rohingya in Rakhine between January and May..."
Source/publisher:
"ASEAN Today" (Singapore)
Date of publication:
2020-05-30
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Expectations about international justice are unrealistically high among Rohingya in the camps in Bangladesh, and the case before the ICJ is likely to end in disappointment.
Description:
"On May 23, Myanmar had to submit its first report to the International Court of Justice in The Hague about the measures it has taken to prevent the genocide of the Rohingya people. The report was not made public so we can only guess what Myanmar is telling the court about the situation in Rakhine State.
There have been many times during the past three years when discussions about the Rohingya have taken place in other countries without our involvement. If we had an opportunity to respond to Myanmar’s report, the following is what we would say.
In the four months since the ICJ issued the provisional measures ruling, our lives in Bangladesh and Myanmar have become worse. There is no justice for us in the camps, where we have no education, no livelihoods, no movement, no internet and no hope for the future.
There is no justice for the Rohingya who are forced to flee on boats and are abused and extorted by people smugglers.
Support independent journalism in Myanmar. Sign up to be a Frontier member.
There is no justice for the hundreds of young men who are forced to join criminal gangs in the camps, or the women and girls who are harassed and abused by gang leaders. There is no justice for our brothers and sisters in Rakhine who are caught in the middle of a war that is not their own.
Rohingya civil society groups that help refugees have been documenting abuses in Rakhine since the ICJ handed down its ruling in January. Between January and May they have recorded 54 cases of human rights abuses against Rohingya, including deaths and injuries by landmines and shelling. Because the internet has been blocked on both sides of the border, we think the number of cases is likely much higher..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-28
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Description:
"Last Sunday, Myanmar submitted its first report to the International Court of Justice, elaborating on the measures it has taken to protect the Rohingya ethnic minority from genocide. The ICJ had issued a provisional order on Myanmar in January following a call to action made by The Gambia, urging Myanmar to take all necessary means to prevent genocide acts and incitement from happening.
In 2017, Myanmar’s military launched a clearance operation in the Rakhine state in response to an offensive attack by an armed Rohingya group. The violent aftermath that followed this crackdown has forced more than 750,000 Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh, languishing in squalid conditions in the world’s largest refugee camp. Another 600,000 Rohingya citizens still reside in the Southern area of Myanmar.
The ongoing crackdown of Myanmar’s security forces had led to mass killing, rape, torture, forced displacement, and other human rights violations, which the ICJ has cited as war crimes or crimes against humanity. Rohingya’s villager homes were ransacked and set on fire, which could be seen from the border in Bangladesh. Discrimination against the Rohingya, however, is not a new phenomenon. According to Aljazeera, “nearly all Rohingya have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.” The Rohingya have been described by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as one of the most discriminated and persecuted populations in the world..."
Source/publisher:
"The Organization for World Peace"
Date of publication:
2020-05-28
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Description:
"The Myanmar Parliament has approved a budget of 680 million kyats (US$484,000) for the country’s defense at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against genocide charges filed by The Gambia.
Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin defended the government’s budget before a vote on Wednesday, responding to criticism from a military-appointed lawmaker by saying that the budget was made in line with laws and procedures.
As lawmakers discussed proposed additions to budgets for the 2019-20 fiscal year last week, military lawmaker Major Naing Lin Aung asked if the proposed budget of 680 million kyats was in line with laws and procedures.
“We will have to face the lawsuit for years. So, I’d like to say that the proposed addition to the budget is in line with financial procedures and laws,” said U Kyaw Tin.
The budget for the defense at the ICJ falls under the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The joint public accounts committee suggested slashing 626.7 million kyats (US$446,000) from the 4.4 billion kyat-budget proposed by MOFA.
The Union Parliament accepted the cut and approved the adjusted MOFA budget on Wednesday. The budget covers hiring of legal experts and advisors, travel to the ICJ and meetings inside and outside the country, said U Kyaw Tin.
He said that in November of last year, MOFA explained its plan to defend against the lawsuit at the ICJ to President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, vice-presidents, parliamentary speakers, military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and region and state chief ministers.
“The ministry was able to satisfactorily explain how its expenditures are in line with regulations. As our country is being sued and we face a lawsuit at the international level, there must be sufficient budget. This must be accepted,” said lawmaker Daw Pyone Cathy Naing, who is also a member of the Lower House International Relations Committee..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2020-05-28
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Burmese authorities are using COVID-19 response measures as a pretext to harass and extort Rohingyas.
Description:
"This is what life is like for the 130,000 internally displaced Rohingyas trapped in detention camps in central Rakhine state in Myanmar: in the camps, they have no future, with little access to land or livelihoods. They depend on foreign aid supplies and die of treatable diseases because of limited access to healthcare. Shelters, built in 2012 to last two years, have deteriorated. Most children can only attend basic classes at temporary learning spaces.
Burmese authorities are using COVID-19 response measures as a pretext to harass and extort Rohingyas and are doubling down on a system in which they are already effectively incarcerating the population. Rohingyas in the camps told Human Rights Watch that military and police forces regularly subject them to harassing physical punishment at checkpoints. One Rohingya woman said the police made her do sit-ups for 30 minutes for not wearing a mask through a checkpoint, after which she was too exhausted to move. Another man witnessed people being forced to perform squats at a checkpoint with their hands on their ears.
Last week, the government of Myanmar delivered its much-anticipated first report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — following the court’s unanimous January 23 provisional measures order — explaining what it has done to protect the 600,000 ethnic Rohingyas in Rakhine state, whom a United Nations-backed fact-finding body said remain under threat of genocide..."
Source/publisher:
"The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of publication:
2020-05-28
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Three sections of camps in Bangladesh blocked off by authorities after confirmed infections among refugees hit 29.
Description:
"At least 15,000 Rohingya refugees are under quarantine in Bangladesh's vast camps, as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections there rose to 29.
Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Rohingya who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement in the area in April. More:
First coronavirus case found in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps
Rohingya refugees sketch their stories through 'grassroot comics'
Coronavirus shutdown threatens Chicago's Rohingya cultural centre
Despite this, the first cases in the camps were detected in mid-May.
"None of the infections are critical. Most hardly show any symptoms. Still, we have brought them in isolation centres and quarantined their families," Toha Bhuiyan, a senior health official in the surrounding Cox's Bazar area told AFP news agency on Monday. He said narrow roads to three camp districts - where the majority of the infections were detected - have been blocked off by authorities. The 15,000 Rohingya inside these so-called blocks faced further restrictions on their movement, he said.
This comes as charity workers expressed fears over being infected in the camps as they worked without adequate protection.
Two of the areas under isolation are in Kutupalong camp, home to roughly 600,000 Rohingya.
"We are trying to scale up testing as fast as possible to make sure that we can trace out all the infected people and their contacts," Bhuiyan said..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-27
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Myanmar's military admits troops had entered Let Kar village but blamed the arson attack on Arakan Army rebels.
Description:
"Satellite imagery shows that about 200 homes and other buildings were destroyed by fire in recent weeks in an ethnic Rakhine village in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said - the latest in a series of brutalities allegedly committed by soldiers against civilians of different ethnic backgrounds.
"The burning of Let Kar village has all the hallmarks of Myanmar military arson on Rohingya villages in recent years," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW said in a statement on Tuesday.
More:
UN envoy calls for investigation into 'possible war crimes' in Myanmar
Eight killed in Myanmar's troubled western state of Rakhine
Myanmar military steps up attacks under cover of coronavirus
"A credible and impartial investigation is urgently needed to find out what happened, punish those responsible, and provide compensation to villagers harmed."
Earlier this month, Myanmar's military was also forced to acknowledge that its troops abused ethnic Rakhine prisoners, after a video of soldiers battering blindfolded detainees spread on social media.
Myanmar's armed forces have been battling the Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group seeking greater autonomy for the western region, for more than a year. Clashes in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin states have escalated in recent weeks, leaving dozens dead and thousands displaced..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-27
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State
Language:
more
Description:
"At least 25 more people in Cox’s Bazar, including four Rohingyas refugees, tested positive for Covid-19 between Sunday and Monday morning, according to sources in Cox’s Bazar Medical College Hospital.
Of the new samples from 90 people, which were tested at the hospital’s laboratory, 25 tested positive and 69 negative, confirmed Dr Md Shahjahan Nazir, an associate Professor at the hospital.
With the new patients, a total of 381 people have so far tested Covid-19 positive in different areas of Cox’s Bazar district, and 29 of them are Rohingyas living in refugee camps.
Four people have died and 64 people recovered from the disease so far in the district..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-25
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Description:
"Some 15,000 Rohingya refugees are now under coronavirus quarantine in Bangladesh's vast camps, officials said on Monday (May 25), as the number of confirmed infections rose to 29.
Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement to the area in April.
Despite this, the first cases in the camps were detected in mid-May.
"None of the infections are critical. Most hardly show any symptoms. Still we have brought them in isolation centres and quarantined their families," Toha Bhuiyan, a senior health official in the surrounding Cox's Bazar area told AFP.
He said narrow roads to three districts of the camps - where the majority of the infections were detected - have been blocked off by authorities.
The 15,000 Rohingya inside these so-called blocks faced further restrictions on their movement, he said. It comes as charity workers expressed fears over being infected in the camps as they worked without adequate protection.
Two of the areas under isolation are in Kutupalong camp, home to roughly 600,000 Rohingya..."
Source/publisher:
"CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of publication:
2020-05-26
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar, on Saturday, confirmed that it had submitted a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), or sometimes called the World Court, on preventing further acts of genocide against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority as well as preserving evidence of the genocidal campaign seen in recent years.
In January, the top UN court issued a provisional order asking Myanmar to take certain preventive measures against the genocide of the Rohingya community in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar, reports Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
About its compliance report, a Foreign Ministry official of Myanmar, on Saturday said: “We submitted it to the ICJ today.”
As he was not authorized to speak to the media, he sought anonymity, and informed the report was based on three directives issued by the president’s office this April in response to the ICJ order.
He said Myanmar’s President Win Myint ordered the regional government and military not to remove or destroy evidence of a genocide, and prevent anyone and all groups from committing genocidal acts as well as prevent incitement and hate speech against the Rohingya population.
“What I know is that the report was based on what we have done and what we are doing regarding these three directives,” commented the official.
It is unclear if the court will make the report public..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-24
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide
Language:
more
Topic:
Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas Refugees and Migrants Crisis and Conflict Religious Freedom Refugee Rights Asylum Seekers Internally Displaced People
Sub-title:
Independent Inquiry Needed in Embattled Rakhine State
Topic:
Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas Refugees and Migrants Crisis and Conflict Religious Freedom Refugee Rights Asylum Seekers Internally Displaced People
Description:
"Satellite imagery shows that about 200 homes and other buildings were destroyed by fire on May 16, 2020, in Myanmar’s embattled Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. An impartial investigation is urgently needed to determine responsibility for this mass destruction of residential property in the predominantly ethnic Rakhine village of Let Kar, Mrauk-U township.
Since January 2019, fighting between the Myanmar military and the ethnic Rakhine Arakan Army has resulted in numerous civilian casualties and destruction of civilian property. The imagery of Let Kar bears a close resemblance to patterns of fires and widespread arson attacks by the Myanmar military on ethnic Rohingya villages in Rakhine State in 2012, 2016, and 2017, Human Rights Watch said.
“The burning of Let Kar village has all the hallmarks of Myanmar military arson on Rohingya villages in recent years,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “A credible and impartial investigation is urgently needed to find out what happened, punish those responsible, and provide compensation to villagers harmed.”
Satellite imagery recorded on May 16, 2020 at 10:30 a.m. shows no signs of damage in Let Kar. But at 2:12 p.m., an environmental satellite detected extensive fires burning there. The Human Rights Watch damage analysis of 200 buildings burned is most likely an underestimate as internal damage to buildings is not visible..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-05-26
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State
Language:
more
Description:
"No confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in Rohingya camp as of 19 April 2020. However, six COVID-19 positive cases were reported from host community in Cox’s Bazar.
WHO is leading the health sector and working together with ISCG, providing technical support and guidance to partners setting up Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) facilities. The health sector confirmed commitment from seven identified partners to support the rapid establishment of 11 SARI isolation and treatment centers(ITCs) in the camps and nearby host population as of 18 April 2020.
A Standard Operating Procedure of COVID-19 surveillance and contact tracing draft with key elements to assess the risk effectively, has been finalized and shared with Epidemiology working group (WG) members...As per UNHCR report of March 2020, there are 859 808 Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar. This includes 34 917 refugees from Myanmar who registered before 31st August 2017. All Rohingyas, including new arrivals, face compounding vulnerabilities, including in health. WHO has been responding to this crisis since September 2017. A summary of response actions from epidemiological weeks 13 to 16 of 2020 is presented below..."
Source/publisher:
World Health Organization (Geneva) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2020-05-11
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
289.94 KB
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
Authorities put camps under lockdown but failed to provide adequate food, masks, hand sanitizers, says head of NGO
Description:
"Rakhine state, a conflict-torn region in western Myanmar, finally reported the presence of COVID-19 as the country recorded nearly 200 cases late this week.
Two men in Rakhine, who recently returned from Malaysia, tested positive for coronavirus, raising concerns about the possible spread of the virus in overcrowded camps across the region.
“Now we have two patients, and imagine the situation in overcrowded camps once a refugee gets infected,” said San Kyaw Hla, who chairs the Rakhine regional parliament.
“Sittwe, [capital of Rakhine] has overcrowded camps, but IDPs [internally displaced persons] still don’t have a chance to adopt protective measures,” he told Anadolu Agency.
“This virus is indiscriminate. It won’t spare anyone, regardless of race and religion.”
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs this February, Sittwe housed 103,557 out of 130,886 Rohingya Muslims, who were displaced by communal violence in mid-2012, in 16 makeshift camps.
More than 700 ethnic Rakhine recently arrived in Sittwe as they fled fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, a mainly Buddhist group that claims to fight for the rights of ethnic Rakhine.
Ongoing and escalating fighting displaced more than 164,221 civilians, mostly ethnic Buddhists, in 10 townships in Rakhine state since January 2019, according to the Rakhine Ethnic Congress (REC), a local non-profit.
“There were only around 30,000 displaced people last April, and now the number exceeds 160,000,” said REC Secretary Zaw Zaw Tun.
“People are fleeing their homes to escape the fighting that is happening on a daily basis,” he told Anadolu Agency..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-05-24
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
more
Description:
"Kyaw Thu* waited until night fell before taking his family to the bank of a river not far from their village. While millions across the world were told to remain at home to stay safe from the coronavirus pandemic, he and his neighbours were forced to flee.
That night in March, he recalls, residents from Tin Ma village, in Rakhine state, clambered anxiously into boats, crossed the river, then trekked through foothills to seek refuge in the relative safety of a nearby town. No one switched on a torch or even lit a cigarette for fear of drawing the attention of Myanmar’s army.
It is less than three years since the Myanmar military’s violent crackdown on Rohingya Muslim communities in Rakhine state, a campaign of violence that has since led to a genocide case in the UN’s highest court. Now the army is once again accused of committing war crimes against its own people. The tactics are familiar, but the primary targets this time are Rakhine Buddhists such as Kyaw Thu, as well as Rohingya, Mro, Daignet and Chin communities.
Despite sharing a faith with Myanmar’s rulers, Rakhine Buddhists have long complained of persecution, and say the development of their state has been stifled by the central government. Repression has now, they say, escalated into violent atrocities.
For more than a year, a long-simmering conflict has escalated between the military and the Arakan army, a rebel group drawn from Rakhine state’s Buddhist majority, that says it is fighting for greater autonomy..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-05-25
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Document about steps Myanmar took for protecting Rohingya from genocide is with ICJ, official says as critics cry foul.
Description:
"Myanmar has submitted its first report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), detailing what it has done to protect the minority Rohingya from genocide.
The Hague-based court issued a provisional order in January, asking Myanmar to safeguard the mostly Muslim group in western Rakhine state as part of "provisional measures" at the start of a trial expected to take years.
More:
UN envoy calls for investigation into 'possible war crimes' in Myanmar
Eight killed in Myanmar's troubled western state of Rakhine
Myanmar to release 25,000 prisoners to mark New Year festival
The top UN court agreed last year to consider a case brought by The Gambia alleging that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya, an accusation vigorously denied by the government.
Myanmar's military in August 2017 launched what it called a "clearance operation" in Rakhine state in response to an attack by a Rohingya armed group. The crackdown forced more than 730,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh and led to widespread accusations that security forces committed mass murder, gang rape, torture and arson.
A foreign ministry official told Turkey's Anadolu news agency the report submitted on Saturday was based on three directives issued by President Win Myint's office in April.
It is unclear if the court will make the report public.
Speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, the official said the president ordered the regional government and military not to remove or destroy evidence of a genocide.
He also instructed them to prevent genocidal acts as well as incitement and hate speech against the Rohingya.
"What I know is that the report was based on what we have done and what we are doing regarding these three directives," said the official..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-25
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Refugees Allege Torture, Limited Health Care, Food on Bhasan Char Print
Description:
"The Bangladesh government has kept over 300 Rohingya refugees confined on Bhasan Char, a remote silt island in the path of a “super cyclone” without adequate protections or safety measures, Human Rights Watch said today. Three people were reported killed in Bangladesh soon after the storm struck the coast.
The authorities should take immediate steps to ensure safety and transfer the refugees, including nearly 40 children, to the camps in Cox’s Bazar as soon as possible. The United Nations refugee agency and other humanitarian organizations are there, prepared to provide them with critical services and reunite them with their families.
“The Bangladesh government properly brought Rohingya refugees stranded at sea ashore, but holding them on a tiny island during a cyclone is dangerous and inhumane,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Our fear that Bhasan Char would become a ‘floating detention center’ has now turned into a fear of a submerged one.”
Cyclone Amphan made landfall on the Bangladesh coast on the evening of May 20, 2020, though it shifted course slightly so Bhasan Char is no longer in its direct path. Bangladesh’s Land Ministry has previously reported that Bhasan Char could be submerged by a strong cyclone at high tide. About 300 Bangladesh security officials are also on the island..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-05-20
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Cyclones - regional, Natural Disasters - General, Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Crowded population, violation of social distancing rules contributing to rapid spread of virus in camps, says official
Description:
"Bangladesh’s crammed Rohingya camps are threatened with the coronavirus outbreak as the infection tally rose to 21 with eight new cases reported on Friday, a government official said on Saturday.
The first COVID-19 case in the world’s biggest refugee camps was recorded on May 14 and it took one week to push the infection tally to the second digit mark.
Mahbubur Rahman, the government civil surgeon in Cox’s Bazar, told Anadolu Agency that the high density of population and frequent violation of social distancing rules in the crowded Rohingya camps are responsible for the spread of the pandemic.
“Twenty-one infections in the packed camps of over one million people is not at all a big figure. We are trying to sort out the immediate contacts of the new infected to isolate them,” Rahman said.
He added: “Despite various preventive measures, virus transmission in Rohingya camps is continuing as social distancing rules are being violated.”
Since the novel coronavirus was first reported in China last December, human rights bodies and experts have been warning over possible rapid spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh’s packed camps if once the virus is transmitted there.
Bangladeshi authorities repeatedly assured wholeheartedly of preventive measures to stem the contagion in the camps..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-05-23
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Description:
"“I feel that I can support my people to protect them from Coronavirus by listening to their worries and giving them information.” – Noor Ahmed****, a Rohingya woman outreach volunteer. She is one of many Rohingya women volunteers at the frontline of the COVID-19 response who are sharing prevention messages in their communities and producing protective masks. Rohingya women like Noor have noted their appreciation for the opportunity to support their communities to prevent the spread of COVID-19, particularly as they are able to leave their homes and relieve the tension and anxiety of the pandemic situation confirmed cases of COVID19 in the Rohingya refugee camps.
4 confirmed cases of COVID19 in the Rohingya refugee camps. 199 confirmed cases in the District
44,972 WASH facilities and public buildings were disinfected in the camps and host communities
243,775 individuals in the camps and host community participated in community engagement activities on COVID-19
100 % nutrition frontline staff and volunteers in the camps and host community were oriented on COVID-19
38,801 students in the District received high energy biscuits as part of a school feeding programme
11 May a consultation paper by UN Women and IOM was published on Rohingya community social dynamics and COVID-19..."
Source/publisher:
Search Results Web results Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2020-05-20
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
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pdf
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Sub-title:
Myanmar leaders said to order prevention of genocidal acts and hate speech against Rohingya Muslims
Description:
"Myanmar confirmed on Saturday that it had submitted a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on preventing further acts of genocide against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority as well as preserving evidence of the genocidal campaign seen in recent years.
In January, the top UN court issued a provisional order asking Myanmar to implement certain preventive measures against the genocide of the Rohingya community in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.
About Myanmar’s compliance report, a Foreign Ministry official on Saturday told Anadolu Agency over the phone: “We submitted it to the ICJ today.”
On condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media, the official said the report was based on three directives issued by the president’s office this April in response to the ICJ order.
He said Win Myint, Myanmar’s president, ordered the regional government and military not to remove or destroy evidence of a genocide while it must prevent anyone and all groups from committing genocidal acts as well as prevent incitement and hate speech against the Rohingya.
‘What I know is that the report was based on what we done and what we are doing regarding these three directives,” said the official..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-05-23
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
End Inhumane Indefinite Detention of Asylum Seekers
Description:
"Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) unhindered access to Rohingya from Myanmar to determine whether they qualify for refugee status, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s inhumane policy of holding Rohingya arriving in Thailand in indefinite detention should be immediately repealed.
The latest group of Rohingya arrived in Thailand by land, crossing from Myanmar into Mae Sot district of Tak province on May 20, 2020. Thai authorities arrested at least 12 Rohingya and sent them to the Mae Sot immigration detention facility. Approximately 200 Rohingya are being held in immigration detention and other facilities across Thailand.
“The Thai government should scrap its policy of summarily locking up Rohingya and throwing away the key, condemning them to indefinite detention in cramped and unhygienic detention centers now susceptible to a Covid-19 outbreak,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The Rohingya have been brutally persecuted in Myanmar. Thailand should permit the UN refugee agency to screen all Rohingya arriving in Thailand to identify and assist those seeking refugee status.”
Refugee screening is crucial for protecting Rohingya asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said. The Myanmar government and military have long persecuted the Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority group who have lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine State for generations. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, who have been effectively denied citizenship in Myanmar, have fled repression and dire poverty. Human trafficking gangs have abused and exploited many of those who eluded death during their dangerous journey..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-05-21
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar
Language:
more
Sub-title:
4 months after UN court orders Myanmar to prevent Rohingya genocide, Yangon scheduled to submit first report on May 23
Description:
"Myanmar on Saturday will submit its first compliance report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on a previous order to prevent and not commit genocide against the Muslim Rohingya minority in the country.
Early in January, the top UN court issued a provisional order asking Myanmar to implement certain preventive measures against the genocide of the persecuted community.
The ICJ may rule against making the report public. However, Myanmar was ordered to share a copy of the report with Gambia for the West African country to submit its comments.
The ICJ is set to hear Myanmar on its implementation of "all measures taken to give effect" to its order, seeking to ensure Yangon prevents genocidal acts -- including by its own security forces -- and preserve all potential evidence of genocidal acts.
The ICJ had given to Myanmar four months, ending on May 23, 2020. Subsequent reports will be filed every six months.
However, the UN's former Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said Myanmar had not taken any steps since the order.
"Sadly, no progress at all," Lee said in a webinar organized by the Global Justice Center.
The ICJ delivered its verdict on a case filed last December by Gambia.
The Maldives has also hired prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to represent the persecuted Rohingya at the UN court alongside Gambia..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-05-22
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Description:
"Ahead of the 23 May deadline for Myanmar to report on its compliance with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) order to take “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya, Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Asia, said:
“Despite the International Court’s order nothing has changed for the estimated 600,000 Rohingya who live in Rakhine State in dire conditions, including around 126,000 whom the authorities are holding indefinitely in camps.”
“The Rohingya in Rakhine State are still denied their rights to nationality, freedom of movement and access to services, including healthcare. They are also caught in an escalating armed conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. “Internet blackouts have kept the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine and Chin States deprived of potentially life-saving information and impeded monitoring of the humanitarian situation on the ground. This information blackout puts people at greater at risk, especially in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While Myanmar’s recent presidential directives ordering government personnel not to commit genocide or destroy evidence appear in line with the International Court order, the reality remains that no meaningful steps to end atrocities - including the crime of apartheid - have been taken.
“An additional directive ordering officials to halt ‘hate speech’ is long overdue, but lacks sufficient guarantees that it cannot be used to further curtail freedom of expression. Without meaningful follow-up and transparency around Myanmar’s compliance with the ICJ order, these measures can only be seen as window dressing..."
Source/publisher:
"Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-05-22
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Sub-title:
As the deadline approaches to answer to the UN’s top court about abuses against the Rohingya, the government and the military are using the same old tricks
Description:
"Myanmar has until tomorrow to submit a report to the United Nation’s highest court detailing what it is doing to protect the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority from genocide.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the report, the first of many, as part of “provisional measures” at the start of a trial that is expected to take years.
It made the ruling after The Gambia accused Myanmar of genocide following mass rapes and killings against the Rohingya that forced over 730,000 to flee to Bangladesh in 2017.
In response to this case, the government and the military are taking slightly different, but equally flawed, approaches.
The government has tried to feed people inside Myanmar a nationlist narrative about the need to fight “terrorists” while presenting itself abroad as diplomatic and reasonable.
The military, meanwhile, is brazenly continuing its attacks in Rakhine but pursuing sham accountability against soldiers who have been caught red-handed abusing civilians.
Both are attempts to appease the international community by giving the appearance of cooperation, and neither is a genuine effort to take this opportunity to right the injustices done to the Rohingya and other minority groups..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-22
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
First case of COVID-19 confirmed in Rohingya refugee camp
Description:
"The Government of Bangladesh should utilize existing quarantine facilities for Rohingya refugees potentially exposed to COVID-19 and suspend its use of Bhasan Char island for refugees, said Fortify Rights today. Bangladesh authorities confirmed yesterday the first case of COVID-19 in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District.
Bangladesh authorities are currently holding in quarantine at least 300 Rohingya refugees on Bhasan Char, a poorly equipped, flood-prone island located off the coast of mainland Bangladesh. On May 7, the Bangladesh Navy transferred to Bhasan Char Rohingya survivors found on board a ship adrift in the Bay of Bengal. Five days earlier, on May 2, Bangladesh authorities detained and transferred to the island 29 Rohingya survivors who escaped from a ship after making payments to the traffickers in exchange for their release.
Fortify Rights believes that at least one more ship with up to 500 Rohingya refugees on board remains stranded at sea. On May 2, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen announced to the media, “Any new Rohingyas, if there are, will be sheltered at the Bhasan Char.”
Fortify Rights interviewed a Rohingya survivor and four family members of survivors sent to Bhasan Char on May 2 as well as humanitarian aid workers.
“My daughters are now on Bhasan Char,” said “H.K.,” a Rohingya father in Kutupalong camp. “They told me [by mobile phone] they are having difficulties and they were crying. They said they are very much afraid to stay [on the island].”
The Government of Bangladesh first proposed the idea to relocate Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char in 2015. Dhaka eventually developed the island and planned to relocate refugees beginning in 2018 but repeatedly postponed relocation plans after consistent outcry and concern from Rohingya, governments, U.N. experts, and human rights and humanitarian organizations. In an open letter to Prime Minister Sheik Hasina on November 12, 2019, Fortify Rights and 38 other organizations called on the government to facilitate a U.N. technical assessment to ensure the arrangements on the island meet international standards before proceeding with relocations. The government has yet to facilitate such an assessment and questions remain about the arrangements on the island..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-15
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Rohingya Refugees are being fenced in and communication blocked, just as coronavirus cases are confirmed in camps, MPs hear
Description:
"The crowded and unsanitary conditions in the Rohingya camps are likely to confound efforts to stop coronavirus spreading, warns the International Development Committee in its report, Humanitarian crises monitoring: the Rohingya.
Most countries around the world are relying on social distancing to contain coronavirus. The population density of the refugee camps for the Rohingya makes this impossible. Overcrowding at service distribution points and the lack of washing facilities make efforts to control a possible outbreak difficult. Further, with a severe shortage of PPE and isolation beds, and no ventilators in the region, there is little help that cases can be effectively treated.
The Rohingya also have no access to online information on avoiding infection and are unable to easily report symptoms to medics, due to a ban on internet access and owning SIM cards by the Bangladesh authorities. The Committee also received reports of fences being built around and between the camps, potentially further restricting access to services and to each other.
International Development Committee Chair, Sarah Champion MP, said:
“The suffering of the Rohingya has moved us all, and as they face coronavirus, I find myself wondering, when will they get a break?
“They have been suffering for far too long in crowded, stressful and often unsanitary camps – conditions perfect for coronavirus to thrive. The UK Government must continue to lead the international response to support the Rohingya and apply its diplomatic muscle to preventing a humanitarian catastrophe..."
Source/publisher:
Govt. UK (London)
Date of publication:
2020-05-21
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), The discussion on humanitarian assistance to Burma, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
Format :
pdf
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330.12 KB
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Sub-title:
The country has until May 23 to provide evidence to the International Court of Justice that genocide has stopped
Description:
"The clock is ticking down to a May 23 deadline for Myanmar’s government to provide demonstrable evidence that it has taken substantive action in the first four months of 2020 to protect its Rohingya minority from genocide.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) imposed that deadline in January in response to The Gambia’s petition for “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya from “real and imminent risk” of genocide by Myanmar authorities.
Those provisional measures are the ICJ’s first response to The Gambia’s official complaint of Myanmar’s violations of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention. The complaint cited the extreme violence that the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, along with Border Security Guard units and armed Buddhist Rakhine civilians, unleashed against Muslim Rohingya civilians in late 2017. The ICJ decision imposed a series of obligations on the Myanmar government linked to a specific timetable for detailing its efforts to meet those benchmarks. The obligations include “taking all measures within its power to prevent” actions that meet the legal definition of acts of genocide and to ensure that the Myanmar military “do not commit acts of genocide, or of conspiracy to commit genocide, of direct and public incitement to commit genocide, of attempt to commit genocide, or of complicity in genocide.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication:
2020-05-21
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar, Genocide, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Description:
"THE office of the Commander-
in-Chief of Defence Services
reported that members of the
AA terrorist group kidnapped
5 hundred-household group
leaders of Kabaw village and
Malar village in Kyauktaw
Township, Rakhine State, on
18 May. On the morning of 18
May, hundred-household group
leaders U Pan Thar and U Wai
Thar Aung from Kabaw village
and hundred-household group
leaders U Maung Han Thein,
U Aung Saw, U Maung Thein
Tun, U Maung Thar Win and
U Tin Win of Malar village,
and four women were on their
way from Malar village to pick
up COVID-19 objects supplied
by the Union government and
purchase necessary supplies
in Kyauktaw village.
The group divided up to
purchase the supplies at Kyauktaw’s
market and around 12
pm, U Pan Thar and U Maung
Thar Win were abducted by 10
AA terrorists in civilian clothing
near Kissapa Thiri Road.
U Maung Han Thein, U Wai
Thar Aung and U Aung Saw
were also abducted by 10 AA
terrorists in civilian clothing
near a pharmacy on Min Saw
Mon Street, to the north of the
market, around 12:30 pm Meanwhile,
U Maung Thein Tun is
reportedly missing.
The AA terrorist group is
reportedly kidnapping, intimidating
or killing civilians and
civil servants who do not support
them.
The AA terrorists also
reportedly attacked medical
personnel and security forces
carrying out COVID-19 containment
processes by planting
an explosive mine near the
Kissapanadi Bridge, Kyauktaw,
on 11 May.
This unprovoked kidnapping
of hundred-household
leaders performing their duties
to pick up COVID-19 aid supported
by the Union government
is also a disruption from
benefiting the public, according
to the office of the Commander-
in-Chief of Defence Services..."
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Ministry of Information via "The Global New Light of Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2020-05-21
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
269.75 KB
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
Conflicts have paused in much of Myanmar, opening a window for the government, military and ethnic armed groups to pursue a holistic response to the coronavirus. The parties should also work together in Rakhine State, where fighting persists, to limit the disease’s spread.
Description:
"What’s new?...Amid a lull in fighting in much of the country, the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups appear willing to put aside politics and work together to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The exception is Rakhine State, where conflict is escalating, putting medical workers at risk and exacerbating a potential health disaster.
Why does it matter?...Conflict-affected areas of the country are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 but often outside state control. A successful response to the pandemic will require close coordination among the government, the military and ethnic armed groups, many of which have long run their own health systems. What should be done? The government, military and ethnic armed groups should work together to combat the virus through prevention, surveillance, testing and referrals. In Rakhine, they should ensure the safety of health workers, enable access to displaced populations and strengthen COVID-19 prevention messaging...Overview
A major COVID-19 outbreak could have devastating consequences in a country as conflict-affected as Myanmar, where health spending is limited, governance is weak, hundreds of thousands of people are displaced by fighting, and the government cannot reach many areas held by ethnic armed groups. Reducing transmission as much as possible so that the health system can better cope will require cooperation with these groups, many of which run their own health systems. Promising discussions that have already begun between the government and various ethnic armed groups should continue in earnest to enable a holistic response in areas of the country where conflict is presently limited. The exception is Rakhine State, where fighting continues to escalate between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army, undermining prevention efforts and putting the lives of health workers at risk. Here, all sides should ensure the safety of medical personnel, allow humanitarian access to displaced and other vulnerable populations, and work to improve public adherence to mitigation measures..."
Source/publisher:
"International Crisis Group (ICG)" (Belgium)
Date of publication:
2020-05-19
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The first COVID-19 case has been found in Rakhine State at 8pm on May 18, according to the health ministry.
Description:
"Case-188 is a 35-year-old man who lives in Thandwe township in Rakhine State and a returnee from Malaysia. The man was tested positive while undergoing a facility quarantine in Thandwe. He has now been admitted to the Thandwe General hospital for treatment.
This marks the fifth case, starting with Case 184, where repatriates who returned to Myanmar after working in Malaysia have tested positive. The National Health Laboratory tested 188 persons and the Department of Medical Research in Yangon Region tested 170 persons suspected of being infected with the virus in the latest batch. Moreover, four more COVID-19 patients are on the road to recovery after recent tests showed no remaining signs of the virus.
The first and second patients, Case-36 and Case-48, who are on the road to recovery are from Insein and South Okkalapa townships in Yangon and both of them were infected while attending a religious ceremony in Insein. Their test results have returned negative twice.
The third and fourth patients on the road to recovery, Case-88 and Case-114, are both from Kalay township in Sagaing Region. They were infected Case-1, a US green card holder from Tedim township, Chin State.
From January 31 to May 18 at 8 pm, the government tested 14,561 people for the disease, the health ministry said..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-18
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Public Health, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Two tested positive on Saturday , one on Sunday
Description:
"At least another three Rohingyas from the camps in Cox’s Bazar have tested positive for coronavirus, worrying government officials and host communities.
Of the three new infected persons, two tested positive on Saturday and the other one was found infected on Sunday, according to two government sources.
With the new cases, the number of infected Rohingyas, who live in a very congested situation, stands at 4. The Rohingya camps, home to nearly a million persecuted people from Myanmar, reported their first Covid-19 case on Thursday.
“We have got three more positive cases in the Rohingya camps – two on Saturday and one today (Sunday). The total number is now 4,” Kamal Hossain, deputy commissioner (DC) of Cox’s Bazar, told Dhaka Tribune on Sunday night.
Dr Anupam Barua, principal of Cox’s Bazar Medical College where the testing took place, told this correspondent: “Yes, two Rohingyas tested positive on Saturday and one on Sunday.”
“But, I am not sure whether the total number of infected is four or five. You better call the civil surgeon for confirmation,” he said.
On Thursday, it was initially reported that two Rohingyas had tested positive, but it turned out later that one Rohingya and one Bangladeshi from the host community had tested positive..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"“The NLD government still has time to make this right by taking the following actions without delay: Immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners and drop charges against those who are being persecuted for their fundamental right to freedom of expression; stop harassing the media and reporters for doing their legitimate work; repeal repressive legislation and enact laws that enshrine press freedom and freedom of expression.”
Myanmar has announced that it will indeed go ahead with the 2020 general election as planned, most likely in November. However, as noted by civil society organizations in light of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, freedom of expression is in decline in the country. It is essential that this fundamental freedom is guaranteed to hold the government accountable, to monitor the fairness of the elections and ensure transparency and fairness in its organization, and to scrutinize the platforms of the political parties that will contest it.
One of the most pressing concerns in regard to freedom of expression and restrictions on the press, is the ongoing internet shutdown in Rakhine and Chin States. While one township in Rakhine State, Maungdaw, was recently taken off this list, this is probably a tactical PR move from the government given the upcoming reporting deadline to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on progress on implementation of measures as ordered by the Court. The remaining eight townships, however, are black holes of information. This is particularly galling in the context of both the coronavirus pandemic – where information dissemination is key for public health – and the ongoing armed conflict, in which 157,000 people have been displaced and the Myanmar military continues to commit egregious human rights violations. It has now been ten months without internet access in this part of Myanmar. Furthermore, on the same day that the Myanmar government officially announced its first coronavirus cases, they also announced that over 230 websites would be blocked. While the government gave the reason that such sites either contain adult content or spread ‘fake news,’ the reality is that some of these websites are essential ethnic media outlets such as Karen News and the Rakhine-based Development Media Group. These media outlets are not purveyors of ‘fake news’ but trusted local agencies that provide valuable information regarding the ground situation in their respective areas, areas where mainstream domestic or international media do not have access to. This valuable information pertains not just to the coronavirus pandemic, but also on the human rights violations and atrocities committed by the Myanmar military..."
Source/publisher:
Progressive Voice (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2020-05-10
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar
Language:
more
Description:
"Hundreds of Rohingya rescued by Bangladesh and sent to a flood-prone island after being stranded at sea for weeks should be moved to existing refugee camps, the UN secretary general said.
The appeal by Antonio Guterres to Bangladesh's foreign minister in a letter obtained Sunday by AFP comes as concern grows over a coronavirus outbreak in the sprawling, crowded camps near the border with Myanmar.
The Rohingya were rescued in early May after floating adrift in the Bay of Bengal. Dhaka has said they were not sent on to the camps in the southeast as authorities were afraid they might have COVID-19.
READ: Bangladesh says COVID-19 detected in Rohingya refugee camp - official
Guterres said the 308 refugees on Bhashan Char island - a silty strip of land prone to violent and potentially deadly monsoon storms - should be moved to the camps after their time in quarantine is completed.
Dhaka has not said how long they will remain in isolation. "While those rescued at sea may be quarantined for public health purposes, they must also be extended the protection they deserve as refugees," Guterres said in the letter to Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen dated Friday..."
Source/publisher:
"CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of publication:
2020-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
" Myanmar authorities seized over 487,000 stimulants in Rakhine State, according to a release from the Ministry of Home Affairs on Sunday.
Acting on tip-offs, the anti-narcotic police force stoped and searched a vehicle in Maung Taw Township on Saturday.
A total of 487,500 stimulants were confiscated from the vehicle and one suspect was arrested.
The township police filed a case against the suspect under the country's relevant law, the release said.
According to the latest release issued by the President's Office, a total of 1,102 drug-related cases were registered across Myanmar while 1,689 suspects were charged as of May 9, since the formation of the Drug Activity Special Complaint Department on June 26, 2018..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua" (China)
Date of publication:
2020-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) - Myanmar, Drugs and Burma: general links, reports and articles, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Refugees rescued in early May floating adrift in the Bay of Bengal are held at an island prone to deadly monsoon.
Description:
"Hundreds of Rohingya rescued by Bangladesh and sent to a flood-prone island after being stranded at sea for weeks should be moved to existing refugee camps, the UN secretary-general said.
Antonio Guterres made the appeal to Bangladesh's foreign minister in a letter that was obtained on Sunday by AFP news agency.
More:
Emergency teams race to contain virus spread in Rohingya camps
First coronavirus case found in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps
Bangladesh quarantines hundreds of Rohingya rescued from sea
The Rohingya were rescued in early May after floating adrift in the Bay of Bengal and sent to Bhashan Char island - a silty strip of land that is vulnerable to monsoon storms.
Dhaka has said the 308 were sent to the island rather than the camps in Cox's Bazar because authorities were afraid they might have the viral disease, also known as COVID-19.
Guterres said the refugees should be moved to the camps after their time in quarantine is completed.
Dhaka has not said how long the Rohingya will remain in isolation..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-18
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"THE President’s Office has formed the ‘Criminal Investigation
and Prosecution Body’ to investigate and prosecute for criminal
cases in Rakhine State in accordance with the recommendations
in final report of Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE). The
body is investigating the criminal cases mentioned in the report.
The body is also conducting its investigations in prioritized
places and cases out of 13 locations included in the ICOE report.
A combined task force has also been formed, comprising of the
members of Union Attorney-General’s Office and the Myanmar
Police Force, for effective implementation of its works. The
task force also sought coordination and recommendation of the
Special Unit on International Criminal Justice organized by the
President’s Office.
According to the report of ICOE, some criminal cases happened
in 13 locations of Maungtaw, Buthidaung and Yathedaung
townships included cases decided in courts, cases with first information
report at the relevant police stations and cases under
the police disciplinary procedures. Moreover, a total of 12 cases
with FIR and the 4 cases with police disciplinary procedures are
under investigation. To date, a total of 91 cases have been filed
for legal proceedings..."
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Ministry of Information via "The Global New Light of Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2020-04-16
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
263.67 KB
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
Recent cases in crammed camps 'alarming' situation, says doctor
Description:
"There is growing fear of the rapid spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh's crammed refugee camps housing more than one million Rohingya after three cases were confirmed recently.
“The lethal virus has finally started infecting the overcrowded Rohingya camps. It’s an alarming situation for us,” said Mahbubur Rahman, a government civil surgeon in Cox’s Bazar, a coastal district where the camps are located.
Bangladeshi authorities have stepped up ongoing restrictions in the sprawling camps, scaling down the presence of aid organizations while the local administration declared a strict ban on the presence of any outsiders at camps.
In early May, over 300 Rohingya were moved to a remote and uninhabited islet citing risks of coronavirus contamination in the camps.
“Since the very beginning of the first case we have been taking all precautionary measures, but ultimately one Rohingya has been reported positive for COVID-19 along with another host community member who worked at a grocery shop inside the camps,” Rahman told Anadolu Agency.
The infected local resident has been isolated at his house near the Rohingya camps..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-05-16
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
"A Rohingya man has become the first person to test positive for COVID-19 in the vast refugee camps in Bangladesh that are home to almost one million people, officials said Thursday.
Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped, sewage-soaked alleys of the camps in the Cox's Bazar district, where the persecuted Muslim minority have been housed in canvas and bamboo shacks since they fled a military offensive in neigbouring Myanmar more than two years ago.
Local health coordinator Abu Toha Bhuiyan initially said two refugees had been put into isolation (this story has since been updated).
The World Health Organization later said one case was of a Rohingya man, and the other was of a local man who lived near the camp and was being treated at a clinic inside the area.
"One patient is from the refugee population and the other one from the surrounding host population," WHO spokesman Mr Catalin Bercaru told AFP.
Bercaru said "rapid investigation teams" were being deployed to follow up on the two cases. The patients' contacts are being traced for quarantine and testing..."
Source/publisher:
"AFP" via "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-14
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
"At least 1,000 Rohingya are stranded at sea as Southeast Asian nations tighten their borders to keep out the new coronavirus, Amnesty International said on Friday, urging action to ensure they were not buried in an “invisible graveyard” at sea.
Rights groups believe at least two boats carrying Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority from Myanmar, are off the coast of the Indonesian province of Aceh, but officials said they had no clear information.
Spokesmen for the Western Fleet of the Indonesian navy as well as Aceh’s disaster mitigation agency and search and rescue team told Reuters they were trying to confirm the location of the vessels.
Refugees from two other boats have landed in Bangladesh since mid-April, many starving and emaciated after weeks at sea. Survivors from one said dozens died on board.
Saad Hammadi, from the South Asia Regional Office of Amnesty International, said the refugees could have been sailing for several weeks or even months without food or water, citing information from humanitarian agencies and local news reports..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-05-15
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya
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Sub-title:
Aid groups say coronavirus could race through camps housing one million people
Description:
"Aid groups have warned of a looming humanitarian disaster after coronavirus was detected for the first time in the sprawling camps that host about one million Rohingya refugees.
The camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, which are more densely populated than some of the world’s busiest cities, have been under lockdown since 14 March in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading.
As the number of coronavirus infections has continued to rise in Bangladesh, health experts and Rohingya community leaders have become increasingly concerned about possible outbreak among refugees. On Thursday, such fears were confirmed when the UN announced that an ethnic Rohingya refugee and another person had tested positive for Covid-19. Humanitarian groups warn the virus could race through the camps, where families live with up to 10 people in a room in sweltering heat, with limited access to clean water. Households are forced to queue to access food at communal distribution points, making social distancing impossible.
On top of overcrowding, many refugees, who fled persecution in Myanmar, have underlying health conditions or have not received standard immunisations, according to health experts..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-05-15
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
"The United Kingdom urged Myanmar’s military Thursday to extend its recently announced cease-fire to include the escalating conflict in northern Rakhine and Chin states where civilians are suffering a heavy toll at the time of the coronavirus pandemic.
The UK Mission to the United Nations made the appeal after a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council that it called because of growing concern about fighting in the two states between government forces and the Arakan Army, a well-armed guerrilla force representing the Buddhist Rakhine minority.
A mission statement said the pandemic is putting vulnerable people “at risk of a humanitarian emergency,” especially refugees, the displaced and the Rohingya Muslim minority, which faces additional restrictions. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from Rakhine after Myanmar security forces launched a crackdown in August 2017 in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Bangladesh currently houses over 1 million Rohingya refugees.
The council did not issue a statement after the meeting, which heard a briefing by Christine Schraner Burgener, the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar.
But four European Union council members — Estonia, Belgium, France and Germany — and former council member Poland also expressed concern about the military escalation in Rakhine and Chin states and called for “an immediate, comprehensive and nationwide cease-fire.”
The EU members emphasized “the importance of an inclusive response to the COVID-19 pandemic that protects all communities and takes into account the vulnerability of refugees and internally displaced persons.”
In late April, the U.N. human rights investigator on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, called for a new investigation into allegations and crimes against humanity during the recent fighting in Rakhine and Chin. She accused Myanmar’s military of “inflicting immense suffering” on ethnic minorities in the two states.
Lee linked the current situation in Rakhine and Chin to the government’s actions against the Rohingya, for which no senior officers have faced justice and token punishments were given to a handful of low-ranking security personnel..."
Source/publisher:
"Associated Press" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-05-15
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
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Description:
" Myanmar’s army said on Wednesday it was investigating soldiers filmed beating and threatening to kill suspected insurgents in the western state of Rakhine, where dozens of people have been killed during an upsurge of fighting in recent weeks.
“It is found out that some of the security force members conducted unlawful interrogations,” the army said in a statement posted on its website.
In footage shared widely on social media since Saturday, five men can be seen slumped on the floor of a boat, blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs, as men in military fatigues stamp on their chests and slap and kick their faces. The men whimper and plead that they are civilians.
“I am a civilian, sir,” one says, according to subtitles in the video. “What civilian? Why are you fighting against us?” a soldier shouts, grabbing him by the hair and smacking his cheek. “Let them die, let them break,” says another. One man is hit repeatedly in the face with a shoe.
Reuters could not determine who filmed the video or independently verify its authenticity. The army said the video was shot on April 27 in Rakhine state’s Ponnagyun township..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-05-14
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-14
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Sub-title:
Video shows plain-clothed men punching and kicking heads of handcuffed and blindfolded detainees in Rakhine state.
Description:
"Myanmar's military has conceded its troops abused prisoners in Rakhine state after a video of soldiers battering blindfolded detainees spread on social media - a rare admission of wrongdoing by a force often accused of acting with impunity.
The video, which emerged on Sunday, shows plain-clothed men punching and kicking the heads of handcuffed and blindfolded detainees.
More:
UN envoy calls for investigation into "possible war crimes" in Myanmar as Rakhine conflict continues
Eight killed in Myanmar's troubled western state of Rakhine
Myanmar to release 25,000 prisoners to mark New Year festival
The five detainees had been arrested on suspicion of being Arakan Army (AA) fighters and were being transferred to Rakhine state capital Sittwe by boat on April 21 when the incident occurred, according to the army chief's office website.
Myanmar's armed forces are locked in an increasingly brutal war with the rebels, who are fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
UN's outgoing human rights envoy to Myanmar slams Suu Kyi (05:27)
Some security force members interrogated the prisoners in a way "not in accordance with the law" and action would be taken against those responsible, the statement said, without giving details on what punishments await..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-13
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-13
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Description:
"Five men shown being beaten by Myanmar military soldiers in a video that went viral on Saturday are ethnic Rakhine residents of Kyaukseik Village in Ponnagyun Township, Rakhine State, their relatives have confirmed to The Irrawaddy.
The video that went viral on social media shows the five men with their faces covered and their hands tied behind their backs being beaten by soldiers on a ship.
Secretary of the All Arakanese Solidarity Committee U Saw Thein Maung said his nephew is one of the men. “My nephew is the one in the white vest who said in the video that he is a coolie. He does work as a coolie. He is a general laborer at Aung Myittar rice mill near the [Ponnagyun] town.”
The five were accused by the Myanmar military of being members of the Arakan Army (AA) and were detained on suspicion of playing a role in recent bombings between Kyaukseik Village and Ponnagyun Township.
Myanmar military soldiers detained 38 villagers from Kyaukseik on April 19 and released 33 of them the following day but opened cases against the remaining five under the Counterterrorism Law.
They were handed over to the Ponnagyun Township police at the local police station on April 23 but the Myanmar military took them from the station on April 27 and beat them on board a naval ship, according to U Saw Thein Maung.
“They took [the five detainees] from the police station on April 27 and returned them on April 30 to Police Station 1 [in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe]. Police Station 1 handed them over again to the Ponnagyun Township police station on May 7,” said U Saw Thein Maung..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2020-05-12
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-13
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Sub-title:
UN refugee agency will repair damaged makeshift houses immediately, says refugee commissioner
Description:
"More than 670 makeshift dwellings for Rohingya refugees in a camp across Bangladesh's southern district of Cox's Bazar were damaged in a fire on Tuesday morning, according to officials.
"We've been confirmed about the fire incident and are now assessing the extent of damages officially," Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mahbub Alam Talukder told Anadolu Agency. No casualties were reported so far, he said. "The UNHCR [UN refugee agency] will repair the damaged tents soon."
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, UNHCR communication officer in Bangladesh Louise Donovan said that a total of 312 shelters were destroyed, with 362 more partially damaged, as well as small shops and businesses.
"The UNHCR mobilized emergency response teams and coordinated with our partners," she said, adding that Rohingya refugees themselves had been the first responders. "Thankfully, no loss of life has been reported."
Rahmat Karim, a Rohingya victim whose house was also damaged in the incident, told Anadolu Agency that more than 500 houses had been damaged.
"Above 500 of our houses were fully damaged and some other houses were partially damaged," Karim added.
He said: "Five people of us have been wounded during the rescue works. Two or three people are still missing."
Meanwhile, local media reports said that at least 100 makeshift tents were damaged in a fire at the Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Ukhia Upazila at around 9.00 a.m. local time [0300GMT]..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-05-12
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-12
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Sub-title:
Coronavirus crisis forces the centre to cancel Ramadan fundraiser and puts the community it serves in dire straits.
Description:
"Ramadan for Chicago's only Rohingya Culture Center is not just a time for prayer, community and service, but also a time for survival. Every year, the centre, located in the heart of the major United States city's bustling South Asian community, hosts nightly iftars for the families it serves, pairing them with fundraising drives through local mosques to support the programming it provides to the city's Rohingya refugees who have settled here.
About 12 percent of the centre's programming expenses, and the majority of its zakat fund (the obligatory charity required of all Muslims) for rental assistance and food distribution, comes from donations usually given during Ramadan, according to employees of the centre. More:
Praying in time of COVID-19: How world's largest mosques adapted
Why is Ramadan so important for Muslims?
How do we keep faith under a lockdown? | Start Here
But this year, the coronavirus shutdown has shuttered the centre and local mosques. Families who once attended the centre's iftars are holding these meals in their homes instead. And without the annual Ramadan funding drive bringing in donations, the cultural centre's future remains uncertain, at a time when the community needs its services more than ever.
The centre was started in 2016 by Nasir Zakaria, a Rohingya man originally from Myanmar, who arrived in Chicago with his wife and baby, a suitcase and not much else three years earlier. Zakaria escaped Myanmar, where the country's Rohingya minority has been persecuted for decades, in 1991, before spending about 20 years working various jobs in Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia before coming to the United States. In 2016, he opened the Rohingya Culture Center..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-12
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-12
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Description:
"When the most recent and dramatic stage of the genocide against the Rohingya started with Myanmar’s “clearance operations” in August 2017, the immediate trigger was an attack against a military border post by a previously insignificant insurgent group that called itself the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
That attack was significant. Dozens of people died and it provided the Myanmar military with a casus belli of sorts to crack down on insurgent groups in the area — a crackdown it then extended to all civilians associated with the group by virtue of supposedly belonging to the same ethnicity, the Rohingya. In the space of just over six months, the “clearance operations” cleared at least 70 percent of the roughly 1 million Rohingya people from the lands of their ancestors.
But the operations were somewhat less successful at “clearing” actual militant groups. The most significant of these groups is the Arakan Army (AA), a long-established ethnic militia of Rakhine Buddhists on the borders of Myanmar. It has been noticeably more effective at resisting the onslaught of the military than other comparable groups, despite bearing the brunt of attacks for decades now (if we also include precursor groups). In the past couple of years, since the genocidal cleansing started in earnest, it has also been the most effective internal group in fighting back against federal Myanmar forces..."
Source/publisher:
"Arab News" (Saudi Arabia)
Date of publication:
2020-05-12
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-12
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Description:
"Members of three ethnic armed groups known as the Brotherhood Alliance have asked the Myanmar army not to exclude Rakhine State from a unilateral ceasefire from May 10 to Aug. 31 as the country is trying to control the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) issued a joint statement Sunday saying that the Myanmar army should not exclude Rakhine from its latest ceasefire, as it has in the past, as the military has ongoing offensives in Rakhine and in Chin State’s Paletwa Township, where many local people are suffering the impacts of the fighting. The Brotherhood Alliance extended its own ceasefire for one month on May 3 but fighting between the groups and the Myanmar military has continued.
The military, also known as the Tatmadaw, announced a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday that will last until Aug. 31 and cover the whole country except areas where terrorist organizations are based, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense.
The Myanmar government declared the AA a terrorist group in late March. The group is involved in ongoing fighting with the Tatmadaw in western Myanmar.
“The Tatmadaw announced a unilateral ceasefire for all areas except areas recognized as the base of a terrorist organization, which refers to Rakhine and Paletwa in Chin,” said the military statement on Saturday..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2020-05-11
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-12
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Sub-title:
Rights groups call on Malaysia to act after prominent Rohingya activists threatened with murder and sexual violence.
Description:
"Dozens of human rights groups have called on Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to address hate speech and violent threats against Rohingya refugees in the country amid a slew of online posts threatening murder and sexual violence.
Monday's open letter, signed by 83 organisations, said the surge in hateful messages attacking the Rohingya community was causing fear of physical violence and discrimination among the refugees.
More:
Bangladesh quarantines hundreds of Rohingya rescued from sea
Outgoing UN envoy to Myanmar 'utterly disappointed' with Suu Kyi
Malaysian authorities hold 202 Rohingya from boat off Langkawi
"We urge you to act immediately to address the recent proliferation of 'hate speech' and violent threats against the Rohingya community and to ensure the incendiary rhetoric does not trigger discriminatory acts or physical attacks," said the letter.
Signatories included Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International Malaysia, Article 19 and the International Commission of Jurists.
The online posts directed at the Rohingya in the country included discriminatory and dehumanising language and images, with some users threatening prominent Rohingya activists as well as their supporters with murder and sexual violence, the groups said..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-11
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-11
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Sub-title:
Survivor recounts how, with 58 already dead, they overpowered the traffickers and took control of the boat and their destiny
Description:
"The boat carrying more than 400 Rohingyas, which landed in Bangladesh in the early hours of April 16, had experienced a dramatic mutiny 30 hours earlier.
In that mutiny, four of the 11 Rakhine traffickers were killed, five were rescued by another boat, and two traffickers, including the captain, were kept hostage to steer the trawler back to Bangladesh.
In exclusive testimony, a survivor of the ill-fated journey explained how the failure to land in Malaysia, despite three attempts, led a group of 17 Rohingya men to confront and overcome the traffickers.
The increasing death toll as well as the insufferable conditions on board were also key factors.
The magnificent 17
The 17 men had been "volunteers" until the moment of mutiny. They were needed by the traffickers to carry out menial tasks.
Five had been detailed to do the cooking. The others did an assortment of tasks, including helping people who had grown weak, and taking care of the disposal of Rohingya men and women who had died by throwing them overboard.
Hell on water
After the death of the 58th person — eight women and fifty men — the volunteers asked the traffickers to let them land anywhere they could.
They argued that they had been misled since the first week of departure about how long the journey would take, and it had already been over 50 days..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-10
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-11
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Sub-title:
The MoU is aimed at creating a conducive condition for voluntary and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh
Description:
"Two UN bodies have given the Myanmar government one more year, to establish a framework for the voluntary return of ethnic Rohingya Muslims to their homes.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Monday agreed to extend a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Myanmar for another year, reports UNB.
This framework for cooperation between the UN and the Myanmar government was initially signed on June 6, 2018, and previously extended in May 2019.
The MoU is aimed at creating a conducive condition for voluntary and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh.
Commenting on the situation the UN agencies said, “Creating a conducive environment for the voluntary, safe and dignified return of refugees and to improving the enjoyment of human rights for the population still residing in Myanmar is the responsibility of the government of Myanmar, UNDP and UNHCR remain committed to supporting this work.”
The exchange of documents took place between the Myanmar's Ministry of Labor, Immigration, and Population, and representatives of the UN bodies. The MoU will extend cooperation through June 2021.
In a joint statement, UNDP and UNHCR said while the environment in Rakhine is not yet conducive to the voluntary repatriation of Rohingyas, the MoU has allowed the UN agencies to assess the immediate needs in over 120 villages so far in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships.
Since the initial MoU was signed in 2018, a total of 75 quick impact projects (QIPs) have been approved, including for community infrastructure such as water improvement, school and road rehabilitation, skills training and income-generating projects, as well as projects targeting persons with specific needs..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-11
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-11
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Sub-title:
Hundreds more refugees are stranded on at least two other trawlers, rights groups say, as Southeast Asian governments tighten borders to keep out the new coronavirus
Description:
"Rohingya refugee Shahab Uddin thought the wooden trawler he boarded in February would be his ticket out of a camp in Cox’s Bazar to a better life in Malaysia.
Instead, the voyage nearly killed him.
The 20-year-old was among almost 400 survivors pulled from the water, starving, emaciated and traumatized after the boat failed to reach Malaysia and spent weeks adrift before returning to Bangladesh in mid-April.
Hundreds more refugees are stranded on at least two other trawlers, rights groups say, as Southeast Asian governments tighten borders to keep out the new coronavirus, threatening a repeat of a 2015 boat crisis when hundreds of people died.
The United Nations has implored authorities to let the boats land, but anti-refugee sentiment is surging in Malaysia and governments say borders are sealed to keep out the coronavirus.
In interviews with Reuters, seven survivors from the rescued boat recalled two harrowing months.
Estimates of the number of people who died on the boat ranged from several dozen to more than 100 - nobody kept count - but their accounts were consistent.
The survivors described hundreds of men, women, and children crammed on the boat, unable to move, squatting in rain and scorching sun until, as food and water ran out, they began to die of starvation, thirst, and beatings, their bodies tossed overboard. Some wept as they spoke.
"I thought I would not come back home alive," said Uddin. "I missed my family, especially my parents."
The group Fortify Rights said in a statement last week the operators of the boat "held their victims in conditions similar to slavery for the purposes of exploitation."
Malaysia defends its policy of turning boats away. Authorities have acted lawfully to defend the country’s sovereignty and are ready to do so again, its minister for internal affairs said in a statement on Thursday.
More than a million Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority from Myanmar, live in camps in Cox’s Bazar after fleeing from largely Buddhist Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Most fled an army crackdown in 2017 that the United Nations says was carried out with genocidal intent..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh) via "Reuters" (London)
Date of publication:
2020-05-04
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-10
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Description:
"Saying no, the foreign minister explains restrictions are necessary for safety and security of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis
Top members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives have urged the Bangladesh government to lift the restrictions on internet use in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, underscoring the critical role of communications technology as a public health tool to combat the spread of Covid-19.
In a recent letter to Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, the US lawmakers emphasized that technologies like mobile phones and internet are necessary for sharing life-saving medical information, conducting contact tracing, and facilitating health and humanitarian services.
In reply, the foreign minister said the restrictions were in place for the safety and security of the Rohingyas as well as Bangladeshis.
Following the large gathering of Rohingyas on August 17 to mark the second anniversary of the latest exodus, the government slapped a ban on 3G and 4G mobile internet in the Rohingya camps.
The letter was signed by six senators and representatives: Representative Eliot L Engel, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee; Senator Bob Menendez, ranking member of the Senate foreign relations committee; Senator Ed Markey, ranking member of the Senate foreign relations subcommittee on East Asia; Senator Chris Murphy; Representative Andy Levin; and Representative Ami Bera, chairman of the House foreign affairs subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-08
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-10
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"Dr Momen requested that the Turkish foreign minister arrange a virtual session at the director general level before the next D-8 Summit
Turkey has assured Bangladesh that it will raise the Rohingya issue at the next meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC), as the Rohingya refugee crisis remains unresolved and is putting a significant burden on the host country.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu gave the assurance during a telephone conversation with Bangladesh counterpart Dr AK Abdul Momen on Saturday, reports UNB.
The Turkish Foreign Minister also assured Bangladesh of extending all required support to repatriate the Rohingyas who are currently living in Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh to their place of origin in Rakhine State.
Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas, most of whom entered Bangladesh after the Myanmar army launched a brutal crackdown following insurgent attacks on military check-posts in Myanmar on August 25, 2017.
Dr Momen requested that the Turkish foreign minister arrange a virtual session at the director general level before the next D-8 Summit, considering the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also suggested the formation of a D-8 working group, in order to strengthen economic cooperation in the post-coronavirus period..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-09
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-10
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Sub-title:
Like in the past, rescued Rohingyas could be in Cox’s Bazar, says UN refugee agency
Description:
"The United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has voiced its opposition to the transfers of a group of Rohingyas rescued on Saturday by Bangladesh Coast Guard to Bhashan Char Island in Noakhali.
The UN refugee agency is of the opinion that preparations are in place for the safe quarantine of the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar and questioned the safety and sustainability of life on the island developed by the government for the relocation of a portion of the persecuted people to decongest the camps in the coastal district.
“Our priority is saving lives through disembarkation and meeting immediate humanitarian needs. We are continuing to urge safe and predictable landing procedures not only in Bangladesh but across the region and globally,” Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain, assistant communication officer of UNHCR, Bangladesh, said in an email on Wednesday responding to a query from Dhaka Tribune.
“A group of up to 29 refugees have reportedly been transferred to Bhasan Char island in the Bay of Bengal by the Bangladesh authorities. We have received information indicating that this vulnerable group includes women and children. They are believed to be part of a larger group of up to 350 refugees. The others are still stranded at sea”, he said.
“UNHCR has all preparations in place to ensure the safe quarantine of any refugees arriving by boat to Cox’s Bazar, as a precautionary measure related to the Covid-19 pandemic. With the government’s agreement, we have established facilities for this purpose in the refugee settlements,” said the official.
"Standardised procedures are in place, including full medical screening, for the required 14-day quarantine period at designated quarantine centres,” he said.
An initial group of some 400 Rohingya refugees who were disembarked from a boat in distress over a fortnight ago have all completed the required quarantine period and have returned to their families within the camps, Hossain said..."
Source/publisher:
"Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication:
2020-05-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-10
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Sub-title:
Bangladesh rescued about 280 Rohingya from Bay of Bengal, sending them to flood-prone island amid safety concerns.
Description:
"The Bangladesh navy has rescued about 280 Muslim-majority Rohingya from the Bay of Bengal, towing their stranded boat to an island where they will be quarantined as a precaution against the coronavirus, coastguard and naval officials said on Friday.
Rights groups and aid agencies have raised their voice against the transfer of Rohingya to the flood-prone Bhasan Char island in the Bay of Bengal.
More:
Rohingya stranded at sea, Bangladesh says not its responsibility
Concerns raised after Rohingya quarantined on Bangladeshi island
Dozens of stranded Rohingya refugees land in Bangladesh
The rickety wooden boat was spotted early on Thursday in Bangladeshi waters and taken to the low-lying island off the southern coast, where the government has built housing and cyclone shelters.
'Starving'
"They were starving and we have given them food and water," one naval officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The plan is to keep them in home quarantine for 14 days. Later, the government will decide."
The navy and coastguard are on alert for other boats in Bangladeshi waters, unable to find their course as the seas turn rougher due to a change in season..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-08
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-08
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Sub-title:
Rights groups decry relocation of people picked up at sea after fleeing camps in Cox’s Bazar
Description:
"Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims, including children, have arrived at “a de facto detention island” in Bangladesh after being stranded at sea for weeks.
Rights groups had warned that the refugees, who had been turned away from other countries in the region, were at risk of starvation and abuse by people traffickers. It is believed that other boats remain adrift.
Bangladesh confirmed on Thursday that a boat carrying 280 people was being towed to Bhasan Char, an uninhabited silt island off the southern coast. The country’s foreign minister, Abdul Momen, had earlier said that refugees rescued at sea would be sent to the island to prevent any risk of spreading the coronavirus to the sprawling camps in Cox’s Bazar, where a million Rohingya live in cramped conditions. Bangladesh, which has struggled to cope with the camps, planned to start moving refugees to Bhasan Char last December, and has built rows of concrete barracks to house about 100,000 people. The relocation was put on hold following an outcry from Rohingya community leaders and international agencies.
Human rights groups say the island, which can be reached only by a three-hour boat journey, has no access to basic services and is vulnerable to sea-level rise and storm surges.
Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said there was no need to send refugees to the island to be quarantined because the UN’s refugee agency and other bodies had facilities set up for this purpose in Cox’s Bazar. Instead, families should be reunited with missing relatives as quickly as possible.
“While everyone is appreciative that Bangladesh has brought forsaken Rohingya boats ashore, arbitrarily branding the passengers as ‘new arrivals’ and packing them off to a de facto detention island like Bhasan Char is not a rights respecting solution,” he said..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-05-08
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-08
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HRW says relocation of 29 Rohingya to flood-prone Bhasan Char island without access to aid poses risk to refugees.
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"Rights groups and aid agencies have raised concerns after dozens of stranded Rohingya refugees, who landed at Bangladesh's southern coast at the weekend, were sent to an inhabitable island in the Bay of Bengal.
Authorities said the 29 Rohingya were relocated to the controversial Bhasan Char island late on Saturday to prevent a possible coronavirus outbreak in the refugee camps located in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh.
More:
Dozens of stranded Rohingya refugees land in Bangladesh
Rohingya stranded at sea, Bangladesh says not its responsibility
Do not push Rohingya out to sea amid coronavirus emergency: UNHCR
"Bangladesh faces the tremendous challenge of assisting Rohingya boat people while preventing the spread of COVID-19, but sending them to a dangerously flood-prone island without adequate health care is hardly the solution," said Brad Adams, the executive director of the Asian division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement on Tuesday.
"Any quarantines need to ensure aid agency access and safety from storms, and a prompt return to their families on the mainland."
Bangladesh last year constructed facilities for 100,000 people on Bhashan Char, a muddy silt islet in the cyclone-prone coastal belt, saying they needed to take pressure off crowded border camps that are home to almost one million Rohingya.
They are the first group of Rohingya to be sent to the island, local government administrator Tanmoy Das told AFP, adding they were being looked after by navy personnel who had built the facilities..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-07
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"On the same day the United Nations Secretary-General called for a global ceasefire amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Myanmar military designated the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) — an ethnic Rakhine armed group fighting for greater autonomy in Rakhine state — as a “terrorist” group. Authorities then set about detaining journalists and blocking online access to media outlets reporting on the conflict. The military has ramped up its campaign of airstrikes and shelling in the region since the start of 2020, leading to a spike in reported civilian fatalities (see figure below). At the current rate, 2020 is set to become a deadlier year for civilians in Myanmar’s conflict zones than 2019.
Increased Civilian Fatalities
From January to April 2020, organized violence in Rakhine state and neighboring Chin state involving the military and the ULA/AA has increased by 74% relative to the same period last year (see figure below).
Likewise, civilian fatalities from the conflict have far outpaced the number reported in the first four months of 2019. In addition to direct civilian targeting, civilians are regularly killed in the crossfire of battles between the military and the ULA/AA. Altogether, ACLED records 106 civilian fatalities from the conflict so far in 2020. The number of reported civilian fatalities from military targeting of civilians is 75 (see figure below), the number of reported civilian fatalities from ULA/AA targeting of civilians is three, and the number of reported civilian fatalities from battles is 28. The number of reported civilian fatalities from battles was calculated by reviewing ACLED battle event notes for civilian fatalities, as this is not something that ACLED codes systematically. Many more civilians have been seriously wounded in the conflict..."
Source/publisher:
ACLED via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of publication:
2020-05-07
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-07
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"Several officials of Myanmar’s ruling party in Rakhine state have gone into hiding after a group of unidentified men wearing police uniforms tried to arrest them at their homes, a lawmaker from the volatile region said Wednesday.
The officials the group tried to arrest said they suspect that the disguised men were members of the Arakan Army (AA), a mostly ethnic Rakhine military that is fighting Myanmar forces for greater autonomy for the Rakhine people in the western state.
Min Aung, a lawmaker from Taungup township’s No. 2 electoral district, said some of the targeted officials, who are members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, are now on the run to avoid apprehension by the men.
The group of men surrounded the home of Than Htay, a township-level NLD executive committee member who has a party signboard on his property in Bushwemaw village, prompting him to flee to safety, Min Aung said.
A group of men in police uniforms also tried to arrest Win Hlaing, a state-level NLD executive committee member, at his home in Kyaw Kaing village, he said.
“He was suspicious of them and has been on the run,” he added.
Min Aung also said that NLD members had recently received several death threats from fake user accounts on social media.
Than Htay said he received a death threat by phone on April 9 from someone speaking in an ethnic Rakhine dialect..."
Source/publisher:
"RFA" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-05-06
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-07
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Rights activists are concerned about the health of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar.
Description:
"More boats carrying Rohingya refugees have arrived in waters off Bangladesh.
Some of the refugees have been transferred to a small island, Bhasan Char, described by rights activists as a "dangerously flood-prone island without adequate healthcare"..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-05-06
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-07
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Sub-title:
Boat People Face Cyclones, Flooding on Bhasan Char
Description:
" Bangladesh authorities have quarantined 29 Rohingya refugees without adequate access to aid on an unstable silt island in the Bay of Bengal, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities said that they are holding the refugees, who had been adrift at sea for over two months, on Bhasan Char to prevent a Covid-19 outbreak in the camps. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told the media on May 2, 2020, that the new arrivals were ethnic Rohingya who fled Myanmar to try to reach Malaysia. However, Human Rights Watch interviews with families found that at least seven of those detained are registered refugees from the camps in Bangladesh. Momen said that all future arrivals will be transferred to Bhasan Char, which experts have warned may not be fit for habitation and contains no access to humanitarian services provided by the United Nations or aid agencies. “Bangladesh faces the tremendous challenge of assisting Rohingya boat people while preventing the spread of Covid-19, but sending them to a dangerously flood-prone island without adequate health care is hardly the solution,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Any quarantines need to ensure aid agency access and safety from storms, and a prompt return to their families on the mainland.” Several trawlers, each packed with several hundred Rohingya, set out for Malaysia in March, but at least two were intercepted and turned away with a fresh supply of food and water. On April 15, the Bangladesh coast guard received one boat with nearly 400 people, who said that as many as 100 may have died on board before the rescue. At least two other boats remain stranded at sea with an estimated 700 refugees..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2020-05-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-06
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"With changing dynamics between the Rohingya and Rakhine populations and the Tatmadaw (the armed forces of Myanmar), Rakhine State in Myanmar has been in a state of conflict. Most recently, the clash between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw saw open conflict erupt on 25 August 2018. These conflicts have resulted in significant loss of lives, livelihoods, and homes with more than 150,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Rakhine State. Some have been living in camps since 2012, and at least 700,000 others in Cox’s Bazaar, the main refugee settlement in Bangladesh. From January to March 2020, the RSIS Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Programme conducted desk research and key informant interviews to examine the humanitarian challenges in Rakhine State. This report summarises and presents the main challenges and key opportunities that emerged from the study. It offers policy recommendations for developing key ASEAN partnerships that can contribute towards achieving sustainable peace and security in Rakhine State..."
Source/publisher:
"Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2020-05-06
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-06
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Boats full of vulnerable people are adrift in Bay of Bengal without food, water, say UN agencies
Description:
"Several UN agencies on Wednesday called for efforts to protect migrants and refugees undertaking often fatal sea voyages to flee persecution or in search of better lives.
The UN bodies referred specifically to maritime movement of migrants and refugees in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea in South Asia.
The persecuted Rohingya community of Myanmar constitutes the largest proportion of these refugees.
“Five years on from the 2015 ‘boat crisis’ in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea … we are alarmed that a similar tragedy may be unfolding once more,” read the joint statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and International Organization for Migration.
“We are deeply concerned by reports that boats full of vulnerable women, men and children are again adrift in the same waters, unable to come ashore, and without access to urgently needed food, water and medical assistance.”
The humanitarian agencies acknowledged that there was no “easy solution” to the issue but criticized countries in the area for their callous approach towards human lives.
“Deterring movements of people by endangering life is not only ineffective; it violates basic human rights, the law of the sea and the principles of customary international law by which all States are equally bound,” read the statement..."
Source/publisher:
"Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication:
2020-05-06
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-06
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Sub-title:
Myanmar military is pumping up the poorly armed and shadowy insurgent group's threat to justify its Rohingya genocide
Description:
"As armed conflict rages between the insurgent Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, killing scores of civilians and displacing tens of thousands in incessant artillery and air strikes in Rakhine and Chin states, another largely forgotten armed group has re-entered the fray.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the shadowy group that launched fateful August 2017 attacks on Myanmar border outposts that sparked the Myanmar military’s retaliatory “area clearance” operations now widely condemned as genocide against the Rohingya, has apparently reformed around the Rakhine state town of Maungdaw along the Bangladesh border.
ARSA has at least militarily been out of sight for several months. Its reappearance begs questions as to why it’s purported mobilization on the border has gradually intensified, how the Myanmar security forces will respond, and what impacts it will have on the Rohingya communities still in Rakhine state.
Myawady Daily, the Myanmar military’s media mouthpiece, reported on May 2 that “ARSA extremist Bengali terrorists” ambushed Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) near Border Pillar (BP) 41 on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, wounding two police troopers in the alleged assault..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication:
2020-05-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-05
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"Two policemen were wounded in a sneak attack by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents on a Border Guard Police patrol on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Rakhine State on Saturday, according to the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw).
The Border Guard Police were conducting a patrol along the border fence when they were shot by ARSA members from the Bangladesh side around 400 meters southeast of border post No. 41. A police lieutenant and a constable were injured in the incident.
The ARSA members retreated after military troops came to the rescue of the Border Guard Police officers, military spokesperson Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun said.
“As I’ve said before, as Myanmar is due to submit a report to the ICJ [the International Court of Justice] this month, [ARSA] have become more active in the meantime,” he said.
The Myanmar military said it seized ammunition and military equipment from a temporary ARSA camp near the village of Kha Maung Seik in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township on April 8.
It also said that two policemen transporting important documents were killed in a sneak attack by ARSA near Kha Maung Seik on April 15, and two ARSA fighters were found dead along with improvised landmines, related materials and drugs on April 29..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2020-05-04
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-04
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Sub-title:
KM Asad won the top prize of the Pink Lady Food Photo Awards 2020, but his archive of images speaks to broader issues in his native Bangladesh
Description:
"It is the winning image of a food photography contest, but there is not a meal in sight. Instead, child refugees stand in a row with empty bowls in their hands.
Taken by documentary photographer KM Asad, the image entitled After Exodus captures Rohingya children in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, as they queue to receive food from a non-profit. The image is from 2017, the year when the Rohingya crisis was thrust back into the global spotlight after at least 500,000 individuals fled violence from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the span of a month.
Last month, Asad’s image was recognised as the overall winner for Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year awards in the UK, selected among 9,000 entries from more than 70 countries. The photographer, who lives and works in Dhaka, will receive £5,000 (Dh22,980) as prize.
Asad says he has had his eye on the major photography award for the past two years. When Pink Lady added the category of Politics of Food, which looks at issues such as production, sustainability and hunger, Asad believed that his image could resonate. “Every corner of the world, there are people waiting for food. It’s very important to show how food is related to politics,” he says.
The plight of the Rohingyas – a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar – is one that Asad has been following for years. In 2012, he accompanied a friend to the south-east of Bangladesh and began documenting the influx of refugees there. A sliver of river called the Naf separates the two countries, and the Rohingya, driven out by Myanmar’s army, brave crossing it to seek safety..."
Source/publisher:
"The Nation"
Date of publication:
2020-05-04
Date of entry/update:
2020-05-04
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