Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first)

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Title: Rohingya Deportation Case: UN Special Rapporteur Seeks to Aid SC
Sub-title: E. Tendayi Achiume said she would like to assist the court by offering her expertise on "the issue of State parties’ obligations under international law with regard to the prevention of racial discrimination”.
Description: "A UN-appointed expert has filed an application in the Supreme Court’s ongoing hearing challenging the deportation of Rohingyas from India, to seek permission to assist on the issue of states’ obligations under international law. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition filed in 2017 against the Indian government’s plan to deport all Rohingya Muslims, estimated to be around 40,000, back to Myanmar. On January 10, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance E. Tendayi Achiume filed an application seeking to intervene in the ongoing case, which is being heard three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde. Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UNHRC with specific thematic mandates. Achiume, who is also a professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, said that the aim of her intervention was “to assist the Court by offering her expertise and experience on the issue of State parties’ obligations under international law with regard to the prevention of racial discrimination”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Wire"
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-13
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Title: Myanmar: Has Suu Kyi’s Position Been Enhanced After Her Return From ICJ? – Analysis
Description: "Suu Kyi returned from the Hague on 14th December. She was received at the airport by enthusiastic colleagues and the people that included Members of Parliament, Locals, teachers and students. Significantly, no Senior Army Official was present. At the court, in her final submission, Suu Kyi said that the case filed by Gambia should be dismissed or alternatively, the provisional measures requested by Gambia should be dismissed. It should be noted that decisions on both the counts of “intent of Genocide” or “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingyas from future threats of violence will take a long time and are not enforceable also unless it is brought to the Security Council again for action. Here again both China and Russia may come to Myanmar’s rescue. It is in this connection, Joe Kumbum’ (an analyst from Kachin under a pseudonym) has suggested that Myanmar should keep in touch with the Western powers lest it does not go over to the Chinese. My response would be that it is the Western Powers including the USA that should take the initiative. Suu Kyi while conceding that excesses may have taken place said that the country has had one Court Martial to try the guilty officers and one more is also in the offing. Surprisingly she even undertook that more Court Martials will be pursued once the report of the ICOE- Independent Commission of Enquiry submits its proposal that is expected in a few days..."
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Source/publisher: "Eurasia Review"
Date of publication: 2019-12-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: U.N. condemns Myanmar's abuses against Rohingya
Description: "The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution Friday strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. The 193-member world body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favor of the resolution which also calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights. The long-simmering Rohingya crisis exploded on Aug. 25, 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched what it called a clearance campaign in Rakhine in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. The campaign led to the mass Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh and to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes..."
Source/publisher: "Japan Times" (Japan)
Date of publication: 2019-12-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: UNICEF statement on the death of four children due to an explosion in Rakhine State, Myanmar
Topic: Child protection, Armed conflict, Myanmar
Topic: Child protection, Armed conflict, Myanmar
Description: "UNICEF Myanmar expresses deep sorrow over the death offour children on Monday when an explosive device went off while they were collecting fire wood in the forest near Htike Htoo Pauk village of Buthedaung Township in Rakhine State. Five more children were injured in the incident. Our thoughts go to the families of the victims, to those injured and to all children caught up in conflict. UNICEF is deeply concerned about the continued reports of killings and injuries of children, as a result of intensified fighting between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan Army in the conflict-affected areas of Rakhine State. In 2019 alone, 16 children lost their life and 36 have been severely injured in conflict affect areas of Myanmar as a result of incidents caused by landmines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERWs). UNICEF urges all parties to the conflict to stop laying mines and to clear existing mines and unexploded ordinances to ensure the safety of children caught up in conflict, and to uphold their right to protection. UNICEF also urges the Government to facilitate access for the provision of emergency Mine Risk Education activities so children, teachers and other community members receive psychosocial support and mine risk education in schools and communities in all conflict-affected areas of Myanmar..."
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Source/publisher: UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) (Myanmar) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of publication: 2020-01-12
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-12
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi party official killed in Rakhine
Sub-title: Rohingya rebels who had been holding him for weeks said he died during military attacks on Christmas Day
Description: "An official from Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party was killed in Rakhine state after planning a show of support for the leader’s defense of Myanmar against genocide allegations at The Hague, a spokesman said Thursday. The National League for Democracy’s Ye Thein, party chairman in Buthidaung township, had been held for weeks by the Arakan Army, insurgents fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. The rebels said he was killed in military attacks on Christmas Day but the claim could not be verified and NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt said the group bore responsibility. Ye Thein was detained on December 11 ahead of demonstrations backing Suu Kyi’s high-profile opening statements at the UN’s top court the same day. “We, all members of NLD, are very sorry for the loss,” Myo Nyunt told AFP. “His gathering to support her was righteous and it was not a crime.” The Arakan Army has carried out a series of daring kidnappings, bombings and raids against the army and local officials in Rakhine state. Myanmar’s military has hit back hard, deploying thousands of additional soldiers to the western state and carrying out what Amnesty International called enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions..."
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Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-26
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
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Title: Fate of Rohingya Boat People Remains Unknown as They Are Returned to Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Description: "Scores of Rohingya Muslims detained in December by the Myanmar Navy aboard a boat in the Andaman Sea as they attempted to leave the country have been transferred to western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a coastal forces commander and state immigration minister said Friday. “We sent these 172 Muslims to Sittwe on Jan. 8 by navy vessel No. 617,” Colonel Thant Zin Oo, regional chief of the Coastal Command, told RFA’s Myanmar Service. The 172 Rohingya left a detention center where they were being held on an island and were being taken to Rakhine’s capital Sittwe, though Thant Zin Oo said he does not know where they will be sent once they arrive there or if any further action will be taken against them, The group was accompanied by 42 officials from the military, the police, and the health, immigration, and general administration departments, said Kyaw Min, minister of Rakhine state’s Immigration and Human Resources Ministry..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-10
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
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Title: Rakhine is on a precipice
Topic: Rakhine, Arakan Army, Tatmadaw, 2020 election
Sub-title: As Myanmar marked Independence Day on January 4 with formal ceremonies, a national holiday and street games, a very different anniversary passed almost without mention in the country’s west.
Topic: Rakhine, Arakan Army, Tatmadaw, 2020 election
Description: "Exactly a year earlier, Arakan Army soldiers had staged coordinated attacks on four police stations in northern Rakhine State, killing 13 officers. The attacks have precipitated bloody clashes, mass displacement and human rights violations in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin State. More than 100 civilians have been killed and many more injured as a result of small arms fire, artillery barrages and landmines. The Rakhine Ethnics Committee, a local civil society group, estimates that around 100,000 people have been displaced. Official figures are less than half that, but even if the true figure is somewhere in the middle, it represents a significant and tragic toll. Rakhine was already reeling from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks in 2016-17 and the military’s subsequent crackdowns that sent almost 750,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. But the conflict with the Arakan Army has plunged the state into new depths of violence and chaos. The outlook is bleak. Despite early predictions that the Arakan Army would be unable to sustain its operations, it has proven remarkably resilient and the fighting continues to spread. Most recently, on Christmas Day, clashes were reported in Ann Township, a Tatmadaw stronghold and home of its Western Command. The AA appears to have no shortage of recruits, and continues to find ways to arm and supply its forces. Its success is built largely on strong popular support. The government and military have sought to undermine this through a range of harsh measures, including detaining those suspected of links to the AA, cutting supplies to camps for the internally displaced, shutting down mobile internet access and restricting the activities of civil society groups. Predictably, these seem to have had the opposite effect, by further antagonising civilians..."
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Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication: 2020-01-10
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
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Title: Thailand asks Malaysia to help find dozens of Rohingya escapees
Description: "Thailand has asked Malaysia to help find a group of Rohingya Muslim trafficking victims who absconded from a detention centre in the south of the country, Thai police said. Nineteen Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar escaped from the detention centre in Thailand's southern Songkhla province, around 5 kilometres from the Thai-Malaysian border, early on Wednesday, using a piece of cloth to climb down from a third floor window, police said. They were part of some 40 Rohingya Muslims, identified as victims of human traffickers, who were intercepted by Thai authorities on their way to Malaysia and had been detained at the centre to await repatriation to Myanmar, police said. Two were found later on Wednesday, police said..."
Source/publisher: "The Sydney Morning Herald" (Sydney)
Date of publication: 2020-01-10
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
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Title: Up to 10 wells for ultra-deepwater Myanmar gas tieback
Sub-title: Total/Woodside Energy’s block A-6 project in the Rakhine basin offshore Myanmar will be the country’s first ultra-deepwater development.
Description: "Total/Woodside Energy’s block A-6 project in the Rakhine basin offshore Myanmar will be the country’s first ultra-deepwater development. The block covers an area close to 10,000 sq km (3,861 sq mi) in water depths of up to 2,300 m (7,546 ft). Woodside has a 40% interest in the joint venture and is the technical joint operator for exploration and appraisal operations. MPRL E&P with 20% is also a joint operator. Total, which has a 40% interest, will assume operatorship during the development phase. According to Woodside, the partners aim to start front-end engineering design during the second half of this year. Since 2018 when the Shwe Yee Htun-2 discovery well delivered 40 m (131 ft) of net gas pay, five more wells have been drilled, all encountering gas. Woodside estimates the combined resource at 67 MMboe..."
Source/publisher: "Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine"
Date of publication: 2020-01-09
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
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Title: Xi to Make First China State Visit to Myanmar in 19 Years
Description: "Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Myanmar on January 17 for his first state visit of the year, Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui announced. During the two-day trip, Xi will meet with the country’s defacto leader, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, General Min Aung Hlaing, Luo said at a press conference on Friday. The trip, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations, comes as Myanmar faces widespread condemnation over its treatment of its minority Muslim population in western Rakhine State. In an effort to develop already deepening ties, Luo said both sides will seek closer economic cooperation through China’s pan-Eurasian Belt and Road Initiative. He also said Xi plans to raise the repatriation of Rohingya refugees -- more than 730,000 of whom remain in squalid camps just across the border in Bangladesh following what the UN has termed genocidal acts by the military since 2017..." Last month, Suu Kyi appeared in front of the International Court of Justice at the Hague to defend the country’s military against accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity for the killing and rape of thousands of people. “It is an issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh and indeed it is an old question,” Luo said. “At the request of the two countries China has played a constructive role in this regard, including trilateral talks on early repatriation.”..."
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Source/publisher: "Bloomberg News" (New York)
Date of publication: 2020-01-10
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
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Title: Aid Group Ends Food Program in Myanmar’s Rakhine, Citing Government Restrictions
Description: "Amid fighting between Myanmar and Arakan Army (AA) forces in northern Rakhine state, the global humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) said it has decided to end its food program in the state on account of the government’s restrictions on staff movements. On Jan. 6, the IRC ended its Tat Lan program that provided sustainable food security and improved nutrition and livelihoods to villages in Rakhine’s Myebon, Pauktaw, Kyaukphyu, and Minbya townships. An announcement by the organization said the program ran for more than five years and had provided livelihood and food security to more than 56,000 people, but that the Rakhine state government instructed it to cease operations in 2018. IRC staffers were denied travel permission because they were recruiting journalists, said Win Myint, Rakhine minister of municipal affairs. “They were recruiting the journalists, [and] we didn’t know what their intention was,” he said. “This was something inappropriate. These activities were not include in a memorandum of understanding. That’s why, we stopped the operations.”..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-09
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-09
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Title: Western Union 'cuts ties' with Myanmar military's bank
Sub-title: Rights groups have been calling on companies to cut ties with Myanmar military responsible for Rohingya atrocities
Description: "A leading global money transfer service Western Union has stopped using a military-owned bank as one of its agents in Myanmar, rights groups said. Western Union is one among the most recognizable names on the Dirty List of the international companies for doing business with military in Myanmar. The list was published by two rights campaign groups -- Burma Campaign UK and International Campaign for the Rohingya -- in December 2018. In an e-mail to Burma Campaign UK on Wednesday, Western Union said it has ended contract with Myawaddy Bank, a subsidiary of military business conglomerate Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL), with immediate effect, said a joint statement by the advocacy groups. Western Union could not be reached for a comment, but an official at Myawaddy Bank confirmed the development to Anadolu Agency. "Western Union services are no longer available from our bank. It is Western Union’s decision to end the contract," the official told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media. The campaign groups said that Western Union has now been removed from the Dirty List. Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said that Western Union is the biggest company so far to end a business relationship with a military-owned company..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-01-08
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-09
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Title: EU releases new tranche of $11m aid for Rohingyas
Sub-title: The fund will help address the under-nutrition for the one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh
Description: "The European Commission has released $11.19 million in humanitarian support for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the displaced people in Myanmar’s Rakhine. The new tranche of funding, announced on December 23 last year, brought the EU’s total support for the Rohingya crisis through 2019 to around $48.12 million, a European commission statement said. It said the new funding will focus on providing quality health care and help address the under-nutrition for the one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, after living conditions further deteriorated over the last months. It will also provide food nutrition and protection for all displaced people living in Myanmar's Rakhine state, where the humanitarian situation has further deteriorated this year due to the escalation of violence in the region, the statement added. European Union’s (EU) Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said: “The EU's support has helped save countless lives over the last two years since the crisis began, but cannot stop now as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya rely on humanitarian aid to survive. Today's additional funding is another clear sign that the EU remains committed to stand by the side of the Rohingya for as long as it takes..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
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Title: Landmine kills 4 Rohingya children in Myanmar
Sub-title: Deadly landmine explosion happens in forest where Rohingya from nearby villages went to harvest firewood
Description: "Four Rohingya children were killed in a landmine explosion in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state early Tuesday, according to an official. A group of more than 10 local Rohingya -- including several teenagers -- were harvesting firewood in the forest near Hteiktoo Pauk village in Kyauktaw Township when the mine exploded around 10.30 a.m. local time (0600GMT). “Four children, two of them 8 years old and two of them 10, were killed on the spot,” said Aung Thaung Shwe, lower house lawmaker for the area. He told Anadolu Agency by phone on Tuesday that six other Rohingya -- one adult man and five teenage boys -- were also injured in the landmine explosion. It is still unclear whether Myanmar’s military or the Arakan Army -- a predominantly Buddhist ethnic group fighting for greater autonomy in the region -- planted the landmine in the forest. “It is an act of terror as it targets civilians,” said Aung Thaung Shwe. According to local media reports citing data from civil society groups, around 100 civilians have been killed in Rakhine state by armed clashes since the Arakan Army launched synchronized attacks on police outposts last January, killing 13 officers..."
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Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-01-07
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
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Title: How to Promote Tolerance in Myanmar, a Country that Recently Experienced a Genocide
Description: "In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya muslims were driven from their homes in Myanmar. At the time, a UN official called this a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” And today, the government of Myanmar is being sued at the International Court of Justice for perpetrating a genocide. These attacks against the Rohingya are the most recent and extreme example of sectarian violence and discrimination in Myanmar — which is an incredibly diverse country with a long history of ethnic conflict. So how does one stop this trend? How do you promote tolerance and pluralism in a place in which diversity has been used to fuel conflict? On the line with me today is someone who is doing just that. Aung Kyaw Moe is the founder and executive director of the Center for Social Integrity in Myanmar. This is an organization that provides both humanitarian relief but also engages in peace-building and advocacy work. He is Rohingya and has used humanitarian aid in parts of the country where Rohingya live to encourage cross ethnic partnerships. Aung Kyaw Moe and his organization recently received a high honor, the Global Pluralism Award, which is conferred by the government of Canada and the Aga Khan Foundation — and after listening to this episode, it will be clear why he won that award. We kick of discussing diversity in Myanmar before having a longer conversation about how that how diversity has been used as a wedge to ignite conflict, and how Aung Kyaw Moe is working to reverse that trend..."
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Source/publisher: UN Dispatch
Date of publication: 2020-01-06
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: Myanmar Orders Government Workers in Rakhine to Obtain Permission to Travel Due to Conflict
Description: "The Myanmar government has ordered its employees in war-stricken Rakhine state to obtain official permission before they travel by land or water amid an uptick in abductions of civilian officers by the rebel Arakan Army as it fights national forces for greater autonomy in the state, the border affairs minister said Friday. The Ministry of Border Affairs issued the directive in December, Colonel Min Than, who oversees the ministry, told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “The Union government has issued a directive for government staff,” he said. “If they travel, they need to obtain permission from the corresponding department chief and must report to security forces in the travel area through the state government.” “They should make prior arrangements before they travel,” he said. “If government employees travel on their own, something could happen.” “If they report beforehand, the authorities will make arrangements for them, such as reserving a spot for them on military-operated ferries or transporting them via helicopter,” Min Than said. “Depending on their route, the authorities can make arrangements.” Aung Lin, the officer in charge of Rakhine state’s branch of the Inland Water Transport Department, said ferry tickets will be sold to government workers only if they have proof of permission to travel..."
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Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: Rakhine: the new front in Myanmar's violent ethnic conflicts
Sub-title: Violence flared a year ago when the Arakan Army attacked Myanmar police, forcing thousands from their homes.
Description: "A year ago, four police stations in the conflict-ridden western Rakhine State of Myanmar came under attack from the Arakan Army (AA) leaving an estimated 13 officers dead and nine injured. The response was swift. Myanmar's military (also known as the Tatmadaw) promised to "crush the terrorists", marking the beginning of the latest bloody chapter in the country's never-ending conflicts, waged primarily between the Tatmadaw and various ethnic rebel groups. Rakhine has become notorious as the location of the military's brutal campaign against the mostly Muslim Rohingya, which led to the exodus of 740,000 people and accusations of genocide. What the military called "clearance operations" were partially justified by claims that the Muslims posed a threat to Rakhine Buddhists and their way of life, but the AA, founded in 2009 is an ethnic Rakhine, religiously Buddhist armed group..."
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Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2020-01-07
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: UN condemns Myanmar over human rights abuses against Rohingya
Sub-title: General assembly’s vote in favour of resolution also calls on Myanmar to urgently combat incitement of hatred
Description: "The United Nations general assembly has approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. The 193-member body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions on Friday in favour of the resolution, which also calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. General assembly resolutions are not legally binding but do reflect world opinion. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh, even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless, and they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights. The long-simmering Rohingya crisis exploded in August 2017 when Myanmar’s military launched what it called a clearance campaign in Rakhine in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. The campaign led to the Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh and to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: ‘Growing Together Campaign’ launches Rohingya children’s art exhibition
Description: "The Earth Society organised an eight-day exhibition with drawings made by Rohingya children, aged between nine and twelve. The event opened at EMK Center, Dhanmondi, on January 4. 21 drawings, portraying the heart-wrenching reality of the Rohingyas and the genocide and torture by the Myanmar Military, are on exhibit at the show. The Earth Society is a local NGO working with capacity building, youth engagement, development, disaster management and refugee crisis, among other things. Their ‘Growing Together Campaign’ includes the youth of two different countries finding sustainable ways to address the refugee crisis. The campaign was organised by The Earth Society, with support from InterCollege, FGU, UNG AKTION, and co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. 25 young people from the Danish organisation Youth Action and 27 young people from The Earth Society teamed up to build a project that would help both Rohingya children and their local communities through the Youth Exchange Program 2019. They visited two refugee camps, some of the host communities and participated in a number of interactive sessions with the refugees..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-01-07
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Title: Bangladesh-Myanmar border conference begins in Dhaka
Sub-title: Illegal immigration, border crimes, joint patrolling to be highlighted in 5-day conference, says press release
Description: "A high-profile border conference between the border security forces of Bangladesh and Myanmar began in the former's capital Dhaka on Sunday. Issues of bilateral interest, such as illegal entering of Myanmar's citizens into Bangladesh, curbing smuggling especially narcotics, combating border crimes including terrorist activities and launching combined patrolling in common borders will be highlighted in the five-day conference, according to a press release by the Border Guard Bangladesh on Sunday. Sensitive issues, including exchange of detained members of border security forces of both countries who entered into the other's territory, either during rough weather or "involuntarily", controlling firing by Myanmar's Border Guard Police or army in border areas, and exchanging information for border safety will also be discussed in the conference, it added. Myanmar's eight-member team, led by the country's Chief of Police General Staff Brig. Gen. Myo Than, has taken part in the conference, while Maj. Gen. Md Shafeenul Islam, the head of BGB, is leading the 14-member team of Bangladesh, it added..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2020-01-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
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Title: Longest internet disruption in Myanmar’s Rakhine state sets dangerous precedent
Description: "On 21 June 2019, Myanmar authorities ordered the blocking of the internet in nine townships of Rakhine and Chin States in northern Myanmar. Six months later, the internet remains blocked in four Rakhine townships: Mrauk U, Kyauktaw, Minbya, and Ponnagyun, establishing a dangerous precedent and prompting protests. The order to block the internet in June was issued following clashes between the military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine rebel group. Myanmar counts over a hundred ethnic groups, some of which are waging armed struggle to assert their right to self-determination. Authorities cited the need to protect national security in justifying the restriction of the internet. Even the entry of journalists in Rakhine , which counts over three million inhabitants, is strictly regulated by the government. On 1 September, the Transport and Communications Ministry lifted the internet ban in some townships. Yet 600,000 residents in Rakhine’s four townships continue to be affected by internet restrictions. Reports showed that the internet blocking in Rakhine has undermined business operations, delivery of e-government services, and tourism activities. Residents said they encountered difficulties in processing mobile money services and communicating with their relatives who are working in other provinces and countries..."
Source/publisher: "Global Voices" (Amsterdam)
Date of publication: 2019-12-29
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
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Title: Myanmar Ethnic Alliance Cease-fire Makes No Difference as Rakhine Fighting Rages in 2020
Description: "A unilateral cease-fire extended into the New Year by the “Three Brotherhood Alliance” of ethnic armies battling Myanmar’s armed forces appeared to make little difference as residents across the conflict zone in Rakhine state reported fighting this week. Local lawmakers and villagers said Thursday that the armed conflicts have continued despite the cease-fire announcement by the Arakan Army (AA) and its allies the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). They had announced Wednesday that they were extending a temporary unilateral cease-fire against Myanmar forces until Feb. 29 to allow more time to implement negotiations with the Myanmar military — the second extension since September. The three ethnic armies, which along with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) form the Northern Alliance, have been meeting with government peace negotiators to discuss bilateral truces, but have made little headway. The parties have agreed to meet again in January. The AA said armed conflicts are continuing because the military has used excessive force to intrude into its territory..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
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Title: Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ vs ‘Bengali’ Hate Speech Debate
Sub-title: A new campaign seeks to single out local media outlets that refer to the Rohingya ethnic group as “Bengalis.”
Description: "Rohingya activists have accused the Myanmar Press Council, a quasi-government media adjudication and ethics body, of defending the practice of using the word “Bengali” to refer to the Rohingya. Rights groups and Rohingya advocates argue that the term amounts to “hate speech” and that it is directly linked to misinformation, “fake news,” and vilification campaigns against the Rohingya actively promoted by the government, the military and others. Myanmar’s internet and social media landscape has come under increasing scrutiny after a Reuters investigation found over a thousand examples of hate speech attacking the Rohingya and Muslims of Myanmar. Following a UN report’s conclusion that the army had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya “with genocidal intent,” a number of social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, banned the accounts of Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s army chief, and others in an unprecedented move to control hate speech..."
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Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of publication: 2019-12-21
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rakhine Rebels Say Myanmar Official Killed in Fighting
Description: "Rebels in Myanmar's Rakhine region said a captured official from Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling party has died, two weeks after being taken for organizing protests against genocide accusations faced by Myanmar at the World Court. The Arakan Army rebels said Buthidaung National League for Democracy (NLD) Chairman Ye Thein, the most senior civilian official to die in the growing insurgency, was killed Monday in an attack on the rebels by Myanmar's army. There was no independent confirmation. The incident underscored the increasing loss of government control in a region that came to world attention when 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh to escape an army crackdown on a different rebel group in 2017. The Arakan Army said its positions had come under attack from Myanmar's army. "Due to big explosions, some detainees died and some were wounded. The NLD chairman from Buthidaung, Ye Thein, died on scene," the Arakan Army said in the statement. It said he had been taken prisoner on December 11..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK) via "VOA" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-12-25
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Why is Suu Kyi defending the military?
Description: "On Dec 11, Myanmar's State Counsellor-cum-Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi stood at the podium of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague and defended her country against the accusation of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention over the military's clearance operations in northern Rakhine state, which caused more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee the Southeast Asian country for Bangladesh. On behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, Gambia filed a case at the ICJ to order for"provisional measures to "protect and preserve the rights" of the Rohingya minority. The ICJ's ruling can possibly have two outcomes. If the ruling goes in favour of Gambia, there may be a new wave of violence targeting not only the Rohingya, but the larger Muslim population in Myanmar. And if the court dismisses the case, it may provoke anger among the Rohingya and their supporters across the globe -- including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.The legal process has triggered global attention and understandably it also divides the international community largely into two groups -- those who support Ms Suu Kyi and others who criticise or condemn her. Among others, those who criticise Ms Suu Kyi have argued that she has transformed herself from an international democratic icon and a champion of human rights to a denier of genocidal acts..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Bangkok Post" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2020-01-06
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Domestic politics drives Suu Kyi’s genocide denial
Sub-title: Myanmar nominal leader’s defense of Rohingya crackdown at ICJ boosts her re-election chances
Description: "To much of the world, Myanmar’s nominal leader Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate turned genocide denier. At home, she is seen as a heroine who went to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend and uphold her country’s honor, though not necessarily in defense of the powerful military with which she has been at loggerheads for years. The case brought to the ICJ by Gambia “to protect and preserve the rights” of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority under the United Nations Genocide Convention will likely be a drawn-out and inconclusive legal process. That’s in part because all five permanent members of the UN’s Security Council may veto the enforcement of any verdict, which Myanmar allies China and Russia will likely do. Neither is an investigation ordered by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November into alleged “crimes against humanity” committed during a Myanmar army campaign against the Rohingyas in 2017, which killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands to flee across the border into neighboring Bangladesh, expected to succeed in prosecuting the perpetrators..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Has Myanmar Lost Sight Of Justice, Accountability And Truth?
Sub-title: After decades and decades of iron-fisted rule by one of the most repressive military regimes the world has ever seen, its people deserve better. At least, Justice, accountability, truth, and national reconciliation are aspirations that many have fought and died for many years. Myanmar cannot lose sight of them.
Description: "As 2019 draws to a close, with no positive progress on the situation of human rights, Myanmar[1] has drawn international attention regarding allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for crimes committed against the Rohingya. However, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s decision to represent the country as the Agent at the ICJ court proceedings in the Hague in defense of “the national interest”, has caused and continues to cause deep divisions amongst diverse people of Myanmar inside and outside of the country. Meanwhile in Rakhine State, clashes between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military has displaced more than 5,800 people in one week while in some parts of Rakhine State people are still unable to access the internet, making it six months since it was shut down by the government. On Saturyday, twenty civil society organizations in Myanmar issued a joint statement – initiated by Free Expression Myanmar and joined by others including Progressive Voice – condemning this continued shut down of internet access in parts of Rakhine State. In her capacity as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took the stand at the ICJ over the course of 10 – 12 December 2019 as the Agent of Myanmar. Although she denied the genocidal intent of the crimes, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi admitted at the world court that atrocity crimes have been committed by the Myanmar military. In her statement she admitted that “it cannot be ruled out that disproportionate force was used by members of the Defence Services in some cases in disregard of international humanitarian law.” The Myanmar military can no longer hide its brutal human rights violations against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities. However, what is troubling is that a number of public rallies were held across the country in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi without a clear understanding of the public hearings at the Hague. The Myanmar military and the National League for Democracy government has taken advantage of this lack of clarity, falsely claiming that the people of Myanmar are on trial, rather than the State, for violating the Genocide Convention. Therefore, many of those who gather at the rallies in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi believe that they have a duty to support their leader for “defending the country.”..."
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2019-12-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Defending genocide at the ICJ
Sub-title: With facts on the ground established, the Myanmar government's defence against the genocide charge can hardly stand.
Description: "On December 9, the world marked the anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention: a covenant signed in the wake of the Holocaust not only to punish genocide but to prevent it. And yet, the tatters of the shredded promise of "never again" were on display the very next day at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which from December 10 to 12 held its first hearings in the case against Myanmar for the genocide of the Rohingya. The case was brought by The Gambia, under a provision of the Genocide Convention that permits state parties to bring a case against any other party for violations, even if they themselves are not directly affected - a reflection of the extreme gravity of the crime. The hearings - in which The Gambia requested "provisional measures" to mitigate further deterioration of the Rohingya's situation while the wheels of justice grind slowly forward - were just the preliminary stage of a long process which will take several more years to determine whether Myanmar bears state responsibility for genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Understanding the Myanmar military’s genocidal mind
Sub-title: Recent atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims were business as usual for Myanmar’s war-hardened army
Description: "In her defense of Myanmar against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague last week, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi was at pains to stress the complexity of the ethnic conflict in Rakhine state and her country’s stumbling efforts to implement its own process of accountability and military justice. As Myanmar’s de facto political leader and foreign minister, she was clearly hobbled by her inability to articulate what would have been a far more persuasive line of argument: the 2017 atrocities perpetrated on the Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine were hardly an exceptional campaign of genocide, but rather what for the Myanmar Army, or Tatmadaw, was simply business as usual – in military jargon “standard operating procedure” (SOP) – that has not normally garnered international attention, let alone global outrage. The sickening specifics of the Tatmadaw’s SOP in Rakhine have been spelled out in voluminous reports from a United Nations (UN) Fact Finding Mission and leading international human rights organizations. Some were again recounted by lawyers for the Gambia, which lodged the accusation of genocide with the court..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-17
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Why is most of Asia looking away from Myanmar?
Description: "The latest resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly condemning rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups in Myanmar was the third such resolution on the subject. It was approved by 134 votes in favour and nine against while 28 nations abstained. A vote so close to the hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a petition seeking interim measures to prevent further killings and abuses with genocidal intent demands closer scrutiny to understand global community’s attitude towards the Rohingya crisis. China and Russia’s opposition to any international condemnation of Myanmar was not unexpected as both of them in the past had supported so-called security operations against alleged insurgency. Had these two veto-wielding nations allowed the UN Security Council to find a way forward to resolve the crisis or at the least refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), victims of those atrocities carried out by Myanmar security forces would have gotten some hope for justice. Apparently, there’s too little Bangladesh can do to win them over. The other seven nations who voted against the resolution were Belarus, Cambodia, Peoples Democratic Republic of Lao, Philippines, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. Records show that these nations too have consistently sided with Myanmar. All these countries for decades have been criticised for their human rights records. Among them, Cambodia has bitter experience of dealing with genocide. It had cooperated fully with international jurists and experts to hold some of the perpetrators to justice. But, the current authoritarian regime’s appalling human rights records in the domestic front and reliance on China for military and economic aid explain its inability to support international actions against Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2020-01-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Attack Of The Burmese Dogs Ethnicity, Jade Trade, And Conflict In The Sino-Myanmar Borderlands
Topic: Rohingya, Ruili, ethnicity, jade trade, borderland, social-symbolic order, human- nonhuman
Topic: Rohingya, Ruili, ethnicity, jade trade, borderland, social-symbolic order, human- nonhuman
Description: "This paper addresses two questions pertaining to ethnicity. First, how do ethnic identifications, alliances, and conflicts play out in social worlds hosting ingrained ethnic hostilities? Secondly, how can we theorize the role of non-human agents in human conceptions of ethnicity and constructions of social-symbolic orders? The discussion is based on events related by Noor; a Rohingya man, who works as a jade trader in the border-town of Ruili in China’s Yunnan province, opposite Myanmar’s Shan state. The paper describes Noor’s motivations for fleeing Myanmar, his experience of Buddhist-Muslim conflicts, his work as a jade trader, and his hobby as a fighting cock breeder. The final section discusses how Noor conceptualizes his ethnic identity and position in a wider social-symbolic order hosting antagonistic ethnic Others by making analogies between nonhuman agents and ethnic humans..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Department of Sociology, Lund University" (Lund)
Date of publication: 2016-07-03
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 579.92 KB
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: UN condemns human rights abuses
Topic: Aung San Suu Kyi, Asia migrant crisis, International Court of Justice, Myanmar, Rohingya
Topic: Aung San Suu Kyi, Asia migrant crisis, International Court of Justice, Myanmar, Rohingya
Description: "The UN resolution passed on Friday expressed alarm at the continuing influx of Rohingya to Bangladesh over the past four decades "in the aftermath of atrocities committed by the security and armed forces of Myanmar". It highlighted the findings of an independent international mission "of gross human rights violations and abuses suffered by Rohingya Muslims and other minorities" by Myanmar's security forces, which the mission described as "the gravest crimes under international law". The resolution called on Myanmar to protect all groups and to ensure justice for all violations of human rights. It was passed by a total of 134 countries in the 193-member world body, with nine votes against and 28 abstaining. UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but can reflect world opinion. The UN ambassador for Myanmar, Hau Do Suan, called the resolution "another classic example of double-standards [and] selective and discriminatory application of human rights norms". He said it was designed to exert "unwanted political pressure" on Myanmar and did not attempt to find a solution to "the complex situation in Rakhine state"..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2019-12-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The Plight of Stateless Rohingya and ASEAN’s Responsibility
Description: "It is for the first time for ASEAN to have an Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission whose main job is to deal with all human right problems within the association. This newly formed body would not be effective unless it deals properly by collective arrangements within the region. ASEAN would face criticism as a lip service body, which fails to take a firm action to deal with the Rohingya issues. Persecution and human rights violations against the Rohingya inside Burma, especially in Arakan state, have persisted for over 20 years, with insufficient international attention. Within the study of International Relations, the problem of forced migration and displaced persons are understudied, despite they are daily features in global conflict. The problem have great significance to understand the international society’s behaviour, yet “there has been little systematic attempt...to explore what the central concepts within IR might offer to the study of forced migration” (Betts and Loescher 2011, 11). Forced migration and displaced persons are both causes and consequences of conflict and instability, hence mitigation needs involvement of both states and non-state actors. The Rohingya problem has been unique since their displacement is not caused by internal conflicts but because of denial of citizenship. Within ASEAN member countries we are witnessing some groups of people holding this status. Including the Rohingya people, almost everywhere the non-citizens facing official and non-official discrimination. Having social and practical hostilities from their surroundings. This essay, however, explores why ASEAN continues to turn a blind eye to the plight of the Rohingya even though ASEAN has inaugurated the Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Airlangga University (Indonesia) via "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2012-03-12
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 427.9 KB (12 pages)
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Title: UNGA resolution condemns abuses against Myanmar's Rohingya
Sub-title: UN member states voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions to call for urgent action to stop racial hatred against the Rohingya.
Description: "The UN General Assembly (UNGA) approved a resolution on Friday strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar's Rohingya and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention. The 193-member body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions in favour of the resolution, which also calls on Myanmar's government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states. More: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' At top court, Myanmar urged to 'stop genocide of own people' UNGA resolutions are not legally binding but they reflect world opinion. Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya to be "Bengalis" from Bangladesh, in spite of their families having lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless; they are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: We, the Rohingya youth, demand our right to an education
Sub-title: The world needs to stop viewing us as victims and help us gain the tools we need to forge a new path for Myanmar
Description: "In the summer of 2012, when a particularly gruesome episode of anti-Rohingya violence erupted in the capital city of Myanmar's Rakhine state, Sittwe, I was a second-year physics student at the town's university. Sittwe's Buddhist residents were attacking Rohingya homes and businesses with makeshift weapons. Soldiers, who had allegedly been sent to the town to help bring an end to the violence, were shooting at the Rohingya with live ammunition. As a young Rohingya Muslim, I knew that if I went outside I would be tortured and killed either by angry Buddhist mobs or military troops. So, I hid inside my dormitory room. After spending a week in hiding without any food or other supplies, I was informed by the immigration authority that I was no longer a student - I was banned from Sittwe University and denied an education as a result of the racial segregation plan Myanmar authorities imposed in the name of "keeping the peace". A few days later, I was forcibly sent back to my hometown, Maungdaw, which is situated in Rakhine state, near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh. But I did not find safety there either. Security forces were regularly raiding Rohingya homes and dragging away anyone they found inside. They were specifically targeting the young and the educated who they viewed as a threat to their authority. We later found the dead bodies of some of the abducted, while others are missing to this day..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Pages with references to "Rakhine" from "The Global New Light of Myanmar" 23 December 2019
Description: "A family of seven displaced persons -- four men and three women -- returned to Myanmar of their own volition on Saturday and were received at the Taung Pyo Letwe Reception Centre, Maungtaw District, in Rakhine State. The Taung Pyo Letwe Reception Centre in-charge and officials scrutinized the returnees and issued National Verification Cards to the two women, aged above 10 years, and provided relief to the family. Deputy director U Soe Tun, in-charge of the Taung Pyo Letwe Reception Centre, sent the returnees to the Hla Pho Khaung Transit Centre, where the camp’s in-charge, director U Soe Shwe Aung, and officials welcomed them. They were also supplied with provisions, including rice, oil, salt, peas, and kitchen utensils. Afterwards, the returnees were handed over to the authorities at the Alae Than Kyaw Village, their native place. — District (IPRD)..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Ministry of Information via "The Global New Light of Myanmar"
Date of publication: 2019-12-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 167.08 KB
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Title: Arakan (Rakhine State) : A Land in Conflict on Myanmar’s Western Frontier
Description: "Rakhine State, historically known as Arakan, represents the post-colonial failures of Myanmar in microcosm: ethnic conflict, political impasse, militarisation, economic neglect and the marginalisation of local peoples. During the past decade, many of these challenges have gathered a new intensity, accentuating a Buddhist-Muslim divide and resulting in one of the greatest refugee crises in the modern world. A land of undoubted human and natural resource potential, Rakhine State has become one of the poorest territories in the country today. The current crisis is often characterised as a “Buddhist Rakhine” versus “Muslim Rohingya” struggle for political rights and ethnic identity. But the challenges of achieving democracy, equality and the right of self-determination have always been more complex and nuanced than this. Arakan’s vibrant history reflects its frontline position on a cultural and geo-political crossroads in Asia. Taking a narrative approach, this report seeks to analyse the challenges facing Rakhine State and its peoples during a critical time of transition from military rule. As always in Myanmar, a balanced understanding of local societies and perspectives is essential in a territory that reflects different ethnic, religious and political viewpoints. In the case of Rakhine State, the social and political challenges facing the peoples have been little documented or understood. Decades of civil war and international isolation have resulted in a dearth of reporting on the ethnic conflicts and governmental failures that have had a devastating impact on the ground. Equally resonant, the instabilities in Arakan cannot be separated from the challenges of peace and inclusion for all peoples and faiths in the sub-Asian region..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Transnational Institute (TNI) ( Netherlands)
Date of publication: 2019-12-18
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 7.9 MB 5.54 MB
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Title: Legal Team Defended Myanmar to ‘Best of Their Ability’ at ICJ, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Says
Description: "State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said on Wednesday evening that Myanmar’s delegation defended the country “to the best of their ability” against genocide charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in her first briefing to the nation since she returned from The Hague on Saturday. The Gambia accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention over military clearance operations in northern Rakhine State, which caused more than 730,000 Rohingya to flee the Southeast Asian country for Bangladesh. The African country asked the ICJ to order “provisional measures” to prevent more violations. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi led the country’s legal team in presenting oral arguments before the court from Dec. 11 to 12. In her 15-minute-long speech on Wednesday she said representing Myanmar at the ICJ was an honor but also “a grave responsibility”, as the case submitted by The Gambia accused Myanmar of the most serious of crimes, genocide. However, she said, the delegation constantly kept in mind the honor of Myanmar, the aspirations of its people, and its obligations as a member of the international community..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2019-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar's Suu Kyi says supporters a 'source of strength' during genocide hearings
Description: "Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday thanked supporters who staged large rallies on her behalf as she defended the country against genocide charges at The Hague, speaking to the nation for the first time since she returned on Sunday. Gambia accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention over a military campaign that drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh. It has asked the International Court of Justice to order “provisional measures” to prevent more harm. “The support of our people, given generously and unquestioningly ... was a great source of strength to us when we presented our case at the ICJ,” Nobel laureate Suu Kyi said in a televised address screened by the state broadcaster. Suu Kyi led a team to the Netherlands for three days of hearings last week, during which she denied genocide and argued the U.N. court should not have jurisdiction. “Every country passes through difficult times and Myanmar is no exception. Such trials provide us with an opportunity to assess our strengths and weaknesses, to reinforce one and rectify the other,” she said..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Explainer: Genocide case against Myanmar at the top U.N. court
Description: "Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was due to leave the Netherlands on Friday after defending her country against accusations of genocide during three days of hearings at the International Court of Justice. The west African country of Gambia filed a case in November, alleging Myanmar was committing “an ongoing genocide” against its minority Muslim Rohingya population. As a first step, Gambia asked the court to order emergency measures to protect the Rohingya and keep the conflict from getting worse. These are meant as a kind of restraining order while the 17-judge panel looks at the full case on its merits, which usually takes several years to complete. The court said it would rule on the request as soon as possible, but did not set a specific date. A ruling is expected within weeks. These hearings are expected to have been the first in a long process. The genocide case against Bosnian Serbs in Srebrenica in 1995 took almost 15 years to complete..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar cannot escape justice
Description: " Nothing can justify just egregious human rights abuses as those that have taken place in Rakhine state Myanmar and its military are currently being exposed for its gross violations of human rights -- through their ethnic cleansing operations of the Rohingya minority -- at the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations. This is all thanks to the tireless efforts of Gambia, a relatively small West African nation, who saw shades of the Rwandan genocide in the plight of the Rohingya. And it is because of Gambia, largely, that the world is finally starting to give the Rohingya crisis the attention it deserves. Perhaps the biggest news to arrive from the trials so far is the United States imposing strict sanctions against four of the Myanmar army’s top military leaders, including military chief Min Aung Hlaing and his deputy. This is truly an amazing turn of events. Backing Gambia’s initiative is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its 57 member states, Canada, and the Netherlands. And while the trials have only just begun, it is nothing short of heartening to see so many countries finally waking up to Myanmar’s history of abuse against its own minority groups..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Suu Kyi warns UN not to reignite Rohingya crisis
Description: "Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi urged United Nations (UN) judges on Thursday to throw out a genocide case against Myanmar, warning it risked reigniting the crisis that forced nearly three quarters of a million Rohingya Muslims from their homes. In her closing arguments after a three-day hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Myanmar's de facto civilian leader issued a stark warning to judges that allowing Gambia's case against Myanmar to go ahead could "undermine reconciliation". Suu Kyi, whose defence of the same generals she once defied has shredded her reputation abroad as a rights icon, even showed pictures of a football match recently played in the area affected by the violence in 2017 as evidence that was peace was returning "I pray that the decision you make with the wisdom and vision of justice will help us to create unity out of diversity," said Suu Kyi, who wore traditional Burmese dress and flowers in her hair..."
Source/publisher: "The ASEAN Post" (Malaysia)
Date of publication: 2019-12-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: U.S. slaps sanctions on Myanmar military chief over Rohingya atrocities
Description: "The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four Myanmar military leaders, including the commander-in-chief, in the toughest action taken yet by Washington for alleged human rights abuses against the Rohingya and other minorities. The sanctions targeted military chief Min Aung Hlaing on the same day that Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, attended the first day hearings at the U.N.’s highest court in The Hague, where she will lead Myanmar’s defense against the charge of genocide. A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. United Nations investigators have said Myanmar’s operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent.” Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, denied accusations of widespread abuses and said the military’s actions were part of a fight against terrorism. The U.S Treasury Department said in a statement on Tuesday Burmese military forces had committed “serious human rights abuse” under Min Aung Hlaing’s command..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The West turned Aung San Suu Kyi into a saint. She was always going to disappoint
Description: "Few people have risen so high in the international imagination only to fall as dramatically as Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2013, after the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was released from house arrest in Myanmar, as the military regime gradually liberalized in the face of punishing international sanctions, Suu Kyi was hailed in the British parliament as a "conscience of a country and a heroine for humanity." Two years later, as she celebrated victory for her National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar's first free elections in decades, the moment seemed to solidify her place in history as Asia's Nelson Mandela. This week, the "heroine for humanity" appeared at the Hague to defend her country -- and by extension herself -- from accusations of genocide against Rohingya Muslims, hundreds of thousands of whom have been forced out of northwestern Myanmar by a yearslong military crackdown. Few people are as perfect as their public image, especially when they are perceived as a saint. Nor did the 2015 election represent as much of a break with Myanmar's past as it first seemed -- the military kept a firm grip on power, while the ethnic strife and civil war which have racked the country since independence never went away..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of publication: 2019-12-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: “ACT NOW AND JOIN GAMBIA”
Description: "As the world looked on in lead up to the proceedings of Myanmar’s[1] violation of the Genocide Convention in case of Rohingya at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission’s (MNHRC) stated that they did not “find any evidence that the military tortured them or violated their human rights”– refusing to call them “Rohingya” and instead by the derogatory term “Bengali” – spoke to the complete lack of will by the domestic human rights institution to address accountability or to work to protect human rights. Since its establishment by a presidential decree in 2011 and the passing of its 2014 MNHRC Enabling Law that set its formal mandate, the MNHRC has continued to suffer from a huge public trust deficit. The insitution’s work to promote and protect human rights has consistently been hampered by two interlinked issues: commissioners who lack the human rights sensitivity and mindset as well as relevant experiences, and the structural and procedural issues at the heart of the MNHRC law that ensures the commissioners’ selection process is not independent, but aligned to the Myanmar government and the military – the institution which has committed genocide and continues to act with total impunity. Like most institutions set up by the government in Myanmar, the MNHRC has never recognized the identity of the Rohingya, and rather than upholding the principles of human rights, it has worked to deflect the egregious violence committed against them. The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) in its report, condemned the role of the MNHRC, stating that at no point has the commission worked to “address the systemic discrimination against Rohingya, despite this falling within its mandate.” This was again made clear by commissioner Yu Lwin Aung who stated, “We found that those Bengalis only killed and troubled our ethnic groups such as Mro, Khami, Rakhine and Dainet as well as Hindus. They violated the human rights. We found no evidence that the military did it.” The statement was made in a timely lead up to the proceedings currently taking place at the international court in the Hague on the case of Myanmar’s violation of the Genocide Convention filed at the ICJ by The Gambia..."
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi: Why defend the indefensible?
Description: "This week, the world was treated to an extraordinary sight. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner once hailed as “the bravest and most moral person in the world ... the immaculate heroine who allows us all to feel a little better about human nature”, sat in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and defended her country against charges of genocide. The brutal “clearance operations” by Myanmar’s security forces against the Muslim Rohingya population in Rakhine State between October 2016 and the end of 2017 have been extensively documented by governments and international organisations. In 2018, for example, an independent UN fact-finding mission released a 444-page report that described in horrific detail case after case of murder, torture, sexual assault and the destruction of property by the armed forces (known as the Tatmadaw) and the police. The UN Human Rights Council stated that these operations demonstrated “genocidal intent”. A more politically nuanced US State Department investigation conducted at the same time stopped short of calling the atrocities in Myanmar genocide, but recorded broadly similar findings. Both reports noted that there were almost one million Rohingya refugees living in squalid camps in Bangladesh who stood as evidence of the crimes against humanity perpetrated against them..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Interpreter"
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: 'International community must share responsibility for educating Rohingya children'
Description: "Both Bangladesh and the international community must share the responsibility of educating all the children of both the host community and the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar, Amnesty International has said. The Global Refugee Forum, which is being hosted by the UN’s refugee agency in Geneva and takes place from December 16-18, has made education one of its six key themes. More than half a million children have yet to see the inside of a classroom since they arrived in the refugee camps for more than two years ago, Amnesty International said issuing a press release on Friday, ahead of the first Global Refugee Forum. “The Rohingya children in the camps in Cox’s Bazar must not become a lost generation. The international community must accept that they will not be able to return home to Myanmar any time soon. And they cannot continue to see their futures slowly stolen from them in conditions where they are being denied their right to education,” said Saad Hammadi, South Asia campaigner at Amnesty International..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-12-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar charged with genocide of Rohingya Muslims: 5 essential reads
Description: "Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi is defending Myanmar in court against accusations of genocide. According to a case brought by the country of Gambia at the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, the Myanmar military in August 2017 carried out a systematic, targeted campaign of terror, rape and murder against its Muslim population. UN investigators say as many as 10,000 Rohingya – a Muslim minority in this Buddhist-majority nation – were killed. Another 730,000 Rohingya fled the massacre for Bangladesh, joining 300,000 Rohingya who had previously fled oppression in Myanmar. Suu Kyi said during hearings at the Hague on Dec. 11 that the charge of genocide is “misleading” because “cycles of intercommunal violence” in Myanmar date “back to the 1940s.” The Myanmar military explains its campaign as a counter-terrorism effort against a violent Rohingya extremist group..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Conversation"
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s initiative can help end Rohingya row
Description: "Myanmar's State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country against accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague Wednesday. Some Western media outlets lashed out at the Nobel Peace Prize winner, accusing her of being the spokesperson for the massacre in Rakhine state in northern Myanmar. But inside the Southeast Asian country, which has been under the spotlight over the ethnic controversy for years, Suu Kyi enjoys widespread support. After the Myanmar leader's announcement to go to The Hague in November, hundreds of rallies were held in Yangon to show support for her. Domestic supporters said it was unfair for Western countries to put pressure on the Myanmar government led by National League for Democracy (NLD) and on Suu Kyi herself. That the Western countries have accused the NLD government of religious persecution has triggered resentment among Myanmese. In fact, the Rohingya issue has been a long-term political, historical, ethnic, religious, economic and social problem, with various interwoven factors, such as the immigration policy during British colonial rule, illegal cross-border immigration since the independence of Myanmar in 1948, poverty, as well as lack of rule of law and national security. So far, successive governments in Myanmar have failed to find a proper solution to the thorny issue. After Myanmar's political transformation, the Rohingya issue has been widely discussed at home and abroad, and has also become a bargaining chip for political forces to fight for power and interests. The NLD government is confronted with immense pressure from all walks of life at home and from the international community which makes it even more difficult to deal with the Rohingya conundrum..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Global Times" (China)
Date of publication: 2019-12-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: New documentary explores the roots of Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya community
Description: "The film ‘Exiled’, directed by veteran war reporter Shahida Tulaganova, “explores the roots of increasing violence” in Myanmar’s Rakhine State from the perspectives of Rohingya refugees, former Burmese government officials and radical Buddhist monks. Also interviewed in the film is General Khin Nyunt, the former head of Burmese Military Intelligence accused of masterminding the policy of persecution of Rohingya. Myanmar has a predominantly Buddhist population, but also has more than one hundred ethnic minority groups, including the Rohingya, whom the government refuses to recognize and considers ‘illegal migrants’ from Bangladesh and India. In recent years, communal violence erupted in Rakhine between some Rohingya and radical Buddhist groups. Hate speech against the Rohingya, who are mostly Muslim, is also amplified online. Since 2017, thousands of Rohingya were forced to flee their homes after the government army clashed with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army..."
Source/publisher: "Global Voices"
Date of publication: 2019-06-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Rohingya fury at Aung San Suu Kyi’s genocide denial to world court
Sub-title: Muslim victims of Myanmar ‘clearances’ voice outrage as peace prize winner dismisses atrocity charges
Description: "When Aung San Suu Kyi rose to denounce genocide charges against her country at the “world court” last week, three victims of Myanmar’s ethnic violence were sitting close behind the Nobel peace prize winner – disbelieving and seething with anger. Hamida Khatun, Yousuf Ali and Hasina Begum had travelled from the sprawling Kutupalong refugee camp outside Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to sit on the legal delegation attending the International Court of Justice’s emergency hearing in The Hague, in the Netherlands. Only lawyers were allowed to address the 17 judges during the three-day session in the United Nations’ highest tribunal. The exiled Rohingya Muslims had to sit in silence, stifling their emotions. Khatun, 50, and Ali, 46, voted for Aung San Suu Kyi in 2010 when, after 15 years of house arrest, she represented a figure of democratic hope defying the military dictatorship..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Suu Kyi's denials make mockery of a Nobel past
Description: "It took 21 years for Myanmar's now de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to finally accept her Nobel peace prize after many years under house arrest. During her acceptance speech, she talked about how "wherever suffering is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages". For the Rohingya people of her country, these were prescient words. Last week, Suu Kyi found herself at the International Court of Justice at The Hague defending her country from accusations of genocide. The hearing against Myanmar, made by the tiny African nation of Gambia, centres on the more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims forced to flee to Bangladesh in 2017 after systematic "clearance operations" led by the military. Its case relies on a UN fact-finding mission, which described soldiers in the Myanmar state of Rakhine firing indiscriminately into houses and fields, houses set on fire with people locked inside, mass rapes, and children thrown into rivers and onto fires. The military operation flared after many years of tension between the state’s two largest groups, the Rakhine Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims. The Rohingya minority have long suffered discrimination in the form of severe travel restrictions, limited access to education and Myanmar's unwillingness to give them citizenship, in effect making them stateless. When the Rohingya's frustrations led them to attack a military base in 2017, the response from Myanmar was devastating..."
Source/publisher: "The Sydney Morning Herald" (Sydney)
Date of publication: 2019-12-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘The Lady’ is a liar: Suu Kyi’s genocide whitewash
Description: "Rohingya civilians.” That’s the phrase conspicuously absent from Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s 3,500-word statement to the International Court of Justice on Wednesday. The omission is no accident. Suu Kyi’s highly anticipated ICJ appearance was to answer to The Gambia’s official complaint of Myanmar’s violations of the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention, linked to the extreme military abuses against Muslim Rohingya civilians. Yet her judicial defense strategy studiously avoided any mention of civilian suffering. Instead, Suu Kyi – the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate – peddled the Myanmar military‘s long-discredited narrative that its activities in northern Rakhine state in August 2017 constituted legitimate “clearance operations” in response to attacks on police posts, allegedly perpetrated by an insurgent group. According to Suu Kyi, what transpired was merely “an internal armed conflict started by coordinated and comprehensive attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, to which Myanmar’s Defense Services responded.”Unfortunately for Suu Kyi, that narrative is at odds with voluminous evidence compiled by the United Nations’ Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and other rights monitors. That documentation demonstrates a vicious, widespread, and systematic targeting of Rohingya civilians by security forces in a weeks-long violence spree that began on August 25, 2017. That’s when security forces attacked hundreds of Rohingya villages, massacring thousands of their residents, gang-raping thousands more, and burning their homes to the ground..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Has the world failed the Rohingya people? | Inside Story
Description: "Two years ago, Myanmar's military launched its crackdown on the Rohingya after attacks on its soldiers by members of the mainly Muslim minority. The UN described what happened next as a 'textbook example of ethnic cleansing'. The army was accused of rape, torture and murder, and villages were burned to the ground. Almost three-quarters of a million Rohingya were forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they live in the world's biggest refugee camp. The Gambia wanted Myanmar's military tried for genocide, and went to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. But Aung San Suu Kyi, Head of Myanmar's government, and a Nobel peace laureate, dismissed the case as "misleading and incomplete." Why is this one-time champion of human rights defending the army that kept her under house arrest for years?..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: Aung San Suu Kyi cuts a haunted figure in court
Sub-title: The spectacle of Aung San Suu Kyi, a once-persecuted Nobel peace laureate now defending her country against allegations of genocide over its treatment of the Rohingya minority, has been one of bewildering irony.
Description: In the years after she was released from house arrest in 2010, princes, presidents and prime ministers welcomed Aung San Suu Kyi with open arms into their own opulent homes. The feel-good factor of rubbing shoulders with someone who had dedicated much of her adult life to the pursuit of democracy was irresistible. Then, the grandeur of the Peace Palace in The Hague - a marble-floored monument to global harmony - would have been comfortable surroundings for Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize winner. A native habitat, even. But not now. There was no red carpet, welcoming committee or brass band. Aung San Suu Kyi: The democracy icon who fell from grace Bangladesh 'to be tougher' on Rohingya refugees Will Omar get justice for his murdered family? Instead the light pouring through the stained glass of the Great Hall of Justice illuminated an often haunted-looking figure who had chosen to come and listen to descriptions of some of the most unimaginably gruesome acts. Acts said to have been committed in her country. On her watch..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2019-12-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar's lawyer to critics on genocide case: Everyone has right to defense
Description: "Canadian lawyer William Schabas, an international scholar on genocide, has been criticized by friend and foe for first researching crimes against the Muslim Rohingya of Myanmar, and now defending the state accused of perpetrating them. Schabas helped research a report in 2010 on systematic attacks against the Rohingya, which concluded that they met the international threshold of crimes against humanity. Three years later, in an Al Jazeera documentary, he was filmed saying: “Denying their history, denying the legitimacy of their right to live where they live, these are all warning signs that mean that it’s not frivolous to envisage the use of the word genocide.” This week Schabas stood alongside Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and denied genocide took place during a military campaign in 2017 in which thousands were killed and raped and hundreds of thousands displaced. “William Schabas is basically selling out the Rohingya for some Myanmar gov’t $$$. Really the worst sort of behavior, how totally immoral and two-faced,” Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch said on Twitter on Thursday..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi addresses Myanmar genocide in speech at The Hague | Full video version
Description: "Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the case brought against her country at the World Court was "incomplete and misleading" as she began her defence to accusations of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority on Wednesday. Suu Kyi, once feted in the West as a heroine of democracy, spoke for about 30 minutes at the courtroom in The Hague in defence of the actions of the Myanmar military, which she said did not constitute genocide. In three days of hearings this week, judges are hearing the first phase of the case: Gambia's request for "provisional measures" - the equivalent of a restraining order against Myanmar to protect the Rohingya population until the case is heard in full. More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar to Bangladesh after the military launched a crackdown in western Rakhine state in August 2017..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Global News" (Toronto)
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi pleas with court to dismiss genocide claims
Sub-title: Leader says a report from an internal inquiry into Myanmar soldiers was due soon
Description: "In a defiant closing address to the UN’s highest tribunal, Aung San Suu Kyi has pleaded with its 17 international judges to dismiss allegations that Myanmar has committed genocide and urged them instead to allow the country’s court martial system to deal with any human rights abuses. The 74-year-old leader of the Asian country informed the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague that she expected a report by an internal inquiry to recommend more prosecutions of Myanmar soldiers soon. “I can confirm there will be further court martials after the submission of the report ... in a few weeks,” she said. “It’s vital that our civil and military justice system functions in accordance with our constitution.” The Nobel peace prize winner’s decision to attend the court in person has astounded human rights groups. Once an international icon representing peaceful defiance of military dictatorship, her reputation has plummeted as she has repeatedly defended her country’s army in the aftermath of the Rohingya exodus in 2017. Thousands of people were killed and about 740,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority fled across the border into sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh after Myanmar launched a huge military crackdown in Rakhine state..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Gambia v. Myanmar Day 3 Hearing Part 1
Description: " Hague, The Netherlands: American lawyer Paul Reichler told the International Court of Justice on Wednesday, that they do not contend that there was no insurgents in Myanmar’s alleged genocide against the Muslim Rohingya people during the cleanse operations. Delivering his points of argument before the international tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday, in a genocidal case brought against the government of Myanmar by The Gambia, Reichler said Myanmar had justified that it’s cleanse operations were not intended at destroying Rohingya. “They said what they intended was to clear an area of the insurgents by deliberately killing Rohingya children, beaten to death or torn from their mother’s arms.” On November 11, Gambia, with the backing of the 57 members of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, filed a case with the court alleging that the Myanmar military’s atrocities in Rakhine State against Rohingya Muslims violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. On November 20, Myanmar recognized being bound by the ICJ Statute and announced that its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, would lead the delegation to “defend the national interest of Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher: Eye Africa TV
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Gambia's Rohingya genocide case hearing at the International Court of Justice
Description: "The International Court of Justice (ICJ) begins hearing on the Gambia’s Rohingya genocide case against Myanmar today in The Hague. The three day hearings will include the first response by Myanmar to allegations of atrocities against the Rohingya before an independent and impartial court. The Gambia, with the backing of the 57 members of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, filed a case on November 11, with the court alleging that the Myanmar military’s atrocities in Rakhine State against Rohingya Muslims violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide..."
Source/publisher: "Gambiana News" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Gambia's Second Round Observation By Ba Tambedou At The ICJ
Description: "Gambia maintains position that Myanmar committed gross human right violations.."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Eye Africa TV
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: The Guardian view on Myanmar and genocide: humanity on trial
Sub-title: Criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi’s defence of her country must not overshadow the issue at the heart of the case at the international court of justice: the ongoing suffering of Rohingya Muslims
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi’s decision to personally defend Myanmar in the genocide case at the international court of justice this week has torn away any scant remaining shreds of moral credibility from the figure once lauded as a champion of democracy and the fight against oppression. Yet what is at stake is far more than one woman’s reputation. Nor is this even about the six military leaders – including the commander in chief – who UN-appointed investigators last year said should be prosecuted for the “gravest” crimes against civilians, including genocide. This is about the more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine state forced to flee to Bangladesh since late 2016, the 10,000 who UN investigators believe may have died in the crackdown, and the 600,000 still living in apartheid conditions, denied basic rights. Lawyers for the Gambia, which has brought this case with the backing of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, laid out the details: the mass shootings, throat slittings, infanticide, torture, rape and burning down of villages, carried out systematically and together amounting to the destruction of the Rohingya as a group, in whole or part. These crimes are well documented..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: ICJ speech: Suu Kyi fails to use 'Rohingya' to describe minority
Sub-title: While defending military against genocide charges, Myanmar leader does not use Rohingya to describe persecuted minority.
Description: "In a speech on Wednesday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that lasted about 30 minutes, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi defended her country's military against allegations of genocide. The case, filed by The Gambia, accuses Myanmar of violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, with regard to a bloody crackdown in 2017 in which thousands of Rohingya were abused, displaced and killed. The hearing concludes on Thursday, but a final judgement could take several years. More: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' At top court, Myanmar urged to 'stop genocide of own people' In her opening statement, the former human rights icon denied "genocidal intent" on the part of the military and outlined the history of tensions in Rakhine state. She promised that civilians and members of the military who attacked innocent people would be prosecuted, but repeatedly termed the 2017 crackdown as an "internal conflict", saying Myanmar's military was responding to attacks by armed local groups, such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar cannot be trusted to put own soldiers on trial: Gambia
Sub-title: ICJ hearing draws to close as Aung San Suu Kyi faces fresh criticism for defending Myanmar against genocide allegation.
Description: "Myanmar cannot be trusted to hold its soldiers accountable for alleged atrocities against its Rohingya minority, and measures to stop the violence need to be taken immediately, a lawyer presenting a genocide case against the country said on Thursday. Speaking on the third and final day of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case brought by The Gambia under the 1948 Genocide Convention, the West African country's lead lawyer repeated its demand for "provisional measures" to restrain the Myanmar military until the case is heard in full. More: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' At top court, Myanmar urged to 'stop genocide of own people' Paul Reichler said Myanmar had not even tried during the hearings to deny most of the accusations of extreme violence made against its military, known officially as the Tatmadaw, nor of the mass deportation of Rohingya following a 2017 crackdown. Statements from Myanmar that it was taking action to prosecute soldiers accused of wrongdoing were incredible, he said..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi accused of 'silence' in genocide trial
Description: "The Muslim-majority African country has accused Myanmar of genocide in a case at the UN's top court. Lawyers said Ms Suu Kyi had ignored widespread allegations of mass murder, rape and forced deportation. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has defended her country, calling the case "incomplete and incorrect". In her closing remarks at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday, she said the genocide case could "undermine reconciliation". What did The Gambia say? Lawyers for The Gambia hit out at arguments from Ms Suu Kyi that a 2017 military crackdown in Rakhine state was a "clearance operation" targeting militants. Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during the crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. There were widespread allegations of sexual violence and rape..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar's Suu Kyi denies genocide, warns reigniting crisis
Description: "Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi urged UN judges on Thursday to drop a genocide case against her country, warning it risked reigniting the crisis that forced nearly three-quarters of a million Rohingya Muslims from their homes. In her closing arguments after a three-day hearing at the ICJ, Suu Kyi issued a stark warning to judges that allowing The Gambia's case against Myanmar to go ahead could "undermine reconciliation." The Nobel peace laureate earlier denied accusations of genocide caused by Myanmar's armed forces at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Suu Kyi said the Myanmar army only intervened after an attack by fighters of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in August 2017. She pointed out that tensions have existed for centuries between different groups in the Rakhine state in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "China Global Television Network (CGTN)" (China)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Transcript: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at the ICJ in full
Sub-title: In a speech that lasted about 30 minutes, Myanmar leader defended her country's military against genocide allegations.
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi has defended Myanmar's military against genocide allegations at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), amid accusations of mass killings, rape and expulsion of the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. In her opening statement in front of judges in The Hague on Wednesday, the former human rights icon rejected the case at the United Nations' highest court - which was filed by the Gambia with the support of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) - alleging Myanmar violated the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The hearing concludes on Thursday, but a final judgement could take several years. More: Aung San Suu Kyi defends Myanmar against genocide allegations Rohingya refugees reject Aung San Suu Kyi's 'lies on genocide' Timeline: How the crackdown on Myanmar's Rohingya unfolded Here is her speech in full: "Thank you, Mr President and members of the court. It is an honour to appear as Agent of the Union of the Republic of Myanmar in these proceedings, in my capacity as Union Minister of Foreign Affairs. "For materially less resourceful countries like Myanmar, the World Court is a vital refuge of international justice. We look to the Court to establish conditions conducive to respect for obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law, one of the fundamental objectives of the United Nations Charter..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi tells court: Myanmar genocide claims ‘factually misleading’
Sub-title: De facto PM defends actions of government, saying attacks were initiated by insurgents
Description: "The Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has defended Myanmar’s government against accusations of genocide at the international court of justice, calling the allegations an “incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation”. Addressing a bench of 17 judges from around the world, the 74-year-old leader dismissed reports of state violence against Rohingya Muslims and blamed the conflict on an uprising by sectarian insurgents. An estimated 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since late 2016, escaping military clearance operations that a UN fact-finding mission described as “brutal”. It warned that Myanmar was failing to prevent genocide. Once internationally feted as a human rights champion, Aung San Suu Kyi is leading Myanmar’s delegation to the court in The Hague. The state counsellor, in effect the country’s prime minister, opened her defence with a 25-minute speech which placed primary responsibility for the violence on a terrorist uprising. The attacks were initiated by members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Aung San Suu Kyi told the court as she displayed detailed maps of Rakhine state showing, she claimed, where the first assaults began in late 2016..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Daw Aung San Su Kyi presents at ICJ (Full video version)
Source/publisher: YouTube
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi rejects genocide claims at UN court
Sub-title: Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has defended her country against allegations of genocide at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Description: "The Nobel Peace Prize laureate responded to widespread claims that Myanmar (formerly Burma) committed atrocities against Muslim Rohingya. In her opening remarks, she called the case against Myanmar "incomplete and incorrect". She said troubles in Rakhine, where many Rohingya lived, go back centuries. Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017. Myanmar has always insisted it was tackling an extremist threat in Rakhine state, and Ms Suu Kyi maintained that stance, describing the violence as an "internal armed conflict" triggered by Rohingya militant attacks on government security posts. The democracy icon who fell from grace Rohingya homes destroyed for government facilities Conceding that Myanmar's military might have used disproportionate force at times, she said that if soldiers had committed war crimes "they will be prosecuted". Ms Suu Kyi - once celebrated internationally as a champion of democracy - has been de facto leader of Myanmar since April 2016, before the alleged genocide began. She does not have control over the army, but has been accused by the UN investigator of "complicity" in the military clearances. Ms Suu Kyi has chosen to stand up for the same army that kept her under house arrest for years..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar's Rohingya say 'world will judge' Suu Kyi's denial of genocide
Sub-title: Leaders in refugee camps says justice will be delivered based on the evidence they have provided of Myanmar atrocities
Description: "Rohingya refugees have hit back at Aung San Suu Kyi’s claims at the international court of justice in testimony on Wednesday after she denied that Myanmar’s armed forces were guilty of genocide against the Muslim minority. Suu Kyi told the court that the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to neighbouring Bangladesh was the unfortunate result of a battle with insurgents. She denied the army had killed civilians, raped women and torched houses in 2017. Critics describe the actions by the army as a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee. “The world will judge their claim of no genocide with evidence,” said a Rohingya leader, Mohammed Mohibullah, who is chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press (AP)" (New York) via "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar's Suu Kyi back in U.N. court for final day of genocide hearing
Description: "Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi returned to the International Court of Justice on Thursday to defend Myanmar against accusations it has committed genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority population. Gambia, which brought the suit at the U.N.'s top court under the 1948 Genocide Convention, has asked judges to order "provisional measures" that would act as a kind of restraining order for the Myanmar military until the case is heard in full. At Thursday's hearing each side will have a chance to counter arguments put forward by the other over the past two days, starting with Gambia, a small west African country that is supported by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation. On Tuesday, Gambia's legal team outlined graphic testimony of bloody excesses alleged committed by Myanmar's military since 2016 in a campaign that has seen more than 730,000 Rohingya driven across the border from Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh. U.N. investigators estimated 10,000 people may have been killed. Suu Kyi on Wednesday argued the tribunal, also known as the World Court, should not have jurisdiction. She said even if there had been violations of humanitarian law during what she described as an "internal conflict", they did not rise to the level of genocide and are not covered by the Convention. Gambia, led by Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou, was expected to argue on Thursday that Myanmar's actions do meet the definition of genocide, as attacks on the Rohingya were part of a coordinated plan of ethnic cleansing. Suu Kyi and her team will have several hours to formulate a rebuttal and final statement by the end of on Thursday. The court has not set a date for a decision on provisional measures, but one could come in January. Its decisions are binding and not subject to appeal, though it has no means of enforcement and countries have occasionally ignored them in the past or failed to fully adhere..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Telegraph" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The Papers: Newspaper headlines: Bellamy tributes and Myanmar 'genocide denial'
Sub-title: Political coverage and commentary takes up most of the front pages. The BBC, along with other broadcasters, is not allowed to report details of campaigning while the polls are open
Description: "Away from the election, The Times considers what it calls the extraordinary transition of the Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, following her appearance at the International Court of Justice defending her country's treatment of the Rohingya Muslims. It says she's gone from dissident voice, political prisoner and opposition politician to the genocide-denying champion of an almost friendless government. It suggests that the Nobel Peace Prize awards committee should think carefully about whether she still deserves the honour. The Daily Telegraph says that, often lauded for her principled stance against the military, Miss Suu Kyi has been criticised for now defending their actions. For the Financial Times, her journey from the Nobel Peace Prize podium in Oslo to the UN court in The Hague is a symbol of her alienation from global admirers who once saw her as a human rights icon. There's sharp criticism of a new law passed in India yesterday that will fast-track citizenship claims for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan - but not if they are Muslim. The Financial Times warns that the law threatens the history of Indian secularism. It is, the paper says, a milestone in the campaign by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to reshape India into an overtly Hindu nation..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: "Powerful Moment": Rohingya Go Online To Watch Myanmar Rulers At UN Court
Description: "When Gambia went before the United Nations' top court Tuesday and accused Myanmar of committing genocide against Rohingya Muslims, most Rohingya refugees themselves couldn't watch the opening of the unprecedented hearings. That's because Bangladesh, which has taken in more than 750,000 Rohingya, had shut off Internet service since September in the sprawling and isolated refugee camps that lie along the edge of the tourist hub of Cox's Bazar. Then suddenly around 10 p.m. Tuesday local time, the camps' connection to the outside world returned. There were cheers of gratitude - toward Bangladesh for reconnecting the Internet and toward Gambia for supporting the Rohingya's case on the world stage. But there was also anger and sadness as people caught up on Myanmar's steadfast denial that it had waged a violent campaign against Rohingya that United Nations investigators concluded had "genocidal intent."..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (Washington, D.C) via "NDTV" (New Delhi)
Date of publication: 2019-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Statement by H.E. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor and Union Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar As Agent Before the ICJ
Description: "1. Thank you, Mr. President and Members of the Court. It is an honour to appear as Agent of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in these proceedings, in my capacity as Union Minister for Foreign Affairs. For materially less resourceful countries like Myanmar, the World Court is a vital refuge of international justice. We look to the Court to establish conditions conducive to respect for obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law, one of the fundamental objectives of the United Nations Charter. 2. In the present case, Mr. President, the Court has been asked to apply the 1948 Genocide Convention, one of the most fundamental multilateral treaties of our time. Invoking the 1948 Genocide Convention is a matter of utmost gravity. This is the treaty that we made following the systematic killing of more than six million European Jews, and that my country whole-heartedly signed as early as 30 December 1949 and ratified on 14 March 1956. Genocide is the crime that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda applied in response to the mass-killing of perhaps 70% of the Tutsis in Rwanda. It is the crime that was not applied by the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to the displacement of approximately one million residents of Kosovo in 1999. Neither was it applied by that Tribunal nor by this Court when deciding upon the exodus of the Serb population from Croatia in 1995. In both situations international justice resisted the temptation to use this strongest of legal classifications because the requisite specific intent to physically destroy the targeted group in whole or in part was not present. 3. Regrettably, The Gambia has placed before the Court an incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar. Yet, it is of the utmost importance that the Court assess the situation obtaining on the ground in Rakhine dispassionately and accurately..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Myanmar State Counsellor Office (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 153.4 KB (6 pages)
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Title: 'The World Has Not Forgotten Us.' A Rohingya Activist Speaks as Myanmar Faces Genocide Case
Description: "Wai Wai Nu is a Rohingya activist, former political prisoner, and founder of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar. Since her release from prison in 2012, Nu has dedicated herself to working for democracy and human rights, particularly on behalf of marginalized women and members of her own ethnic group, the minority Rohingya population. Originally from Rakhine state, Myanmar, she was named as a TIME Next Generation Leader in 2017, and is currently studying at Columbia University as an Obama Foundation scholar. This week, Nu is present at the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest court, in The Hague, the Netherlands for hearings in a landmark case claiming Myanmar has violated the 1948 convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is leading the country’s defense and said Wednesday that “genocidal intent cannot be the only conclusion.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Time"
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi impassive as genocide hearing begins
Sub-title: World’s failure to act over Myanmar is ‘stain on collective conscience’, UN court told
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi has sat impassively through graphic accounts of mass murder and rape perpetrated by Myanmar’s military at the start of a three-day hearing into allegations of genocide at the UN’s highest court. “I stand before you to awaken the conscience of the world and arouse the voice of the international community,” Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, the Gambia’s attorney general and justice minister, said as he opened his country’s case against Myanmar at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague. “In the words of Edmund Burke: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ “Another genocide is unfolding right before our eyes yet we do nothing to stop it,” he said. “This is a stain on our collective conscience. It’s not only the state of Myanmar that is on trial here, it’s our collective humanity that is being put on trial.” Before dawn on Tuesday, a long queue had formed outside the Peace Palace in the Dutch city to witness the first of three days of hearings that will focus attention on military clearance operations in 2017 against the Rohingya Muslim minority, 700,000 of whom were forced to flee across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Fences go up at Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps
Sub-title: Failure of repatriation attempt fueled tensions between government and refugees
Description: "The Bangladeshi military has started erecting fences around camps housing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees despite complaints from community leaders and rights groups. A correspondent on Tuesday saw troops in military fatigues erecting pillars for barbed-wire fences around one large camp at Balukhali in the southeastern border district Cox’s Bazar. Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner Mahhbub Alam Talukder confirmed that construction had started, but declined to comment further. Army chief General Aziz Ahmed said late last month that army engineers had begun erecting the pillars and that the military had “placed orders” for barbed wire..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times"
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: A Journalist Looks Back as Myanmar's Government Faces Genocide Charges
Description: "The sight of more than a dozen young men armed with machetes walking out of a burning village in Western Myanmar is the moment I realized that I was witnessing a genocide in progress. In the eight years I spent documenting a campaign of oppression against the country's ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims, I had heard countless tales from victims who had endured or witnessed atrocities committed by Myanmar's security forces. Now, I was witnessing it in real time during the tail end of a government-approved press tour to Rakhine state’s conflict zone in September of 2017. Two men, barefoot and wearing traditional longyis, stopped briefly on a dirt footpath in front of me as I filmed the destruction. A journalist asked what they were doing. Speaking a local dialect, one replied that they had been ordered by Myanmar's Border Guard Forces (BGF) to burn the village. At their feet lay plastic jugs with diesel fuel. Behind them, orange flames devoured the bamboo huts in the now-empty hamlet of Gaw du Thara.
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: UK to still fund Myanmar camps despite fears of 'apartheid-like' conditions
Sub-title: Humanitarian agencies say Rohingya people displaced by violence in Rakhine state are forced to live in squalid conditions
Description: "The UK has broken ranks with the UN and will keep funding “closed” Rohingya camps inside Myanmar despite fears that doing so may entrench “apartheid-like” conditions in the country, the Guardian has learned. Internal briefing documents as well as interviews with UN and humanitarian agency officials in Myanmar showed the British government was maintaining a policy of providing aid and other support to displaced people living in camps in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that have been slated for closure since 2017. The facilities have been criticised for being squalid, unsanitary and entrenching the segregation of Rohingya and other Muslim minorities, who in most cases are prevented from leaving..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi to appear at ICJ as Myanmar faces genocide case (Text)
Sub-title: Myanmar leader will defend country against charges of genocide over a 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya filed by Gambia.
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi will appear at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Tuesday for a highly anticipated genocide case against Myanmar. The country's civilian leader, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against Myanmar's military dictatorship, arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Sunday alongside Wouter Jurgens, the Dutch ambassador to Myanmar, and was greeted by a handful of supporters. More: Rohingya campaigners say won't be 'silenced' by online threats Myanmar sets up special legal unit as Rohingya cases loom A boy who can sing: The life of a Rohingya child refugee Several demonstrations, for and against her, are expected to take place in the coming days in the Dutch city. The case, the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over alleged mass killings of the Rohingya minority, comes after the Gambia on November 11 filed an application at the ICJ, accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention. Aung San Suu Kyi's office confirmed last month that she would participate in the hearing and lead her country's team to "defend the national interest". More than 700,000 Rohingya, a mostly-Muslim minority, fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after a bloody crackdown in 2017 by the Myanmar military, which UN investigators have concluded was carried out with "genocidal intent"..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: From democracy icon to genocide defender
Description: "From democracy champion to defending Myanmar against genocide charges, the shock decision by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to face the UN’s top court risks further damaging her image overseas and deepening the siege mentality at home. “We stand with you,” proclaim billboards across Myanmar, sporting beaming portraits of the Nobel laureate as she prepares to face the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Rohingya crisis. Suu Kyi’s supporters are printing off T-shirts, organising rallies and even signing up to VIP tours to The Hague to offer their backing. Political parties and even some rebel armed groups have also fallen over themselves to give their support, in a country where the Rohingya garner little sympathy and are widely regarded as illegal immigrants. Yet overseas, particularly in the West and in Muslim countries, Suu Kyi’s reputation lies in tatters with multiple awards and even an honorary citizenship revoked. Critics say “The Lady”, once lauded alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, has become an apologist for a murderous military intent on wiping out the country’s Rohingya Muslims. The spectacle of Suu Kyi standing up in court on behalf of the nation might play well at home but she risks suffering a fatal blow to what remains of her international reputation. “If she’s only going to use the visit to demonstrate defiance and continue to defend the indefensible, then it only widens the impasse,” Yangon-based analyst David Mathieson told AFP..."
Source/publisher: Agence France-Presse (AFP) (France) via "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-12-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Rohingya: Suu Kyi to defend genocide charge at UN court
Description: "The Nobel Peace Prize laureate will hear allegations that Myanmar committed atrocities against Muslim Rohingya. Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in the Buddhist-majority country in 2017. Myanmar has always insisted it was tackling an extremist threat. The case has been brought by the small African nation of The Gambia. In the initial three-day hearing at the ICJ, it will ask the court to approve temporary measures to protect the Rohingya. What are the accusations? At the start of 2017, there were one million Rohingya in Myanmar (formerly Burma), most living in Rakhine state. But Myanmar, a mainly Buddhist country, considers them illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship. Blow by blow: How a 'genocide' was investigated Will Omar get justice for his murdered family? The Rohingya have long complained of persecution, and in 2017 the military - the Tatmadaw - launched a massive military operation in Rakhine. According to the ICJ documents, the military stands accused of "widespread and systematic clearance operations" against the Rohingya, beginning in October 2016 and expanding in August 2017. It will hear allegations that the clearances were "intended to destroy the Rohingya as a group, in whole or in part", via mass murder, rape, and setting fire to their buildings "often with inhabitants locked inside"..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya campaigners launch Myanmar boycott
Sub-title: The Free Rohingya Coalition begins 'Boycott Myanmar Campaign' in the face of genocide hearings at the ICJ.
Description: "Human rights campaigners supporting Myanmar's Rohingya mainly Muslim minority have called for a global boycott of the country, a day before genocide hearings begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC) said in a statement on Monday it was starting the "Boycott Myanmar Campaign" with 30 organisations in 10 countries. It called on "corporations, foreign investors, professional and cultural organizations to sever their institutional ties with Myanmar". More: Bangladeshi-American teen activist fighting for climate action Myanmar sets up special legal unit as Rohingya cases loom A boy who can sing: The life of a Rohingya child refugee More than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following the brutal crackdown by the military in August 2017, which United Nations investigators have concluded was carried out with "genocidal intent". The FRC statement added that the campaign was intended to "to bring to bear economic, cultural, diplomatic and political pressure on Myanmar's coalition government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the military"..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Timeline: How the crackdown on Myanmar's Rohingya unfolded
Sub-title: A brutal crackdown on the minority Rohingya has brought Myanmar to the UN's highest court and charges of genocide.
Description: "Aung San Suu Kyi, former political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize winner and now Myanmar's civilian leader, is in the Netherlands to defend the country against charges of genocide in relation to a brutal 2017 crackdown on its Rohingya minority. Around 740,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya fled into neighbouring Bangladesh when the military swept through villages in western Rakhine state after an armed group attacked a number of security posts. The United Nation's top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), will start hearing the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar on Tuesday. The International Criminal Court has also approved a full investigation of allegations of crimes against humanity committed during the military crackdown, while Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been accused of committing crimes against the Rohingya in a case brought in Argentina. Myanmar has denied charges of genocide..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi heads to The Hague for Myanmar genocide showdown
Sub-title: Peace prize winner will lead her country’s defence against claims at court in Netherlands
Description: "A momentous legal confrontation will take place at the UN’s highest court on Tuesday when the Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi appears in person to defend Myanmar against accusations of genocide. Once internationally feted as a human rights champion, Myanmar’s state counsellor is scheduled to lead a delegation to the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The claim that Myanmar’s military carried out mass murder, rape and destruction of Rohingya Muslim communities has been brought by the Gambia, a west African state that belongs to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The contrast is repeatedly drawn between Aung San Suu Kyi’s 1991 peace prize win and 15 years spent under house arrest, and her present position as chief denier that any ethnic violence has been perpetrated against the Rohingya. Last year, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum revoked her Elie Wiesel award..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi risks image defending Rohingya genocide
Description: "From democracy champion to defending Myanmar against genocide charges, the shock decision by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to face the UN’s top court risks further damaging her image overseas and deepening the siege mentality at home. “We stand with you,” proclaim billboards across Myanmar, sporting beaming portraits of the Nobel laureate as she prepares to face the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Rohingya crisis. Suu Kyi’s supporters are printing off T-shirts, organizing rallies and even signing up to VIP tours to The Hague to offer their backing. Political parties and even some rebel armed groups have also fallen over themselves to give their support, in a country where the Rohingya garner little sympathy and are widely regarded as illegal immigrants..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2019-12-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: How To Move Forward. Yanghee Lee, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar
Description: "Speaking at the first day of the International Conference on Protection of Rohingya Survivors and Accountability for Genocide, professor and UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee delivered an inspirational opening keynote, calling Myanmar’s policies of persecution towards Rohingyas a classic genocide while exhorting activists in the audience – and on YouTube – to “call a spade a spade”. She invoked the inter-state treaty known as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Lee rightly slammed the United Nations, particularly the Security Council, to discharge its founding charter, exposed the unconscionable presence of Myanmar solders among the UN Peacekeepers and destroyed the credibility of the United Nations. The two-day International Conference was at at Sogang University in Seoul, S. Korea, August 23-24, 2019..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "FORSEA Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia"
Date of publication: 2019-08-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Human Rights in Myanmar - videotape presentation by Prof. Yanghee Lee
Description: "Human Rights in Myanmar - videotape presentation by Prof. Yanghee Lee at the International Conference on Protection and Accountability..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: " Free Rohingya Coalition"
Date of publication: 2019-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rohingya Crisis: UN Special Rapporteur to Myanmar Yanghee Lee on CNNi
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-08-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: UN envoy urges Myanmar government to lift Internet ban
Description: "The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on human rights Yanghee Lee urged Myanmar's government to lift its ban on Internet access in several townships. Speaking to media in Kuala Lumpur, she said her findings showed the worsening rights situation in Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of publication: 2019-07-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: UN Human Rights Council 41 Side Event on Myanmar
Description: "Physicians for Human Rights was joined by Amnesty International and UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee for a Human Rights Council 41st session side event on the long-term legacy of state-backed violence against Myanmar's minorities. Experts: Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, United Nations Hilary Power, Senior Advocate for the UN Human Rights Council, Amnesty International Phelim Kine, Director of Research and Investigations, Physicians for Human Rights Moderated by: Antoine Madelin, International Advocacy Director, International Federation for Human Rights..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "PHRvideo"
Date of publication: 2019-07-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: UN: violence against Myanmar's Rohingya continuing
Description: "The U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee said on Friday that violence against Rohingya Muslims was continuing and that Myanmar's military was forcing them to flee. The military is "slowly bleeding the remaining Rohingya population and continuing to force them to flee to Bangladesh," Yanghee Lee told reporters in Dhaka after a visit to the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. "The causes of the current Rohingya situation lie in Myanmar and it is to Myanmar that we must look for the solution," said Lee The government of Myanmar has refused Lee entrance to the country. Referring to recent reports of Saudi Arabia and India deporting groups of Rohingya, Lee said these countries must ensure that Rohingya within their borders are protected and that their status as refugees is recognised. Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "AP Archive" (New York)
Date of publication: 2019-01-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: UN: violence against Myanmar's Rohingya continuing
Description: "The U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee said on Friday that violence against Rohingya Muslims was continuing and that Myanmar's military was forcing them to flee. The military is "slowly bleeding the remaining Rohingya population and continuing to force them to flee to Bangladesh," Yanghee Lee told reporters in Dhaka after a visit to the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. "The causes of the current Rohingya situation lie in Myanmar and it is to Myanmar that we must look for the solution," said Lee The government of Myanmar has refused Lee entrance to the country. Referring to recent reports of Saudi Arabia and India deporting groups of Rohingya, Lee said these countries must ensure that Rohingya within their borders are protected and that their status as refugees is recognised. Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "AP Archive" (New York)
Date of publication: 2019-01-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Canada: Using all tools against Myanmar for solution to Rohingya crisis
Sub-title: The causes and solutions to the crisis lie in Myanmar, Benoit Préfontaine said
Description: "Canada has said they are using all tools at their disposal, including sanctions, against Myanmar leaders and companies as well as diplomatic efforts to help find a solution to Rohingya crisis. "We fully agree that the causes and solutions to the crisis lie in Myanmar, and this is why we are using all tools at our disposal to help," Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Benoit Préfontaine. The High Commissioner was addressing a symposium titled “Bangladesh-Canada Relations: Prognosis for Partnership” at a Dhaka hotel organized by Cosmos Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Cosmos Group, as part of its Ambassador’s Lecture Series on Saturday. Highlighting Canada’s supports over Rohingya issue, Foreign Secretary (Senior Secretary) Md Shahidul Haque, who spoke at the event as the chief guest, termed Bangladesh-Canada relation a trouble-free one which is growing on all fronts, reports UNB. Chairman of the Cosmos Foundation Enayetullah Khan delivered the welcome speech at the symposium chaired by Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, the Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, and former foreign affairs Adviser to Bangladesh’s previous caretaker government..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2019-12-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Exploring The Issue Of Citizenship In Rakhine State
Description: "There are over one million Muslims in Rakhine State whose legal status is obscure. They are generally referred to as “Rohingya”, an ethnic designation unknown to the former British administration. Though the Rohingya are primarily located in the northern part of the State, there are many thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Muslims of Chittagonian origin living elsewhere in Myanmar who are likely to be inhibited from claiming openly to be Rohingya. There are in addition another million or more Rohingya said to be living overseas, as refugees in Bangladesh and elsewhere, or as workers in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States. For some time the international community has been urging the Myanmar Government to grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingya, and to review the controversial 1982 Citizenship Law in this context. But this is easier said than done as the extent of illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Rakhine State since independence in 1948 is difficult if not impossible to assess. I also argue that it is not so much the Law itself which is at fault as the failure to implement the Law in Rakhine State in a timely and responsible manner. The longer the Government delays action to resolve the impasse, the more entrenched and potentially explosive the situation is likely to become. Controversy surrounds the designation of some one million or more people of Islamic faith who live in Rakhine State in Myanmar. For some, this controversy is as unwelcome as it is unnecessary, since the issue at stake is the human rights, and especially the citizenship status of the people concerned. For others, the designation of the community as “Rohingya” is vital to their very survival and is not to be dismissed as a distraction..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2017-06-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 972.47 KB (43 pages)
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Title: Myanmar leader Suu Kyi departs for genocide hearings amid fanfare at home
Description: "Myanmar leader and Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi departed on Sunday for the U.N’s top court in The Hague to defend the country against charges of genocide of its Rohingya Muslim minority. Suu Kyi was pictured smiling as she walked through the airport in the nation’s capital, Naypyitaw, flanked by officials, a day after thousands rallied in the city to support her and a prayer ceremony was held in her name. Crowds are expected to gather again in the afternoon to send off several dozen supporters who will travel to The Hague in the Netherlands and demonstrations are planned throughout the coming week, with hearings set for Dec. 10 to 12. Gambia, a tiny, mainly Muslim West African country, filed a lawsuit in November accusing Buddhist-majority Myanmar of genocide, the most serious international crime, against its Rohingya Muslim minority. During three days of hearings, it will ask the 16-member panel of U.N judges at the International Criminal Court of Justice to impose “provisional measures” to protect the Rohingya before the case can be heard in full..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-12-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi prepares to take on Rohingya genocide lawsuit in The Hague
Description: " From democracy champion to defending Myanmar against genocide charges, the shock decision by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to face the UN's top court risks further damaging her image overseas and deepening the siege mentality at home. "We stand with you," proclaim billboards across Myanmar, sporting beaming portraits of the Nobel laureate as she prepares to face the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Rohingya crisis. Suu Kyi's supporters are printing off T-shirts, organising rallies and even signing up to VIP tours to The Hague to offer their backing. Political parties and even some rebel armed groups have also fallen over themselves to give their support, in a country where the Rohingya garner little sympathy and are widely regarded as illegal immigrants. Yet overseas, particularly in the West and in Muslim countries, Suu Kyi's reputation lies in tatters with multiple awards and even an honorary citizenship revoked..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of publication: 2019-12-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Stateless and hopeless
Sub-title: The Rohingya are a people under attack in their place of birth. India wants to deport them, a marked departure in its response towards asylum seekers.
Description: "Myanmar’s historically intriguing Rohingya question is one of the most misunderstood and ill-informed international crises of our time. So much ignorance is attached to the subject that the world is blind even to the precise headcount of Rohingyas. From the first ever census in 1872 to the latest in 2014 there is no record of the Rohingya numbers. W. W. Hunter, the census commissioner of 1872 noted that a total of 64,315 Muhammadans—not Rohingya—were living in Arakan (now Rakhine state). In 1931, the last combined census of British-held India and Burma, J. J. Bennison, superintendent of census operations for Burma, reported that the total Muslim population was 584,839. No census ever used the word Rohingya. Therefore, the numbers, from one million to three million Rohingya Muslims, as claimed by various agencies and media houses are imaginary or based on hearsay. Even the origin of the pervasive but unverified phrase “ethnic Rohingyas are among the most persecuted minority groups in the world” ascribed to the United Nations, is shrouded in mystery. There is no record available that has ever linked the statement to any of the UN organs, therefore making it a propagandist’s tool to influence world opinion. Enmity between followers of Theravada Buddhism and the Rohingya Muslims stems from the latter’s alleged treachery, betrayal and secessionist behaviour in Burma’s freedom struggle..."
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Source/publisher: "Academia.edu" (USA)
Date of publication: 2017-12-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-08
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Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Thousands in Myanmar rally behind Suu Kyi ahead of Hague court date
Description: "Thousands rallied in support of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar Saturday, on the eve of her departure for the UN’s top court to defend Myanmar against charges of genocide against Rohingya Muslims. The raucous rally in the capital Naypyidaw came as China’s foreign minister arrived for a visit at Suu Kyi’s invitation. Analysts say Beijing’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council – and its veto vote – makes it a valuable ally as Myanmar faces intensifying scrutiny over its treatment of the Rohingya. Once-lauded democracy champion Suu Kyi’s shock decision to face the International Court of Justice (ICJ) next week to defend Myanmar against charges it committed genocide against the Muslim minority risks further damaging her already tattered overseas reputation. But domestically “The Lady” remains revered, and the resolve of her supporters has only hardened in the lead-up to the ICJ hearing scheduled for December 10-12. “We are proud of her taking accountability... by going to The Hague to protect the nation’s image,” shouted prominent writer Htin Lin Oo into a microphone in front of a banner emblazoned with the words “We stand with our leader.” “Our blood shall come together and unite us when it is important,” he shouted to a cheering crowd, who hoisted colourful artwork of Suu Kyi in the air..."
Source/publisher: Agence France-Presse (AFP) (France) via "New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
Date of publication: 2019-12-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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